BENGALURU: It had been three years since Vikrant and Mirza had foiled an attempt by the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, to leak sensitive secrets of the Indianarmed forces. The operation had resulted in the death of one of the most dreaded terrorists in Asia, a character so slippery that no one seemed to know his real name. He became notorious as Munafiq, the Urdu word for two-faced, a sobriquet that Mirza had conferred on him thanks to his ability to appear like an ordinary citizen while spreading terror across the continent.
The success of the operation had earned the entire team accolades from all over the world, and Vikrant and Mirza, after being promoted to senior ranks, were both transferred from the National Investigation Agency to RAW.In fact, Naidu had been the prime minister during the terrorist operation and had had a large role to play in the drama. Munafiq had hijacked a cruise liner in Lakshadweep on which Naidu’s estranged daughter, Vaishali, was holidaying, and tried to use her as leverage to get access codes to the Indian Navy base’s mainframe on Lakshadweep, INS Dweeprakshak. Fortunately, Mirza figured out the plot before Naidu could hand over the access codes. The incident had brought father and daughter closer.Now, Mirza and the closest thing he had to a son were sitting in a suite rented by the state government in a five-star hotel in the Bandra Kurla Complex, which had become the command centre of the team investigating the attack.
‘I didn’t know you were friends,’ Vikrant said.
‘Worked together on a lot of missions back in the day. A lot of our undercover operatives who were rescued from behind enemy lines owe their lives to his brilliant planning and strategy,’ Mirza replied.
Two days had passed since the attack. Somesh Kumar had been confirmed dead half an hour after the dust had settled. The SUV was mangled to a ball and his body, which was hanging together by its sinews, was removed after the vehicle was cut open using blowtorches.
Four Mumbai Police personnel and three BSF jawans had also fallen prey to the terrorists’ bullets, while four others were in the hospital with serious injuries.As Mirza and Vikrant had expected, the investigation had begun as a bureaucratic nightmare, with everyone wanting a piece of the action. The NIA demanded that they spearhead the probe. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad wanted the same. The CIA and MOSSAD wanted to send their own people.
IB and RAW were ever present in the shadows. Mumbai Police, smarting from the loss of face as the attack had happened on their turf, were also lobbying hard to be part of the investigation. There were cries of ‘intelligence failure’ all around. Two hours after the attack, Mirza and Vikrant had had a video conference call with National Security Advisor Pradeep Singh. Extracted from The Endgame by S Hussain Zaidi, with permission from HarperCollins India