The Hindu Business Line : There's a mishap at the median

STORY so far: Negotiations with the authorities to secure the release of my colleague ultimately boil down to money. They make a patently unreasonable demand for a real fat cheque from the company but the silver lining is that we deposit it at the Indian embassy, to be held in trust till the arbitration is over and the result known. Back home, the pace of drama is quickening.

Episode 24

Gupta had come back from the construction site to report the progress to the boss. There were drawings on the table, showing among other things the location of the lab and the control system.

"Are you confident about the security?" boss asked.

"We are taking no chances," Gupta replied. "Especially for the new job on camel pox."

"How does it work?" boss queried. "I know it is from Iraq."

"It is a disease that blinds its victims by making the eyeballs bleed," Gupta explained. "It produces balloon-like sores on the skin, and as you rightly said, it was actually found to be developed by Iraq. It is thought to be harmless to most Iraqis but not to foreigners. Now the US Department of Defense has identified us as one of the few labs around the world as being capable of working on an antidote... "

"But Camel pox is not a disease of humans," boss interjected.

"Normally, yes," Gupta agreed, "when humans lived with camels all their lives. However, United Nations Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM) suspects that Iraq could have genetically engineered and manipulated the virus."

"Ah, the price of science," boss sighed.

"In August 1990 the Iraqis looked at two other viral agents," Gupta continued. "They were hemorrhagic conjunctivitis and human rotavirus. And Saddam shortlisted a whole range of delivery systems including bombs, rockets, and artillery shells, using liquid agents."

"Sickening," boss said, even as a low-flying aircraft sent in droning vibes all over the floor, and a TV screen at a corner of the room was showing live the bombing of Baghdad. "Boss," Gupta said, pushing a handwritten note, "this is the security plan to safeguard the virus in our labs. I made only one extra copy of this — not a photocopy or carbon, but I wrote it once again — and it is safe in the unmarked safe deposit locker in you-know-where. After you read this, please destroy it. We're not including the security plan in our documentation."

"Good," boss said, pushing the note into his inner pocket. "I'm drained for the day. After all that hassle with the paper-pushers in the Department of Foreign Affairs, I'm happy Swati would be back tomorrow with Chandru. Bye, Gupta."

"Ji, sir," Gupta said, and continued to work with the plans to make them error-free. "A stickler to perfection," boss thought, as he left the room.

*********

At the shady bar near Blackers Bridge, Sooty was having his fourth refill. His senses were already on a different level, but he could feel his mobile vibrating. Squeezing his eyes, Sooty read the displayed number that seemed to be twenty-digits long. He pressed `answer' and waited silently. It was Govind's voice at the other end. "Hey, listen," he said. "Hello," Sooty grunted. "The boss is leaving," Govind said. "His car will go by the usual route, and you can ideally finish your mission on the beach stretch — the point I showed you today afternoon — where there is no light for almost a kilometre."

"I don't know what you are saying," Sooty said. "You must be having a wrong number." That was according to the standard operating procedure he had devised with his clients, to save his skin in case somebody tapped into the conversation.

*********

The boss's driver was an experienced and careful one. But when an urchin suddenly darted from left to right, on the flyover, even as vehicles coming on the opposite side were on high-beam, with blinding lights, the only thought on his mind was to save a life. He jammed the brakes, hit the median and the car stopped, after all that metallic noise.

Boss had just finished reading the security plan when the accident happened, and as a matter of reflex, he tore the paper to tiny bits and threw them out of the window, where a wafting sea breeze helped strew them over a wide range. Sooty was following the car at a safe distance and one of the flying pieces landed on his lap, even as he braked hard when he saw the boss's car ram into concrete. It read, "ox".

"S***," Sooty cursed. "I've to change my plans, pulling out his pistol from the dashboard."

Only, he had not factored in the city police, whom the `India survival guide' had discounted as "Paunches without a punch". A Qualis patrol van was coming up from the other side of the bridge, on a routine inspection and stopped a few feet in front of Sooty's car, when the cop in it saw the misshapen car at the median.

(To be continued)

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