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I am glad to know that you liked the chapter, I will try to update often. Thank you.
I am glad to know that you liked the chapter, I will try to update often. Thank you.
I am glad that you liked the chapter. Most of the answers would be revealed in the chapter 3. I will try not to vanish again. I will be updating atleast once a week.
Thank you.
The last story I wrote on this forum was close to 10 years ago. Its good that you haven't read my old stories haha. It was okay at that time, but now, I am not a fan of those stories. I hope you will like this story.
Thank you. I have sent you a buddy request. Once you accept it, I will be able to PM you.
The Riya in this story is going to be more badass. Even though there would be Ariya romance, this story is not going to be purely romantic. Thanks for reading. I hope you would like the future chapters as well.
Hi,
Chapter 3 is ready. If any of you want PM, please send me a buddy request. I currently only have Arjun forum members in my buddy list so it is easier for me to send the PM that way.
Chapter 3 – The Pack
Sanjheevani School was one of the oldest private schools in Mumbai. Sons and daughters of prominent figures in politics, business and entertainment studied there. Due to this same reason, it was one of the most secured areas in Mumbai. The school had their own private security force who looked after the safety of the students as well as the faculties. So it came as a shock to the people of Mumbai when the news broke about the hostage situation in school. People from all walks of life flocked to the perimeter of the school trying to glimpse in the dangerous situation. Media camped outside. It was slowly getting out of control. To add fuel to this security nightmare, there was a very big political event happening in Mumbai where the chief ministers of the different states were meeting. Force One was securing the perimeter of Oberoi Hotel where that meeting was held.
The ETF members stood in the emergency control booth setup outside the school gate. Everyone’s face reflected the tensed atmosphere. Commissioner Dixit entered the booth along with Special Commissioner of Police Vikram Bhatia.
“ACP Sameer, brief us”, commanded the Commissioner.
“Sure sir. Around half an hour ago, we received a distress call from one of the tea vendors near the school. That person heard some commotion near the gate. When he looked over from his stall, he saw an armed person shooting one of the guards. He didn’t hear the gun shot, so we are assuming that the shooter used a silencer. Afterwards, the shooter locked the gate and fixed the explosives to the lock. Then he went back to school. The vendor swears that he saw two more armed persons in the vicinity of the building. As of this moment, we were able to estimate that minimum 15 armed persons are inside. What we know for certain is that they are heavily armed. We don’t know if there were any causalities among students or faculties. We haven’t received any ransom call.”, Rathore finished his report.
Before the Commissioner could say anything, home minister barged in.
“Commissioner what am I hearing? My son is inside, kids of several prominent people are inside. Why are you not rescuing them? While you are sitting here discussing things, something could happen to the kids. If something happened to my boy…”
“Minister, please control yourself. We can’t barge in as we don’t know the situation and the reason behind all these. If we took a wrong move, something bad may happen to the hostages.”, Commissioner tried placating the minister.
Minister not liking this answer was going to say something when special commissioner took control of the situation and gently guided him away from the control booth. Raghu sighed in relief.
“Listen, many more people are going to come in like this. We need a plan.”
Arjun who was speaking to one of his informers, suddenly spoke.
“Sir, my informer says that it is Pathan’s gang. He has a 20-member mercenary gang. Normally they oversee the safe delivery of drug operations. So not sure why there are in the school”.
Everyone’s heart fell hearing this. Pathan was the second-in-command of the one of the largest criminal empires in the country. He pulled the strings of the empire from the Middle East, so the ETF never got the chance to encounter him. His mercenary gang was very notorious for the body count they dropped in their wake in Goa. They were not known to work in Mumbai, so all these new information were puzzling to the people present.
“We need to figure out the motive as soon as possible. Rathore, have you called NSG?”, asked the Commissioner.
“Yes sir. But they won’t be here for another 8 hours. There is an important international conference in Delhi so they are providing security for that. Force One is also busy with CM conference.”
Raghu couldn’t help but to let out a curse at this. He knew that 8 hours would be too late.
“Oh my god! This is a nightmare. What the hell is going on this city!!!”, exclaimed an exasperated Raghu.
He looked around the team hoping someone has some kind of output. When everyone averted their eyes, he slumped on the nearby chair.
Arjun was in deep thought. There was something missing, he knew it, but what is he missing was the million-dollar question. His eyes darted to the fact board Shree had put up along with the map of Mumbai along with the more detailed map of surrounding area of the school. He silently skimmed over the map. Suddenly as if a light bulb went on his head, he rushed near the board. This caught everyone’s attention as they eagerly looked towards him.
“Arjun Sir, what is it?”, asked Chotu.
He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he was busy trying to put together all the pieces of the puzzle. After a minute or two, he spoke up.
“I think it is a diversion.”
“What do you mean Rawte?”
“I meant what I said Rathore. I think it is a diversion. I don’t have solid facts to back this up, but my hunch is that their real target is not the school, but the Oberoi hotel. To be specific, CMs conference.”, finished Arjun.
Raghu looked askance at Arjun. Sighing, Arjun explained his thought process.
“If they want to keep the students and faculty as hostages, they could have done it any time over the past, hell, there was even Parents’ Day last week, and if they had executed that plan, there would have been bigger bargaining chips. But they didn’t do it. So why now? That told me that there is something deep and sinister going on. Post 26/11, whenever there is some rapid action is required, we relied on Force Once. So it is normal to expect the same procedure in this situation. What if that was the hijackers’ intention all along? Anyone can expect that all the parents would want Force One to be deployed to the scene to save their kids. This would leave significant weakness in the protection detail of CM conference. It would be very easy for the Pathan’s mercenaries to infiltrate the conference. Instead of a bunch of kids and faculties, they then would have the CMs of almost all the states in India as the hostages. They would be able to demand and get whatever they want if that happens.”
ETF team and Raghu were astonished hearing his theory. As painful it was to admit, they knew that his theory was the most plausible one. The fact that they haven’t received any ransom call added credibility to the theory.
Raghu knew that if Arjun’s theory came into fruition, then it was a disaster waiting to happen. He felt helpless, which he hadn’t felt in ages. He knew that even if Arjun proved to be wrong, he could no longer get Force One in good conscience.
“I hope Arjun is wrong, but I won’t bet on that. This means that Force One is out of the picture. NSG won’t reach here fast enough. So we need to think about something else.”, Raghu once again slumped back into the chair rubbing his face.
“Commissioner, with all due respect, ETF can handle this”, Arjun piped in.
Raghu turned to Arjun with an incredulous look in his face.
“How Arjun? You have only four members who are proficient in firearms. You need to get into the school without being noticed by 20 mercenaries who has top of the line equipment. You neither has the experience nor the equipment to take them down. You would be walking to your deaths. No, I can’t let you do that”, bit out a frustrated Raghu.
Arjun could hear the concern behind those words. Raghu sir was always fond of the team.
“Sir, we understand the risk. But we don’t have any choice. Once they realize that their plan won’t go into fruition, they wouldn’t let the hostages go alive. As we all know, they are the most ruthless criminals out there. Please sir, we can do it”, Arjun tried placating the Commissioner.
Raghu knew that Arjun was right. With each moment being wasted, the hostages were becoming one step closer to the death’s door. He knew what he had to do, but he was hesitant to do it. He raked his hand through his hair frustrated. Taking a deep breath, he turned to the team.
“Ms. D’Cruz, please take Ms. Anand back to the ETF and don’t let her out of your sight until I say so.”
Everyone was a bit baffled by this order, especially Sakshi.
“WHAT? Why? Why should I go? I want to stay”, protested Sakshi.
“What I am going to say next is strictly confidential and it’s a need-to-know basis only. You are definitely not in the list of the people who needs to know. And I don’t trust that you wouldn’t snoop around. So you need to go.”
“You can’t do that. Arjun, Sameer, tell him that. I am apart of this team.” Sakshi turned to Arjun and Sameer pleading with them.
Arjun just turned his head as he never liked Sakshi. It’s true that he was irked by her constant flirting but what made him truly dislike was her being a part of media. He despised the journalists like her who just create news in order to just increase viewership and not upholding the true journalism ethics.
Sameer sighed. He didn’t like Sakshi any better, but he was a true diplomat so he never wore his heart on his sleeves like Arjun. As a result of this, it always fell to him to keep the team together, even if one of that team members was forced upon them by the higher ups in the ministry. But he knew that this was one of the moments where he must take the hard route.
“Sakshi, Commissioner gave you an order. Follow that. You are not a police officer, so you can’t be privy to the privileged information. If that leaks in any way to the press, the hostages would be in danger. No offence, but you have a track record of leaking premature information to your colleagues in press. So, this time, you need to sit this one out. Lisa, escort her back.”
Lisa grumbled under her breath about the watch duty but she knew that her expertise was not required in this situation. As such, she took hold of Sakshi’s forearm and dragged her away. As they both exited, the ETF team turned to the Commissioner.
“This is a very confidential information I am sharing with you. This shouldn’t go beyond the people here. I trust all of you, so for your sake, I hope you won’t break my trust.”, Raghu looked at them gravely indicating the seriousness of the situation. ETF team couldn’t help but to voice out their acceptance.
“Have you heard about The Pack?”, asked Raghu.
While everyone was confused about this question, it was Shree who had a look of recognition on his face.
“Are you… you… Are you saying that The Pack is real?”, Shree asked with awe dripping from his voice.
“What are you both talking about, what Pack?”, asked a confused Aaisha.
She looked at Chotu, Sameer and Arjun and they also had confused looks on their face. A goofy smile came on Shree’s face.
“The Pack. A Covert Special Ops team rumored to be part of Mumbai police for the last 12 years or so. The pack comprises of crème-de-la-crème of the police force. No one knows who they are or how they are being recruited. A clandestine group which is tasked with bringing down the hardcore criminals swiftly and efficiently.”
Raghu couldn’t help but be impressed by Shree’s knowledge. Shree looked down shyly at everyone’s gaze on him.
“Woh, I am interested in conspiracy theories, so when I heard about such a group, I wanted to know more about it and did some research. But this is all I could get. I didn’t even know that they were real.”
“They are real as it can get Shree. He is right. The Pack is a special ops team, but they can’t be really said as a part of Mumbai Police. They work in collaboration with the police, but they have their own hierarchy and control structure. They do recruit exceptional people from the police force. They are setup in such a way that they don’t answer to the government and not restricted by bureaucratic red tapes. After the 2008 tragedy, there was a need for a rapid action force who could respond to the threats immediately and efficiently but operates covertly unlike Force One. Thus, The Pack was born. Not many people outside The Pack knows about their existence. Only the commissioners are given access to contact The Pack. As the name indicates, the people in The Pack are like a family. You mess with one, you mess with the whole lot. Trust me when I am saying this, you don’t want to mess with The Pack.”
The team digested this information while Raghu took out a phone and send someone a message. Everyone looked at him curiously as it was not his official cellphone. He then turned to the team.
“Sir, what kind of operations The Pack do?”, asked an ever curious Chotu.
“From stealth to all out combat, they are good at everything. The Pack members are trained in different martial arts and weapons. Each one of them knows how to make a bomb and how to disable a bomb. They knowhow to make a person talk and how to make a person shut up. They know how to get to their targets without tipping them off. They are efficient in such a way that they never failed in their missions so far.”
Arjun couldn’t help but to think that this is a perfect recipe for an anarchy. What if this organization turned criminal tomorrow! From what Raghu sir was saying, they seem like perfect killer machines, and they would bring out disaster if they turned evil. Arjun couldn’t help but to voice out this opinion. Raghu chuckled at this.
“Since their inception, they never killed someone who didn’t deserve it. They are not mindless killing machines who does whatever government tell them to do. They do their research before taking on any missions. No civilian casualties in 13 years. Even our police force can’t beat that record. They don’t work for the greater good, they work for the true justice, the kind of justice we can only romanticize about.”
Chotu had a question at this point.
“Sir, if they are really that good, why the people in the force or the criminals doesn’t know about them. I mean someone would have known about them.”
“Criminals do know about them, but no one can identify them.”
“Why?”
“Simple, no criminal lived to tell the tale if they encounter one from The Pack.”
That simple answer brought goosebumps in the ETF team member’s body.
“And as for your question regarding the police force, do you remember the previous commissioner’s accident 5 years ago?”, the question was directed at Sameer. He nodded his head in yes.
“It was no accident. It was an execution.”
“WHAT??? IMPOSSIBLE. I along with Rawte investigated the case. It was an accident.”
For once, Arjun agreed with Sameer. Raghu’s mood turned a bit sour remembering the past.
“He was killed because he betrayed The Pack and divulged information to some criminals which resulted in the deaths of some of the Pack members. His death was a clear warning that they neither forgive nor forget. So circling back to my initial warning, don’t betray The Pack.”
He stopped for a moment as his cellphone beeped. After checking the message, he once again turned to the team.
“The reason I gave you all these information is because I have contacted The Pack. Their ETA is 2 minutes. You are my most trusted officers. I need you all to give them any support required. If someone asks who they are, they are the newly appointed officers in ETF. As there is media and public outside, I don’t want to take a risk and expose them. I really don’t want to die before my time.”, finished Raghu with a chuckle.
ETF members couldn’t help but to chuckle at his attempt to diffuse the tension. All of a sudden, all the electronic equipments in the booth shut down. Shree jumped in, trying to figure out the reason behind the blackout. The voices of confusion from outside gave them an indication that it was not an isolated incident. The team suddenly heard screeching sound of tires outside. They came out of the booth and saw a Mahindra Marksman pulling in.
From the vehicle, three figures stepped out, two women and one man, wearing all black, completed with shoulder gun holsters. All three of them had black boots on. Their looks were completed with sunglasses. People who were milling in the area looked at the trio with confusion and awe. ETF team members condition was also not different, especially Arjun’s.
Arjun couldn’t help but to stare at the girl who came to stand in front of his team. The same face who has been haunting his dreams since the last three weeks was standing in front of him. He was broken out of his reverie by the Commissioner’s voice.
“Sameer, meet Riya Mukherjee. Riya, meet Sameer Rathore, ETF chief.”
“Oh we have met already sir. How are you Ms. Mukherjee?”
“I am good Mr. Rathore. I would prefer it if all of you call me Riya.”
Raghu was a bit perplexed by this exchange. He wanted to ask what Sameer meant by meeting her already. Riya, catching on to his confusion, gestured to him that she will tell it later. She then turned to introduce her teammates.
“I would like to introduce my colleagues. This is Karan Rathod, he is a very good marksman and also excellent in hand-to-hand combat”, she introduced the guy with her.
Karan took off his sunglass and waved at everyone. He looked like a Greek god.
Riya rolled her eyes and introduced the woman.
“This is Natasha Rathod, our IT specialist. She hasn’t encountered any software that she could not hack.”
Natasha, also waved at the team. She couldn’t help but to add,
“Before any of you put foot in your mouth, let me clarify, Karan is my brother, not my boyfriend. And I would prefer if you could call me Tasha.”
A twinkle appeared in Chotu’s eyes at this clarification. Shree looked at him with a teasing look, but a glare from Chotu was enough to shut him up.
Riya and team moved to the table set up in the booth. Tasha took out her equipments and spread those on the table. Shree moved next to her, looking at those like a child looking at his favourite toy. She took out a briefcase and opened it. It contained 10 contraptions which looked like bugs the size of a small toy car. She then opened another briefcase and took out another equipment. She turned towards Riya. Riya nodded in agreement. Shree was trying his level best to curb his enthusiasm, but it was proving to very futile. He ended up bursting out.
“Woah, these are… I can’t even… Is that a jammer? But it doesn’t look a normal signal jammer. And what are those bug looking things? I haven’t seen them before. They are not commercially manufactured, are they? I mean if it was I would have known about them. But I haven’t seen these before, not even a picture…”
Tasha looked at him impressed while rest of the team looked at him as if he had gone crazy. Shree stopped his rambling and shyly looked down. Tasha, taking pity on him spoke.
“You are correct. These are not commercially manufactured. These are my babies. I made them. Normal signal jammer would jam all the electronic signals within an area, but with my signal jammer, I can pick and choose certain areas. In our case, this would be jamming all the signals outside of the school campus for up 10 kilometers. That would ensure that none of the public and media outside would be able to transmit any news and at the same time, mercenaries won’t be aware about it. And the added bonus is that with a push of another button, I can turn off mobile phones and cameras. I have already turned it on before we came in so, no one would be able to take any photos or videos of the entire operation or us.”
Everyone looked absolutely shocked at this news, especially Shree. Tasha continued,
“Regarding these bugs, they are thermal sensors. Once I deploy these, I will direct them to the trees surrounding the campus building. Using these, we would be able to see how many mercenaries are there using their heat signatures. We would be looking for anyone carrying gun or other weapons, this way, we won’t be mistaking any of the students and faculties for the mercenaries. Any questions?”
ETF team nodded their head dumbly at denial. Raghu, Riya and Karan couldn’t help but to chuckle at their expression, After all, they were used to the genius brain of Tasha.
Raghu called SCP Vikram and put him in charge of the crowd control and asked him to move the public and media back to atleast 2 kilometers. Tasha took out some earpieces and walkie talkies. She distributed the earpieces to the entire team. She then gave the walkie talkies to Raghu instructing him to give them to SCP and a few police officers who oversaw the crowd. Once that was done, it was time to get into the business. Tasha deployed her bugs. With bated breath, everyone crowded around the monitor, observing the flight path of the electronic bugs. Once the bugs surrounded the building from all the sides, she switched on the thermal sensors. To the ETF team’s shock, instead of the 20 mercenaries they were expecting, there were 25. On the ground floor there were 9, another 10on the second floor, and 5 on the auditorium where the hostages were kept. There was one on the CCTV room presumably monitoring for any intruders. With this information secured, it was now time for the actual plan. Riya turned to Raghu.
“Raghu sir, in normal situation, we would have done this by ourselves, but given the number of lives at stake, we need help from ETF team. We have already studied ETF members’ portfolio before coming here. Except Sakshi and Liza, everyone else in the ETF team are proficient in the field. We think that they would be of great help to us, of course, they will have to follow our lead.”
Raghu looked at Riya intensely. He had all the faith in his god daughter, so if she thinks that ETF team had what it takes to be in a such a highly dangerous mission, then so be it. He decided.
“If you say so Riya. Sameer, Arjun. I know that you are seniors, but this mission would be helmed by Riya. I neither want to see the hostages dead nor you, so all of you will follow whatever Riya, Karan and Tasha are telling you. If your ego stand in the way and something happens to my goddaughter, I would kill you with my own hands. Got it?”, asked Raghu with an intense expression of his face.
The ETF team was a bit shocked hearing the intensity in his voice, but then they thought back to him with Aryan and Nila and understood the reasoning behind this. Arjun who was more than happy to be just in the company of Riya nodded eagerly like a child, earning an amused look from the rest of the team and Raghu. Riya cleared her throat to break the tensed atmosphere.
“Okayyyy… Now back to our plan… There is an abandoned pumphouse in the back of the school. The entire area is overgrown by the bushes and trees, so most of the people doesn’t even know the pump house exists. Those people who knew of its existence, doesn’t know that there is an underground tunnel from the pump house all the way to the basement of the school. The exit to the basement is sealed behind a secret door.”
“How did you come to know about it?”, Sameer couldn’t help but to ask.
Riya gave a sly smile at that.
“We have our own ways. All that matters is that we can be 100% sure that the mercenaries don’t know about this, so that’s our advantage. We need to first take control of the CCTV room. Karan, you are up.”
Karan nodded at this. He started to explain his plan.
“There is a shaft in the basement, which would take a person up to the CCTV room. I would be deploying the jammer once I reach so that all the monitors and the electronics the room would be jammed momentarily. If all goes according to the plan, I would be able to surprise attack the mercenary and subdue him. Once that is done, I need Shree to come in so that he can monitor the CCTV room. As his strength lies in technical stuffs, he needs to stay in the room and not fight.” He turned to Shree. Even though Shree was half scared to death, he nodded in acceptance.
Riya again took over the planning.
“Perfect. Once we have the control of the CCTVs, then Shree needs to point us to the exact direction of the mercenaries in the ground floor. We don’t want to alert them. So, we are going to smoke them out. Everyone of you will get gears which includes masks. We will wear the masks throughout. Once Shree gives us the location, we will deploy a soundless detonator which will emit a gas which would be paralyze the victim. It wouldn’t linger in the atmosphere for long, maximum 10 minutes. Once we take out the mercenaries one by one, we would be moving to the second floor. We would be applying the same tactics if possible. By then, the remaining 5 would have sensed something wrong. So, I am hoping that we can lure them and take them out. Again, all these are just plans. As you all know, no plan survives the first contact. I would prefer to avoid a full-on assault with guns blazing, but we never know.”, finished Riya.
ETF team was fully impressed with this plan. They felt much better knowing that there is a chance for them to come out victorious. Riya wanted one more thing to add so as not to have any sort of discontent once the mission starts.
“I don’t know whether Raghu sir told you this, we don’t take any prisoner. Once a mercenary is down, he would be going down for good. You can call it a murder of a paralyzed, helpless person, but we three are going to see it as getting rid of an evil person from this world. It’s going to be swift but brutal. If anyone of you is afraid of getting your hands bloody or if it is against your moral compass, I would suggest speaking up now and get out of this mission. I assure you, if the situation is reversed, they wouldn’t think twice about killing all of us.”
The hardness in her voice sent chills throughout their spines. The ruthlessness in her voice and in the face of the other two reminded EFT that they are indeed part of The Pack and behind their friendly exterior lies hardened souls who had exterminated countless evils of the city. No one spoke as they remembered that the mercenaries would be killing the hostages if they don’t manage to kill them first. That hardened their resolve. It was time to get rid of some more evils from the world... After darkness comes light…
Me first .. thanks for PM
Uff what a gal ri is totally badass the woman after my own gal ..i think I have a gal crush
I like how to was clear about moral compass.. coz if someone hesitate even one moment it can jeopardize the entire mission and put everything under risk including the kids the teachers ETF and Elite group
Tasha seems interesting character
I like shree ethu
So sakshi is removed to office coz she is a security risk bechari Liza is on guard duty
Nice one... Looking for full combat and Riya permanent entry in ETF...
please update next part early this time...
Will be waiting very eagerly
Hayeee!!!! Kya chapter hai! I've fallen head over heals in love with your writing. I really really loved the role reversal of Arjun - Riya's characteristics along with the details you provided for the Hostage situation, Raghu Sir & Arjun's take on the case, introduction of The Pack, The Pack Members & their working attitude, expertise, style & swag - infact, everything was absolutely stunning. And, now you're making me greedier even more. I will be extremely desperate to read the upcoming chapters. Tnx for the pm. Keep writing & posting as soon as you can.
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