Spy Games
Spy Games
He seemed to be in his mid-thirties. Dressed in a white flowing robe, with a belt at the waist, his eyes were laden with kohl. His jet-black hair was as long as Mriga's and was held with a single red ribbon. He was the first man in her acquaintance whose hair went beyond the shoulders.
While she had been lost in her appraisal of him, the other four students had finished handing over their letters to him. The teacher who had been sitting with the students walked up to Mriga and extended his hand.
"I…I haven't brought any letter with me. I wasn't aware that any such requirement existed," she spoke in confusion.
"Who exactly are you and why have you applied to this department," Prithvi appeared right next to her without her even realising so.
"Uh…that is, I just wanted to…" she was very nervous without any reason.
"Don't bother with the excuses. I just want to know who told you to apply here," he said in a soft voice.
Though he seemed to speak very politely, there was something dangerous about him which was making Mriga feel uneasy.
"My mother…she didn't give me a reason for it. But just asked me to apply to this department and hence I did," she blabbered.
"And you followed her order without knowing the reason behind it. Interesting! What does your mother do?" his voice had taken a sharp edge.
Beads of sweat had formed at her forehead by now. She had no idea why.
"She is the chief of police force in the Northern Zilla," she squeaked.
Prithvi frowned and started pacing.
Suddenly, he turned around and addressed the five students, "you will be given tasks every morning. Your target is to carry out the instructions precisely and in the fastest possible time. For today, there are five bundles of correspondence kept aside for you. All of you shall pick one each and go across the length and breadth of the Gurukul to distribute these. Remember to handover these to the assigned person ONLY even if you have to wait for them."
All five of them hurried to pick up a heavy stack each and moved out of the room quickly.
"Who is the Police chief at Northern Zilla?" Prithvi questioned his subordinate, the minute those students left the room.
"Ahem…you seem to have forgotten, Guruji*. After her injury, Charulata moved to the Northern Zilla, sixteen years ago. Since her identity had been exposed in the operation which went bust in the Western zilla, the head of operations wanted her geographically far away from the scene of incident and Northern zilla had been selected as the place for her to hide in," said Ramanujam, his assistant, in a low voice.
Ramanujam was a non-descript man, who possessed a brain far developed than was possible for any human. Till date, he had competed against various scholars, experts but they had been unable to beat him. His analytical skills and memory were legendary amongst those who were aware of his existence.
"Do you mean to say that this girl is Charulata's daughter?" Prithvi asked in wonder.
Administrative department was the biggest kept secret in the Chandragarh queendom. It was the recruitment agency for the secret ministry called – 'Suraksha Chakra'*.
It was also the place where the information from all zillas was collected, decodified and assimilated. Since this was located in the premises of the Gurukul, outsiders had no access to it, keeping it away from unnecessary scrutiny of people.
The main reason why the organization had survived detection over the decades was because of two reasons – one, their existence was known only to the Queen and the people who worked in this ministry. Not even the families of these people were aware of the true nature of their jobs. Secondly, there was no record of the activities and operations carried out by this ministry. The official ministry tasked with the protection of the queendom's borders and war preparedness was the Defence ministry. They had the coastal guards, border force, police force and mountain guards under their purview. But even they weren't aware of this ministry's existence.
The sole purpose of Suraksha Chakra ministry's existence was to be aware of the ongoing anti-national activities within and outside the queendom. Chandragarh had a comprehensive network of its spies in all the neighbouring countries. These spies came under the purview of this ministry.
The foundation of the same had been laid during the reign of the first queen, Rani Damyanti, 99 years ago. It was because of this network that Chandragarh, despite being a weaker nation than many, had managed to avoid war in the past many decades. This ministry also helped in thwarting the entry of illegal immigration into the queendom. They provided covert support to the border military forces through their information channels but without the military personnel being aware that these were the spies who worked for the country. They often disguised themselves as civilians or outlaws.
The current recruitment team at the Gurukul consisted of four team members – Prithvi as the leader, Ramanujam as the trainer for the new recruits, Saraswati, who was prima facie, the receptionist. In actuality, her role was multifaceted. She was responsible for keeping the façade of the administrative department intact. She had a roster full of people whom she employed cyclically to carry on the daily admin work. On the other hand, she was responsible for arranging the clandestine meetings between Prithvi and the other members/team leaders of Suraksha Chakra ministry from the four zillas.
The fourth member of this recruitment team was a recent addition due to increase in their workload and also, having found someone with extraordinary abilities.
*Guruji - Teacher
*Suraksha Chakra – Literal meaning is Circle of Protection