And So It Begins

I am really excited to announce you that I have finally started working on the sequel of Bleeding Sun, The Roy Lucas Chronicles. I can promise you more action, suspense, twists and turns and even more excitement compared to the first book. A really exciting adventure lies ahead and plenty of sleepless nights. Will keep you posted on the progress of the plot. Meanwhile enjoy the very first words on how it starts.



If you haven't already read the first part, you can buy either the paperback or the kindle edition on Amazon.
http://goo.gl/ThNwpl 

The Clues

Lucas tried to figure out the sequence of events that had occurred in the past six hours as the cab headed towards Marianao. He needed to reach Maria and get in touch with the Serpent. He also needed to chalk out a plan to rescue Annie and figure out who the mercenaries from the hotel were working for. He needed to figure out who Dimitri was and how all of this was related to the agency Viper and to Rosmus and Suleiman. He had damaged his watch while trying out his acrobatic antics earlier in the day. So, he pulled out a spare from his backpack. As per the display module, Annie’s tracking beacon was still sending a weak signal from her current location. He needed to find the decryption code in order to find out her exact location. Lucas also noticed something really strange…..another beacon was emitting a signal at the same distress frequency. The signal was pretty strong and was being emitted from someone very near to his present location. He asked for the cab driver’s cell phone to make an emergency call.

He dialed for the Indian embassy. At the automated interactive menu, Lucas entered his pass code to gain access to the ANNT system. After a few validations, he obtained his decryption code. By the time Lucas entered the decryption code, Annie’s signal was no longer being shown in the system. Annie had probably entered a radio free zone packed with signal jammers. Based on the last position, she was somewhere near the Maximo Gomez Monument in the heart of the city. The location of the second signal proved to be of a greater amount of surprise. It was coming from his cab. The cab could not have been bugged since he had picked out one randomly from the alley. His earlier watch was dead……hence it could not have been emitting anything. Lucas searched his back pack frantically in search of the source. He emptied the contents….a set of specialized goggles, a silenced M9, two blocks of C4 with detonators, a smoke grenade, a spare grappling hook and few rounds of ammo. The bag had a secret compartment at the back, housing a hand glider. Lucas shuffled through the external pockets….a pen knife, PDA and his passports and credit cards. The PDA was non functional as he did not get a chance to charge it up. He lifted the PDA and opened the cover housing the battery and external memory compartment. The battery was present…….however Lucas noticed something plugged into the memory card slot. Lucas did not have a memory card, ANNT agents are not supposed to carry data with them; they access and upload data to their central servers for analysis. All their machines are self destructible in case the same is misplaced or any of the ANNT agents are compromised.

Lucas pulled out the stick attached to his memory card slot. It was a unique memory chip like device with a small led attached to it. He put the rest of his stuff back to the backpack and put on his goggles. With the heat vision turned on, he could see the presence of a tiny power source within the chip. He searched for the device in the ANNT database based on the digital signature of the beacon. It was a prototype of the Assassination Precision Targeting Systems (APTS) project which was developed by the DRDO as a joint venture with the Kremlin a few years back before the project was subsequently shut down owing to the possible misuse of the device. DRDO had planned to develop a device which could be attached to the highly secured assassination targets so that they could be tracked and subsequently destroyed. DRDO planned to strike them with laser tipped satellite guided ballistic missiles belonging to the nations or the neighboring countries where the targets would be present at that point of time. That would in turn ensure that no fingers would be pointed towards the Indian Government or the Kremlin for the assassination of these sensitive targets. The system could be used to eliminate high profile terrorist leaders as well as could be used for tactical nuclear strikes using the nuclear devices of the parent country itself if required. It would consist of a self powered microchip which would emit a signal encrypted according to the ANNT distress frequency criteria. The device could hide itself from external scanners by adapting to the frequency of the electromagnetic waves that would be used for tracking it. Hence such a device could potentially be un-identifiable by the security scanners at the airports and government organizations. The device could be attached to any object and could even be injected into the body of the target if required. The initial prototype was designed as a small memory stick and the DRDO was working on reducing the form factor for the subsequent versions. The Indian Government decided to shut down the project after the first demonstration itself owing to concerns on security and how the system could be misused if it was ever compromised. All the prototypes were destroyed under joint supervision of the DRDO and the GRU when the project was subsequently shut down.

It seemed like someone had managed to get hold of few pieces of the prototype which had purposely not been destroyed during the purge. Surely there were other pieces of the prototype in the market since Lucas was too small and unimportant a target to waste such a valuable weapon on. If there were other pieces of the APTS around, then Lucas needed to find and destroy them before they could be misused. He also needed to find out how these prototypes managed to stay intact after the purge. Someone from the Indian or the Russian side must have been involved and Lucas needed to find them out too. As the cab approached the road leading to Maria’s duplex in Marianao, he noticed the presence of the police and emergency vehicles. A plume of black smoke could be seen around the corner. He was shocked at the sight of the place when his cab turned around the corner. Maria’s house had been reduced to a heap of rubble and the entire neighborhood was burning in flames. As per the policemen and the medical teams, a series of explosions had rocked the neighborhood earlier in the day. The impact of the explosions had damaged the entire neighborhood and the old buildings nearby were beginning to collapse. While the police and the firemen tried frantically to rescue the residents from the nearby buildings Lucas sneaked into one of the police vans and grabbed hold of a laptop. The last logs showed the details of the distress call made from the area by one of the residents about a possible missile strike. The police headquarters had later played down the claims of a missile strike and treated it as a terrorist attack. Maria’s residence had been identified and marked as an Al Qaeda hideout which was destroyed by the terrorists as they tried to cover up their operations when neighbors had started suspecting their actions. All the terrorists were killed in the process when their bombs detonated before they could leave the place. The deceased list showed Maria Rosario Morales as a prime Al Qaeda operative among four others who were possibly killed in the incident.

Lucas connected his watch with the terminal and logged into the ANNT network. He searched the database for Viper and Dimitri. The results were quite amusing. Dimitri Bertsekas was Rosmus’s right hand man…….the one who handled all his illegal transactions in the Middle East. He initially belonged to Romanovich’s payroll before moving over to Rosmus team. Apparently Romanovich was a close friend of Rosmus and had personally suggested Dimitri’s name since he had made a big investment in Rosmus’s operations as well and wanted to have the entire operation monitored by someone he could trust. As of Viper, it was the name of the security organization which handled the security of Romanovich’s business establishments all over the world. The crew mostly consisted of handpicked ruthless mercenaries and criminals from around the world who were paid enough dough to ensure that they would do anything that Romanovich wanted them to do. The entire plot was slowly starting to make sense. Rosmus was up to something big with the Al Qaeda and Suleiman involved and was using Romanovich’s help in terms of finances, contacts, establishment as well as crew to execute his plan. They possessed something big which Agent Alpha had been able to intercept and hence he was eliminated. They also knew about every move that Lucas had made from the very beginning owing to the tracking device. Hence all his moves were intercepted and Annie had been taken as a hostage. They had also managed to track down his contacts and hence Maria had been eliminated as well. Only two questions still remain unanswered………the secret that Rosmus was holding with him and how the APTS was used to track him down. Lucas turned off the console and swiftly left the police van. He had to prepare for the next night. He was going to pay Rosmus, Suleiman and Romanovich a surprise visit…………at their own backyard……..the Tropicana casino.

Princess in the Dungeon

The Castillo De La Real Fuerza also known as the ‘Castle of The Royal Force’ located at the western side of the harbor in Havana was originally constructed to defend the city against the pirates. However owing to its inferior strategic position, it was eventually never used. The building, also considered as the oldest stone fortress of the Americas, was later listed as a UNESCO world heritage site. Apart from being a tourist attraction owing to the small naval museum located inside, major parts of the fortress remains closed for visitors and hence provides an ideal hiding place for the shady activities of the mafia. The overall structure, made from limestone along with the thick sloping walls along the shore line, provides adequate fortification for the secret base of illegal operations that Rosmus carries out in the whole of Americas. The fort was adequately equipped with surveillance cameras, motion sensors, turrets and watch towers. Apart from these, the whole region was constantly patrolled by hundreds of mercenaries from Rosmus’s payroll. This was Rosmus’s dungeon, where he carefully held his secret dragon, waiting for the right time to unleash it on the world.

Annie woke suddenly up as the cold water splashed or her face. As she slowly opened her eyes, she realized that her eyes had been covered so that she could not see what was going around her. She tried to stretch her body only to realize that her arms and legs were firmly tied together. She could hear the husky voice of two men briskly speaking in Russian. They were waiting for orders from their boss Rosmus. After a while when her veil was finally lifted, she looked around the place where she was held captive. It was a small stone cell meant for prisoners. Her feet were chained firmly to the ground while her hands were tied to the chain using a rope. Another rope was hanging from an iron hook in the ceiling which was attached to a pulley on the other end of the room. The room did not have any windows. The temperature and ventilation was controlled by vents on the ceiling. The iron door was guarded by two well built, vicious looking men.

As the walkie-talkies crackled, one of the men came towards her, pulled down a rope which was hanging from the ceiling, and tied a knot on her neck. He moved to the end of the room and slowly started to turn the pulley. Annie could feel the knot tighten on her neck as the rope was pulled farther causing her body to dangle between the iron chains on the ground and the rope from the ceiling. She could feel herself being suffocated as the rope tightened its grip around her neck. As she felt a sense of dizziness, a short man walked in the room and moved towards her. Although she could barely see the face owing to dizziness, owing to her initial research before the mission, she could recognize the man as Yuri Rosmus.

Rosmus ordered the guard to loosen the rope. As soon as the lever was released, the rope loosened a bit and Annie fell onto the ground. She coughed out loud as she desperately gasped for breath. Rosmus bent down slightly, held her hair and pulled her up as she yelled in pain. ‘I don’t like insects crawling in my backyard. I love to watch them die as I burn them alive…..unless it’s of any use to me. You are going to tell me what Lucas was doing in my casino and what were you both up to.’

Annie stared at his face in utter disdain and Rosmus did not like that. He used his right knee to kick her twice in her abs. Annie cried out in pain. ‘I’ll ask you one more time. What did you come here for? What is your mission?’.  

Annie looked around the room once again trying to identify any possible option she could use to free herself. ‘If you think you will escape and survive, then you are wrong. You are in the most secured facility in the entire country…. Castillo De La Real Fuerza. One more thing, that partner of yours, Roy Lucas…. He died a nasty death today.’ Annie could hardly believe what she had just heard. Lucas could not die. He was the absolute best of ANNT. ‘The last I heard was, my gunship blew him up along with your hotel. The bastard is finally dead’. Rosmus laughed out loud as if to show off his achievement and satisfaction to Annie.

‘Since you haven’t spoken a word yet, you are no use to me. My boys will treat you with a lot of care before disposing you off. Farewell ladybird.’ Rosmus headed out of the cell as the second guard entered the cell and locked the door. Annie started panicking. She did not have much more time; she had to do something to escape. She could feel the rope tightening the grip on her neck as one of the guards pulled the trigger. The chains clanked harshly on the stone floor as they were drawn and she slowly was pulled up. One of the guards walked towards her while drawing out an army knife. ‘We will make it slow and painful for you bitch. And then we will rip you off in pieces and feed the sharks.’ The guards chuckled. Annie could only hope for a miracle now. As the rope tightened round her neck dizziness creeped in; her entire world turned dark as she struggled desperately to breathe. She had reached her doom.

Moments later, the darkness disappeared as the rope was slightly loosened. She could breathe again. She was not dead. As she opened up her eyes, she could see the face of Lucas leaning over her as her guardian angel. ‘It’s about time you woke up and helped me’, he smiled. She smiled back at him. Roy Lucas was not dead; he was back to rescue her and to teach Rosmus a lesson.

The Trap

After visiting the beach Lucas decided to head back to the hotel. He needed to get his plans chalked out for the night for his encounter with Rosmus and Hussein. He would try to get as much Intel as possible and then look for an opportunity to take both of them down before they could cause any more harm to the innocent civilians around the world. In the cab, he noticed that the security beacon on his watch had started flashing. Annie must have had found out something important which she intended to tell him.  On reaching the hotel, Lucas moved hastily through the lobby towards the elevator. As he moved past the reception, he noticed that Alfred was not present there; even the guys at the reception were missing. The lobby looked unusually empty in the middle of the day. That was really strange considering the fact that Hotel Nacional was one of the biggest hotels in entire Cuba. As Lucas headed towards the elevator, he couldn’t help but notice that the security cameras were pointed straight towards him. Lucas entered the elevator and headed towards the 7th floor. The camera in the elevator was also looking straight at him. Something was not right. Someone was watching his every move very closely.

The elevator came to a screeching halt at the 7th floor and Lucas walked out of it. He walked out on the hallway and moved towards his room. Room number 702 was just round the corner. Lucas walked halfway and looked up for the security cameras. The two cameras were at opposite ends of the hallway. If his assumption was right, then he was standing at an eclipse zone where none of the cameras could track him down. He needed to perform the vanishing act. He could neither go forward nor backwards without avoiding the cameras....the only way to travel undetected was to move up. He could use the air conditioning vents for this purpose. It could lead him straight to his room. Lucas pulled out his left shoe and opened a secret chamber from the sole. He pulled out a thin wire and a mini grappling hook. It didn't take him long to pull down the cover of the vent and pull himself up. He turned the dial of his watch to activate the location system. He had to find the way to his room. As Lucas moved forward through the vent, he could see four masked men with automatic rifles waiting below him around the corner. He would have been shot as soon as he reached near his room had he been walking all along. It was a death trap set for him. He needed to move to his room quickly and check on the whereabouts of Annie… for the first time, he felt worried about that girl.

Lucas slowly moved forward to ensure that he didn’t make any noise in the vent. He could not make his presence felt. When he entered the room he could see only a part of it from the vent. He took out his pen and started unscrewing the cap. The pen extended into a foot long thin metallic rod with a small camera on its tip. He lowered the camera from the vent and turned the cap to move it around. There were two armed men in the room. One was guarding the windows while the other was waiting near the door. The room was empty with no signs of Annie. Annie’s suit cases along with the weapons obtained from Maria were lying on the floor. Annie must have been in the hotel to drop off the bags. Probably the assailants had her in custody or in the worst case, had already executed her. Lucas took a closer look at the room once more and pulled up the camera. He had tagged the location of the two armed men in his watch. He needed to take them down silently without the slightest of fuss.

Lucas slowly unwound the screws from the vent access using a Swiss knife that he always carried. He slowly lifted the access door and attached the grappling hook on the vent. Then he slowly moved into the room with body hanging vertically downwards. He could not afford to land on his feet since his boots could make enough noise to give away his presence. He landed on his palms without a sound and swiftly rolled behind one of the couches. He pulled down the grappling hook swiftly and silently. The guys were still stranded in the same positions. Lucas wondered what exactly they were waiting for. He rolled across the door and moved swiftly behind the man waiting at the main door. He took out the Swiss knife, rose up behind the man and like a silent assassin covered his victim’s mouth and jabbed the knife onto his neck. The poor guy didn’t even get a chance to blink.

Lucas could hear the sound of the rest of the armed men outside the room. They were moving around trying to find him since he did not walk up onto their trap. The radios were crackling and from the conversation, it didn’t seem that their boss was too pleased. Lucas had to take out the next guy in order to search the room for any clue he could find and then he needed to vanish again before the other guys arrived. He could see his backpack lying near the bed. Apparently it had not been opened. He rolled again swiftly on the carpet trying to get near the second guy when his plans went wrong. The phone in the room started ringing and the guy looked back to stare straight at him. As he lifted his rifle, Lucas threw the knife straight at him and lunged forwards. The knife struck his shoulder but he managed to fire a few rounds before Lucas landed on him. A brutal blow on his neck ended his misery.

Lucas rushed towards Annie’s luggage and pulled out a silenced M9 along with a smoke grenade. As the door opened up he threw up the smoke grenade and jumped across the room away from the windows taking shelter behind a recliner. He got hold of his backpack as well. The men started firing their rounds as smoke filled up the room and the fire alarm started ringing. Lucas put on his glasses from the backpack and turned on the thermal imaging. As the bewildered men moved around the room firing haphazardly, he watched their every move and took them down one by one with his shots. All the four men were gunned down. As the sprinklers came to life, Lucas turned his attention to the room. There was no sign of Annie. He packed up his backpack whatever he could from the accessories that Maria had provided. He needed to clear the place of every trace. He took out a round of C4 and placed it tactically in the room to ensure that all his traces were gone. He went on to the men who were guarding the room and searched for clues on their bodies. The only thing he found was that all of them had a patch on their shirts with the name of “Viper”. He would need to do some more research to find about them. He would need every single clue to track down and rescue Annie if she was still alive. One of the men had a cell phone and the last call was made to someone named Dmitri minutes before the men had rushed into the room. Lucas took the cell phone for analyzing later as he wired up the C4 and got ready to move on. He would work his way up the vent again and on reaching the stairs would detonate the bomb.

While going through all these thoughts, Lucas did not realize that there was a sound of a rotor constantly increasing in strength. As the sound grew up louder, Lucas moved on to the windows to take a look. What awaited him was no less than hell. A MI 24 gunship slowly rose up to the height of the room and the machine guns started firing. Lucas helplessly jumped across the room for cover as the window panes were shattered and the guns blazed through the entire room. Lucas jumped across the room onto the bed and then tried to reach for the ceiling. He grabbed hold of one of the sprinklers and latched onto it in his desperate bid for survival. With all the firing, the C4 got detonated and the entire room turned into a blast furnace. With the explosion, the sprinkler that he was holding on to, finally gave away and Lucas landed heavily on the floor. The firing had momentarily stopped. It seemed that the explosion had disoriented the pilot and the gunship was trying to steady itself before unleashing death once again.

Lucas was hurt with the sudden fall. His left arm was on fire and he could barely hear anything due to the sudden explosion. He tried desperately to get his act together. He could not be bothered about the pain if he needed to complete his mission. He needed to cheat death and survive. He needed to eliminate the enemies. He rose up slowly and looked around. He could still see the gunship as it slowly was regaining control. He couldn’t lose any more time. The entire ceiling leading to the vent had come down and hence there was no escape route. He had to fight his way out. Lucas brought out his grappling hook and fastened the straps of his backpack tightly. He took out two grenades and pulled out the pins. He started running towards the windows with the grenades latched in one hand and the grappling hook swirling in the other. The gunship had managed to regain its control and slowly started aiming the guns towards the room.

Lucas leaped out of the window straight at the gunship and managed to get the grappling hook onto the sensors at nose of the helicopter. He jammed a grenade onto the sensor and swung ahead as the guns started blazing again. He tossed the second grenade just behind the primary gun, released the grappling hook and dived below. A fall from the seventh floor would be fatal and hence Lucas released the grappling hook again in search of anything he could probably latch on to. Just when every hope seemed to have been lost and he was getting too near to his death, the hook managed to latch onto an extended wire from a nearby building. Lucas came to a stop around thirty feet above the ground with a huge jerk before the rope finally broke off and he fell down heavily on his back. The grenades detonated and the Gunship came down on to the street as a ball of fire. Lucas had to move away quickly to ensure he didn’t get crushed by the fireball. He rose up slowly looking around to notice any suspicious behavior. He had surely bruised a rib or two due to his misadventures for the day. Lucas headed swiftly to the nearby alley before the cops and the authorities arrived. He would need to find himself a new hive and operate from there. His entire mission had been compromised.

Havana

The flight to Havana was far better than what Lucas had experienced while returning from Morocco. The trip was an awfully long one with change of flights in Amsterdam and Madrid before finally reaching Havana. However Lucas was pleased at having some good sleep during the entire journey. Before boarding the Royal Dutch Airlines flight in Delhi, Lucas received a shocking news. Major Kapoor had turned out to be a traitor, he was an ISI agent. He attempted to murder the Serpent, but the wily old fox outsmarted him and killed him in the process. The Serpent had been handed the responsibility of the IMA as well thereby making his task at the ANNT headquarters a lot easier. He was in charge of anything and everything within the IMA compound. However Lucas did not feel too good. Major Kapoor was a brave soldier and a true gentleman. He had saved Lucas’s life during an operation in Russia. He did not seem to be the person who could betray his motherland. But he could no longer have these thoughts lingering in his mind as he had more important work to be done. Meanwhile Annie continued gossiping with a co passenger throughout the journey. This girl was going to cause him a lot of trouble in the near future. Lucas did not want to waste his time any more. So, he concentrated on sleeping during the entire journey thereby clearing his mind and resting his brains.

They reached the José Martí International Airport in Rancho Boyeros at the stroke of midnight. The airport was about twenty five kilometers southwest of Vedado where their accommodation had been arranged. The cheapest means of transport in Havana apart from the public buses is the Ladas……….the non air-conditioned taxis colored in yellow and black. They boarded one of them and proceeded straight to their hotel at Vedado. Hotel Nacional was one of the best in entire Havana. The rooms had been arranged beforehand. Room number 702, a luxury suite was provided to them. The short guy who carried their bags to the room was named Alfred. His father owned the car rental agency that supplied the cabs to the hotel. He had been working in the hotel for the past four years. Lucas had a brief discussion with him regarding the neighborhood and anything else that could be of any concern before giving him a hefty tip. From his past experiences he had learnt that these types of people prove really useful at crunch times. Meanwhile Annie threw away her boots and stepped into the bed straight away. Lucas just couldn’t seem to believe that she was an ANNT operative at all. He went to the small freezer and brought out a pint of beer. He needed to quench his thirst before getting refreshed and beginning his work.

Lucas slipped a note beside Annie and left the room at break of dawn. He wanted to get going as soon as possible thereby giving him abundant time to comprehend what had happened to Agent Alpha and why. While leaving the hotel he saw Alfred dozing off at the reception. He went outside Hotel Nacional. As the first rays of the sun fell on the lonely streets of Vedado, Lucas could feel a fresh burst of energy and enthusiasm within himself. He crossed the street and waited for a mode of transport. The public transport crisis of Havana had been considerably reduced by the introduction of Metro Buses which usually run to all the major parts of the city. These huge 300-plus passenger buses are hauled by trucks; all have the prefix M before their number and are color-coded. Metro Buses leave from Parque de la Fraternidad on the southern side of the Capitolio in Centro Havana.

Lucas took a bus from Vedado to the famous Centro de Prensa Internacional in Centro Havana. The Tropicana Casino being the tallest building in Centro Havana could be seen clearly from where

Lucas was standing. It belonged to the Russian oil tycoon Sergei Romanovich and was built after special approval from Castro’s regime. Romanovich was a close friend of the Russian president thereby making the negotiations easier. The Tropicana Casino was one of the largest in the world. It had an estimated annual turnover of 150 million dollars with the figure expected to increase in near future. Romanovich had left no stones unturned to make it the best in the world. On entering the Tropicana he was startled to see the large number of people that had gathered inside. Lucas went straight to the slot machine and started playing. He wanted to know about the place in utmost detail ensuring minimum exposure. The casino was evenly distributed in two floors. The big games and the grand bar cum lounge were on the first floor while the ground floor contained mainly the slot machines and other small games. The first floor also had a part reserved for live performances of famous artists which took place every Friday evening. However it seemed quite clear that the big guns went to the first floor for their deals. Alpha K must have seen Rosmus and Suleiman there. He looked all round him while playing the last game on the slot machine. He tried to memorize every position which had a security camera and also where the guards were exactly placed. As the Serpent had mentioned, Lucas was well known for his photographic memory. He left the slot machine after losing a few games and slowly strolled toward the first floor. He had to make sure that the plan of the casino was ready in his mind with utmost detail in order to carry any operation there.

He moved to the airlift and went up to the first floor with few other guests. The first floor was truly majestic………………it had blackjack, roulette, poker, baccarat and several other major games. There was also a lounge on the other side of the floor. Lucas could see two sheiks discussing something with a group of men in the lounge.  He ordered a cocktail from the bartender and sat in a recliner just behind the table where the sheiks were sitting. He could clearly understand what they were speaking. Lucas was trained in six different languages namely Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin and Pashtu apart from nearly all the Indian colloquial languages. The sheiks were speaking in Arabic while one of the men was translating the same into Spanish. The guys seemed to belong to some Latin American country……………maybe even Mexico. They were discussing about a big consignment of arms to be transported somewhere. Lucas wanted to hear the details, however he could not risk getting caught as this time the stakes were really high. He needed to get hold of what Rosmus and Suleiman were planning and also what Alpha K had discovered.

Lucas went up to the bar and ordered another drink. The bartender was a young man in early twenties named Alberto Lopez.

‘Good Morning Sir. You seem to be in a mood for drinking quite a lot today and that too so early in the day.’

‘Yes, I want to quench my thirst before trying my hands on that fabulous game of blackjack going on there.’

Lucas opted for some scotch as he continued talking to Lopez.

‘So man, how long have you been working at this place?’

‘Well about four months now. Earlier I used to work as a tender in the Cabaret Nacional bar in Centro Havana. When this casino began its operation last year, the owner Mr. Romanovich demanded for the best staff available in the city to be hired. After all he had promised jobs for localites before the government gave him the permission to build a casino here. That’s why I am here. Mr. Romanovich pays a visit time and often whenever he comes for some business trip in Cuba. He seems to appreciate my work a lot and had presented me his watch the last time he came here.’ Lopez pointed to a Rolex kept safely in a glass box at the end of the counter with the engraving- ‘The best bartender in the world’.

Lucas congratulated him on the seemingly amazing feat and continued the conversation. ‘So Lopez……………this place is just wonderful. I would just love to come here no matter where I would be in the world. There must be big guests coming from all around all over the time. How do you guys manage such tremendous pressure all the time?’

‘Well Sir, the job is tough but we work in shifts. I have a partner named Marcelo from Mexico. He takes over the bar at night when I work in the morning like today. However whenever important guests are expected, my duty is shifted to night. Romanovich wants nothing but the best for all his acclaimed guests. Two days ago we had Madam Secille, the renowned singer from Puerto Rico. And a day before that we had Mario, the famous soccer player and Rita Haynes, the latest beauty from Hollywood. I was personally chosen to serve them all.

Apart from these we have special tasks for taking care of political personalities whenever they arrive.’

‘Today we have Sheikh Bakhtiyar from Kuwait Oil Corporation who is a personal friend of Mr. Romanovich sitting there with his friends from Mexico. Last Saturday we had a large number of guests including Mr. Romanovich’s compatriot and new partner Yuri Rosmos. I was on special duty that day along with Marcelo. Mr. Romanovich wanted to make sure that everything was perfect. And perfect it was………… a really gala celebration with wine, girls and money flowing all around. They even provided all of us a really hefty tip. It was really a great night………a night to remember. We will be having a similar one tomorrow night with Rosmus and his friend coming here once again. Mr. Romanovich will be present here personally to attend them. A lot of government officials will be coming too. Sir, I believe you should come tomorrow if you really want to experience the extravaganza Tropicana Casino is.’

Lucas was quite pleased with all the information he had gathered in the short span of time. He thanked Lopez for the drink and gave him a hefty tip. He also promised to come back the next night to witness the real essence of Tropicana Casino. Before moving back to the ground floor, Lucas made sure he had a list of where the security cameras were and the position of the guards in the casino. He also played a round of roulette and won the game. After moving around for about an hour, Lucas left the Casino. He took a cab and decided to visit the nearby beach. He needed to get hold of any information that Alpha may have acquired.

When Annie finally woke up and came out to the windows, the streets of Vedado were filled up with buses, Ladas and an awful lot of busy looking people. She returned to the bed to get her gown. On moving the pillow she found the piece of note that Lucas had left her. She went through the list of points mentioned and then crushed the paper after sending a short curse for Lucas. Annie took up her towel and moved to the shower.  In between she dropped the crumbled piece of paper in the toilet and flushed it to make sure no one would ever know what it was. Operatives just could not leave any trace.

Annie moved through the reception in her elegant blue dress. As she tossed the security card of their suite to the manager, she gave Alfred a friendly smile. The guy came up immediately knowing what to expect……another high profile rich customer meant another car for hire from his father’s company. He quickly arranged for the best he could get hold of……………their prized possession for such customers……… an old Mercedes with a chauffeur. Annie handed a few currency notes to Alfred which he was more than delighted to accept. According to Lucas’s orders she had to complete three tasks. Firstly she needed to visit a lady named Maria Rosario Morales. She would be having information about their consignment of arms and anything else they may need during the mission. Next she would visit Julio Antonio Villena in the Indian Embassy. With his help she would send a message regarding their current status to the Serpent. And lastly she would visit the Tropicana casino to get an idea of things going on there.

Annie decided to visit the Indian embassy first as it was in Vedado itself. On visiting the embassy, she went up to the reception and said that she was a visitor of Julio Villena. She could not reveal her true identity as she was supposed to be a Dutch national according to her passport. The receptionist told her to wait for sometime as Julio had still not arrived at the office. He was hired by the Indian government to enable smooth understanding between the two governments when needed. Julio was a specialist in negotiations. He had six other family members involved in Cuban politics. It is said that two of them are very close to Castro. Annie shuffled through her purse meanwhile eagerly waiting for his arrival. She seemed to have nothing else in the purse apart from the daily amenities a woman is supposed to carry. However there was an inner chamber at the bottom which carried a small device which looked like a small pager. It was a security key. Every ANTT agent possessed one. It gave them randomly generated code required to access the ANNT network over wire or in wireless mode. She needed to use it in order to speak to the Serpent.

Julio Antonio Villena was a well built man in his early forties. He had prior information of Annie’s arrival. He led her to his office and asked her a series of questions to make sure it was really her. After being satisfied with his inquiries he led her to the shelves in his office. A gentle push caused the book shelf to move aside and reveal a state of the art radio transceiver. Annie took out her security device to check the exact code she needed to call to. The job was done within quarter of an hour. She left the place thanking Julio for the support. Julio handed her a bunch of papers so that when she went out it would seem that she had come for an official matter. This way there would be least amount of suspicion. Annie thanked him one more time and left the embassy…………… next stop……… Maria Rosario Morales.

Maria Rosario Morales worked in sync with the Indian Assembly ever since she was hired in the late nineties. Her father had played a big role in exchange of arms and supply of ammunition during the cold war era. It is said that he supplied arms to Che Guevara’s guerrilla warriors. He was eventually killed by CIA agents. Maria had taken over the business ever since. She had undergone a critical cardiac surgery on behalf of the Indian government after the hospitals in Cuba had given up all hope and the ones in US refused to treat her. Since then she has been Indian Government’s accomplice and has been helping the Indian operatives’. She lived in plot number11B, 25^th Avenue, Marianao. Annie’s car speeded across the highway in her journey to Marianao. The journey took her over an hour owing to the poor traffic conditions.

The house that Maria lived in was a well maintained duplex. The ground floor had been turned into a coffee shop named ‘Café de Havana’. All the tourists visited her coffee shop for its trademark preparations. Annie strolled inside the shop and chose to seat near the window. A waitress came up to her table. Annie decided to order a cup of strongly brewed cappuccino. After the waitress left, Annie turned around to take a closer look at the place. A Russian couple sat in the opposite corner sipping their coffee and discussing loudly about their course of action while looking into a guide book.  There were few guys singing along with one of them strumming a guitar. Their strong Yorkshire accent was highly prominent.  There were a few odd couples seated here and there. Apart from that, the place was relatively empty. A staircase beside the main counter led to the first floor where Maria’s office was probably located.

The waitress brought her the cup of coffee. As Annie raised the mug to take a sip she found a card attached to its bottom. She slowly detached it. It had the code word for accessing Maria’s office. She sipped off her coffee quickly and paid the check. Then she moved beside the main counter and started walking up the stairs. On the first floor, a huge man with a shotgun awaited her in front of a hallway. She was allowed to proceed when she told him the pass code that was written on the card. The man led her to a door at the end of the hallway. It was Maria’s office.

Maria was a small elderly woman in her late fifties. She was delighted on seeing Annie. She was especially excited on seeing a woman operative from ANNT…..the very first one. After initial conversation, the more important matters were addressed. Annie ordered anything and everything she could think of………… couple of silenced M9s and MP5s, few smoke and flash bang grenades, C4s, couple of walky-talkies and GPS devices, night vision goggles, a silenced SV-99 sniper rifle, gas masks, deep sea diving kits, an inflatable rubber dinghy, bullet proof vests, army knives, binoculars and ample ammunition for all the guns. It was more than enough to start a full-fledged war against the terrorists in Havana. Maria also handed her a sealed envelope which belonged to agent Alpha K. He had handed it over to her two days before he was killed. Annie took the envelope, and ordered for all the other equipments to be packed.

Maria made sure that the 3 boxes containing all the equipments carried a few paintings and stuff from her curio collection. Maria’s curio collection was famous in all of Cuba. Owing to her contacts with Government officials and also various other important people during her entire life, she had collected various types of stuff. This would make the whole scenario appear as if Annie was a big art enthusiast who had bought the stuff from Maria’s curio collection thereby causing least amount of suspicion among the visitors in the Café as well as the chauffeur. After all the boxes were loaded, Annie started for her final destination for the day…………Tropicana Casino. At this point, Annie’s security device started to beep with a yellow light. It meant that plans had been changed………..she needed to return to the hotel. Annie ordered the chauffeur to turn around and return back to Hotel Nacional.

Annie returned back to the hotel and headed straight for her room. Lucas must have been in the middle of something really important…..otherwise he would not have turned on the security device. To her utmost amazement, on reaching the room, Annie realized that Lucas was not there. Lucas had not come back ever since he had left the hotel that morning. The room had been cleaned and rearranged by the room service personel. The sheets had been changed and the curtains closed. A bunch of fresh tulips adorned the flower vase. It was not there last night, probably Alfred had arranged for the flowers to please them. Annie could not ponder around any more, she needed to look for any clues or instructions that Lucas may have left for her. She pulled out a datapad from Lucas's bag and logged in to the ANNT network. She had to try and locate Lucas's location and shut off the device to ensure no one else could intercept it. While she was concentrating on using her security key to get into the network, she suddenly felt a warm air kissing her neck. As she tried to turn around, a heavy thud on her head silenced her.

Dehradun

The room had the appearance of one that did not have a single speck of dust. The Persian carpets, the velvet curtains, the huge mahogany desk, a big globe of the world, a set of tall mahogany racks holding files and facts that no one would ever know about. A small man was working on something in the computer on the desk. The man was Colonel H. K. Subramanian alias Serpent, the director of the ANNT. The room was the headquarters of ANNT and was located in the premises of IMA Dehradun. No one knew about this secret office apart from the ANNT operatives. The operatives visited the IMA compound as visiting officers with specialized training in various fields who had come to teach the same to the cadets. However after entering the compound they would vanish in thin air as they headed for their headquarters. Only one man present on the IMA compound had the information about this organization……… Major A. Kapoor, the IMA director. He was an operative of the ANNT for several years before being moved from espionage operations due to his declining health. He was currently in charge of handling any situation which may arise leading to a suspicion that something was wrong in IMA. Being the director of the IMA, his immense power in the premises made his job easier.

A knock on the main door forced the Colonel to stop his work and look up at the door. The Serpent knew who had come as he had been intimidated as soon as the person had entered the IMA premises. He pressed one of the several buttons located underneath the desk thereby opening the door. The person who entered the room was the most tried and tested operative of the ANNT……… Major Ajay Saxena. Dressed in his uniform, Major Saxena was himself a cadet of the IMA. He played very important roles in several operations along the LOC before being reallocated from the Indian Army to the DIA. The Serpent himself moved him into the ANNT several years back. Since then Major Saxena has been one of the best operatives of ANNT with operations in Iran, Russia, Turkey and even the heart of United States. His father Prof. V Saxena was a renowned physicist while his mother Alice worked for the UNICEF. She was a Czech girl who fell in love with Prof. Saxena and later married him. Ajay was their only child and he had all the physical traits of his mother. He could be easily mistaken as a European international which always worked in his favor. He was christened as Roy Lucas after joining the ANNT.

Lucas knew the Serpent very well and had worked under his commands during all his operations. The Serpent had become the director of ANNT when his predecessor Colonel Tiwary was killed in an air crash two years back. The Serpent had handled the organization very well since then. He was a wily old cat……………a real mastermind. He did not speak at all for about five minutes and continued to be busy with his work. Lucas on the other hand was not looking too pleased. He did not seem to be in the best of conditions. He had been in Morocco for his last mission just ten hours ago. And just when he was going to complete it, the Colonel ordered him to come back.

The Serpent looked up once and realized that Lucas was not pleased being made to wait for so long. So, he finally decided to talk to him regarding what it was all about.

‘How was your flight back home? Did you get some sleep? Your face looks terrible.’ He chuckled after speaking about the face.

‘Well, the journey was one of the best that I have ever undertaken. You don’t get a chance everyday to travel with a bunch of high priority mails and parcels in a private aircraft of a courier company. The box on which I was sitting thereby spending the seven hours was even better than a recliner. I suppose I shall buy one of those for my drawing room when I return home.’

‘Sleep……………………………hahaha…………………I have been keeping these eyes open for the last forty eight hours……………..and I simply couldn’t afford to doze off in the plane as well and fall on the fragile stuff kept all around thereby damaging those as well myself. I badly need some sleep.’

‘Well then get some sleep within the next twenty four hours because you have several sleepless nights coming up after that.’

‘What? Fly again tomorrow itself? I really need some answers now. I was just about to wrap up everything in Casablanca and you bring me back. What could have been more important than the retrieval of the stolen plutonium? I had everything working according to plan and was about to get them once and for all when the deal would be made in the Casablanca Twin Center itself…………….I was just so close after these two months of hard work……………But you abort the mission and call me up at this crucial junction to do God knows what.’

‘Agent Lucas, always remember that you are here to serve your country and your organization first. There is no place for sentiments and self glory here. I hope I am clear.’

‘As far as the deal in Casablanca……..the deal will be made tonight at the Twin Center. We have informed our agents from RAW. They will be present there to retrieve the consignment and bring it back to our nation with the help of a group of elite commandos specially trained for this mission. Your job there is done.’

‘As for the current mission, you will be travelling to Havana tomorrow. Something is definitely wrong in Castro’s land. Agent Alpha K had been sent there to look into the matter. He was clearly on to something and we need to find out the information. Recently there has been a lot of movement in the Tropicana Casino in Havana. Suleiman Hussein, the notorious Al-Qaeda operative and Yuri Rosmus, the biggest Russian mafia boss were seen meeting each other several times. They were supposed to strike a deal on something and Alpha was on the verge of tracing what it was. But something has gone drastically wrong. We have not received any communication from him for the last three days. Today our informers in Havana found a mutilated body by the beach. They are sure that it belongs to Alpha.’

‘You move out there and take care of the unfinished business. We believe that this may be even bigger than what Alpha was originally thinking. Your tickets and forged Dutch passport have been sent to your hotel. You will find them in the locker. You will also find a brown envelope containing the mission documents and details of what Alpha had initially found out. Lucas, this one’s not going to be easy. This time there is no information, no identified enemies and certainly no particular mission objective. It’s more of a free role. You are renowned for your photographic memory. So, make it count and get back as much as you can find out. If you find something sinister, leave no stones unturned to prevent it.’

As Lucas rose up in order to leave, the Colonel interrupted. The Serpent really delivered a venomous strike through the next news.

‘Well Lucas, I did forget to mention you something. You will not be travelling alone this time. We don’t want an incident like Agent Alpha to be repeated once again. So you will be having a backup with you this time. Let me introduce you to your wife.’

He spoke something after lifting the receiver while Lucas stood there shocked at this news. What followed was a knock on the door and the entrance of his so called wife……………….a young lady dressed in black uniform. She was exactly six feet tall with her boots on. The surprising factor was that she looked more like a European with her red hair, fair skin and blue eyes. No way could she have been an Indian. As Lucas was busy pondering how the lady got into ANNT, the Serpent interrupted.

‘Lucas, I’m pleased to introduce you to Ms. Annie Svensson, one of our elite female operatives. To remove all doubts, here is a brief introduction. Annie is the daughter of Dr. Arundhati Moitra, a top nuclear physicist and Dr. Mattias Husenberg, a leading scientist known for his ground breaking researches in the field of aerodynamics and trajectory. The Indian government had constituted a team in the seventies to work on the first nuclear program. These two had been a part of the program. They later married and settled down in Canada. Annie is their only child. Anita Moitra, which is her original name, had joined the Canadian army and had learned a lot. When her father died, her mother decided to move back to India. Anita left the Canadian army and joined IIT Kanpur. There she did specialization in microelectronic devices and circuits. After she left IIT, she travelled to England for specialization in nanotechnology. In England, during one of the ANNT missions, I personally identified her to work for us. At ANNT she was rechristened as Agent Annie Svensson. Since then she has been involved in many missions in Russia, Greece and England. She is an expert in electronic devices like timers and also in radio communication and radar. She will be of great help to you during this mission. Just watch her back in case of any trouble. In fact I believe, Annie will watch your back in case you fall into trouble which you definitely seem to have an affinity to. From now on Annie will be renamed as Mrs. Annie Lucas. Annie’s passport and tickets are kept along with yours at the hotel. Good luck team………………….. Don’t disappoint me.’

As they left the room, Annie gave Lucas a welcome smile. Lucas avoided it and responded with a blank expression. He liked to work alone. However, this time he had to protect not only his own ass but also some stupid girl who had popped into his mission from nowhere like a misfired smart bomb.

Prologue

My hands were starting to ache as I continued to hold on for a last few minutes. My body started trembling as I could really feel the heat now. The ventilator shaft had been purposely sealed to prevent my escape. I held on to one end of the shaft trying to balance my body against the ceiling. I needed to find some other modes of support pretty soon to prevent my drastic and untimely fall. Suddenly I could hear the footsteps near the door. The guard had come. It was dinner time. The steel door opened up with a rusty sound. The guard came in with a bowl in his right hand. He held his machine gun on his left. He entered the room and kept the bowl on the table. Then he moved towards the bed and shouted out………

‘Lucas, eat this up quickly. The boss has sent some special preparations as this will be your last meal….. Ha Ha Ha.’  He kept on laughing for half a minute only to realize that I was not responding. He moved up to the bed with the machine gun pointed at the covered figure lying on it. I waited eagerly in anticipation for the next sequence of events to unfold. The room seemed to have been heated up tenfold in the past few minutes. My shirt was soaked in sweat and beads started developing on my face. As the guard moved forward to lift the sheet covering the figure, sweat started to trickle down my face and salt water beads developed on the tip of my nose just on the verge of a fall. It would surely land on the guard’s shoulder thus letting my presence felt. I just could not wipe it off as trying to do so would make me fall off the ventilator shaft. Finally the drop fell down landing straight on the guard’s head.

The next few moments seemed to occur in slow motion. The guard touched his head to feel the moist drop. As he moved his head up straight towards the ceiling, I let both my hands off the shaft and landed straight on him. He fell down crashing heavily on the table as I landed on his back. He lost his gun before managing to fire a few rounds at the door due to the sudden impact. The man was huge in size. The impact didn’t seem to affect him too much as he tried to stand up once again. However I was in no mood to take a chance. We had been taught the Krav Maga during our training. It is a military self defense hand to hand combat technique used by the Israeli army. It is not just about self defense, but more about utilizing your chance to disable your enemy before he can cause you the least possible harm.

I used my fist to land a punch on the perfect spot…… his Adam’s apple.

The man collapsed on the ground in sheer agony once and for all. My plans had all gone berserk due to the bullets the guard had fired. I could hear the alarm bells as I quickly moved out of the cell. Although my plan had failed, I was already crafting a new one………… a new route for escape…………………… a new way to accomplish my mission. That is what we were taught during our training at the base camp in Jammu. We work alone…………… we work perfectly………………. we do not leave any trace……………… and we never fail. We give our enemies Hell so that all our innocent countrymen continue to live in Heaven. We are proud members of the biggest secret the Indian Army has withheld from the entire world and even from the Prime Minister. We are only answerable to the President of India. We belong to the top secret club of the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) and are known as Authority for Neutralizing National Threats (ANNT). Every President passes this secret to his successor when he retires from job.

I never make mistakes. I complete all my missions and leave no trace. I always cheat death and leave my enemies to rot in hell. I am an agent of ANNT. I am Roy Lucas. 

First Post

Hi All,

I have started writing once again after being dormant for the last 15 months. I hereby present you a story I had been working along for quite some time before I stopped writing. Its just a figment of fantasy where I wanted to imagine that India too could have a James Bond of her own.
So start reading and hold your breath for one hell of a ride coming up for all of you.

The story is still unnamed. When I manage to finish it, I'll provide you the name as well.

Meanwhile please write your comments on the chapters as and when they are published on the blog. Also if you like my work, please click "Follow" my blog to ensure you dont miss updates on the blog and its contents.

Thanks a lot everyone,
Abhishek Roy (Rick)