"To get me" said Karam.
There was a silence.
Karam said, explaining, "If I am right, this is exactly what will happen: The moment Russia comes to know that I am in America, they will try to make contacts with America to hand me over, but before that happens I will get American intelligence know I have some valuable information…"
*
One day before the present
Virginia, USA
It was evening 7:30.
A crowd of journalists from several channels and papers stood in front of the airport gate, holding their mikes, cameras and big lights, chattering and bustling as they waited.
A lady reporter cleared her throat, adjusted her hair and dress, signalled her cameraman to roll the camera and spoke after thumbs up and pause
"We stand here at Washington Dulles International airport waiting for the arrival of visionary entrepreneur Karam Raveen. This global icon is the founder and CEO of MK company, with several malls and supermarkets across various nations, the MKmarts, and transport services the MKTransports. But despite all these he still remains an extremely kind and generous soul, having set up many orphanages across various countries, including America, India and others. For reasons yet unknown, this India-born tycoon is coming from Russia after setting up his first mall and orphanage there"
Suddenly the chaotic commotion became louder and chaotic, the jostling and shoving increased as they noticed Karam walk through the airport to the gate, his assistant Tiara (001) and body guards Fazil (002) and Kumar (004) following with the baggage.
He came out to loud chaos and lights, several photos being clicked and questions erupting from all around. He wore his trench coat over a blue t-shirt, and other three wore office suits. He waved at the crowd and walked forward, covering his eyes from the light.
"One by one please" said Tiara, pointing at the crowd as they calmed down a bit.
"Mr. Karam" said one of them, "What is your purpose in USA?"
"Firstly" he said, putting his hands in his pocket, "I wanted to revisit the orphanages see how they are doing, in fact right now I'm going to Rockshire. And secondly, I wanted to talk with the president and higher ups"
There was huge rustle bustle in the crowd at the word "president"
"About what?"
"For now, I can't say anything, but it's extremely important"
The crowd went frenzy over it. He nodded and left through the crowd as his bodyguards shoved aside the reporters, and sat in the car waiting for him. The other three sat in too and the car drove away"
*
8 Months ago, somewhere in India
(All dialogues were spoken in Hindi)
"It won't catch the attention of US government people just like that, but they will definitely keep an eye out" he said, his hands behind his back, "but when around 15-30 minutes later Russia calls USA to hand me over, saying it's something like a market felony or something, the US officials do 2+2 and know I have something important that I brought from Russia, and I wanna discuss about it with US… it won't be a strong deduction but neither something that can be ignored, and then…"
*
The day before present
Rockshire Orphanage
7:58 pm
Karam walked in the garden of the orphanage alone, he had just come after a chaotic welcome from the kids and bows from the staff, and now roamed under the evening sky, deep in thoughts.
Fazil and Kumar stood by his side at a distance. He noticed few shadowy figures lurk around the walls and in distance, and smiled. Those were, he knew, people of Russia active in USA and people of USA keeping check on him. The Russian ones couldn't kill him because no one knew how many people he spread the sequence to, killing him will worsen things, they needed him alive and the US shadows, the walls of the orphanage, and his own guards and the cameras around won't allow that.
That's when the call came.
"About time" he said with a sigh, taking out his phone.
"Mr. Karam" said a grave voice from other side, "Tomorrow at 9:30 am, we will send our men to pick you up for the meeting. Be ready"
And the call cut.
He nodded his head and kept back his phone. He looked up, took a deep breath and breathed out, closing his eyes"
"Karam uncle! Karam uncle!" came running few kids, "The dinner is ready!"
He smiled and looked at them, then nodding his head walked in, patting on their heads, saying, "let's go"
*
8 Months ago, somewhere in India
(All dialogues were spoken in Hindi)
"And after that, next day, they will come and take me from the orphanage the way you would to someone important to see government" he said, "check me and take me, but midway they will change it to a secretive route"
"Why not be secretive from the start?" said 017, "Why come and take you so dramatically in front of the entire orphanage"
"Because he is man of importance" said 007, "And also because of what he will say at the airport. It's all about appearance"
"Correct" said Karam, "If they don't come to pick me up I will have to go out, and reporters will be at my tail, always, and there's a possibility Russians will nab me. They will have to come and take me, safety being their responsibility"
"And if you ask why not come in a normal car dressed normally, it's because they want it to be visible that government people are involved, and this was a response to his words" said 007, "This will kill any rumours before they spread with an obvious answer, and keep Russians at bay with no compromise to safety of him"
"That's how US does it" said Karam, "Make it so obvious and huge no other consideration comes to mind, hiding a secret behind a big dramatic truth. Most certainly they will take me a secretive path one the way and the car will go without me to where US VIPs generally are, like the Pentagon or something, thus fooling everyone that was following with a rather obvious answer"
"unquestioned secrets disguised behind a dramatic truth" said 007, smirking, "like 9/11"
"Anyways" said Karam, tapping on the wall, "After I put forward my conditions, they will choose whether to accept the deal or not. And if they do, that will mean they have got a source of verification, which again means they have done the deal with Russia"
*
Understanding the timeline of events, chronologically (USA runs 11 hours behind Russia, taking the regions the incidents are happening in consideration):
11 June 2025, USA
7:32 pm: Karam arrives in USA
12 June 2025, Russia
6:41 am: It is confirmed that Karam is in USA, contact with USA but no response.
4:12 pm: Zorin meets Volkov
12 June 2025, USA
9:30 am: Karam goes with the suited men
10:50 am: Deal done with USA
*
12 June, 10:40 am
The meeting room where Karam met with the President and other important members of US, after Karam told his conditions
There was a deep silence.
"Please stand outside for some time, Mr. Karam", said the President gravely, "we need to discuss before we make a decision."
Karam sighed and said, "sure". He got up, adjusted his trench coat, bowed down, turned back and opening the heavy wooden door, walked out.
As he closed the door behind, he noticed the guard with a scar on his face still standing there like a statue. Karam went and leaning back to the wall, stood there beside him, and closed his eyes, waiting.
Inside, all the members sat in a grave, dense silence for a long while. Director of DIA Fin Hayson spoke, "We should discuss our course of actions?"
"What's there to discuss?" said Mirk Connors too loud, Harrison and others looked at him sharply and he settled down awkwardly, minding the presence of the President, "I mean... There is no way for us to confirm instantly the sequence he gives us will work or not. We will only be playing a blind game"
"If we is take the half of the sequence, can we figure out the other half, Mr. Connors?" asked Peter Dikoy.
"No" said Connors with a suppressed irritation, "The numbers are completely random and have to be meticulous to several decimal places. Even if we had all the numbers except the last one, we still might not be able to figure it out. All we know for now from our own research is that the subject will take about 12 hours to show any symptoms after being subjected to the sequence"
"Hmm…" Peter Dikoy said, "I have a plan"
"Karam Raveen has made a smart plan, but he hasn't considered one thing… what after?" he crossed his fingers under his chin and said, "Apart from that, he said 'he' knew some parts of the Blue Book. That means he is the one who knows the 'few contents of the book' he was talking about. We can safely assume that he will contact the man who knows the sequence only for the sequence, verification of the report will be done by him"
He said leaning forward, enacting it by tracing his fingers on the table, "So my plan is, we will go to his place, he will give him a hardcopy of the report, he will verify, get the other half of the sequence and give to us, then we say we hold him with us for 12 hours till the sequence is confirmed to be true, saying we will let him go with the book if it comes out true. Of course, though, that's a lie, we will kill him."
"No no Peter" Fin Hayson said, tapping his fingers on the table, "That won't work. Firstly, 12 hours is a long time and media is at his tail, always, Karam Raveen just disappeared from his own orphanage for 12 hours and died? Secondly, he is too smart without a flick of fear of death in his eyes, he will see this coming and will have precautions in place, killing himself not even the worst possibility of it"
"So let him die!" said Connors, "In fact we can kill him the moment he says the other half of the sequence, we will get the sequence, working or not, without losing the Blue Book"
"That's true" said Fin, "we have nothing to lose, except that you forget he is an international celebrity! We will have a lot of mess to clean up after his death, without even a profit to us, and god forbid he might have prerecorded a video or something blaming us it'll be messy"
"He will die no matter what, if we do the deal, and we will clean after him. There's no way we will let him go with the Blue Book" said Peter, "But it atleast has to be worth it"
There was a long, grave silence in the room.
The President sighed and said, "Well, then it seems the best thing to do is not accept the dea-"
"Excuse me Sir!" said Peter Dikoy suddenly, "I'm sorry for interrupting but what if we contact Russia?"
Everyone looked at him wide eyed.
"What are you saying, director?" asked Harrison Hilton.
He adjusted his tie, cleared his throat and said, "If I am right, Russia is unhappy with the fact that we might get the sequence, but they also wouldn't want it to spread elsewhere either, which is why want to, and from what I hear, have been trying to kill Karam Raveen, but he is safe and untouchable while under us. So we will make a deal with Russia that they give us the sequence and we will kill Karam Raveen for them. This way we can take the sequence from both parties and cross verify them. If the sequence they give are matching, it is correct, and we will kill Karam Raveen in front of them, and if they don't then either of them or both are lying, in which case we will call the complete thing off. You know the rest"
He sat back, taking a deep breath.
After a long silence, Harrison Hilton spoke, signaling to one of his men, "Contact Russia".