The Bleeding Sun (11 page)

Lucas was getting anxious on having the conversation
about the mole.

’Well, can you tell me how it is possible that the
details of the top secret mission that we undertook was already
known to Rosmus and his team? We had been compromised from the very
first moment after we had selected to accept the mission. How did
Rosmus and his team know about our travel itinerary and our hotel?
How did he come to know about Maria? She had been operating
discretely for a very long time without any problem. So how did she
get exposed this time? I really feel that the ANNT headquarters
have been compromised and the personnel we are working with can no
longer be trusted upon. The mole could be you; it could be me; it
could be any one of us. Being the director of the organization,
don’t you have any clue regarding this?’

The Serpent’s facial expression had changed. His eye
brows pulled down together, his facial muscles tensed and the face
reddened up. Before he could provide a response, Annie dealt a
killer blow.

‘We also want to know what really happened to Major
Kapoor after we left for Havana. Was he really an ISI agent? Based
on the reports that I have received, Major Kapoor could have been
captured alive; instead you chose to shoot him. What is your master
plan Colonel? Why did you value the contents of the briefcase more
than Lucas’s life? You wanted me to bring home the contents at any
cost. Tell Lucas about the Bleeding Sun. Tell him how you have
always known what Romanovich and Rosmus had been working on. Tell
him how the lethal gas when released will instantly infect every
human being within a radius of one kilometer. Tell him about the
Bleeding Sun, how it is just an oil tanker from outside but a
genetic research lab in reality. Tell him Colonel. Tell him how you
knew all about these before sending us on the mission but didn’t
bother to tell us anything. Is there something that you still may
want to share with us, Serpent? Like why did you choose your code
name as Serpent in the first place? Or should I call you
Viper.’

The Colonel had heard enough of these. Annie’s
comments took his rage beyond the limits. He rose up quickly,
pulled out the drawer and made an attempt to bring out something.
Before Lucas could react, a shot on his head silenced him. Lucas
was shell shocked with what he had witnessed. Annie had pulled out
her pistol and fired a shot straight through the Serpent’s
head.

‘Death to the traitor. He betrayed us all.’ She said
without any sign of remorse. ‘Can you check whether he is still
alive while I inform the IMA authorities? Once we are done with
this, come and visit me. I had lied to the Serpent. I couldn’t risk
sending out the devices to the labs even after knowing that our
boss himself was the mole in the system. Take care of this Lucas.
There is a lot of work to be done. We need to save the Prime
Minister’. Annie headed out of the room quickly looking to inform
and bring in the IMA officials.

Lucas was still shocked with the events that had
occurred. He simply couldn’t come to terms with the fact that his
mentor was the mole in the agency. He slowly moved towards the
lifeless body of the Serpent. The bullet had gone straight through
his head and damaged the wall behind him. The mahogany desk was
covered in blood. Lucas touched the side of his neck to double
check if he was still alive. He moved behind the Serpent in order
to check the drawer that he had opened earlier. To his utter
surprise, the Serpent did not have a gun in the drawer. Instead, he
was trying to press the panic button in order to alert the IMA
authorities that the facility had been compromised. He was shot
dead before he could press the switch. Lucas picked up the phone
and asked for the IMA officials to be called in along with the
police and the medical staff. He also asked for the whereabouts of
Annie and requested the guards on the premises to stop her. By the
time the officials arrived, Lucas had received confirmation that no
one with Annie’s appearance had entered or left the premises of the
IMA on that day. The phone number which Annie had provided was not
reachable either.

Lucas handed over the Colonel’s body to the IMA
officials and headed off to the DIA headquarters. He had
specifically requested for CCTV footage to be brought up from the
airport, IMA compound and every other place where Annie could
possibly have been present during the last few days. He also
requested Annie’s files to be sent over to him. He informed the
National Security Guards to beef up the security around the Prime
Minister and the President. He also obtained permission from the
home ministry to alert the airport authorities to ensure that Annie
could not travel outside the country. He needed to track down and
intercept Annie; she needed to answer his questions. First, he
needed to head down to the DIA headquarters to get a holistic view
of the entire situation before deciding his next step. He would
also need to inform the President and the Defense secretary about
the Serpent’s demise.

Epilogue

The response that Lucas received from the Defense
secretary was not pleasant at all. He was made responsible for
allowing the Serpent’s death and hence would need to face an
independent disciplinary panel, when the danger around the PM and
world leaders had been averted. Based on the information that he
had requested from the DIA, he got hold of the CCTV footage from
the Key West airport where Annie had landed before meeting the US
coast guards. She had been provided with a fresh pair of shoes and
clothes. When she had removed her shirt, the tattoo of the rattle
snake wrapped around the dagger was partially visible on her back.
Dimitri Bertsekas had fooled them all. The Ghost was not a man;
instead it was a woman who was placed deep inside the ANNT
itself.

Based on the service records, it seemed that it was
not the Serpent who had found Annie; instead it was the other way
round. She had slowly managed to manipulate the Serpent and other
officials while gaining his trust and entering his good books.
Annie had been tracking the activity of the ANNT personnel very
closely over quite some time. She had specifically requested that
she should be included in the mission along with Lucas as soon as
Havana was at stake. It was her plan all the way. She had planted
evidence leading to the vindication and elimination of Major Kapoor
as a supposed ISI agent. What followed next was the fake kidnapping
in Havana followed by a few superficial wounds at the Castle which
would ensure that Lucas fell for the amount of suffering she had to
go through. She had bugged Lucas with the APTS module to track his
movement, while she ensured that Maria’s place was taken down. She
had also given away the details of the hotel and room to the Viper
agents, in order to ensure Lucas’s demise. However to her surprise,
Lucas managed to escape and follow her trail at Tropicana casino
first and then at Castillo De La Real Fuerza. So she had to play
the role of the tortured prisoner, hoping that Lucas would be taken
down.

When her plans failed and Lucas managed to destroy
the base and rescue her, she looked for the right moment to take
him down. By this time, a new plan had struck her mind. She could
use the rescue mission of Lucas as an excuse to transport the
triggering device to India territory using Indian logistics itself
and work on assassinating the Indian PM and President. So she
knocked Lucas down and sent him over to the tanker purposely
ensuring that he was not heavily guarded. The rest of the rescue
mission was a diversion that served two purposes. Firstly, the
tanker got away with the cargo without getting seized by the US
authorities. Secondly, it was ensured that that the device that
would be used to possibly eliminate the PM and the President, had
been brought into Indian soil by the ANNT personnel themselves. To
create a diversion and to escape with the device, she had walked up
into the Serpent’s office, manipulated the conversation to
temporarily make Lucas believe that the Serpent was the mole, and
assassinated him before he could plead his innocence and call up
the IMA authorities to help him out. Lucas felt like a jack ass.
With his level of experience he should have never ever felt for
such a trap. Annie had perfectly double crossed them. No wonder she
was known as the Ghost. A few days later, an independent panel
determined that Lucas was guilty of negligence from his side and
was indirectly involved in the incidents that led to the
assassination of the Colonel. Officially Lucas was relieved of his
duties. However, the President had formed a secret committee who
determined that Lucas would need to work independently outside the
system.

The rules had changed; there weren’t any rules any
more. Lucas would need to hunt down the Rattle snake and the King
Cobra by any means necessary. If he was captured or killed in
action, his acquaintance with the Indian government would be
disavowed. He would once again be the lone wolf. With a clear
knowledge of his mission, Lucas set off for the US; the BRICS
convention in Dallas.