Chapter 07: Shining Knights

Inspector Indrajit watched Cecil place his calls to the next of kin. He wondered. Could this be a hoax, after all? It could very easily be a bunch of wealthy kids, trying to have their fun with the strong arm of the law. If it turned out to be so, Inspector Indrajit gravely thought, then he would ensure that each person involved understood the implications of the word ‘strong’ in the phrase ‘strong arm of the law’. The thought of teaching a lesson to such nuisance-creating youngsters brought a smile to the Inspector’s lips. One way or the other, he was going to have a hectic few hours.

Inspector Indrajit had been brought up in a home where reading and literature was held in high regard. As a consequence of this, he had finished reading most of the popular classics by the age of 12. Dickens had always been his favourite. In fact, Mr. Bumble’s ever-famous quote, “If the law supposes that, then the law is an ass,” helped push the young Indrajit towards studying more about the huge machinery of the law and its various functions. He could have become a lawyer, or something else, but he wanted to get into the Police force so that he could be directly on the frontline, defending and upholding the law while bringing criminals to justice. And now, looking at Cecil finishing his call to Rachel, the Inspector wondered if he would be required to defend, or deliver justice, in this particular case.

When Nate returned, the Inspector requested him to sign a few papers required for the First Information Report. The general public widely believed that policemen would not file a First Information Report without a bribe being handed over. But the general public has rarely walked into a police station, let alone filing an FIR. Cecil was pleasantly surprised to find that the general public were misinformed regarding this fact. Inspector Indrajit did not hint or request or stall, for a bribe of any sort. Nice, Cecil thought.

An hour after the phone call to Rachel, Cecil was among the tiny ‘force’ that was being gathered by the Inspector in the Station parking lot. He had put together a team of six, including the Inspector, with two jeeps for transportation. He also loaded some gear like a high-powered GPS Receiver, Satphone communications device and a few powerful-looking handheld searchlights. A camera, voice recorder and the Inspector’s laptop were added too.

Riding out of the police station on his black Pulsar, followed by two police jeeps with their sirens blaring and their lights flashing, Cecil felt he was leading a pack of modern knights. In the days of old, when a damsel was in distress, she could always rely upon any passing knight to save her…

“Sire, please save me from my predicament.”

“O fair maiden, what foe hath befallen thee?”

… or something like that. In the modern world, chivalry had all but died. Men unsuccessfully attempted to defend their dignity, their place, and their rights in a society and world which was filled with protests and demonstrations to help the ‘fairer sex’, as women termed themselves. The only ‘knight’ that a modern-day lady recognised would be the metaphorical ‘knight in shining armour’, whom she would marry and live happily ever after. Such ‘knights’ rarely wore shining armour. It was ever rarer that such men could even be termed as ‘knights’. Turning his thoughts to the tiny army following him in the two jeeps, Cecil wondered. How different were Policemen from Knights, really? Sure, they wore caps at jaunty angles, and donned uniforms that pre-dated the Jurassic era. But at the heart of it all, weren’t they, right now, coming to the rescue of people in distress? Much like the Knights of old. Without any actual armour, but shining, nonetheless.

As they sped down the last few kilometres to the spot, Cecil noticed that not many passers-by were present. This gave him a tiny source of happiness – just for a second. Cecil hated being noticed. He was no introvert, but that didn’t make him feel good about people staring at him. Who does like such things, really?

Nate, Rohit and Susan could hear the sirens a few minutes before they could actually see the headlights and the flashing lights. Hope stirred in them again. They’d been waiting in this desolate spot for nearly three hours. They’d begun to wonder if something had happened to Cecil as well. The relief that sprung up inside them upon his return was huge. The sight of the Police jeeps almost turned that relief into sheer joy. Cecil quickly filled them in on what had happened. He told them of losing his phone en route to the city, the phone call to Inspector Indrajit, and the visit to the Police station. When he finished, all four turned to see the Policemen shaking their heads, as if disappointed. Apparently, none of their equipment was functioning. To be more precise, none of their radio/wirelessly-connected equipment was working. The Laptop was booting fine, but the BSNL EVDO modem wasn’t obtaining a network signal. The Satphone didn’t appear to be logging onto the network at all. The GPS receiver was behaving in a bizarre manner.

Inspector Indrajit was stumped. What could this mean? He had read several stories related to the Bermuda triangle, but none of that had been proven. Here was a spot along the National Highway that was totally cut off from any means of Wireless communication. A crazy thought entered his head. He walked over to one of the jeeps and tried tuning into the FM Radio. Nothing but whines and static. Wow, he thought. Who could have known that we’ve got our very own Bermuda triangle-like scenario right here on the National Highway?

He decided that nothing could be done about their communications. He had to search the area, as soon as possible. They still had to confirm if this was a simple ‘Missing Persons’ case or a criminal case. They had to make sure. He asked the men to fan out and search the area, sending them out in twos, each pair holding a hand-held searchlight. Two pairs of men went off to the left of the road, where the tyre marks had been seen going of the road. The Inspector, and another policeman, pointed a searchlight into the darkness on the opposite side of the road, and decided to check out this side.

What’s he doing??? Nate’s mind screamed. He’s wasting time! Why’s he looking on that side of the road??? The tyre marks clearly lead off onto this side! Frustrated, tired and now angry, Nate spoke loudly. “Inspector sir, the tyre marks go off to this side. Wouldn’t we save time to search on this side of the road? If you want, we could even show you the place where we saw some strange ‘dragging’ marks on the ground.”

Right. The Inspector mused. That’s what I need. A smart alec.

“Listen,” he replied. “It makes sense to ‘sweep’ the entire area to ensure that we’re not missing anything. We are the police, and we’re experienced. Trust me.”

Nate shrugged and turned away. What a waste of time!

The first mistake humans make when under stress is to doubt and question everything. The second mistake that humans make, is to lose the ability to view a situation from multiple angles and to try and obtain a birds-eye view of the whole thing. Nate, had succumbed to both. It was inevitable, and it had occurred. It was only a matter of time now, before he succumbed to the complete loss of hope itself.

An excited shout from the Inspector brought all four of them running to a bush on that side of the road. What was going on?! The Inspector appeared to be holding up a small black object. Cecil and Nate looked at each other. That was Sudha’s phone!

The phone appeared to be nearly out of battery, but the voice recorder application seemed to be open. With trepidation, the Inspector reached out and pressed the buttons to playback the last recorded file.

There were a few seconds of a hissing sound that recorded audio makes, when nothing is heard. There seemed to be a faint rustle accompanying the standard hiss, but it was too faint to be sure. Everyone leaning in close to the phone had to move their heads away when they heard Sudha’s shout next “WHAT ARE YOU???” They looked at each other quizzically. Who or what was Sudha talking to? Then the rustling appeared to grow louder. When the rustling sounds suddenly stopped, they heard something like a whimper from Sudha, with screams of “No… No….. NOOOOO!” Then pure silence. Complete silence. The stunned group looked at each other. The Inspector, the policeman by his side, Nate, Cecil, Rohit and Susan. The file was still playing on Sudha’s phone. There appeared to be more than half a minute left. But this time, there was nothing else to hear, apart from the recording hiss. With a grave face, the Inspector turned to Cecil and the rest.

“Kids, we’re gonna have to treat this as an abduction case. You’ll all need to go home as soon as possible, for your own safety.”

Thoughtful as ever, Cecil ventured “But what could it be, sir? What do you think happened?”

“To tell you the truth, at this point, I’m not sure. It’s obvious that Sudha saw something, and decided that it might be worth leaving behind a clue; but it’s not obvious as to what happened. It may not be a human being, as you’ll notice, she didn’t ask the obvious ‘Who are you?’ She instead asked what it was. Until we gather more details, we’ll need to assume it was an ULO – Unidentified Land Object.”

The four felt dejected and scared. Sudha was not simply lost. She had been abducted by some – thing. Which possibly meant that Shiloh had been abducted too. Who would want to abduct these two? There was no connection between the two of them, apart from the fact that Shiloh’s brother was Sudha’s friend. Neither of them was rich, or had wealthy parents. There was no motive.

Finding Sudha’s mobile phone had confirmed a scary fact. The two whom they’d thought were missing, were truly gone. They had no way of finding them. Cecil sincerely hoped that his previous allusion of the police being knights was true. He really needed some damsel-saving heroes now.