Kartik Khandelwal

I sat in front of my first suspect in that room filled with moist, fear and tension. “Oh, so, uh, what can you tell me about this The Eye of Suicide?” I asked.

“First, ask your companions to close the camera which is hung behind me.”

“Huh?” I asked for confirmation. “Really?” I thought, “Never would have I thought he’d ask for something like this.”

“You saying or not?” He asked.

“Oh, yeah, yeah,” I turned at the camera which was at the corner behind him and said, “Ahem!” I cleared my throat. “Uh, I suppose you’ve heard too what he’s said. Ple-Please adhere.”

“What? How can he--”

“He’s gone nuts?”

“What is he trying to do? What if Shahnawaz gets free and try to kill him?”

There was a wide commotion in the Security Room, from where some three or four men were watching what the two were talking about. They opposed it, but then I repeated, “I repeat, please adhere to his orders.” I was constantly looking at the camera. Suddenly, it’s red light which was present at one side turned off, meaning that the camera wasn’t working anymore. I sighed with happiness. Then, I told him, “So, it’s done. You can even check by--”

“I believe you, officer,” He replied. “I need not turn back.”

“Uh, okay,” I said. “So, what information can you provide?”

He sighed and turned his back forward. He kept his hands on the table and replied with his head down, “The Eye of Suicide has four divisions--Cornea, Retina, Iris, and Nerve. Every one of them functions differently. Once I ran away from this jail. I was so angry I killed something like two or three people with just a fork and ran away taking one of the jailers as a hostage. I asked for a car and ran away with the jailer. I later killed him and dumped his body.”

When he was telling his story, I thought, “Wait, I guess that man who took me here told me the same, but his version was short and didn’t include the major events.”

“So, I was out for like three to four months, when I somehow tried to contact Aatank-e-Khan in vain, but I later found out that our subsidiary, The Eye of Suicide, is now independent of us.”

“Wait, does it mean that TES was actually formed by Aatank-e-Khan?”

He rolled his eyes up at me and nodded. “Yes. It was formed because the leader of AeK wanted to fund in terrorism directly in Delhi, so they needed some kind of base and power here too.”

“Oh, continue.”

“As I said, TES has four sub-divisions, like I said. Cornea works to plan the murders and do all the post-murder tasks so that any type of information against TES won’t leak outside. Retina finds people willing to provide the killing contracts on a regular basis and has spies all over the city to make sure no information about the organization is floating outside. Retina is the group responsible for providing arms and ammo. It includes factory owners and arms-checkers that check and regulate arms in the organization. And Nerve, the most powerful division, is the actual one responsible for the murders.”

“It’s different. Everything in the organization is well-maintained to make sure nothing goes wrong,” I was impressed.

“They got an army or militia of over a thousand people, as you might have known, Inspector Khandelwal. Moreover, those people are skilled, and you can’t even think what a thousand skilled terrorists can do if they’re let loose.”

“The city…” He was right, and I looked at my laps with seriousness. “The city is under a great threat.”

“Sure it is, Mr. Khandelwal,” He said in his heavy voice. Then, he looked upwards and said, “And you know what, today, at quarter past six…” He looked upon me with his dark eyes which conveyed fear and his madness to it. “There will be the biggest… the greatest terrorist attack in Delhi.”

“Wh-What?” I muttered. “Really?”

“Yes, son,” Shahnawaz said seriously, “‘Cuz I swear my eyes.”

I stood up and asked again, with the chair pushed backward because of my knees. “Don’t play with me, ‘kay?”

“I’m ready to wait here if you think that.”

I was in fright. I had a sense that he was right. So, I stood up and dashed towards the gate passing him at great speed. “If it’s true, I needa tell the police in time to--”

I was running down the corridor with wind flowing towards me when suddenly, I saw two guys wearing a black hoodie and an eerie mask. They had rifles in their hands. They wore gloves and all so that no skin of their body is revealed. “W-Wh--” They pointed their guns at me.

“Hey! Hands up!” They commanded.

I was afraid now. My eyes were wide open in shock, fright and surprise. I was even sweating on my forehead. I held my trembling hands up and thought, “It-It’s going in the worst direction it could have ever gone.”

They walked towards me and one of them took out a hand-cuff. One of them held my hands tightly and moved them downwards towards my back. The other man put the handcuffs on them when the first one was complete. That man then pushed me towards a room just beside us while the other one opened its door. I was thrown inside like a sack. I fell on the ground and my nose was the first one to get hurt. “Aagh!” I screamed in pain. The two shut the door behind me and I lay there in the dark empty room.

But, I suddenly got to know it was not empty. After a minute of silence, someone said, “Psst! Mr. Khandelwal?”

The room was fully dark and I was unable to see a thing. I felt like I was blind. I asked, “Is there someone else too?”

“Yes, we all are here, sir.”