It’s a long long day – While at Narayanpura

The most challenging part of a Spy’s job is that he never gets detailed information neatly printed on a paper in a file. All that a spy gets is just a skimp of information and his job starts on calculating the information, gathering the clues and then piling up an entire file of information based on that skimp. In short, a Spy always has to start his mission with a black cloth covering his eyes!

The only information I had got while I was driving back to Herangadi Bus Stop, to be on time as decided with Praveen, was our missing RAW Agent had left the bar in hurry after an heated argument with guy wearing green T-Shirt who had been stalking him since few days.

Something had definitely spooked him off from his scheduled meeting with Ram and he had left the bar in hurry but what was it? It either had to be a danger for the scheduled meeting or something that needed his attention in priority. In either ways he had left the bar and then instead of meeting Ram or updating him about anything, he had straight away headed towards Narayanpura. It had to powerful enough to drive him off from such an important meeting or it had to be that unsafe.

All the way till Herangadi Bus Stop I had been thinking if the guy in green T-Short was a kidnapper or was he someone who brought in some information to the agent. With one thought, my brain had heated lot more than the engine of the car. Finally I had decided to wait for Praveen and Ram’s inputs before jumping to any conclusion and more importantly the information from Narayanpura was much more important than what I had got. It was 3:20 when I reached the same spot where we had parted our ways and had decided to give a break to my brain and calm my nerves and had played songs. But not even the first song had complete when I saw the same white ambassador come out from that same small road into which it had disappeared 2 hours back. Switching off AC and the player, I got down from the car and walked towards the ambassador.

After another round of quick discussion, which not even lasted for more than five short minutes, I walked back to our car, started the engine as Praveen sat beside me and we started driving towards Narayanpura.

We were busy getting ourselves ready, both mentally and physically, for the next actions that we would be taking but still, like you readers now, I was unaware of what I was getting ready for and more importantly what had happened in Narayanpura and what information they had collected. The only thing that I had come to know in that small discussion of five minutes was there was something fishy going on in Narayanpura and we had to be on the lookout and had to be ready any time for any action required as per the conditions.

I too did not bother to put on any more questions on Praveen until we reached Narayanpura but I won’t let that suspense eat up your heads until we reach Narayanpura. So here is what had happened in Narayanpura while I was enjoying a bottle of beer in Honnavar, as told to me by Praveen on our way back to Bangalore the next day –

The coverid for both of them was perfect, Ram was a well known shopkeeper in Honnavar and Praveen would be his business partner. Ram would walk in with a business proposal to a local shopkeeper, whose information he had already gathered, and let him to talk into anything strange that had happened the previous night.

As they reached Narayanpura, a typical village of Western Ghats on the banks of Sharavathi river with not much houses and shops not more than three and one and only one restaurant which looked more like a hut than a well built restaurant building and a small government school, they directly drove to the shopkeeper that Ram had decided earlier.

Introducing themselves as shopkeepers and businessmen from Honnavar, interested in investing some money in local farming areas near the village, they approached a local shopkeeper. Within few minutes of their talk, Ram had already impressed the local shopkeeper with his ideas and his knowledge about local politics and how to benefit from them. Ram had given him a colorful picture of how the Sharavathi river irrigation projects and the nearest Gerusoppa Reservoir project would be giving a new life to the local farming around that area. Ram had made it clear that he and his business partner were interested in investing huge in buying local farmland but they needed a local support that would help them maintain the farming and the workers.

As the shopkeeper got into Ram’s business proposal so deep that he could not get out, Ram brought out the main topic, “Has there been any other business party that has come down here looking for this opportunity?” With that one question, Ram and Praveen had got the most important information they had been craving for. A new group had come down to the village to setup some Paper Mill around the village giving Gerusoppa Reservoir project as their main benefiting factor. They were a bunch of men who had come down, look around the village, purchased a house at the end of the village and had been staying there since two months but there had been no sign of any factory or any construction or any advancement in that area. The only thing the villagers had noticed was, they would go into forest in their jeep scouting the area, come back and stay unto themselves, use local boats sometime and very seldom get of the house. Though no one knew how many of them stayed, there were a bunch of them who kept to themselves and never mingled with the villagers. They owned a jeep and sometimes another jeep and only twice an ambassador had come. But never was there any contact between them and the villagers and since none of their activities looked suspicious no one doubted on them, in fact the whole village was anxious about the upcoming Paper Mill near their village and the job opportunities that would bring.

With this information it was clear that something was wrong and the next step would obviously be visiting the one and only restaurant in that village. Again Ram had used his hold on the local language and his communication skill to talk to the owner of the restaurant and had given him the same explanation and picture that he had given to the shopkeeper. Then he had said that he knew about another business party that had come to setup a Paper Mill in the nearby forest and they got their food supplied from this restaurant. With a small friendly talk and another business proposal, Ram had got more information out of the restaurant owner. The persons who stayed in the house used to get both lunch and dinner from the restaurant but it was never the same quantity. Always one person would come to pick up the food but he never talked much and even the restaurant owner said that they always kept themselves busy and never mingled with villagers.

As the time was ticking, Ram and Praveen couldn’t spend more time in the village waiting for some action or couldn’t even risk going near that house. Instead they had decided the collected information was worth confirming that this group and their recent activity in and out of the forest had to do something with the missing agent and pushing out for more information would only put their coverid’s in danger and might trigger a suspicion around the village.

Still nothing was clear and nothing was sure but this was all what a spy gets as a start in any of his mission. There were many questions to be answered, many suspicions to be cleared, many clues to be straightened, many blanks to be filled and one life to be saved but it still was a start of the mission and it was a long long day…

Come back next week to join us in Narayanpura as the action starts…

Vishal…

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