The diamond heist, p.1
The Diamond Heist, page 1
Notion Press
Old No. 38, New No. 6
McNichols Road, Chetpet
Chennai - 600 031
First Published by Notion Press 2017
Copyright © Sai Daksh 2017
All Rights Reserved.
ISBN 978-1-946869-15-9
This book has been published with all reasonable efforts taken to make the material error-free after the consent of the author. No part of this book shall be used, reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
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Illustrations by: Vijendra Kargudri
Contents
Chapter 1 | A Flight to Mumbai
Chapter 2 | Look Out for Clues
Chapter 3 | Some “New” Clues
Chapter 4 | ‘Checking in’ the Factory
Chapter 5 | Infiltration
Chapter 6 | Smoky Death
Chapter 7 | A Powerful Comeback
Chapter 8 | Reunion
Chapter 9 | A Little Bit of Investigation
Chapter 10 | Through the Vents
Chapter 11 | Mission Accomplished
Chapter 1
A Flight to Mumbai
The new recruits walked into the headquarters of the Indian Detective Agency (IDA) in Delhi. Daksh, Arsh, Garv, Om, Swarit, Aditi and Simran had had a tough time getting to this point.
Time for introductions and descriptions – Daksh was fourteen, and in grade nine. He was short and had a dark complexion with black hair and blood red eyes. Arsh was the shortest and had a fair-sandy complexion with dark brown hair and light brown eyes. Garv was the tallest in their group. He had a dark complexion with faded golden hair and dark brown eyes. He was slightly chubby and his belly was slightly protruding. Om was short and had a sandy complexion with dark brown hair and green eyes. Swarit was the most intelligent boy in the whole school. He was a little shorter than Garv but taller than the other boys. He had a fair complexion with light brown hair and shining brown eyes. Aditi was short and had a fair complexion with golden hair and blue eyes. She was an Anglo-Indian. Simran was as tall as Swarit and taller than Aditi. She had a shining fair complexion with black hair and black eyes. Most of them were fourteen and in grade nine except for Om who was thirteen and Swarit who was in grade ten owing to his exceptional intelligence. Normally, they were just seven school-going kids, who used to solve small neighbourhood cases such as Shikha auntie’s missing cat, the thief of uncle Suraj’s pancakes and many more lame cases like that. But, right after they discovered a gang of thieves’ hideout “accidentally,” the police had taken them into the secret agency of the Indian Government. When they entered the building, there were a lot of security checks and Om was caught trying to sneak in a gun. Anyway, it was cleared that the gun was just brought by Om to create the feeling of being a secret agent.
Oh! And the gun was just a toy!
“Look at the headquarters! It’s so big!” said Garv in wonder.
“Yeah! Kinda like your tummy Garv.” Arsh joked.
Indeed, the headquarters was big! People in coats and suits walked through the hall, finding their way to the respective rooms. Right across the entrance and security check up was the receptionist’s table. Three women dressed in suits were clarifying queries and setting appointments with the IDA members. There were files and folders scattered on the table with three computers placed next to each other. On either side of the receptionist’s table, there was a flight of stairs that led to the next floor. Just beside the stairs was a lift. There was a chandelier hanging from the ceiling which spelled out Indian Detective Agency.
“Just Shut up, Arsh! I have six pack abs. Can’t you see?” Garv countered.
“Oh yeah? Garv, those are not your abs. Those are the undigested biscuits which you ate six months ago,” said Swarit.
Garv punched Swarit angrily on the face. Daksh and Om burst out laughing.
“Did you just do that Garv? I can’t believe it!” Simran criticized Garv.
“Quit fighting, all of you!” Aditi shouted.
Everyone in the hall turned to them, not because of Aditi shouting at them, but owing to Daksh and Om, who were laughing so hard that they were lying on the floor now.
An angry Aditi stomped near Daksh and Om and gave both of them a powerful punch on their stomachs. “Ow!” Both of them screamed in pain.
“As I am our team’s leader, it is my job to ensure your discipline and welfare around public,” lectured Aditi.
“Seriously, who made you the leader?” murmured Om.
“I think someone in our team needs a long lecture about behaving,” Aditi countered. Om gave an obnoxious smirk to Aditi. Being the wisest, she ignored it and continued. “So where were we… Oh, yeah! Listen up everyone. Col Kapoor is calling us to the main mission room.”
“How do you know that?” Om questioned with another smirk.
“Because, doofus, Aditi received a call from Col. Kapoor yesterday saying the same thing,” Simran answered. That’s why Om did not like girls a lot, because they acted too smart sometimes.
Everyone got ready and walked behind Aditi to the mission room. All of them gave their expressions for the cool quotient of the mission room and sat on their respective seats. A man walked into the room. He was a middle-aged guy with a fair complexion. He was tall and was slightly fat. He wore a green suit with a mysterious tie with abnormal designs.
“Good morning, Agents!” He greeted the team.
“Good morning, sir!” They replied.
“Welcome to the Indian Detective Agency’s mission room. I am your boss, Col Kapoor. I have called you all for an emergency mission,” Col Kapoor said.
“So what’s the “EMERGENCY” mission?” asked Daksh, making quotes in the air.
“Your mission is about a diamond heist in Mumbai,” Colonel replied.
“So… Does that mean we all are going to Mumbai?” asked Swarit hesitantly.
Aditi and Simran stared at Swarit with unbelieving eyes. Aditi made reprimanding gestures to Swarit. Om noticed their signal communication and gave out a large sigh, like he always did when he was depressed. Whenever the girls acted bossy, he felt sorry for the person who was affected by them, in this case, it was Swarit. Colonel intercepted what was going on in the team and tried to finish off the meeting as fast as he could. He gestured to Garv, “Come here!”
He gave him a briefcase and asked him to open it. Arsh was bored and looked dull, but when Garv opened the briefcase, he suddenly got alert and looked at it with interest. By now, everyone in the room had stopped arguing and had pinned their eyes on the briefcase. Inside it, there were seven handguns. “Everyone pick up a gun and keep them with you,” ordered Col Kapoor. Everyone got up instantly and rushed to the briefcase. The agents were pretty excited about the guns because they had finished their shooting training just the previous week. Col Kapoor then handed out everyone their gun licenses and ID cards. Everyone popped them in their waist belts which they had worn specially for this purpose. “Those are not normal guns,” Col.Kapoor said. The agents stared at him with blank faces. “Once shot, they incapacitate your opponent for a week.”
After the meeting, everyone went home and packed their baggage for the Mumbai flight next day at 5:30 am. They did not need permission from their parents because they already knew about their kids’ involvement in the IDA. As instructed, they met in the Indira Gandhi International Airport and boarded their private flight together. On the flight, the butler showed the young agents around. When everyone got settled down, Aditi and Simran wanted to sort out some case files that Col. Kapoor had given them to arrange by order. “C’mon Aditi! Don’t be a chump like the boys. Let’s plop our stuff down and sort out some case files.” Simran said.
“Humph…. Who wants to sort out case files? I want to play my video games,” Arsh commented. Daksh and Om switched on their iPads and watched some videos on YouTube. Garv and Swarit started making a mini camera that could fit into anywhere.
“All aboard!” the pilot’s voice echoed through the plane. Soon, the plane took off. While the plane was flying, everyone was busy doing their own work. But no one noticed a strange helper on the flight who was looking too curious. The helper’s badge spelled out ‘Achintya Raman.’ Achintya slowly walked towards Simran, but none of them noticed him. He was acting like he wanted to put a juice bottle on the table. Anyway, Om was looking desperate; desperate for using the loo. He removed his headphones and went to the washroom. Rig
Chapter 2
Look Out for Clues
Rest of the plane trip was spent in silence. They landed in Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport at 7:30 am. The agents departed soon and took a cab to the hotel they were about to stay in – Radisson. They checked into Radisson and took the keys of their rooms from the receptionist. They had taken three rooms. The first for Aditi and Simran, the second for Daksh, Om and Swarit. The third for Garv and Arsh. All of them freshened up and had some fun in the hotel., sharp at 5 pm, they were in a cab to the museum.
“Guns, ID cards, tools and gadgets; everyone’s got them, right?” Aditi asked. Rest of them nodded in silence. After a while, they reached the museum. The owner of the museum herself came outside to escort the agents to the crime scene. She took them to the last section of the museum – The valuable stones section.
“Wow! Look at those beauties!” Om exclaimed in amazement. “You are talking about the jewels, right?” asked Daksh.
“No, the girls who are on the on the other side of the tape,” replied Om with some pesky laughs.
“Ha, Ha, very funny!” Swarit said with sarcasm. Om smirked at him. Simran made the ‘cut it out’ gesture to make the boys quiet. The hall was made of some type of marble-ish structure. It looked like a mixture of marble and quartz combined with some granite. It had quartz pillars from the beginning of the hall to the end of the hall, adjacent to each other. Many glass boxes were placed around the hall, each resting upon a stand. All of them had different jewels and precious stones in them. Daksh, Garv and Arsh spotted a Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Gold nugget, Silver ingot and other kinds of colourful and beautiful gems. There was one box in the middle and it was empty. Obviously, it had housed the diamond because it was the biggest in the hall. There was a police tape protecting some area around the glass box. The agents crept from under the tape and started examining the enclosed area for clues.
“Daksh and Om, rack your brains and try to estimate or predict what had happened here. Look around. Swarit and Simran, take a look at the box and try to locate fingerprints. And, last but not the least, Garv and Arsh find reasonable clues to prove Daksh and Om’s logic right,” ordered Aditi.
“On it!” all agents shouted together. Aditi went out of the tape and started questioning the owner and the employees present there. Daksh and Om were really confused. The lid of the box was closed, no windows were open and Swarit and Simran told them that there were no fingerprints or footsteps in the enclosed area. Even though the police had checked the scene already, and had failed, the agents also could not figure out what was going on there.
“Did you check the roof for rope tracings?” Garv asked.
“Nah. But if you say, I can check it now.” Daksh replied.
“Never mind, we checked it in the beginning of the investigation.” Arsh answered.
“Come here, guys!” exclaimed Simran.
“We got some prints!” Daksh, Om, Garv and Arsh rushed to the place where Swarit and Simran were kneeling down. “Gosh! Both of you look like you have spotted something peculiar.” Om commented.
Simran was feeling uncomfortable with her gun in her waist belt because it was troubling her in the investigation. Whenever she kneeled down or sat on the floor for getting tracings, the gun’s end would poke her thigh. She removed the gun and handed it out to Om. “Yes. You are right, Om. We have spotted some blood stains under this Sapphire exhibit,” said Swarit.
“Blood stains? Who would leave blood stains in a museum like this?” asked Garv.
“See, that’s what we’re trying to figure out.” Simran replied. Now, the guys were really confused.
“C’mon Om! Use that unused brain of yours and do something,” Garv shouted.
“Garv, stop going bananas. We all are trying to do something, Okay?” Daksh said.
“I’m going out to get some fresh air, while you all use those dumb heads of yours to solve the case!” After saying this, Garv stormed out of the hall.
“He is probably going to eat something,” Arsh mentioned.
“Wait… I’m also coming!” Arsh said and followed Garv out.
“Aggressive?” Om asked.
Daksh shrugged as if to say “Don’t know man!”
Outside the museum, Arsh was going nuts trying to calm Garv down. Right when Arsh was about to give Garv a piece of his mind, some thugs swung into action. Garv pulled Arsh towards some crates kept on the kerb.
“Go, take cover!” Garv shouted.
Arsh took cover behind a trash can.
Both of them reloaded their guns and started a gunfight right away. The people who were around them went berserk and ran away from the area. Some of them even watched the gunfight from far away. Garv was so occupied at that time that he did not notice a thug sneaking towards him. Meanwhile Arsh had sent an SOS alert to Daksh about the gunfight.
“Get ready for some action!” shouted a voice from above. Of course, it was Daksh, but not alone. Om, Aditi and Simran were gliding down from the top of the museum with him. Om landed on the thug. The thug was as surprised as Garv and Arsh, but not for long. That was because Daksh smacked him right away on the head with a crowbar he had brought along from the museum.
“Gotcha!” Daksh shouted.
Om gave Daksh a high five.
“Come on, everyone, get cover!” Aditi ordered.
“Pass me my gun, Idiot!” Simran scolded Om.
“Whoa… Whoa, take it easy! Here, catch.” Om threw the gun to her.
The agents were advancing quickly to the last line of thugs. Right at the last ones, the agents ran out of ammo.
“Arsh! Where is the extra ammo you packed?” Aditi shrieked. “What… What ammo?” Arsh asked.
“Dude, seriously?” Daksh asked. Arsh shrugged. The thugs smiled. But right out of the blue, Swarit arose from the shadows and smacked the heads of two thugs together with the help of some rods he had found near the construction site beside him. He walked forward and shot the rest of them.
“Dude! You are so cool!” the agents shouted and swarmed around Swarit, celebrating their victory.
Chapter 3
Some “New” Clues
While everyone was recovering from the quick fight and celebrating the victory, Simran’s eyes were fixed in a different direction. Even Aditi was dancing around with the boys. After a while, it was so tempting for Simran that she could not resist. She went forward and picked it up. It was an information chip. It had probably fallen from one of the thugs’ pockets in the gunfight. For that instance, everyone stared at her as if she were Einstein or something. Even Aditi was impressed, but Swarit seemed a little bit worried. He grabbed the chip at once like a cat grabbing a ball. He examined the chip like a dog smelling a bone.
“Not good!” He complained.
“It’s too good!” He exclaimed. “If we perform a proper test on this chip, we can almost solve the case.”
Swarit asked Arsh to go and get the laptop kept in the cab. Arsh nodded and rushed towards the cab. He opened the door and made the mistake of trying to scan the chip right in the cab. The cab driver had been staring at him all the time, and just when he had inserted the chip, the driver gave an evil smile and pushed him out of the car. Unfortunately, the cab ran over Arsh’s leg.
