Navalika: Moon Island

Narendra Trivedi

Famous spy Amish Gupta was reading a paper in his office. Suddenly his attention was drawn to a travel advertisement. The advertisement read a five-day trip to a beautiful island at a discount rate for the wealthy, with only transportation charges, free accommodation in state-of-the-art hotels, all services free, for only twenty-five people. Bookings will be made on a first-come, first-served basis. Booking has to be done in person and all original documents for identification have to be provided. There was no other specificity in the advertisement but three things caught Guptaji's attention. One was a trip only for the rich. Second, there was no charge except for transportation, everything was free. And the third thing was that all the documents for identification had to be given in original. Guptaji called his assistants Ajay and Mitul, talked about the advertisement and asked them to go in person and gather information. The information that Ajay and Mitul brought was thought provoking. Like, the name of the island was not mentioned for the surprise. People whose property was more than twenty five crores were given priority. The tour was to be managed by a foreign company whose name was also kept secret. A five-day tour was to have all the facilities that the customer wanted. The tour was for men and women only. It did not include children. So far twenty people have been registered. Guptaji said, “Ajay, the information is interesting. Let the three of us join the tour.' “Boss, how much property do we have? You join, we will take care of this.' “You start preparing for the journey. Collect all the spy tools. All three of us have to go. I will go out of my way to book. I sense something untoward happening.' 'Thank you all for joining us on our Unknown Island tour. I am Raman, and these four are my companions. There are thirty of us in all, twenty-five of you tourists and five of us.' “Where are we going on the unknown island?'' “Our boss will inform you about that after a while.'' “Give us back our original documents if our identification process is completed.'' No answer. “Friends, welcome to my little private plane. We are going to 'Moon Island' in the China Sea. Your documents will be returned after the tour is over.' “Who are you? Where do you speak from? Come and talk to us. We don't want to join the tour. We have to go back.' “Who I am will be known later. I am talking from a distance. There is no need for me to come before you. You have joined the tour voluntarily. The tour will be done only when I finish.' Twenty tourists were worried that what will happen now? Guptaji, Ajay and Mitul's eyes met as if saying that we are on the right mission! Guptaji gave the other two a faint smile with his eyes as thanks for joining the tour. “Every tourist is given a necessary notice that soon your plane will land on Moon Island. You must use Moon Island's messaging system for messaging. Your gazettes will not run there. You don't have to ask or talk to anyone else there. Each of you will be given an individual room. You will also get necessary instructions in the room. How long you will have to stay on Moon Island depends on your behavior and the implementation of my instructions.' There was a C-shaped building on Moon Island. There were twenty-five rooms in a C shape. Luckily, Guptaji, Ajay and Mitul and two other tourists came to the space between the rooms from where the whole building could be observed. “Ajay, Mitul, do you understand the game? Looks like someone is planning a deep game. We keep in touch with each other with our spy equipment, but what happens to the other twenty-two tourists?' “Boss, the two tourists in our room line look different from the other twenty tourists.'' Guptaji did not reply. “Ajay I think we should send a message to all of them without being public or agreeing on anything, because so far we seem to have been taken for a ride. For three days we are visiting the island, having fun and everyone has a choice of food, every demand is catered for.' “Boss, but how will we deliver the message? We are not allowed to talk inside.' “The doors of every room are opened and closed with a sensor, so there must be enough space for a piece of paper in the space below the closing of the door. We will use it.' “It's a good idea, boss, then make it a message. Me and Mitul will deliver all the chabarkhi.'Twenty-two people found a small note which read: “We seem to be here for a walk, but an unknown person seems to be managing it. Do not succumb to any pressure. We will fight together. Destroy the note.' After reading the note, twenty people were convinced that it was true. Who among us will give this instruction? The other two persons who were in the room next to Guptaji remained unmoved. After three days, the boss called everyone in a room and discussed over the phone that he should give the news at home that we are still Khemkushal and if you want to see Khemkushal, do what we say. I will give the rest of the instructions tomorrow as to what to do at your house. Guptaji, Ajay and Mitul understood that the same instruction given to them would have been given to the rest. Now is the time to take action. Guptaji, Ajay and Mitul made a plan. During the plane journey, Guptaji took the details of his home phone number and contact person's name, address etc. from the other tourist. A cryptic message was sent to each tourist's home to keep in touch with us and the local police authority. We people have fallen victim to someone's conspiracy but we will soon come out of it. All were again given a message by letter that “Now if you call to talk on the phone, say that we want to talk to you here in person and not on the phone; Saying that, no matter what happens, I will not go to talk.' As decided, not everyone went to talk to the unknown person and continued to insist on calling anyone here in person. “The boss's message is that if you don't want to talk in person, the boss will talk to you in a conference room, not in person, but on the phone.'' The eyes of Guptaji, Ajay, Mitul and two others met, let's take the first step. “Hello, do you hear me? If you are listening, then why not take the instruction to speak to me personally? This you people have done very wrong for which you will all have to bear the punishment.' “Hello, Mr. Unknown, now listen to what you want; We do not listen to your instructions. You, if you dare, come and talk face to face, not on the phone.' “Who are you to threaten me? You don't know me yet.' “So listen, I am SP. I am Gaekwad. My DY with me. SP. It is Dwivedi and further listen the famous spy Guptaji whose name you are familiar with is present here along with his two assistants Ajay and Mitul. Say now what more information do you want and I also know who you are.' “You people have stepped forward and put your hand in the belly of the lion, you will not come back alive from here.'' “We have taken all your men hostage here. If you want to launch an aerial attack on us, do that too.' Saying this, Gaekwad Sahib instructed that all the planes and helicopters coming to attack the island should be blown up… After a while, the sky started to rumble, all the remaining planes and helicopters went back. “You consider yourself very clever. You can hold these rich captives on the Moon Island of China Sea and demand as much ransom as you think; So look behind you 'Mr Gomes the international kidnapper' Interpol officers are out to arrest you. I got your location the first time you spoke to me on the phone. Second, you made a big mistake in giving that advertisement and the information of that advertisement caught you.' “Mr Gaikwadsaheb I am Officer Smith of Interpol Thank you and your team very much for helping us apprehend Gomes.'' Gaikwadsaheb said, “Friends, you are rich. If you can spend as much money as you like, then what's the point of this free tour? Also to go to an unknown island without a name. If Guptaji had not come to me with this advertisement, think what would have happened to you. We joined this tour only to save you by doing complete planning. What we suspected came true. We also knew that Gomes was behind the whole conspiracy. But he was managing from outside. It was difficult to get caught here, so Interpol's help was sought to catch him and Gomes was caught. SP.Saheb we took the step without really thinking, thinking that we will have all kinds of fun on an unknown island for free. We thank you, Dwivedisaheb, Guptaji, Ajay and Mitul. All smiles returned after completing the tour to the unknown Moon Island in AirIndia's charter plane…. }