Thriller The ultimate choice 58

 Episode 58

Rajan had the bitter experience of taking a forceful slap from Rod. At that time, he thought that Rod was the most powerful man on the earth. But after receiving the tiger's slap, Rajan realized that the tiger was at least twice as powerful as Rod. A big chunk of flesh got torn as a result of that slap. The pain became unbearable, but Rajan had enough experience of absorbing pain in the recent time. Rajan knew that he would not die due to bloodshed, but he would surely if the tiger managed to choke his neck with his powerful teeth, and that was exactly what Raja wanted to do.

But, Rajan as a desperate measure held the shoulders of the tiger with his arms. Raja got extremely irritated by that move. There was a tussle between the man and the beast. It didn't take much time for Raja to overpower Rajan. He got rid of Rajan's hold, and again jumped on him. This time injured Rajan was not in a position to prevent him. Rajan remembered his revered God Lord Shiva for the last time, and closed his eyes totally surrendering himself to his fate.

"Hey you! Fight with me."

The tiger's hope of killing his prey without any hassles was rudely shattered by a massive kick on his rib cage. The impact of the kick was good enough to throw the tiger 3 feet away from Rajan.

"Rajan Anna, don't waste any time! Climb to the other side. I am holding it back."

Siddharth appeared at the scene at the last moment like an angel. The tiger's claws and teeth had made some serious incisions on Rajan's body, and he was bleeding profusely, not to mention the suffering of excruciating pain. But, when the death comes to your doorstep, you don't pay attention to anything except saving your life. Rajan was sure that Lord Shiva had sent Siddharth at the crunch moment to save him. So, he could not let this godsend opportunity go because of pain. He thanked Siddharth, and somehow garnered enough strength to climb onto the lattice wall.

While Rajan was escaping to the other end, the situation was getting extremely murkier between Siddharth and Raja. From the 50-meter distance Archana couldn't understand who was having an upper hand, as both of them were rolling on the ground. Siddharth held the neck of the tiger forcefully trying to choke it, and the tiger was constantly slapping Siddharth with his paws. As a lot of of pressure was put on his neck by the powerful bloke Siddharth, the tiger was unable to bring full power to his slaps.

The tiger might not have applied full power to his blows, but they were good enough to tear Siddharth's flesh. The soil was drenched with Siddharth's blood. Siddharth was applying full pressure on the tiger's neck to kill it, but Raja being a healthy male tiger, the girth of the neck was too large to choke it to death. Siddharth understood that if he bled at this rate, he would not last long. So, he gave up the hope of killing the tiger, and as a desperate measure he released his grip on the neck of the animal only to poke his fingers on both eyes of the tiger.

This desperate effort had worked magically. The tiger rolled backwards making growls of pain. This gave Siddharth a great opportunity to escape. Even though, he was sapped of all his energy, and he bled profusely, his animal instincts to survive prevailed on his lifeless body. It was a simple miracle that he could climb up the steel lattice wall, and reach the other end. The injured, hungry tiger, too, was sapped of his energy. He didn't move an inch and lay on the ground making it easier for Siddharth to escape.

Siddharth had never been a religious person in his entire life, or for that matter he didn't have any faith in God. He believed in the concept of good work. But today, when he dropped his lifeless body on the other side from a height of 10 feet, he himself was amazed to realise that he had made it.

Archana was praying to the God, and when Siddharth made it to her side, she simply cried loudly thanking the God. Rajan, who had made it 5-minute earlier to this side was eagerly waiting to see wnat happened on the other side. His heart wanted to pray for Siddharth, but his brain wanted him to be killed.

He thanked Siddharth from the bottom of his heart for saving him from the jaws of death, but he prayed to the God for Siddharth's death. Because, he was a married man having the  responsibility of his family, while Siddharth had no family. If Siddharth died, it would not matter to anybody. But if died, his enire family would be ruined. Therefore, he was watching the life-and-death fight between the tiger and Siddharth. He was extremely disappointed when the 80 kg, almost lifeless body of Siddharth dropped on this side.

As soon as Siddharth's body dropped on Archana's side, Ranjan announced via his microphone

"Your 3-minute time starts now Archana."

Archana's worst fear had become true. This was the scenario she didn't want to see happen. But, she didn't know what to do now. Since she could not kill the tiger, as per the rules of this event, she had to kill one of the two men now.

Both Rajan and Siddharth were bleeding profusely. Rajan's injury seemed to be lesser. When the final event started, both the men were wearing tracksuits; Rajan wore yellow coloured long-sleeved jacket and a matching pant, while the colour of Siddharth's tracksuit was blue. But after the assaults by Raja, both men's dresses were torn into several pieces. Rajan ripped the remaining dresses and tied it on the places of injury in order to stop the flow of blood. He was now wearing only his underpants.

Siddharth could not do the same. Because of the more intense fight with the tiger and his constant blows on his various body parts, Siddharth's dresses were alteady torn apart. He, too, was only in his underpants. Besides, he didn't have much energy left in his body. He was lying near the lattice wall like a vegetable. His occasional pitiful groans made sure to everybody that he hadn't died.

As a shooter, it was easier for Archana to shoot Siddharth's motionless body, which was around 70 meter away from her. 70 meter, because he went to the side of the ground to save Rajan who had run diagonally. On the otherhand, Rajan, too, was standing at place near the lattice wall. The distance was around 55 meter, because he was near the centre.

But Archana didn't know whom to shoot, because both of them were her near ones. It was true that she got estranged from Rajan due to his neglect and indifference towards her. At one point of time, she even thought of committing suicide to end the meaningless relationship. At that point, Siddharth came to her life like an angel. He gave her a new meaning of life. They became close, and they decided to flee to live with each other.

While Archana was thinking all these, Ranjan announced via his microphone, 

"Your one minute is over Archana. If you don't shoot in the next minute, one of our sharpshooters will shoot you in the leg."

This announcement had alerted Archana. She had to act. But still she could not decide whom to shoot. Her attitude towards Rajan took a dramatic change after coming to this horrific place. In her first task in the hell house, she had to beat Rajan mercilessly. This incident had caused a change in her heart. She began to love Rajan again. During the torturous treatment she received here, thinking about Rajan and her children gave her the necessary motivation to carry on. Besides, how could she think of killing her own husband?

She also thought of the other option of not shooting at all. In that case, all three would die, and if she missed intentionally, she would be killed. She thought of that situation hard. Would her children be able to live without her? What would happen if Rajan decided to remarry? Would the new mother look after well her children? She closed her eyes. Suddenly, the faces of her children appeared in front of her. They were saying, "Mom when will you meet us?"

This had jarred her mind vigorously, and she quickly opened her closed eyes. She decided that she had to live. She had to live for her children. But still she didn't know whom to shoot?

Boom! The Joker was indeed a man of his words, Rajan thought. A sniper shot Archana as a warning. The bullet hit her in her left thigh, and almost knocked her off the tower. Her gun fell on the floor, and she had to hold the rim of the tower to avoid falling. The bullet injury was severe, and blood came out from her thigh like a river. Though she was not scared of shedding blood or afraid of pain, the main problem was she could no longer stand on her feet.

Ranjan announced, "The last minute has started. If you don't shoot, all of you will be dead."

Rajan got panicked. He didn't want to lose her wife. He came towards Archana and shouted,

"Don't waste time Archana. Shoot Siddharth. He is almost dead, end his agony."

But, Rajan didn't look at Siddharth or for that matter Archana did. Both of them were startled to see that Siddharth was on his feet, and he came very near to Rajan, who was about 20 meter from Archana.

"How did you come here?" Rajan seemed to have seen a ghost.

"Don't worry Rajan Anna, I have come near you to help you." Siddharth said.

Archana was struggling to stand, as the pain was too much to ignore. Watching her predicament, Siddharth shouted,

"Don't try to stand Archana. Lay down in prostrate and aim from that position. I am coming near you. Kill me. Don't think! Just Kill me."

Indeed Siddharth came closer to the tower, while Archana took position in prostrate.

Rajan was very happy to see this development. He goaded Archana,

"There is hardly 20 seconds left Archana. Pull the trigger and kill him. Kill him. Kill him."

Rajan's words sounded similar to the urging that she had heard in her bizarre dream in the underground room a few days back. In that dream, the Joker's team members surrounding Archana were hysterically telling her, "Kill him or get killed."

Archana's head started to spin. The Joker had told her to aim at the head of her target. Now, both the men were at a very close distance from her. Anxious Rajan was counting seconds and goading Archana to shoot.

"Only 10 seconds left Archu! Now or never!" Rajan became frantic. Siddharth was again lying on the ground, as he had no energy left in his body. It was indeed a miracle that he came so close with his lifeless body. Archana closed her eyes once more to say a prayer to the God. When she opened her eyes, there was hardly 5 second left in the clock.

Boom! She made her ultimate choice, and she shot her target with utmost precision. The bullet penetrated the head, killing her target instantly. Everyone present in the crowd cheered loudly. Even Ranjan announced over his microphone,

"Bravo! What a shot, and what an ultimate choice!"

But, Archana lost her consciousness, and she fell on the floor.

Since then she had lost her mental balance. Killing her own husband gave her such a rude shock that she could never overcome. The Joker's men cremated the dead body of Rajan in Hindu ritual. This was done as per the earnest request of Ranjan, who even cried secretly on his friend's death. Siddharth was immediately taken to the hospital. But, he lost one of his legs due to severe injury.

                                   ______________________ End ____________________

Thriller The ultimate choice 57

 Episode  57

The apprehension of the last scenario becoming real was cluttering Archana's mind with chilling sensations. She was constantly praying to the God, and telling herself that she had to kill the tiger in her first five shots. In the last minute, she started warming up to prepare herself to climb the wooden stairs. She estimated that she had to climb 2 to 3 stairs at a time to reach the top quickly.

On the opposite end of the field were waiting Rajan and Siddharth. After warming up for a while, they had taken their respective positions to run. The Joker had provided them with starting blocks. They placed their feet there in set position. The two participants were placed at a distance of 20 meter apart on each side from the centre point of the baseline. The cage of the tiger was placed at the centre point. It would be opened after the first participant passed the 20 meter mark. The 20-meter mark was drawn on the field with white colour.

Looking at the body language of the tiger, it appeared to Rajan that the tiger must have been trained to hunt his prey in this manner. Otherwise, wild tigers are shy animals, and they always hunt stealthily. Rajan was praying hard to the God for not letting the tiger to choose him as his prey. Rajan thought Siddharth was younger than him, and he could sprint harder to beat the tiger in the race. So, Rajan thought if somehow the tiger didn't choose him, and once he crossed to the other end, he had a chance to survive.

Of course, Rajan would have loved to see all of them emerging as survivors, but Rajan had no faith in Archana's shooting abilities. Actually, he could not believe his ears when the Joker was spelling out the stipulations of this game.

From the body language of Siddharth, it didn't appear that he was thinking too much. His face showed no tension or no emotion.

Ranjan's voice could be heard via a microphone,

"Candidates, ready, set," and after waiting for a second, he fired a pistol shot in air.

Everything happened very quickly after that. Rajan and Siddharth ran as fast as they could for their lives. Siddharth was slightly, about 1 meter, ahead in crossing the 20 meter mark, when the 2-days hungry tiger was unleashed from the cage.

Rajan was on the right side of the tiger, while Siddharth was on its left. The tiger took 2 seconds to choose his prey, giving both the men 10 more meter of advantage. Siddharth was running straight, but Rajan ran slantwise to make more distance from the tiger after crossing the 20-meter mark.

This dilemma of the tiger gave Archana some precious moments to climb on to the top of the tower. But, she had to take the gun from the floor and unlock the safety catch. It was a similar type of gun with which she had practiced in the last couple of days. She looked at the other end to see what was happening.

Even though Rajan ran slantingly to make a longer gap between him and the tiger, the tiger, Raja, preferred chasing the shorter, slower and fatter Rajan. He started running towards Rajan at such a brisk speed that made Archana totally puzzled. She was not prepared for hitting targets having such a brisk speed. The tower where Archana was standing was placed at the middle of that side's baseline. Had Rajan ran straight like Siddharth, it would have been easier for Archana to shoot the tiger. But for whoever's sake, Archana didn't understand, Rajan was trying to run towards the corner of the lattice wall.

Archana knew there was not much of time, and she had to act. She had been trained how to time and direct her shots in order to hit moving targets. As Archana practiced with a similar type of heavy long range gun, she didn't hesitate any more and pulled the trigger targeting the rib cage of the tiger. Raja was not prepared for this assault, and he couldn't react. But, to his good luck and Archana's agony, the first shot missed the target by at least 1 meter.

The tiger stopped for few moments, and tried to understand where the shot came from. Had it been a wild tiger, it would have definitely fled. But from the reaction, it was evident that Raja, too, had been trained by the Joker's team for this life-and-death drama, and the Joker must have told a lie that he was made hungry for only 2 days. Archana estimated that the tiger hadn't eaten anything for at least 7 days.

Without wasting any time Archana, shot the static tiger. Archana was more comfortable at hitting static targets, but to her utter dismay the tiger jumped forward as soon as Archana shot. This time Archana's shot was on the money, but as the tiger had moved afer hearing the gun shot, she missed her target for the second time.

The tiger didn't waste any more time, and it increased its speed tremendously to come within a jumping range of 8 meter of Rajan. Now, the lattice wall came in between the tiger and Archana. Siddharth had reached the wall, but he didn't climb it. He was looking at Rajan and the tiger.

It was true that the trainers had imparted good training to Rajan on both high jumps and long jumps. Rajan wanted to make a jump to reach the lattice wall, but the tiger's roar from such a close distance had a severe panick attack on him. Suddenly, he found that his legs were paralysed. When he looked back at the tawny eyes of the tiger, he was almost hypnotized.

Meanwhile, Archana fired two more shots to the tiger. But, the luck was not favouring her, as both the bullets hit the steel portion of the lattice wall. Archana was left with only one shot, and she searched for a perfect opportunity to kill the tiger.

Watching his dumbfounded prey with numb legs, Raja jumped on him with glee. Archana knew that this was her last chance to kill the tiger before he killed Rajan. Making a silent prayer to the God, she fired her 5th bullet to the jumping tiger. She didn't know whether her prayer worked or not, but the lattice wall didn't come as hindrance this time. 

Rajan had lost all hope. Not only his legs became numb, but also his mind was not working. He had never seen such a ferocious animal prowling on him from such a close range. The tiger  jumped on the hapless Rajan, but Archana's 5th and the final shot allowed for killing the tiger had a dramatic effect on both Rajan and the tiger.

The shot hit the left hind leg of the tiger, and the impact of the bullet made him miss his target  partially. Raja's paw missed Ranjan's back, but just scratched it. But, Rajan got back to his sense immediately. He observed that the bullet had made a serious injury to Raja's left leg. Blood was gushing out of the injury, and Raja made growling of severe distress.

Siddharth could have easily reached the other end. But, he was waiting for Rajan. Watching the injured tiger Siddharth shouted,

"Don't waste any time, Rajan Anna. It will pounce back with more vigour. Climb the lattice wall."

Indeed, Rajan got slighty relaxed watching the injured tiger lying on the ground. Siddharth's words made sense to him, and he started climbing the lattice wall turning his back towards the tiger. But, Raja had not eaten anything thing for more than a week. He was in no mood to let his prey escape so easily, and who doesn't know that an injured predator is more dangerous than a normal one? Despite the injury, Raja recoiled himself and jumped on Rajan who could climb just 8 feet on the lattice wall.

Due to his injured leg, the paw could not severely injure Rajan, but it made sure that Rajan fell on the ground. Rajan didn't expect this as his face was turned away from the tiger. He was again startled to see the tiger in front of him. The tiger again growled before forcefully hitting Rajan on his shoulder with his right paw. Even though Rajan was alert this time, he could not evade the blow.

To be continued on today night

Thriller The ultimate choice 56

 Episode 56

If she doesn't shoot any one of you, our sharp shooters will fire a shot at one of her legs after 2 minutes as a sign of warning. If she doesn't shoot despite that, all three of you will be killed by our sharp shooters, and if she shoots but fails to kill any of you, our sharp shooters will kill her. Rajan and Siddharth will emerge as survivors in that case. How's that? Ain't it fair and funny?"

The Joker paused for a moment to see the reactions of the participants. There could not be any more crooked definition of fairness, Siddharth thought. Archana had already started to weep, thinking about the last three scenarios. She prayed hard to the God for making the first scenario successful. But, she knew that her task was cut out, because she was not given the opportunity to practice of hitting targets from a height, let alone killing animals with gun shots.

It was true that the Joker's team had provided her heavy long range guns to practice at moving targets for the last two days. They taught her how to aim at moving objects. For practicing purpose, they threw balloons in air, and Archana had to target those. The distance was around 50 meter or so.

After two days of hard work, Archana achieved accuracy up to 40%. But, even a child can understand that hitting a slow-moving upward balloon from ground and killing a fast moving  tiger from up is not the same. This arrangement didn't look fair to Archana. Before she was going to complain, the Joker said,

"Archana you might be thinking that you didn't get a fair deal; the job assigned to you is too difficult. Well, that's not the case dear. You are hitting 4 out 10 at a distance of 50 meter or so. 4 out 10 means 2 out of 5. That means you should kill two tigers in 5 shots. But you have got only 1.

And, I must tell you Archana, you have no worries about killing the animal. If you hit the vital body parts of the animal with your .45-caliber bullet, it's going to die then and there. Try to target the head.

You might say that the distance of your target is longer than what you had practiced, or you might crib because you have to shoot from a height. Well, when you appear for a tough entrance examination, do you get common questions? No, most of the questions are uncommon in those exams. If you know the basic concept, you can always improvise. As a matter of fact, shooting from top is easier to target. Maybe your first couple of shots will go haywire, but from the third shot you can always adjust.

So, Archana we haven't done injustice to you or for that matter to Raja. Raja, too, has been trained in MP how to evade bullets. So, don't think that killing him is going to be a cakewalk.

I am done with explaining the rules for the final. If you have any questions, you may ask now." The Joker looked at Archana.

"Why do I have to climb the tower? Why can't I be present on the top from the beginning?"

Archana asked, because it would have given her more time to aim at the tiger. Also, the more the tiger came towards the 16-feet tall lattice wall, it would become more difficult for her to hit it because of the steel lattice wall.

"When Rajan and Siddharth will start running towards the wall, you will start climbing up the stairs. The tiger will be let loose after 3 seconds, assuming that Rajan and Siddharth will cover 20 meter in those 3 seconds. You will try to reach the top in that time to have a good aim at the tiger from the baseline of the other side, which will be 100 meter away from you.

In case you are late by few seconds, it doesn't matter as you can even target the tiger through the lattice wall. Everything about this game depends on luck. If your luck favours you, you will be able to hit the tiger through the gaps of the lattice wall, as each gap of the lattice is around 30 square centimetres, enough for a bullet to pass. However, if the great Satan doesn't favour you, that will be a different prospect. You will miss your target even from a 20 meter distance. Now, Rajan do you have any question?" 

The Joker pointed towards Rajan. Rajan was thinking about the speed of the tiger. He said,

"Dear Joker Sir, why don't you give us at least 30 meter advantage from the tiger? Because, my estimate is that the tiger will catch up when we will be around 30 meters distance from the baseline if we get only 20 meter gap."

The Joker nodded his head in agreement with Rajan and said,

"Yes Rajan, you have a valid point. But why will you run straight? Haven't you seen the video of the impala? Don't you remember how it ran? You will have to run like it; twisting, turning, leaping and bounding. Both of you have been trained well to do these manoeuvres. And yes, we have to give the tiger a fair chance to hunt also. That's the reason for this stipulation. Now, Siddharth do you have any question?"

The Joker looked at Siddharth. Siddharth said,

"Dear Joker, please stop this circus. If you are so much worried about your hungry tiger, and if you want to see one of us dead, I am ready to offer myself to the tiger. Let there be a fight between the tiger and me. If he wins, he will eat me. But, if I win, you will have to free all of us. Are you game?"

As soon as Siddharth posed the question, there were clanking sounds of unlocking of safety catches, and all the ten guards pointed their guns towards him.

The Joker raised his hands, and the guards lowered their guns. The Joker said,

"By now you should have known Siddharth that insubordination here means death. You have taken a lot of pain and you have suffered a lot to reach here. Don't be foolish to think that you can save the lives of Archana and Rajan by sacrificing your life. If we see any such attempt like you offering yourself to the tiger, the other two will be killed along with you. So, let the competition take its natural course, and let the great Satan decide the winner. Do you get it?"

The Joker's voice sounded like thunder.

After spending around 3 months in this despicable hell, Siddharth knew very well what the Joker meant.

The Joker said,

"Enough of talking folks! Let's move to the action arena."

It was 9-50 AM, and 5 cars were used to take the participants and other people to the action area. Indeed the playing field looked completely different. Archana had read about the ancient Roman amphitheatre. She thought had there been sitting places, the ground could have been called an amphitheatre.

Archana noted that at least 10 cameramen were present on temporary towers erected at different places and 5 drones with cameras were flying in the sky. The sides of the playing field were surrounded by 20-feet tall steel lattice walls, making it sure that no one could escape from there.

They reached the ground at 9-55 AM. Before sending each contestant to his or her place, the Joker said,

"You will get 3 to 5 minutes before the competition starts. Try to concentrate and focus on your job. I hope the last situation doesn't arise. But, if it arises, it will be Archana's ultimate choice to decide the survivor. Best of luck folks! Let's have fun!"

The dignitaries went to their seats situated on different towers constructed on the perimeter of the ground, and the candidates went to their respective places.

                              _________________________________________________________

Archana was instructed to stand near the base of the tower on one side of the field. The Joker had announced that sharp at 10, a pistol shot would be fired by Ranjan, and the competitors would have to jump into action. After watching Siddharth's clips, Archana was confident that he would be able to come to this side. But, she was extremely worried about Rajan. She hadn't have a chance to watch Rajan's progress in physical fitness here. The old picture of unfit Rajan was still vivid in her mind.  

To be continued on tomorrow night 

Thriller The ultimate choice 55

 Episode 55

"What about the preparation of the candidates, Ranjan?" The Joker seemed to have ignored the question completely.

"Very good, Sir! These two days have been like goldmine for trainers like us. Archana can now hit moving objects with almost 40% accuracy. Ranjan and Siddharth have also done very well in sprinting, long hump and high jump. I am sure the final event is going to be a superhit."

"You know the plan Ranjan!?" Nigella whined again.

"Oh no Nigella, I don't know. Joker Sir hasn't revealed the plan to anybody yet."

"Friends, the final programme will start at 10 AM tomorrow. Hold your breath till then and let it be a surprise to everyone." The Joker announced.

                      ____________________________________________________________

It was 17th March 9-30 AM in the morning; the D-day for the trio had finally arrived. Due to yesterday's Nor'wester, the weather was very pleasant. There were few scattered white clouds in the blue sky, while the sun was blazing brightly. The breeze was very mild.

Before the beginning of the grand final, the Joker met all the contestants in the open ground floor of the 10-storeyed building. This time he was surrounded by 10 guards armed with the most sophisticated lethal weapons. As usual, Nigella was standing beside the Joker holding his wheel-chair.

Rajan, Siddharth and Archana were standing in front of the Joker. The trio were not allowed to speak, but form their body language it appeared to everyone that they were dying to interact with each other. They got very emotional being so close to each other after so many days.

"No need to be emotional folks! This is not the place and definitely not the time. Because all three of you are standing at the jaws of death." The Joker warned them.

"But you said we have a chance of surviving." Rajan blurted.

"Stop, you idiot! When the Joker Sir is speaking don't interrupt. You will speak only when you are asked to do so."

A masked guard warned sternly, pointing his gun towards Rajan.

The Joker resumed his speech,

"In the previous editions of our megahit show Survivor, there used to be only one survivor or sometimes none. But this year, we have changed the rules. I am sure this is going to be more interesting than the previous editions of this show."

The Joker paused for a few moments. But, Archana's heartbeat increased in anticipation of a good news. Rajan also started to pray to the God for hearing something positive. Only Siddharth's body language remained pococurante. Archana couldn't gauge whether he was at all listening or not.

"To make things more exciting we have decided that this year there can be any number of surviors. To make it simpler, there can be 1, 2 or 3 survivors. If that seems to be a good news to you, you need to know the flip side of the condition, too. There can be zero survivor also."

The Joker again paused for few seconds. Archana and Rajan looked at each other. Siddharth was not looking at anyone.

The Joker resumed,

"All three of you have been trained well for this grand finale. Archana has been trained to kill, and you two have been trained to save yourselves.

Don't get startled Archana. If you become nervous by just hering the news, I am afraid none of you will survive. Because, the key to survival of you guys depends on your hand."

"My hand?" Despite the embargo on speaking untowardly, the words came out of Archana's mouth spontaneously.

But, the Joker didn't mind, as he continued,

"Yes, your hands! Now, all of you listen carefully, because I am going to tell you the rules for the ultimate test. But before that I must intoduce to you another character who will play a very vital role in this competition."

The Joker made some signal to someone in front. Archana couldn't understand what other character the Joker was talking about, because both Ranjan and the Joker himself had told her earlier that there were only three participants who had cleared the fourth stage. Rajan also could not figure out who the fourth character was going to be. Siddharth showed no reaction again.

But, they didn't have to wait too long, as a ten-wheeler big truck stopped in front of the building, facing the rear side towards them. When the tailgate of the truck was opened, Archana's heartbeats almost stopped, and her eyes popped out in astonishment.

Grrrmm! The growl and the odour caught Siddharth's attention also. He could no longer remain insouciant, as what he saw was indeed frightening. There was a steel cage in the truck, and inside the cage was a very restless royal bengal tiger. It was moving briskly from one side of the cage to the other, and making roars.

"Here is the fourth character for ya! If you are curious about him, let me inform you that this 5-year old alpha male has been in our custody in our den in MP. He was brought here 5 days back. You might have heard the disturbed barking of our agitated dogs on the day of his arrival. But later on that day, he was placed at a safe place in one of our underground hideouts. We have kept him hungry for the last 2 days.

Now you might wonder what is he doing here! Okay, without wasting any more time, let me tell you what the competition is going to be. We have partitioned the playing field into two halves, each having a length of 50 meter each, and separated by a 16 feet tall lattice wall made of steel. The tiger cannot jump over it, neither can he climb it. But, the humans can.

The tiger named Raja, Rajan and Siddharth will be in one half, while Archana will be in the other half. The hungry tiger will love to hunt one of Rajan or Siddharth or both to satiate his hunger. The task for both Rajan and Siddharth will be to come to the other half as early as possible. Both of them will have an advantage of 20 meters in front of the tiger. In other words, the tiger will be let loose from the base line, while both Rajan and Siddharth will be at a distance of 20 meter from him. Please remember the speed of a tiger is almost twice as that of you.

So you have to run very hard for the remaining 30 meter. But if that is a worrying news for you, there is also a good news for you, too. The tiger is not going to target both of you. He is experienced enough to pick his target. So, one of you can easily climb the lattice wall and move towards the other side.

Now, what is going to be Archana's task, and why does everything depend on Archana? We have made a 40-feet high wooden tower like structure on the baseline in the half where she will be standing. There will be no walls or roof on the structure. Archana has to climb the wooden stairs very quickly to reach the top. Her long range gun will be kept on the floor. This gun is loaded with only 10 bullets.

Her task is to kill at least one of the three. Obviously, she would like to kill the tiger. If she kills the tiger, all three of you can get out from here scot-free. But, to kill the tiger she can exhaust only up to 5 bullets. If she shoots the 6th bullet to kill the tiger, our snipers will shoot her in the head, and later on both of you will also be shot down. In other words all of you will die.

In case the tiger kills both Rajan and Siddharth, Archana gets out from here as the winner of this year's show. If the tiger kills one of them, and the other one comes to this half, he and Archana will be declared survivors for this year, and they can go home.

There is not much of complication in the aforesaid cases, but the situation will become a little scary in the last case when both Rajan and Siddharth cross to Archana's half. In this case, Archana has to kill one of the two. She will get only 3 minutes to fix her target after both of them enter her side, and she will have 5 bullets, assuming that she exhausts 5 bullets in trying to kill the tiger.

To be continued on Sunday night 

Thriller The ultimate choice 54

 Episode 54

Suresh was very happy to see the resoluteness and the sense of responsibility in Srinivas. But, Roy seemed to be a tad sceptical, as he said,

"That mission has been aborted Srinivas. What you are going to do is completely unofficial. You have seen the fiendishness of this frigging agency. I think you are taking a huge mortal risk."

"Don't give a lecture Roy. You tell me if you have got my back or not! I don't care going all alone, and I don't balk at sacrificing my life for the sake of performing my duty."

"Don't misunderstand me Srinivas. Of course, I got your back. But, all I am saying is that we can't achieve our goal by acting impulsively. I told you and Suresh Sir that we will raid the place day after tomorrow if our meeting with the CM does not yield any result. But, we need more men and more arsenal for that. They are coming by tomorrow." Roy tried to explain.

"That's spoken like a man! Every hour is very important. We can't wait so long."

Srinivas was going to say something more, but his phone rang. From the expression of his eyes it became evident that he didn't expect the caller at this time. He hurriedly attended the call.

"Hello Mrs Mathur! What's up?"

The caller, Mrs Mathur, said something over the next two minutes that made Srinivas's face turn completely bloodless. He was standing while attending the call. After disconnecting the call, he sat on the bare floor with a thud. He threw the mobile phone on the sofa. This reaction from a seasoned IPS officer didn't augur well to either Roy or Suresh.

"Any bad news?" Suresh enquired.

After spending few days with Srinivas, they knew that Mrs Mathur was his neighbour. It was hard to even look at Srinivas's face. The face turned white and he gave a complete blank look with popping eyes.

Roy offered him a glass of water, which he drank. The weather was very pleasant in the evening. But, Srinivas was sweating profusely. It didn't evade Roy's astute eyes that tears were building in the corners of Srinivas's eyes. But, since brave men don't cry, Srinivas was holding back his emotions.

"What happened Srini? Please tell us." Suresh goaded him in a soft voice.

"This can't happen. I talked just an hour back to her. She was absolutely healthy. How can this happen? How?" Srinivas's rant seemed slightly incoherent to Suresh, but Roy had not much problem in understanding it, because he overheard the conversation that Srinivas had just mentioned.

"What happened to your wife?" Roy's raised voice almost sounded like screams.

Suresh got up tensely from the cot. Roy pulled Srinivas from the floor and made him sit on the sofa.

"Anju suffered a massive heart attack an hour ago. Now she is on life support in the ICU." Srinivas muttered. 

"Don't waste any time. There is a flight at 8-30 PM. If you leave now, you can catch it. I will recommend Suresh Sir to go with you. Don't worry about this case, as we will closely monitor the situation. I will meet the CM tomorrow. If possible both of you can join us when we undertake the rescue operation."  Roy suggested.

Suresh agreed with him, and he left for Hyderabad with Srinivas, who looked like a shadow of his former self. He was a broken man.

                                            _____________________________________________

"Ranjan, you evil genius! You have again cleared the road for us."

There was no one more happier that Xi at that moment. The short-stature Chinese guy hugged Ranjan tightly.

The Ravenous Eagles guys had placed jammers and other anti-bugging devices in the hotel Paradise. The cook, who gave Srinivas his mobile phone, was given clean chit by the local cops. However, on Srinivas's insistence he was removed from the hotel temporarily during their stay.

But when technology does not work, manual methods become handy. The guy staying at the top of the room where Srinivas was staying was Joker's man. A couple of waiters were also hired by the Joker. They had been constantly eavesdropping on Srinivas and Roy. Besides, the mobile phones of Suresh's and Srinivas's wives were compromised by the satanic spying software. This software helped the Joker's team to listen all the conversations they made with their wives.

"Why does everyone give credit to me, when I know my contribution is minimum? The credit goes to our evil doctors who by the grace of the great Satan could prepare such an amazing drug. This drug tastes like an antacid but it coagulates blood in a very slow manner, and within couple of hours the patient suffers massive heart attack without getting any prior symptoms. The good feature of this drug made from herbs is that it can't be detected in post mortem report of the victim."

Ranjan tried to clarify.

"You are being too humble Ranjan. Wasn't it your idea?" Praises were manifested in Nigella's eyes.

"Yes Nigella the cruel idea was mine, because this Srinivas guy was hell-bent in invading our property last night. Had he done so, either we would have to kill him, or at best captivate him. In both the scenarios, the police would have got enough reason to hunt us. We didn't want that.

However, full credit goes to our team in Chittoor. The maid servant in Srinivas's house very carefully changed the file of antacids with our deadly drug which also looks like the same brand of the antacids. By preparing very spicy food, the cook made sure that Srinivas's wife Anju, who takes antacids regularly, had to take it. The maid servant again changed the file with the original file after Anju took it. No one will suspect her."

"Indeed awesome planning, Ranjan! But, do you have any back up plan if the capricious CM readily orders an investigation into this case and the police decides to raid our place?"

The Joker was slightly worried about this aspect, because the CM of WB was an honest man who could not be controlled by others. He did what he thought was the best, and sometimes he took decisions impulsively.

"Whether he would eventually order an enquiry I can't predict Joker Sir. We have to assume that he would, and that's why we are vacating the place and leaving for Sudan after tomorrow's final event. But up to tomorrow, we have no problem. Sabbir is there to take care of it. You tell Sabbir."

Ranjan passed the question to Sabbir. Sabbir, the literary blue-eyed handsome Arab billionaire, said,

"Don't worry Joker Sir. The Ravenous Eagles guys are supposed to meet the CM at 5 PM. But, that meeting will not take place today or for that matter tomorrow."

"But how? Please tell us how?" Though Sabbir sounded extremely confident, Xi was still tensed.

"An old building will collapse today at 4-00 PM in his own constituency in Kolkata leading to deaths of many. And tomorrow, my man in the ministry will ensure that they don't get any appointment by influencing his PA so that we can peacefully complete the reality show and escape from here."

Sabbir seemed to have made a soild, unassailable blue print. The Joker nodded his head showing his approval to the plan.

"But what about the final event Joker Sir? You haven't yet disclosed to us what it's going to be."

This time Nigella complained pouting her lips and enlarging her hazel eyes. This gesture of Nigella felt like a Cupid's arrow to Sabbir. But, Nigella being the Joker's consort, he could not make any advances. Otherwise, he would have definitely proposed her long time back. However, it didn't escape Sabbir's eyes the adoration of Nigella towards Ranjan. Sabbir had a gut feeling that Nigella loved Ranjan, and he couldn't figure out how a beautiful lady could fall in love with a gay person!

To be continued on tomorrow night 

Thriller The ultimate choice 53

 Episode 53

Rajan remembered very well that a car had appeared on the scene at an electric speed, and someone very strong from the car dragged his body inside the car in a jiffy. The same guy or someone else had put a handkerchief soaked with chloroform on his nose, and he lost sense. But, he hadn't heard any sound of barking. Was Ranjan concocting a story to hide something?

Looking at Rajan's face, which was full of disbelief, Ranjan tried to divert the issue by saying,

"The good thing is that you get two more days. Two more days to eat, sleep and breathe, and most importantly prepare yourself to survive in the final test! I can't stay with you now, as I have other important works. You can see over there wait a couple of instructors. They will impart you some vital training for the last stage. Train hard to survive the last onslaught."

Ranjan pointed towards the ground where indeed two masked men were waiting for Rajan. Ranjan went back to the hell house.

                            _________________________________________________________

"I can't believe this! Is Barrackpore outside India? How is this happening in our sovereign country?" Suresh anguished.

"Indeed this is incredible! They are more powerful than we had imagined. They have the cutting-edge technology. I think we have to directly meet the CM and also contact the defence ministry of the Indian government." Roy agreed with Suresh.

After the huge embarrassment yesterday, the searching mission was officially aborted by the Andhra police. Khan would have to face an enquiry for the murder of the bull, which had communalized the environment. The post mortem report would surely exonerate Khan if the bullet inside the bull was different from Khan's. But after watching the freaking drama organised in such a flawless manner, the cops apprehended that the freaking agency might have used the same kind of bullet.

Very strangely, some of the WB police constables said that they had seen Khan firing at the innocent animal from his revolver. A few locals, who had not been at the spot, ganged up to testify against Khan. So, Khan was rather unceremoniously sent off to home till the investigation was over. He might be called later on here to face enquiry. All other STF personnel also went back with Khan. The lone exception was Srinivas, who stayed with Suresh, and of course, the Ravenous Eagles members also stayed.

Yesterday night was full of events: they didn't know how it passed after coming back to the hotel Paradise. Today, they had done a thorough analysis in the morning, and came to the conclusion that there had to be secret bunkers and tunnels in the premises. It required a lot more time to find the hiding places. But, they knew the judicial magistrate would not issue another search warrant until they showed him something concrete.

That was why they flew an ornithopter in the afternoon to film the events happening in that condemned place. That little spybird could send pictures for only 5 minutes, and there was nothing substantial in that, as Rajan was not on the playing field at that time. But suddenly the connection was lost, as a GPS spoofer took it down. The uav fell down on the hellish premises, and was lost for ever.

Not perturbed by the loss, Roy sent two more very powerful drones from two different directions, this time at an altitude of more than 3 km. Over the last couple of years, these drones had given excellent results in every occasion. So, Roy was pretty sure that these two trusted and tested drones would collect some incriminating evidences.

Roy was sure that the RF jammers or GPF spoofers would not work at that height. But, Roy could not estimate that this hellhounds had got hold of a sophisticated High Power Microwave device and High-energy lasers. Their drone detection rader didn't take any time to detect the conventional drones at high altitude, and destroyed them within minutes.

Monetarily the loss was huge, but more shocking was the loss of face one more time. Roy got a very nasty message on his phone, which later was tracked to have been sent from Morocco, threatening to harm his family if he didn't close the case.

After two back-to-back failures, they decided to meet the CM of WB with evidences that they had gathered previously. They sought appointment, and it was granted at 5 PM tomorrow.

Suresh was extremely apprehensive of the fate of his friend. He wanted more direct action from the Ravenous Eagles guys. Roy promised him they would raid the place, if the meeting with the CM failed. The Ravenous Eagles guys had been constantly keeping a close watch on the premises of the property. As no body came out or no body came in, Roy guessed that Rajan and Archana were still alive.

Srinivas wanted a night adventure tonight into the property. He wanted to invade there secretly at late night. Roy discouraged him, as he knew the Joker's team would be on their toes. As Srinivas was determined to rescue the Rajan couple by himself tonight by making a foray into the hell house, Roy had to accompany him as he knew there were enormous threats to Srinivas's life. Also, it would be a good reconnaissance tour for him before actually raiding the property with his team.

                ______________________________________________________________

It was 6 PM in the evening. The trio of Srinivas, Suresh and Roy were sitting in Suresh's room. The mood of Srinivas was extremely sore because of an incident that happened a few minutes earlier. His favourite wrist watch, which was gifted by his wife was broken into pieces in an incident which was bizarre.

Suresh had ordered coffee and snacks for them over phone. A waiter, a young guy, around 20 years age, was bringing it in a tray. At that time a phone from an unknown number came in Srinivas's phone. The guy on the other end was saying something about this case. But Srinivas could not hear it properly. The voice was getting interrupted and distorted. Srinivas thought it might be due to poor signal of the mobile network inside the room. That's why he was coming out hurriedly to the lawn.

The passage of this seedy hotel was hardly 4 feet wide. Even then Srinivas saw the waiter coming towards Suresh's room, and he moved sideways to avoid him. But, suddenly a kid, who might be son of another boarder came running from behind. He tried to avoid Srinivas by moving left. He avoided Srinivas,  but he directly hit the waiter. The waiter fell down and the tray hit Srinivas's watch. The old watch could not bear the impact and was broken into pieces.

The incident looked so natural that Srinivas had to believe that it was an accident. Both the waiter and the young lad were so innocent that he could not get angry at them. Looking at Srinivas's long face, Roy said,

"Don't think over this incident too much, Srinivas. Let's discuss about tonight's plan. Do you stick to your decision of sneaking into there, or should we wait to see the CM's decision."

"Well Roy, you will not understand this. A lot of good memories were attached to this watch. That's why I am a bit morose. But, work is work. I haven't come here as a tourist. I have been given the responsibility of rescuing the kidnapped husband-wife duo. The CM had pinned a lot of hope on my abilities. I can't go back empty-handed, and I can't waste time either."

To be continued on tomorrow night 

Thriller The ultimate choice 52

 Episode  52

As a desperate measure, Archana pointed her gun towards the fleeing Joker. The Joker had handed her a revolver. But Archana couldn't understand how it became a heavy, long range rifle. Archana lifetd the gun after some effort. But, how could she point it towards the Joker, as he was continuously changing directions? Archana was taught how to fix target on static objects, but she didn't know how to shoot moving targets.

Suddenly, her dream was broken and she was utterly surprised to find herself blindfolded and muffled. Her hands and legs were tied by ropes, too. She struggled hard to disentangle herself from the ropes for a while only to find that it was impossible. She screamed but no sound came out of her mouth, as a rag was put in her mouth.

After her futile efforts of 15 minutes, she sat still. She calmed her mind and tried to assess her position. From the cold feeling on her feet, she guessed that she was sitting on a metallic base. She hit the floor with the knuckles of her hand, and yes, the sound was metallic. She tried to roll on the surface only to find that the perimeter of her enclosure was very short. The air she breathed was heavy and suffocating.  Now, she had no problem in understanding that she had been kept in a metallic closed cage type of thing. From sounds coming from various ends it appeared to her that a few more people were also immured like her.

She tried to remember how she got stuck in such a precarious situation. In her early days in this hell house she was tied and starved for a couple of days. But after she agreed to obey the Joker's commands, she had never been subjected to this kind of harsh treatments. She remembered that around 3-40 PM in the afternoon, a masked man took her to a football ground in the back side of the building. She reached there at 3-50 PM. She saw both Rajan and Siddharth were also present on the same ground. Watching her beloved people after so long, she became extremely happy. She didn't know why she was taken there, but she waved her hands towards them. But, as they were in the opposite side of the ground they didn't notice her.

But suddenly, the Jaguar car came towards her and someone extremely powerful lifted her inside the car. Before she could understand what was happening, the powerful guy anesthetized her, and she found herself in this dicey position.

She sat there for half an hour thinking what to do. Suddenly, she sensed a very sweet faint smell and within few seconds lost her consciousness again.

                                       ___________________________________________________

"Oh Ranjan you are genius man, simply genius!"

Xi's enthusiasm knew no bound after the grand show machinated by Ranjan. He knew the progress of investigation of the Andhra cops took a nosedive. They would require at least a week to recover from the mess they had been put in.

"He made a mistake, but now he has compensated it."

The Joker opined. They pinpointed the moment when Ranjan got casual, leading to his face recognition by the Ravenous Eagles sleuths. They had no problem in detecting the customer who had betrayed them. They had not just kicked him out of the membership at the crunch moment, but on the same night he was killed in Omdurman by the assailants sent by Angra Mainyu, the name of the Joker's company. His all electronic gadgets had also been confiscated by the Joker's men. The police in that city was completely in collusion with Angra Mainyu. They made sure that there would be no investigation into the murder.

Ranjan bowed his head and said,

"The mistake was all mine, but the credit goes to our team. Without our team work, we couldn't have done it."

The plan might have been hatched by Ranjan, but indeed team work was necessary for its successful execution. Three cars came at a lightning speed to yank the three participants into the cars. They knew there would be not much of a resistance for Archana and Rajan, but Siddharth being a different kettle of fish, they had to again shoot a dart on his arm to make him go to sleep. The other two were anesthetized inside the car.

All the other members of the house, except the Lakhotias and a few Indian attendants, were sent to the hidden underground bunker earlier. The Ravenous Eagles guys had no chance of finding it, because this underground bunker was situated 30 feet below the surface, that too in a place that was extremely hard to suspect. This underground hiding room was beneath the swimming pool. Archana, Rajan and Siddharth were tied, blindfolded and muffled. They were placed in steel containers in a separate room.

The important items of the house had been hidden in other underground bunkers earlier. The Joker had made this place an amazing place for playing hide-and-seek with the cops . There were 15 underground rooms at different places in the premises. There were various hidden tunnels and other important things in this arena.

"Whatever you say, your plot to implicate Khan was awesome!"

The praises coming out of Nigella's luscious lips sounded real sweet to Ranjan. Nigella's look was full of adoration for Ranjan. Had Ranjan been not a gay, he would've tried to decode the meaning of the body language of Nigella. He said,

"The credit again goes to our team. They had gathered all information about Khan in a very short time. This shamus, Khan, has been a brute of a guy, and he had a number of incidents in his career when he had shown extreme arrogance. That's why it was easy to trap him, and convince his higher authorities about his involvement in killing the bull."

"Now, we get at least 7 days. But, we will end this competition within a couple of days. We will have to pack up from here for a while after that. We will shift to Uganda, an extremely safe place for us."

 The Joker announced.

"But why two more days, Sir? We should start packing up right now." Xi as usual was fearful.

"No Xi! Archana needs further training of hitting moving objects with heavy long range rifles. She needs a fair chance to survive. I give her two days. On the third day morning the ultimate final test will be done."

Everyone agreed happily with the Joker.

                        _____________________________________________________

"You must have been wondering hard what happened yesterday afternoon!"

Ranjan and Rajan were walking towards the practicing ground. It was 5-30 AM in the morning, and even in the middle of March, the weather was very pleasant.

"Yes, I really didn't get what happened yesterday! Was there an emergency situation?" Rajan asked, as he knew nothing about the search operation by the police.

"Indeed, there was an emergency situation. You have seen the pitbulls. But, we have some other breeds as well, like fox terriers, hounds etc. One of the black hound, whose name is Khan had became mad a week ago. We would have ended his agony yesterday, but he apprehended something and fled. He was coming towards the ground. That's why we saved you from the situation. But, in the process you got a head injury. Now, everything is alright!"

To be continued on tomorrow night