Episode 47
The other masked man, meanwhile got back his sense. So, Siddharth had to momentarily release the first man as he again put the second man go to sleep with a solid punch on his jaw. Meanwhile, the first man got up on his feet, and tried to flee. But, Siddharth was up to the task. Like a prowling tiger, he jumped on him. Again, he put him in the same position. Archana noted the picture was shown from a very close distance.
Suddenly, an old man, from the voice Archana guessed as he was not in the picture, enquired,
"What happened? Who are these guys? Why are you beating them?"
"Tell me who are you? What are you doing here?" Siddharth shot back.
The old man seemed to have been slightly surprised, but he regained his composure quickly as he answered,
"I live here. My name is Sudesh Gaonkar. I am a retired IAS."
Looking at Siddharth's face, in which disbelief was manifested, he took out an identity card from the pocket of his shirt and offered it to Siddharth for inspection. As Siddharth was inspecting the card, the old man took out a gun from the pocket of his in no time, and shot Siddharth on his right thigh.
"You bozo! You shot me?" Siddharth quickly pulled out the dart from his leg. From his facial expression it looked that he had been badly hurt.
"I will get you." Siddharth jumped on the old man even with his injured bleeding limb.
But, he could not get him, instead he himself went to sleep. A steel coloured Scorpio appeared at the scene from no where, and all the characters vanished in the car taking Siddharth with them in no time.
In the second clip, Siddharth was seen hanging from a rope which was fastened to a hook attached to the top wall of the room. His hands and legs were tied together with ropes. There was not an iota of clothes in his body. Four stout guys were surrounding him. They had hose pipes, steel chains and sticks in their hands. The red marks and the blood oozing from his body made it evident to Archana that he had been tortured badly by these four goons for quite sometime. But, Archana noted that there was no emotion on Siddharth's face. He was neither crying, nor groaning in pain. In fact, the four goons looked fatigued and frustrated.
Suddenly, Ranjan entered the room. Though he was wearing a mask, Archana had no problem in recognising him now. Ranjan asked,
"Any progress Rod?"
The 6'7" tall black, muscled guy replied,
"This guy is made of steel, Boss! We have beaten him mercilessly for the last three days, we tortured his each and every body part, but we could not break him yet. I can't say on behalf of others, but I can't do it anymore, Boss. I have got respect for this guy."
As Ranjan shook his head in disgust, another tall, black, muscular guy said,
"I am completely in agreement with Rod, Boss. This guy must have been a secret agent of a spy network like CIA or RAW. He knows how to take pain, but not to bow down before the enemy. I, too, got respect for him, and I am absolutely sure Boss, torture will not give any results."
"Are you done Roger? Are you done?" Ranjan fulminated. His voice sounded like a tiger's roar.
"You will teach us what to do? This is the Joker's den, the most powerful man in the universe, the best son of the Satan. It doesn't matter if this method hasn't worked. We are full of tricks. We have back-up plans. Just wait and see. Now, you get out. I have to send this guy to the hospital immediately. The way you beat him, he will die in an hour if not attended right now. The clip ended.
Tears rolled down from Archana's eyes. She closed her eyes, but the bruises on Siddharth's body still appeared in front of her. Blood was gushing out from his body. Still, he didn't beg for mercy or even groaned in pain. What a man, Archana exclaimed silently. Suddenly, the third clip started.
"The first method has failed, Joker Sir." Ranjan announced the news to the board of directors.
"Hmm! We apprehended that Ranjan, didn't we?" The Joker said.
The Chinese billionaire Xi became nervous as he blurted,
"Is it true that this guy was in RAW? In that case we have made a huge mistake by selecting him as one of the contestants of our megahit show."
"Don't panic Xi. He ain't any ex-state agent. We have studied his history. He was a very good athelete up to his college days. He could have chosen sports as his profession. Actually, he was selected in the engineering college in sports quota. However, after getting a job, he has been quite detached from sporting activities. But, after watching his resistance, I tend to think that he might have detached himself from formal sports, but he exercises regularly.
Anyways, this guy seems to be bullheaded. Our research team didn't inform me about that."
Ranjan opined.
Nigella, the tall lady, asked,
"How do we cow him down, buddy? What are his weaknesses?"
"Why don't we kidnap his parents and blackmail him?" Sabbir, the ruthless Arab billionaire, suggested.
"That's a great idea." Xi almost clapped, but resisted himself at the last moment.
"No doubt that's a great idea, but there is a problem, Bro! He lost his parents early in his childhood. He was brought up in his maternal uncle's home. But in the last decade, Siddharth has gone there on only one or two occasions. His uncle is dead, his aunt is surviving. She is old, and very poor. She is angry with Siddharth, because he doesn't send her money. She hasn't even reported the abduction to the police.
So, I don't think that will work. Besides, after the kidnaps, the Andhra police must have become alert." Ranjan declared in a calm voice.
"Oh my Satan! Then what will we do?" As usual, Xi panicked. He started blinking his tiny eyes and licking his pale lips in tension.
"Why doesn't he send money to his aunt?" Nigella enquired.
"Oh, this guy has been spendthrift. His income is not that high. Previously, he used to waste a hell lot of money on his girl friend. Now, he wastes almost his entire salary on Archana."
"Got it! Got it!" The Joker interjected.
Everyone looked at the Joker eagerly. The Joker took his time, and in his usual nasal tone said,
"Friends, ain't it elementary? We selected this guy only because of his attachment to the Rajan family. It's a different matter that now we know that this guy had committed great sin by turning his back to his mentor when she was in dire need of help. But, I am damn sure this guy will yield if we blackmail him with Archana's life."
"You are a genius, Joker Sir!" This time Xi clapped and everyone laughed in agreement.
The third clip ended, and there was a little hiatus that gave Archana some time to ponder. Everything was becoming clear to her now. She vividly remembered once she was beaten with a whip for two minutes by one of the masked men. Before the beating started, the masked guy whispered in her ears,
"Shout as much as possible, I will not hurt you. But, if you don't shout, I will hurt you."
This guy even told her what to say, and indeed he didn't hurt her. There were four cameramen in the room shooting the video from different angles.
She also remembered one more occasion, when there was another shooting she had to do. That time she was groomed very rigourously by the Joker's men. A masked man held a gun on her head, and she had to scream for her life. Now, she understood why these shootings were done.
Archana's trance was broken by the sound of the fourth clip. Siddharth was lying on the bare floor of a dingy room. He was shivering in cold as he was wearing just a sando vest and bermuda shorts. From his thin mien, it appeared to Archana that Siddharth had been starving for at least two days. He was so weakened that he just gave a glance when Ranjan entered the room, and kept lying on the floor.
To be continued on tomorrow night
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