‘Great. Now scan and email me copies of Anant’s, Nirav’s and your voter ID cards. I will try to get you admission in other colleges as well.’

‘Okay. By when?’

‘In a day.’

‘Sure, anything else?’

‘Have a good day, brother, and take care. Say my hello to the other two brothers,’ Al-Wali said before hanging up.

‘Who is this Shrikant Joshi? Where is he? Vanished into thin air? And what is the operation that Al-Wali is working on? What is Atharv doing? We have no concrete leads as yet!’ Shekhar was fuming and restless.

The lack of information on what Al-Wali’s Lashkar sleeper module was up to was killing him, and he hurled a barrage of questions at Somaiya.

The two were having tea in a spacious south Mumbai flat.

‘Atharv dropped the weapons off at Joshi’s hotel. He has no idea about the operation beyond that,’ Somaiya said.

‘One more thing, Al-Wali has asked for scans of the voter ID cards of Atharv, Nirav and Anant. They could be for use either in this operation, or they might be kept in reserve for use in some other operation in the future. Or, they are still checking out our boys’ authenticity,’ Somaiya added.

‘If the cards are for other Lashkar men, they will be used to forge IDs using other names and photographs,’ Shekhar mused. ‘We made discreet inquiries and roped in Mumbai Police to help. Joshi took the room in Nilgiri Hotel a day before Atharv’s visit and did not return to it after Atharv deposited the weapons there. But the weapons are gone. Is Joshi a buyer of weapons or is he an arms carrier for Lashkar?’

‘Did the police discover anything useful?’ Somaiya asked.

‘The hotel people told the police Joshi was heavily bearded and wore black sunglasses and had a gold chain around his neck. They said he is a politician from Pune and had come to Mumbai for business. He was not carrying any ID but paid for the room in cash for ten days. It is a third class, shady hotel, where customers give cash to book rooms and enter whatever they feel like in the register. There is no CCTV in the hotel, no lift, nothing.

‘But, based on the description given by the hotel staff, a sketch has been prepared. However, Joshi was most likely in disguise and in reality looks nothing like the sketch. And Shrikant Joshi is definitely not his real name.’ Shekhar sighed.

‘We picked up fingerprints from the hotel room, and the forensic laboratory is trying to confirm if they match with any known criminal in the records. We have to keep this a secret exercise as Atharv may have left fingerprints there as well.’

‘What about the bus ticket?’ Somaiya asked.