‘The cache is concealed inside a fake ceiling above the driver’s seat. The ceiling is rarely checked during searches,’ Saqlain informed Babar. ‘Good luck, brother.’

At the Mumbai Police headquarters near Crawford Market in south Mumbai, Shekhar was sitting with the police commissioner, A.P. Saxena. He had just apprised the commissioner of what Somaiya had told him about the LeT’s latest terror conspiracy.

The police chief, his forehead furrowed, was judging the time available to foil the terror plot and the best way to achieve that objective. He had already called the additional commissioner, Pulkit Narula, of the ATCS of Maharashtra Police. He, along with two assistant commissioners of police, would be supervising the investigations. One of the two ACPs was Sunil Deshmukh. Deshmukh had been with the counter-terror agency since its inception and possessed a wide repertoire of informants.

Shekhar and Saxena were now waiting for the counter-terror agency’s officials to arrive.

Twenty minutes later, Narula and Deshmukh walked into Saxena’s office.

Shekhar told the counter-terror agency’s officers all that he knew about the Lashkar plot to kill Gujarat CM Solanki and BVP chief Shirke, who had both survived terrorist bids on their lives in the past. The two were scheduled to attend a function at Naigaon’s Kundan Sansthan on 25 March, he told them.

Shekhar, of course, did not disclose anything about CTC’s source of information or about Operation Trojan Horse. When prodded about the source of the information, he said, ‘A friendly foreign ally told us.’

Saxena asked the two ACPs for their assessment of the situation as well as whether they would lead the operation to locate the five Lashkar terrorists.

‘If the five terrorists are expected in Mumbai on or after 15 March, we should set up a watch for them at least two or three days prior to pick up any early signals or breakthroughs,’ Deshmukh suggested. ‘If they are coming in a vehicle, the vehicle could be carrying something crucial to their upcoming operation, like weapons, ammunition or explosives.

‘I have a hunch that the fidayeen will come from Kashmir as the LeT has a cadre of trained fidayeen there. LeT usually uses Pakistani fidayeen, under the assumption that Indian operatives are not that motivated to make the “supreme sacrifice”. Such a team can come from Kashmir on short notice,’ Deshmukh said.

‘What if the fidayeen are already in Mumbai or Pune?’ Saxena asked.

‘I will ask for details on vehicles that leave for Mumbai from several states, including Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh from 15 March onwards. There are several CCTV-fitted toll booths at interstate check posts en route to Mumbai, and if we have the suspects’ profiles, it will help,’ Deshmukh said.