‘How did Sawant succeed? To trap his tracker, Sawant entered the cafeteria, but he took care to plant himself at a spot from where he could keep an eye on everyone who entered. In intelligence parlance, this is called laying a cut-out. Atharv entered and Sawant spotted him. The reason behind success or failure in such a task may vary on a case-to-case basis, however. Think on your feet.’

Shekhar turned to Atharv. ‘Atharv, you were caught. You endangered your team and the mission itself. The main aim when tracking somebody is to ensure you never lose sight of them. To ensure this, you deploy multiple trackers, who can be stationed at pre-determined points to cover the target’s journey. Multiple trackers also means that the target will not see anybody twice.

‘You refused the option to take help from the others but that was a blunder. In our line of work, only the execution of the task matters. The individual is not important, as you will realize during this training period.

‘You could have tracked Sawant till Kennedy Hill Street, Anant could have taken the Manchester stretch and Rohit could have continued from the Chinese Quarter.’

‘Sir, understood,’ Atharv responded.

‘Another important thing is communication. The strength and security of our communication system will decide whether a mission succeeds or fails, whether the operatives survive or are trapped by hostile forces. As we go along, we will teach you the art of secure communication. We will instruct you on how to use code, utilizing numerals, letters and everyday words. You will always use public telephone booths, never a listed residential or office landline.

‘At times, we will use email, which is newly gaining popularity, for communication. You will go to a computer, access an email service provider’s services, open a personal account and then send an email to the others from this email address. For instance, [email protected] can be Atharv’s email address. Atharv will have to select a password, say, blackbeltAtharv23, to access his account and send an email.’

Atharv broke into a chuckle at the mention of the proposed password. ‘Yeah, by now, everyone respects the black belt considering the beating they got from me.’

Shekhar smiled. ‘Right. So, we will create a common email address for all of us. Say, [email protected]. We will have a common password too, blackbeltAtharv23. To communicate with each other, we will log in using the email ID and the password and then will write a message. But we will not send the message. We will save it as a draft. We will therefore have to access the drafts folder to read the message. Then, we can respond and act accordingly.’

‘The email mode is a little tricky, but exciting!’ Atharv said.

‘It will be easy, trust me. You just need to practise. In our line, practice not only makes you perfect, it saves lives.’

27. THE MIND OF NAWAZ

27

THE MIND OF NAWAZ