‘A small team of railway policemen returned the fire, with their vintage Second World War .302 Lee Enfield rifles, driving two gunmen out of CST. But many people were killed; there are bodies strewn around in the open, pools of blood everywhere. Thanks to the policemen’s fightback, the gunmen were forced to exit the terminus. The police are putting up a fight at the Taj hotel, the Oberoi Trident hotel and Nariman House, the Jewish outreach centre,’ Rathod said.

‘Are we hearing any chatter connected to these attacks? We have hundreds of numbers belonging to suspects linked with criminal and terror networks that are under surveillance. Is any such phone number active currently that may be relevant for us?’ Shekhar asked.

While Rathod went to check on the phone numbers under surveillance, Shekhar’s eyes wandered to the news coverage of the unfolding events on a large television screen in the operations room.

‘There are reports of two black-and-yellow cabs going up in flames in Wadi Bunder and Vile Parle after blasts tore them up … the two taxi drivers died in the blasts,’ a female news anchor informed her viewers.

Suddenly, Shekhar heard the footsteps of somebody running into the room. It was Rathod, who was visibly excited, a smile on his lips.

‘Sir, one of the numbers under surveillance has just gone active. Conversations are happening on it. It seems a group of men are talking to one of the sets of gunmen active in Mumbai currently. It seems they are the controllers of the gunmen. Both the gunmen and their controllers are speaking in Punjabi laced with chaste Urdu,’ Rathod said.

They both ran towards the terminal where the ‘live’ channel – the tapped phone number – was being monitored.

Shekhar, Rathod and the latter’s deputy, Rakesh Tomar, hunched over terminal number twenty-seven, where at least twenty such phone numbers could be monitored. Rathod passed Shekhar a pair of headphones. Using a set of headphones, Tomar was listening in on the conversation occurring on the number that had been put under watch. He was making notes on a sheet of paper. Several voices could be heard on the same number, against which a tiny bulb glowed red. The number was 91-99107194XX, which was currently active in Mumbai. The Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) control room had informed CTC that the call was being made to it from the US, using a virtual number, 00120-125318CC.

Rathod told Shekhar that there was one number that was active, sporadically, and several callers were in touch with it.

Tomar was attempting to locate the coordinates of both the target (referred to as Party A in technical intelligence jargon) using the intercepted phone number and the callers (Party B), who seemed like his handlers.