Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Murder Mystery - Salve Regimen-2

The meeting started at 10:00 am sharp. All the researches from MRAC and the Germanium industries put their argument about merging their projects. Everybody discussed about the effects, feasibility and dynamic property of the final project. After a prolonged discussion, the chief scientists of both the concerns are agreed to merge their innovations.
The evening headlines flashed the news about the body found in the space which is being hit by a space shuttle. Arjun saw the news on TV and called Naveena. Only those people, Lekha and Francis will have the access to see the happenings of the outside world. No other scientists will know about this death or any other incidents.

“Naveena. This is Arjun. Hope you might have seen the news on World TV” he called her and started the conversation.
“Yes sir. I’m really shocked on hearing this” she replied slowly.
“I wonder how people will go to the outside vacuum without having the proper flying kit” he coughed heavily when he said.
“Sir I had a message to pass it to you. Hope it’s not a happy note I guess” she said in a somber.
“What’s the matter? Is that related to our research?”
“No sir. I’m afraid it is about our researcher sir. One if our top researcher is missing since yesterday night from the X-City” she told to Arjun.
“What? What are you talking about? This is impossible. Who is that? Did you checked with the access control center with any information?
“He is Ravi, our Top researcher, reporting directly under Lekha. I checked with the access control center but it has no information to display regarding Ravi. I asked Francis to give me a detailed report on the yesterday’s records of Ravi. As soon as I get it, I’ll let you know about the status sir” she replied.
“Good. Make it fast and let me know. By the way, did you actually put word about this to Lekha?”
“Yes sir. She is aware of her missing team member sir. In fact both of us went together to the control center to check Ravi’s records”
“Oh is she with you now?” he exclaimed.
She is about to say that this is her swimming time but with utmost control she managed not to let the words out of her tongue.
“No sir. I left her on the MRAC itself. She may be there itself even now” she put her words with caution.
“Cool. Make sure about the missing information. I know the best friends can bring me the information soon” he placed the receiver back.

Lekha and Naveena were best friends before almost a year back. They grew up together in the X-City and they used to have the same kind of research interests also. After they are assigned to some top secret projects, Lekha proved her skills and talents with smart ideas and make it available within the deadlines. But Naveena is a care free type. She made friends with her team members and creates an atmosphere as if doesn’t look like they are working. All of the young researches will love to work with Naveena. Ravi is closer to Naveena than any other researchers.
But Lekha on the other side got some fame from Arjun. But when the research is not done properly, the MRAC can clearly hear Lekha’s voice yelling at her team members. Arjun tried to change her attitude and behavior many times but he failed every time. By the time when the Assistant chief Research person is required, every one in MRAC suggested and opted for Naveena and she is promoted as the same. This was the first blow for Lekha.
Ravi is the one who made Naveena as popular scientist. He always made propaganda for her. She tried to stop him but nothing worked out in a right way. The more she stops him, the more she becomes famous.
The second blow in Lekha’s life is that Ravi is assigned directly under her control by Arjun. Naveena will come to her research lab and she used to sit and talk in her lab with Ravi. This made Lekha so angry and one day she yelled both of them in front of all the other team members. From that time on Naveena and Lekha are not in proper terms and conditions.

Lekha got her smile back when Vijay joined her team. He is a smart as well as a hard researcher too. From the day he reports to Lekha, he is very fond of her looks. He openly admits his fond towards her in front of others in the Lab. She made Vijay as one of her top scientists very soon in par with Ravi. Of course Vijay deserves the position with his knowledge.
When Vijay and Ravi are peers and they are under the control of Lekha, it was suppose to be the real partitioning of the scientists. Both gather some group of other scientists to support their admirers. Arjun is not aware of all these internal bruises and conflicts.

Naveena’s intercom beeped disturbing her old thoughts. She checked and it was Francis on the other end.
“The yesterday reports are retrieved from archive Naveena. Can you come and collect with Lekha or shall I drop in any one of our houses?” Francis asked Naveena.
She peeped into Lekha’s suite (bungalow) and she is not there. Lekha doesn’t seem to be returned from her swimming. “Nope I can come and collect it now itself. I’m not sure about her” she slapped the receiver and headed towards the MRAC to get the files.

Naveena is now getting angry on Lekha for her leisure and lazy move on her team mate’s disappearance. She wonders how she is behaving like this very cool and swimming in the beach when one scientist is missing. She wanted to teach her a proper lesson. She has to make her feel for the missing of the loved ones in one’s life. She stopped suddenly and asked herself “Why are you thinking like this? At times you sound like her. Just stop thinking like this and mind your work.”
“Can I have the reports Francis?” she asked Francis on entering the Francis cabin.
“Yeah sure. Here it is. You are prompt now a days. Where is she?” he placed a number of sheets looks like a print out of the access records.
“Thanks. I don’t know. I didn’t checked her” she said looking at the print outs.

“If you don’t mind can I have a look?” Lekha joined from swimming.
She showed the pile of papers. They both examined what are all the places where Ravi made a visit yesterday.
“Francis. He returned to his suite @ 7:00 pm yesterday. Is here any records maintained for the X-City” Lekha asked Francis.
“Yes. But Just now I connected to the X-City access. I already told this to your friend” he referred Naveena.
“Just now only he told”, Naveena replied quickly without making any scene at this present situation.

After some minutes, the X-City access returned some number of records for Ravi on yesterday’s date. Francis took a print out and placed on his table.
“You take this. I’ll sit with Francis and check it in the system itself” Naveena told to Lekha and they both exchanged a fake smile.
They can clearly see what are the house hold items accessed by Ravi yesterday and what are the rooms he wandered in the night.
They looked for the last ten records.
Time Accessed
9:57 pm Television Channel 64
9:59 pm Television channel 32
10:03 pm Refrigerator
10:05 pm Rest room
10:07 pm Phone
10:15 pm Television channel 23
10:27 pm Bed Room 1
10:33 pm Living Room
10:36 pm Phone
10:37 pm Terrace Door

Both Naveena and Lekha stood in a shock. From the top of the suite he never returned. This means the body found in the space must be Ravi’s body. They are standing in confusion why he had gone to the terrace in the night and how he gone up in the sky? They decided to let this information to be passed to the CRS as early as possible. Naveena picked up the receiver and started to dial the Arjun’s intercom number.

“Sir this is Naveena calling from MRAC control access center. We got the access reports of Ravi. It seems that he disappeared in air in the night. I’m afraid that the body hit the space shuttle may be Ravi’s body” she called and said to Arjun.
“Okay. Get me the reports to my suites. Where is the body now?” Arjun asked.
“I guess it’s still pending with CID to proceed further”
“Hmm. You do one thing. Make a call to Mumbai CID department and speak to a gentle man named Surya. Ask him to send the body to us. In the mean while I’ll try to change the news in the TV with some cook up stories” Arjun replied to Naveena.
“Yes sir. I’ll do that immediately. Sir if you don’t mind is Surya been aware of MRAC. If yes, what shall we want to tell him to send the body here?” Naveena asked in confusion.
“He is aware of this research facility. Tell him that we need to test and confirm the body by doing the DNA test. Also bring Lekha with you when you drop in here after you made the call” he is about to place the receiver back.
“I’ll do the needful sir. She is here with me now. I’ll bring her down” she replied and both placed the receiver back.

“What are we suppose to do?” Lekha asked Naveena.
“We need to call to Mumbai CID and CRS wants to get the body back. After we are done with the call, we have go and meet CRS in his suite” she started calling to the Mumbai CID department.

“Hello this is CID department. How can I help you” the reception-a-list answered.
“Hi there. I need to talk to Mr.Surya” Naveena replied back.
“Madam he doesn’t take calls from outsiders. Shall I connect to any other officials?” the reception-a-list questioned back.
“Please listen. You have to do this. I’m calling on behalf of a higher authority who rules the nation. He needs to talk to Surya very urgently and I’ll not let any other person to disclose our official matters. Now will you do the needful?” she didn’t know whether she is doing the right thing or not.
“Please wait madam. I’ll put you in a minute” the lady replied.
After few seconds, a male voice with firm gesture replied “hello this is Surya”
“Good Evening Sir. Before I commence, I want to make sure whether this line is safe or not. I’m calling from a top secret base” Naveena replied.
“Hmm. Better you call to our dedicated line. I’ll give you the number” he gave her one number for the dedicated line.
She dialed and said “Sorry to disturb at your leaving time”
“It’s okay. I’ll be here till 10:00 pm. Please tell me what the matter is?”
“I’m calling from MRAC research facility and I’m calling on behalf of Arjun, our chief research scientist. We need the body that hit the space shuttle today morning for our DNA tests” she stopped at this and not sure whether she needs to proceed or not.
The word MRAC strikes Surya a strange feeling. He heard and seen only few photographs about the facility from his higher official but for the first time he got a call from MRAC.
He asked some regular or rather typical investigation types of questions to Naveena.
“Why do you want the body back?”
“I said we need to do a DNA testing on his body” she replied.
“Okay why do you want to the testing? Do you know how the body reached the space?” he asked again.
“I’m not sure about anything Mr.Surya. My chief Arjun wants us to call you especially and he need the body back. This is what I know. We can’t disclose any other research news to the outside world. May be you can turn on the TV and watch the headlines before you make a decision” she said suddenly as she remembered the CRS mention about the news.

Surya turned on the TV and watched the news headlines. It stated with a current news headlines about the body found in the space. A news reader reads the news with some space diagram on his back. “Today morning, the space research shuttle hit with a human body in the space where the humans are not even imagined to enter without any proper protection. The news from the ISRO and other military operations confirm that the body reached the space by means of another space shuttle which returned to is base three days back. From that day, one of the astronauts named Kishore is failed to report to the base. The reports said that he had misused the space vehicles to fly and entered the space for his own exploration. The doctors in the base confirmed that he is suffering from a psychic trauma for the past one year. The space shuttle is also missing from yesterday midnight. They are now in search of the missing space shuttle. We’ll be back after a short commercial break for the news at 9:00”

“So you need to confirm the body is Kishore’s?” Surya asked Naveena after hearing the news.
“Sort of” was the reply.
Surya gave the permission to send the body to MRAC as suggested by Naveena. They hang up after Naveena uttered thanks to Surya.

After Naveena made her call to the CID department, Lekha joined her and both of them went to meet Arjun with the access reports of Ravi.
When they entered Arjun’s suit, he said “Welcome Ladies. Though is not a happy moment to share, but make yourself comfortable. The DNA results matched with Ravi’s DNA”
“How did you know that and where did you get the DNA from the body?” Lekha asked in surprise.
“The ISRO transmitted the DNA test details” he replied casually.
“How did you change the news on TV? And is really Kishore an existing person? And also about the missing space shuttle” Naveena asked Arjun.
“It’s an old lay man method/trick. Astronauts who lost their lives in the space can be disclosed like this news. It’s a top level secret. He died almost a month back. So we grab the opportunity to use his name this time. And a part of the shuttle (which can fly on its own) seems to be missing during the return. So we clubbed both the incidents to cook up a new story” he said without seeing the reactions of the ladies.
Naveena is surprised on hearing this. This makes him as a chief as he has got lot of contacts, the authority and the power to change and control anything, anytime.

Lekha and Arjun sat down with the access reports of Ravi.
“So, did you find anything strange about Ravi yesterday?” he asked Lekha.
“No sir. He is perfectly normal as in any day” replied Lekha.
“Hmm. Quite interesting and confusing as well. Why did he go to the terrace at the night time? Do you have any idea ladies?” he asked both the girls.
Both replied as no.
Then Lekha and Arjun are occupied with usual conversation about Ravi’s disappearance in the middle of the night. Naveena wants to shift his concentration from the discussion but she didn’t do that. When Arjun at times saw her, she smiled back at him not knowing how to react in this situation.

“Leave the reports with me. Try to get some more information about Ravi if possible. It’s already half passed eleven. You ladies can take a leave now and we’ll meet you up in the MRAC” Arjun said to both the girls.
They left the suite and heading towards their respective suites. Naveena wants to ask Lekha about Ravi and his behavior for the past one week to get more information. But she is afraid to do so as everything is already asked by the CRS. Also Lekha may take it in a wrong sense for sneaking into her personal team member life. She remained silent during the return.

Both of them reached their suites as they are living side by side. It is Lekha who breaks the ice this time. “Bye Naveena. I’ll come to your suite tomorrow morning. We’ll try to gather any more news on Ravi”
“You are always welcome pal. It’s been a long time since you stepped into my suite” Naveena replied happily on hearing the words from Lekha.

That night Naveena didn’t get the sleep and always thinking on the Ravi’s disappearance. She wandered in her suite without having any intention. She peeked in Lekha’s suite as to find out what she is doing. She could see that Lekha is sleeping tight.

The day dawn and Lekha make her appearance in Naveena’s Suite after a long time. They are engaged in their old memories and they talked about the moments that they spent together. The intercom beeped and Naveena attended. She dropped the receiver after hearing.

“Vijay is found dead in the rocks, in the other side of the mountain” Naveena told to Lekha.

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