The Red Shirt

Suraj came into limelight when he predicted that Murali Karthik will be Man of the match in the 7th ODI against Australia. Karthik was part of the commentary team when Suraj made his prediction. He also predicted that Manchester United will win its third consecutive PL title in 2009. It was a no-brainer, if someone has followed the Red Devils. He then sent a mail to a National Daily, with his predictions that Liverpool will finish at Number 7 in the 2009-2010 season. He had sent the mail on August 14th 2009, a day before the start of the season. The daily published it in a small column after getting in touch with him through mails. Since then, the daily was getting predictions from different ids, containing pdf attachments encrypted by the same public key as communicated in the first email.

The daily was boosting its image with Suraj’s predictions and Suraj had no problem in being under cover. Suraj’s biggest break came, when he predicted that Sachin Tendulkar will score 200 in a One-day match in 2010. He had predicted the number of boundaries and sixes too. The daily was waiting to get the next update from Suraj, which never came for the next 3 months. The emails sent to the secret ids bounced and the newspaper was fed-up of answering the mails regarding the mystery predictor.

Vijay was back from onsite. He had spent three months in Plano, where he went for KT. He reached his room by 3.00 in the morning. He was surprised to see that his room-mate Suraj was still awake. He was visibly upset and was sweating from head to toe. He was chewing his nails and was lost in thought when Vijay entered the house.

“What happened da? Why so serious?” asked Vijay with his traditional smile.
“A big air tragedy is going to happen, it will kill 160 people”, Suraj.
“Oh, my God, when and where is that going to happen”
“This morning, in Mangalore” stammered Suraj.
“Did you inform anyone? Did you call the airport authorities?”
“No da, I did not know their numbers to call and you had left your phone in India”
“Let us not waste time; I would call the authorities immediately. Is the broadband working?”
Suraj did not answer.

Vijay connected his laptop and to his dismay the BSNL broadband wasn’t working. They started their bike and looked out for a cyber café. They reached Velachery and found an Internet centre. Vijay googled for a bit and found the Airport’s contact number. He went to an STD booth and called the authorities. He informed about the danger. His call was snubbed as a routine anonymous call. In the meantime, Suraj tells Vijay that it is an Air India Boeing flight. Suraj called the authorities again, and was snubbed once again. After ignoring the Call, the control room authorities got in touch with the Captain of the flight to know if things were fine. The Captain answered in an affirmative node and confirmed that the flight was about to land in a bit. The flight over shot the runway and fell over a cliff in the next 10 minutes killing 160 innocent passengers.

They reached home and opened Vijay’s luggage and discussed about his stay in Texas.

“You should have mailed the newspaper about this da”
“You forgot a lot of things in the past 3 months. As if I know about Computers”

The whole nation was mourning for the biggest air tragedy in the recent past and Natrajan, security officer at the Mangalore airport had decided to do something. He called the National daily and told about the anonymous call and the predictions. He wanted to make people aware of the anonymous predictor and his valiant effort to safeguard the people. The newspaper was already on the back foot and with this news, the Chief Editor, Thomas was furious. He pressed some numbers on his landline and Nandna entered his room within a minute.

“What the hell are you doing? When was the last time that we got some news from that mystery man?” he yelled on the top of his voice.
“It is almost 3 months, Thomas”
“Who is the one, who is sending such mails and why is that he did not inform us about this air tragedy” Thomas was shouting at the top of his voice.
“We don’t know Thomas. He sends mails from different ids every time but the pdf will be encrypted by the same password which he had sent us in the beginning”
“Look Nandna, we have lost an opportunity to make millions. Had he mailed us, we would have created a huge hullabaloo and our sales would have sky rocketed by now. You guys are fit for nothing”
“We can trace him only by his emails Thomas and that id too gets deleted after we receive his mails”
“I don’t need any explanations. You aren’t being paid for nothing here. Go and do some investigative journalism. I need the man. I want a front page interview of this guy. I don’t care, how you get that, but if we are not going to get it, you are fired!!”
“But, we don’t even know about his whereabouts Thomas” pleaded Nandna
“I don’t care a damn. I need this interview to be one of its kind. It should have details which may never come out in any source. Once we get him to the limelight, the competitors will squeeze his friends and family to get more details. I don’t want that to happen. This interview must contain a lot of unknown details about the mystery man”
“Will do that Thomas”

*****************

Suraj was in his customary white shirt and dhoti. Vijay was getting ready for his office.
“Did you call him da” asked Vijay
“Yes, His security officer will come here to pick me up” answered Suraj.
“You will be hailed in the media, if you can save the future Prime minister” said Vijay with a naughty smile.
“I hope, I can be of some use. Can you also come with me da?”
“I don’t have a problem but will they allow me with my red shirt”
“You can change your shirt and come along” said Suraj
Gowtham walked in along with a couple of his aides. He investigated Suraj and Vijay for some time and wasn’t satisfied.
“The person in question is going to be the PM in a couple of years and playing with him will lead you to face dire consequences. Do you know that?” His voice was stern and his face was emotionless.
“He has ESP Sir, he has already seen many things in his mind which will happen some time later” said Vijay.
“There are hundreds of people with such blasphemies. But, how do we believe you?” Gowtham’s voice was still stern.
“He predicted the Mangalore air crash Sir. We even called the airport from a nearby booth to inform them. But they did not believe us” Vijay
“Ramesh, take this guy to the phone booth and get its number. Check with the airport authorities and confirm, if there was any call from that booth on that day. Also cross check the timings”
Vijay was a bit hesitant to move and silently muttered, “He stammers a lot, Sir. Shall I also stay with you for the investigation?”
“I will take care, you better listen to what we say” Gowtham replied in a harsh tone.
“So, what exactly did you see in your dreams about him” Gowtham lowered his voice and asked Suraj.
“I saw a man with a red shirt. He stabbed Rohit to death” Suraj said in a quiet tone.
“What else did you see? Were you able to see the killer’s face?”
“No, I just saw his stomach and chest, he was wearing a red shirt and when Rohit Sir came near him. He was stabbed” answered Suraj.
“Will you get to know more about this dream?”
“I don’t know Sir, I normally get headache when I think about my dreams. If I continue to think about my dreams, I will get to know more information about them. But it does not happen always” stammered Suraj
Ramesh came back with Vijay and confirmed the details.
“You can go to your office. We will take Suraj with us” Gowtham left with Ramesh and Suraj.
Vijay locked the house and started his bike.
Nandna and Victor hid themselves behind the petty shop seeing Vijay come out of his house.
Nandna hugged Victor tightly and said, “You are the best, buddy!!! We are going to rule”

********************************

Suraj was escorted by Gowtham as he entered Taj Coromandel. This was the first time that he was entering a 5 star hotel and he was just awestruck on seeing the luxury. He was asked to wait in the reception and Gowtham called Rohit Mehta’s secretary. Gowtham asked Suraj to come along and they took the lavish lift to the 5th floor. It was a luxurious presidential suit decorated with the best of luxury possible. The room had only Rohit Mehta, his secretary, Gowtham and Suraj.

Rohit Mehta was a worried man. His Mom who was the PM was killed a couple of years back. He was supposed to take the leadership of his party and become the next PM in 2013. He had taken every step with caution and now this prophecy has come as a big bottleneck. Rohit broke the uncomfortable silence.
“How are the security arrangements?”
“It is all perfect Sir. The entire building is protected and this 5th floor has been closed. Visitors are not allowed in this floor” Gowtham was confident
“What about the red shirt?” Rohit asked with a quizzical expression.
“We are not allowing anyone with red dress near this floor Sir. The screens which were red have also been changed this morning” Gowtham answered.
“I don’t feel nice. I am pretty much uncomfortable staying here. I want you guys to stay here for a while” said Rohit with a troubled expression
“With pleasure” answered Gowtham.
The four men sat in the room and were trying to relax. Rohit’s secretary opened a scotch bottle and served drinks.

“Make yourself comfortable, yaar” said Nandna
Vijay smiled uncomfortably and Victor chuckled.
They were seated in Vijay’s room and Victor was adjusting the camera.
“You guys are awesome man. You have known so many things but you are still maintaining a low profile. You are the real celebrities, I would say” Nandna
“Oh, nothing like that” Vijay told with a sheepish smile.
“No, I am serious. You have created email ids which would self destruct in 10 minutes to send the mails. You have used different PCs to send the mails every time. We were unable to track you guys for such a long time. You are just amazing man” Nandna
“Suraj did not want to get famous. He just wanted to make sure that people understood his ability”
“Oh, that is really sad. But does he have this ability from school?”
“Yeah, he got this power during his Class X. He was able to see his mark sheet before the exams. He had seen that he will score a centum in maths” Vijay
“But, did he really score one”
“Oh yeah, that is a funny story”
“Can you share the details; we would love to hear that. You narrate really well”
“He had intentionally left a couple of questions without answering in the exam. But even then, he scored full marks. Isn’t that hilarious” asked Vijay
“Oh yeah, More than the incident it is the way in which you tell, it makes it even more interesting” Nandna

The time was fifteen to one. Rohit was on his phone for quite sometime sipping his whisky.
“I am getting bored to death. These news channels are really crappy” Rohit was an irritated man.
“Did you get to anything more about my Killer, Mystery man?” smiled Rohit
“I am trying to get some more details. But I am able to see only the red shirt even now” said Suraj.
“You can leave, let him stay for a bit more time and get some more info.” said Rohit
Gowtham stood up and smiled at Rohit and left the room.

“He even made some predictions about India’s T20 world cup victory” Vijay
“Oh!!! really. You guys have so much info to share” Nandna was irritated by now
“Also, once when I was planning for a tour with my colleagues, Suraj told me the Car number before 2 days”
Vijay was ecstatic in talking about his friend in front of the camera. Nandna and Victor were starting to get bored as he was just singing praises of his friend in different scenarios.
“You look tired Vijay. Do you want to have something to drink?” asked Nandna
“NO, that’s Ok. I usually have my lunch by 2.00 only” said Vijay
“Of, it is time for lunch. Is it? But, Let us not disturb the flow of the interview. Victor, Can you get us something to eat” Nandna told Victor and winked.
Victor got the message and closed his camera. He packed it and went near his bike.
“You are a non-veggie, right?” He shouted when he was about to start his bike.
Nandna moved close to Vijay and put her arms over his shoulder and said, “I am still in a sense of shock. You are an amazing geek”

“Vini will be here any moment. Bring her to the room, Ahmad” said Rohit Mehta
The secretary looked at his boss and left the room. Rohit locked it from inside and sat in front of the TV.
“Make yourself comfortable, Suraj. Have some apples” said Rohit
“That’s Ok, Sir” answered Suraj.
“You dress like South Indian politicians. Transparent white shirt and a dhoti” smiled Rohit.
“I am not comfortable in pants Sir”
“Hmmm. I will freshen up and come. Have those apples”.
Rohit went to the bathroom and locked the door. Suraj took the knife and started to cut an apple.

“There is no camera now. Is there something which is unique about Suraj” asked Nandna is a soft tone.
“There is nothing like that. He is just a normal man with some abnormal powers”
“Is there something which he likes a lot or that he hates a lot” Nandna’s right hand was holding Vijay’s right hand now.
“No, there is nothing that he likes or hates. He is someone who is not affectionate at all. A very soft and meek person”
“Hmm, you started to speak about his Mom and stopped yourself, what was that”
“She died when he was 15. He thinks about her every now and then. He even cries aloud sometimes”
“How did she die? She must be young. He is the only son, right?”
Nandna was playing with Vijay’s index finger.
“She died of rabies. She was bitten by a mad dog. I forgot to tell you one thing”
“Yes Vijay, continue” said Nandna in a seducing tone.
“He absolutely hates dogs. He almost becomes a psycho when dogs lick him.”
“Go ahead, Vijay”
“He once killed a dog near my Office. It would take him atleast an hour to come out of that state, if dogs lick him. He moves to a state where he cannot be controlled by anyone. He will be absolutely dangerous then”

Suraj was hungry even after finishing the first apple. When he picked the second apple in his hands, the knife fell down by mistake. He bent and took the knife. Caesar who was sleeping under the sofa got up. He saw Suraj and started to lick in his legs. Suraj was moving to a different state. He started to feel uncomfortable. He pushed the Labrador aside but it would not budge. It came back and got on his lap. Suraj started to shake his left leg vigorously, his hands started to tremble and he was not in his control. He gathered force and reached out for the knife. He closed the dog’s mouth with his left hand and stabbed it on its stomach. The dog was trying to escape but the 210 pound Suraj would not let that to happen. He pierced it again and again till its last breath. Its corpus was on his lap and his shirt was soaked in blood. The front part of his shirt was full of blood. Rohit came out of his bath room and was stunned to see the state of his dog. He moved away from Suraj, but the man in the red shirt would not let that to happen. Suraj was in a different state of mind and he caught Rohit by his neck and stabbed him. Ahmad opened the door with the spare key and came running to his boss, just to see the man in the red shirt killing his boss.