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A warship sinks during peacetime. Everyone presumes it to be an accident. Lieutenant Commander Rajen, the Weapons Officer, suspects otherwise. But when he puts forth his theory of sabotage, he is ridiculed and accused of negligence and unprofessionalism. Now he must prove his point lest his reputation is tarred for ever.

In his quest to establish his innocence, he stumbles across a sinister plot of systematic sabotage of strategic naval assets. The saboteurs are ready to execute the biggest attack ever. Rajen is racing against time.

Can he expose the Enemy in the Ranks?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Commander Varinder Taprial was born in the city of Chandigarh in 1967. He is an electrical engineer and has been in active service in the Indian Navy for the last 22 years. He is currently living in Mumbai with his wife and son. He can be contacted at book.eitr@gmail.com.

AN EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK

After lunch, Rajen arrived at his office to find a message on his table. It asked him to contact the president of the board of investigation. He called up the number written on the message and was told to make himself available the next day afternoon. Rajen was dreading this moment secretly. He still had not been able to come up with any concrete evidence to support his theory about someone tampering with the rocket. He made a mental note to take a spare solenoid from one of the ships to at least prove that someone indeed tampered with the solenoid onboard Vijay.

He went to his captain’s cabin. Murali was having lemon tea and invited him to join in. Rajen thanked him and told him about the summons from the board.

“Look at the positive side, it will be over and you can restart your normal life,” Murali told him.

“Sir, our lives may never be normal again if we are held responsible in any way,” Rajen replied.

“Still obsessed with the idea of sabotage, forget about it, you can’t prove it,” Murali answered.

“I can, at least I can try, if you will permit me,” Rajen said.

“What are you suggesting?” Murali asked.

“Let me go through Kishori Lal’s room.”

“Are you crazy? That is trespassing and without a plausible reason.”

“I have a reason,” Rajen told Murali about sighting him behind Taj hotel with another man. “We can say that we suspected him of selling bonded items from the ship’s canteen to civilians. Isn’t that a good reason for you to check his room and belongings?”

Murali thought about it and said, “Okay, but we will inform him that we
are doing it.”

“That’s fine with me.”

Murali called for the regulating staff and told them about the requirement and then asked them to get Kishori Lal also. Ten minutes later he along with Rajen went towards the sailor’s block. Kishori Lal along with the regulating staff was waiting outside his room. On seeing Rajen, Kishori Lal gave him a stare and a frown appeared on his face.

“All the lockers and suitcases are open, sir,” the Regulating Petty Officer reported to the captain.

Murali and Rajen entered the room along with the Regulating Petty Officer. They closed the door behind them. It was a single room with a locker and a bed on one side of the room. There was a writing table and a chair next to the bed. A suitcase under the bed was the only piece of luggage Kishori Lal had.

“All yours,” Murali said to Rajen, “What are we looking for?”

“Contraband, bonded goods, cash,” Rajen said loudly and then went closer to the captain and whispered, “Anything out of the ordinary.”

The Regulating Petty Officer pulled out the suitcase and opened it. It was full of clothes and personal effects. The RPO started taking out the clothes.

“Check the pockets,” Rajen said and moved towards the locker. He saw some uniforms and two pairs of civvies on hangers. There was a small drawer. He opened it and found it full of toiletries and stationery items. He put his hand in and moved the items to see if anything was underneath. Nothing. Ironed clothes on the shelf above the drawer. Rajen removed them one by one feeling the pockets. Nothing. He checked the clothes on the hangers. First the uniforms. There was some loose change in one of the pockets. Rajen moved on to the civvies. Nothing in the shirt pocket. It seemed like the shirt which Kishori Lal had worn the day Rajen had followed him. He felt the pant pockets and found something hard inside. He put his hand in the pocket and removed a thin pocket diary. He opened it. The first page had the sailor’s personal details like name address etc. He flipped through the pages. It seemed like reminders, things to do, kind of stuff. The sailor seemed to be quite organised. Everything written in the diary was quite evident to be routine entries. On the last page Rajen saw some numbers written one below the other. There were twelve of them. Rajen read all the numbers. They did not make sense other than the fact that all of them were five digits.

Rajen looked around. His captain and the RPO were still busy with the suitcase. He took out his cell phone and took a snap after zooming into the content. There was nothing else of significance in the diary. Rajen put it back in the trouser pockets and proceeded to check the rest of the locker.

After a few minutes the RPO stood up and said, “There’s nothing here, sir.”

Murali looked at Rajen as if asking what to do next. Rajen shrugged his shoulders. All three of them then went out of the room. Kishori Lal was still standing there.

Rajen looked at Kishori Lal. Kishori Lal smiled at him and asked, “Didn’t find what you were looking for, sir.”

Before Rajen could say anything, Murali said, “Don’t make too much of it, sailor. We received some information and acted on it. Just doing our job. Anyway it is nice to know that the information was incorrect.”

Murali and Rajen walked away from the sailor.

“Don’t think I did not notice. What was it you snapped?” Murali asked as soon as they were out of earshot distance from the others.

Rajen took out his cell phone, “Just some numbers. I can’t make out what they are.” He showed the snap to Murali who studied it for some time and then said, “Beats me too. Are you satisfied yet?”

“I will be, once I know what these numbers are.” Rajen replied, “Anyway thanks for humouring me.”

“No need. It’s my arse too.”

Rajen parted ways with him and straightaway headed to Nidhi’s office. He told her about the board having called him.

“I feel so sorry for you. I wish I could do something,” Nidhi said.

“You are too junior to make a difference.”

“And too ignorant. Now look at this,” Nidhi slid the file she had in her hand towards Rajen, “Some report which comes to us every month and I do not know what it is or what to make of it. Just plain numbers, as far as I am concerned. I wonder if anyone has ever done anything about it.”

Rajen looked at the letter on the file. It was from WMO and contained
five lines.

‘Report of unverified transmissions for the month of March are listed below,:

Date – 25 March

Time – 1945 hrs

Frequency -14.325 Mhz

Probable Source – Cell Phone Tower, Vikaspuri, Santa Cruz

Rajen looked up, “There’s nothing to it.”

“Oh yeah! What do you know about it?”

“WMO is the Wireless Monitoring Organisation.” Rajen explained, “It works under the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology as part of the Department of Telecommunications. The WPC, that is the Wireless Planning and Coordination department is responsible for the management of frequency spectrum and enforces the wireless regulatory measures. It is their job to see and regulate the utilisation of the frequency spectrum. Everyone using wireless has to take a license from these people. WPC assigns the frequency of operation. The WMO in turn is responsible for monitoring all kinds of radio emissions to ensure harmonious use of the spectrum and also to see that no unauthorised usage is taking place. They have twenty two monitoring stations spread all over the country and also a satellite monitoring facility. They are headquartered in Delhi at Pushpa Bhavan. Mumbai has it’s monitoring station at Gorai Road, Borivilli.”

“And, how do you know so much?”

“Used to be a HAM enthusiast in my younger days. What this means is that on that particular day there was a transmission recorded at the listed frequency which is unauthorised, and they could not trace it out and have attributed it to the cell phone tower at Santa Cruz. Wait a minute,” Rajen thought for some time, “Oh! My God.”

Rajen took out his cell phone and opened the camera files. He opened the picture he had taken of the page in Kishori Lal’s diary and zoomed in. He scanned the numbers and found 14325 on the third position. His eyes lit up.

“Can you get me the last month’s report?” He asked Nidhi excitedly.

“Sure,” she pressed the bell and asked the sailor who responded to get her the WMO file. The sailor was back soon with a file. There were two entries in the WMO report that month. The frequency listed for both was 14.105 MHz. Rajen checked the picture. Right above the number 14325 was the number 14105. He feverishly turned the pages in the file to find the report for January. He saw 14.010 MHz. In the snapshot, he saw the number 14010 above 14105.

“God, these are all frequencies I found in the diary belonging to Kishori Lal. They are listed in a sequence. From January to December. That can only mean one thing. He is using these frequencies to contact his accomplices. Didn’t you tell me that the Vajra documents were stolen on the twenty-fourth March?”

“Yes.”

“Is it just a coincidence that the date listed here is twenty-fifth March?”

“You mean Kishori Lal stole the documents and then contacted his friends to deliver them.”

“I think so. But that’s not possible. I was sailing that day and so was
Kishori Lal.”

“That means there are more people involved.”

“Could be. Definitely worth investigating further.”

Nidhi was not convinced, “In this day and age of mobiles and email why would anyone risk a radio set which requires an antenna and is much bulkier?”

“I don’t know yet, but the simple reason seems to be that the cell numbers and email id’s are easily traceable and records are kept of calls made, emails sent etc. With a wireless radio set you transmit for a few seconds and all you get is a report from WMO which no one could care less about.”

“I think I will go and meet these WMO people and ask them about the tower?”

“I? Let’s make it we since I need the information as much as you do. In addition, why don’t you tell some of your men to check up on Kishori Lal’s background and let’s see if he’s got something on him?”

“I will have to tell my boss that.”

“That’s alright. By the way, I met the captain of Sukarna after you had left. He insists the steward is innocent.”

“Why would he do that? Why is he protecting him?”

“Protecting? How are you so sure that the steward did it?”

“Elementary. He owned it up?”

“You mean the steward….”

Nidhi was smiling and then went on to tell Rajen the entire conversation she had with the steward.

“Amazing,” Rajen said, “But why would the CO try to save the steward?”

“Skeletons. He knows of most things that go on in the CO’s life on board. His behavior, indiscretions, mistakes, etc. That’s the funny part; it may not be about the document at all, but guilt about something else. Guilt, it does overkill at times.”