Chapter 29: A Thousand Times Over

740 93 10
                                    

Rohit had attached an exceptionally fine needle to the tip of his oil-paper umbrella.

The refined needle was hollow, and contained a deadly poison specially developed by the Indian Army.

Oda Masao was really getting into the swing of things now.

Just as he was at his most excited, he felt something cold brush against his calf; it was barely perceptible, lighter than a mosquito bite. He did not stop to think about it. His short, stumpy figure continued to twirl and dance around the cherry tree.

Rohit laughed and, following the example of the other dancers, gave a few twirls himself. At the same time,
he nosed his way out of the crowd with the umbrella, and made for the main street.

He could see that there were several Secret Service personnel around Oda Masao, surreptitiously watching over
him.

However, everyone present was entranced by the beauty of the falling cherry blossoms. And besides, Oda Masao had successfully hid his true identity for many, many years, and
had never attracted any kind of
trouble. The Secret Service personnel could not be blamed for not noticing that Oda Masao had already fallen victim to an attack.

Large streams of people ebbed and flowed from Shinjuku Gyo-en. Rohit quickly blended into the crowd leaving the garden grounds, and made a beeline for Tokyo Imperial University Hospital. He was going to regroup with Sidharth there.

By this time, Sidharth had already returned to Oda Masao’s laboratory and grimly set fire to all the
documents, leaving nothing but ashes. For the coup de grace, he installed an incendiary time bomb in the lab, one that would soon start a massive fire.

Deepak’s face grew even more solemn as he watched all this over the surveillance camera. He silently erased the video, then decided to be even more thorough: he uploaded
a computer virus to Tokyo Imperial University Hospital’s intranet.

The virus would lie in wait on the network; it would only spread through the intranet, wiping all confidential data along the way, when the network administrators realized something was up and launched their contingency measure.

When Rohit arrived at Tokyo Imperial University Hospital, Sidharth had just come out through the front doors.

The two men met up, but did not say a word. They got into a taxi, one after the other, and sped towards Tokyo
International Airport.

Deepak, who was in charge of logistics at the airport, was already on the phone with the India’s civil aviation
airline.

As they would be flying on one of the India’s civilian aircraft, they were allowed to bypass most inspections when boarding the plane. It was their privilege as citizens of the India.

Once Sidharth and Rohit arrived at the airport, Deepak immediately led them to an airline attendant, and registered Sidharth’s backpack as check-in luggage. This was how they were going to get the test tube samples out of the country.

Sidharth and his companions flashed their special boarding pass at the boarding gate. They did not have a lot
of luggage with them. After going through airport security, the three of them strode confidently to the VIP passageway.

“This way, please.” An attendant stood politely at the entrance to the cabin, smiling as he ushered them inside.

He arranged for them to be given a private room in First Class, away from all the other First Class passengers.
The plane quickly took off and did a half-circle above Tokyo before flying towards the India’s International Airport, in C City.

Hello, Mr. Major General (1)Where stories live. Discover now