Hello, Mr. Major General (1)

Chapter 140: You Can't Lie To Me

Once he was outside of the Secret Service building, Sidharth looked up at the night sky and let out a long sigh.
Despite his efforts, Abhay Reddy had slipped out of his fingers.

Rohit walked over and offered him a cigarette.

The two men stood under a large tree, a short distance away from the Secret Service building, and began to smoke.
For them, smoking was the quickest way to de-stress and calm their nerves.

Rohit was halfway through his cigarette when he received a call from the Senate.

"Hello, this is Rohit Maan speaking. Oh, yes, I'll let him know right away." Rohit ended the call and then said, "Sir, it's for you. They want you to report to the Senate Hall."

Sidharth threw his cigarette butt into the trash can under the tree. He packed his M16 assault rifle into its case and tossed it to Rohit. "Let's go."

...

It was now three o'clock in the morning. Sidharth stood before a podium in the Senate Hall conference room and was giving a report of his military operation to his audience: the chairman of the Senate, the Foreign Affairs and Intelligence committees, and the heads of various government agencies.

General Rawat, the commander-in-chief of the military, sat in the last row with his guards and personal secretary. The anger on his face was plain to see, but his wrath was not directed towards Sidharth; on the contrary, he was here to back him up.

Abhay Reddy was the deputy director of the Secret Service department, and therefore occupied a high-ranking position.

On top of that, he was a member of the powerful and influential Reddy family; the Reddys were deeply rooted within both the upper levels of government and the elite society of
the India.

Sidharth had gone after a member of the Reddy family without giving any of the military higher-up prior notice. He
was well aware of what would happened if he did not put forth a valid reason for doing so: the potential fallout with the Reddy family would be disastrous.

General Rawat had carefully groomed Sidharth to be his successor, and fully intended for him to take over his position as commander-in-chief of the Indian Military one day. For that to happen, however, Sidharth's resumé
had to remain clean of any possible scandals. However, General Rawat had already made up his mind: he would side with Sidharth, even if it meant incurring the wrath of the entire Reddy family.

Sidharth was sure that General Rawat would support him to any extent, yet he did not think he was worthy of any
such protection from the general; he had failed to put a bullet in Abhay's head, and now Abhay had escaped from the India. This was by far his worst failure since joining the military.

Sidharth looked at the documents in his hand: Rohit had obtained a list of everyone who had exited the country in the last month from the Indian Customs, and had sent it to him a moment ago. There was a grim smile on his lips as he said, "Good morning, Chairman Bhatt, and esteemed gentlemen. I stand before all of you today to inform you of a high-level defection in the Secret Service."

The room quickly erupted into a litany of angry exclamations and threats.

"What?!"

"Watch what you're saying, General Shukla!"

"The Reddy family has served the India faithfully for many generations. Many of our family members have given their lives for the country over the years as well. How dare you speak such lies and slander?!"

"General Shukla, you have been extremely impudent and reckless in your dealings with the Reddy family. Did you think that you could get away with it, just because your father is the head of the Military Political Department? Or were you relying on the reputation of your grandfather-the former deputy commander of the military-to bail you out of trouble?!"