5th March 2032
06:00
SNA Naval Base, Teknaf
Sohel, Mitali, Jacob and Naomi were reviewing their plan to raid the island when a soldier came into the conference room and said that the Admiral had called for Sohel.
Sohel thinks, "Why would the Admiral want to see me now?"
He sends the soldier away, saying that he'll meet him soon. The soldier salutes and leaves the room. Sohel continues 's to review his plan, and once he's done, he orders them to get ready to head out and leaves towards the admiral's office.
The Admiral's office was a big square room with a large window on the left side overlooking the docks. The floor was made of tiles, and their was a big secretariat table with a revolving chair behind it. Rear Admiral Bashar Khan was sitting in the chair with a tensed look on his face. He was looking at a monitor on the table.
Sohel knocks on the door and steps inside after a few moments, as he doesn't get a response from inside the room. He gets close to the admiral's table and says, "Sir, you called for me? ....Sir?...."
Sohel taps the table to make a noise and again says, "Sir, did you call for me?"
Admiral Bashar regains his senses and looks at Sohel. He says, "Oh, boy, you're here? Have a seat."
Sohel nods and sits down on one of the two office chairs kept in front of the table. Once he sits down, Admiral Bashar turns the monitor towards Sohel and says, "Look at this. It came just 30 minutes ago."
Sohel looks at the monitor. It was a letter from the Indian Navy.
Sohel asks, "What does it say, sir?"
"They're asking you to visit them first before heading on to the island. Apparently, they know something about that island that's making them wary of it."
"Did they say what it is that they want to talk about?"
"No. But they're heavily insisting that you meet them before heading for the island."
Sohel puts both his hands on the table and starts thinking about what to do.
"So, what will you do? We have no obligation to pay heed to their request, as this mission doesn't actually concern them."
"We'll go meet them. If their is something that can take down the Delta squad and make the Indian Navy scared, then we too can't take them lightly. We need all the info we can get."
"Okay, then. I'll prepare a helicopter for you. You will meet with Rear Admiral Jayesh Agarwal at the Indian Naval Base in Goa."
Sohel nods and gets up. He asks, "When can we leave?"
"20 minutes."
11:45
Indian Naval Base, Goa
SNA's hind chopper lands in a helipad on top of the main building of the Naval base. Sohel and squad, all of them in their official white and blue uniform, get out of the helicopter and see a man in his early 50s, wearing an admiral's uniform, waiting for them. There were two other people, both in their late 20s, wearing a Lieutenant's uniform, standing behind the general.
The helicopter flies away once the bravo squad gets far enough. The admiral walks up to Sohel and extends his hand for a handshake while saying, "Welcome to Goa. I'm Rear Admiral Jayesh Agarwal. I'm the one in charge of this base."
Sohel shakes the man's hands and says, "Captain Ghost, leader of the Bravo squad of the SNA."
Admiral Agarwal introduces the lieutenant's behind him: "They are Lt. Atharva Malhotra on my right and Lt. Nehal Kumar."
Sohel introduces his team too: "This is Lt. Medusa, my 2nd in command; he is Sgt. Blast, our heavy weapons and explosives expert; and she is Sgt. Mitali Roy, our field medic."
All of them greet each other. Once that's done, Sohel says, "Now, can we move on to the main topic? You said you have some crucial Intel that can help us in this op."
The admiral says, "Yeah, we do. Please, come with us."
The admiral takes them down to a conference room.
The conference room was totally empty, with only a small stage on one side and a large rectangular monitor covering most of the wall with the stage.
The admiral turns all of the lights off and turns on the monitor. A bird's-eye view of the island shows up on the screen. Lt. Malhotra was controlling the monitor with a tablet.
The Admiral says, "Go ahead, Atharva."
Lt. Malhotra starts speaking, "What you see here is a bird's-eye view of Suchitra Island. It's an oval-shaped island, with the middle part being almost 5 km wide. The distance between the two narrow parts on the east and west side of the island is around 11 km. The island used to be an air base for the Indian Air Force before being destroyed and abandoned during the Third World War. Their is an air strip on the east side of the island, a pier on the south side, an administration building, soldier's dorms, and armoury on the north side. The western side of the island remains covered in a jungle."
Naomi asks, "Is the island still abandoned?"
"No. The island was bought by Mr. Arindam Sen two years ago."
A photo of an Indian man in his early 50s. He was almost bald, and his face was covered with wrinkles. He was wearing a black shirt and a lab coat.
"He used to work in the Indian Army's psychological research division. He retired two years ago and bought that island. Ever since he bought that island, he's been living there."
Mitali says, "Nothing seems out of the ordinary."
Lt. Malhotra says, "Until nine days ago, when we received some reports from local fishermen saying that they keep hearing mysterious sounds whenever they go close to the island. It sounds like a lot of people are running around. So, we sent a petrol boat to investigate the situation, but we lost contact with them the moment they landed on that island. When they didn't respond for almost 30 minutes, we sent another petrol boat. But the result was the same. We were thinking of sending a full squad to investigate, but just then we found out an SNA aircraft had landed on that island. So, we decided to wait. But last night, we got Intel that you were going on that island. It wasn't that hard to figure out what had happened. So, we decided..."
Admiral Agarwal cuts him and says, "So, we decided to give you all the information we had in exchange for letting us help you in this operation... So? What do you say?"
Sohel thinks for a moment and then looks at his squadmates. All of them gave him a nod of approval. Sohel looks back at Admiral Agarwal and asks, "How many men are you willing to lend?"
Admiral Agarwal smiles profoundly and says, "Two nine-man squad led by these two Lieutenants will work under you. The men are already waiting for you in the briefing room. They're already geared up and ready to move."
"Good. I've asked for one of our squad to be here before coming. They should be here soon. I'll brief them together once they're here."
Sohel looks at his squad-mates and says, "Everyone, gear up."