A wall of cactus. That is what stood between Rudra, Deepa and the promised land! Dusk was fast approaching and it had been a really long day since they had mounted their early morning raid at the Celebration Hotel.
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But the raid had, at least initially, yielded pretty little. As planned, Deepa and Rudra had confidently entered the slightly sleazy lobby of the hotel and after smiling patronizingly at the bleary eyed night watchman had walked up to room 9 on the second floor. Internally, they had been all a flutter -- what if their key did not open the lock? -- and they had heaved a sigh of relief when the key turned with a smart click. But their joy was short lived. Other than an unopened bottle of Talisker Single Malt and a few bills, receipts and a small, partially torn, dog-eared copy of a tourist guide map of the Panchet-Maithon region, there was absolutely nothing else of any interest in the room.
Since they had checked out of the previous hotel, Rudra had wanted to stay in the current one and work out a plan but Deepa was very nervous. Perhaps Pandey-ji's people, or worse, his enemies were aware of this place? So they had quickly left the hotel and found a decrepit roadside eatery, or dhaba, where they decided to have breakfast. The dhaba-owner was still in the process of lighting the fire so mother and son had some time on their hands.
"Ma, this map means that Pandey-ji has a safe house somewhere in the vicinity."
"But where? How can we go around looking for it?"
"I wish there was someone whom we could ask or check with."
"But you would never know whom to trust."
"Let me look through the note book that we found in the bag that we escaped with. I remember that it had some telephone numbers."
Rudra rummaged through the backpack and pulled out a smart, leather covered notebook that was wrapped in a cellophane sheet -- obviously, to protect it from water or moisture. It contained a set of coded names and numbers that mother and son tried to decode.
"PaCha, MaMi, MuRo .." whispered Deepa, "these look like abbreviations of first and last names."
"Followed by phone numbers."
"SBI, HKB, PNB ... these are names of banks followed by account numbers."
"Or are they internet banking ids and passwords?"
"Hmm .. should we try calling the numbers?"
"And say what? No one knows about us or that is what we think, and it is better to leave it that way."
"Look at this one, LaLo and this one has two phone numbers 2368-5504, 86730-50800."
"One looks like a Calcutta landline number ... but those have stopped working ages ago. Why would he still carry it?"
"Ma, I am getting an idea .. what could LaLo mean? think .." there was a sudden urgency in Rudra's voice.
"No idea, kid."
"Look at this map," and he pulled the tattered Panchet-Maithon map out, "do you notice anything special."
"No. Just a very small scale map. Shows only very big features."
"Can you see the latitude and longitude lines ..."
"Very broad ones at 10 degree gaps, 20, 30, 40 degrees of latitude."
"And a latitude of 23 would lie somewhere here ..." Rudra pointed to a square.
"Wait!" Deepa whispered, "Are you saying that LaLo means Latitude and Longitude? and not the name of any person?"
"See the Longitude, 86, which should be between 80 and 90 East and that is a square that contains Panchet Lake!"
"Kiddo, you are indeed a genius. This must be the latitude and longitude of an important location in this area."
"Wonder who thought this up? Pandey-ji? or Teesta?"
"Whoever, but we have a challenge, the scale on the map is too small. The lat-long goes to fourth place of decimal. Where can we get a map that detailed?"
"I have an idea," smiled Rudra. "If only we could access wikimapia and type in the lat, long in the URL, we should be able see the exact location."
Which is what they had done next.
After a hurried breakfast of alu-paratha, they had taken gone to the bus stand near the railway station and had located a cyber-cafe where for an hourly fee they could access the internet.
"Private cubicles?" the owner had asked them with a straight face.
"What is the difference?" Rudra had asked in all innocence.
"Well, couples like it, you know." A smirk had cracked through his poker face. "Private rooms, love seat, we can also serve liquor inside. Only 300 bucks per hour, plus the drinks of course."
"No we are OK with these ..." Deepa pointed to the desktops located in a row of semi-private booths in the hall.
"No problem, 30 bucks an hour here," and pointed them to a machine in the corner.
The owner had warned them that the connection would be slow and the reality was worse. But the five minute wait for the map to load and then zoom to the highest scale was worth it!
"Wow! what a place Ma!" whispered Rudra as the cross hair positioned itself on a tiny peninsula on the south bank of the Panchet Lake, about a kilometer across from the Panchet Dam.
"There is a lagoon there." Deepa pointed to an inlet of water at the tip of the secluded peninsula.
"But how do we go there?"
"We need this map, kid. Can you get a picture of the screen on your phone?"
"I will take a screenshot and transfer the image to the phone, that will be better."
"Good. Get some maps of the whole area as well ... so that we know how to go."
The cafe owner was used to requests for downloading images-- usually lurid porn-- to cellphones and, for a small charge, he loaned them a cable that Rudra used to transfer a couple of map screen shots to his mobile.
"Well, this place is between the two arms of the Panchet Lake and the nearest big landmark is this Raghunathpur Thermal Power Plant, 5 km to the west."
"We will see that later, but first delete the maps from their machine," cautioned Deepa. "I don't want anyone to know where we are headed."
"And I am deleting the cache and the browsing history, as well. No one should know what we were searching for."
"Now fire up some genuine porn on the browser and let us think of what can we do next."
Mother and son were wedged tightly in one of those internet-browsing "booths" and it was as if they were a couple watching porn together on the web. Which would have been odd at 11 o'clock in the morning but it was not so because there were quite a few others who were engaged in similar activity. Actually, the cyber-cafes of old had degenerated into cyber-bars and now pick-up joints and there was one particular middle aged person who was pacing up and down with a drink in his hand and actually ogling openly at Deepa.
"Ma, there is a guy who is staring at us," whispered Rudra. "Should we leave this place."
"I know, but I have another idea ..."
"What?"
"Do you see that motor-bike key lying next to the computer that he is using."
"Hmm." Rudra nodded in agreement, "and the screen on his computer has an animated gif that is screaming Sex!"
"If I distract him long enough, can you get the key and locate his bike? We need a transport out of this place."
"Sure why not? But how will you get him away."
"Just wait and see. These sex crazy men are such suckers in front of wily women."
"Ok, tell me what to do."
"When I am gone, you pick up the keys, pay off the our dues, locate his bike and wait outside."