Early in the morning, they got an email, saying that Nandini ma’am wanted to give an overview the upcoming mission.
For this mission, Pathaan was assigned his team, which consisted of:
Amol, Joseph, Raza, Rishi, and Shweta. Shweta is the ethical hacker in their team.
Pathaan would be going to Moscow alone, but for the first day he would be accompanied with Nandini ma’am and can request backup if needed.
Pathaan was confused as to why he would need company but did not question it.
In the meantime, Shweta was looking at information that would help them find the infamous agent, but there was nothing, at least in their eyes, which was relevant.
The only information she was able to recover was information about the Goddess Kaali, the Goddess Who Is Black, the Goddess of Time, Death, and Destruction1.
Figure 1 - Goddess Kaali: Source: https://integrallife.com/goddess-returns#swipebox
Once, she viewed the image of the Goddess, she received an untraceable email, in which there were a few files including a picture. When Shweta saw the picture, she could recognise a pattern and as soon as she started to decode the picture, she produced two links that refer to two clips; specifically, a YouTube clip of “Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai”, from Hum Kisise Kum Nahin and “I Am The Best (Female)” from Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani, except there was a note attached to the second song. It said that you had to replace the first word of the song with the 21st letter of the alphabet.
Right at that moment, Nandini ma’am shows up and listens to the song, running on Shweta’s laptop.
Just after a few minutes, she gets a ping from her email, signalling something new has been received.
“It’s a link, Nandini ma’am.” Shweta notices there is also a file attached to the email. “There is also something else.”
“Can you find out what it is?”
“It’s just a list of numbers, ma’am.”
“You do not think there is a connotation between them? She would never do something that is genuinely random. There is always something connecting the things together.”
“The linki turns out to be a site with a long list of songs, ma’am.”
Shweta began to look at the song list and the number list and began to see a unique connection and started wondering aloud.
“What if the numbers are like pointers, which refers to the songs?”
Turns out that this Kaali need some help. And quite frankly, sooner rather than later.
“So, after all this time, now she needs my help.” Help? Everyone is very confused, and as far they only that they had apprehend the NSI agent, not help her.
Pathaan asked, before anyone started assuming.
“Help ma’am? You said that our mission was to catch the agent.”
“Call it intuition Pathaan, there is something there that is stopping her from completing her mission. And she stops at nothing.”
Pathaan and his team were even more perplexed than before; just what was the bond between this “Kaali” and Nandini ma’am?
Later, when everything got finalised, everyone in the team got a packet, referring to the mission.
The next thing in his list was to make any notes and do research on this Kaali, but like Shweta, he was also stuck, he could only see the Goddess, in all Her Glory.
The minute Pathaan got settled and turned off the government-issued laptop, he started wondering if this was all a trap from someone. Or could it be an attack on the Indian Government? The possibilities were endless.
After he reached home from work, he got a call from Nandini ma’am, asking him if he was free. So, they met at a common place they both know, and it is safe from prying eyes.
“Oh, Pathaan you have come. Please have a seat.”
“Ma’am, it’s not that I have a choice, I still need the salary.” He said, smirking while sitting down.
“I am assuming the reason you have called me here is to share something about the upcoming mission.”
“It is related to the mission. I have called you specifically so that you know that the enemy is not Kaali.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because she has been the other agent that I have trained personally.”
Everyone in RAW knew that Nandini Grewal had trained only two people: one was Pathaan, but the other was a mystery.
“Her mother and I were close friends before I got involved with RAW. We met on a trip where both of Kali’s parents were there. Kaali’s father is a judge in the Supreme Court in her parent’s country, and her father also dabbled in politics as far I know, so you understand the positions it can put her and her family.”
“Kaali or Kaali’s mother?”
“She was a kind soul, never hurt anybody, loved people with all her heart, but staying with her husband made her cynical, and almost numb, except for she had her daughter, and later two boys.”
“Is the mother alive or…?”
“No, she passed away due health complications.”
“No, she died later when her daughter was nineteen. The boys were quite small.”
“Kaali’s father initially was an alcoholic man who had no control with his rage and would belittle everyone.”
“Even his little baby boy, the youngest.”
“So, when you are going to meet her, you will not tell her that I have told you this.”
“As far I know, she is an exceptional agent, so I will not say anything. She will figure all on her own.”
There seem to be a strange silence falling on them.
“How does she look like?”
“I only have this picture of her, with her mother when she was alive.” Then she took out a small, withered piece of what would look like paper.
The picture showed a smiling mother, holding a small bundle of joy, covered in small blankets. And there was a young daughter, about 4 or 5 years old looking at both her mother and her young baby brother. She was not happy with the small baby.
“She told me that Kaali was so jealous of her own baby brother, she started losing hair because she would tear her own hair down.”
“And what does she do now when she gets angry?”
“She does what she does best, she kills demons.”
In his mind, there was a question that required answering. Okay, there were more than one questions that needed an answer, but knowing his boss, he might only get one chance.
“Ma’am, why does RAW want us to retrieve Kaali for these documents? And why did you specifically ask us to do complete this mission?”
“I know there are a lot of questions and not a lot of answers, so I will tell you this: Kaali is taking more than she can manage, but she is stubborn, so she won’t ask for help. You must force feed her.”
Pathaan looked at her, confused.
“Okay, the analogy wasn’t on point, but you get what I mean right?”
“Yeah, I understand. But force feed?” He started laughing.
“Yeah, yeah settle down Pathaan”.
“Why is she being targeted specifically for this?”
“I don’t know, but whatever this is, it’s going to be both our jobs to do our best.”
After the long discussion, they ended up having dinner together and soon they took to go to their homes.
Pathaan’s mind was swimming in questions about this Kaali, even though some of his questions were questioned. He wanted to know more about Kaali, so he stayed up to find some information about Kaali, but nothing.
The next morning when he reached the office space, he saw the team gathered outside Nandini ma’am’s personal office.
“Guys, what are you doing?” He referred to the group.
Amol answered for the group. “We all heard that Nandini ma’am is stickler to rules when she is here, but she talks with her partner, she turns into a lovesick puppy. We just wanted to see that.”
Since, they were all talking to each other, they weren’t able to see the supposed change and by the time they turned around, Nandini ma’am was not in her office anymore.
“Oh crap!” Amol exclaimed!
“Guys….” Nandini ma’am was expecting an answer, but… the team was in a dilemma: Lie and get reprimanded or tell the truth and still get reprimanded.
Pathaan takes the blame, so he gets confined in his desk. And for the entire day, from the moment he heard that he was going to apprehend this agent, he could feel something was amiss.
“Nandini ma’am told us about the mission, and we are ready Pathaan Sir.”
“You know, what we must do? And do you know about Kaali?”
“Yes, we have to get to Kaali before anyone else does, or she might get into some serious trouble and yes, we know about Kaali. Nandini ma’am briefed us a couple of days ago.”
“Okay, let’s prep then guys.”
