Chapter 210 - This proof was two-fold.

"As far as I can tell… there was never any mission by the name of Operation Redtape. Nothing that actually involved combat at least. If there ever was such a mission, it had to have come from the highest ranks and kept completely off records. But 4 people were dishonorably discharged from the army because of it including Karthick. The list is here…" Zack said handing over a bunch of papers having the information on those 4 people. The information was brief but it still covered all the basics like schooling, family, and work history.

One of the evidence in the drive also contained what Karthick had sent to Adithya as proof.

This proof was two-fold.

The first part was, of course, the money trail. The money he got for confessing and accept the conviction. It is not that much of a stretch to guess that Karthick was coerced. After all, he was in the police custody while his wife was left out in the open… vulnerable.

And the second and most important part is… Karthick had an unredacted report statement of his mission as an undercover agent inside the syndicate. And his mission statement was personally signed by Girish.

This was what sold the idea to Adithya that he was being framed in the first place. After all, he knew Girish's signature.

"If there was no mission, then why was Karthick discharged in the first place…?" Shreya asked confused.

"If I were to guess, Operation Redtape is most probably the mission Girish created to bring down the syndicate. And all these 4 people went undercover… and all of them are dead now. I have attached the death certificates along with it. But since they were all discharged by the army and Girish never gotten around to re-instating them, they all had civilian burials. And except for Karthick, all the other 3 people had accidental deaths, and no autopsy was conducted. But what really stood out was that all three accidents happened within 2 weeks of Karthick's death." Zack substantiated.

Shreya flipped through the information… as far as she can tell, all four people had clean records until they were discharged after Operation Redtape.

"Karthick probably came to the sight of Prime Minister that day to protect him after hearing something about their plan and Naren should have known about him being undercover and Prime Minister… and sent someone to kill the Prime Minister and framed it on Karthick. Killing two birds in one stone…" Zack continued.

Shreya skimmed up to the last and closed it before turning around to Adam and Akash.

"What do you guys find?" She asked looking at Adam.

Adam handed over a bunch of files and started talking, "Well, Adithya found out that the gun found with Karthick was later exchanged with another. There was a discrepancy between the initial written report taken at the scene and the report which was finally submitted to the court. This guy is probably responsible for it…"

This went on for another 30 minutes before everyone stopped and Shreya started thinking.

"So, the syndicate tied up loose ends after killing my parents?" Shreya muttered out loud.

"As far as we can see, the only person ever survived is the witness… and that too thanks to your dad. Karthick was stabbed in his own cell and nobody noticed anything… I couldn't figure out how this could happen. And he was trained…" Akash said.

"That leaves us with money trail… Where are you with that Pritham?" Shreya asked.

"Working on it Shreya. I know where they kept their money before… God, they made a lot of money. I am just not sure where they are keeping it now…" Pritham said handing her the statements for the year when her parents were killed.

"Forget about tracing it to the current accounts. Abimanyu is not stupid… he would have first transferred the old accounts to his legitimate company before taking them out. We can't possibly figure it out without inside help. For now, I want you to track down the clients and make a list. Track who and all made payments to that particular account. Also, track down the other accounts in other banks with the same aliases. Make a list of clients and the date in which the payments are made." Shreya interrupted him.

"For what purpose Shreya?" Adam asked not understanding why she wanted a list of bad guys a decade ago.

"We can match those to the crimes committed by the syndicate. After all, every client on that list got to be a prominent figure if they can pay the money demanded by the syndicate and any mishap happened to such families are always reported in the newspaper. If we can backtrack the money to the source… then we will have leverage… And leverage on such families is an asset." Shreya said.

"But all the actual evidence would be dead or destroyed by now… at best, we can speculate because of the money. What if they come up with a legitimate reason for the money transfer… we will have nothing on them…" Akash speculated in doubt.

"Yes��� you are right… we can't do much to corner them individually. But collectively… we can rule them. They can't all have an excuse… even if they do, it will be just too much of a coincidence that it will be hard to make the public believe." Shreya explained with a sly smile.

Everyone's eyes brightened instantly. Pritham couldn't contain his excitement. He couldn't wait to start working on the list. His eyes were practically worshiping Shreya.

Shreya went on with the other things… she spread out everything else she had in the table in the conference room and started walking in circles as she always does.

"This evidence we have on Girish's murder case is too old Shreya. And everything is circ.u.mstantial. We can't really do much with it. Even if we make it public, with their powers and connections, we will be the ones to be sued for slander." Zeenath pitched in. She was out and getting drunk last night. So, she couldn't show up last night when she got the call from Adam… she did not even pick it. She heard the voice mail only in the morning and came straight here.

Shreya did not bother replying though. Because she had considered it already.

Finding this evidence was never about taking them down… never has been. This evidence is just leverage… something that could help them get into the doors.

But she wanted to know whether this will be enough. She did not want to carelessly leave any loopholes they could climb out of.

She did not want to miss something that was so very obvious in the first place as she did with the painting.

Another half-hour passed in silence… Everyone in the room stayed silent. From yesterday… the only person added was Zeenath. She did not invite Anand, John, and Harshad for this… at least not yet.

After a while, Shreya sat back on her chairs and started giving away orders, "Here is what I want from you guys…"

"Zack. Srinivas… run deep background on the other guys in Operation Redtape. I need confirmation that they are all dead. And, if I am not mistaken… one of them had actually turned a double agent. Find the person and motive. Without that tip-off, there was no way the syndicate could have found out about the operation in the first place. Girish is not stupid enough to talk about this to anyone."

"He could not have trusted anyone in the government. Karthick should have figured the same… That's why he had reached out to my father instead of government officials. I need their personnel files… unredacted."

After all, if Karthick had shown his mission reports before that, it would have disappeared from the face of the earth a long time ago.

Karthick did not have any family outside of his wife. So, he had originally accepted to his fate fearing what would happen to his wife… but once she had died… there was nothing chaining him down anymore.

Even when he knew that he did not have the power to take them down, he still fought back with all his might. And he had been smart enough to reach out to Adithya... a complete stranger to him. 

Adithya was someone clean and outside the government who would not gain any benefit from covering it up. But more than anything… Adithya was someone who had truly cared about Girish and his family… their relationship was not based on interests.

Sending the evidence over to Adithya was his last stand as a man and a soldier. The minute he had sent it out, he would have known he wouldn't be alive much longer. But then, by that time… he did not have any reason to keep himself alive. They never had kids… so, all that waited for him on the outside was an endless amount of despair and loneliness.