Chapter 27 : Xombie Apocalypse

The final chapter in this journey is upon us. The ultimate conclusion for the ultimate plot for the ultimate power. The sixteen hour concludes from Team Supernova. You can read the previous chapter here or you can go to the begining on our facebook page and read in sequence.

"He just has to make things harder for me," Jennifer said as she struggled to open the door that Sasha had bolted. She got inside the cabin closing the door behind her, "Damn it. One spoilt apple can ruin the entire apple pie."

"All along Sasha was planning the biggest coup of his life, dethrone me. My grandfather established the Xombie empire by using his military connections.

My father expanded it to smuggling but when I took over they raised questions. How can a woman lead a criminal empire? I had a singular focus since my Engineering days, I knew I was good at one thing. Computers, the modern equal of oil and gold. Information passing along at tremendous speed on the information highway. I decided to expand it to the Internet. Made Xombie the biggest hacking organized effort ever. I had foot soldiers like hackers, rebels and leakers from many organizations. We waited, we watched and we collected information. How stupid I was to not know that Sasha all along was gathering information on me. He used his own band of followers and even used postal service to gather evidence against me. You know how much nuclear codes from a country cost in black market?" Jennifer asked, "I can buy this train and hundreds like that with that." 

"Sasha gathered a lot of information against me. Even I do not know what it contained," she continued, "...But your wife outsmarted him. Seduced him to get information from him. Snatched all sensitive information and contacted Sarkar with it. Stupid fool, when he learnt what my organization was up to, he came up to me blackmailing me to help him become PM. All men are bastard; they just do things for money, power and lust. Double cross me, expose me." 

"Had to play along with him till I could," Jennifer said, "he was resourceful but Sasha was clever. He faked his own death to get himself involved with us. There was even a fake death certificate on his name in the system."

"When my boys came to know about your trip to Delhi," Jennifer said, "I realized the extent of the troubles I was getting into. But I came to know about it late, you were already in Delhi by the time I came to know. My boys lost track of you from Mumbai. Cyrus was already a pain in my neck; I decided to take care of both of you in one shot. Sasha came back with a story of remorse and revenge. He told me about your wife and her betrayal. He was convinced that Roohi was his child, a replacement for his dead child. Your wife strung him along till she could dry him out of information. He offered his help to get information from you, and in return he wanted to see you dead.”

"Why were you crying earlier?" Cyrus asked.

"I am the boss of a criminal empire," Jennifer said, "I don't have the luxury of crying but yes I had a moment of weakness on meeting Sasha in the train. As per our plan, I had to play along as a passenger caught unaware with the hijack, but I saw a very different and scary side of him. Something I hadn’t seen ever before. I doubted his loyalty. The train had no communication with the outside world. He was going to make you a scapegoat for the hijack and at the same time expose me. Brilliant genius. I wanted to kidnap Roohi and use her as a leverage to make you hand over the file. Sasha’s friend Ravi and yet another neighbor of yours from Lonavala meddled in that kidnapping and all this while I thought Ravi was on my side. Men, tsk. Ahuja was good, he never trusted Sasha but that man gives me creeps. He is on nobody’s side but himself. As long as he is paid well, he is on my side. Now that’s the man I can trust."

"Anyways, where was I with you two?" she looked at Cyrus, "You feel cheated do you? Do you feel cheated when the government takes away almost fifty percent of your hard earned money? Do you feel cheated when you as a lawyer rob people of their life savings?"

"You are heartbroken Cyrus," she continued, "That teaches you a lesson on trusting people. Now Shekhar."

"See let’s not make it harder than it is," Jennifer said, "I could have you shot dead the minute you got on this train. Buried your body so deep into the ground that nobody could find you. The only reason you are alive is because we needed a scapegoat to pin this hijacking on. Your face is currently flashing on all news channels as the hijacker of this train."

"Shekhar," Jennifer said, "I want to inform you this as gently as possible. There is no way out of this. This is it, the end of line. You are not getting out alive from this train. In few minutes there will be a diversion, a blast somewhere on this train and by the time people realize what has happened I would be long gone. You could give me the file before I leave or it burns with you. The train will stop and authorities will have their hijacker gift wrapped for them. Tara gets discredited and whatever information she has on me is useless. All the work she has done is gone."

"I will never give you the file," Shekhar said, "You can kill me now but you are not getting that file. Only I know where is that file on this train, when I ran with the bag and hid it. But you could stop this train and tell us where the bomb is and perhaps you will not get into deeper mess than it is already."

"That is not going to happen," Jennifer shrugged, "It ends here. The end of line. In fact I am bored, I don't want the file. Sasha has ruined my mood."

Shekhar and Cyrus looked at each other.

"The file you have, it already has a lot of information about my organization. That's three generations of criminal empire raised by my family. If I can't get it, the train is going to blow."

"Jennifer," Cyrus said, "No matter how far you have gone on a wrong road, turn back. I saw you cry a few hours ago. I know you are playing with things beyond your control. Turn back Jennifer, turn back. This is not justified. Prove you are a better person."

"I...oh... Cyrus," Jennifer explained, "I... can't...it’s over."

"No Jennifer," Cyrus held her by shoulders, "It is never over until you think it is. You still have time to do this right. It’s OK, Jennifer."

"There is nothing I can do now Cyrus," Jennifer said, "I am locked into this room and Sasha has gone to stop the train. Soon there will be a swarm of military over this. We cannot reach the bomb in time anyways."

"We can," Shekhar said, "The train is not stopping till we reach Mumbai Central. There is something you do not know. I don't have the file with me, I never had it."

Jennifer looked at Shekhar stunned, "I was just a decoy to help her plan the whole thing. Sasha betrayed you, he wanted your organization. He was gathering intelligence and evidence against you but none of that was enough to arrest or implicate you. There was no mention of who ran the organization. There was no mention of who was the ring leader and without that information the rest was of no value." Shekhar spoke, "That's where I came in. I wrote this plot. We kept fake email and mobile chains to let Xombie know that we were up to something big. We provided you evidence that would cause panic. We knew that will force the head of the organization to come chasing after us. I was the decoy to bring you out in the open."

Shekhar knocked on the door, "All I did today was buy time till we could reach Mumbai."

The compartment door sprang open and in walked Sasha handcuffed and carried by a team of plain clothed police men. Jennifer pulled out her gun.

"Sorry Jennifer," Shekhar said as police officers surrounded him and Cyrus.

"Ma'am, these are six excellent marksmen from Mumbai police, you cannot take us all out. It is better for you if you put down the weapon."

"Inspector," Cyrus said, "There is a bomb on this train."

"It was set for sixteen hours since the train started," Jennifer said, "If you don't let me go, it is going to blow."

"You are bluffing," Sasha said, "There is no bomb on the train, my men searched the whole train. We didn't find anything. We have been doing that for last sixteen hours."

"You did not look in one place," Jennifer looked outside the window, a helicopter was flying close to the train. She unbuttoned her jacket to reveal a wired bomb strapped to her torso, 

"This bomb will blow this train to bits with me and everyone in it."

"My ride is here," Jennifer said, "Perhaps you have won this battle Shekhar. Your wife she is smart but remember Xombie is everywhere. Now gentlemen, move out of the way. I have a helicopter to catch."

Jennifer rushed outside as the policemen gave her way, "We can't let her escape," Cyrus said.

"There are two thousand people in this train," the inspector said, "I don't want innocent blood on my hand."

"She can't escape," Sasha said, "My men are riding that helicopter. She will get her on board diffuse the bomb, if we make a deal I can get it parked wherever you want. I want immunity from arrest. I walk free you get Jennifer and Xombie"

"How do I know you are telling the truth?" the inspector asked.

"You don't," Sasha said, "We can work out the details later but Jennifer is not going to escape for a long time."

"If we get her," the inspector finally said, "We can talk about that."

The police men took over the train and the train was finally brought to a stop at Mumbai Central station.

"Look at that," the inspector said, "Sixteen hours of non-stop running and this train is on time today."   

One last thing, it does not end here. There is an epilogue to go through isn't it? Hop on for the final epilogue over here.

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