Hello there! How's it going? Well, it’s been over two months since the second part. So sorry if I have made you wait (!) for a long period for the third part. It’s been over a month since I blogged – I wanted to write another short story for a contest hosted on Cognizant Blogs, but couldn’t find time to finish. You might wonder what I was doing during these days – work was there, but I was actually Lost. Finished the series “Lost” by last week and since then I’d been dying to write back. The good news is, I’ll most probably finish The White Knight in about four to five episodes (7 to 8 episodes in all), so – Thanks for your patience? :-D
This is my 50th Post in the blogger world, but I've crossed over 70 blogs at Cognizant in about just over an year! Thanks for all your support!
Enter the White Knight!
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Disclaimer: While the technology described in the story may come true, chances are they are my wild imagination and creativity. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Episode 3: Progress...
It’s been over a month since the White Knight had exposed the corrupt cops. Since then, every day, his website was updated with photos of corrupt cops, doing things. Until a week ago, it was just photos – but from last week, the photos had details of the cop – who he is and why he is committing a crime. The media feasted in it and described The White Knight as someone who could change the history of cops – history of crimes and history of India. Some of the celebrities, when asked about The White Knight, said they’d feature in a movie as ‘the-white-knight’!
The Commissioner was really pissed. Until a week ago, it was only photos and they were able to manage the press. This White Knight is proving to be difficult – he’s publishing details of the cops now, making it unbearable for the cops to come out. He’s just showing his power! On a personal note, Thiru did notice that the crime rate in the city had gone down tremendously. Cops coming into duty on time and considering it seriously while doing it! “This guy really has some power. I don’t know why he’s doing this though!” said a fellow police officer and Thiru just admitted “He’s got a good heart!”
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“Ram, tell me why are you doing this?”
“Come on, Raji! You know why and why are you asking it now?”
“I know why, but you know you cannot keep doing this forever. Eventually you’ll get caught!”
“I know. Commissioner Thiru has narrowed it down to 5 people and I’m on the top!”
“What?”
“Yeah, and I didn't know the other three people on the list – I just know one guy!”
“So, you knew you’d get caught by Thiru. Why haven’t you told me any of this?”
“I didn’t say I was going to get caught very soon! And I’m very sure it’s not Thiru who catches me!”
“Why not? You say he has a list and you’re on top. What’s stopping him?”
“He knows what I’m doing is right. Not by the law, but by the heart.”
“Yeah, but his heart is not the law. He’ll have to answer to someone. And he will come for you.”
“Hmmm. Yeah, maybe someday… But not in the near future – that I can guarantee you.”
“Come on, Ram! If he thinks what you’re doing is right, why is he collecting a list?”
“To meet me!”
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The-white-knight.com was updated. The media called it “Finally” and it said the following.
The cops are now behaving; it’s time for people to behave.
Warning: Misbehaving people will be, as usual, monitored and then a list of such will be given to the cops. Now, in a normal way you would think that’s cops’ job and you know how to handle cops – you’ve seen them, manipulated them. Remember, the morale of the cops had been boosted, so there’s only a little chance you’d be slipping.
I’d been only finding faults in the cops, and forgot there are good cops too and how they got into trouble by staying out of it. Now I believe they are ready to serve the people. During this one month, I’d been watching people misbehave towards the cops, mentioning my name. This would not be the case anymore.
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“It was rather an unclear update as to whether the White Knight has stopped watching cops or started targeting people. It is true that we have also noted some people, despite doing wrong stuff, slip away from the hands of the cops, who perhaps were scared that their name would be coming up in the White Knight’s website if they take action. This update could be a dawn for the good cops and might create panic for people who make trouble. We are yet not sure on this, but we’ll probably know more very soon.” Said a media.
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“We’ll meet soon” he said and hanged up.
“Who are you meeting?” asked Raji.
“Just a fellow hacker – one of the guys who are on the list of Thiru.”
“Why do you want to meet with him?”
“It’s a surprise. I’ll tell you all the things very soon. But first, I need your help in writing an algorithm. Think you can handle a bit of Linux?”
“What do you want the algorithm to do?” she said, taking a seat near him.
“Hack, ofcourse. Target is android mobile phones.”
“All of ‘em?”
“Yep, all of ‘em. Right from Cupcake until the KitKat”
“And how do you intend to send his algorithm into all android phones?”
“That’s the easy part. I’ll tell you when it’s ready, now get on with it. Time’s of essence.”
She started moving her fingers over the keyboard. Ram looked at her for a second and realized what she is doing. He’d been kept her out for most of his stuffs, but the time is really going fast and it’s only a matter of time before Thiru or someone catches him. He decided to make the most out of it and in his desperation; he had turned his wife into an accomplice. It’s all for the good cause, he said to himself.
“So, I saw the update – you’re really going to target the people?”
“No, that was just a ‘go ahead’ for the scary cops and a warning to people. I’m not going to do anything on this. I’m sure I’ve made an impact to the people in Tamil Nadu – they know what I’m capable of. So I don’t think they’ll misbehave.”
“How are you so confident?”
“Because, people believe. They’ve seen what happened to the vehicles and what happened to the mighty cops. They’ll be scared of what’ll happen to them. If they still don’t – well, that’s why we have cops, right?” he said, finishing his codes and getting up.
“Where are you going?”
“It’s time!”
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“You’re the White Knight?”
“I am. It’s nice to finally meet you, Su”
“Wow, you’re good. Very few people know me as ‘Su’.”
“I know. I just wanted to impress you. Your other names would be ‘Root’, ‘Creep’, ‘Nerd’ –”
“So, you know my real name?” he cut him off.
“I do.”
“Well then, I’m at a disadvantage here. You know a lot about me and I know nothing about you.”
“That’s why I’m here.”
“I don’t want to know anything about you. I know what you do and I’ve figured how you do.”
“Why didn’t you stop it?”
“I think they deserved it. What surprises me is what’s that you want from me. I’d been personally working to crack your website and locate you, but I can’t so far!”
“Don’t underestimate yourself Su. You might have cracked, but you just don’t know it yet!”
“Wait a minute. Are you –”
“That’s not why I asked you to come here. I need your help in building something.”
“Now, why would I do that? Commissioner Thiru has a put out a healthy bounty on your head. Why can’t I just hit you and take you to him? It’d be a nice little retirement for me!”
“I know you wouldn’t do that because money is not a problem for you. You can hack into any bank and take any amount of money without their knowledge. I know you’d done this once.”
“I have no idea what you are talking about.” For a moment, he went pale.
“Save it Su. I’m not Thiru.”
There was an awkward silence.
“You’d been chosen, Su. To do a very important work that you’ll one day be proud of.”
“Why me?”
“Because, you believe.”
More awkward silence followed.
“What do you want me to do?” he said, making up his mind.
“It’s a challenge, Su. I’ll tell you all about it on the way.”
“Where are we going?”
“To my den.”
“To your what?”
“My place. That’s what I call it. I’m Ram, by the way – you can call me so if you’d like to, Karthic!” they shook hands.
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Thiru was going over the list once again.
- Ram
- Daniel / CaptainJackSparrow
- Karthic / Root#
- Valli / The_Pink_Panther
- Christy / “T#3 0r@c1é”
He only had the list, but he had no idea where these guys are. He’d been trying his best, but he could not get a hold of anyone. How could these people be hiding like this? And, whyare they hiding?
He knows only one on the list is the White Knight and if that person is what he thinks he is, then it’d be hard to find him. He had already sent out the CM’s Elite team to work – their top priority being “Find Ram”. If Ram is not the White Knight, then Thiru was so sure that he could help him find the rest. He knows he was a glorified software engineer. After his only son’s departure, Ram had been out of the lime light and no one knows where he is. From what he heard, Ram took his son’s death as his own fault and has been punishing himself since then. All his friends didn’t know where he is and they last heard of him was about 7 months before. Thiru took a pen and circled Ram’s name on the list.
“I’m coming for you, Ram!”
--- To be continued.
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