Rajiv casually surfed the channels of his newly installed Dish TV. He came to an abrupt halt on Star Movies. He pressed the right arrow on the remote, and looked at the list of the movies that were to be broadcast that day.
Terminator: Salvation
The Rock
The Longest Yard
Terminal Velocity
Rajiv paused for a second at the last name. He had seen all the listed movies except that one. The title sounded familiar for some reason. A few moments later Rajiv clicked the Info button on the remote. Immediately the entire plot of the movie flashed on the screen. Rajiv read the first few lines:
A maverick skydiver and a former KGB officer team up to stop the Russian Mafia from stealing gold.
Rajiv pressed the exit button on the remote and the synopsis collapsed. He usually avoided reading full descriptions because sometimes they revealed juicy twists in the movie. Something similar had occurred to him when he was reading the synopsis for Vantage Point.
In this action-packed thriller, Agent Barnes (Dennis Quaid) finds his fellow agent responsible for the death of the President of the United States. Little does he know that the President had been transferred to a secure location and replaced by a double before the gun-shots and the bomb blast. The real President is also kidnapped, and finally it comes down to a vigilant citizen and an innocent girl to foil the attempt of the terrorists to kidnap the President.
Rajiv chuckled at the recollection, and made up his mind to watch Terminal Velocity at 9 pm, after he returned from work.
He shot a quick glance at his watch. 9 am.
He was getting late for work, so he switched off the TV and got dressed. After 15 minutes he locked the house and left for work. He was hired as an intern in a website for the summer, and his parents had gone to Shirdi for the week. Rajiv made his way towards the lift and pressed the down button. The lift took a long time to come from the top floor to the third floor. After another two minutes Rajiv exited the six storied flats from the ground floor.
Rajiv lived in Vasant Vihar. The building in which he stayed was one of Delhi's least populated buildings. They were hardly eight or so families in the buildings, and three have of them had left for a vacation. The rest were either old couples who hardly left their house. This made Rajiv the only user of the elevators.
At 9:23:05 Rajiv heard a thud sound in close proximity. He wheeled around to scan for the origin of the sound and found himself staring at a man.
Or what had once been a man.
Rajiv tensed and felt his body paralyze with fear. Numbness washed over his mind and he was unable to do anything but stand on the spot where he was frozen. After what seemed like an eternity, his pulse rate started slowing as he came out of the shock, and his mind began functioning.
Apparently nothing could be done for the man. He had fallen head first in the ground from a great height. Rajiv assumed he had probably flung himself from the terrace. His eyes were wide open and he didn’t move a muscle. Streams of blood flowed from under his body, which made Rajiv nauseous.
Rajiv stepped backwards to see the terrace and his hearts beat spiked again as he saw a mobile phone drop next to the dead body.
After steadying himself for over a minute, Rajiv drew out his own cell phone. He paused as his fingers hovered above the keypad. He was about to dial his parents’ number but thought that it would only create more panic. Instead he called the Investigators.
Go to Episode 2
