THE BELT BY Anand Rainman "The inner lining of the belt is coated with RDX. You strap it around your hips, walk towards the President and when you are near him, press the remote, the bomb goes off, tearing you and the president into pieces." But their first two attempts ended up in failure. First it was Rani. The President was giving a lecture in a huge crowded hall. After the lecture, when he was stepping down from the stage, the press people ran forward and surrounded him. Rani moved along with the press people. She had the forged ID card of a famous weekly. While all the press people were trying to interview him, Rani inched forward, moved closer and pressed the remote. But at the last moment, the crowd broke free of the police chain, surged forward and enveloped the press, crowd and the President. The bomb went off in the melee, killing 20 innocent people in the crowd, 8 press people and three body guards. But the President escaped with minor injuries. Second it was Rita. She had to wear the belt, ride the bike at high speed and crash into the President's car when it came out of the President's bungalow. The impact would make the bomb explode. But the bomb did not go off when it hit the President's car. The impact made the bike fly high in the air and in midair it exploded with a bang. The pieces and the fragments fell on the trailing pilot car and the President escaped without a single injury. Now it was Anita's turn. She took the belt coated with RDX, and tightened it around her jeans pant. She stood before the photo of the High Command. "Please give me courage to finish this task." She prayed for a minute. Then she took her hand bag and came out of the small hut. A young man was waiting outside on a bike. All the other huts were silent. All had gone to the riverside to do the morning exercises. The young man would take her through the dense forest and drop her at the city limits. From there she would take a bus and go to the auditorium where a function was arranged to celebrate the President's 60th birthday. *** The Captain was expecting the human bomb. It is definite they send one to the function. He should be more careful. The whole auditorium was checked for bombs by the sniffer dogs. Each person entering the hall was allowed to pass through a metal detector. People without the V.I.P passes were stripped naked and thoroughly checked, especially their belts. Those with V.I.P passes were sniffed by the sniffer dogs. The auditorium was slowly getting filled up. So far no untoward incident. Anita was in the V.I.P line. She was allowed to pass through the screen which would detect guns and knifes hidden on the body. She came out the screen. The dog was made to sniff her body. The dog became restless and let out a uneasy howl. If it spotted a bomb, it would let out a high-pitched bark. The captain, who was looking through the camera of the T.V. crew and studying the faces of the people present inside the auditorium to find out any suspicious character, turned sharply and looked in the direction of the howling dog. He jumped from his seat and walked briskly to the agitated woman dog trainer, holding the sniffer dog. "What's the matter?" He enquired. "This girl wore a heavy perfume..." "Show your ID." Anita showed him the ID card she kept ready in her hands. The ID indicated that she was a fashion designer in a reputable fashion designing concern. "I came here to study the dresses the V.I.P's wear. It's useful for my profession. I can explain about this perfume. It's a sort of eve teasing. Some teenagers threw this perfume while I came to this place..." "We want to check your ID..." "O.K.. I am ready..." The Captain called a woman constable. "Take this girl, photograph her, fax the photo to her office and confirm whether she is working there..." "Okay. Sir.” A row of Guest houses were built behind the auditorium. They used one of the rooms to check the credentials of the suspicious characters. The room was equipped with computers, fax machines and cameras and Anita was escorted to that room. A few minutes after, the captain heard a heavy din. The general murmur heard over the auditorium suddenly stopped and there hung a heavy silence. Some of the police people tried to move outside to inspect. But the captain stopped them. "Don't alarm the people. You all stay inside." He walked casually and, without alerting anyone, he came out of the auditorium. He crossed the long queue of people waiting, they all looked at him questioningly, and when he reached the back side of the auditorium and well out of the view of the people standing in the queue, he started to run. When he entered the long veranda before the guest rooms, he smelt gun powder and he saw a group of police people standing before a room. The woman constable ran forward. "Sir...that lady killed herself. She told me that the perfume smell is nauseating and she felt like vomiting. I showed her the bathroom. She went inside and few minutes after I heard the sound." The captain went inside the room. The bathroom was collapsed. Bricks, mortar, broken basins, blood, bones and the torn pieces of human body were strewn around the room. The Captain came out. "Play it cool... Don't break the news to anyone until the function finishes off. If the news spreads, there will be an alarm, people will disperse, and the function stops. It will anger the President and the party people." The Captain came back to the auditorium. He told the people who asked him about the sound that some people were digging a well behind the auditorium and they set off a bomb to break the dry land. Soon the auditorium became full. The Captain heard the sound of the President's arrival. The fleet of cars stopped before the auditorium, the President's body guards stepped out quickly and lastly the President came out. The body guards and the ministers surrounded him and escorted him to the auditorium. The President reached the stage amidst heavy claps. He was brought to sit in a chair in the centre of the stage and the function started. The Captain was watching the function in a relaxed mood. A group of school children were playing a small drama on the stage. So far so good. Suddenly he heard a noise at the entrance of the auditorium. A sniffer dog was running inside the auditorium at high speed. It was literally pulling the trainer behind it. At one point, it broke free from the trainer and ran at high speed towards the stage. The other dogs, kept at the side of the auditorium, also pulled their trainers and ran behind the dog. They all smelt a bomb. It stunned the captain. How? How could they plant the bomb inside the auditorium without his knowledge? He checked everywhere. How? How could they? He should do something. He should stop the bomb from exploding. The dog ran at high speed. It jumped on the stage and it ran towards the... and it ran towards the... ran towards the... towards the... the... The President!!!! Then it flashed in the Captain's mind. The belt... The belt strapped on the neck of the dog... He turned and ran towards the dog trainer. He jumped on her, pinned her hands and stopped her from pressing the remote. The high command deliberately failed the third attempt. Jansi was selected for the fourth attempt. "You disguise yourself as a dog trainer. A trained dog will be given to you. You strap the belt bomb around it's neck. The dog is trained to find people by their smell. After the President enters the auditorium, you trail the dog behind the president and make it smell the scent of the President. You wait for sometime, then you go inside, free the dog and let it go towards the President sitting on the stage. The dog sniffs the scent of the President and moves forward. All the other sniffer dogs will smell the belt bomb and follow our dog. Nobody will guess the lead dog is carrying the bomb and all the other dogs are only trying to catch it..." But the captain smelt the trick at the last moment and caught Jansi before she could press the remote. ### Anand Rainman is a writer in the regional language of Tamil and has published 22 crime novels in famous weeklies "KUMUDAM" and "ANANDA VIKATAN" both having 25 lakhs readership. Anand Rainman lives in Tamil Nadu, India.