An Upgraded Soul

Time seemed to stop when Aditya heard Arjun's outburst which revealed too much information for him to process immediately. His breath had stopped along with his brain becoming blank.

Parents missing

their identity cards erased

even their birth certificates were gone

no evidence of their existence to even file a police case for investigation

even his home gone along with their property

even social media.

Aditya whipped his phone from his pocket and searched for his parent's accounts in social media. Because he did not want his parents peeking into his social media account where he could actively pursue his love interest, Aditya had not added his parents to his contacts because they were anyway available always, he didn't find the need to add them. These months he had not paid attention to any social media or relatives so he didn't know that his parent's accounts have been deleted.

When Aditya saw that he could not find his parents accounts any longer, his heart cooled as his fingers trembled. Who could delete accounts from all those powerful media websites who owned hundreds of billions of dollars having high-end network security systems to protect their Encrypted data?

Who could delete all government records of a person's existence including even hospital visit records. What kind of terrifying abilities 'those' people had to have to even transfer all their property like it was peanuts.

The more Aditya thought the more he felt it was horrifying, how was he going to save his parents when he was not even sure if his parents were alive. Aditya clenched his fists so tightly that his nail almost dug into his flesh. His breathing quickened, eyes reddened and his whole body was faintly trembling with the bombardment of many doubts, fears, thoughts in his fragile young mind.

Aditya was feeling multiple emotions at the same time, he was confused as he still could not phathom Arjun's words completely, he felt helpless and despair at his powerlessness to save his parents from such a terrifying 'faceless' enemy, he felt anger at many things, he was angry at himself for not being able to do anything, he felt angry at the government which was supposed to protect its citizens but could not do so, he felt wrath at this 'unknown' enemy for taking away his parents. But the main emotion he experienced was that he was worried about his parent's safety. He immediately wanted to find his parents by whatever means possible.

" Aditya, you don't worry, whoever it is, we will save your parents from them, we can definitely..." Bhadra who was more concerned about Aditya's pain did not fully understand the current scenario and so could utter those words without any fear. Jatin held Bhadra's hand to stop him from speaking while shaking his head vigorously. Bhadra noticed that Jatin's hands were covered with cold sweat which startled him. Jatin who was more cool-headed and broad-minded could actually understand the fearfulness of these people.

Aditya seemed to have not heard Bhadra's words or Jatin's actions when he raised his head to look at Arjun as he asked the question, "if my parents don't exist in government records anymore then who am I?"

Arjun looked at his superior, who had lowered his head and became still like a statue, for a second before deciding to say, "according to the records in official records, you are an orphan right now, abandoned by his parents when you were young."

"Orphan?" Aditya slowly muttered as Bhadra and Jatin were also stunned when they heard these words. He remembered his mother's beautiful face which inspired calmness in his mind whenever he looked at her. He remembered his father's diligent face when he would work overnight while Aditya slept on his l.a.p. It was like something had cracked in his inner world and burning hot viscous lava flowed out when Aditya these words. He suddenly did not feel fear or restlessness anymore, what will happen at the most, he will die, isn't it? His mother used to tell stories that when people die, they would come back in the form of inanimate objects or animals or if you have very good karma, you could even be born as a human. So, what was dying once considered as? Since 'they' made him into an orphan, he swore that he would make them 'history'.

Aditya turned to look at his poor uncle who had suffered a lot to try to find his parents, Aditya smiled as he sat beside his uncle with his head resting on his shoulder. He said, "it must have been tough on you uncle, I don't blame you, don't worry, no matter what we will find mother and father."

Uncle Ramu who had been silent all along suddenly broke into tears as his body trembled as he hugged Aditya tightly. He said with his shaking voice, "No matter what, I have treated you as my own son since I had no son of my own, so promise me that you will concentrate on your studies and that you won't act recklessly, you still have me and your Saira elder sister, you have to remember this at all times. I will take care of you, you don't have to worry about anything else, alright?"

Tears rolled down Aditya's cheeks as he heard his uncle's words, his uncle seemed to have figured out he had sprouted a death will just now. Aditya patted his uncle's back as he nodded repeatedly.

Bhadra, Jatin and Arjun had turned away and waited in a distance as they knew, Aditya and his uncle needed some privacy right now to talk about some personal matters.

When uncle Ramu calmed himself down, he smiled and said to Aditya, "you have grown tall again from the last four months, you seem to be on a hormone rage, you have also become more handsome, I think all the girls in the college are falling head over heels for you." as he rubbed Aditya's head.

Aditya smiled and did not reply. Aditya knew where his uncle got this idea from. Actually, when he was in a different school in his 10th grade, he had gotten himself involved in many romantic skirmishes with his classmates though he never crossed the last line, which had always brought him troubles with the girl's parents. It was always uncle Ramu who had to pretend to be his father and get scolded by the other party's parents. They had successfully covered this matter without his father knowing because Aditya knew that if his father ever found out this matter, the record of not getting hit by his father even once would be broken. If Aditya didn't meet Anupama and decided to seriously pursue her, he would have most probably continued this trend of playing around.

Uncle Ramu became solemn after some small talk as he took his phone and showed a picture to Aditya which surprised him. It was a picture of a blond teenage kid of around Aditya's age taking a selfie with his ,Aditya's, parents. His father looked solemn wearing formal clothes whereas his mother was wearing western office lady clothes and looked really cheerful as she winked at the camera with her left making a 'v' sign (victory symbol). They were words above this photo which looked like it was cropped from a Facebook post, "Had a wonderful flight from Paris, met an amazing couple from India"

"When was this taken?" Aditya asked excitedly when he saw his parents being alright, he felt like a huge weight had been removed from his shoulders.

"A week after your parents went missing." came the reply

"Where was this taken?"

"Heathrow Airport, London"

"how did you find this photo, was this from this boy's social media profile," Aditya asked

"No, you do know that your sister had participated in many missions that were conducted in collaboration with other country's special intelligence agencies, right?"

Aditya nodded

"it was your sister who got into contact with a friend from Mossad who had used its contacts from Britain to get this picture from 'Mastering The Internet'(MTI)."

"Mastering the Internet (MTI)?"

"it is a clandestine mass surveillance program led by British communications intelligence Agency 'Government Communications Headquarters' it gathers "raw" information (without filtering out the communications of British citizens), so all the information on social media is also automatically stored by them for future reference."

The Facebook account of this boy who had posted this picture was hacked in just two minutes and all his profile and information was deleted. Luckily this photo survived in the database of MTI which was retrieved by your sister manually without accessing the internet.

Aditya deeply inspired when he heard this news, he had got two very crucial news from this, one, he was made susceptible to the fearfulness of these people when he heard that in just two minutes the kid posted the picture, even if he didn't tag his parent's accounts or even mention their names, yet they were able to find the picture and delete the account of the boy. wouldn't it take a highly advanced facial recognition software program which worked at an unbelievable speed which was faster than contemporary supercomputers to achieve that? He was once again reminded of the difficulty of his task.

Two, this was good news, when anyone saw his mother's posture and gesture, they would not find anything special or vital but Aditya knew what that action meant and it really made him almost shed tears again. Now he knew where to start, he was not clueless anymore. But he did not express his thoughts even to his uncle. He knew that his uncle did not want him to enter these muddy waters and wanted him to concentrate on his studies, build a successful career and live a happy life, but he knew he couldn't do that. His uncle was right in his way of thinking and Aditya was right in his way. The difference lied in 'point of view'.

Also now Aditya was not a commoner any longer, at least from the last two weeks, his memory and calculative skills had grown exponentially. He was sure that if he could apply his enhanced mental abilities in the right way, he would stand a better chance of saving his parents.

Now that his parents had been alright after a week of missing, it showed clearly that 'those' people didn't want to kill them as it would have been too easy for them to do and this much hassle was not needed. All Aditya had to do was start searching for bread crumbs which would lead him to them.

"Actually Saira had also brought news of the organization which could have done this, at least she said that this organization has the capability to perform such a feat." Uncle Ramu hesitated a little before speaking to Aditya. He wanted to give some hope to Aditya as he feared Aditya would just charge recklessly trying to probe their roots which would be only like smashing an egg on a rock.

Aditya jolted when he heard that his elder sister had news of 'these' people as he grabbed his uncle's hands and asked, "Who is it, uncle? You say it is an organization, where is it?"

"Shadow Organization" his uncle spoke a few words

Aditya didn't show much expression when he heard the name because he felt it was very pale.

His uncle saw his expression and guessed his thoughts as he smiled bitterly and said, "If you think this is the name of the organization, then you are mistaken, this was the name given by the top intelligence agencies of the world when they could not find out the real name of this organization."

"What!" Aditya was shocked when he heard this, the top intelligence agencies could not even find out the name of this organization?

Uncle Ramu nodded, "Your elder sister also said that, though this organization is very powerful, it has not only never committed 'over the top' atrocities, on the other hand, it has also cooperated with many top countries including ours in many fields like medicine."

"What kind of cooperation?" Aditya felt dubious when he heard, how could an organization stand on an equal footing with top countries and negotiate with them?

"I know you wouldn't believe or understand this, you only need to know this organization had given away the cure for Alzheimer's disease for free without expecting any payment. Also the rehabilitation program your elder sister is attending was also possible due to acquiring the necessary technology from the organization." Uncle Ramu patiently explained.

"By the looks of it, this organization should not take away my parents." Aditya doubted whether the ones who took away his parents and this organization were one and the same.

Uncle Ramu shook his head as he replied, "That is why, your elder sister said that, this organization has the capability to do such a thing but its not for sure whether they were the guilty party."

Aditya nodded as he understood, taken the multiple complexities surrounding his parents missing, how could it be possible to pinpoint the culprit? But one thing he could feel a bit relaxed about was that at least his parents seemed to be unharmed for now. He had gained precious time which was the most important commodity, there was no time to lose.