Flight to New Delhi-Part 1

Their departure day, to travel to India, was two days away. All had started packing. Tania had to see to the preliminaries before locking up the house.

All perishable items had to be disposed off. She had given one set of keys to her maid so that the maid could come, in her absence to do the cleaning and airing of the house.

Tania and her paternal grandparents as well as her maternal grandmother were traveling on the 23rd of the month.

Igor had quietly booked his flight for the 23rd of the coming month. But his ticket was booked on a subsequent flight to that in which his mother and others.

He had managed to find out their flight timing and had deliberately booked the subsequent flight. He already knew their destination and he also knew that they would be heading to Kalibangan in Rajasthan, after reaching Delhi. He had also visited the Indian Embassy to secure a visa to enter India.

He had told all of them in the library that day that he could not get a booking done on the same flight as the flight was fully booked,

"OK, That is good!." Tania had responded and added, "We will all leave together for the airport after locking the house."

As per their plans they would be staying in Delhi for the night at a hotel near the International airport. A room had also been booked for Igor who would be joining them a few hours later as he was traveling on a subsequent flight and reaching New Delhi within three hours after the others had cleared customs and reached the hotel.

Their stay at the hotel was to be extended as they would make it their base for visiting various tourist spots in and around Delhi and then to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and other monuments.

This had been decided earlier in a discussion a few days ago.

As regards Igor, Dada ji had said, "It is better Igor travels with us so that we can keep an eye on him."

They already knew his intention was to grab the ancient jewelery, crown and the sceptre that Sanya had hidden in the undiscovered cave near Kalibangan. The robe would have become tattered by now but the rest of the things would be intact. After all the cave had not been discovered.

Before heading to Kalibangan, the family would visit certain places within Delhi and the day after that they would all head to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and other monuments in Agra.

The day after that they would be proceeding to Jaipur in Rajasthan. Here, they needed to make inquiries from people know to Dada ji about Kalibangan and get information of the excavations which were in progress there. They would also need to obtain permission to visit the excavation site.

Tania's psychiatrist would be joining them in Jaipur a few days later as he had already made arrangements to stay at a hotel through his Indian friend who practices psychiatry there. Sanya needed to be called in case she did not come in Tania's dream.

Igor had no idea about who Sanya was. He just knew that she was someone Dada ji and Tania were meeeting in moscow and who had information about hidden treasuere.

Finally, it was the 23rd of the month and all were ready to move, a few hours earlier to the airport, for the International flight. Tania called the cab and then asked everyone to moved their suitcases from the bedrooms to the library.

She started to locking up the rooms, one by one.

Igor had removed the new listening device from Tania's room and had conceiled it in his suitcase between clothes to avoid its detection at the airport through the scanning machines, in Russia as well as in Delhi. Hence, he did not make a noise.

A bunch of keys, pertaining to the main lock of the front door and of the rooms, had been handed over to Tania's maid. Her maid was a responsible and reliable person who did her work efficiently and quietly. She was also paid two months salary in advance for the period Tania would be away from the house.

The taxis arrived and the house was locked and everyon piled into the taxis along with their luggage and headed for the airport.

As soon as they entered the airport lobby, an announcement was being made for the passengers heading to India via their flight, to check in. They all headed to the counter and checked in through the machines, then stood in line to have their luggage weighed, and stamped and tagged. Tags were issued for the cabin baggage.

All done, they bid bye to Igor as he was to sit a while. The checking in of his flight had not been announced yet.

They then headed toward the counter to have their passports stamped and get their boarding passes.

After clearing that they went to wait in the waiting area assigned to the passengers of their flight.

But unknown to them, Dada ji had not joined them at the counter. He made a bee line to see what Igor was doing. Igor was sitting and talking to someone on his mobile phone. A heated argument was going on.

Igor was arguing with someone at the other end of the phone. Dada ji moved closer to hear what was going on and stood againt a piller to listen.

"You had no business to steal the apparatus from my room!" Igor angerly told someone on the phone.

"You know, I am in a precarious situation now because of you."Igor retorted.

Something was said from the other end.

"Even the police suspect me of staging a robbery in my niece's house and they feel that I am involved in listening and taping the conversations in her room."

"Thank God!, I removed the CCTV camera otherwise I would have landed up in even more trouble. This is all because of you people."

A reply was given at the other end which Dada ji was not aware of.

"You know, because of this situation, I had to visit the police station and get clearance to travel abroad." he added.

"Now, I am going to India. You will get your money, I have plans I am working on and will definitely clear my debts."