Black Dog

January 5th, 2025, 4:00 AM

Ayaan woke up. Even with just two and a half hours of sleep, he didn't feel any exhaustion or fatigue. He is as good as new.

He went out for a run. He didn't go all out. He just increased the intensity of his regular exercise. His fatigue barely increased by 4.

He washed up, had breakfast before he checked his phone.

He already had a mail from Raj. The details of the Black Dog Security company. As soon as he opened the files, he realized where he saw that name before.

The Black Dog Security company is in the Yellow list of their team. That indicates its threat level as a mild. Ayaan's position or rather his team itself is a bit special. And this puts him in charge of various tasks that are not even privy to his own Admiral.

One of those tasks is to identify the threats and potential threats that are within his country. These threats can be a single person, a group, a company, or even a family. Based on their activity and the possible damage they could cause, they are classified in various lists.

The yellow list is a list of entities that possess mild threats. The most they could do is handle some under the table deeds for money. They don't have any wild ideas or ideologies like terrorists and they are not some activists that do societal harm to make a point.

They are just guns for hire.

Usually, the yellow threats are kept under the surveillance of the local force. Only when the local force notifies his team about any irregular activity would his team intervene.

The very fact that these people appeared in the hotel room of a Rear Admiral in an attempt to assassinate him, indicated two things.

Their intelligence network and scope of activities are far beyond that of a yellow list entity.

The local force hasn't been doing its job properly. He is sure that his team didn't make a mistake when they classified the Black Dog as a yellow entity.

That means the local force has not reported to them when their status changed.

Another thing that caught his eye is that all the known members of the Black Dog are completely

He scrolled through the files and got the list of the Black Dog Security company's branch addresses. Even the headquarters location has been added there.

Ayaan then opened the System interface to check the next quest locations. After checking the Black Dog branches as well, he locked on to one of the locations.

He then texted Raj.

'Send an order to the team. The Black Dog security has been moved from the Yellow list to the Blacklist. Priority- Immediate. I am going to take care of their Sthal branch myself.

The rest of the branches should be hit at the same time. Mark the local force in charge of their surveillance. Suspend every one of them from their duties. Perform a thorough investigation and send them to the special court for immediate sentencing.

And the moment those people keeping an eye on Maya, make a move, kill them.'

The Black Dog Security company is in the Kanna state. It has six branches and they are all within close proximity to its headquarters in Varnapura City. It is the capital of Kanna. That is a bit far away from his position.

Otherwise, he would have gone there himself.

At around 6:30 AM on January 5th, 2025, his motorcycle went out of Jalpathar at its fastest speed, racing towards the border between Nandhara(Ayaan's state) and Kanna state.

Luckily, Jalpathar is not far away from his destination. Within two hours he crossed the border and after that, he reached the City of Sthal.

Also known as the city of miners. The area around Sthal is full of mineral mines. It is barren and barely suitable for living. But because of the presence of these mines, several miner towns were created in its early phases, later on, one of those towns that is central to all the mines was expanded creating the city of Sthal.

Later on, the mining area around Sthal expanded and it became a hub for Marble.

The Sthal became the residence of the nation's biggest Sthal mine owners, dealers, suppliers, and of course, the mining workers.

Of course, like any mining area, there are dangers involved. Some underhanded things like forceful labor, smuggling, dummy marble, etc all happen here.

Here the Black Dog has established one of its six branches. And based on the information sent by Raj, the four assassins came from this branch.

He directly went to the local police station. The moment his bike stopped, a middle-aged man came running. His red eyes, exhausted face and uneven breath along with the faint stink from that guy's mouth… clearly indicated that he hadn't woken up not too long ago and came to here without brushing.

Ayaan checked the time.

9:43 AM

The middle-aged man saluted Ayaan.

"Good Morning, Rear Admiral.

Our Police commissioner has mentioned that you would be here."

Ayaan got off and nodded at him.

"Did he tell you, why I am here?"

"No, sir."

Ayaan looked at his name tag and said.

"So, you are DSP Paran. Saves a lot of time.

Mr. Paran, I am here under the executive orders of the intelligence department. I wasn't supposed to be here, but I was the nearest man to your location, so they moved me on special permission."

The DSP gulped. He started sweating profusely. His khakis are covered with sweat stains.

"According to the intelligence department, you are in charge of surveillance on the local branch of Black Dog Security company. Am I right?"

The color drained from DSP's face.

"Ye… Yes, sir."

"I was told that the intelligence department has explicit orders, that they should be informed as soon as Black Dog security makes any changes to their company.

However, there are no such reports given."

"Ye.. Yes, sir. There was no necessity. The Black Dog Company hasn't made any big moves in the recent years."

"Is it?" Ayaan appeared genuinely confused as he checked his phone.

"Here, in the information passed by the intelligence department, Black Dog Security currently has four major mining companies and their bosses as their clients.

And they are hired for full security, from maintaining their household surveillance to personal bodyguarding for their entire family.

Are you aware of this?"

"Yes, sir."

"Did they take all these jobs with just thirty security personnel in this branch office?"

DSP Paran chuckled as he looked at Ayaan's confused face. Even in that nervousness, Ayaan's question tickled him.

"Of course, not sir. Just for guarding one quarry, they need at least fifty guards. How can…"

"According to the instructions you received, as soon as Black Dog security exceeds thirty people in its employ, you should have sent a notice to the intelligence.

The same should have been done when they expanded to 60, 75, 100, and 120 employees.

After reaching 100 employees, their activities should be monitored…"

"Sir.. that.." The DSP interrupted with his stuttering. Ayaan's gaze turned cold as he turned to look at him.

"I am not done talking, officer."

"Tha…"

"I said, I am not done. Officer."

"Sir, they are all ex-military. You should understand…."

"What I understand is the words that I just said. They imply that you shouldn't interrupt me when I am talking.

And their being ex-military is precisely why they are being monitored. All of them are dishonorably discharged for their abuse of power and misconduct as soldiers.

Now, because you failed to monitor them, four people from Black Dog Security's branch have tried to assassinate a critical person last night."

DSP trembled in fright, with his eyes wide open as if his eyeballs were trying to jump out of their sockets, he couldn't even get a word out.

"From this moment on, you and Black Dog Security are under investigation. Call their branch manager now.

And you, prepare all your documents. Your bank statements, your property deeds, your wealth, and by yours I don't mean, just yours. Every single person of your family's statements should be here.

The same applies to the other officers of your station.

Call all the clients of the Black Dog Security. The official, personal, and contractual. I don't care who they are or what their status is, I want all of them to convene in the station in exactly two hours.

If they ask anything, tell them that if they don't comply, they will get a stay order on all their operations within two hours and fifteen minutes from now.

Then call, the Black Dog Security's branch manager.

I need to talk to him directly."

Ayaan walked into the station as if he owned it. He picked a table and sat down without any reservation. Soon, the desk is full of piled-up documents.

Around an hour later…

As Ayaan flipped through the documents, a man in a suit walked into the station. The DSP ran to him and whispered something in his ears.

Ayaan sized the man up. A young man in his early thirties, building like he was a bit too big for the suit he was wearing. Muscled. Not a sign of fat can be seen on his face. He obviously works out a lot.

He is tanned and has an aura that is desperate to show that he is a tough guy. He walked to Ayaan's table and sat across him without asking.

"I am the branch leader of the Black Dog Security. I heard the officer has some misunderstandings about our company. I hope we can clear this up quickly so that our clients will not be affected."

Ayaan looked at him calmly for a moment and threw four sheets of paper on to the table. They are the details of the four assassins that came for him.

"Are these people your employees?"

The branch leader looked at them and nodded.

"Yes. They are on leave right now."

"Oh, when did the leave start?"

"Yesterday. Why do you ask?"

"You know why I am asking. These four people tried to assassinate a high-level official of our nation last night. They are caught and upon interrogation, they revealed that it was an order from your branch office.

As I am looking at these documents, I didn't see a memo showing that Black Dog is offering assassination services.

So, I am a bit confused."

"You are talking nonsense, officer. If they really did attack you, that is purely their personal doing. Black Dog has nothing to do with it. More importantly, our clients have nothing to do with it. So, I don't understand why you want to meet them."

"Of course, I have to consider the possibility that your employees are lying and some of your clients might have planned the assassination."

"Why would some miners want to kill a navy officer?"

Ayaan smiled and replied.

"Maybe not. But that doesn't mean your other clients from other branches might not be involved. So, we are looking into that as well."

"You mean…"

"Oh? You don't know? You might not have received the news. As we speak, the teams of the intelligence department are paying a visit to all your branches. But I guess, it makes sense that you don't know of it.

They must have jammed the communications."

"What the hell…"

"You better mind your tongue mister. I don't take disrespect very well. And, I mentioned that you should be here with all the relevant documents of your clientele and finances. I hope you can get them ASAP."

The Branch leader gritted his teeth and hurriedly tried to make some calls, but there was no picking on the other side. Some didn't even go through.

"You. Do you know who you are messing with?"

"Yeah, a bunch of halfwits who couldn't hack it in the military, banded together to play house. That's who I am messing with."

"Do you know…"

"I don't know what you are going to ask you about. But you are not going to get out of this easily. You messed with the wrong guy this time."

"Let's see how long you can be arrogant."

He got up and started making some calls. Five minutes later…

The telephone of the police station rang.

The DSP picked it up and some color returned to his face immediately. He brought the phone to Ayaan and handed it over.

"Sir, it's the Kanna state's minister of home affairs. He wants to talk to you."

Ayaan took the phone and said.

"Rear Admiral Ayaan Rakshit."

Ayaan said while typing something on his mobile phone.

"Rear Admiral. I heard that you are causing trouble to the Sthal miners. Do you know how much they are contributing to our state and nation's economy? You are abusing power to disrupt upstanding citizens."

"Really? Seems like their contributions to you are much more valuable than their contributions to the state and country. I just got an email with the document. It says that your nephew, your brother, and your son, each own a five percent stake in the three biggest mining companies of Sthal.

I am wondering if there is a personal bias involved in your call here."

.

.

.

Three seconds of silence later, the phone went dead.

Ayaan looked at the Branch leader and sent another message. A fax machine in the police station started printing a few documents.

The DSP ran to them and was stunned by the contents of the documents.

"S…Sir…"

The Branch leader grabbed the papers and was stunned.

"What the fuck did you do?"

"All the mining activities of every Black Dog security client are now suspended, effective immediately."

"Yo..you. How can you do this? You don't have any authority over state internal matters. You are just a fucking Navy officer. A bloody soldier. How did the Ministry of Mining sign off on this?"

"As long as this bloody soldier is alive, the Black Dog security and every client that ever worked with you will remain closed.

DSP. Just do your job and send the notices. Anyone who doesn't comply and stop their operations will be arrested. If the manpower of your station is not enough, issue a special order and divert people from the nearest control room.

I want everything halted now.

As for you, my dear branch leader, you can leave."

The Branch leader didn't know what to say. He wanted to issue some threats, but he knew they wouldn't work on someone like Ayaan.

Just as he was about to leave, he heard Ayaan's words.

"By the way, branch leader. I never mentioned that the assassin's target was me, or it was a Navy official. I only said, High-ranking official. But it seems like you are very well informed since you managed to figure it out."

The branch leader froze on the spot for a moment before he left.