EMBASSY

Hidayat passed away a month later. He died as he had wished,

watching the tricolour fluttering in the gentle breeze, his wife and

daughter by his side.

In a short span of time, Sehmat lost the only two men she had ever

loved. She was drained of all emotions. What mattered now was only her

mission, to make her father and the country proud.

Sehmat spent the next one month inside the Red Fort in the heart of

the capital, where she underwent intensive twelve-hour training at the

hands of intelligence officers. The agents, hand-picked by Mir, trained

Sehmat in the art of setting up and using micro listening devices for the

first two weeks. The second half of the month was even more gruelling,

as she learnt to physically handle small arms, explosives and detonators.

Sehmat displayed an amazing and uncanny knack for espionage

techniques and worked extra hard so as to exhaust herself by the end of

each day. However, she failed to remove Aby’s picture from her mind

and spent hours poring over her scrapbook. Those were the only

moments that made her emotional. By the time her training came to an

end, she had become an expert on numerous spying techniques. When

Mir met her at the end of the month, he looked at her proudly. The girl

was her father’s daughter all right.

A month later, Sehmat was married to Captain Iqbal Sayeed of the

Pakistani Light Infantry at Lahore. Iqbal’s father, Sheikh Sayeed, was a

serving Brigadier in the same branch and was known to be close to the

top brass. He had very carefully cultivated friends in high places as he

had climbed up the military ladder. Shrewd and calculating, he’d even

gone to the extent of getting his elder son, Major Mehboob Sayeed,married to the daughter of an Army General. This in turn ensured that the

Brigadier was favoured during the crucial promotion period. Given the

Pakistani army’s penchant for martial laws, its Generals were known to

value personal loyalties over rule books, codes and ethics.

Even though Brigadier Sayeed was mediocre in strategic planning, he

made up for it by being smart and quick on the uptake. He understood

the fact that those who displayed brilliance also posed bigger threats to

the top brass and were therefore quickly sidelined. To save his skin, he

preferred to play the role of a ‘yes man’. Whenever summoned for

advice, he first researched what his superiors wished to hear and then

advised accordingly.

He and Hidayat Khan had studied together at Lahore College and were

close friends. Post Partition, Sayeed had helped Hidayat expand his

business. In turn, Hidayat had assisted Sayeed in arranging expensive

liquor and fancy gifts for senior army officials in his parties. Marrying

his son to an Indian girl was a risk, but such was Sayeed’s influence in

the army that Hidayat was sure of him overcoming any consequent

problems. Sayeed had another reason to be happy. He had an eye on

Hidayat’s business empire of which Sehmat was the only heir.

Mir knew that Sehmat would be safe with the Sayeeds. He also saw a

bigger role emerging for the Indian intelligence. He had failed in

persuading Hidayat to withdraw Sehmat from this dangerous course, so

he took it upon himself to ensure the safety of his friend’s daughter. He

deputed his most trusted and efficient officers in the Indian Embassy at

Islamabad and spread his network around Sehmat to provide her with an

alternate escape route as and when the situation demanded.

After the wedding ceremonies, Sehmat settled into the new

environment quickly. It was important for her to overcome her past and

focus on her assignment. The open and friendly atmosphere at the

Sayeeds’ distracted her from the memories of Aby to an extent. But at

the same time, she found it difficult to adjust to the very thought of

living in an alien land that was becoming more hostile to her own

country with every passing day.

Unlike most Pakistani families that lived behind the conservative

walls of a religious mindset, the Sayeeds had a modern outlook.

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