Jul 16–Jul 20, 2016
"Engines Beneath, Echoes Above"
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Opening Scene – Arunachal Pradesh, Mountain Base Camp – July 16
The TBM roared inside the damp tunnel. Sparks showered as its diamond-tipped cutters chewed through the mountain. A dozen Border Roads Organisation (BRO) officers stood back, their helmets vibrating with the machine's pulse.
One officer, Colonel Thapa, shook his head.
> Thapa: "I've worked thirty years here. No machine eats rock like butter. Not even Chinese imports."
Another whispered:
> Engineer: "Sir, it's covering fifty kilometers in a single day. If this is real, Ladakh, Arunachal, all-weather access—everything changes."
They stared at the sleek steel giant carving into stone, its bulk humming with alien energy. They didn't know that hidden within its belly was a fragment of Marvel tech, disguised as "advanced Indian hydraulics."
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Estate Control Room – Simultaneous
The MC monitored the tunnel feed through holographic projections. On another screen, Saraswati app metrics bloomed — millions of users.
For a fleeting moment, two realities overlapped:
Beneath the mountains: a machine drilling the veins of the Himalayas.
Above the plains: a digital consciousness spreading across phones.
He smiled faintly.
> MC: "Steel beneath, speech above. Both are roots of the same tree. Infrastructure of stone, and infrastructure of mind."
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Side POV – Indian Parliament, July 17
Opposition MPs banged their desks.
> MP 1: "How can one company, Bharat InfraWorks, complete tunnels in months where DRDO projects took decades?"
> MP 2: "There is corruption. Technology must have been imported secretly. Possibly foreign collusion!"
Government benches retorted loudly. Reporters scribbled furiously. For the public, this was the first serious debate about MC's empire — whispered admiration, shouted suspicion.
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Side POV – Ritika Sen (Journalist), July 17 Evening
Ritika balanced two files in her hands:
File A: Her draft article on the AI app.
File B: Parliamentary transcripts accusing Bharat InfraWorks of "impossible tunnel speeds."
She frowned. Are these stories connected? A mysterious company making impossible machines, and an AI app with no visible parent firm.
She typed into her notes:
"Different faces of the same ghost? One speaks through stone. One through voice."
She shivered. The mystery was no longer small.
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Side POV – Chinese Intelligence Office, Lhasa – July 18
A Chinese intelligence officer studied blurry satellite images.
> Officer: "Impossible. That tunnel line advanced sixty kilometers in a week. Either they found a new energy source, or…"
His commander cut him off.
> Commander: "Or what?"
The officer hesitated.
> Officer: "…or someone is deliberately underreporting the true capability. They're hiding strength, not flaunting it."
Both men exchanged uneasy silence. Hidden strength was more dangerous than open strength.
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Estate Lab – July 18 Night
The MC stood before both projects' live dashboards.
TBM Progress: 328 km of tunnel carved.
Saraswati Growth: 2.3 million daily users.
Aarya's holographic form flickered beside him.
> Aarya: "Whispers are spreading, Master. Both above and below. Which should we suppress first?"
The MC shook his head.
> MC: "Neither. Let them whisper. Rumor is softer than truth, and softer things spread further."
He leaned closer, voice lower:
> MC: "One day, the world will see the mountain veins and the human voices connected. For now, they only see shadows."
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Side POV – Village in Ladakh, July 19
A convoy of BRO trucks rumbled through, carrying workers and supplies. Locals watched the TBM parts being ferried.
An old man asked:
> Old Man: "What beast are they carrying into our mountains?"
A young boy grinned, holding his father's phone.
> Boy: "It's not a beast, baba. It's a friend. Look — she talks in our tongue!"
He held up the phone where Saraswati's voice explained his homework in Ladakhi-accented Hindi.
The father laughed. Tunnels and talking phones. For villagers, they were both myth and miracle.
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Side POV – Washington, July 20
A CIA analyst compiled a dossier:
1. "Unexplained TBM performance" — record-breaking tunnel construction.
2. "Untraceable Indian AI app" — no company registered, servers hidden.
He added a note:
"Possibility: both linked to a single hidden entity. Recommend further observation."
The file was stamped: "CLASSIFIED: WATCH."
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Closing Scene – Estate Balcony, July 20 Night
Monsoon clouds rolled across the valley. The MC stood with his parents after dinner. His mother leaned on the railing, enjoying the cool breeze.
> Mother: "When you were little, you used to draw tunnels with crayons. Do you remember?"
The MC smiled softly.
> MC: "Yes, Ma. But back then, I never imagined they'd carry both cars and voices."
His father raised an eyebrow.
> Father: "Voices?"
The MC chuckled, evading the question.
Lightning flashed across the sky. In that instant, it seemed as if the mountain tunnels below and the AI echoes above were part of the same storm — one that was only beginning.
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