It was a freezing day at the peak of winter, when a city newspaper in a European country reported that the police had caught a young man running naked on the international airport’s tarmac. No name was mentioned. Just the initials and that he was from a foreign country. The police had caught him running on the tarmac without any clothes, towards an aircraft preparing to take-off. The police officer who had caught him had later joked that the guy had nearly made it. The young, clean shaven man was very agitated and kept looking around as if searching for pursuers. The doctor at the airport had given him a mild sedative and he had drifted into sleep. It seemed as if he had not slept for days.

In the state hospital meant for patients with Psychological issues, the foreign national told a consular officer from his home country that he had been on a month-long consultancy visit to help install and run a new software programme for a local company in the city. Soon after his work at the company headquarters was over, the CIA had somehow come to know about the confidential nature of the software and the other hidden applications it could be used for. And, so, the agency had sent a team after him to get hold of the new algorithm.

Half reclining in his hospital bed, the young man continued with his story: “as days went by, I realised that they had put me under close surveillance. To avoid the pursuers, I stopped moving out of my hotel room. If I had to, I would step out at odd hours avoiding the main approach. The hotel had a backdoor opening into a back alley, and another entry/exit attached to the lobby-tea shop that opened on to a quiet side street. But they were always there, waiting. All exits out of the hotel were under round-the-clock surveillance. This both frightened and intrigued me. Only much later, did it dawn that they had planted bugs all over my room and were constantly keeping a watch from the bistro across the road and the tourist apartments that were available on rent and overlooked the hotel.”

“It was then that I decided to make a run for it. That seemed to be the only option. I casually left by the side door around 2 pm without my luggage, without paying my hotel bills even, but there they were waiting patiently. They already knew and followed me wherever I went.”

The young man suddenly asked the officer, “do you know how I came to know this, about this close surveillance?” And, without waiting for a reply, continued, “I was trying to fit a pattern to it all. Visualise. And, then I suddenly realised that one thing was common in all that was going on – the blue flickering light. It was there everywhere – in my room, in the bistro across the street, in the car waiting to follow me when I stepped out. It had a set frequency. I am an IT guy. The constant frequency was a giveaway. It was watching me and communicating every move of mine to the pursuers. That was what I needed to watch out for – the blue flicker.”

Sitting upright, the young man continued with the narration, “I searched the dark web for days together – for material on the blue flicker. What it denoted. You would be surprised what I learnt. The company people were a little anxious by now as I had not been in touch, so they sent two colleagues to check on me. I did not let them in on what a dangerous situation I was in. It occurred to me that they may have already been compromised; the CIA could do anything. And even if not, why endanger the lives of two innocent persons. They wanted to take me out sightseeing. So, I had to ward them off with an excuse. I told them I had other tasks to complete that had come my way from headquarters.” 

“It was while getting driven in a taxi aimlessly around the city for hours, that I realised that the Int guys had sewn bugs into my clothes. And, it was then that I decided that I would shed them at the right time, just before making my final dash away from the most powerful men on earth.” The way he hushed it; it seemed those last few minutes were to be critical to his escape plan.

The young man continued, “I knew it was a dangerous and even an embarrassing course to take, but there was no other way to escape the pursuers. I could have been shot, but I said to myself that I owed it to humanity, to my country to protect the secret I alone carried in my mind.”

Just then there was a light knock and a nurse walked in briskly. She was in a hurry. Maybe, it was time for her duty to end and her boyfriend was waiting outside as the shadows lengthened. For her, he would have meant a retreat, a forgetting, of this dreary place. She routinely asked the young man how he felt while wiping his arm above his elbow to administer an injection. He nodded his head and smiled a smile that said do what you have to and get going. Having found a good listener, he wanted to continue with his story.

As the nurse was leaving, her phone buzzed and a blue light briefly flickered on the tiny screen. The frequency of the flicker appeared familiar to the young man. His eyes widened and he slid back into the bed petrified, unseeing. The officer saw the sudden transformation in the young man and was rattled by the change. What seemed to be merely an intriguing story in the recent past had morphed into the present, and in a split second, totally transformed the atmosphere in the hospital room. The blue flicker again controlled the patient’s mind.

He tried to talk of other things to the young man, about his going home after a few days’ rest, but he wasn’t listening, resigned to his fate in a foreign land. After sitting quietly for another ten minutes, as he was taking leave promising to be back the next day, the officer’s eyes fell on a blue light that flickered at the bottom of a wall-mounted TV on the other side of the room. A sharp swell of doubt and fear rose and quickly subsided in his mind…