THE LEDGER
Chapter 20 — Rana's True Face
Saudi Arabia.
Early morning.
Amid the dry desert wind, a large crowd stood in complete silence.
Under heavy security, a man stood on his knees with his hands bound and his head lowered.
His crime had been proven.
A truck carrying 450 kilograms of China White heroin had been intercepted while entering Saudi Arabia from Oman.
This was not an ordinary shipment.
It was a deal worth hundreds of crores.
And behind it—
Vikram Rafael Rana.
Saudi police officers surrounded the prisoner.
He trembled as he tried to speak.
“I... I'm only the driver. I don't know who is behind this.”
An officer stepped toward him.
“You don't know?”
The man shook his head.
“No.”
“You crossed the border carrying 450 kilograms of China White heroin in a truck, and you're telling us you know nothing?”
“Please believe me. I only did what I was told.”
The officer stared at him for a moment.
Then he closed the file in his hand.
“Your statement has been recorded.”
The man breathed a sigh of relief.
But the officer's next words froze him.
“Now the sentence will be carried out.”
His face filled with terror.
“No... please... I only—”
Before he could finish, the officers restrained him.
The silence among the crowd grew heavier.
Under Saudi law, he had been sentenced to death for large-scale drug trafficking into the country.
He raised his head one last time and looked around.
No one had come to save him.
A moment later—
the execution was carried out.
Some people in the crowd lowered their eyes.
Others stepped back in fear.
But one man stood completely still.
His name was—
Vikram Rafael Rana.
He slowly walked forward.
There was no fear on his face.
Instead, there was a calm smile.
One of his men rushed toward him.
“Sir... the Saudi authorities killed him.”
Vikram looked at him.
“Who?”
“Our man.”
“Who was he?”
“The truck driver.”
Vikram remained silent for a moment.
Then he asked calmly,
“Who told him to move 450 kilograms of China White in a single truck?”
The men around him looked at one another.
No one answered.
Vikram's smile grew slightly wider.
“I didn't ask about the driver.”
He looked around at everyone.
“Whose idea was it to send this shipment in one truck?”
One man slowly stepped forward.
“There is a name, Sir.”
Vikram looked at him.
“Who?”
The man whispered the name.
The smile remained on Vikram Rafael Rana's face.
But his eyes turned cold.
“Bring him to me.”
---
A short while later, the man was brought before Vikram Rafael Rana.
He was sweating.
“Vikram... I—”
“You.”
Vikram stared at him.
“Was it you who suggested sending 450 kilograms in a single truck?”
“Sir... I thought the route would be safe—”
“I didn't ask whether the route was safe.”
Vikram slowly walked toward him.
“Did you tell them to put 450 kilograms into one truck?”
The man lowered his head.
“Yes, Sir.”
“Then do you know how much was lost?”
“Sir...”
“Don't tell me.”
Vikram placed a hand on his shoulder.
“You didn't just lose a shipment.”
A pause.
“You lost my trust.”
The man trembled.
“Give me one more chance, Vikram...”
Vikram smiled.
“A chance?”
The man looked up.
“I am not angry with you.”
A small sense of relief appeared on his face.
But it disappeared when Vikram continued.
“However, my empire has its own rules.”
Vikram turned away.
“Take him.”
The men moved forward and grabbed him.
“Vikram! I made a mistake. I will never—”
Vikram did not turn back.
The man was taken away and killed.
---
A newly recruited gang member had witnessed everything.
Fear was visible on his face.
He quietly turned to an older member.
“Is this... the first time?”
The older man looked at him.
“What?”
“Vikram doing something like this...”
The young man couldn't finish his sentence.
The older man remained silent for a moment.
Then he looked in the direction where Vikram had walked away.
“You haven't seen Vikram Rafael Rana yet.”
“I just saw him.”
“No.”
The older man slowly shook his head.
“What you saw was only one side of Vikram Rafael Rana.”
“Who is he really?”
The older man gave a faint smile.
“Vikram Rafael Rana?”
He spoke quietly.
“He isn't a gang leader.”
“Then?”
“He is the king of an empire.”
---
“How big is his empire?”
The older man looked at him.
“You wouldn't believe it if I told you.”
“Tell me.”
“His network stretches across different parts of the world.”
“How many men?”
“Thousands.”
“Weapons?”
“Don't ask.”
“Then this China White...?”
The older man stopped him.
“China White is only one part of Vikram's business.”
“Then what is his real strength?”
“His real strength isn't money.”
“Then?”
“Connections.”
---
The older man continued.
“Myanmar... Thailand... Laos...”
“The Golden Triangle.”
“Yes.”
“That's where Vikram's empire is?”
“That is where it began to grow.”
“How did he become this powerful?”
The older man looked toward Vikram again.
“Because he never fought like ordinary men.”
“Then how?”
“He calculated the cost of a war before the war even began.”
---
Years passed.
Vikram's empire grew.
But the world began to notice him.
Information about his network started appearing in the files of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The day Vikram learned that the investigation was getting closer to him, he spoke to one of his most trusted men.
“Are they looking for me?”
“Yes.”
“How close?”
“Very close.”
Vikram thought for a moment.
“Then they won't be looking for Vikram.”
The man looked confused.
“What do you mean, Sir?”
Vikram smiled.
“They'll be looking for a business empire.”
“But behind that—”
“They must never discover who is behind it.”
---
After that, Vikram's empire began to change.
Industrial companies.
Manufacturing businesses.
Medical laboratories.
Hospitals.
Companies registered under different names in different countries.
From the outside—
a respectable business empire.
But behind it, the old Vikram remained.
One of the shadows within that empire was—
Dynamity Group.
And inside one of the hospitals under that group...
Aravind was lying there now.
---
India.
When Vikram came to India, he no longer wanted to live as the man he once was.
He didn't need a new name.
He only needed a new face.
“I want to live peacefully here.”
One of his men asked,
“What about the past?”
Vikram smiled.
“No one remembers the past.”
But one man remembered.
Dhanraj.
A man who knew Vikram's past.
A man who knew the secrets surrounding Vikram's family.
And years earlier, Dhanraj's name had also surfaced in the tragedy surrounding Vikram's sister.
Years later, when the two men finally stood face-to-face again—
Dhanraj smiled.
“You've changed, Vikram.”
Vikram looked at him.
“You haven't.”
Dhanraj's smile disappeared.
“What do you mean?”
Vikram slowly walked toward him.
“You thought I had forgotten?”
“Forgotten what?”
Vikram's eyes turned cold.
“My sister.”
Silence filled the room.
Dhanraj said nothing.
Vikram spoke one final sentence.
“Some debts take years to settle.”
He turned and walked away.
Dhanraj didn't understand it that day.
But he would eventually learn one thing—
Vikram never forgot a debt.
He kept them.
He waited for the right time.
And then...
he settled them.
THE LEDGER — CONTINUES...
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