1. Dead on arrival

He was lying on the floor. He knew he was about to die. He knew this day would come. He had been expecting this moment. The last phrase he uttered was “God Help my son”.

Dhananjay was dead.

2. The Shock

Doctor Dhananjay was not a very famous cardiac surgeon but he had a 100% success rate in the very few surgeries he had performed. He had been in the news channels for the past three months, thanks to his book ‘Religion-An Encyclopedia of Superstitions?’ He had written that book after posing thousands of queries to people and after a lot of research work. He didn’t write that book for the sake of earning money. He wanted to answer the queries which he had been asking to so many people throughout his entire life. But the political parties frame issues in a way that best suit them. Since DD (Doctor Dhananjay is called by his friends as DD) did not stick to one particular religion in his book no one supported him, except his son, Rudran. Rudran was an attorney working as an assistant to Aftab, a well known attorney. Aftab was an expert in both civil and criminal cases.

Rudran did not support DD only because he was his dad. He supported him because he liked the theories in the book. The book was banned before three months and Aftab was the person who filed the case on the behalf of the Muslim community. Many other people filed cases against DD from several other sections. But DD never lost determination because his son would appear for him in all the cases.

There was a petition filed by Rudran that the ban on the book was not correct and the basic fundamental constitutional right (right to expression) was challenged.

Rudran had to argue on that day, the first chapter definition of God was to be discussed, Rudran was reading the chapter carefully, and it started:

The question "What is God?" .Most of us expect some sort of definition as an answer to this question, but we are not content simply to describe the way the word is used:

We want to know the essence of what it means to be God. Western people typically concern themselves with the God of monotheistic religions (Christians and Muslims in general), but discussions also concern themselves with other concepts of the divine. Indeed, before attempting a definition of a term it is essential to know what sense of the term is to be defined. In this case, this is particularly important because there are a number of widely different senses of the word 'God.' So before we try to answer the question "What is God?" by giving a definition, first we must be clear on which concept of God we are trying to define. Among those people who believe in supernatural beings, some believe there is just one God (monotheism), while others, such as Hindus, believe in many different deities (polytheism) while maintaining that all are manifestations of one God. Hindus also have a widely followed monistic philosophy that can be said to be neither monotheistic nor polytheistic (as mentioned in Advaita Vedanta). Buddhists generally do not believe in the existence of a creator God similar to that of the Abrahamic religions, but direct attention to a state called Nirvana. (Although, some Buddhists believed Buddha was an incarnation of God).

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Rudran knew the whole chapter perfectly by heart, still he was reading to check whether there was a loophole. The case was to begin in another half an hour, Rudran was nervous, it was his first case and he was to appear against his mentor Aftab.

His pulse-rate increased in proportion to the time ticking away.

Rudran heard some music; it was his cell phone ringing.

He picked his phone and said “Hello”.

It was his wife, “Rudy, Uncle is dead, come home soon”. She cut the phone in a flash. It was like reading a text message rather than attending a phone call. But Rudran’s brain was jammed with too many thoughts that made it impossible for him to think so.

Rudran’s brain freed itself to inform Rudran that “Your dad is dead. Get back to your home”.

3. Queries

How did my DD (dear dad) die?
Was it a natural death or a murder?
Does his death have any connection with the book Religion?
When did my wife Akshaya find him?
Where did Akshaya find him?
What am I to do now?
What will happen to the case which I would not attend today?

So many questions were passing through the mind of Rudran while he was driving to his home from court. He reached his home before he could find an answer. It was already crowded with Police and press. 'Now what am I to do?', Rudran thought.

4. The Clue

He could deal with the police, but press? He was attorney after all. Why should he be afraid of press? But his brain was not working as well as it could have worked. ‘My father is dead!’ This phrase was repeating often in his mind. He parked his car in front of his home.

As soon as he got out of his car, a dozen of reporters were falling on him. They were shooting the questions. “Sir, how did your father die?”. “Sir is it a natural death?” “Sir! Sir! Sir! Mr. Rudran!!!”. Rudran didn’t reply. He didn’t know the answers.

Rudran’s home (with DD dead it is alright calling it as Rudran’s home) was located in boat club, Chennai. It had a beautiful pond with lot of fish in it. But Rudran didn’t seem to mind it because he was more worried about DD’s death. He entered the home and around three police officers were present there.

A Police officer who looked to be a sub-inspector came near Rudran and informed him “Sir, your father has been murdered. And we already got information that he would be killed, but we thought it was one of the usual letters to threaten your father. But this person was serious.”

Rudran was very upset. He saw his father lying dead, near him there was a huge ellipse drawn with his blood and inside that ellipse Pears soap, a Nokia cell phone and a Sprite bottle were lying. And below that a phrase “I, now touched insult, save the next person if you can”, was written. And a sign “SOS-I'm feeble, polite ogre” was left too.

‘What does all this mean?’, thought Rudran. Rudran’s blood pressure was reaching the 170s. He had to attend his father’s case, but with his father dead what would he achieve winning the case. ‘It was his last wish, I should win the case for him’, Rudran made a decision inside his mind.

“Sir, What do you think? Your father seems to be the beginning of a series of murders!”.

“James would be here to help me out. In fact, help us out ”, said Rudran.

Who is this James?

5. Rendezvous in Bristol

It was raining heavily in Bristol. Bristol is an excellent city situated around 100 miles from the Heathrow airport, London. It was very windy too. The weather switches from sunshine to thunderstorm within an hour in Bristol. It was very sunny that day till 2 PM when a slow drizzle started and soon it became a heavy rain.

This rain was not disturbing James and the local police. They had to hunt their prey. James was a private detective agent in Bristol. A diamond worth £100,000 has been stolen from the Royal Jewellers, a shop situated in Cribbs Causeway. Three helicopters (and many cars) were chasing the suspects. It was a visual delight for the public who had seen such chase sequences only in Hollywood movies.

The police cannot shoot the suspect. The law is against the Police in all developed countries where the Human rights commission has a major say. In spite of all this the police were talented enough to arrest the culprits (It is now correct to call them culprits). The police blocked the roads with their cars (the White Skoda Octavia, the police car). The thieves could not escape. They were blocked both aerially and in ground. They were locked near Westbury Park. The three culprits had no other go except to surrender and they exactly did that.

The thieves were wearing a mask and were completely dressed in black as though they were mourning their arrest.

James was specially appointed in this case by Mr. Benson, the owner of Royal Jewellers. The case went on for a week, that’s when James surprised everyone. James took the diamond that was retrieved from the thieves and threw it into a bottle of concentrated Sulphuric acid. It dissolved into the acid. The diamond was gone. The local police were surprised. They asked James why he did this to such a costly diamond.

James coolly replied, “Do you know something. Original diamonds do not dissolve in acid. They remain the same even after a long bath with the acid. That means, this is not a diamond”.

James always had OOBT (Out of the box thinking). He made a simple investigation about the three thieves. He took a photo of each one of them in his cell phone and went to the Royal Jewellers shop. He showed the photos to the employees present there and asked whether they knew them. They all said yes. These three persons had been working in Royal Jewellers for the past five years. They were very close with the shop’s owner and they left this shop before two months because they had been moved to the new branch of their shop, opened in Portsmouth.

This made it very clear for James. This robbery had been planned by Mr. Benson himself. He had his diamond insured against theft and if someone steals his diamond, he could claim the money. Benson has faked this theft to get the insurance money. Benson did everything right but made a mistake, which was appointing James to investigate this case. He might have underestimated James’ talents. He would have done that to make this robbery as realistic as possible.

We shall ask Benson why he did that, but he was in prison for cheating the police and insurance company. We are not allowed into that prison in Bristol.

6. Fire in the eyes

No one could cheat James easily. It was evident in each case of James. “She’s crazy like a fool? What about Daddy cool”, it was the famous song from Boney-M, James’ phone was ringing.

James picked his phone. A voice said, “James, this is Rudran”

“Hi Rudran, how are you? How is Chennai?”, queried James.

“Nothing is fine James. Dad has been murdered and the police are unable to move any further in this case”, said Rudran.

“Oh! My God! When did this happen? I am sorry Rudh. Was that because of the book that dad wrote?”, asked James.

“James I need you with me. I am unable to think properly”, finished Rudran with some stuttering.

“I will be in Chennai tomorrow morning. Don’t worry”, said James.

Why should James come to Chennai from Bristol? James was Rudran’s schoolmate and classmate and they were very close pals from their Kindergarten.

James was an orphan with his parents dead in a car crash when he was in his class 6. From that time he lived with Rudran. DD adopted him as his son. After finishing their schooling Rudran and James picked up different subjects. James became a Detective and Rudran became an attorney. James shifted his base to Bristol and was not interested in marriage whereas Rudran was married and remained in Chennai.

James was shocked with the news that his dad was dead. He had no pending case which was in his favor to make a quick trip to Chennai. He bought his tickets to Chennai from the British airways, drove to the Heathrow Airport and left to Chennai. It was a ten hour journey in which the time was continuously increasing since he was travelling towards the east, as the time was increasing it soon became night. The darkness outside was in resemblance his mindset. He reached the Chennai International airport and immediately left to his home (Rudran’s home).

It was a majestic house but the home without DD was unimaginable by James. James entered the home and Rudran broke into tears as soon as he saw James, James started to cry too, after sometime James reconciled himself and tried to pacify Rudran.

James said, “Rudh. If we sit in our home and weep continuously then the murderer would move around the city casually killing a dozen people. We should show the fire in our eyes towards the murderer and not the tears in our eyes. We have to win the case for our dad”.

Rudran nodded still weeping.

James decided to meet the commissioner that day evening and get the case details. OOBT of James had to play an important role in solving the murder case of DD.

If James could not solve it, then who could solve it?

7. Letters from SOS

James went to the commissioner’s office that evening. He already knew the Chennai commissioner. He was DD’s friend. James didn’t take Rudran along with him. After an hour long wait, James was called into Commissioner’s room. The board on his table read Mr. Stephen Churchill.

“Hello James! Welcome to my office. How is your job as private detective?” , asked Stephen.

“Uncle Steve, I didn’t come to discuss all that. I want to get the details regarding my dad’s case”, replied James.

“James this has been the trickiest case I have come across in my life. The murder seems to be a very well pre-planned murder. Ever since your Dad wrote the religion book, he had been getting lot of threatening calls. DD ignored these calls. Even we have been receiving calls and letters that DD would be killed. We offered police protection. DD didn’t agree. He died”, narrated Stephen.

“Leave the phone calls. I want to see the letters that were written to your department”, said James.

Stephen called a PC standing outside his room and instructed him with some orders. After a couple of minutes all the letters were brought and handed over to James.

James went through the letters one by one and one letter caught his attention.

The letter read:

Threat to Doctor Dhananjay!

“I'm wise, sensible, red-hot fury.

I would kill him before his son saves his property.

Ya! Foe chauvinism.”

- SOS

I'm feeble, polite ogre.

PS: This is my last letter to you. I will continue my quest after killing Doctor Dhananjay. I will give you a clue in DD’s home.

I had previously sent a letter to you. Have you solved it?

James thought this person was the man behind the murder. He was sure that it was a man from the handwriting in the letter. It was his inner feeling telling him. The poem in that letter was quite confusing. James couldn’t get the meaning of the poem. SOS is the name chosen by the person who wrote the letter to hide his identity (or may be mark his identity) and he had given an oxymoron under his name. An ogre is a dangerous creature which is very strong and rude, James had already known about ogres by reading lord of the rings. James was searching for the other letter from SOS. It was not there. James showed the letter to the commissioner and told “You were careless. Though we couldn’t understand this letter completely, it was pretty serious”.

Commissioner said, “We receive many such letters. What do you expect us to do? We offered protection to your dad. He didn’t want it.”

James asked, “I want to search all the letters that you have received.”

Commissioner replied, “Do you want to find the other letter from SOS.”

James said, “Yes. I want to see what he had said in his other letter.”

Commissioner said, “You need not waste time searching James. It is with me only. It contained a puzzle. A very strange letter it was, I am still unable to solve the puzzle”. He took that letter from a file in his table and handed it over to James.

“It’s a nine letter word – 123456789

If it fails you will die.

If you have 234 you can 1234.

56 is a disease.

We 789 to live.

I am going to kill the person who helped certain people whose

123456789 was affected.

Certainly, not for saving their lives.

Save him if you could solve this puzzle”

- SOS

I'm feeble, polite ogre.

This is definitely a very big challenge for James. ‘What was that word?’, James was thinking hard.

8. The ignorant arrogance

56 is a disease. This is easy thought James. A two lettered disease. It must be TB (tuberculosis) thought James. xxxxTBxxx. What could be the word? James was thinking hard. We 789 to live. We eat to live, must be the answer. This leaves the word as xxxxTBEAT. This was simple, there was only one such word James knew, it was HEARTBEAT. DD was a cardiac surgeon after all. That must have been the clue given by SOS thought James.

The other clue also falls in place. If you have 234 you can 1234. Of course, if you have an ear you can hear. He has left so many clues for the police. He is a dangerous person thought James. It would be a great challenge to track down a criminal who could use his brain very well.

James was reading the second letter again. I'm wise, sensible, red-hot fury ‘What if it was an anagram?’, James had a sudden flash. He took out a paper and wrote some of the words possible from the first sentence.

Fertile, honest, he, hero, benefit, be, rift, heroism, identifier, idle, idiot, housewife.

James paused. He couldn’t help laughing at the last two words he formed. He continued again,

Series, Mussolini, first, my, in, mentor, meltdown, would...

He had formed enough in his word pool. James had a different way of solving the anagrams. He would form a word pool and pick words from that pool for solving the anagram. This method was taught to him by one of his school teachers. He started to form different sentences with the words from the word pool.

Fishiest or wisely numbered.

Horrified eyes win stumbles.

Worthy resumes in disbelief.

He would be first in my series.

He would be first in my series. ‘This is it’, thought James. Does this mean that he is going to continue his murders? James decided that he should take the help of a computer to solve the puzzle. It would help him to solve the anagrams faster. He noticed an ignorant arrogance in the clues of SOS. He had mixed normal sentences with anagrams in his clues.

I will give you a clue in DD’s home. “Uncle Steve, Was there any clue in our home?” asked James.

“Yes James, there was a clue. Look at this photo”, showed Stephen.

In the photo James saw there a huge ellipse drawn in red colour (it must be blood) and inside that ellipse a Pears soap, a Nokia cell phone and a Sprite bottle were lying. And below that a phrase “I, now touched insult, save the next person if you can” was written.

“What connects these three items Uncle Steve?”, asked James.

“No idea James”, said Stephen.

“Thanks for all your help uncle Steve. Shall I have these two letters and the photograph uncle?”, asked James.

“You can have the photograph, I have many copies of the photo but not the letters”, said Stephen.

“No issues uncle, the photo alone is enough. I will note these letters in my cell phone”, he then drafted the letters in his cell phone. “May I leave now”, asked James.

“Sure James, get back to me whenever you need help”, said Stephen.

James left the Commissioner office. ‘SOS - who was it?’ From the handwriting he could tell it was a very confident man. ‘What was SOS’s wish? Why he wanted to kill DD, will I stop him before he kills yet another Person?’ James was posting many such questions into his mind. Only time should answer all these questions.

9. Adam and Eve are not our ancestors-1

It was a dramatic evening faced by James. It was the most challenging case in the life of James. He had never faced such a serious criminal case in his life. James was inside his room in DD’s home. He was staring at himself looking at a mirror. ‘How do I look? Six feet 3 inches tall, with hair that is never combed, sharp nose, long neck. What’s the use in finding my physical features? I have to find SOS’, thought James.

Akshaya called him for dinner. Dinner was Chapatti with gravy made of mushroom. It was the favorite food of James. Rudran joined them. The three had their dinner together. Being a home with atheistic belief they had didn’t follow the customs that usually follow death in southern part of India. James told them all his findings in the commissioner office.

James asked, “Rudh. I didn’t read the book written by dad. If you have a copy of the book can I borrow it from you?”

Rudran said, “Yes, I will give it to you after Dinner”

After dinner, James borrowed the book from Rudran. He went to his room. His room had a very big cot in which two persons can sleep comfortably. But James was lying alone and was started to read the book.

He initially scanned the Index, the chapter that caught his attention was Adam and Eve are not our ancestors. Being a Christian he has read the bible completely. But as he grew he became an atheist. This topic was very interesting the index said it was in page number two hundred and eighty one. He moved to that page and started reading the chapter. It read:

Adam and Eve are not our ancestors, the title of this chapter itself sounds controversial! But you would agree with me once you finish reading this chapter.

The story of Adam and Eve is told in the book of Genesis, chapters 1, 2 and 3, with some additional elements in chapters 4 and 5.

In Genesis 1 God (called Elohim) creates humans "male and female" in His image, and gives them dominion over the living things He has created, and commands them to "be fruitful and multiply."

Genesis 2 opens with God (called Yahweh Elohim) fashioning a man from the dust and blowing life into his nostrils. God plants a garden (the Garden of Eden) and sets the man there, "to work it and watch over it," permitting him to eat of all the trees in the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil, "for on the day you eat of it you shall surely die." Then God creates the animals, attempting to find a help-mate for the man; but none of the animals are satisfactory, and so God causes the man to sleep, and creates a woman from his rib. The man names her "Woman" (Heb. ishshah), "for this one was taken from a man" (Heb. ish). "On account of this a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his woman." Genesis 2 ends with the note that the man and woman were naked, and were not ashamed.

Genesis 3 introduces the Snake, "slier than every beast of the field." The snake tempts the woman to eat from the forbidden tree, telling her that it will not lead to death; she succumbs, and gives the fruit to the man, who eats also, "and the eyes of the two of them were opened." Aware now of their nakedness, they make coverings of fig leaves, and hide from the sight of God (still called Yahweh Elohim). God, perceiving that they have broken His command, curses them with hard labour and with pain in childbirth, and banishes them from His garden, setting a cherub at the gate to bar their way to the Tree of Life, "lest he put out his hand ... and eat, and live forever."

Genesis 4 and 5 give the story of Adam and Eve's family after they leave the garden: they have three children, Cain, Abel and Seth, as well as other sons and daughters, and Adam's lifespan is 930 years. ("The woman" is given the name Eve in the closing verses of Genesis 3, "because she was the mother of all living"; Adam gets his name when the initial indefinite article is dropped, changing "ha-adam", the man, to Adam.)

This story of Adam and Eve looks flawless if you read it as just a story. If we see this story as history of mankind, it is unacceptable. Why is it not acceptable?

After Adam and Eve had children, how did they proceed onto the third generation? The children must have slept with each other, or their own parents. How do you explain this to an inquisitive child without condoning incest? Incest was the order of the day, and would have been required for two or three generations.

The main problem is not morals, it can be argued that just because it is immoral does not mean that it didn't happen. The main problem is biological. Interbreeding two families causes severe retardation, mutation and infertility. This happens to isolated Human population even when there are more than two families. The problem increases with severity the more the inbreeding occurs.

"...full-sibling or parent-child incest results in about 17% child mortality and 25% child disability, for a combined result of about 42% nonviable offspring"

-Donald Brown, 'Human Universals'

The phenomenon of nonviable offspring from breeding between closely related family members is not limited to Humans, but to most life, especially amongst mammals and multicellular organisms:

"A study of 38 captive mammalian species found a cross-species average of around 33% offspring mortality resulting from closely incestuous matings"

-Donald Brown, 'Human Universals'

Due to the non viable offspring that result from incest, which gets worse with each generation, the Adam and Eve story cannot be the literal whole truth. When a Christian next time relies on the urban myth of "Christian Family Values" then wonder how they would explain to someone the big question of "What happened after the Flood?" The only moral escape route is to admit that the Adam and Eve story is a metaphor. The only biologically correct explanation known is that we evolved slowly from lower animals so that incest was never a problem.

This is not the only problem with the Adam and Eve story. The moral of the story itself is not good.

James stopped reading. Even being an Atheist, he has never thought about all this. ‘How would Rudh win this case?’, thought James and continued reading.

10. Adam and Eve are not our ancestors-2

Some people argue that God must have created more people than just Adam and Eve. That the Bible doesn't say God only created Adam and Eve'. This defence is a valid defence against the incest problem associated with Adam and Eve.

"Adam and Eve had two children that we know of, Cain and Abel. When they grew up, Cain (or was it the other one?) went off and found a wife. Just where exactly did this woman come from?"

-"Trouble in the Garden" by Adrian Barnett 1998

It appears God must have created more than just Adam and Eve.

What does this mean in practical terms for the original sin? When did God create these people? It must have been:

Before the fall or after the fall.

If God created the extra people before the fall then are we led to believe that all the people God created also chose to eat from the Tree of Knowledge? This doesn't seem to make sense, because when Adam and Eve ate of it he appeared to them and told them off. God has quite a presence and it would no doubt be enough to scare off anyone else from eating from the tree! Either God let them all eat, knowing none of them had the knowledge required for them to distrust the serpent or to understand that disobedience was wrong, in which case God is shown as an immensely poor parent. A parent knows that his/her children do not know not to touch a hot pan. So, parents warn their children not to. When their children go to touch the pan, the parent does more than just warn them. Because the parent knows that the child is not capable of understanding why not to touch the pan, the parent steps in and physically protects the child. God did not do this with Adam and Eve and anyone who was around: God did not protect His children from the danger. God is shown as a bad parent.

God must have created the extra people after the fall. But this seems to be wrong. Because that would mean that God was creating imperfect people who were not the children of Adam and Eve. People who are not the children of Adam and Eve would not suffer from death or diseases (which are the effects of original sin). So God created these extra people and created them with weakness to death and disease on purpose. If this is true, if God created these people like that, then original sin doesn't explain death and disease as these people were not subject to the original sin.

The explanation that God created more people than just Adam and Eve shows us that the Adam and Eve story is not a valid excuse for death "entering the world". God himself created death and the Adam and Eve story is merely apologetics on behalf of fearful God believers who wish to think of Humans as evil due to our own actions, and not due to Creation. This shows God in poor light.

So, I would like to conclude that when Bible was written there was no Darwin to explain the theory of evolution. And it is disappointing that even in this century many believe the story of Adam and Eve. According to me this story was written to show that sinners would be punished by God, and it is only my view. Do you agree with me that Adam and Eve are not our ancestors?

James finished reading the chapter and couldn’t stop thinking about the contents in this book. This chapter was only a sample from the book. If this chapter is able to raise so many questions then what about the whole book thought James and he slept off.

While sleeping, James had a strange dream. A black figure killed DD and ran away. Near his body there was a huge ellipse drawn with a tree inside that. The tree started to fly all off a sudden. James too flew along with the tree and landed in a forest. Inside the forest there was a man and woman who were not dressed. It must be Adam and Eve thought James. A snake slowly hissed past James and went near Eve and made strange hissing sounds. And Eve replied the snake with similar hissing sounds. ‘When did Eve learn Parseltongue? Was she a Parselmouth by birth? ‘, thought James. Then Eve went near a tree and plucked a fruit which resembled Apple. She offered the fruit to Adam and he accepted it gleefully. They saw James near them and Adam offered the fruit to James. He replied, “No thanks” .

Adams gave him a pat on his back and said “Wake Up, James”. James opened his eyes. It was not Adam with an apple, it was Rudran with the bed coffee in his hand.

James said, “Good morning”.

Rudran asked, “What were you dreaming?”

What a strange dream it was?

11. Deciphering SOS

James told Rudran, “I can’t remember the dream Rudh. I stopped taking bed coffee without brushing from this New Year. I will catch you after brush and bath”

Rudran said “Ok James” and left the room.

They both had their breakfast. James switched on the modem and connected to the internet in his laptop. He opened the Internet Explorer and Google which was his homepage opened. He searched the term SOS. The first result he obtained was Wikipedia’s explanation on SOS. The content of the site was:

SOS is the commonly used description for the International Morse code distress signal (· · · — — — · · ·). This distress signal was first adopted by the German government in radio regulations effective April 1, 1905, and became the worldwide standard when it was included in the second International Radiotelegraphic Convention, which was signed on November 3, 1906, and became effective on July 1, 1908.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

In popular usage, SOS became associated with phrases such as "Save Our Ship", "Save Our Souls", "Save Our Skins", "Save Our Stuff", "Shoot Our Ship", "Shoot On Sight", "Sinking Our Ship", "Survivors On Shore", "Save Our Sluts", and "Signal On Sand". It is mostly known by "Save Our Ship" and/or "Save Our Souls". However, these phrases were a later development, most likely used to help remember the correct letters—something known as a backronym.

‘The word backronym means reverse acronym. So could SOS be a reverse acronym in the case of the murderer too. If so what did that mean?’, James was thinking all this. And he saw a hyperlink in the same page stating about SOS (game). He clicked on that and it took him to a page where the explanation about the SOS game was given. It read:

SOS is a (usually two-player) game played with paper and pencil, typically played by children. It is similar to tic-tac-toe but with more complexity.

Before play begins, a grid of n × n squares (with n being 3 or more) is drawn. The first player to move (which can be chosen by a coin toss or the roll of the dice) writes either S or O in one of the squares, whereupon it becomes the second player's turn. The second player has the option of writing an S or O in an empty square.

The object of the game is for each player to attempt to create (on their turn) the straight sequence S-O-S among connected squares (diagonally, horizontally, or vertically), and to create as many such sequences as they can.

If a player succeeds in creating an SOS, that player immediately takes another turn, and continues to do so until no SOS can be created on their turn. Otherwise turns alternate between players after each move.

Keeping track of who made which SOSs can be done by, e.g., one player circling their SOSs and the other player drawing a line through theirs.

Once the grid has been filled up, the winner is the player who made the most SOSs. If the grid is filled up and the number of SOSs for each player is the same, then the game is a draw. If the grid is filled up and no SOS has been made, then the game is again a draw.

‘Nice game’, thought James, he has never heard of this game. He has played tic-tac-toe. But SOS seemed to be far more interesting game. ‘And does the murderer have any connection with this game?’, James could not make up his mind. He switched on the TV so that he could spend some time relaxing. Making his mind free could make him think in a better way.

He did not stick to one particular channel. He was switching from one channel to the other continuously and finally he settled on the history channel. A program titled the beasts who ruled us was broadcasted. The program on that day was about Adolf Hitler. After around fifteen minutes of broadcast there was a commercial break. The first advertisement had a boy stealing cream biscuits and consuming them, it was some biscuit advertisement. The next advertisement was of Sprite drink, some actress was telling that it was her favorite drink. James’ OOBT worked at that instant, he remembered about the ellipse photo and the sprite bottle inside that ellipse. He thought whether this advertisement had any connection with the next murder.

James used Google as his companion once again. He searched the term Sprite TV commercials India. He got the result as Angelika. He searched about actress Angelika in Wikipedia. The information he got was shocking.