Saptsindhu
"I have been given the order to kill him," Ratansingh told his Saptsindhu handler with some relief.
Though this proved that Shaurya had not been sent to flush him out and his cover hadn't been blown, he was still finding it difficult to digest. Shaurya had made his mark really early on in his career, for not just his skills but also his single-minded dedication towards his country. It seemed nearly impossible to have a complete turnaround in his personality in such a short span of time.
Both he and the handler agreed that Shaurya was too dangerous and unpredictable a person to bring on their side despite his claims and this order. But the handler instructed him to extract all the information which Shaurya was willing to share about Chandragarh's network.
"Take it and then, kill him as you have been ordered by your senior," the handler said to him with. smirk.
Eastern zilla
"Don't tell me that you are still sulking about losing to me, last night," Mriga's voice held glee to another level.
Even though it was the first time that Abhirath had been beaten on an individual or a team test, he hadn't minded it, especially after losing to his favorite person in the world. But Mriga had got it in her head that he must be upset due to the loss and had been pestering him ever since late last night on the same topic. Or maybe, that was her way of bringing up the topic again and again.
Being used to her personality, he maintained his stoic face. It was easier to let her believe what she wanted to, instead of trying to argue. But Nirbhay couldn't stop himself from grousing.
"It is not him who is sulking but you who is preening, that too like a monsoon drunk peacock. Winning one task, huh, what's the big deal," he couldn't stop himself from saying.
Mriga opened her mouth to retort but then shut it realising that maybe there was a grain of truth in his words.
"Hi everyone. How is it going today? Amrapali guruji is extremely happy to see the performance graphs going higher for each of you. She made it a point to say so to me," Lata came to them and informed the group.
As always, though she was addressing the whole group, her eyes didn't stray too far from Abhirath's face. The fact didn't escape the others and soon there were cheeky nudges from under the table being directed in Abhirath's direction. Embarrassed and irked, he stood up and excused himself.
"Wait!" Lata's voice reached out to him, halting his steps.
Nirbhay and Vandit giggled like young girls, making Mriga also join in. But Abhirath threw a warning glance at them, shutting them up immediately.
"I mean that I haven't finished telling you all everything," Lata said shyly.
Chiranjeev also stood up and said, "Guruji, we all have our next class in a few minutes, so…"
"Yeah, sorry I am holding you all back. I just wanted to let you know that you will start shadowing an agent in pairs starting tomorrow. You all will be assigned a senior by the end of the day today and you have to report to them first thing in the morning tomorrow. Come and collect the list from me this evening," she said.
Chiranjeev spoke up before the naughty trio could say something, "I will come to your cabin and collect it. Thank you!"
Lata looked at him nonplussed for a second before nodding her head and walking away.
"Was it my imagination or did she look a little dejected?" Vandit asked.
Mriga nodded her head sagely and said, "Chiranjeev, you shouldn't have done it. Who are you to come in between two love…"
"What did you say?" Abhirath came close to Mriga and stared her down, causing her to swallow back the rest of the sentence.
"Do you know how blind you are? Clueless moron!" with that agitated reaction, he ran his fingers through his hair and walked away on a huff.
Mriga looked at everyone's faces and said sagely, "See, I told you that he is still mad at me due to last night."
As she sashayed away for her session on herbology, the remaining three shook their heads ruefully and felt sorry for their mate. It was probably easier to express one's love to an animal than this 'clueless moron'.
Northern zilla
Bela had been procrastinating about this overdue conversation with Raghu but now she couldn't afford to delay it any further. She thought of the time when Prithvi had told her to go active in field along with Shaurya in the training hill. At that time, it was decided that the time may come for the same depending upon which direction does their initial plan turns towards.
From Shaurya's message today, it seemed that her status would soon go from handler to active agent. She had dispatched a hurried, encrypted note to Prithvi as soon as she received Shaurya's. Now all that was left was to do was inform her husband!
She knew that she should have told him about the possibility of something like this happening sooner but a part of her kept telling her that she still had time. They didn't know if she would need to go active or not, eventually.
She felt guilty, thinking of his reaction but squared her shoulders and went to the field where he was puttering away, checking the modified seeds of potatoes which he had sown in.
"We need to talk," she said to him, without preamble.
Raghu was about to crack a joke when he saw her serious look and asked her to go sit under the shade of the tree across them while he would wash his hands and come there.