Eastern Zilla
If her luck was bad, there may be a lot of people in that age group here and she wouldn't know how to go about identifying the right one.
"Oh! So you like older women? I guess then Mandodri is the one for you," the girl said with disappointment in her voice. Pointing her in a woman's direction, the girl held Mriga's arm back as the latter took a step away.
"She may have more experience than me, but she cannot match my vigour," she whispered in Mriga's ear before releasing her forearm. Mriga knew that her whole body was aflame at the salacious mutterings of the girl. She may not know what exactly her words entailed but the girl's body language had left her in no doubt about her intentions. Walking away from her quickly, she was thankful for the dark interiors. She kept roaming her eyes vigilantly for the person, hoping this one turned out to be the right person. Suddenly, she stopped as another person called out to the woman in front of her by her name.
"Are you… Mandodri?" she asked the woman, coming to stand in front of her.
The woman nodded and looked her up and down. In her head, Mriga had assumed her to be a silver haired, bent at the waist woman with wrinkles. But this one was a stunner with a graceful demeanour and an erect body posture.
"Uh, I am, that is, I have just come from the village and am here to learn from you," she stumbled to say the words.
Again, this was the textbook code which had been used as an example in the classroom. Mriga had no way of knowing if this will work.
Mandodri's face underwent a change but she quickly recovered and said, "I don't know what you are talking about. That is an old pickup line. Don't you have anything new to say to me?"
She was the one!
Mriga immediately went close to her and stood on her tiptoes to reach her ear, "Please help me. I am an intern at the institute and hence only know the textbook code. My senior has gone missing on a mission and I have no ways to call for help. Please."
Mandodri stood still for a moment and then called out loudly to the girl who sat with a thick ledger on one side of the hall.
"I am taking this one. I have been given the money," she said and took Mriga's trembling, sweaty hand in hers, walking towards the stairs.
Once upstairs, they entered a small cubbyhole on the right and Mandodri shut the door behind her swiftly. Without looking at Mriga, she went and opened the window and cooed to the pigeon perched there. The pigeon hopped in with curious eyes and she quickly found some seeds to feed it.
"You will find the quill and parchment under the bed. Write a short message with the most important details. Don't go blabbering about," the woman instructed as she moved her hand on the pigeon's head, softly.
Mriga bobbed her head and gathered her wits about her. She quickly wrote a few code words and gave them to the older woman. Rolling it tight, Mandodri tied it expertly at the pigeon's foot while softly cooing to him and then pushed it out of the window gently.
Mriga felt her legs give way and sunk down to the floor. Looking at her, the woman's eyes crinkled. She poured some water in a small cup and extended it towards her.
"While we wait and hope for a reply, you can relax here," she said kindly.
Mriga took the proffered cup with gratitude and finished it in a gulp.
"Thank you, I have been…" she started.
"This place has really thin walls. I would be careful about what I say," the woman cut in.
Mriga nodded her head and shut her mouth.
Two hours later
Mriga was back at the institute and had been asked to report immediately to Amrapali's cabin. With her heart thudding, she made her way there.
As she entered the room, the sight made her relieved and then freeze in her steps. Her senior, Trupti, stood there wearing a calm expression. Mriga composed her own features and walked further in to face Amrapali who was seated behind the mahogany table.
"I hear that you had quite an adventure out there, today," Amrapali started in a mild voice.
From the beginning of the program till date, the chief had only exchanged a few words with the interns but today was the first time that Mriga was feeling the impact of the woman's presence. She recalled Shaurya's words where he had said that Amrapali was the right woman to be trained under, for Mriga since she was strict and unbending.
Lowering her head, she wondered what exactly was this situation. Had it been a test which she failed or did her actions actually save her senior's life? Or were her efforts not needed all together and she made a muck out of the situation?
"Were the instructions of the assignment unclear to you?" Amrapali continued asking in a deceptively soft voice.
Mriga shook her head in negative.
"Then why may I ask, did you not come back to the institute on the first sign of trouble and instead ran away to the brothel, putting the institute and us at risk? If your identity and through you, our establishment would have been discovered, do you know how dire the consequences would have been? Or were you so busy playing the heroic spy that these thoughts didn't occur to you?" her voice had taken the sharp edge within nanoseconds.
Mriga hung her head in shame. She didn't know what could she say under the circumstances.
"Not only did you lose sight of the senior in the first place, you disregarded the protocol completely and brazenly post that. Get out of my sight. You are barred from going for any more assignments till the time you are in this institute," her imperious tone left no scope for Mriga to say anything.