Gurukul
Abhirath didn't know how to react in this moment but one thing was amply clear to him by now. Subtlety was the wrong most approach to use with this slow-witted girl.
He released Mriga's arm, interlinked his fingers through hers instead and drew in a quiet breath to sound casual.
"Fine! Let's go and listen to what she has to say," he said with a nonchalance air.
Mriga looked at his brazen behavior and shook her head muttering, "Childish, hooligan, idiot…"
But for some reason, she didn't withdraw her hand from his. At his end, Abhirath pretended not to hear her words and pulled her towards the other girl who had no clue that two people had nearly come to blows because of her.
"Hi Vaishali, I got Abhirath to speak with you about the issue which you raised yesterday," Mriga called out to the other girl as they neared her.
Vaishali was caught unaware by her words and nearly choked on her saliva when she saw the two of them coming towards her. She bit her tongue to stop her face from heating up and unconsciously tugged at her earlobe as she squeezed out a smile when she saw their intertwined hands.
"Mriga said that you want to talk about the maze incident," he started without wasting any time on preamble, sounding gruff.
He could see that she was feeling uncomfortable in his presence and it reminded him of his own awkwardness during the past couple of years whenever he faced or neared the girl who was now standing next to him.
Hence, he knew that it would be easier for Vaishali if he showed an indifferent face towards her at this moment. Had the topic not been important, he would have not interacted with her but despite his complaint that day to the team at the competing ground, there had been no progress in case of finding the perpetrators. Abhirath was especially looking for the person who had caused harm to Mriga in the tunnel.
"Yeah, I have my suspicion about a couple of people but I have no proof," Vaishali started calmly.
Eastern zilla
Ramanujam opened his eyes as the door creaked shut and the feet receded away from where he lay. He turned and scraped his way towards the little opening which he had dug into the wooden barricade separating his room from whatever lay on the other side. He opened his nostrils wide and inhaled through that hole deeply. He could taste the blood in his mouth from the wound which he had inflicted on his tongue to stay conscious when the poisonous gas was released in the room.
In the past few days, he had realised that the effect of this gas was most potent for the first five minutes. He just needed to be aware of the sound of the spray which released the gas into his cell. If he managed to hold onto his breath from then till the opening of the room by the kidnapper, it would ensure that a lot of it would be dissipated by then. He had spent every waking minute in the last two days to dig himself an opening from which he would be able to breathe in till the lingering effects of the gas evaporated from his cell.
This was since he needed to stay awake for longer so that he could figure out an escape for himself. By now, he had realised that the offenders had no intention to kill him as of now which meant that he still had a chance at getting out of this captivity. In his head, he had thought of various scenarios and rejected many on the basis of whatever he could make out of his surroundings.
The easiest conjecture was that he had been following the Eastern zilla head and was caught. In the light of the events before his capture, it was a fair assumption to make that Dushyant aka Sharada was involved in this abduction which meant that there was something that 'she' didn't want others to find out about. It had been evening time when he was following the zilla head.
Since it would not have been an easy task to transport an unconscious Ramanujam from one place to another at that time, either he was dragged into the building which he had followed Sharada to or they had waited for the night to fall before moving him to his current location.
From what he remembered, the area where he followed Sharada to, was not far from the Suraksha Chakra office and also the sea. Unfortunately, that area wasn't very populous. In the past two days, he had tried his mightiest best to try and listen if he could hear any waves being near the coastline. Though he couldn't hear them, the air was definitely damp where he was being held.
Again, there was a possibility of him being underground which would make the surroundings feel moist but he had discovered rust and decay on most nails which had been stuck into the place used to board it up. That had given him hope and also an idea. Now, all he needed was uninterrupted time and a little luck on his side.
Capital, Chandragarh
Prithvi didn't know whether he could trust Amrapali, the current in-charge of his Suraksha Chakra office in Eastern zilla. With so many things happening in that particular zilla in the recent past, he didn't want to take another misstep. In fact, a cautious person like him didn't trust many people and under the current circumstances, his faith levels were at an all-time low.
But he had run out of options. His brothel link, Mandodri hadn't been able to come up with anything regarding Ramanujam's whereabouts. In the meanwhile, he had activated his beggars and sweepers network but they needed a person to issue instructions and direct the search operation on the ground.