The first thing that Janvi knew at the meet was that it wasn't going to be a meet at all. What was more stupefying than the condition of the meet itself was the extraordinary welcome they received. The moment they set foot in, a sword was at Maahir's neck with a short guy holding it and glaring him.
Since Vikasa advised them to take a short break, after filling the form details and giving a small demonstration before the Chief with Quiroshi, Maahir and Janvi went to a petty tea shop opposite and such was their welcome when they returned to the conference hall an hour later.
Janvi recognized the short guy soon enough. He was the one in the photo with Nancy-her brother. But before she even half opened her mouth, another man ducked under the sword, twisted it out of his hand swiftly and sat on the immediate swivel chair.
"Don't play with swords inside, Dan," said he, sheathing the sword in a black leather cover. He looked much older and hence much wiser than the others in the room. He was clean shaven with too many wrinkle lines on his forehead. He carried this no play at all look all over his face. He kept the sword beside him, on the table and resumed reading a book with one hand while having some sort of beverage in the other.
"Yo, Dan!" cried Vikasa, coming from behind, "Don't scare off our rookie on her first day."
He grunted. "Next time," said he, pointing at Maahir, "you break into my house, when my sister is alone, you are dead."
He then brushed past Maahir, grumbling something and took a chair opposite to the guy reading the book. Maahir shrugged his shoulders, muttering something about a sister-maniac, before following him to his seat.
"Here is your glass, my lady," said a deep voice, suddenly from back, making her jump. The master of the voice was a XXXL man with long black hair, rather mane, falling upto his girdle. He was in a black track suit and his biceps were twitching out of his tight T-shirt. He was smiling eerily, holding a glass of booze for her.
"Thanks," said she, taking the glass from him and proceeded to have a seat beside Maahir.
"Get me a Fizz, Faddy," said Maahir and the XXXL guy poured him juice with his large arms.
The door flew open and the Chief entered, with hands in his pockets, singing some tune to himself. Everyone sat down as the Chief went to the side table, pouring some wine for himself.
"Good evening, everyone," said he, raising his glass.
"Good evening, Chief," everyone shouted back.
"Is everyone present?," asked he, taking a gulp.
"The love birds are enjoying honeymoon, I guess," said Dan, rolling his eyes.
"It is not a honeymoon if they are not married, Dan," said Vikasa.
"Yeah, marriage is the only thing they have not done. Damn it. Why do I never get missions in hill stations?"
"Even if you did," said Faddy, "What you gonna do? Have a candle light dinner with Aravind?"
Everyone laughed.
"Save the jokes for later, guys," said Chief, placing his glass down, "Dev and Shri have gone to Malai, on an A-class mission. They might not get back for another week. Let's get down to business.
First, last week's performance. Vikasa and Fraudin were on standby, undertook two missions, a C and a B, and successfully completed both. Aravind and Dan carried out two requests and one D-class mission. Maahir's suspension got over and he joined duty today. And surprisingly he brought over a girl with him, recommending her for our squad.
After some small talk and something similar to an interview, I've drafted her into Squad 5, as a temporary member for a period of three months. She and Maahir will be acting as a two men cell, for these three months. Her prospective deployment will be determined after the three month apprenticeship. Welcome, Janvi! No need to stand up. No formalities expected. Good luck with your work.
As for the next week, Aravind and Dan, be on standby. Others can carry out requests as they please. To the Trixy! That's all for tonight. Have fun!"
Saying that, he marched up to the white board hanging on the wall, taking a marker with him. Others began their chit-chat, pulling each other's legs and Faddy got the dinner to the table. Vikasa had ordered an entire feast. Janvi grabbed a bowl of schezwan noodles and guzzled it down soundly.
"That's why you never got a girlfriend, Dan," said Vikasa, devouring the chilli parrota, "You don't know how to complement a girl at all."
"Oh, really?" said he, "How many boyfriends have you had? Even faddy wouldn't date you, after being in the same team for four years."
"What's with the 'even Faddy', Dan?," asked Faddy, coming up behind him, massaging his knuckles.
"No offense intended, Mr. Fraudin Douglas. It was a joke, just a joke. Why so serious?" said he patting his shoulders.
"And honestly, Dan," said Vikasa, taking another spoon of fried rice, "I wouldn't think twice to choose Faddy over you."
"You will choose anyone. But no one is choosing you!" said he and chortled.
"Looks like someone wishes his bones to be broken," said she, thrusting her fork into the pepperoni chicken.
"No, I'm fine," said Dan, shooting his arms up, "Pardon me, very-very-virgin-Vikasa!"
The chorus laugh echoed in the hall tirelessly until Vikasa kicked Dan in his crotch from under the table. Janvi realized that Maahir had slipped from the group and was brooding before a wooden board, that was filled with pinned posts. She too silently walked away from the table to him.
"Hi," said she, digging into her dessert.
He glanced over and said, "Hi, had dinner?"
"Yeah. Haven't eaten like this in ages. What ya doing?" asked she, seeing him fingering the papers on the board.
"Searching for requests."
"Requests?"
"Yeah," said he and turned, "Listen. We will be doing two kinds of jobs in Trixy, missions and requests. Missions will be assigned to us by the Chief. They will be dangerous, difficult and furtive. But considering the fact both of us are fairly new here, I don't think he will assign us missions anytime soon.
And then, we have got requests. Requests are done for public and we choose them. They pay us and we give a part of them to the organization. Anyone might post a request and these appear here on this request board. Any squad may take the request."
"There are other squads other than us?"
"Of course, there are totally five squads of Trixy in Vinpur. We are squad 5, the newest and smallest squad here."
"Smallest?"
"Yep. Smallest. We have just nine members, including you. Squad 2 is largest with fifty one members. Even though the offices of all squads are scattered across the city, no squad is confined to any region. We can take up a request from any place."
"So, are we doing a request tomorrow?"
"I'm hoping to," said he, continuing his search, "I am searching for something that suits our abilities, you know. There must be something….. Ha! Here is the something."
He plucked a paper from the board and read it intently. "I think we could do this. A case of missing man, disappeared on the night of 13th July, that's day before yesterday. Shall we give it a try? We might have an edge, you know, with Quiroshi."
"Sure."
"Well, then. Let me get it signed."
"Signed?"
"Yeah. We don't have the authority to act by ourselves, you know. The Chief should sign the request receipt, inform the city head office that we are carrying it out and issue an Action Order. Once we receive the A.O, we can move."
"Shall I go? To get it signed, I mean," said she, "I have to just ask him, right?"
"Okay, if you want to. I too haven't eaten anything yet. Let me see if Vikasa had left me anything at all."
She strolled to the white board after he left for the table. The Chief was reflecting profoundly on something, standing before the board. The board had too many arrows, lines and drawings all over it that she didn't even try to understand them. But just one name at the top, encircled in red, piqued her interest.
"Asai Thori?" she asked, getting his attention, "The rumored underworld Jack?"
"Looks like you have already learnt some mafia politics."
She laughed nervously. "Just a little, Chief."
"Already begun the hunt, huh?" asked he, noticing the paper in her hand, and held his hand out, "I'll issue the A.O tomorrow morning. Come to my office by nine."
"Err.. sure," said she, handing it over, "Thanks."
He chuckled. "For what? Recruiting you?"
"For that too."
"Why do you think I drafted you into my squad?"
She flinched. "I thought the game was over. Why the ninth question now?"
He laughed. "I'm your boss, Miss Janvi. You cannot dodge my questions, game or not."
She sighed. "I guess it's because I won the game."
"You were dead wrong about a question," said he, raising his brows, "You said Maahir was naive. That's the best joke I've heard this year."
"What-"
"He is really shrewd, incase you don't know," said he, throwing a glance at him, "He calculates his every move. He acts with prudence. He doesn't make reckless mistakes and he has never been naive. He is a guy whom you can't get to believe his instincts so easily. That's why I was so amazed when he brought you with him, recommending to me, on pure basic instinct. I just thought it would be intriguing to know what made him trust his instincts, for the first time."
"I don't know why but I can't shake this feeling that you are trying to allude me that planning things ahead and acting with caution are his faults, and not virtues."
"You have already heard of this, I suppose. Maahir had been suspended off duty for ten days, until yesterday. Do you know why?"
"No," said she, "What did he do?"
"Nothing," said he, taking the duster from the stand.
"Nothing?" asked she, shaking her head in perplexion, "Sorry, but I don't understand, Chief."
"Do you know who is actually naive, Janvi?" asked he, wiping the board clean, "You."