Chapter 16:
When Rani saw Prateek along with 2 other men and no Andy, her heart skipped a beat. Prateek smiled at her warmly but she felt that it was not sincere enough. "Who are these men and where is Andy?" asked Rani anxiously. One of the men smirked at her and eyed her up and down. She felt a surge of fear migled with disgusting. "Um… Rani Andy said that he had something important to do at Jodhpur so he sent us. These are friends of Andy." said Pratik pointing at the two men.
Rani took a good look at them. One of them was wearing glasses and looked a bit older. He looked like he could be a scientist and the man who was smirking at her looked gruffy he had a bad aura about him. Rani had millions of questions in her mind. What important work Andy had, and Rani did not know? Why would Andy miss sending off his friends? And who were these friends that she never knew of? These people were lying to her. The man with the specs looked around as if expecting something to pop up in front of him. The other man who had smirked at Rani was setting up some equipment on the ground that looked like a telescope. Rani sensed danger.
Was one of the men actually the professor? Had Prateek joined forces with him? Was Andy beaten up and was tied up somewhere unable to escape? Fear crept inside Rani's heart. "Rani who are they?" Vika's whisper bought her to her senses. "I will prepare tea; you all look tired!" with these words she started walking towards the house. The others simply nodded, but the smirky man was still staring at her. She quickly ran to her house hoping that Vika would follow her. "Vika? Are you here?" she called as she reached her house. "Yeah Rani! Of course! What is this all about? " Vika's voice came to her ears. Rani kept aside her worries for Andy. She had to be level headed now and try to save the Senlings.
"Listen carefully Vika! I am about to tell you something important. The men you see, Prateek is claiming that they are Andy's friends, but I believe that one of them is the professor. Prateek has joined hands with the him for money, I presume. The men have some fancy equipment, the purpose is not clear, but they are not here to protect you senlings. They are intending to harm you all, I am sure. Hide yourselves well and do not come out no matter what." Said Rani in an urgent panic stricken voice.
"But Rani, what about you? And where is Andy? Is he in danger?" Vika sounded scared. "I will be fine Vika. I am sure Andy wherever he is, fine too. We can worry about that later. Now the prime priority is the safety of you Senlings! got it? Run fast and inform all your friends." Rani's voice was commanding. Vika murmured yes and everything was silent again.
Rani finished making tea and brought it over to the men who were still standing near the entrance. The specs man was looking through the telescope like thing, with disappointed face. Rani guessed that the equipment was to sense the aliens around the area and they looked disappointed because they were not able to catch any signal of the aliens being present. Thank God Vika had listened to her. Much to her relief the gruffy man had stopped staring at her too. In fact, he was hardly looking at her, but was in deep thought.
Suddenly Rani heard Xezo's voice loud and clear. She looked at the men. By the looks of their faces, it seemed like they had heard it too. "No Vika!" Xezo was shouting. "We cannot let Rani get in trouble because of us! We are not going to hide! Andy told us to trust Prateek and we have to do that!" Rani was frozen in spot. No! No! If these men see the Senlings, everything would be over! Prateek ran towards the direction of Xezo's voice and addressed him directly. "Xezo my dear friend, I have your fuel ready. The two men whom you see, they are Andy's friends who have come here to help you! Unfortunately, Andy couldn't come as he is taking care of the professor at the moment. He is preventing the evil professor from coming here. Come on now we don't have time! So, hurry up and get ready! You are all going home!" Yelled Pratik.
Hearing this, there was a loud cheer from the Senlings. Rani looked over at the man who was looking through the telescope like machine and smirking. That's when she saw the man taking out a gun like thing from his pocket. Rani's stomach churned. He was aiming it at what seemed like the Senlings! "No!" Said Rani as she ran to get the gun off of the man. But it was too late. The man had already shot someone from the Senlings. "Cheif!" the scream of Vika pierced through the air.