Ratnodweep Resort
21:30
Sohel and Naomi came up to the 2nd-floor corridor.
Sohel said, "Fresh up and then come to my room."
Both of them entered their room. Sohel took off his jacket and his weapon holster. He took off his other clothes too and took a shower. After the shower, he took out his phone and called a redacted number.
"Sir. This is Ghost."
"Hello, Ghost. What's the situation over there?"
"The police should've taken over the safehouse by now. Without weapons, it will be tough for them to complete their mission. But still, we don't know how many of them are going to be there. And now that they know we are here, they will be more alert than ever."
"Don't worry. Bangladesh Army will be on standby close. You just have to get in and get any type of evidence of Lu-Shen's involvement in this attack. You go in, take the evidence and get out. The moment you give confirmation, the army will attack."
"But sir, if something goes wrong... is it really necessary to risk all these lives just to get one person?"
"It is, son. Soon you will understand. If we don't stop him now, even at the cost of a thousand lives. He's going to kill millions tomorrow. Sometimes you have to lose a few now so that you don't lose much later. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"
"Yes sir."
"Good. How are your comrades?"
"Both of them suffered mild injuries in the evening's battle, but they'll be alright."
"Ok then.Contact me if you need anything."
"Yes sir. Ghost out."
As he put down the phone and turned around, he saw Naomi standing at the door.
"So I forgot to lock the door huh?"
"You shouldn't, you know. We are not exactly safe here."
"It's okay.Come here and sit. I'll patch you up."
Sohel got up and took out a medicine box from a wall cabinet. Naomi sat on the side of the bed. Sohel sat beside her and started dressing the wound. Naomi was wearing a white sleeveless gown. Both of them stayed silent for a long time. Even after Naomi's wound was dressed, they stayed silent. A few moments later, Naomi looked at Sohel and noticed his face. It was full of guilt,regret and sadness. She tried to cheer him up.
"What's wrong, LT?"
"Nothing."
"You know you should share your thoughts with us. Me, Jacob, and Annabelle—all of us are like family, right? If something troubling you share with us. Don't keep it to yourself, please."
Sohel looked down and then looked at Naomi. He said, "Naomi, I shouldn't have stopped you on the highway. I'm sorry. I knew they had no intention to surrender. But still... but still I was reluctant to kill them. That reluctance put my friends' lives in danger. If something grave happened to any of them, I..."
Naomi put a hand on Sohel's shoulder.
"Calm down. We are humans, not machines. You're the one who told me that. Even after training for years, you are still reluctant to take someone's life, even though you know that if you don't, they will take some innocent's life. That reluctance is what makes us humans."
Sohel looked down again. He remained that way for a long time and then suddenly looked back at Naomi. Naomi felt like she was seeing fire in Sohel's eyes.
He said, "I've decided. I won't hesitate anymore. Next time I have to do something like this, I'm pulling the trigger. I can't hesitate with thousands of lives at stake."
Suddenly, at that time, someone knocks on the door. Naomi and Sohel were so immersed in talking to each other that they jumped at the sound. Naomi stood up while Sohel's hand automatically reaches under the pillow on the handle of his M17.
"Sohel, are you inside? It's me, Mitali."
Sohel got his empty hand out from under the pillow and opened the door. Mitali quickly got in, pushing Sohel back in the process. Before Sohel could say anything, she suddenly hugged him and started sobbing. Sohel patted her head as he asked, "What happened, Mitali? Why're you crying?"
Mitali replied, her face still burried in Sohel's chest, "Sohel, we almost died on the highway today. There was this big gunfight; there were these scary-looking guys with masks..."
Sohel interrupted Mitali. He pulled Mitali out of her imbrace and said, "Hey, hey Mitali. Calm down. Tell me what happened."
Mitali stopped crying and, after a small while, said, "After visiting the city, we wanted to explore some rural areas too. Nasir said he knew a place but he had work to do. So he gave us the location and went away. So we were going there in Nasir's car. Suddenly we were hearing gunshots and cars rushing the other way we were going. Before we could understand what was going on, Tahmid abruptly stopped the car. And there were people engaged in a gunfight, and then... and then..." She started sobbing again.
Sohel tried to calm her down. After a while, she seemed to calm down a little. Sohel sat her down on a chair on the side of the window. Naomi poured a glass of water and held it to Mitali. Mitali took the glass and drank the water. After drinking, she stopped for a moment, hurriedly looked up and saw Naomi looking at her worried.
"HUH!!! Who are you?" Mitali asked.
"I'm Naomi. Sohel's colleague. We met at the restaurant before; did you forget?"
Mitali calmed down a bit. But gets agitated again. She said, "Wait, wait, wait... Why are you in Sohel's room?"
Sohel spoke. He said, "Now now... Calm down. I was getting bored, so I called her here, and we were gossiping."
"So… You guys were only gossiping?"
"Of Course. What else would we do?"
"Oh. Okay," Mitali said, hiding her embarrassment. She then suddenly got up and left, but before she could leave, Sohel said, "Ah, Mitali, can you tell Jacob that I was looking for him?"
Mitali replied as she ran out of the room, "Ok."
A few minutes later, Jacob entered. Sohel said, "Lock the door and sit."
Jacob locked the door and sat in front of Sohel in another chair. Just as he sat down, Jacob said, "I'm sorry, boss. I..."
Sohel interrupted him and said, "It's fine. No one's dead; you had no idea about what was happening, and it's clear that you were directed that way."
Jacob calmed down a little as he saw Sohel wasn't angry at him. Sohel stopped for a minute, then explained everything he and Naomi found out about today. As Sohel continued with his talks, Jacob's face became more and more serious. After Sohel finished, Naomi said, "So, what do we do now?"
Sohel looked at the door and said, "Hmmm, there's a lot to do. But first, let's get the peeping tom."
He got up and suddenly opened the door. Just as he does, Mitali fell inside.