"You know what's weird?"

Rohit looked up to see Rahul standing at his door, a Rahul with hair tousled and sleepy eyes, clearly having woken up from sleep.

"What?"

"When we lose, it's always Virat's fault," said Rahul.

Rohit blinked and waited for him to elaborate.

"When we win, it's the team's credit. Yours and mine in New Zealand last year, Shami and Jassi's at Lord's, Ash and Axar's in the England series..." Rahul pulled at his already messy hair in a savage sort of gesture. "But when we lose, it is always Virat's fault."

"I know," said Rohit, hoping his voice for sympathetic in spite of his exasperation as he rose to pull his teammate in by the arm.

Rahul caught the sarcasm and narrowed his eyes. "You don't look like you know."

"Oh no, I do know," said Rohit placatingly. "Is that why you woke up? To come and tell me when we lose, it's always Virat's fault?"

"Yes," said Rahul grouchily, "I couldn't sleep, I kept waking up from nightmares."

"That's what happens when you read media articles before going to sleep, kiddo," chided Rohit. "Hasn't eight years in international cricket taught you that much?"

"Eight?" said Rahul, sounding bemused. "I've been playing for India eight years?"

Rohit deadpanned.

"2014...2015...2016..." Rahul counted on his fingers. "...2020...2021... oh, it's really eight," he said in wonder.

"Rahul," said Rohit.

"Yes?"

"Go to sleep."

"What?" protested Rahul. "No!"

"You're talking crazy. You need to sleep."

"No, I'll tell you what we need to do," said Rahul, and had to pause owing to an enormous yawn. "We need to check on Virat."

"Jinks talked to him about an hour ago...he said Virat's doing ok," said Rohit.

"Jinks," said Rahul scornfully, as if Jinks was not the person who dealt best with Virat when sad. "What does he know?"

"And Mahi bhai sat with him on the journey back to the hotel," reminded Rohit. "He said Virat's ok, too."

Rahul made an uncomplimentary sound from inside his throat that said 'I don't want to speak against Mahi bhai but I know better.'

"Rahuliya," said Rohit, driven to the nickname. "Do you want Virat not to be ok?"

"What a ridiculous thing to say," scoffed Rahul, and yawned again. "I don't want him to not be ok, I just know he isn't...with all this negativity..."

"Maybe he stayed away from social media," suggested Rohit, "unlike you."

"You think so?" asked Rahul, now sounding sleepy.

"What were your nightmares about, now?"

"Nightmares?"

"You said you kept waking up from nightmares..." prompted Rohit.

"Oh," said Rahul. "They were about the match. The shots we played, the catches they took," he explained. "And once they even showed us lifting the trophy." He sounded genuinely baffled.

Rohit could not count on one hand how many times he'd seen his team lifting the 2019 World Cup; they were the worst nightmares of all. They made him wake up to a blank world.

"But that's stupid, isn't it?" Rahul was saying. "Why would I dream about us lifting the trophy when we got eliminated in the group stage?"

"Yeah," said Rohit. "That's stupid." He pulled Rahul to lie down on the bed. "Close your eyes."

"No..."

"Rahuliya, don't try my patience."

Rahul closed his eyes.

"Think of Simba..." intoned Rohit.

"Simba?"

"Yes, your dog. Your chow."

"What's he doing?"

"Digging into the garden soil for a bone."

"Really?" mumbled Rahul. "Bhavana's going to be so mad..." His voice trailed off.

Rohit waited in silence, hoping he'd fall asleep this time.

No such luck.

"Rohit?" came Rahul's voice after a minute or two.

"Shhh!"

"Do you think Virat is also having nightmares?"

"No, I don't think so," lied Rohit.

"How can you be sure?"

"I'm not sure, I'm just guessing," said Rohit. "Now quick, think about Simba again..."

"I can't. I keep thinking of the match."

Rohit wondered how this boy was immune to his calming tactics. They worked pretty fine on Jassi and Hardik...

For a moment, he considered saying, "Let's go to check on Virat," and wake Virat up (if he was asleep at all) and let him comfort Rahul. He was good at that, when it came to Rahul. The best.

And yet Rahul had come to him.

So what would that make him? A lousy best friend and a lousier elder brother.

"Maybe we need something really big to stop thinking of the match," said Rohit.

"Like?" said Rahul glumly.

Later, Rohit figured he should've left the batshit crazy ideas to Jaddu.

"Your father's a civil engineer, isn't he?" he said, "so you must have some civil engineering blood inside you..."

Rahul sat up, looking completely thrown off.

"And we're inside this city...with one of the biggest civil engineering wonders of the world..." said Rohit, brain working rapidly.

Rahul's jaw dropped.

"You're not thinking of paying a visit to the Burj Khalifa at one thirty at night?" he demanded.

"Actually, I am," said Rohit solemnly.

He waited for Rahul to roll his eyes and lie back down. Instead he leapt down from the bed and pulled on a jacket hung over the chair.

"Yeah, let's go."

**********

They were professional cricketers. That made them fast, nimble, agile.

They were members of the ICT. That made them evil-minded plotters.

So they kept to the shadows as they scouted around the building, and slipped past a guard who was sleeping, silent as thieves.

"Is it going to be sealed? The door?" whispered Rahul, once they were inside the grounds.

"No, but we may have to knock out a few guards," whispered back Rohit.

Had it been an ordinary night, Rahul would have aborted the mission immediately. But it was not, so, as Rohit turned to his companion, his eyes were glittering in the moonlight.

*********

Mahi woke up at his ringtone blaring in the middle of the night. He frowned, seeing it was Rohit. Rohit was supposed to be asleep in the room opposite his.

"Mahi bhai?" came a soft, abashed voice through the phone.

"Rohit?" said Mahi, anxious at once. "What's wrong? What—?"

"Can you—er, can you..."

"Rohit."

"Can you come to pick us up at the, er..."

"Where on earth are you?" demanded Mahi, fear making him furious.

"At the Burj Khalifa," blurted out Rohit. "Or in it's security lockup."

"What?"

"Mahi bhai," said Rohit pleadingly.

"Jesus Christ. All right, I'm coming. It had better not be a prank, Ro."

"It's not," cried Rohit. "It's not."

**********

Mahi stepped out of his room after two minutes, having hastily splashed water into his eyes and pulled on a sweater.

And he came face to face with an equally dishevelled Virat, who looked about as crazy as he felt.

"Mahi bhai!" Virat sounded heartfelt relieved to see him. "I don't know how to tell you this, but I think Rahuliya has gone mad—he's not in his room, and he called me...he told me to pick him up from..."

"The security lockup of Burj Khalifa, is it?" said Mahi bhai drily.

Virat dropped his phone in shock. "He called you, too?"

"No, Rohit did."

"Rohit's there?" demanded Virat. "Why didn't he take me along?" he added, indignantly, and loudly.

Mahi bhai looked at him.

Virat covered his mouth in horror, but it was too late. Doors were already banging open up and down the corridor.

"Take you along where?" came Hardik's voice.

*********

So it happened that the whole Indian team, starting from their mentor, right down to Risbhab piled into the team bus and rode to the Burj Khalifa.

Guards stopped them at the gate.

"Sorry, sirs, no one is allowed inside at this hour."

"We're here to retrieve the—" Mahi bhai paused.

"—the prisoners," supplied Jaddu. "We're their guardians, you see."

"Hey!" protested Virat. "You're nobody's guardian. I'm Rahuliya's, and Mahi bhai is Rohit's."

Jaddu opened his mouth to holler with laughter.

"Jaddu," said Mahi bhai, so firmly that he didn't dare to laugh, after all.

*********

"I'm sorry, Virat," said Rahul, once he'd been freed. "I'm sorry you had to come all the way, I'm sorry for being so stupid, I didn't think..."

Virat put a guardian-ly arm around him; there was no way in hell he was going to scold him when he'd called him when he'd needed a guardian.

"Don't worry about it, Rahuliya," he said soothingly. "Though you could've taken me along..." he added wistfully. "Why did you go with Rohit?" he asked, suddenly indignant. "I wouldn't have let you get caught!"

"That's enough, Virat," said Mahi bhai from somewhere to their left; evidently, he'd freed Rohit from the other cell. "Don't encourage their tomfoolery. Why would you do something like that, Ro, and take a youngster along with you?"

Rohit did not look up to meet a gleeful Virat's eyes.

It was always awesome to hear Mahi bhai scold Rohit, thought Virat.

**********

"WELCOME BACK, PRISONERS!"

"QUICK, HIDE YOUR WALLET, HIDE YOUR WALLET, THE DACOITS HAVE COME!"

"WHY DID YOU GET CAUGHT?"

"ROHIT BHAIYA, ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?"

Rohit and Rahul reeled back in shock as the uproar greeted them at the bus. Rohit turned to Mahi bhai, aghast.

"Why did you tell all of them?" he demanded.

"THEIVES! THEIVES!"

"HARRY, BE QUIET!" shouted Jassi. "Rohit bhaiya, are you all right? Did they mistreat you?"

If Rohit had had his own way, he would've disappeard off the face of the earth. Instead he forced himself to smile comfortingly at Jassi.

"No, no one mistreated us."

"What happened? What happened?" clamoured a dozen voices.

Rahul slunk through the gaps and collapsed into the farthest seat he could manage, covering his face his hands.

Oh god, the humiliation.

After a minute, Virat slipped into the seat beside his.

"Rahuliya..."

"Why did you tell all of them?"

"They overheard us," said Virat, guilty because Rahuliya was upset and at the same time, thrilled because Rohit was. "Don't worry. Don't—EVERYONE, LISTEN," he shouted above the chaos. "No one will bring this up in the future, ever. Forget this happened."

"I was just about to call Mayank and Jinks," said Hardik, disappointed.

"No," said Virat firmly. "If I catch anyone mentioning it, you will have me to answer to," he said menacingly.

"You won't bring this up while fighting with Rohit, I take it?" asked Mahi bhai mildly.

Virat frowned.

"I—of course I will," he muttered. "OK," he announced. "No one can bring this up in front of Rahul, but anyone can in front of Rohit."

"I thought so," said Mahi bhai, though he was barely heard above the raucous peals of laughter.

Rohit made his way up to Virat to demand an explanation of this bias, and amidst the spirited argument, Virat felt a sudden weight on his shoulder, and turned to see Rahul asleep with his head resting against him.

Rohit saw it, too, and he thought, with a sudden twinge of pride, that the boy would not be having nightmares about the match anymore tonight.

have