Prakash Kedia

I was sitting on the chair beside Richa. There was another chair at our front, facing us. We were at the interrogation, and we were interrogating every prisoner one-by-one. Behind the chair was a door from which I can see the other half of the prison. I can see the open corridor and the other side of the building. The sun was setting behind the building when Richa asked me, “Hey, want some water?” I looked at her, and saw her drinking water from a plastic bottle sold in the market. She was raising the bottle towards me.

“No,” I shook my head with a smile. She closed the bottle with a plastic cap and then kept the bottle downwards on the floor between us. “Next!” I shouted and another prisoner came in from the door. He was wearing the usual uniform of the prisoners--a white t-shirt upon a white pair of pajamas which had black horizontal stripes on them. He also had a brown pair of slippers on. His face was covered with a dense beard, like not cut for months, with a black mustache. He also had long hairs which sat on his shoulders. He was forty or fifty by age, as I can guess. He walked towards us and sat on the chair which was kept in front of us. I turned my head towards the files on my lap and said, “So, uh--”

“The Suiciders Defense Team, right?” His head was down.

“Wha--” Richa exclaimed in shock, with her head upon the down-facing man. I was shocked too, so I just saw at that man.

“I used to work for a group who used to own the Suiciders,” He replied. “I still have contacts. I wanna talk directly to your head, Inspector Kartik Khandelwal.”

Still in shock, I turned my head towards Richa, who was looking at me with the same damp open eyes.

Manuel Levi

“Hey, Kritika!” I called out her name as I walked towards her room with the open laptop in my two hands. I stood in front of her room, and didn’t know how to knock on it. Both my hands were full of stuff. I looked here and there, and found out that there was no one in the whole corridor. So, I looked at the door, sighed so as to gain some courage, and then banged my head on the door. “KRITI!” I screamed again, and she suddenly opened the door.

“What now?” She asked with the same cold look on her face.

“Listen this,” I was wearing one of the ear-plugs, and the other one was on the keyboard of the laptop. She took the other one and moved it towards her ear. “They’re planning something big this time, I guess.”

“So, how should we go about in this case?” One of them asked.

“The Murdered Faction is gonna go too far if they implement this plan. What are we supposed to do if they actually do such a thing?”

“It’d be the biggest hint given to both the public and the police that something’s wrong. We’ve been able to get out of the eyes of police since nineteen-ninety-two, and I don’t guess it’d be good for us to get caught after such long-ruling years.”

“Year nineteen-ninety-two,” Vikram said. He stood up from his seat and said, “… brings back a lot of memories.”

“Sure it does, sir,” One of them said. “At last, it was the year your Papa saved our fathers from the sufferings, by forming this society.”

“I’ve decided,” Vikram said. “We’ve been through many hells together, and faced worse than this. But, not this time. Imma run this society smoothly, and I’m ready to take out all the elements which sought to ruin our unity.”

I looked in surprise at Kritika and she did the same. “How do they know about our next step?”

“Our leader himself told them, in order to scare them a bit,” Kritika replied coldly as she continued hearing seriously.

“Our peace, our unity and our achievements won’t be sacrificed…”

“And, by the way,” Kritika added, “He’s decided to leave us behind in here to give them regular updates if Vikram does what he’s supposed to do.”

“… Imma imprison them if they do so.”

“That’s it,” Kritika added. “We’re gonna work as the news-updaters.”

Prakash Kedia

“B-But first, at least tell us what type of information you got,” I said to the prisoner.

“Tomorrow at six in the evening,” He said. Then, he held his face up towards me and said. “… you get all the information you need.”

“B-But why tomorrow at six?” I asked. “I mean, can’t you meet him today at--”

“No,” He said. “You’re gonna get all your answers.” Then, he stood up, turned back towards the door and said, “Tell him not to be late by even a second, or he’s gonna miss all the action.”

I, who was full of fright after this incident, shouted, “What type of action?”

“As I said, you’re gonna get all your answers.” He was at the door by the time he finished. Then, he turned back and said, “I don’t like to repeat myself.”