Kartik Khandelwal

The next day, I was in the room with my team. They all were ready with their assignments. “Sir, there were not too many of them to interrogate. Moreover, most of them had nothing to say, so we did it in just a day,” Richa said as she kept her folder on my desk in front of me.

“Yeah, I’m getting it,” I replied as I looked at the assignment of Mukesh and Sonia. There were some twenty-seven to be interrogated, and all of them had nothing to say.

“Most of them had not even heard the name before,” She said as she turned back towards her desk.

“I guess we made a wrong move,” I said while glaring at the results and rubbing my chin. “Now, the prisoners who must be connected to The Suiciders would have told them about the investigation.”

“But, at least we have a lead now, a lead which can even lead us directly to the organization,” Prakash replied to console me and make me look at the positive side. “I mean, we’d have been at square one if this had not worked. It’s a ‘small win towards a bigger prize’.” He shrugged, so as to ask ‘right?’

I nodded towards him and said, “Yeah, that’s a good point to be taken into notice too.” Then, I stood up from my seat. I walked round the seat and started speaking, “So, uh, y’all, I have to tell you about a very…” I was stuck with words, but then I quickly continued, “… very disheartening revelation which I, along with a ghost-investigator, found out just yesterday…”

“Is it something bad?” Mukesh asked me. “I mean, sir, is that you’re looking down, and, uh, you’re like, unable to tell us what’s happened.”

“It-It’s disheartening, as I said,” I replied. “The-There’s a lot of moles and corrupted people at DPHQ.”

“What?!” Sonia screamed. The cold face from her usual face had worn out just for a second due to shock. “Well, the problems lie if they’re with The Suiciders.”

“They’re just some suspects, so I can’t say if they’re with The Suiciders or not, so…”

“It means that we don’t have just Shahnawaz as our lead, right? We got other suspects too to lead us there,” Sonia said, with a sudden change in expressions. She looked expressionless and cold.

“I like the way how you change personalities from an investigator to a woman and then again to an investigator,” Richa joked.

“Me too,” Mukesh said with a smile.

“So, uh, jokes apart, I’m happy that you’ve grasped the situation very well. But remember, it means that we’re surrounded by countless enemies right now. This ain’t a normal mission, as I’ve told you several times, and now you got to see that perspective.” Everyone was looking at me with serious tones on their faces, and nodded in the same expressions as I continued. “You… You all can even be attack anytime anywhere. They’ll try to kill you all… and for that, they can go very, very low. You can even become yet another victim of The Suiciders, so be aware even while you walk.” Now I can see it, everyone was inside. They were sweating, but none showed their fear outside. “One more thing,” I turned rightwards and started walking sideways with a finger on my forehead. “Don’t leak the information we gain to other people outside. We still don’t know who’s corrupted and who’s not. The age, size, shape, name or anything else doesn’t matter if the person has to be corrupted or not, ‘kay?”

“Yes,” Everyone said at once.

“Okay, since we’ve talked about everything I wanted to cover today,” I said as I turned back and sat down at my desk. “I want to give you a little bit more information about the suspects, and your next assignments.”

“Sir,” Richa raised her hand again. “I just wanted to ask that what we are supposed to do if this corruption is spread to the deepest roots of the Delhi Police.”

I sighed at such a difficult question. I turned my head down, and then back up in tension. “We, uh…” I thought of an answer. “I guess we’d go against the police and fight the way we’re fighting now.”

“But sir,” She said with a smile. “How can we fight the whole system with just the five of us?”

I smiled at the question and asked, “Richa, how many people do you think this organization has?”

“Uh… Maybe some twenty.”

“If I reveal something from my sources,” I told her, “They got more than a thousand people with them.” She was speechless at this. “Yes, it’s just that they don’t use their powers to the fullest.”

“But sir, how can we even fight such a huge organization by ourselves?”

“The police are an organization in itself, and it’s a strong one. Just some corruption can’t take them all down for anything. Honest and deserving officers are still there, and we got a lot of manpower to fight them for sure.” She was still confused, so I continued with a smile, “We’re taking small steps towards a big revolution, and we’d do the same if they’re corrupted even through the roots.” I stood up again and replied, “I’m sure we’d come out of a way if it’d actually stand in front of us sometime.”

“So, uh, take your assignments,” I said at last. “Sonia and Richa, I want information about the financial transactions of Mr. Vivek Virohan and his companions, both digitally and traditionally. And, Prakash and Mukesh, keep a close watch on Mr. Vivek Virohan, as well as his companions if possible, and report everything. Maybe we can find anything fishy.”

Manuel Levi

“So, they’re about to leave, right?” I asked Kritika, who was sitting beside me.

“Yes,” She replied. “How brave are those people who’re gonna take up arms today to fight for a better tomorrow.” I saw a different type of sparkle in her eye, which I’d probably not see again. “I hope that we can go fight with them too.”

I turned my head down towards my lap and replied, “Yep, I wanna go see the outside world. It’s been years.”

“Just wait some more,” She replied. “We’re gonna see it now only when we’d be able to see it the rest of our lives.”