Kartik Khandelwal

She was breathing hard. “O-Okay, lemme calm down.” She covered her mouth with her hands and continued breathing hard. Then, she closed her eyes, and her breathing slowly went to normal back again. I stood up and walked out of the room. I came back and gave her the glass of water. She took it. “Thanks a lot.”

“You’re most welcome,” I replied. She finished it and gave the glass back to me. “I guess we should talk at the drawing-room.” She looked backward at me, nodded and walked outside the room following me.

She was sitting on the sofa when I walked at the sofa set and sat in front of her, on the other side of the table, facing her. “First of all, I-I’m sorry for such an unexpected--”

“It’s okay, Radhika. It’s been years since I’ve seen a college friend again.”

“Good to hear that, but, I guess you’re not doing well for quite some time.”

“Oh, that,” I tilted my head down in embarrassment and said, “It’s nothing serious. I-I was just crying over silly things. You know me.”

“Last time when you were depressed, there was me, Shekhar, Prakash and many other people like Naina, the little Rohini and all to share your burden, right?” She reminisced. “But, who’s with you now?”

“No one,” I said in a low voice. “College saw some of the worst days of my life. The Shekhar’s case, the graduation, everything was so…”

“Some things were not depressing, Kartik,” She told me. “You learned to move on in life. It was the first time you didn’t cry hearing your mom’s name, the first time we all met, the first time we all saw a movie together, the first time we failed, the first time we helped each other and the first time we saw each other’s true selves and understood each other.” She turned her head at me and said, “No, Kartik, it was not so depressing.”

I looked at her, and a drop of tear found its way on my cheek. I took out a handkerchief, tilted my head down and wiped my tear. “Anyways, what did you want to tell me?”

“Hmm,” She tilted her head downwards. “I’m here as a witness today, you see, and not as a friend. I-I joined TES after college, and that’s probably when you lost contact with me.” I nodded. “For the first days, I was investigating in the hope that I’d Shekhar, but I never did.”

“It was, I guess, around the time I started filling the Chief of Police’s mails with the pleas of opening an investigative team against TES.”

“Yeah, I suppose. How’s it going?”

“It’s going pretty well,” I scratched my neck. “It’s a lowly-funded program though, and I have a team of just four men.”

She nodded with concern. “Just four men can’t beat TES.”

“One is even dead,” I told her. “He was killed in a fire today. Another man, who was working with me, though officially not a part of the team, was killed too. My boss told me to stop this investigation. It’s risky to the lives of my team. Two are already dead, and our suspects were also killed. I-I have decided to shut it down.”

“Wait, d-don’t tell me you are deciding to shut it down…”

“Why? I-I can’t put another innocent man’s life being taken away in front of me without even me able to do anything.”

“B-But they’re investigators, and they’re willing to have their lives on the line.”

“I know, but once, someone told me that they’re more like parrots, constantly chanting the same thing without even knowing what it actually means. It was the Chief of Police herself, who said such harsh words to me.”

“B-But you can’t back down, Kartik.”

“I’m not backing down. I’m just thinking of another plan, since the first plan has failed. In fact, I am thinking of joining TES too. It’d be helpful.”

“You know what the procedures to join it are,” She said with determination. “You literally have to give up all your wealth and the souls of your loved ones to enter, and that too when you can’t even apply for this yourself.” She paused for a second and then angrily continued, “You know what our deal was, right? Shekhar was gonna go inside, and you were gonna work from outside. And when this plan is finally going to start, you are breaking it up?”

I breathed hard. “But I just can’t take it anymore.”

“I know it’s hard,” She said calmly. “I felt the pressure several times too, but you either do it or don’t. I decided to do it, and you have to do it too.”

I nodded and thought about it seriously. “Anyways, tell me about the attacks.”

“Well, TES gave the leader of the faction to organize a silent attack to free Shahnawaz. But, instead of just a dozen of men, the leader took out some hundred men. The rest attacked the mall to give a hint to citizens that something is wrong. But, I don’t know much, because I ran just a few days later after its announcement.”

“Why did you run?”

She moved her back forward. “I got to know that the investigation has started, so I just wanted to assist you.” She smiled. “Sounds sane, right? But, back then I only thought about you and ran.”

“By the way, what is ‘the faction’ that you are talking about?”

“See, people in TES are hired in two ways--either through murdering their whole family and making them vulnerable mentally, or through recommendations by the Iris.”

“Iris? That agency which takes killing contracts, right?”

“Yes, and in that process, they also come across people who are willing to join their militia.”

“And, who is the leader of that faction?”

“I can’t tell you.”