Manish Murthy

I was walking behind Kritika. I looked back again towards the warehouse, where my sister was just killed. I remembered her coming out of the warehouse and falling on her back, with Shekhar, looking directly in her eyes, and pointing a pistol at her. “By the way,” I turned my head forward again. “Do you have a sibling?”

“I have an elder sister, too,” She replied.

“Really? Is she alive? I mean, I heard that TES kills most of your family members, so that’s why…”

“Yes, she sure is alive. She is currently working at Delhi Police as ‘Chief of Police’.”

“Wow,” He turned his head at her. “That’s the highest post for a police officer, right?”

“Investigator,” She corrected me. “We used to be best friends, but somehow… somehow we split up.”

“‘Split up’?” I asked.

“Yeah, we don’t talk to each other now. It’s been some two years, and I have not even called her or even seen her photo.” She had her head tilted down, but somehow I guessed that she felt lonely. After a second, she added, “That’s what it takes to be a part of TES.”

I was completely silent and speechless. I nodded and turned my head towards her. “Cheer up, Kritika.”

“What about you?” She asked. “Do you have one?”

“Yes, I got an elder sister too. But, she was just killed… by TES.”

She nodded her head in reply and said, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I said back. There was a silence between us now. I didn’t want to break it, and neither did she. So, both of us, with our tilted heads, continued walking towards the main road which was just some meters away from us. I moved my hands inside my pocket, and felt something. “T-The phones Shekhar gave me…” I thought. I suddenly remembered Shekhar’s face, which said to me, “And it’s not just them; over a thousand people like them deserve that. If it all goes to court, it’d take over a hundred years to solve them all. That… That’s the amount of crimes we’ve committed over the years.” “The crimes, huh?” I thought. “I thought that you were trusting me, Shekhar. I thought… that you were handing me a duty that… that I have to do as… WHY?!” I tilted my head up towards the sun. This time, I didn’t think, I literally screamed, “WHY… WHY DID YOU GIVE ME HOPE AND THEN… AND THEN TOOK IT BACK AGAIN YOURSELF?!”

Kritika suddenly kept her arm around my neck on my shoulder and patted it. “Everything will be all right. It’s all gonna end soon.”

“I hope it all could have come to a good end. But, the main part is, nothing will come to a good end for me.”

“You have not seen the future, have you?”

“And you have not seen my circumstances, have you?”

“What are your circumstances, then?” She asked. “I wanna listen.”

“You don’t need to. I-I just can’t tell that, anyways.”

She didn’t reply at my answer; she just nodded.

Kartik Khandelwal

“‘The time’…” Radhika murmured.

“Leave that for now,” I told her. “First of all, listen to me. By the time I come back from Kahanapur, you have to lead the group, okay?”

Radhika nodded at me. “Okay.”

“And so, I verbally have to tell you what you have to do by the time I’m not here, and what I’m planning to do next.”

“O-Okay,” She nodded again. She was partially shocked and serious.

“So, first of all, we know that the politicians are directly connected with TES. It’s our big fish. Don’t leak it outside, no matter what. Next, we know how TES works. Moreover, we even know that TES has got moles inside the police. So, it’s gonna be a waste if any of our information gets leaked outside. Therefore, whenever you give reports, either give some false information that’s entirely different from our findings, or don’t give them at all. Moreover, make sure no one talks about TES outside the team room. Plus, take in note that we need to, now, work on catching the moles of TES. They all have given their assignments on the finding of Vivek Virohan, his daily life, credit card details, past transactions and all that stuff. Take all that into consideration and make sure we’re not behind in the case.”

“Okay, okay,” She nodded with determination. “So I needa work on catching moles of TES, right?”

“Yes,” I replied. “Make sure no one of them knows that they’re your target. Then, suddenly… Just suddenly, on a perfectly normal sunny day, give the police the order to catch them on suspicion of treason.”

“What?” She screamed. “Don’t you think it’d be a bit too harsh?”

“First, listen to me.”

“O-Okay.”

“Then, you have to torture them and make them spit out every single thing they know about TES.”

She sighed and covered her forehead with her hand in tension. “Just tell me that you’re joking.”

“I’m one hundred percent serious here, Radhika. You needa do it to gather information!”

“B-But, I can’t torture anyone. I mean, if I could do something evil, don’t you think it’d make me a synonym for TES?”

“Believe in me, it won’t.”

“It will,” I said. “And when it will, then you’ll believe me. We can’t beat the bad guys being the good ones, Radhika!”

“Good wins over evil, Kartik.”

“It’s not fiction that good will win over evil. The ones who are good never have a chance of going against the evil, right? When a protagonist kills the antagonist, don’t you think that the protagonist is now evil himself, for he has also killed a man?”

She was completely silent and speechless at my answer. “Y-Yes,” She replied after a few seconds of brainstorming.

“That’s why, Radhika, try to turn evil, or everything which we’ve done in these years will eventually go to waste.”