The atmosphere in the hall was tense. Everyone was on the edge, and nobody knew how he was going to react. They all kept silent, waiting for Sandhanam to say or do something.

Sandhanam, himself, appeared to be at his wits end. He sat on the floor before his men, constantly taking a shot of rum from the flask he was waving around. His face had a stone-cold expression, staring at the ground in front of him. One could only imagine what was happening in his mind.

Pandian, Nayar, and Gana had made themselves home in Sethu’s farmhouse ever since the raid at Kasipuram. They felt quite proud of their contribution in helping with the capture of the Lady so far. However, when things turned on its head, they have had their hearts in their throats. Constantly anxious of what was going to happen next. All three of them now felt the knife on their throats.

Sandhanam was in a bad mood when he arrived last night. The last thing he wanted to hear was some more bad news. Yet, time doesn’t care about your feelings. Sethu, who was supposed to meet him at the farmhouse was stuck in the city of Thirukocha, about a hundred and fifty kilometres from the farmhouse. He was supposed to return today morning. However, it was almost evening and instead of Sethu, two of his men had arrived from a hospital. Both of them appeared to have taken quite a beating and had one or the other limb bandaged.

‘Tell me everything from the start. Don’t skip on any detail,’ he ordered.

The two men stared into each other’s face for a moment before turning back to their boss. The one on the left began, ‘we were in the city. Vali Anna (big brother) had a few things to discuss with Sethu Anna. When we were there, we got the news about what had happened and promptly decided to return. But we ran into the police, so we were forced to stay in the city overnight.’

‘What did the police do?’ Sandhanam asked calmly.

‘We do not know who or why, but a police squad suddenly appeared at Vali Anna’s godown with a search warrant. Vali and Sethu did not want to be searched and fighting began. In the end, the police got a call and they just left without another word,’ he replied.

Sandhanam nodded and said, ‘then? What happened in the morning?’

‘We left as early as we could. The sun was still not out when we left. The whole journey was silent. Sethu was accompanied by three of us and three of Vali Anna’s men. Vali Anna wanted to talk to you about a few things. But near the toll post on the highway, that is when it happened,’ he said.

Cold morning mist flowed over the paddy fields that covered the lands surrounding the highway. The mood within the car was dull. It was bad news after bad news and now they had to return home and face the wrath of Sandhanam. No one spoke anything, everyone kept to themselves.

They were about a kilometre from the toll post that sat beside the highway. Meant to keep a check on illegal trafficking of goods, around half a dozen policemen were stationed here. Despite its purpose, no one from the post ever bothered them. However, after the events of last night, their confidence in the police had dipped.

‘Keep to the centre and don’t slow down,’ Sethu ordered the driver.

The driver simply nodded.

Seconds later a truck, carrying a load of fresh sand sped past them, following which a loud thud appeared above their heads. They looked up to see what it was, staring into the car’s roof.

‘What the hell?’ Sethu commented.

The men looked outside to see several vehicles passing by. All the passengers of these vehicles looked above the car curiously.

‘Anna! Someone is on the roof!’ one of the goons said.

All of them held their nerves and waited for whatever was on their roof to act but nothing happened.

The toll post was closing in when a bus appeared on their right. The driver made way for the speeding bus, which the bus driver used to overtake the car. However, as the bus made its way past the car, a figure jumped off the top of the car and bounced against the bus before smashing into the side of the hood of the car with full power.

The car spun violently as the driver tried to take control of it. It skidded off the road into the shoulder before crashing into the paddy field outside. All of its passengers were left dizzy and confused.

Sethu shook his head, clearing his senses. He looked in the direction of the road, to see a woman cladded in white standing beside the road and looking right at them. The others too watched the woman with fear struck eyes.

‘Is that… her?’ asked one of the goons.

Arora slowly descended the shoulder before stepping into the muddy waters of the paddy field.

‘Get out there,’ Sethu ordered before he himself disembarked the totalled vehicle.

‘What the hell happened?’ asked one of the policemen at the station. Along with him was another who watched the car fly off the highway and crash into the paddy field.

‘Is that the Lady?’ asked the other policeman.

The two looked at each other’s face before bolting into the toll station.

Thick, muddy water flowed around their feet as they got out of the vehicle. Sethu stood behind the hood, looking at Arora from underneath his thick furrowed brow. He put his hand behind his back and pulled out his gun from underneath his shirt. In one quick motion, he aimed his gun at Arora and fired.

Arora’s movement was inhuman. A shallow rift suddenly formed on the field, splitting the water in two. The bullets travelled through thin air and disappeared into the distance without hitting anything.

The rift zig-zagged through the field and approached the car. Sethu did not stop, his aim shifted, following Arora but missed every single time. In no time, the rift smashed into the car and Arora slid across the hood before delivering a swift kick right into Sethu’s left ribs, sending him crashing into the water with a big splash.

Two men, who stood behind Sethu, charged in. The one in front feinted a hook punch aimed at Arora’s right ribs. But when Arora tried block it with her arm, he ducked down and grabbed her by the waist. The goon behind him followed it up with a full power punch to her face. However, Arora was one step ahead, slamming her right knee right into the first goon’s chest. He let go off her and flew back, slamming into his fellow mate behind him. Arora followed it up by delivering a full power punch aimed right at the goon’s gut, who immediately collapsed into the water below.

The other three fought their way through the sticky mud to aid their ally and surround her. However, Arora moved much faster and more easily than them. She appeared to slide on the surface of the water as she charged in at the goon who was still standing after her previous attack. He crossed his arms anticipating a punch to his gut, Arora instead stopped just before him. She lifted her right leg up and spun towards him, delivering a sound kick to his left abdomen. He smashed into the car, shattering the rear window glass before collapsing.

The remaining three fighters took their turns to deal with Arora with their fists, but none could touch her. She tossed them around like they were dolls before using them as punching bags. In under two minutes, Sethu and his men were dispatched and all of whom were lying unconscious in the muddy water.

She looked around and saw one of them looking back at her with fearful eyes. ‘You know Sandhanam?’ she asked him.

He answered with a nod, that was barely noticeable.

‘Is that a yes or a no?’ she asked again.

‘Yes… yes…’ he answered.

‘Tell him. The Lady knows where he is, and she will come for him. If he wishes to hide, he can try but I know how to pull a rat out of its hole. Got it?’ she said.

He once again answered with a barely noticeable nod.

‘I will take that as a yes.’ She looked up to a battalion of policemen running towards her. ‘Looks like help has arrived too late.’

He watched her jump over and on to the roof of the car before leaping into the air and disappearing behind the car. He turned to see the policemen chasing after her, one of whom even tried to fire his rifle in her direction.

‘I don’t think that would have killed her,’ Sandhanam asked.

The goon narrating the story shook his head.

Sandhanam took another shot of his rum and sighed. ‘And where is Rasu?’ he asked.

‘We haven’t been able to reach him… Anna, I think he has fled the country,’ Nayar said.

Sandhanam didn’t say anything, but everyone felt his deep dissatisfaction.

‘Anna, it is best you go back into hiding,’ the goon said. He knew he would get shot for this advice, but he nonetheless blurted it out.

‘Didn’t you hear him? She would pull me out of my hole if I tried,’ Sandhanam said.

‘The police are conspiring with her,’ Pandian said. ‘It is the only way she could have known about what we tried to do.’

‘Also, the timing of the raid and the car ambush… I do not think it is a coincidence,’ Nayar added.

‘Pandian,’ Sandhanam said, ‘do you still believe that girl is the Lady?’

Pandian stayed quiet for a good few seconds before answering, ‘I do not know anymore.’

Sandhanam swallowed his anger. He looked into the distance with a deep frown and said, ‘fine. Let her come. We shall deal with it once it for all.’