SALAAR- The devil's promise (Completed)

*6*

* Early morning *

Everyone is at the breakfast table and Amira slowly tried to start a conversation.

"....CI Vikram..." she began.

"CI Vikram?" prompted Salaar.

"Is he your man?" completed Amira.

"He is a very capable police officer trying to catch me," lied Salaar.

"Then how did you get his phone?" asked Amira.

"It's not his phone," Haseena effortlessly added onto the lie, "I switched CI Vikram's number with Salaar's number."

"Appi then...what if CI Vikram uses my phone to track our location?" asked Amira.

"That's exactly why we took your phone," answered Salaar.

"Oh...right..." said Amira.

"Anything else?" asked Salaar.

"Math champs," asked Amira, "Was the verification actually completed or is that a lie."

"It's completed," answered Salaar, "Your school helped finish it."

"Really!" exclaimed Amira with a million dollar smile, "Did they send the hall ticket? And the test date? How long do we have?"

"They said the hall ticket will come in a couple of days," said Salaar, "and the test will most likely be at the start of december."

"Oh no there isn't much time left," said Amira. "I need to start practising," she said but as she was about to stand up when Haseena stopped her.

"You haven't even started your breakfast," she said.

"I'll have it while studying appi," said Amira and served the Upma in two plates. She took one for herself and gave the other to Albert Einstien who didn't even say a thank you.

Salaar raised his eyebrows partially impressed and partially disappointed with Amira's kindness.

"I don't think Amira should take that test," Haseena said as soon as Amira went out of sight.

"Good news! Things don't happen the way you think," countered Salaar.

"This is very dangerous," Haseena added trying to maintain her cool.

"Calculated danger is better than unpredicted danger," said Salaar.

"So you will use my sister as a bait?" Haseena asked angrily.

"If you insist on using the wrong word," added Salaar.

"I can't let this happen," said Haseena.

"I keep my promises," said Salaar.

"Let's see if you can," said Haseena instigating the fire.

"Haseena didi..." Sandeep tried to diffuse the situation but stopped when Haseena gave him an angry look.

Salaar and Haseena intensely started at each other for a couple of seconds before continuing to eat.

*** Meanwhile elsewhere ***

"Sir, there are so many girls in Mumbai," said one of the men, "It's hard to filter out Rocky bhai's daughter from the lot."

"Rocky bhai doesn't even leave his gold unattended," said Rajkesh examining the file, "Would he leave his daughter without protection." "Don't try to filter out Rocky's daughter," he  added, "Filter out girls who are supported by power. The sort of power that would make anyone think twice before approaching them."

*** Later that day ***

"Thank you, Rashid bhai," said Haseena and cut the call.

"Didi, think again," pleaded Sandeep, "It's not safe to go against Salaar's decisions."

"I will not let him decide what's best for my sister," said Amira firmly, "Had enough of his bossy attitide," said Haseena and left to meet Amira.

Amira was in the study room frustrated at not being able to solve the question. 

"What's wrong?" asked Haseena.

"I can't seem to get these integration questions right, Appi," said Amira disappointed.

"And worrying helps?" asked Haseena and Amira didn't have an answer. "Try again tomorrow with a fresh mind," she advised, "It's getting too late. Let's go sleep."

***

The next morning Amira came into the study hall and found the question already solved.

"You solved it?" she asked Albert/Einstien.

No response.

"Was it your brother?" she asked again, "Can you teach me?"

No reponse.

"Fine," she signed and sat down to practice again.

This continued for a couple of days. Amira would get stuck at some random questions, try her level best, and give up only to come back the next day to find it solved. With time she grew more and more frustrated. One night, she decided to not give up, no matter what and sat down determined to solve an entire practice paper before going to sleep.

Her goal is to finish it in an hour and she did maintain a healthy pace until she reached the integrations and differentations section. She tried to keep her cool and solve the problems but it was all in vain. Minutes turned to hours and at one point Amira threw the question paper in frustration.

She immediately felt guilty, picked it up, apologized as a sign of respect and  looked up to find Salaar standing right opposite. He took the practice paper from her hand and had a brief look.

"This section can be solved in 12 minutes," he said.

Amira who was already frustrated felt offended. "I've been trying for hours now, Jijaaji," she said, "It's not that easy."

"Keep track of time," Salaar said and took the pen from her hand. He sat down on the table and started working. This gained the attention of everyone in the house.

Haseena, Sandeep and everyone else stood by the door watching curiously.

Salaar paid no attention to his surroundings. He didn't even look at the clock and after exactly 12 minutes gave Amira the paper with the solutions.

"Mathematics is trying to make sense of chaos," he told her. "And when there is chaos up here," he added pointing to her head, "You become unworthy of solving the chaos on paper."

Saying this he left and Amira immediately opened the answer sheet and tried to check if his solution is right. Albert/Einstein also stepped closer out of curiosity. Haseena and Sandeep eagerly waited for the judgement.

"All correct Albert Einstein," Amira said sadly, "Does that mean I am really unworthy?"

*** A few seconds later ***

"What's wrong with you?" Haseena asked as she stromed into Salaar's room.

"What problem do you have with me now?" asked Salaar rubbing his forehead.

"You demotivated my sister," said Haseena, "If you know something that she doesn't know,  why can't you be kind and help her out instead of outright calling her unworthy."

"Right," said Salaar, "So I am the bad guy because I called her unworthy and you are the good one because you encourage her while plotting to make sure that she doesn't take the test."

"I would've wanted nothing more than her winning the medal, if there weren't people waiting to kill her," said Haseena, "Sadly, she was born with the curse of being Rocky's daughter."

"Being Rocky bhai's daughter is not a curse," said Salaar raising his voice.

"Right, it's damnation for eternity," said Haseena.

"You know nothing about......" Salaar paused when he heard a knock on the door. It was Sandeep.

"Amira is crying," he said.