An Imperial Affliction

Chapter 41- Back to the start

Oh,take me back to the start

"Where the hell is my bracelet? Neel?" Riya muttered to herself as she jumped around the messy apartment, then looked over her shoulder. The man, as usual, was engrossed in his laptop like a zombie. His glasses came to the edge of nose, threatening to fall anytime.

"Neel?" He hummed this time, distracted, "Hey, here!" When he still did not turn, she muttered to herself as she looked for the black beaded bracelet, a gift from the man himself. She was neither into jewellery nor sentiments, but that was one thing she did not part with, especially since the moment the two became exclusive.

"It will be somewhere, there." He answered, still distracted and Riya stopped, a funny look on her face. For a moment, she forgot the urgent phone call she had received to leave for crime scene and just stared at the man.

"Well, it was. Now it's not." At the sarcastic tone, Neel turned. She was slightly irritated that he was smirking now.

"Might have vanished."

"Yeah? How?"

"Magic." He made a blowing gesture with both hands and she snorted, looking sideways as she shook head. She was getting late and this back and forth will go nowhere. Limping as she adjusted her shoes, she pressed a kiss to the man's head.

"What's the plan for today?"

"Googly." He answered.

"Take a shower." At that, he gave her a semi glare, "Trust me."

She yelled a Bye! Which he returned half -heartedly, and the door closed behind her.

Riya snapped out of the memory when her mind realized, even amidst the fogginess of the past glimpses, that people around her had gone quiet. She snapped her out of it, and surely enough found several pair of eyes looking at her with various degrees of concern.

The ETF team along with Rahane had decided to gather in Raghu sir's residence to brainstorm about the upcoming meet. The Agent had a different kind of energy today, the earlier grouchiness vanished as he realized his organization had a solid lead now to stop Haqqani's transfer. The team was slightly taken aback at the manic energy, but Raghu sir, thankfully, took over, albeit a bit skeptical himself.

All Riya could think when she stepped inside was this was the place where everything had truly begun.

"I zoned out." She stated, sighing in resignation, but steeling herself to not to let it happen. Some looked away, some nodded in sympathy. Before anyone can ask futile questions like 'Are you fine?', she sat up straight, "Can someone repeat what I missed?"

Turned out, nothing much. Rahane had finalized everything from his side- his Boss had given go ahead signal for any and everything necessary to get Neel. ETF, Police officers along with IB-RAW agents will be around the meet location to keep an eye. Shree had cracked the message in minutes when she showed him- it was co-ordinates for a location on the outskirt of Mumbai, an abandoned warehouse to be specific. Sameer had remarked it was typical, like a low life criminal, and even as Aisha had glared at him to shut it and he did, Riya could not deny the cliche.

The planning went like this- Riya would go inside the location, all alone. She will be bugged and will have hidden cameras. At first, she will try to coax him to come to police, assuring she will be there. They were expecting a conflict, Neel won't agree to it, most likely will ask her to help him escape country. The team was supposed to sweep in then. Take him in custody, fly to IB HQ. Case closed.