Jealousy & Revenge

Chapter 12

Seeing Ayesha in the video knocked all wits out of the men. Each one of them stood stunned in their places. None of them moved an inch. The visual in front of their eyes had shaken the ground beneath their feet. No body had expected Ayesha, their Ayesha to be the last bomb. Now the quest to finding the location had become even more important. Arjun was the first one to recover from the shock and he snapped his head in the direction of the chief, and all that was visible on his face was, fright, agony, anger, and something that he himself did not know existed in him. Love. Love for the dabangg lady of their team. Arjun looked at his watch and it showed 4:15pm. They did not have time to stay in shock. They had to get going if they had to save their lady.

"Rathod sambhalo khud ko. Humare pas waqt nahi hai. Hume kisi bhi halaat mei Ayesha tak pahochna hoga. Hamare paas waqt bahut kam hai."

"You're right. Hume location bhi nahi pata hai."

"Sir main kuch kahu?" Riya was the one to dare to poke the ACP's in between.

"Bolo Riya" Arjun said trying to calm a devastated Sameer down.

"Sir video mei bomber ne kaha ki last human bomb joh ki Ayesha hai woh kabutar udane jaane waali hai. Iska matlab hume kisi aisi jagah ke baare mei sochna chahiye jaha insaano ke saath saath, bahut saare kabutar bhi ho."

"Par aisi kaunsi jagah ho sakti hai Ri" Shree quizzed.

"Gateway of India" Riya said looking at Arjun.

"I think Riya sahi keh rahi hai. Hume gateway of India hi jaana hoga."

"Par Sir woh toh yahaan se bahut door hai. Pahochne mei hi bahut waqt lag jayega." Chotu added.

"Baate karne ka waqt nahi hai Chotu. Hume issi wqat nikalna hoga. Rathod chalo."

All of them looked at Sameer who was still rooted at his place like a statue. The video message and seeing Ayesha in it had affected him the most. Arjun understood his plight as he had also at once gone through the same pain. Coming ahead he kept his hand on Sameer's shoulder, who looked upon him, and all Arjun could manage was an assuring gaze.

"Hum usse dhond lenge Rathod. Bharosa rakho. Iss waqt hume chalna hoga."

"You're right Rawte. Let's go team."

And that was it. The team sprinted out of the office at full speed. All that they had in their mind was that they had to save their officer at any cost. Once they had been through the phase of nearly losing their team member and they were in no heads to go through it all over again. Before Rathod could get into the driving seat of the SUV, Arjun barged in occupying the seat not wanting to risk the lives of other officers by letting Rathod drive in such a situation. Rathod glared at him but somewhere he knew Arjun was only thinking of the safety of other officers. So he quickly occupied the seat next to Arjun. What followed next was Arjun pressed the accelerator and off dashed the SUV.

The entire journey was more like a journey back from death for them. The constant thought of something happening to Ayesha sent chills down their spines. They reached Gateway of India and the visual depressed them even more.

"Sir yahaan par toh itni bheed hai. Hum log Ayesha ko kaise dhundenge?" Shree spoke up looking at the crowd.

"Chahe joh ho jaye, Hume Ayesha ko kisi bhi keemat par dhundna hi hoga. 5 bajne mei sirf 10 min baaki hai. Lets go." Rathod spoke.

And with that all of them ran in different directions frantically searching for their girl.

Time:- 4:55pm.

All they found out was nothing. The tension kept mounding on them with every passing minute. Every passing second the resolve Rathod had made was breaking part by part. All the moments he spend with her were playing in his memory like a movie reel. The coffee, rides to crime scenes, the side way glances, and the shayari.

'Kaun kehta hai ki khamoshiyaan khamosh hoti hai,

Kaun kehta hai ki khamoshiyaan khamosh hoti hai,

Khamoshiyon ko khamoshi se suno,

Kabhi kabhi khamoshiyaan woh sab kuch keh jaati hai,

Jinki aabko lafzon mei talaash hoti hai.'

All the words now made sense to him. All his feelings that he had tried to decode multiple times now had come crystal clear in front of him. Never had he thought of any girl like this after Roshni. Even with Roshni his feelings had been different. He had always been protective of her but the reason had always been either that she was his friend or she was his best friends girlfriend. But with Ayesha it had all changed. He had been protective of her only because he felt like protecting her from the cruel world where the had to face life threatening situations at all times. He was protective of her because he feared losing her. He was protective of her because he loved her. That was it. Period. He was in love with his ammunition expert. As the thought crossed his mind his lips curved upwards. The feeling of the realization for once made him forget the world but the immediate next second a loud deafening sound brought him out of his trance.

"Ayesha......"