The Dangerous Trail

Footprints

Next day Suvan were a little discreet given that they were aware that they were being trailed. Both were more attuned to the happenings around as they scoured locations individually. Their informer had pointed a few locations, but Shravan had a hunch that the same place where they had been the day before, a secluded side of the beach where he had spotted a storage house in between a clearing. The storage house was very strategically located surrounded by palm trees with the village on one side and seas on one side making a good hideout with good escape routes. Suman agreed with the reasons that Shravan sighted and they went back to snooping to the same place where they had been followed the other day but this time, they did not notice any activity neither they felt they were being watched. They just walked along the beach holding hands, watched sunset and sat in each other's arms enjoying the view. They were about to return when Shravan spotted the trash can and things spilling out of it and he eyed it for some time before joining Suman. Shravan then explained to Suman that he had seen few packets of "Daavi Masala" in the trash can and he had seen loads of them in Kishwar Singh's hideout in Rajasthan. Shravan thought for a moment if he had managed to upload the pictures to cloud when he was stuck in the sewerage before he lost his phone but he was not sure if they were successfully uploaded but Suman confirmed that the team had indeed received them. Shravan was sure that the Daavi masala packets test results would be positive as he had smelt few of them and they did smell of contraband.

Suvan had to move to a smaller place like a homestead where their movements would not be tracked so with the help of their informer, they located a quaint place which was very near to a daily market. This was an old house built during the colonial era with those typical red flooring and jumbo pillars with ornate boundary walls. An old couple stayed there, and they had a room on the terrace which they rented out to tourists looking for low cost accommodation. Suvan felt it was the perfect location as the location would allow them to monitor movements and the terrace would provide them the required camouflage while giving them a view of everything around. Shravan felt the only problem was that they had only one room, a very small one for a couple which houseowners had assumed Suvan to be. Suman brushed it off and confidently walked into the new stay-in and looking at Shravan's surprised look she had said "Don't look so surprised, this is not the first time. Sash and me had stayed in similar place for one of my first case". Shravan's obvious question was "Where did you both sleep?". Suman laughed and said "You are on a case snooping,Shravan. You are keeping watch in turns so when do you have time when both of you need to sleep". Shravan smiled and thought "How stupid of him to think like this after all Suman is no Devika who would use her gender to her advantage and avoid such situations". Looking at Shravan lost in thoughts, Suman quipped"Thinking about me?". Shravan nodded his head saying "Yes, kind of . Even if I do not want to, I end up comparing you and Devika ". Hearing that Suman made a face and appearing shocked said "Oh No!!..Meri Sauten , stop doing that Shravan. I met probably good people, my inspiration is Mrs Fatima Khan from my initial days in training who was our in-charge and she had two kids with one child who had special needs, but I never saw her slack at her job. Its just that you did not meet anyone like her who could have had a positive effect on you". Shravan smiled and side hugged Suman and huskily said "Good that I did not meet whoever is this Fatima Khan and I met you else you would have more sauten". Suman pushed him hard this time making Shravan roll on the floor with laughter.

Suvan now had to wait, for any kind of activity or they would need to sneak in to search the premises. They decided to wait for at least 2 days so they could study the place before sneaking in. Shravan had ensured that Suman was comfortable every moment by giving her personal space whenever he felt Suman was feeling uncomfortable. Suman was quite surprised with the way Shravan had this intuitiveness about her feelings and her state of mind. They hardly had time to delve deeper into their emotions as both had kept watch from their hideout on all kinds of movement taking turns at their watchtower on the terrace hiding behind the water tank. The first night passed off without any movements and then the second night too seemed to be passing off the same way. Shravan was about to pour one more cup of coffee when he heard the unmistakable sound of a vehicle approaching and sure enough, he saw a small truck making way towards the storage house. It was soon followed by another car and he had his ears and eyes fully alert. Shravan did not have the heart to wake up Suman looking at how peacefully she was sleeping but he knew duty was calling and he brushed away the soft tendrils on her face while calling her. Suman woke up with a start when she found Shravan so close to her,but Shravan explained her the situation. Within minutes both were walking down the dark deserted roads with cautious footsteps , their service revolver tucked in their belts and their small bags with essential equipment plastered to their backs. They had managed to reach the clearing and inched their way to the fencing and the first thing was they checked if it was electrified. On confirming that it was not Suvan cut the fencing and crawled on their elbows through the wires and inched their way close to the storehouse. There was one small window open and they could see that the lights were on. Shravan managed to get a large stone and stood over it to peak in and was able to update Suman that there were people inside who were unloading boxes which had some small containers in them. They were unable to figure out how many people were there, so they managed to click some pictures from the small opening they had access to. After some time , once the consignment was unloaded they saw the people leave. Suvan waited with bated breadth till the only sounds left was of the crickets, owls and the occasional buzzing of the fireflies. Stealthily Shravan tried to go ahead when Suman quickly pulled him into a quick hug asking him to take care of himself. Shravan was a little shocked but happy with the way Suman let him know that she cares.He moved towards the door to see if he could manage to get in while Suman kept a watch.