The Dangerous Trail

Footprints

It was a while since Shravan had been able to creep inside from a small opening along the storehouse wall. It was an old building and a few kicks on a cracked side wall had made a good size crater enough for Shravan to crawl in. Shravan had been so engrossed in inspecting the stuff inside and collecting necessary samples that he had not heard approaching footsteps. Suman was watchful and alert and her senses went on an overdrive when she heard a vehicle and she saw Emanuel Fernandez himself stepping out of the car and approaching the storehouse. Suman was not sure how she would warn Shravan because she had stepped away from the main building so she could keep an eye on the entrance. Even if she warned Shravan over Bluetooth the insides of the building did not have lot of furniture or any closets for him to hide. She could not panic as Shravan would be tensed then thinking she was in trouble. Suman looked around and saw it was almost daybreak and the village had woken up and there were quite a few people around going about their daily chores making the chance of Shravan taking advantage of the darkness even slimmer. Soon an idea struck her as she instructed Shravan to call the police immediately. Shravan was baffled as he could now hear the footsteps almost at the opening of the storehouse door and he was still to locate for a way to escape. The crater that he had made directly opens towards the entrance path but with daylight approaching it will not be possible to escape that route. His only hope was if Suman could hatch an idea when he heard her voice on the Bluetooth device. Soon enough Suman's voice rang through the morning air "Hands up, this is a raid by the Narcotics Department and Mr. Fernandez you are under arrest". To say that Mr. Frenandez and his team were baffled would be an understatement. They never expected a lady at such early hours would call out to and raid his premises. He had always kept the local police in good humor. From the sides he noticed that the people around the village had stopped by to notice what was going on and Fernandez knew he had to deal with this situation differently while in better times he would just have knocked this lady out and thrown her body in the sea. He walked towards Suman and ran his finger in a leering way along her cheekbones and said "Beautiful Lady, let's talk , why do you need to point the gun when I can give you roses". Suman spat " I don't need your roses, I am happy with your gun" as she saw Shravan taking advantage of the distraction and managing to escape.

Suman was getting jittery about what would happen next as she could see their target giving side glances at the crowd that had formed around watching the happenings. Soon enough they heard the loud and shrill sounds of the police vehicle go off alerting all that the police were approaching. Frenandez was a seasoned man so he quickly looked at the gathering crowd of his supporters at the village and shouted out "Look how this government agencies are harassing me, they cannot see me helping you all so they keep sending there cronies to harass you all and me". Suman looked appalled at the way he was instigating the crowd against her. For the first time she felt her steps falter as the crowd zeroed in on her and she found Fernandez slyly smiling at her. She looked from the corner of her eyes Shravan standing at the corner looking here and there to find a way to let Suman escape before the crowd pounced on her. As he looked straight into the terrified eyes of Suman , he got ready to jump before the crowd and if required use his gun to rescue Suman but Suman's indicated him to go. Shravan was now angry"How did she think he would leave her all alone and go, let her be angry with him but I will save her at any cost?". Just as Shravan was about to step in the police came in running firing in the air to disperse the crowd. Fernandez pleaded with them to arrest Suman as she was disrupting the peaceful life of the village by creating unnecessary issues. Suman was caught on the wrong side as she had trespassed into his property without a search warrant and she was arrested by the police. Shravan dug his fingers into his palms as he watched Suman whisked away to the police station and he could not stop that. He felt responsible for whatever happened and angry on himself for being so careless and not planning out the escape route before entering the building. Suman could figure out that Shravan was angry, but she knew that was the best solution she had in mind. At least with the police arresting her she would be in the police station and safe but if they would have spotted Shravan inside the building it would have taken seconds for them to kill him and cover up because it would not have been in the open in front of the public. It was a few hours now since Suman was lodged in a cell with the hope that Shravan might be trying his best to secure her release.

Suman had seen the collusion between the police and Fernandez, and she was sure that if she is made to stay longer, they would try all tricks to get information out of her and probably put her through third degree torture. The only savior was she was from NCB and they would have to think twice before even touching her. They blamed her for trying to tarnish the image of a respected politician. Suman was aghast the way the police was siding with the drug lord but this is not the first time she was seeing the politician and system nexus. How could she forget that their primary target was a politician himself. She had been moved to the interrogation room and now the only thing she wanted was someone from NCB calling the police station seeking her release. Suman was aware that they had purposely snatched her id and thrown it away and called her fake in a bid to treat her like a normal citizen in custody. They would now try all sorts of methods available to extract what she knows. One of the police men was probably were trailing them as he mentioned to Fernandez "Sir, iska boyfriend kidhar hain(where is her boyfriend)". Fernandez now leered at Suman saying "No worries we will find the beautiful lady's bodyguard too". The voice had made a chill run up Suman's veins and she desperately wished that Shravan was not in vicinity for their good and at this moment trying to get to Sash or Subbu.