The Dangerous Trail

Dream

It was evening and Sash was enjoying his cup of coffee with his peers when he realized that he had forgotten to check his phone. He swiped his screen quickly as it showed 17 missed calls from a number which did not seem familiar and was not in his contacts. He quickly redialed the number and he heard a voice he could vaguely recollect he had heard. The voice on the other end was shaky and his breathing ragged and he heard him say "Sir, please come quickly, I am around your office. Suman didi is in danger. I can't tell you everything over phone and you must be here. I am not sure if you know me but I am Mushtaq , Shravan bhaiya's informer". Yes, now Sash could figure out why the voice was sounding familiar but what he had said left him very worried. He had informed Subbu and both had taken the next flight back and reached their office straight in the dead of night. Although they had not expected but Mushtaq had come right in some time and had explained in minute details what had happened. Sash and Subbu realized what the hell of a task they had in hand as they were not sure where to look for Suman but they did not have a choice else Suman and Saheb could be lost forever. Sash did not get any pictures from Suman but Mushtaq had followed Suman and kept a safe long distance from her and had seen her clicking pictures, so he had done the same after she was taken away. From a distance he had managed to click a snap of the kidnappers too and he handed all that he had to Sash. Both Sash and Subbu had been intrigued by the fact that Saheb had insisted on Shravan to come. However, they needed to act quickly, and they could not wait for daybreak. The ACP and the State Secretary had been informed and the police had been pressed into service almost immediately.

Shravan was hell tired when he had returned home at night. He had freshened up and then he had decided to call Suman so he could talk for long but before he could dial her number, his weary eyes and tired body had given in and he had fallen asleep. It was almost wee hours of the morning when Shravan had woken up seeing a bad dream. He had vividly seen that Suman was in some dingy dark room frail, sick and calling out to him and then her blood curling scream "Shrrrrrrraaaaaaavaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnn.....!!". He had woken up all covered in sweat, clearly disturbed by the dream. He had reached out to switch on his phone and realized that it was 3am in the morning and Suman must be in deep sleep. He will have to wait for daybreak before calling and he prayed for Suman to be safe. He knew that he could not sleep any more because the moment he closed her eyes, he kept having the flashes of the dream. Shravan decided to start his exercise routine early to keep himself occupied for the next few hours before it was time for Suman to wake up. As the clock showed 5:00 am and knowing Suman would be awake by now he immediately took up the receiver of the age-old phone that was kept near the bed stand and dialed her number. He waited on the line for quite some time for it to connect and then he got the message that "The number you are trying to connect is currently switched off". Strange, was what Shravan thought, knowing that he would call anytime Suman would never switch her phone off and in fact unless she had forgotten to charge, which was a rarity, Suman would never keep her phone switched off. Given the area he was in, he knew sometimes network would be very bad and he assumed, this was probably because of that sometimes he got weird automated messages even when the phone was busy, or it was unable to connect. Shravan decided to keep trying till he was ready to go for work but when he was unable to reach till almost noon even after delaying his workday, he was getting worried. He next called their common friend Saheb and he received a similar response that the phone was switched off and he was confirmed that there must be an issue with the network. Shravan had felt restless throughout the day and could not concentrate on his work, so he came back early and again started dialing Suman and Saheb alternatively, but nothing had changed since morning as it still gave the same message. Now it seemed very weird so he decided to ask his peer if he was able to reach someone in Bangalore and he did try and manage to connect but when Shravan asked him to try Suman's number , he received a similar message that the phone was switched off. Shravan was now restless, and he finally decided to dial Sash although he knew that they were in a workshop. He could not reach out to anybody else as it will violate the contact protocol. He had already once violated that by dialing Saheb.