“Sidharth isn’t like that!” Shehnaaz had been able to keep
her composure in front of Rashmi Desai, but she lost it now in
front of Kartik. She clenched her fists and stood up, eyes blazing. Her fair, delicate face was now bright red with anger. Kartik felt
as though he had just witnessed a pretty comic book character suddenly come alive, right in front of his eyes. She was perfectly harmless, but her lively, radiant beauty was like a bullet to his heart…
Kartik abruptly turned away. He made for the door; he did not want to spend another minute talking to Shehnaaz. He had just laid his hand on the door handle when Shehnaaz caught up with him and grabbed his sleeve.
“Professor Sen, you can’t talk about Sidharth like that.”
“I just did. What are you going to do about it?” Kartik turned around and looked at Shehnaaz frostily. His bright, almond-shaped eyes were full of anger. He pressed his thin lips together as his fists, clenched tight, shook uncontrollably.
Shehnaaz was scared. She immediately released Kartik’s sleeve and stepped backwards.
Sidharth’s calm, magnetic voice sounded over her earpiece. “Steady now, Sana. Anger won’t solve anything.” Sidharth’s voice reassured her.
Shehnaaz took a deep breath, and quickly calmed down. She closed her eyes and said sincerely, “Professor Sen, I’m 18 years old. I know what I’m doing. Nobody forced me to be a negotiator, I’m helping Sidharth because I want to. In fact, it’s been a lifelong dream of mine to be of assistance to him. I hope you’ll be able to understand.”
“And what if I can’t?”
“Then shut up. Keep your comments to yourself, I didn’t ask
for them,” Shehnaaz said savagely. “Not even my mom and
dad can tell me what to do!”
Kartik was taken aback. “Your mom and dad? But according to your CV, they’re both dead, aren’t they?”
“Uh…” Shehnaaz stared at Kartik, tongue-tied. After a long moment, she finally said: “It was just an example, okay? A hypothetical situation!”
A thought occurred to Kartik. He let out an inaudible sigh, and shoved his hands into his pockets. He said coolly: “You think you’re the Special Ops’ negotiator now, just because they said so? Did you honestly think it’s as easy as
that? You’re naïve, and that’s a fact.”
“But Sidharth said so…” Shehnaaz muttered indignantly. “Sidharth would never lie to me.”
“Heh, is that so?” His mouth twitched as he looked around the interrogation room. He turned towards the camera in the corner and addressed it in a mocking tone as he pointed at Shehnaaz. “You’re watching, aren’t you? Tell her, in your own words, the steps and paperwork required to hire someone as a negotiator for the Special Ops. Is Shehnaaz
qualified? Do you dare swear on the country you love so dearly, that you haven’t lied to her?”
Shehnaaz narrowed her eyes. She had not expected Kartik to be so angry about her role as the Special Ops’ negotiator. She did not think she owed him an explanation, but she did not want to continue arguing with him, either.
Shehnaaz racked her brains, and came up with an idea. She smiled pleasantly. “Since you seem to hate it so much, I don’t mind stepping down from my role as negotiator. In exchange, can you help me sign a letter proving that I interned at the US Congress for six months? I need that letter because I want to defend someone in court, as an actual practicing lawyer.”
Kartik raised an eyebrow. His dark eyebrows were perfectly shaped, as though God himself had lovingly sculpted them with a knife. They complemented his
shimmering, sultry eyes. Shehnaaz had yielded unexpectedly, and Kartik was
momentarily at a loss as to how to react. His anger died away.
“…You want to defend someone in court?” Kartik lowered his head as he mulled this over. Shehnaaz could still feel the icy, forbidding aura rolling off him.
“Yes. Can I have your signature? Actually, it would be even better if you could write an endorsement letter for me…” Shehnaaz’s large eyes twinkled. She wished she could get Kartik on Rita’s legal team. Surely they would be able to win the lawsuit with someone as talented as Kartik on their side? He did not even have to appear in court as their lawyer. All he had to do was look over their strategy, give a few words of advice, and Shehnaaz knew she would be able to win.
Kartik looked at her coolly. “Ask me for my signature when you’re no longer working as a negotiator here.” He rapped his knuckles on the door. “Let me out.”
Sidharth, who was watching from the adjacent room, raised his hand.
The person in charge of monitoring the interrogation room
pressed a button, and the door to the interrogation room opened automatically.
Kartik returned to his room. He did not ask for a better room. In fact, he did not say anything at all. He lay quietly on his bed, his hands folded behind his head. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking.
Shehnaaz returned to the control room. She smiled at Sidharth, whose face was as stony and inscrutable as always. “Sidharth, don’t take it to heart. Professor Sen is currently a neutral party, he isn’t siding with anyone, but we definitely don’t want to go up against him.”
Everything she had done, she had done with Sidharth in mind. She was going to be Rita’s lawyer for his sake.
Deepak spoke up. “Sidharth, Sana was really impressive today. She immediately thought of getting Kartik on our side, since he’s a neutral party. A top lawyer like Kartik Sen would help us win Ms. Singhania’s lawsuit.”
Deepak had gone to America with Shehnaaz as her temporary guardian. He had first-hand knowledge of Kartik’s status and influence in the United States.
Sidharth glanced at Shehnaaz. He nodded. “Okay, then. Get ready to defend in court. As for your role as our negotiator, it was a temporary measure to deal with Kartik and Rashmi. Now that they’ve both given their
testimonies, you’re released from your duty.”
Shehnaaz did not question Sidharth. She smiled. “It’s okay, Sidharth. I’m doing this because I want to.”
Sidharth tousled her hair. “Go back to bed. It’s almost two o’clock.”
Most people were at their sleepiest between two and three
o’clock in the morning. This was the best time to interrogate suspects—a sleepy suspect was a vulnerable suspect.
Kartik and Rashmi had managed to keep their composure. Even so, they had accidentally let slip a few things after Shehnaaz provoked them. As for Devika Gandhi—well, she hadn’t even lasted ten minutes.
An hour later, Rohit had gotten all the information he needed.
Aside from Devika Gandhi, he had also interrogated Rahul Gandhi, the Prime Minister’s eldest son, and Falak Gandhi, the Prime Minister’s youngest daughter. He compiled their
testimonies, and waited outside the door for Sidharth.
Shehnaaz opened the door, fatigue written all over her
face. She saw Rohit standing at the door, and nodded to him in greeting. She covered her mouth as she yawned.
“Feeling sleepy? Go to bed, then.” Rohit patted Shehnaaz’s shoulder. “Thanks for your help today.”
Shehnaaz made for the door, but she suddenly stopped to ask: “Brother Rohit, do you always work through the night like this?”
“Yeah, and I’m used to it. Sometimes I have to stay up
several nights in a row. Can’t have the criminals outlasting us now, can we?” Rohit smiled slyly as he winked suggestively at Shehnaaz.
Shehnaaz could not resist laughing at that. She walked out
of the room, shaking with laughter, and returned to Sidharth’s official residence.
…
Rohit entered the room and placed the confession in front of Sidharth with a sigh. “Sir, how are you going to deal with this?”
Sidharth picked up the confession and skimmed it. His eyes swept over the names in it. He said impassively: “These names—they’re the ones who helped Devika Gandhi steal the prop photos from the archives?”
“Yes. You can see that they are all from the Prime Minister’s social circle. Some of them only entered the Special Ops because of the Prime Minister’s connections.” Rohit circled a few names. “This guy, this guy, and this guy—they were in charge of filing and archiving prop photos back then. Mrs. Gandhi was worried about her daughter, so… she used her connections to ask for a copy of the photos.”
“Mrs. Gandhi? So you’re saying Prime Minister Gandhi had no idea what was going on?” Deepak frowned. “But the First Lady is famous for her charity work. It may be difficult to punish her.”
“Heh, do you really believe Prime Minister Gandhi knew nothing about it? Well, it doesn’t matter. He’ll never admit to it now.” Rohit tossed the pen in his hand into the air, before catching it and twirling it between his fingers. “In any case, the men who smuggled confidential documents out of the Special Ops will definitely have to be removed from their positions and punished.”
Sidharth scanned the names. He nodded. “Luckily for us, these men are all in the civil service, working desk jobs. They’ve never been involved in an actual mission.” He handed the list to Rohit. “We’ll act at once. Arrest
them and bring them to justice.”
These individuals were all internal members of the Special
Operations Forces and had violated the Special Ops command–so Sidharth had the authority to arrest them directly.
“Roger Chief!” Rohit accepted the order and quickly made arrangements to carry out the arrests.
…
It was early morning of January 2nd. A thin man in a black coat arrived to a residential building and led several other people to knock on the door of the property management. They presented documents and quickly got on an elevator to the 12th floor. The doorbell rang to rouse someone up from their dreams, who then opened the door groggily.
“Dinesh Dayal? This is your arrest warrant, you’re coming
with us.” The man in plainclothes stood outside the door and waved the documents, waking Dinesh
immediately. He stepped back with vigilance, “What are you
doing? I belong to the Special Operations Forces!”
“You’re suspected of stealing confidential intelligence from the Special Operations Forces database and have been
arrested.”
Dinesh blanched immediately, he truly never thought the incident would come to light six or seven later…
At the same time, numerous people were taken from the
residential homes in C City and the Imperial capital the early
morning hours to enter the interrogation process. At first,
the people had no idea what was happening and thought they were being framed. But when the personnel who arrested them mentioned something about Devika Gandhi’s photos, they collectively froze. Each face grew ashy and legs trembled as nearly every single of them had to be carried away on a gurney.
Thanks to Sidharth’s timely
handling of the potential catastrophe at the Prime Minister’s official residence, there was basically no leakage of news.
The arrests of the moles in the Special Ops lasted all night and came out of the blue, so many people who planned to use connections to weasel out were left stranded. They finally understood that their time had passed.
In the foggy dawn of the day, Sidharth received four reports as he sat in the office of the Special Ops headquarters. He was informed that all the people directly involved in the case had been successfully arrested.
Sidharth was now half relieved, he looked at the map on his computer and asked Deepak who was standing in front of his desk, “…Are our people in Italy and North Ireland on their way back now?”
“They’ve all boarded their flights now.” Deepak confirmed each one individually, “We issued a Code Orange yesterday, that’s the most serious public alarm so they
understand the severity.”
Sidharth closed his eyes and crossed his arms as he leaned back against the chair. He was still worried because in their line of work, one could board a flight and still be asked to get off. He asked Deepak quietly, “Have
someone wait for them at the airport, then take them through the special passageway as soon as they land and return to the base.”
“Roger, Chief!” Deepak went out to dispatch personnel, while Rohit was still dealing with matters related to Devika’s case.
…
At six in the morning, Rohit called Sidharth with great distress, “Mr. Shukla, Devika Gandhi… is going through withdrawal…”
“Let her bear through it.” Sidharth calmly opened the curtains, “Send a doctor to observe and don’t give her any drugs.”
“…The doctor is already here.” Rohit was quiet for a moment, then looked at Devika tied up in a contorted position on the bed, “I’ll have the doctor speak with you.”
The medical officer from the Special Ops quickly took the phone from Rohit and said hastily, “Mr. Shukla, Devika Gandhi’s drug addiction as exceeded what a human body
can handle, she probably can’t bear through it if we don’t give her the drugs…”
The key was that the military court had not yet tried her. If she died like this with the manuy bruises and wounds on her body caused by the drug addiction, the Gandhi family could easily retaliate and press charges against Sidharth for torturing a confession out of her and causing her death… If it came to that, the Gandhi’s wouldn’t accept it and may even say the military are slandering Devika Gandhi even if Sidharth came up with evidence that she died of withdrawal.
Sidharth pursed his lips, further accentuating his rigid jawline, “…Call Sandeep over, he knows what to do.”
Sandeep just woke up and was called to duty by Rohit. When he arrived to Devika’s room, he saw
Devika tied up on the bed and her eyes had already lost all focus. He shook his head helplessly. “A single slip can cause a lasting sorrow, why did she have to do this? Administer the sedative first, I still have to report something to Mr. Shukla.” Sandeep walked outside and called Sidharth from a small, empty room.
The personnel in Devika’s room were very obedient towards Sandeep and she finally fell asleep after being injected with the sedative.
Sandeep took out a vial from his medical box and peered at the the drug inside as he called Sidharth, “…Boss, there’s a way that we might be able to turn around Devika’s condition.”
“What way?”
“This depends on you.” Sandeep recognized Devika, she was a friend from all those years ago, “Have Sana donate a bit of blood marrow…”
“No way!” Sidharth immediately rejected the idea, “What do you think Sana is? Your universal pharmacy? Sandeep, don’t disappoint me!”
Sandeep, “…Calm down Boss, I was just asking. It’s fine if you refuse, but remember to reject the idea like this no matter who asks you this request in the future.”
“As if I need you to tell me? Keep your mouth shut.” Sidharth hung up and threw the phone on the ground, burying himself in his laptop to write the report.
Although Sandeep didn’t use Shehnaaz’s blood marrow, he still had a tiny amount of blood sample left that he diluted into several vials. He originally planned on using them for experiments. Now that Sandeep faced Devika’s body destroyed by drugs, he planned to take a gamble and see if it’d work. He carried the medical box back to Devika’s room and first took several vials of her blood for analysis, then administered his special cocktail of drugs into her
system and connected her to various instruments to observe her physical condition. By the time it was noon, Devika’s condition had stabilized to the point that the illicit drug level in her blood had lowered to a controllable amount. If she is forced to go through rehabilitation after this, there was a chance she could recover. Sandeep looked at the data in the afternoon and was in a good mood as he called Sidharth with a smile, “If Devika stops using drugs, she shouldn’t go through withdrawal again. But Boss, I have to be honest with you–I still used a bit of Sana’s help.” He admitted to using a bit of Sana’s blood sample to dilute into a drug.
Speechless, Sidharth gently rapped his forehead with his fist. His voice was slightly raspy, “I already told you that this is the only exception. If you know what’s good for you, you’d better destroy those vials on your own. Otherwise you can continue your experiments in jail.” It was the first time that Sidharth felt that it was a burden to have a nutcase morbidly obsessed with medicine as a friend…
Sandeep pursed his lips, then looked at the vials in his medical box. Although he loathed to do it, he still turned on the video camera on his phone to show Sidharth, “Watch, I’ll destroy them myself.”
Sandeep placed the vials into a lead can, then added various chemicals to destroy the active ingredients inside and put it aside for 15 days. After this, the drug would be completely useless.
Sidharth silently watched Sandeep destroy all the drugs and finally raised his head, “You’ve already used an exception this time and owe me a favour. Remember to pay me back.”
“Oh? Since when did I owe you a favour?!” Sandeep shrieked, “I was helping save your ex-girlfriend! You’re not appreciative and want to turn around to blame me?”
“I don’t have an ex-girlfriend.” Sidharth refuted sharply, “Don’t speak nonsense.”
“…Be truthful, Boss. For the mission, you lived together with
Devika for six months and pretended to be an unmarried couple, did you guys really not… develop feelings over that time?” Sandeep was the one who loved gossip the most and couldn’t help asking now.
Sidharth was didn’t expect Sandeep to ask him too, this was basically questioning his professionalism–so he stabbed
at Sandeep’s sore spot without mercy, “…You’ve been colleagues with Dr. Mittal for so long, did she develop feelings over that time?”
Sandeep’s face turned purple and his neck stiffened as he
screamed, “Boss! Beat one’s body but not their pride! Don’t be so smug now, I’ll woo Dr. Mittal for sure! Just you wait!”
“I’ll wait and see.” Sidharth stood in front the window to watch the view, “So you should focus your attention on wooing Dr. Mittal, instead of meddling with other people’s business.”
Sidharth hung up, leaving Sandeep to stare at his phone and feeling all his organs aching. He wouldn’t dare cross Sidharth again–just one sentence and it was enough to hit his sore spot, making him unable to eat, sleep
or focus on his work, study and research.
*
*
*
I hope you enjoy reading it.
Love you all.