"Is there a limit to how much mess you can get into in three hours?" Kiran demanded as he ducked as the shot from the gun missed him by few inches. And Kiran with his tall six three height, and his intense black eyes and wiry strength was impressive. But right now he was just thinking about exactly how much trouble a human female nearly as tall as him, with bouncy wavy hair and the most cutest brown eyes could get into.
"This has nothing to do with me! Even I cannot get into so much trouble," Aarvi said in a strangled voice from beside him as the two of them were hiding from behind the pillar near the basement parking.
"Three hours, lady!" Kiran said fuming as he pulled out his gun and armed it. "No one was taking potshots at me when I was in Police Headquarters three hours back. I come all the way to meet you and when you come into the parking basement of your newspaper office, the damned parking lot is blazing with more guns than I have seen in my entire life!" Kiran said as he pointed to Aarvi to a car near the pillar. He covered her as she ran towards the car.
Once he saw that she was safely behind the car Kiran fired left, because he could see something moving.
He heard a faint thump and ran behind the car where Aarvi was hiding.
And Kiran was glad because the place where he was hiding just a second back was ablaze with shots, almost blinding him.
"Don't look at it," Kiran whispered as he bent down. "Splinters from it can blind you."
"The damned idiots have trackers in their visors!" Kiran said pointing at Aarvi to move to the next car. "These visors can sense our heat signatures. We will be seen the minute we run anywhere without the cars as covers." Kiran said glumly as he stared at the gun in his hand.
He had at best just four more shots and from what Kiran could see there were at least seven people around him. Kiran sighed realizing that he would have to disarm one of the bad guys. Kiran was looking around at the closest bad guy.
"Why didn't you say that before?" Aarvi demanded looking ferociously annoyed.
"We are being shot!" Kiran said trying is best not to yell. "What is there for me to tell you?" He demanded in a strangled whisper.
"You said they have visors with trackers in them which sense our heat signatures!" Aarvi said. "Trackers have computers!" Aarvi said pulling out her laptop from her backpack.
She had tried to make an emergency call from her cell phone twelve minutes back but because it was the basement, the signal could not get out.
But right now, Aarvi was not trying to contact anyone outside the parking lot. Aarvi pulled out her sleek laptop as she was typing furiously on it. "One guy on the right! Ten meters!" Aarvi said pointing as she saw the computer.
Kiran stared at Aarvi for a whole of two seconds and did not hesitate and he pointed to the right, at the direction which Aarvi had pointed.
Kiran fired.
Kiran was shocked when he heard a faint thump. When the shots from that side stopped, Kiran realized shocked that it was a bullseye.
"Woman! I really, really love you," Kiran said fervently, as he pointed her to move towards the direction he had shot. If Aarvi was navigating him, there was a chance...A huge chance. And he needed the weapon of the person whom he had just shot.
And suddenly Aarvi stopped bending down as she was studying her computer. "Right, two people!" Aarvi said and as she spoke she almost fell down flat on the ground, her computer getting jarred and Kiran was sure it was broken.
Kiran would have tripped on her if he was not prepared. But then being with this woman for six months had taught him to always expect the unexpected. And Kiran was hiding behind a pillar as he realized that the place just where Aarvi was running was riddled with shots.
Kiran saw the shots and guessing the trajectory of the shots and from where Aarvi had pointed, shot twice angrily. No one shot at his girlfriend...
Kiran did not miss as two people fell.
Obviously Kiran's luck ran out.
He sensed someone behind him and turned and punched hard even before he knew who was behind.
The person whom Kiran hit did not even have a chance but Kiran had obviously not counted on two people being around him and groaned as something hit him hard on the neck.
Kiran slumped as he fell down hard, blinking back stars.
Someone swore as Kiran felt a sharp kick in his abdomen and nearly lost conscious and that was when he heard the same swearing someone pull him up hard.
"LET HIM GO!"
Honestly it was hearing that voice which really scared Kiran. Really, really bad.
Kiran squinted as he realized that it really was Aarvi with presumably the gun of the guy whom Kiran had shot and Kiran was now terrified.
He was so sure that Aarvi was going to pull the trigger and pushed himself back, falling straight back as three blind shots hit all around him. The bad guy who had just used Kiran for punching practice scrammed faster than anything that Kiran could have done.
It was two more shots later that the firing stopped.
"Duck and Run!" Kiran yelled as he tried running towards Aarvi.
Damn, damn damn, Kiran cursed himself. If there was one thing which was really dangerous – it was Aarvi with a gun. There was less than one percent chance she would actually hit what she was aiming at and she would hit everything else around her.
And now not only had Aarvi failed to hit anyone, those damned jackasses who were here knew where they were with all the racket that Aarvi had just made.
Kiran heard shots to his right and after a few seconds he heard nothing more. Kiran got up and ran as fast as he could towards Aarvi and as he reached her, he brutally pulling the gun away from her.
"How many times have I told you not to use these things?" Kiran asked in a strangling whisper.
"What else was I supposed to do?" Aarvi whimpering and whispering in the same tone.
"RUN!" Kiran nearly yelled, almost forgetting that he had to be quiet. "That is what normal people would have done," Kiran said almost threatening to blow all his brain cells from pure anger.
"Then what would you do? All alone?" Aarvi asked with slight concern as there were shots around them and she was wincing, trying to duck.
Kiran groaned. Now, the woman had to be concerned about him. "I can take care of myself and usually when I shoot people, they stay down!" Kiran snarled whispering.
Suddenly both Aarvi and Kiran realized that there was silence all around them. Complete and total.
"Either that is very good or very bad!" Aarvi said very philosophically when she heard the silence.
"One of these days, I am going to spank you," Kiran fumed angrily at Aarvi.
"You lovebirds behind that pillar?"
Kiran sighed in relief, nearly falling on the pillar. Real glorious relief. "What took you so long?" Kiran nearly yelled, leaning heavily on the pillar, almost all the fight draining out of him.
"I believe the words are "Thank you"," Aadit's jovial voice came from other side. "Got a faint emergency signal about twelve minutes back. I ran through three red lights and a series of other traffic police vehicles are following me here. I figured if you have gone to visit Aarvi, cops or not, we would need all the backup we can get."
Kiran peeked from behind the pillar and saw Aadit studying the damage to parking lot and was looking at the place where Aarvi had just shot just about everything other than him and the bad guy.
"With the bad guys all around here, what were you trying to shoot, man? A running cockroach?" Aadit demanded as he was studying the holes on the wall.
"One more word and I will kill you!" Kiran snarled coming out from behind the pillar. "And when you fall for a girl, make sure it is not someone who gets shot!" Kiran said in the same tone angrily walking away from the parking lot.