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.
Sash phone had rung quite a few times before he picked it up and Shravan was finally glad to have reached someone. He burst into the receiver saying "Sash where is Suman? I hope she is fine. Is she talking to you daily? I am a little worried you know because for the last 2 days I am unable to reach her". He could hear a long sigh before Sash spoke "Shravan all is fine, just Suman is working on something important and spending long hours at work so maybe she is tired and forgotten to charge her phone. How is your work going?". Shravan gave him a brief update when Sash said "Its almost done. I think we need you here so let's work out the hand over plans tomorrow and try to come back as soon as you can". The conversation with Sash was long over but Shravan kept running the conversation over and over in his head. He was sure there was something more to it in the way he was hurrying up his return although two days back they had been ok with him staying a little more. He had got a call shortly from the local in-charge to hand over everything to his peer and move back to Bangalore. He was also informed that they would soon get his tickets done so he can try and board the train the day after. Although Shravan was happy that he would be meeting Suman soon but in some corner of his heart he had a creeping sensation about something bad that is going to happen, you can probably say it's a premonition. Shravan a practical man as he thought himself to be , before he met Suman wanting to do fairytale stuff for her and today again the same Suman was wavering him from his practical sense as he stepped two steps back on seeing a cat cross the road. He chided himself for being this way and being superstitious but the feeling of dread in his heart refused to die prompting him to ensure that he did everything right so as not to blame himself for being over practical. He looked up to the skies and closed his eyes and sent out a small prayer to keep Suman safe as he maneuvered himself through the mine fields to reach his team.
Suman stirred a little as her eyes refused to open and her body ached from being in the same position maybe for hours. She realized that the ropes had been untied and she forced herself to open her eyes so the hazy vision would go. She was aware of being injected before the vehicle stopped to a halt and in a short while she had drifted off to sleep and she realized with a gasp that she had been drugged. She finally managed to open her eyes and all she could see was darkness. She rubbed her eyes with her now untied hands to understand if she was still hallucinating or she was in deep sleep. No, she was not as she could see the moonlight fleeting through one of the holes or windows if she could call it that. It was indeed late in the night and she checked to see that her watch had been taken off, so she had no way of knowing the time. She forced her brain to speed up her conscious state as they were trained to do so and understand her surroundings. The moonlight, the sound of insects, howling of wolves and the sound of footsteps on mushy land told her that they were in quite deep forests so in spite it not having rained in the last couple of days , the land outside was moist and muddy too. She was probably sheltered in a room built out of local stone and mud. Given the floor was quite cold she would assume that it was made of stone and was made in a hurry or inexperienced hands. She could see some small places from where she could see a little light coming in as the inexperience had not picked up perfect finishing touches and left those small gaps. Suman crawled a little on her hands to examine the floor and then slowly stood up to acclimatize herself with the cold and damp room and then slowly getting up as quietly as possible walked a little to see through the darkness if she could see anything. She had hardly taken 4 steps when she heard someone groan in pain, a male voice. She perked up her ears to ensure that she was not imagining things and this time she was sure that she had heard someone groan in pain. She then softly whispered "Hey who are you in this room, are you held captive". For few seconds she did not get any response and Suman was on the verge of giving up when she heard him and gasped "Suman, what are you doing here. I asked for Shravan", this was none other than Saheb. Suman slowly crept towards the voice and said "Saheb, they have tortured you !!!".
Saheb a little angry a little writhing in pain shouted back at Suman "Yes, they obviously tortured me and its because of you. I told you to get Shravan but when do you leave an opportunity to show your bravado. Now they will not let any of us get away, we both will be tortured to death. I don't know about you, but I do not want to die now". Saheb was going to continue his rant further when Suman stopped him and said "Think whatever you want Saheb about me it does not matter but if you know a simple logic , you would know that either our team or police will rescue us or we will have to rescue ourselves or we both will be killed . Shravan or Suman you would have been in this situation anyways because you have seen and heard too much. They would never let you go. I thought Saheb you were smart enough to understand that, but I guess sometimes common sense gets submerged in one own's gloating about success. At this point I can tell you I do not know where Shravan is so I could not get him here but I knew they would kill you if they did not get a bait, so I came here. My only thought was both of us if we land up together would be able to engineer an escape. As far as my bravado is concerned, there is a place and time for everything, and this is neither the time nor the place". She slowly walked back to her position and sat down pretending to be still asleep as she heard some shuffling of feet outside the door. True to that, a door opened with a creaking sound and a man walked in with a small lantern on his hand and two plates of food which he put down on the floor and left as quickly as he came closing the door behind him and also Suman heard that he did lock them up. Saheb grudgingly limped towards the food and gobbled up quickly the single roti and a small bowl of dal in few seconds but he was still very hungry. He then looked towards Suman and said "Do they want us to starve here?". Suman slowly nodded but did not make any comments because she was right now very angry with Saheb. Then she heard Saheb say "I am sorry Suman , maybe with all this happening around my brain is a little muzzled up". Suman finally said "Let's talk tomorrow Saheb, let me have a little food and go to sleep so I can think in the morning". Finally, both of them went off to sleep although Suman knew she would hardly be able to sleep as her mind was racing with different ideas planning an escape.