A Sunday morning woke her up to another hopeless day. It was a beautiful sunny morning, lightening up the world, only if it could lighten up hers.

Ananya yawns sliding the sheets aside. She needs to freshen up and roam around, and go shopping, for her work would start the following Monday. She grabbed a job offer from CBI, Delhi for which she had to go through training in Ghaziabad. It's been a week since she is here in the mansion bought by her. It was her first Sunday here and she didn't hope for anything, even her Sunday to be good, for the week has been nothing but good to her.

Dreams that wouldn't leave her to breathe in peace.

No one to share her thoughts to sleep with ease.

So messy was her past to live in lavish.

It's so obvious she'd hope for nothing to cherish.

She gets up sighing kicking the writer out of her, for it's becoming poetic these days. She makes her way to the washroom, out of her lyrical thoughts now. She needs to brush and bathe. She needs a cold shower, it would refresh her mind if nothing else.

Has it ever happened that you wake up hoping your day to be usual if not worse than already it is and the opposite attracts you, killing the hopeless hope you had for your day?

You wanted to write an assignment with your usual, and bad handwriting and end up realizing your hand has been fractured? Isn't it a hopeless hope?

You sat in front of your laptop, in the hope of writing a story that's been roaming around your head from the morning, for you've been under writer's block for a long time and just when you start, you receive a tight slap on your face, in the name of bad news, killing the hopeless hope to write. It has definitely killed your hopeless hope if not more.

Ananya had to feel just that as she walks out of her washroom, in a Scarlett robe looking so gorgeous that put the robe to shame, for it had the chance to wrap around the beautiful Ananya. Only to realize a second later, it isn't beautiful anymore. Poor thing was thrown onto the bed as Ananya grabs her Jeans and Shirt as she listens to the caller.

Yeah, she was on a call and the call did nothing except kill her hopeless day already. Her shopping plan was shoved into the locker. Her job is calling out for her and if Ananya could be given an award for anything, that would be for her workaholic system.

She's a hardcore workaholic.

The kind of workaholic where you don't realize it's lunchtime and your stomach needs food!

Lost in the universe of codes, you don't realize you're on the earth and there are people hoping to lend your ears.

A kind of pumping heart that couldn't come back to the planet of plants and life until you were slapped with a favorable upshot.

Ananya wasn't different from the kind of people.

As soon as she wore her clothes, she didn't waste her time decorating her face and hair. She wasn't the kind of lady who loves artificial make-up. Left her hair open and messy and had suncream applied to her body. She shoves her iPad into her Laptop bag as she rushes out of her room grabbing a little bread to fill her stomach on the way.

CBI, Delhi

Technically Sundays are holidays for people. Yet there are some specializations where the attackers won't know the meaning of a public holiday and do their work. That exactly put the CBI team to the work on Sunday.

So, Ashwanth had to call his about-to-join employee who was replacing their senior technician. Along with DJ, Nusrat, and Akash were with him. As they're already here, Nusrat and DJ work on one of the victim's autopsy reports. Akash was trying his hand at the technical stuff along with their junior technician. Akash is weak at tech and their junior technician hasn't faced such a situation ever.

They were informed their new employee will be coming in a few minutes. They had to wait. It'd been a usual day for them, only that it wasn't. It's Sunday after all and they were although prepared for such a situation, didn't expect it to be the day. There weren't any major cases going on in their team in the past few days. It was obvious if it would surprise them.

Ananya rushes into CBI, walking towards Ashwanth's cabin, he's been the Senior Superintendent of police for two years and is in his late thirties, sitting on his chair as he tries calling their transferred senior technician, only to sigh in disappointment. Only for it to disappear a few moments later, as he hears a knock. He hoped it was Ananya Saini.

Ananya Saini, a woman of 26 who was to officially join the next day was called up on a public holiday, to join and start her work.

Cruel! But necessary.

"Come in," Ashwanth calls in.

His hope wasn't hopeless. Ananya walks into the cabin with her office bag. He had no other options except Ananya Saini.

"Morning, Sir!" Ananya greets the man who was seated on his chair. She has met him a week ago, on Monday, to submit her certificates and paperwork that has to be done before joining. He squeezed the joining date to be the next Monday in her brain and she know she had a week to relax and shop before she could join.

"Good Morning, Ananya. Apologies for disturbing you on your Sunday and that too when your joining date is tomorrow. But I couldn't help the circumstance for it asked for you," he shrugs standing up and well, shaking his hands with her.

"No issues, Sir. I'd like to know the details about this issue before we proceed," Ananya smiles, her office laptop bag hanging on her back, as she releases her hand from his hold.

"Yeah, our Junior Technician would fill you with it. Let me take you to him," Ashwanth guides her the way.

Ananya nods as she follows Ashwanth Mehta.

—

If sunrise has woken up Ananya, a couple of Alarms and Phone calls couldn't wake up Nikhil as he was on his bed asleep snoring away. He groans as heard the ring again. Pulling his pillows to his side, he shuts his ears with them. Only if the piece of Sleepwell could act as a capacitor. To his bad, his Sleepwell pillows aren't noise filters.

"Agh! Let me sleep," he grunts in his sleep. He's tired.

Well, well, wasn't he a Medico?

"Oh, shit. I'm a Forensic Doctor," he gets up with a jolt.

It could be an emergency.

He couldn't ignore the rings of his phone anymore as he comes to his sense.

He takes his phone immediately.

Nusrat!

He calls her back, "Hey!"

"Good Morning, Nikhil," she greets him with a smile. She's going through the files and reports of the subjects.

"It is an emergency?" he comes straight to the point, without bothering to greet her. He walks to the cupboard. He needs to get ready and if it's faster, it's even better.

Nusrat sighs in disappointment.

Couldn't he greet her back?

Well, Nusrat is aware of this fact. Nikhil, although isn't a workaholic, loves being professional when it's work-related and doesn't give a damn about anything else.

When the work mode is on, he loves his work more than anything.

She hoped when his work mode is off, he'd give importance to his personal life. Her hope was true. He does concentrate on his personal life, it's just that she wasn't a part of it, largely.

"Not really. We're having a technical glitch and it's an emergency for technicians. That's what the message says in Whatsapp," she replies, coming out of her thoughts.

Just like others, he didn't expect an early morning call. There were no major cases going on in their team. He strides back to his bed.

"Oh, so even you went there?" he questions, relaxing a little. He sits back on his bed.

Nothing is serious!

"Yeah, DJ sir called and I had to be here," she keeps the files aside answering.

"Alright! Do I need there?"

"Depends. If you still have the case N-4's report with you. You need to either send it or come with it. I need that file, working on reports," she passes the information.

She could have done it tomorrow. But she wanted to, and now. For it would bring a chance to cherish the presence of Nikhil and be near him.

In the hearts of hearts, it was her selfish heart that wanted his attention, even it was a little and for a bit of time.

She had disturbed his sleep!

For the sake of her pumping heart.

It was wrong on her part and Nusrat is well aware of that, but, here comes the quote.

The Heart wants what it wants!

It could justify her behavior, she comforted the logical part of her brain.

"Okay. I'm coming with the file. Give me an hour," he sniffed, sighing, and cuts the call.

"Thank You, Nikhil!" In the hearts of hearts, a part of it jumps in excitement.

—

Ananya had a conversation with Kumar, the junior technician.

Their systems were suddenly not working and their server had a high alert early in the morning.

Ananya takes half an hour to solve them.

"It's done." Ananya relaxes a little after checking the server, their LAN, VPN, and the multiple computers connected to it.

"What's the exact issue here," DJ asks as he looks on.

"Software update was late and people here had logged into multiple accounts from a single system. Since the systems' software wasn't updated, they crashed and hence a red alert on the server," Ananya explains about the issue.

Well, if their attacker was a piece of code that runs errands and the bugs were your result, it's true you would know the attacker had no sense of time. A public holiday? Never!

Programmed it is and program it will, only that you need to be a techie.

Ananya is the best at it!

"By the way, Kumar," — she turns to look at Kumar — " How many months it has been since you completed your training?" she completes her question.

"Two more months and a year to go," he replies.

"Oh. Alright!" she smiles a bit.

Kumar, who's 23, was embarrassed but what was his fault? He isn't much experienced anyway. He didn't need to be embarrassed.

If it was someone else in Ananya's place, they would have comforted him.

"No issues!"

"That explains why you didn't smell the issue."

"Don't be embarrassed. It happens."

The so-called soothing words would have made the man in question more embarrassed if nothing else.

Ananya is aware of the fact and so, she doesn't drag the matter.

She is here and she would make sure she teaches him the actual issues.

What he learned in his training and the later months was a drop of water in the Pacific Ocean.

"And I do have a suggestion," Ananya starts after a second.

"What's that?" Ashwanth frowns in confusion.

"Employees here need to stop logging into multiple accounts from a single system. It has so many disadvantages. I can't list them now. If no one had logged into the multiple accounts, maybe the systems wouldn't have crashed." She proves her point by showing one of the computers there. There are several accounts logged into a single system and that was one of the reasons for the red alert.

"I'll make sure to issue the notice immediately," Ashwanth motions DJ. If Ashwanth is an SSP in his late thirties, he knows to act and fast.

DJ gets the point and moves toward his cabin.

"Thank you so much, Ananya. If not for you, we didn't know what we would have done," Ahwanth shows his gratitude. She hasn't joined their office officially yet and here she is, at their request, solving their issue.

Such was the passion for Ananya Saini! She literally lives them!

Ananya nods, "My Pleasure!"

"Anyway, some of our team is here. Let me introduce you to them, you'll be joining tomorrow anyhow and it would be good to do the introductions now." Ashwanth moves towards the side where Akash stood.

"Sure!" Ananya follows him.

Akash was a little away from them as they reach him.

"Akash," he calls out and Akash who was looking at them already is in position.

"She is Ananya Saini, our soon-to-be Senior Ethical Hacker," — Ashwanth turns towards Ananya continuing — "and, he's Akash Mallik, Deputy Superintendent of Police, one of our best inspectors here, and the one who has left now, he's Dhananjay Rajpoot, Senior Forensic Doctor." he completes their introduction.

"Hello, Mr. Akash Mallik," she greets the man in front of her.

"Hello, Miss. Ananya Saini." Akash smiles shaking hands with her.

She is beautiful! He couldn't stop himself from appreciating her beauty.

"And there's Nusrat, a forensic expert, she's in the lab I guess. Is she, Akash?"

"Yes, Sir." Akash nods. He has seen Nusrat working on the autopsy reports.

"I will introduce her to you if she isn't busy and the rest of the team members, you can meet them," he hoped to introduce Nusrat and the rest of the team today itself, but alas!

"Sure, sir. I'll meet Nusrat too tomorrow. Let her work. I don't want to interrupt." Ananya caresses her chin.

She never wanted to disturb a person who is busy with work as she herself prefers nobody disturbing her when she works.

"Sure. I'm again apologizing for disturbing you on this day. You must have your plans," he apologized for the third time. Or is it fourth? He lost count. It could show how thankful was he to Ananya Saini.

For he was tensed with the thoughts very hostile.

What if their systems were hacked? Their confidential data would have been leaked and it isn't good for the country.

"It's okay, Sir. No issues." Ananya isn't good with words, so she had to settle with one-liners.

"I'll get going now if there's no other work," she continues looking at Ashwanth.

Although it's been a week since she was here, she hadn't got the chance to shop. She was busy with work in her new mansion.

Shopping wasn't on her schedule and she realized she needed a few official suits.

She needs to shop and fast.

For her, shopping is boring!

"Yeah, you can! And thanks again," he shrugs.

Ananya nodding bids them bye; walks away.

She has the habit of looking into her phone as she walks and one could blame her iPhone if she bumps into a handsome man for her hormones aren't active much and especially on office premises.

"What the fuck?" Nikhil curses walking in. He had plans and he wanted to thump the file on Nusrat's face and enjoy his Sunday.

If iPhone was Ananya's reason, the Sunday plan was a reason not enough to put a blame on if he bumps into a beautiful woman, for it gave him fluttering butterflies in his stomach. 

Which has never happened ever with him.

He looks up at the woman in question who bumped into him and is so soft that sent shrills over his spine.

"You?" Nikhil shouts in surprise after the initial shock.

Ananya stood still in her place.

Nikhil Nair!

To be continued..,

Let me know what you think of the update. 

Awaiting your views!

Apologies, although I could write yesterday, had a bad day just when I started. So, couldn't and here it is now!

-polymath_land

-17/10/2022