It was a sunny Sunday morning. Everything was so joyful. Shreya was enjoying breakfast with her family like every other day. Being a professor in a private university, teaching Literature to M.A students, is indeed a challenging job. She rarely had time to spend with her family, as most of her time was consumed in making notes and preparing for the upcoming lecture.

She is the youngest professor in the whole university. Under a tender age of twenty five, she had managed to complete her education with flying grades, making her whole family proud of her. Although she missed the gold medal with 0.1%, but she was content with the silver medal in academics. That's how she is...always content with what she has....always content with the kind of people she is surrounded with.

Her aura is so positive that the people around her just keep yearning for more. Even the students she taught maintained the decorum of the class perfectly and that mostly surprised all the other teachers!

"What's your plan, beta! Are you planning to apply for government universities? " Shreya's father asked her casually.

"Nah! I am quite happy with the current job." Was her expected reply while she had her usual breakfast-cornflakes.

"Private jobs are not stable, Shreya!" Her brother suggested.

"I know, but....." she was about to continue while chewing on her of sandwich when the doorbell rang.

"Nice timing!" Her brother huffed and stood up to open the door.

"Hey how can you just barge inside the house?" Her brother shouted as four men came inside the house as if they owned it.

As soon as they spotted Shreya, they came near her and almost caught her wrist when her father interrupted.

"Who are you? Shivam call the police, now!" Her father ordered while her mother just stood dumbstruck about what was happening.

"Who are you?" Shreya asked nervously. They did not appear like bad people or murderers or thieves. Instead they appeared very decent, especially with their military haircut.

"We have strong evidence regarding your involvement with Sultan. We have to take you under custody for investigation." One of the member replied without wasting time and words. 

"Who Sultan? I don't know anyone with this name!" She replied.

The man who replied narrowed his eyes. Who does not know Sultan!

"How is she involved with Sultan? Are you all crazy? Atleast tell us who are you all?" Shreya's father asked.

The man sighed before inserting his right hand inside his pant pocket and withdrew his identity card.

"National security force. We have strong proof of the involvement of Miss. Shreya with Sultan. And therefore we are here. So, it will be best for all of you to kindly not interfere with our work or we will be forced to take harsh measures." He ordered not so kindly.

"You are clearly mistaken! My daughter has nothing to do with Sultan or any of his members! She is a commoner." Her father defended.

"Who is Sultan?" Shreya asked again but once again her question remained unanswered.

"We are not obliged to answer you or defend us in any case. We are under strict orders. So, this will be the last warning for you to step aside Mister." The 'intelligence' member replied.

Sooner than Shreya could say anything, the militant man caught her arm.

"We could either do this the hard way or the easy way." He threatened.

"What do you want form me? " She asked.

"We need answers from you. "

"Okay. You can ask me here. "

"No. The head of this investigation team will interrogate you."

"Why?"

The militant was beyond irritated by her repetitive questions.

"No more questions. You follow us, NOW!" He ordered.

"Wait!" Her father shouted from behind.

"Don't worry! We will send her back by evening. It's just few questions!" The militant replied.

"But...." Her father's attempts remained futile as the militants took his daughter to God knows where!

.

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The room appeared so haunting. One door, one table, two chairs, white painted walls, and ofcourse no windows! She sat and patiently waited for someone to come inside the room she was in. She was all alone from the moment the militants had brought her to a defence secured building like a prisoner. She was asked to sit on a chair and wait for the head interrogating officer to arrive. for how long she sat there, she didn't know. But it must definitely be above an hour. Her gut feeling screamed at her that there were people outside the room looking at her and noticing her every action. Isn't this how everything happens in a movie? She wondered.

Finally the door opened and a woman entered the room. Frankly, she was expecting a man to interrogate her. But, she sighed in relief when she saw a member of her own gender. After all, a woman only understands the other.

"Thank you for coming. I think there is some mistake!" Shreya started to defend herself.

The lady officer dropped the file on the table gently and walked upto her.

A slap echoed throughout the room and Shreya brought her hand to her face's rescue.

"I am no a fool! What did you think? Behaving all so innocent in front of me right now will melt my heart! "

"What are you talking about?" Shreya asked in fear. Of course she was angry at this woman who was so rude to her. But, she couldn't bring herself to display her anger especially at her current condition. She was completely under their mercy. One wrong move and she might be termed as a terrorist! Who knows!

When she did not say anything, the lady officer began.

"What's you name?" She asked.

"Shreya." She replied, trying to hold her tears. 

"Full name?"

"It's just Shreya!" She answered. Her voice became shaky as fat tears flowed from her eyes. She had a soft heart which made her very emotional. And her tears had never asked for her permission. They came at the slightest issue.

But the lady officer was nonetheless concerned. She had a duty to do.

"What do you do?"

"I...I am a professor."

"What an irony. A professor involved with Sultan." She commented. Her hatred was clearly audible in her voice.

"I don't know any Sultan! " she confessed in a begging tone.

"Oh really! What do you take us as? A bunch of fools?"

"Right now, yes! Because you have the wrong person. I don't know this person you are talking about!" She replied earning her another blow from the officer.

"You don't know him?" She asked angrily and opened her file. Fumbling through some pages, she brought out one and slammed it in front of Shreya.

Shreya looked at the picture of a man who looked like forty years old. She rubbed her teary eyes to get a clearer view. The man was walking out of airport with few other men behind him.

"Ring a bell?" The officer asked.

"No officer! Trust me! I have never seen this man before! Who is he? Am I here because of him?" She asked clearly confused.

The officer looked at her in suspicion. It was really difficult to trust her, especially the proofs they had against her.

"Three bomb blasts in three months. And the master mind behind all of them is Sultan." Came the reply from the officer.

Now she remembered something. It was a viral news of the year. Three bomb blasts in three different places at the same time. And the mastermind behind these attacks was yet to be caught. But then soon the news flew away and everyone forgot about it. Except ofcourse the investigating department.

"I know about the attacks. But what does it have to do with me?" She asked again.

The officer sighed and replied.

"We recently tracked his phone logs and other details after a very long effort. And surprisingly we have observed some pictures being sent to his number at regular intervals. And all the pictures are of yours." The officer explained.

"What? My? Why?" Shreya asked.

"How would we know? If you aren't lying about your ignorance, then we seriously don't know as to why your pictures are sent to him! But if you are lying..."

"I swear I don't know him or anything about him! I don't even know why my photos are sent to him! Wait...what proof do you have that those photos are really mine?" She asked.

The officer opened the file again and passed her an envelope. Shreya opened the envelope and took out the contents. They were some twenty photographs of her.

"There were many more...more than hundred! But we just printed some." Replied the officer.

She glanced at the officer before looking at the photographs again.

They were really her's. And they were all taken at her very casual moments...like walking towards the university and back home, her hanging out with her friends and sleeping at home. Her teaching at the uni and having lunch with her colleagues.

"What is all this? How did they get inside my home?" She asked clearly scared and confused.

"As I said, we don't know why they are after you! But I will talk to my senior and we'll discuss as to what to do with you. "

"Can I go home? " Shreya asked quickly but when the officer glared at her, she meekly mumbled 'please'.

"Not until we get him inside the bars." Was all she heard before the officer closed the door leaving her inside all alone.

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"The update?" The head investigating officer asked.

"Sir, she appears to be oblivious of everything. "

"Nonsense! She is hiding the truth. She obviously has information on Sultan. "

"Maybe sir. But she really isn't speaking up if that's the case. All she says is that she doesn't even know this man!"

The head investigating officer thought for a while before coming to a conclusion.

"No one would keep someone's photographs without any interest. This girl must be very important for Sultan. Maybe this is the reason why he is asking his men to get her pics. Now the only way to bring him back from his hiding hole is by keeping this girl in our custody. Okay! Spread out this order to retain Shreya until Sultan comes out of his hiding. "

"Yes sir. " The lady officer replied but before leaving, she asked her superior.

"Sir, what must we tell her family! They will soon come and ask for their daughter."

"We are the defence intelligence. We don't need to answer anyone. Since we don't know if they are innocent or not, just inform them that this is for national security. Stall them and give them a hypothetical date and reason for her being here. "

"Yes sir."

"Let's see if she really matters to Sultan or not!" The head IO murmured to himself.