City of Sthapan, Present Day, 9:30 p.m.

Vani's new place was a small independent house at the end of the busy street. There were only five other houses in the street and none close to her house.

Omkar stopped his car at the end of the street.

He nodded at the older man who was inside the car and walked away without a backward glance.

There were not many people on the road at that time. Things were just starting and not in full flow.

Omkar reached Vani's house without any incident, and what he saw was that there were no people hidden or in any obvious places taking any unusual interest in him.

Vani's house was locked.

It took the whole of two minutes for Omkar to pick the house lock and, no, he was not observed during that time nor did Omkar like it.

He was cursing through all the two minutes, and he just could not figure out why Vidyut or Vani had not left him a key. They knew that he was going to come; the least they could do was make it easy.

He had unlocked the damned thing, and then he had found the freaking key. It was placed on the inside of the window sill near the door.

Naturally, Vidyut or Vani had left him a key. Omkar had just not seen it properly.

Cursing himself, Omkar opened the door.

All thought processes left Omkar that second. He paled because it was at that moment that Omkar knew that he had been outsmarted. He had been foolish and he had played right into the hands of whoever was behind this.

************

"Don't shoot me!"

Omkar heard the whimpering from behind him, a minute after he had entered the room.

For the entire minute, Omkar had not moved from the spot. He could not. He was in too much shock to process it all.

"Om, I found this man. He had parked his car right next to mine, and he walked inside Vani's house. I don't think he is armed. He was yammering something about a prank and that he was paid to follow us and come to this house. I..." Mitran's words died in his throat.

Beyond Omkar, who was still standing at the front of the door, Mitran peered and saw the sofa in the front room.

Mitran stared some more. He totally ignored the terrified man whom he had had at gunpoint till now.

Aadi was lying unconscious. Aadi was lying unconscious with a bullet to his left shoulder, and he was lying on the sofa of the house.

"Shit!"

"How...?" Omkar's words were glazed.

He was moving like an automaton towards Aadi when Mitran caught the younger agent. Damage control. They had already been double-guessed. It would not help if they were foolish as well.

"Om, check the house and then we can check on Aadi." Mitran's words were sharp. Mitran gave Aadi a cursory glance. "It is clear that Aadi is alive." Mitran eyed the tight tourniquet in Aadi's right shoulder. "He has been treated too."

The terrified man whom Mitran had pushed inside the house was close to crying. "Who the fuck are you guys? Who is he...?"

"Shut up!"

Both Omkar and Mitran yelled at the same time.

The man whimpered and almost shrank back into the wall, as the two men pulled out their guns and went around the house.

In the two minutes that the terrified man had been sniffling and lying near the sofa, looking terrified at the two other men, the two agents thoroughly checked the house.

"Two rooms on this side are clean." Mitran proclaimed after two minutes.

Omkar was still in the kitchen, and Mitran did not think that Omkar would find anyone.

That was the first time Mitran paid full attention to the idiot whom he had caught.

The man was somewhere in his thirties and wearing a round-necked tight T-shirt and dark jeans. He had a round jowled face and his hair was poking out all wrong. He was generally well-built, but before two characters like Omkar and Mitran, he was not at his best.

Mitran sensed rather than see Omkar come behind him.

"Who asked you to follow me?" Omkar's eyes were icy as he turned his attention to the man.

"I... bartender... bar gun... prank... money..."

"FUCK IT!" Omkar snarled angrily, and the man stumbled and fell back, tripping on the sofa, all by himself.

"Who asked you to follow me?" Omkar repeated every word precisely.

"A... man... he... came... to my bar....late last night." The man was still stuttering, and both Mitran and Omkar stared at the man.

"What did this man look like?" That came from Omkar.

"What did this man say?" This came from Mitran.

The bartender looked at the two men and gasped, trying to calm himself. He appeared to be in better control. Just seeing the unconscious man on the sofa freaked him out.

The younger of the two TTI men stepped in the front, hiding the unconscious man from the bank clerk's view, while the older man was checking him.

"What did he say?" Omkar asked the clerk quietly.

"He... gave me this address. He said... that I... had to follow you. He said that a man would come to this house at nine thirty in the morning in a car I am... supposed to come to the house and tell you that you kept your promise and....so he has also kept his....end of the bargain." The man was panting by the end of it.

Omkar blinked. Kept my promise, so he was keeping his end of the bargain. What the fuck did that mean?

"Om!"

That was Mitran.

Despite knowing that Mitran had done the same, the first thing Omkar did was check the ex-commando's pulse.

That was when Omkar found that his own hands were shaking.

Omkar ignored that.

'Although stress triggers adrenaline release, it also activates many other responses within the central nervous system and also the system that drives behavioural responses. Adrenaline infusion alone increases alertness and has other roles in the brain, including the augmentation of memory consolidation. '

Dr. Bhide had taught them that.

Omkar turned to Mitran, who had pulled out a piece of paper from the unconscious Aadi's front shirt pocket.

'You are a man of your word. So am I. You fulfilled your bargain before the time allotted to you, so you get your friend back.

PS: I was masked. Vani does not know who I am.'

The message was typed, neatly folded, and kept in Aadi's front pocket.

"What does this mean, Om?" Mitran studied his agent. "Why is all this happening?"

"The kidnapper expected me to do all this." Omkar's voice was quiet. Nothing was making sense to him. "He already knew where Vani lived. He expected me to get Vani away. He was just waiting for Vidyut to come and take Vani away. Then he opened the door with the key that was kept here, placed Aadi here, and he went away."

"Then why did he do all this?" Mitran was confused. "What does he get from this?"

No, Omkar had no answers. He shook his head.

The TTI chief understood it and did not push it.

Omkar and Mitran's cell phone chimed at the same time. Which could only mean that it was TTI. That was when Omkar remembered the terrified asshole in the house.

"Have you carried out weird tasks like this before?" Omkar demanded from the bank clerk. In the same breath, he took out his cell phone without looking into it. "Why did you listen to a man whom you do not know?"

The bartender got terrified again. Then he nodded fervently at Omkar. "He... said it was... a prank." He was back to stuttering.

Omkar was half paying attention after that, because other than the fear, Omkar sensed that the man was speaking the truth. Fuck.

"Did he give a name?" Omkar demanded, and he was not paying any attention to the answer. He felt that it was a useless piece of information that could not help him anymore.

That was why Omkar focused more on his cellphone.

It was a message from Kriti. 'Both day shift doctors missing.'

Omkar's heart was already doing weird gymnastics, and that was when the two TTI men heard the last sentence from the bartender.

"He said his name was Bhide. Vasant Bhide."

*********

"How can the doctors go missing?" Omkar was still numb even as he was talking on the phone.

"I don't know." Kriti's voice sounded dismayed on the phone. "Both Dr. Kairav and our doc are missing. They left about fifteen minutes ago. The night shift doctor, Dr. Rohit, had some doubts about the reports in the front room of the clinic. He tried calling both the doctors, but they are not answering. That is when he realized that both of them had left their cell phones in the clinic."

Kriti sounded frantic, which pushed up Omkar's alarm radar.

"What?"

"I am accessing the cameras of TTI, Om." Kriti sounded worried. "Both the doctors got inside Dr. Kairav's car. I thought they were going to just help the doc let out some steam. Everything is of their own free will. Dr. Kairav turned left from TTI. Did someone hurt them after they left...."

"Oh my Gawd!" Omkar breathed heavily, almost crashing on the sofa at Vani's house.

"Om?" Kriti's voice was guarded on the other end, and no, Omkar did not blame her. He was feeling stupid. He had been outsmarted. Stupidly outsmarted.

"The kidnapper wanted us away from the TTI building, chief." Omkar's voice was a whisper. "In the early morning, when the others would not be there, the kidnapper sent me to find Vani – to take me away from this place. We foolishly sent Vidyut away to keep Vani safe. Vani was in no danger at all... The way all this was done – it all points to the same thing. They wanted us out of here and they wanted the doctors alone. The doctors went out all alone, and they were kidnapped. All this was to get to them."

There was a silence for a few seconds. Omkar eyed the unconscious Aadi, and he was finding it difficult to breathe. This was the freaking first time. He did not have a clue. What was he supposed to do now?

"Why is all this happening, Om?" Kriti's voice was a whisper.

"I don't know, Kitty." Omkar's voice was heavy as he saw Mitran come inside Vani's house after terrifying the stupid bank clerk with his prank. "I just don't know."