City of Sthapan, Present Day, 10:30 a.m.

The underground prison of IB-12 was dark and bleak.

It was fairly big and had enough room for a table, two chairs on opposite sides, and a dull tubelight shining inside the bleak, paint-peeling confinement room. The only thing connected to technology was a red light near the door of the prison. The door was opened by a proper lock and key and no, Shreya did not know it.

All day yesterday, she sensed that it was Vidyut and another man who had brought her here. No, she was not entirely sure where she was. But if she were to hazard a guess, she could assume that this was a prison from one of the Intelligence Block that TTI and the other Intelligence units in the city used. It could be the city of Sthapan, because Vidyut seemed to be involved, and no, Shreya was not sure of that.

She was tired. Her face felt haggard and it had been a long time since she had even moved, and she was grateful even for that. She had a cut lip and there was a slight bruise on her left side. She was finding it difficult to focus because her eyes hurt.

Her heart started thudding painfully when she realized who was sitting before her in that prison.

"Wha...?"

The man on the other side of the table held up his hands. "We shall talk later. Now..."

Shreya's eyes shifted to the sudden blinking red light near the door of the prison.

"What is that?" Her voice was still parched and it was with great difficulty that she could talk.

The man on the other end turned and seemed surprised. "I don't know..."

The door opened without any preamble.

"I broke into the Intelligence Block prison. For you, Shreya." Omkar said, even as the door opened. "And we don't have a lot of time before the guards get here."

Omkar had a handgun in his right hand and it was pointed straight at the man.

"Step away from her, Kairav Saral."

He locked the door behind him. For the entire time, Omkar's eyes did not move from the doctor.

For a second, Kairav was slightly stunned as he stepped back. Then his natural belligerence came out. Or it could be because Shreya was watching. "I have to talk to Shreya. I have Dr. Bhide's orders for that." He vaguely pointed towards the closed door of the prison. "I produced the letter with the people in charge of the prison. Dr. Bhide even called the people, saying I would come...."

Omkar came forward, affixing the silencer to the gun, and without a second thought, shot the man on his shoulder.

Kairav screamed and fell back. Shreya yelled angrily. But she could not run towards Kairav because Omkar waved her back.

"That was for Aadi." Omkar told Kairav, fury lining every single one of his features. "For every lie, after this, just remember that I know how to make sure you don't die and make it unbearably painful."

Kairav Saral groaned and tried to push himself back, but he could not manage any words. Just that his eyes never left Omkar's gun.

But Omkar had eyes only for his former teammate.

"Couldn't you just tell me that it was him, Shreya?" Omkar was annoyed. "I am your teammate. We are supposed to be a family. We were supposed to be there for each other no matter what."

Shreya was not even surprised. She just shook her head tiredly, and no, she did not even see Omkar's gun. For a second, she did not even notice the hurt doctor. "Why would you understand, Om? Why would you support me? I... loved him..." She looked at the doctor. "No matter how...much wrong he did with that, Dr. Chari. I still love him, Om. Just like he loves me. He came here for me."

"I used to love Vani!" Omkar blazed angrily. "You knew that!" Omkar waved his gun at the fallen doctor. "Why the fuck won't I understand what sort of people that we can fall in love with?"

"Om..."

"He didn't come here for you, Shreya." Omkar was just out of his head with anger. "How could you be so naive? He came to silence you. Because you were going to talk."

"No..." Kairav groaned, clutching his shoulder. "I... care..."

Omkar angrily stomped on the other man's knee, nearly breaking it.

Kairav screamed, pushing himself back.

Shreya shouted, but Omkar did not pay any attention to that.

"Why the fuck couldn't you find her for the past three months?" Omkar almost pulled the trigger again and told himself to relax. "What were you waiting for? If you lie to me and say you were unaware of the army prison wing where she was being held, I will break every bone in your body."

Kairav opened his mouth, but on seeing Omkar's fury, he stopped talking.

Shreya saw that. Her already pale face turned worse and she clutched the table tightly. "No.." She whimpered. "I thought he cared..."

"I am sorry!" Omkar winced. Because he actually understood what Shreya was going through. "You took the blame for the wrong man, Shreya."

Shreya collapsed onto the chair behind her.

Omkar knew this was going to be painful, but he had no other way. "Three days ago, he knew that you were being brought to Sthapan, to talk to Mitran today. He thought you were going to rat him out. This morning, he tortured one of the agents who had brought you here - to discover which intelligence block you were being held at. Then he planned things such that he had me, Mitran, and Vidyut out of the TTI building. Things played into his hands because Vani was involved. He knows about me and Vani—that is probably the oldest gossip inside TTI, especially at EZ1 and Bhide. Besides, you should remember that he was here on the day that Bhide framed Vani's death. He probably realized about me and Vani from that. So today, he first kidnapped Aadi for that. I feel stupid because I did not see it. This morning, when Mitran received the call that Aadi had been kidnapped, this freaking idiot was not in the clinic, where he was supposed to be!" Omkar was frustrated. "After kidnapping Aadi, he brought Aadi inside TTI. The photo of Aadi that he had sent to Mitran was from inside TTI. Foolishly, we never saw it. He definitely knows the place enough to get Aadi inside without appearing on any cameras."

Omkar was tempted to pull the trigger again and stopped himself. "It was very early in the morning. Me and Mitran were the only people other than the medical staff there. He sent me and Mitran on a wild goose chase after Vani. After that, he took the doctor with him, citing some stupid reason – I am guessing it must be about Ramesh. Or you. Or Vani. The doctor being what he was, fell for that." Omkar studied the whimpering man with hatred. "After securing the doctor, he sent the unconscious Aadi back to us—he had no need for Aadi. Last night, he informed some foolish bartender to come to Vani's house and tell us that the deal for the release of Aadi was done." Omkar nodded at Kairav, his eyes shining with hatred. "After that, he went to the place where Bhide was kept and probably hurt that man to assign your case to him." Omkar nodded. "He knows where the doctor is."

Omkar studied the man with open hatred. "Once, I saw Aadi's tourniquet, I knew that a medical man was involved somewhere in the mess." He nodded to himself. "There were only two medical people in the mess – the doc and you."

"Bhide?" Shreya's voice was a whisper. She actually swayed, studying Omkar with dull eyes.

Omkar nodded.

"Is the doc dead?" Shreya's voice went an octave higher and her eyes suddenly went round with worry.

Omkar shook his head. "He needs Dr. Bhide for two things—one, to come and meet you; he needed Dr. Bhide's authorization for that. And two, he needs Dr. Bhide to alter your online records to make you dead to the world. Only Dr. Bhide can do that. Only one part of this asshole's work is done."

That was when there was a thud on the outside door.

"Open up!" The door banged with a great deal of authority. And Omkar suspected that Mitran and Vidyut were both outside the other guards. But that was part of the whole thing, so that the chief of TTI could actually and safely pretend that he had no idea that Omkar was going to sneak up on the guards of IB-12 to interrupt this meeting between Shreya and Kairav Saral.

Shreya studied Omkar.

"I told you I broke inside the prison. Chief and Vidyut acted as a diversion. I may have hurt one of the guards before coming inside." Omkar offered, sighing to himself.

"Give me your gun, Om." Shreya's voice was suddenly sharp.

Omkar studied Shreya for a whole second.

A fraction of a second later, Omkar handed his gun to her.

"NO!" Kairav yelled. "Gun..." He could not yell anymore, both because of his injured shoulder and the noise outside.

Shreya took Omkar's gun and unexpectedly hit Omkar sharply on the nose.

Swallowing up the obscenities in his mouth, Omkar fell hard, clutching his bloody nose.

"How long are you going to keep quiet, Kairav?" Shreya's eyes suddenly had that same spark that she had three months back, as she shot to the ground, an inch away from Kairav. Despite the silencer, the shot was a little loud in the confined space.

For a second, there was silence outside.

Then the people outside yelled some more and redoubled their efforts at the door. There was a loud thud on the door and this time splinters flew off the side hinges of the door.

Kairav winced. "I.."

This time, Shreya shot Kairav's other knee.

Kairav groaned/whimpered/screamed all at the same time.

"You should remember, I am already convicted." Shreya told the man with a cold smile. "There is nothing more that anyone here can do to me, other than kill me."

"At Third Cross, in... an... abandoned... building!"Kairav yelled loudly, moving away from Shreya, fear written in every inch of his eyes. "Please, don't hurt me! Please..."

The door thudded open and nearly broke.

Shreya threw the gun away from both the men, as the four guards of IB-12, along with Mitran, barged inside the room with huge guns.

Shreya raised her hands, showing that she was unarmed.

The guards saw the fallen Omkar and the bleeding doctor and did not know what to do.

"Kairav Saral was trying to kill me." Shreya told the guards, as she thumbed at the whimpering and bleeding man. "That is why I shot him." She nodded at Omkar. "I stole Agent Omkar's gun and shot Kairav. Omkar kept his gun carelessly, so I had no problems in taking it." Shreya told the people eyeing Mitran very particularly.