City of Sthapan, Present Day, 8:00 a.m.

A huge mess occurred at TTI three months back. The whole thing started pretty unexpectedly. It had started with a simple case of extortion gone wrong; it had started with the murder of a doctor in the city of Sthapan.

EZ1 had to solve the case, and it led the team all over the city of Sthapan.

Everyone had thought that the case had ended with the arrest of a thief. A female thief.

But by the end of the day, it was plain that the thief was just a pawn in the whole mess.

The pawn, who had gotten badly injured, and they found that the thief had nothing to do with the actual extortion or the murder.

Yes, that had been the day that they had come to know that Shreya was behind the whole thing.

Omkar could have even forgiven that.

Subsequently, Shreya confessed to being involved in smuggling biological toxins in and out of the city of Sthapan for ten years. The toxins, whatnot, had been manufactured by a really screwed up doctor while carrying out his experiments on children from orphanages in the city of Sthapan. The fucking doctor had a huge gang working under him, and Shreya had been the man's TTI contact—she had provided the protection for it, and she had made plenty of money that way.

No, Omkar could never forgive or accept that.

After her arrest, the doctor was sent to the cops for further interrogation. Shreya... She was kept in a high-security army prison wing meant for really screwed up prisoners. The location of that prison was not known to many.

Until a week back, Shreya had been tight-lipped about all her contacts in her work for the doctor.

Three days back, it was rumoured that Shreya had been willing to talk.

That was when Mitran approached Omkar to interrogate Shreya. As said, Omkar flatly refused.

"Vidyut, after you dropped Ramesh at his home, any small talk? Chitchat." Omkar asked Vidyut, eyeing the dead man's kitchen, looking at the painting again.

Vidyut shook his head. "Ramesh was tired. So was I. His team leader kept calling him yesterday. And he said he had to go to the TTI, Sthapan building today. I wanted some shuteye and I went straight home."

"Ok." Omkar nodded. "Ramesh came inside the house at 5:40 in the morning. Then he went to the kitchen." Omkar shook his head. "He first switched off the camera of his house. That makes sense. It is supposed to monitor the house when he is not there. Why would he have it on when he was there? Then he went to the kitchen and made coffee for himself. He was having it when..."

Omkar's voice trailed away.

"Om?" Both Mitran and Vidyut had the same tone.

Omkar nodded at the two of them with unseeing eyes. "That police constable told me that the door was locked from the inside, when the cops came. Which means that Ramesh opened the door for his murderer." Omkar told his chief pointing at the broken door of the house. "It was very early in the morning. Ramesh had just come back from Citran. He made his coffee and had been drinking it. There was a knock on the door. He kept his coffee here and opened the door." Omkar shook his head. "Ramesh met his end, ten minutes within that."

Mitran nodded. "So Ramesh knew the murderer well. That is why he opened the door, despite being so early."

Omkar waved at the clock in the hall. "The disabled camera, chief."

Mitran stared at Omkar. "What is the point of that?"

Omkar nodded. "The killer knew that too. I have a feeling he does. That was the reason that the killer was waiting for Ramesh to come home, settle down, and then, when the killer felt that the camera would not be on, he or she came inside Ramesh's home."

Mitran slowly understood. Yes, that was a leap from Omkar.

But looking at the speed with which Ramesh had been tortured and murdered as soon as Vidyut had dropped the man here, Omkar's version made sense.

"So you are trying to say that the killer even knew Ramesh's routine. He was waiting for Ramesh to come back home?" Vidyut asked the question.

Omkar nodded slowly. "Ramesh's cell phone is missing. The killer took it. I am guessing it has been destroyed." Omkar shrugged. "But we are looking for someone with whom the dead man was very close." Omkar shook his head. "Ramesh does not have a family. Nor is he in a relationship."

Mitran felt like someone had landed a sledgehammer on his head. "Someone working in TTI with Ramesh was responsible for this."

Omkar nodded. "Look into this, Lakshman Seth, chief." He shrugged. "And the other members of the B7 team."

Mitran felt cold as he pulled out his cell phone. "B7 is a good team Om." Mitran was slightly shocked, but he was thinking about it. "In fact, I was thinking about sending Lakshman and his team to the TTI of Citran. He has been a good agent so far."

Omkar shook his head. "Chief, remember what you told me about facts."

"Get your facts first. You can distort them later." Both the men recited it at the same time in the same tome.

There was a silence for a few seconds. Vidyut sighed to himself. He knew Omkar was mad. There was no doubt about that. To think that Mitran encouraged that madness was frankly a little too much for the young agent.

No, neither of the older men knew or cared about it.

"Mark Twain said that first." Mitran almost rolled his eyes, studying Omkar.

"He must have made a very good agent for TTI." Omkar finished, and at that exact minute, his cell phone chimed.

That was Kriti, and she had sent the bank balance of Ramesh Mehra. No, Kriti did not know where Omkar was, and she did not ask that question because it was not necessary for her to know it now.

Then Omkar remembered. "Chief, send this camera to Kriti. She will be able to find out what is in it." Omkar was thumbing at the clock there. "I don't think we will get anything relevant. But it may be worth a try."

Mitran nodded even as he walked towards the inner room with Vidyut.

Omkar was back staring at the painting on the wall, and periodically he studied his cell phone.

Five minutes later, Omkar was back again. "Chief, other than a deep love for the arts, paintings, and jewels of the erstwhile royals of Sthapan, Ramesh had no other interests." Omkar pointed at his cell phone, which had Ramesh's TTI file along with his bank balance. "There were no sudden splurges of money incoming or outgoing, so that was also pretty normal. There had been one sizeable outflow of money three years back, and that amount was towards the purchase of some royal arts." Omkar pointed at the wall. "I am guessing that is why he had one painting."

No, Mitran did not understand that at all. Neither did Vidyut.

"Om? Where are you going with this?" Vidyut's question was sharp.

"Chief, you will find many blogs online about the erstwhile royals of Sthapan. Check it out." Omkar started irrelevantly.

There was a silence for a few seconds.

Vidyut's face changed on hearing that. "Vani. Are you talking about Vani Srivastav, Om?"

Yes, Omkar understood that look from Vidyut, and Omkar told himself not to react to it.

"Please Vidyut." Omkar's voice was quiet. "I want information. Nothing else. It is over. She is gone. And Vani's blog is the best source of this kind of information."

Vidyut studied Omkar coldly, but he said nothing.

Mitran remained oblivious to this dialogue. Primarily because he was worried about bigger things. And also because for once he had followed Omkar's instruction and he had also got online information about the arts of the royals of Sthapan and was reading from it.

"It says here that the yellow colour was banned during the times of the royals." Mitran was reading from his cell phone. Then he looked at the painting on the wall, particularly the sunrise on the painting. "It seems the colour yellow was obtained because of cruelty towards animals. So the royals banned it."

Omkar pointed at the painting. "From what I have learnt, only two paintings from the royals time, had that colour. This painting is not it. Then what is that colour doing there?"

The three men studied the painting.

"This painting is a fake." Mitran offered slowly.

"Yes." Omkar nodded. "And Ramesh did not comment on it. Otherwise, the first thing he would have done after coming home was look into the cameras to see how the painting had been exchanged. He passed the hall on his way to the kitchen. There is a very high chance he would have seen the painting. If I know that it is a fake, he would have known it almost immediately. But he did not notice it. Because he did not do anything about it. Why?"

"Crap!" Mitran saw it. "There is a chance that the original painting was stolen by the killer after he had killed Ramesh."