City of Sthapan, Present Day, 8:35 a.m.

Omkar took charge almost immediately, even as they entered the computer room. If Omkar was furious or worried or both, his face gave no indication of it.

To be honest, as of now, he was none of that.

But then, one of the reasons that Mitran had chosen Omkar was that Omkar could sometimes be clinical to the point of being a machine. Omkar found that when he had to work rapidly, it really helped to have that persona.

Going the way today had started, Omkar felt the need to let out his rage and anger.

Now was not the time for that.

Ramesh's case came second, and Omkar had more or less forgotten about it. Ramesh was already dead, and there was nothing that Omkar could do about that.

Omkar's friend and teammate, Aadi, came first.

The whole thing from this morning changed in that second. The whole thing about Aadi could turn out to be a hoax, though Omkar did not think so. There were two reasons for that. Mitran was too good a judge of human character. If there had been some fraud on the line, Mitran would have figured it out almost immediately. Besides, the timing of the call, so early, with such precise information when they were actually expecting Aadi to come to TTI at this time—no, Omkar had no doubt that some part or all parts of that call were genuine.

"Vidyut call Aadi." Omkar's voice was razor cold, as soon as he spotted Vidyut and Kriti studying the screen in the computer room. "Now."

Vidyut frowned, but he recognized an order when he heard one.

Besides, Bhide and Mitran looked worse than Omkar. Which meant that things were really bad. So Vidyut just pulled out his cell phone.

"You may not be able to reach his cell phone. Try his home. Try Anjali's number too. Ask her when she had last seen Aadi." Omkar added it in the same tone.

Anjali was part of Aadi's complicated personal relationship. Aadi and Anjali had been married and divorced. Now they were back. No, Omkar never spent any time thinking about that. He had a faint suspicion that no matter how much Anjali herself worked in intelligence, Aadi's marital status was entirely because of his work at TTI. Thinking that always made Omkar morose. So he never thought about it.

Vidyut nodded hesitatingly and walked out of the room.

Part of Omkar realized that the other techies had not yet come to work.

Another part of Omkar realized that Vidyut had not told Kriti anything about Vani. He had probably just mentioned the painting in Ramesh's house, and Kriti had been verifying whether the painting in Ramesh's house was real or fake. The clock was lying on her table, and it was evident that she had not yet looked into it.

Kriti had been typing on the screen even as he had come inside. Omkar saw a paper with various markings and lots of pictures of the paintings of the royals era printed in front of Kriti, and with all that, what Omkar saw clearly was the cursive handwriting of Kriti – 'Seems to be a fake.'

He turned his attention to the screen.

For a second, Omkar's heart lurched to see Vani's blog running on Kriti's screen and realized that Kriti had been looking into it.

Then Omkar caught himself as he realized that it was irrelevant.

For a second, the calming waves that he felt emanated from the techie, and Omkar realized that no matter what the situation, this techie had a grip on his soul, which could shake him from any depths of despair. He needed those beautiful bright brown eyes of Kriti, just to convince himself that all this was temporary. He could solve all this and get Aadi back safe and sound, in no time at all.

"Yes?" Despite her melodious voice, she seemed confused because she seemed to have realized that the visit of the three men to the computer room was definitely not connected with the work that Vidyut had come to her.

"Aadi could be kidnapped." Omkar started with facts, because it always helped him best with Kriti.

He ignored Kriti's gasp and her round brown eyes, which looked dismayed all of a sudden.

To be honest, Omkar was proud of how quickly Kriti had been able to pull herself back together.

Omkar thumbed at Mitran's cell phone. "Chief received a call, three minutes back, and the man on the other end said that he could call in ten minutes with his demand..."

Omkar's voice trailed off as Kriti took the cell phone from Mitran, and she was connecting it to her computer.

"How do you know it was a man on the other end, chief? What did he say that convinced you it was a male on the other end?"

Yes, Omkar usually did this. He asked questions and put them in a particular order just to help people recollect things better. His teammates and Mitran knew it very well. So did Bhide. In fact, it was Bhide who taught this to Omkar.

Mitran thought for a few seconds, and Kriti was typing furiously on the screen.

"The voice was muffled. But the way he spoke." Mitran nodded. "I am 80% sure it was a man."

Omkar nodded. "We are looking for a strong, powerful man who knows Aadi's routine for today and has a very specific agenda in mind." Omkar nodded to himself. "This seems like the call to you has set his game in play. Why he started it at this time is one thing we have to look into. Why he chose Aadi, may or may not be relevant." So Omkar nodded, waving at Mitran. "The caller called you. So it is logical to assume that he has a grudge against you. Aadi was probably just at the wrong place at the wrong time, which is why he was kidnapped."

Mitran nodded, and no, he did not even bat an eyelid. This was pretty much normal in his life.

"The bastard has used VOIP technology." Kriti muttered after a few seconds. No, she had not heard much of what Omkar had said. She did not need to hear it now.

"What is VOIP technology?"

"It is a technology to call people using the internet." Kriti replied almost immediately. "When I ping for the location of the calling cell phone, it routes me to some random location. In this case, I am getting the location of the cell phone outside the country. Which has to be wrong."

No, Omkar did not understand the nitty-gritty of that. It was irrelevant to him. To him, it just meant that Kriti could not use technology to track the caller.

Kriti turned to Omkar. "Where do you believe Aadi was when he was kidnapped, Om?"

Omkar stared. No, he did not understand where Kriti was going with this. But he had learnt never to question engineers when they had questions like these.

Vidyut entered the computer room at that precise moment, and he was the one with the answer. "Aadi is not answering his cellphone. Anjali spoke to him twenty minutes ago. Aadi left his home twenty minutes ago and told Anjali that he was going to TTI early, for some work with Mitran and Dr. Bhide."

Kriti nodded, turning her attention back to the screen. "Which means I can track Aadi's cell phone."

Omkar stared and slowly understood that. She could not track the man who had called Mitran, but considering the fact that that man had claimed to have kidnapped Aadi, she could always know where Aadi was, or rather where Aadi's cellphone was.

No, Omkar was not foolish enough to presume that the kidnapper had allowed Aadi to keep his cellphone in person, but if they knew where the cellphone was disposed of, it could give them more clues about where to look for Aadi.

Omkar smiled as he realized why techies were given so much leeway at TTI. Mitran had long ago realized that these people could think from a different angle than even agents, and they arrived at a unique solution.

She typed for a minute and then looked frustrated.

"Aadi's phone has been switched off. The last known location of his cell phone was two streets away from his house. After that, it was switched off." She looked at the screen, which had a blinking dot.

Omkar studied Kriti. "We should probably start looking two streets away from his home. People there would have seen something."

Both the husband and wife studied each other and both realized that, as of now, they could not make any more guesses, and they both nodded.

"I am recording the next call, chief." Kriti muttered, and she was still typing.

As if on cue, the cell phone rang, exactly ten minutes after the first call.

It was another unknown number.

Omkar and Kriti both nodded as Mitran pressed the speaker.

"Mitran speaking."

"I am sure you know that my call cannot be tracked now."

The voice of the caller was muffled.

Mitran's slight nod at the end of the sentence, told Omkar that this was the same man who had called previously.

Omkar deduced a trace of arrogance in the caller. So, the man was well-versed in technology and expected Mitran to do all this. That made this man very dangerous. Man... Yes, Mitran was right. Omkar also felt that the person calling on the other end was a male.

"So you will do exactly what I tell you to do."

"How do I know that Aadi is with you?" Mitran's voice was ice cold. "I need some proof."

"Oh." The man on the other end sounded bored.

That told Omkar that the man had already known that Mitran was going to ask this particular question.

That was when the morning suddenly became a little too cold for Omkar and his heart began to pound. He clutched his hands in a tight fist and prayed that the man on the other end did not say what Omkar expected him to say.

Omkar's wishes were not granted.

"I will cut his finger and send it to you." The voice on the other end said carelessly. "You can match the fingerprints. You can then figure out that I have kidnapped your TTI agent."

There was a silence for a second and Omkar saw Mitran relax. But this was a thing. The more chaotic things became, the more Mitran became calmer. It was a thing with the man.

"Get to the point." Mitran's voice was quiet. "I am very sure you did not call me for this."

Omkar was sure that Mitran had figured out as much as Omkar had – the man on the other end was completely used to violence and he was itching to show it off. Showing any fear now was going to be counterproductive. Not to mention very, very dangerous for Aadi.

There was a chuckle on the other end. "You have a cocky asshole working under you. Omkar Raghav: I want to talk to him."

There was another silence at TTI.

Mitran was thrown out of his calmness, because he had not seen this coming.

Kriti shook at that, actually shook.

Bhide and Vidyut exchanged nervous glances. But neither said anything.

Omkar just stared. For a second, he wondered whether he had heard something wrong.

The man on the other end just continued. "Mitran, please don't give me any useless excuses like Omkar is not there, or something like that. These tactics are not going to buy you any time. If Omkar does not answer the call in the next two minutes, Aadi will be shot. Do you know how painful it is when you bleed out slowly with no treatment."

Mitran pointed Omkar towards the cell phone.

"Relax." Mitran murmured in Omkar's ear. "You have done this before. Nothing new. You can handle this."

Yes, Omkar had attended hostage negotiations before, and every single time, Omkar had been successful. But Omkar hated it. It was worse than dealing with a ticking time bomb—Omkar genuinely believed that there was something honest about a bomb. Negotiations, on the other hand, were...always unpredictable, because he never knew what ticked off whom. And there were lives in the balance. That single thing changed the whole equation.

Deep breaths. Omkar was telling himself to relax. Now, Omkar was 130% sure that the man had definitely kidnapped Aadi. He was just toying around, waiting for Omkar or Mitran to make a mistake. Omkar had to calm down. He could do this. He just had to think and talk. And not panic.

No, the fact that Mitran could fib his way around or ask someone else to talk on behalf of Omkar did not occur to any of the TTI personnel.

They were all professionals and knew the real deal when they heard it. Lying to a man like this at a time like this was going to be bad for Aadi, real bad.

"Hello." Omkar came forward towards Mitran's cell phone as Mitran moved behind. "I am Omkar. What do you want?"

There was a silence on the other end for a minute. "Do you remember Vani, agent? Vani Srivastav."

Fuck. He was hallucinating. Or just going mad. Because this was stupid. He couldn't have heard that right.

But the stares on the faces of the men and the sudden blank look on Kriti's face, told Omkar that he had heard right. Dead right.

Omkar looked at Kriti and then took a deep breath. "Yes, I remember her."

Kriti's hands moved slowly on top of his trembling hands, and that was when Omkar realized that his hands were shaking.

Kriti's cool hand, on his own, was helping him focus.

There was a second silence and a chuckle on the other end. There was something almost nostalgic in the voice of the man on the other end. "Who can forget their first love, agent? No matter how much one claims to have moved beyond it."

Kriti abruptly pulled her hands back, and she looked... hurt, though she said nothing.

Claims to have moved beyond it. Crap. The man knew Mitran, and he knew personal details about Omkar. Who the fuck was this man?

"What do you want?" Omkar felt his throat go dry. Gawd, why was this happening?

"Someone is snappy." The man on the other end chuckled to himself.

"What do you want?" Omkar repeated, willing himself not to snap. The man on the other end was trying to goad Omkar. That much Omkar knew for a certainty. If Omkar gave in, the man was going to use that as an excuse to hurt Aadi.

There was a chuckle on the other end. "Find Vani for me."

Omkar stared. This could not be right. He stared at the cell phone and felt his vision blur for a second. "I... can't! Vani is dead."

There was silence for a second, and Omkar realized that he could not focus. What if...

Omkar's eyes widened with genuine fear as he heard the gunshot on the other end.

That was followed by a whimper and a gasp.

"What the fuck was that?"

There was another silence, and Kriti's nails were now painfully cutting into his hands. No, Omkar neither knew nor cared about it. He was just telling himself to calm down and listen. The gunshot. The fucking gunshot. What the hell did that mean?

There was silence on the other end.

"Please talk to me." Omkar nearly begged.

"If you lie again, agent, I will shoot his other shoulder next." The man on the other end spoke suddenly, and he was clear, concise, and articulate.

Omkar's heart was doing some sort of gymnastics, and he was not even sure he could talk. He was sure that if he tried to talk, he was going to throw up on himself.

His hands were trembling, and he tried to calm down.

The man on the other end was probably just toying with Omkar.

Aadi was probably perfectly fine.

No, there was not even a shred of hope in Omkar's beliefs. Because though he had not heard anything dangerous on the other end, Omkar was 198% sure that his friend had just been shot.

"Agent, find your ex. After that, you will have your next set of instructions..." The voice of the man on the other end trailed off for a few seconds.

Omkar was almost gasping and he realized that he could not focus anymore.

The problem was that the man on the other end was not yet done.

"Oh... your wife. She does not know, does she? That is why you were talking so stupidly."

Omkar could not meet eyes with anyone, and beyond the drumming in his heart, he was not too sure he could hear anything properly.

Naturally, Kriti knew about him and Vani.

But the fact that Vani was alive was known only to Dr. Bhide and Omkar. Not even Mitran knew about it. But this man on the other end of the phone knew it. And he knew it with certainty.

"I will try to find her." Omkar said slowly, willing himself to calm down, and he could not meet eyes with anyone around him.

"There is no try. It is do or Aadi dies, agent." The man on the other end chuckled. "You have an hour. It is 8:40 now. By 9:41 a.m., you should find Vani. If you do not tell me where Vani is, when I call the next time, Aadi's other shoulder will also be... perforated."

Omkar winced to himself. "Please treat Aadi's shoulder." Omkar would have begged if necessary. "I will find..."

The call was abruptly cut off.

No, it was not over with that.

Mitran's cell phone chimed with a message.

It was an image of Aadi, and the image came to Mitran's cell phone from the same unknown number.

The sun fell on Aadi's features, and the entire background had been blurred. The bruises on his forehead were even worse than before. He was gagged and tied to a chair with his hands behind. There were heavy bruises on the man's forehead, and his left shoulder had bled profusely onto his shirt.

The idiot had worn a bright flowery shirt today. Omkar felt sick because he had purchased that shirt for the always serious-looking Aadi, as a joke.

Aadi's shirt on the left was laced with blood. He was unconscious and today's newspaper carelessly lay on Aadi's lap.

"Fuck everyone!" Mitran swore viciously as he walked away from the cell phone, and he was pacing the computer room.