Ijya

Chapter-10.2

After fifteen days I got a message from headquarters for a meeting. I attended it and came back to pack my bags. A new mission, finally I could breathe. These missions were like oxygen to me because they kept me away from all my worries. 

I locked my apartment and saw Sagar in the corridor. "Are you going somewhere?" he asked. 

"Yes, I was called back to investigate a case," I replied. 

"When will you come back?" 

"No idea," I said, putting the keys in my pocket. 

"I know it's not the right time and even the place is not right. I want to tell you that I like you... I don't expect you to give me an answer right now. And I am aware that you don't feel the same for me but I wanted to confess. Life is too short... And too unpredictable," an awkward silence surrounded us. 

"I should get going," I said. 

"Ravi, I'll wait for your answer," he said. 

I took the auto and went to the railway station. I don't feel anything about him and above this, I was not ready to start a new relationship. Maybe I can't love anyone after Abhimanyu. His love was a mystery to me. I never found out whether he really loved me or not. His secrets died with him, I am not sure if his amnesia was real or part of a big plan.

I am tired of his duality and I don't want to fall in love ever again. Love hurts and I don't want to hurt myself anymore. 

I should stay away from Sagar. Maybe I showed too much concern and he misunderstood my care as my love.

Anyway, it is just a fling for him and by the time I come back he would have already forgotten about me, I thought. 

I came to Srinagar then I came back to Kashmir, Shihabuddin joined me again and this time we had to keep an eye on a bunch of natives. Headquarters got the news from agents who were in Pakistan that some terrorists of Ka-ida were sent to Kashmir and they will try to disturb the internal peace by creating communal riots-like conditions. The enemies were unknown and we had no idea what they looked like. The only thing we were aware of is that they are residing in the valley region. 

Finding those people is like finding a needle in the grass, however, the agency cut down the names of many people and shortlisted its number to eighty people. Nearly twenty agents were assigned to this mission. Some of them were already in Kashmir and some were sent here. One agent for four people, it's going to be hectic from now on. 

When I reached there, Shihabuddin gave me details of four people that I needed to keep my eyes on. I was shocked to see that one of them was above 75. "Why do you want to become a terrorist when your one leg is in the grave?" One was a woman, one was a sixteen-year-old boy and the last one had a cycle repair shop.

Anyway, mobiles are not very common these days. If they had to contact each other, either they would meet or use a public booth. There were two booths in that area and I noticed that all four of them use only one booth. So I targeted the owner of that booth and used my charm on him. He was married for ten years and still didn't have a child. He wanted to marry another woman to have a child and I used that opportunity. I confessed my love and said that I want to marry him. He was head over heels for me, so taking information about them became very easy for me.

Three weeks have passed and I didn't notice any suspicious activity from the woman's side. She rarely leaves her house and if she ever goes out, she is always accompanied by someone. The man who used to do cycle repairing was very talkative, ask him anything and he'll tell you every detail of that incident. I doubted that he was a trespasser. I suspected that old man and that teenager. On the 23rd day, that 75-year-old man died, so my work burden decreased. On 15 April, I got a message from headquarters that they got information about the trespassers. They sent us precise information about them and on the day of 16th April, we had to take them under custody. I was assigned to arrest that teenager. It's awful that these children took weapons at the age of studying. Whatever the reason is, killing others for your ideology is wrong.