Chapter 9

PART-8

 

Naina froze as she heard that. She knew that she would be blamed for all the incidents very soon but this was sooner than what she expected. She was in shock and could not even speak out in protest. Though she still believed that her stand hasn't weakened that much, she could not defend herself.

 

"What?" Huda also gave a shocked reaction.

"Why? You were the only one to tell me that corruption is always rooted at the top. I think it's Captain Singh behind all this."

"And what makes you think so?"

"She was the one to tell us that ammunitions were in place till the last week before Major Rastogi left. But now we have come across some major issues there and who has the keys to the Ammunitions Room.... Captain Naina Singh. Some important document, we all suppose, must be missing from here. As you said someone from the base could have replaced the file. Remember a file in the record rooms wasn't in place. She got us that file from somewhere else and she took quite long that day to fetch the file. And to top it all, Major Rastogi calls up but only Captain Singh. I think it's just too much of co-incidents to take place with Captain Singh."

 

"I think it's too hasty to reach a conclusion now. I agree the circumstances are not in favor of Captain Singh but it hasn't gone so much against her." Huda supported her.

 

"Stop supporting her Huda. You are getting biased now. Don't forget you are an investigator and are supposed to keep yourself free from all sort of prejudices."

"I am not biased. I am just saying what I feel like."

"Come on Huda accept it. You are biased. You are supporting her because you have a soft corner for her."

"Cut the crap Captain Rajveer. I am not supporting her. I am just not blaming her because we don't have sufficient proof against anyone... Be it Nai... I mean... Captain Singh or any other personnel of this base. I am just being reasonable."

"Reasonable? You really think we have no reason to suspect Captain Singh and is it what you call being reasonable?"

"Captain Shekhawat... I really don't think we have any reason to suspect Captain Singh. First of all she is not the only one with the possession of the keys to Ammunitions Room...there are others as well. Then it makes sense to accept that Major Rastogi had that file you are talking about in his cabin since he did inspect all the ammunitions before going for the leave. Besides that file doesn't even look replaced or we would never have figured out about the missing ammunitions. And lastly Major Rastogi called her up because may be he trusted her more than the others at the base or may be that was the only number he could recall... There can be lot many explanations for those things...."

"Then why don't you let her come up with them. Let her say, at least, something." He cut him in between.

 

Naina was bland after seeing them get into almost a verbal fight.

"Captain Shekhawat. I don't know if I can convince you but I would surely like to tell you that I am not guilty. And there's nothing I can tell you after this."

"Can you prove your innocence?"

"Why don't you go ahead and prove me guilty Captain." Naina sounded firm and sure though she was the only one who could hear her heartbeats getting louder. She could not stand any allegation after this and she walked out of the room.

 

Alekh was left bemused with the sudden turn in the situation. He also failed to grasp whatever he witnessed. A reaction to that was quite obviously far from viable. All of them left the room one by one and returned to their quarters since it was already 2300 hours.

 

Half an hour later, someone knocked at Naina's door. She opened it but wasn't too surprised to see the visitor.

"Huda! I was expecting you."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Please come in."

She let him in and continued.

"After whatever happened today I knew you would want to talk to me."

"Actually yes. I am really surprised to see Captain Shekhawat's strong opinion about you."

"But you can't really blame him for that. That's the way situation right now is. To tell you the truth I am rather surprised to see your strong opinion about me."

"I told you that something tells me you are saying the truth."

"And you really want to follow your hunch?"

"Yes... At least until I find a reason not to."

 

They looked at each other. Their eyes showed immense appreciation for each other. But may be it wasn't just that much. May be it was more than just an admiration. But they let that thing go for a while to focus at main issue they had at that point of time.

 

"Naina I was thinking we should check the Ammunition Room one more time. May be we can find some clues about the culprit from there. What do you think?"

"It's worth a try and then as if we have many choices."

"Let's go then."

"Now?"

"Certainly now."

"Huda have you seen the time?"

"Yes Naina it's time to get going. It's time to start making all possible attempts to defend yourself. Let's go."

 

He gave her his hand. She looked at him for a while, looking a bit unsure but then she knew he was right. She had to protect herself from those allegations or she was in for some big trouble that would ruin her life and her career.

 

She slipped her hand into his and they left to look for evidences that she badly required.

They were checking every corner of the Ammunition Room minutely. They were looking for any evidence or any trace that the culprit might have left behind. They needed just one proof and it could be anything that was not supposed to be there.

 

They decided to look in the separate corners to save their time. But even after an hour they had found nothing. Suddenly something hit hard on Huda's head. A dreadful sensation of pain ran through him. An earsplitting scream filled the room and the corridors. His vision blurred and spurt of blood streamed out from the awful wound on the back of his head. The pain was unbearable and within a few seconds he collapsed.