Hey guys, here's an ultra long part for you! I hope you enjoy it and that it answers a few of the mysteries:
Chapter 13:
After they had climbed down from the first truck, Raj and Naina had changed their clothes, putting on their new disguises. When Naina had emerged from the trees, Raj had been shocked by her appearance. Dressed in a simple white sari, with her hair tied back in a plate she looked exactly like a young widow. She clutched a bundle of cloth in her hands, which presumably contained all of her worldly belongings. He had also changed his clothes in order to look more like a devotee coming to Banares. Tying a bandana over his hair, he managed to hide his scar.
"Alright, Sir." Naina had told him, "For the next month we're strangers. Remember that I'll contact you when we need to leave."
Impulsively he had reached out and hugged her for a short moment. He had been aching to touch her since he saw her for the first time in the van, and the brief contact restored his hope that things would work out.
"Be careful, Naina." He told her, letting go of her reluctantly.
"You too, Sir. But remember, if one of us is caught then the other shouldn't reveal themselves. No matter what happens, the other one should escape and continue the mission."
Raj just hoped that such a situation wouldn't arrive.
Now it was one month later and he had yet to hear from Naina.
He had been accepted to the ashram easily, there had been no questions of who he was or why he had arrived. He supposed they received so many devotees that one more wouldn't inspire any curiosity. From there he had settled into the daily routine, it was difficult at first, every day was marked by the fear that they would be caught and a certain amount of boredom. However, part of a soldier's job was to wait, and Raj forced himself to do so. He saw Naina twice in that month, once when he passed by her on the street and once when by coincidence they happened to be in the same temple for prayers. He was relieved that she looked fine, but avoided making any type of sign or eye contact to her, knowing what the risks were.
Raj waited. The month had finished and he knew that any day now, they would be moving on. The only contact that he had received from Naina so far had been a note passed on by a street urchin in the first week, which had simply told him to avoid cutting his hair or shaving his beard. It was difficult for him not to be the one planning the strategy but he trusted Naina, he knew that she had a plan. And so he waited.
**
Ali and Pooja's stays with each other's families had gone well, so well in fact that the two families had agreed to meet with each other properly to discuss their relationship. Ali and Pooja sat quietly as their families talked, until Ali's father finally suggested that they get them engaged before they both joined their new duties. It was then that Ali interrupted.
"I'm sorry Abu, but Pooja and I have made a decision that we would prefer to wait to get engaged."
The two sets of parents were shocked, they had thought that their children were desperate to get engaged, and then suddenly they were refusing to.
"But why, Ali? Why not get engaged now?"
Pooja was the one that answered the question, "We do want to get engaged, but the circumstances right now aren't good. One of our friends is missing, and we would prefer to wait until she comes back."
"And if she doesn't come back?" Pooja's mother asked, "Will you never get engaged?"
"Can we wait for a year?" Ali asked, "After that if Naina hasn't returned, then we'll do exactly as you ask."
Their parents were disappointed, but gave in to their children's wishes. Ali's Ammi prayed that their friend Naina would return sooner than that.
**
Finally the holidays were over and it was time for all of them to join their duties. Before doing so, they had met up one final time at Yudi's house, not knowing when they might be together again. Everybody felt Naina's absence but nobody wanted to mention it.
It had been over a month since Captain Rajveer's rescue, and nobody had heard from her since then. Huda had initially been angry at Alekh for leaving him in Delhi without any warning, but he eventually gave in when Alekh told him the reasons. Nobody had wanted to tell Huda anything because they knew he was the one that was most likely to be watched. Huda had to admit that it was probably a good thing he hadn't known what the plan was. Alekh hadn't asked Huda for his answer to those questions yet, and Huda was relieved, he still wasn't ready to give one, and Alekh probably realised that.
Pooja would be going on for further study in Delhi, as she was training to be a communications officer. She knew that as a girl she would never be sent to the front, and with all her experience with mobiles she had decided that communications would probably suit her.
Ali, Alekh and Yudi had all been assigned to duty in Ladakh. Yudi complained about how cold it would be, but all of them were proud to be trusted with such an important duty. They were also happy that at least they would be together for the next year or so. Huda was confused about his posting, the only thing he had been told was to report to headquarters in Delhi.
"At least you'll know somebody in Delhi," Ali had told Pooja, feeling relieved that she wouldn't be all alone there.
"Yes, but our Jat will probably be so busy charming Delhi girls that…" Pooja stopped mid sentence, suddenly realising what she had been saying. Officially, Huda's engagement to Naina had been called off. Naina was right, it was the most sensible thing to do until she managed to prove herself innocent. But everybody had noticed that Huda hadn't removed his ring yet.
"Don't worry, Ali." Huda told her, trying to make the situation less awkward. "I'll protect our Punjaben as if she was my little sister. No Delhi boys will get anywhere near her."
They all laughed at this, imagining their Jat friend scaring off any potential admirers of Pooja.
Neelu came down and sat down with them then, she was going to miss her brother and his friends, especially Alekh. She was waiting for the day that they would get married but Alekh wanted to prove himself to her family first, he was waiting until he managed to make a name for himself in the army. Until then they would just have to keep calling each other and writing letters, in hindi of course.
"Well guys," Neelu said, "Since this is the last night we'll be together for a long time, why don't we have a toast?"
"Great idea, Sis!" Yudi said, "I'll go and open some wine."
Alekh made a face at the mention of wine as if he would prefer something stronger, but Neelu shot him a warning glance as if to say 'don't you dare'.
Yudi soon came back with the wine and some glasses and poured everybody one. "Well guys, shall we all make a toast?"
"To KMA," was Huda's toast.
"To our friendship, may our connection with each other never be lost." Pooja said,
"To India" Ali said,
"To victory!" Yudi exclaimed.
"To Captain Rajveer." Alekh finally said, and a silence fell over them. Then Pooja raised her glass and the rest followed.
The next morning everybody left early for their various destinations. Yudi, Ali and Alekh had decided to drive to Ladakh together, while Pooja and Huda would be taking a bus to Delhi. Huda had wanted to take his motorcycle but had realised that then it would be impossible to bring any luggage, so one of his cousins would be bringing it to Delhi in the next week.
Pooja and Ali said goodbye privately, as did Alekh and Neelu and then all of the friends said farewell one last time, hugging each other. Nobody knew what would happen in the future, anything was possible, especially with three of them posted to an area near the border.
"Guys, we should make a vow right now." Yudi said, he was always the most dramatic of all of them.
"Arre, Nautanki." Alekh said, "Bole to, what type of vow?"
"That we'll always stay friends and always support each other, no matter what happens."
All of them agreed that this was a good vow to make.
Then Yudi added the next part, "That we'll always fight for the truth, no matter what the cost to ourselves is. Just like Naina and Captain Rajveer are doing right now."
This was a more serious vow, and all of them considered it carefully before they said yes. They all knew exactly how dangerous the path of truth could be.
Finally it was time to go, they all got into Yudi's car, waving goodbye to Neelu as they left. Then it was time to bid goodbye to Huda and Pooja when they dropped them to the bus station just in time for the bus. Pooja hugged Ali one last time and kissed him on the cheek, leaving him blushing, then Pooja and Huda climbed out, and waved until their friends had driven out of sight.
Once they reached Delhi, Huda made sure to drop Pooja to the female officer's quarters, where she would be staying before he left for his own. The two buildings were only a couple of streets away from each other so it would easy to meet up, and they agreed that they would get dinner together the next night so they could chat about their new duties.
Finally the next day dawned and Huda made his way to headquarters, arriving a few minutes before 9am and taking the elevator up to the floor he had been told to go to. Giving his name to the person at the reception desk he sat down to wait, observing his surroundings. At five past nine his name was finally called, and he went into the office of Colonel Bakshi.
Colonel Bakshi was an older man of about fifty with greying hair and an impressive moustache. "Well Lieutenant Amardeep Huda, welcome to Delhi." He told him.
"Thank you, Sir." Huda replied, saluting him.
"At ease, take a seat." The Colonel replied, and Huda sat down in front of the desk. "You must be wondering why you've been assigned to Delhi so early in your career rather than out in the field."
"Well yes Sir, it had crossed my mind."
"Well you've come to us highly recommended, Lieutenant Huda. Your teachers at KMA have very high opinions of you."
"Thank you, Sir."
"Therefore you've been assigned to a special duty here in Delhi, I would like to introduce you to your immediate superior officer," there was a knock at the door and Colonel Bakshi smiled, "That must him now. Come in!" he called out.
Huda turned around to see who it was and couldn't quite believe his eyes. There in front of him stood Captain Abhimanyu Rai Chauhan.
"I believe you already know each other from KMA so no introductions are needed." Colonel Bakshi continued. "Lieutenant Huda, you're being assigned to the search for Captain Rajveer and Naina Singh Ahluwalia. I hope that you will be able to carry out your duty impartially."
Huda was shocked, he had never expected this to happen. "But Sir, don't you think that…"
"Lieutenant Huda, I realise that you were engaged to Miss Naina Singh, but now that the engagement has been called off, I don't think you should have any problem joining in the search. In fact you should be very useful as you know both of the fugitives quite well."
Huda felt his world falling down around him. This was the worst possible first duty that he could ever have. He remembered his vow the day before that he would fight for the truth. If Naina and Captain Rajveer were fighting for the truth, then that meant he should support them, he should make sure that they weren't caught. But could he sabotage the first mission he had ever been assigned to?
"Yes, Sir." Huda replied to Colonel Bakshi, "I will carry out my duty honestly." But even as he said it, he had no idea whether he would really be able to or not. Could he really betray Naina? Could he really try to find the two of them when the outcome of that could be a death sentence?
"Captain Abhimanyu, why don't you show Lieutenant Huda to his desk and introduce him to his new partner?"
Huda left the room with Abhimanyu, still considering what he could do to get himself out of this mess. Abhimanyu led him to an empty desk which was obviously intended for Huda, then called out to the girl sitting at the desk opposite.
"Lieutenant Kapoor, would you come here please?"
She got up and walked over, saluting Captain Abhimanyu.
"Lieutenant Amardeep Huda, this is your new partner, Lieutenant Priya Kapoor. I hope that you two will work well together. Now I'll leave you two to get acquainted." And Abhimanyu walked off in the direction of his own desk.
Priya held out her hand, and Huda shook it. She was pretty in a very understated way, and she seemed to be the same age as Huda or younger.
"Sorry for asking this," Huda said apologetically, "But shouldn't they have partnered me with somebody more senior?"
"It's no problem," Priya replied, "Actually I'm also surprised that they decided to assign you as my partner. I passed out a year ago as the best cadet in my batch and have been working at headquarters on this task force since then."
"This task force?" Huda said, confused. "But Nai… Miss Ahluwalia and Captain Rajveer have only been missing for a bit more than a month now."
"Well the task force only started looking for them recently," she told him, "Before that, our job was to find the red box. I believe that you're already familiar with that case."
The red box… All of a sudden everything seemed to make sense, Naina's anger at Abhimanyu… Her accusations about his intentions…
"Then Abhimanyu Sir…" he left the sentence as a question.
"He was assigned to KMA to try to get the box back for us. He was successful, but nobody had predicted that Captain Rajveer would steal it before it could be transferred here, and then hide it somewhere."
Huda's head began to spin… everything had been a set up. Abhimanyu had won Naina's trust only to exploit it in order to complete his mission, pretending that he wanted to prove his friend's innocence. Huda wondered whether Abhimanyu was the one Captain Rajveer had been talking about the night that he came to see Naina at KMA. It was such a huge betrayal of trust, no wonder Naina hadn't wanted to tell anybody what her plan was.
"Well for today you can settle in," Priya told him, "Tomorrow we'll have a meeting to bring you up to speed on the case's progress."
**
That night as promised Huda met Pooja for dinner, taking her to a kebab restaurant in old Delhi. He let Pooja tell him about her training first, knowing that it would take a long time to fill her in on everything he had found out that day. Pooja had enjoyed herself and thought the training was going to be easy, then finally she said something that got Huda's attention.
"I've got a great room mate too, you might meet her soon because she also works at headquarters. Her name is Priya Kapoor."
Suddenly it all began to make sense to Huda, this was too big of a coincidence to be anything other than a set up. He had been assigned a young, beautiful girl as his partner. Abhimanyu knew about his weakness for girls. Huda had no other option than to believe that his new partner had a mission of her own that she hadn't informed him about.
She had obviously been assigned to spy on him and Pooja.
**
Like it? Still confused about some of the mysteries? Please send me a comment! Don't worry, next chapter, Raj will be able to stop singing those songs!
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