It took the bunch of them upending the room for five more minutes before Soumya accidentally found whatever they'd been looking for, when she tripped over the edge of the coffee table and landed on the floor.
"Sumo! Dekh ke nahin chal sakti ho kya? Tumhein chot lagi?"
But Soumya's attention was somewhere else entirely and she completely missed Rudra's momentary anger and overarching concern.
"Wo kya hai? Guys... bed ke neeche kuch hai. It looks like a big makeup case"
Before anyone else could react, Rudra was on the floor, crawling under the bed to retrieve the box. Row upon row of tiny bottles, all labeled and lined up, with some accessories like latex gloves, a dropper and a mixing spatula met their eyes. This was definitely a chemist's wet dream or the arsenal of someone really intent on causing some chemical chaos.
"Ye Svetlana to har doosra second aur khatarnaak hoti jaa rahi hai. She has to be dealt with as soon as possible"
"Haan... par humein ab us ghadiyaal se peecha chudaane ke liye kuch to mila. Aap jaante hain ki in sab mein se kuch humare kaam aa sakta hai ki nahin?"
The lot of them was peering into the box, trying to read the labels on the various vials and coming up bewildered.
"Ek minute... mujhe dekhne do. Shaayad main kuch help kar sakti hoon... maine chemistry ke courses liye hain"
Soumya pulled the entire case towards her and started to rapidly go through the vials, reading the labels and just putting most vials back in their places. When she was done a minute later, she had three vials in her hand.
"Bade bhaiyya, ye teen chemicals humara kaam kar sakte hain. Ye black wala bottle Chloroform hai... Kaali Thakur ke aadmiyon ko behosh kar sakta hai. Aur ye baaki donon zeher hain. In donon ko milaakar agar hum us alligator ko khila sakte hain to shaayad kuch ho sakta hai"
It was quite clear that Shivaay wasn't convinced of the effectiveness of their plan but they were flying by the seat of their pants at the moment and something was better than going in with nothing at all. Nodding as if to convince himself more than the others, Shivaay lead them out of Svetlana's room.
"Bhaiyya, main aur Sumo kitchen mein jaake kuch jugaad karte hain us Jango ko ye zeher khilaane ke liye, aap log jaake chopper ready karvaao... humare paas zyaada waqt nahin hai. Aur Khanna ko do ya teen gaadiyan lekar us address pe pohonch jaane ke liye bhi keh dijiye. Hum donon aapko aake helipad pe milenge"
Rudra suddenly sounded older, stronger and more responsible. It was a younger brother Shivaay recognized and was thankful he rarely saw because this version of Rudra Singh Oberoi only came out when one of their own was in trouble. This was a brother Shivaay knew he could count on... a Rudra he knew would make the right decisions no matter how tough, when the time came for it.
As they all trooped down the corridor to the stairs, Shivaay nodded at Rudra's plan and continued...
"Sounds good Rudra... Commissioner uncle ko phone karke unko situation ke baare mein alert kar do. I've already spoken to him about Kaali Thakur before... He'll know what you're talking about. I've asked Khanna to send the address to you too, so pass it on to uncle when you speak to him"
"Samjho ho gaya Shivaay... I'll take care of it."
They split up at the top of the staircase with Anika, Shivaay and Gauri going up to the helipad on the terrace and Rudra and Soumya jogging down to the kitchens.
Five minutes later, the chopper was warmed up and ready to go, with Shivaay, Anika and Gauri already strapped in when Rudra and Soumya ran up holding a large icebox between them. Once they too were strapped in securely, the pilot wasted no time in taking off.
Shivaay was busy trying to wrap his mind around the conversation he'd had with Gauri just minutes before, on the balcony. The things she'd suggested as part of her plan he just couldn't accept... but if it came down to the wire, there was a possibility that he might not have a choice. If it was a toss-up between the lives of his family - Om, Badi mom and Bua Maa against that of Gauri Kumari Sharma, a girl he barely knew, Shivaay was ashamed to say he wouldn't be against the plan that Gauri had explained to him out on the balcony. But it had made him rethink all his assumptions about her.
Anika meanwhile was trying to feel out Gauri and her mental state. She was worried about the girl because her instincts were yelling at her that Gauri was in a state where she was ready to just give up anything and everything to end this monster's hold on her family. Anika's intuition told her that Gauri clearly didn't hold any malicious intent toward Om or his family.
Gauri on the other hand, spent the entire trip preparing for the end of life as she knew it. She had the plan clear in her mind... she'd brought this on all of them whether she liked to admit it or not. Kaali Thakur wanted her and wouldn't stop till he got her. So the solution was to give him what he wanted. If his getting her meant the lives of an entire family... the lives of her entire family was spared, it was a viable if not good, tradeoff. She would at least be able to get out of the lives of the Oberois with a clear conscience.
Rudra had trusted Soumya to take care of the poisoned meat as he needed to make a lot of calls to various people. The phone calls all went on with varying degrees of success, the main take away from that being Rudra was able to convince the police commissioner of the issue's seriousness and to look into the matter as soon as possible.
Soumya was a tiny bit in awe of this Rudra... this was the first time she was seeing her crybaby Oberoi transform into his grownup avatar and it was frankly a little intimidating. She could see the Oberoi genes clearly now... Rudra Singh Oberoi had the tadi of his oldest brother and the confident assuredness of his other sibling. Once this drama was all over and done with, Soumya would need to really think about this Rudra... because the one thing that was missing from their relationship was respect. Both of them liked each other but had not even a shred of respect for one another. Having Rudy respect her was something he would need to work on... but getting herself to respect him might turn out to be easier than she'd thought earlier if this facet of him existed after all.
Before any of them could really finish their trains of thought, they were hovering above a large grassy clearing, ready to land a few houses away from where Kaali Thakur was reportedly holding everyone captive.
Quickly, the lot of them silently made their way to the mansion at the end of the street, where the GPS locator told them the cars from the Oberoi garage were parked. Sneaking into the garage was no issue, as the two guards that had been stationed there were already unconscious.
"Iska matlab, humari family mein se koi shaayad abhi tak pakda nahin gaya hai... Let's go... sab log careful raho, we don't need any heroes today. Keep your headsets on and don't take any other calls until we're done here. Okay?"
All of them nodded their assent at Shivaay, who led them up the stairs to the house proper. On the way, Anika brought out a couple of white handkerchiefs and as per their hastily formed plan, soaked them in the chloroform and kept one ready, handing the other to Gauri. As soon as Shivaay spotted another couple of guards around the corner, he signaled Soumya, who nodded resolutely, took a deep breath and made to move forward when she felt her fingers being squeezed comfortingly by a very familiar hand. Looking to the side, she smiled a wobbly smile at her man, feeling a lot more confident when he squeezed her fingers once more and grinned cheekily at her. The two shared a look, their eyes speaking far more in those two seconds than what their words had communicated in the last two weeks.
Soumya walked out into the corridor as if she was lost, patting her hair down to hide the tiny Bluetooth headset as she did so.
"Are... suniye to... can you guys help me?"
Arjun
