Mode-1, Mode-2!
Chapter-7:
Why do they call it rush hour when nothing moves?
"Don't you get him?"
Arjun asked.
I thought we were exposed.
He went on, "He is talking with a muffled cloth, maybe a kerchief!"
My mouth went dry. I looked at Ayesha.
She motioned me to let it go, for she was having her mobile on and Chottu was hearing his words.
When we next heard from the caller, the muffled cloth had doubled, maybe he was chewing in his sleeve this time, I thought.
"Thanks for giving me the chance to plant the bomb in your office!"
He started talking directly to us.
"You have exactly twenty minutes from this moment. If you find it before exploding, we can talk later!"
He cut the call.
'Thank God!'
I silently sighed.
"No, sir! It was too short to trace!"
I said before he asked.
"What's he, a psycho? Without telling anything, planting a bomb-"
He stopped short and spoke urgently.
"Guys! We've to move!"
He started for the entrance.
In the car he said, "The plumbers! They must be involving in this! I call Sakshi!"
Ayesha looked Chottu and me, questioningly.
"The one, working in our office from yesterday," I said hastily.
'God, he had noticed her absence but asked nothing about it, still. If this amnesia had come to me, I'd be more satisfied than at anything else,' I was wailing silently, for finding a crime was easy for us, but while setting one and finding it ourselves later was not easy while Arjun was with us, with those eagle eyes grilling everything around him..I could not understand how the criminals were doing it without any fear...
Back to the scene-
He took his mobile and dialed, but could not reach her, since Ayesha had already dialed her number and got her on the phone.
Ayesha started talking, "Sakshi, Where are the plumbers?"
"What? What plumbers? What happened there?"- Sakshi asked.
"I see, then we guessed it right!"
"I'm ready here!"- Sakshi said.
"We are on our way, there is a bomb! Tell the security to be alerted, tell the security-"
Once made her point clear, she said to Arjun ," Sir, the plumbers has disappeared from there! Can we tell the security to search the place?"
.~.
We had only ten minutes before the detonation.
The security said, the plumbers went to the parking lot before went out.
So our destination was the parking lot, I gathered.
But Arjun insisted to search upstairs where they worked.
I looked at Chottu who seemed tired of the phone call.
We hastily parted into two groups and Arjun went upstairs with his group.
Ayesha who got the condition of Chottu, nodded at him knowingly and thought to follow Arjun. But when she took a step forward, Chottu ran behind Arjun...
Chottu nodded numbly at her in response, but started running behind Arjun and thought, 'Memo to self: Don't do anything against him, even if it was for him. Stop even thinking about it, before you get a heart attack...'
Sakshi saw this all and thought we would expose ourselves sooner or later, if Arjun was not in the mood of finding out himself...
I thought soon someone in the team was going to get mad and I suspected- that too, before the end of the day...
Chottu ran fast and now he was running in the same line with Arjun. Soon the fast moving contestant was going to beat the...
Ayesha signaled Sakshi to show where it was.
She showed it behind a lamp post, on the floor.
I talked into the mouth piece, "Sir! We've found it! It's here!"
He came running toward us as the remaining bomb squad approached the bomb.
The man checked the box with his metal detector. It did not beep.
We were confused and I looked everybody except Arjun.
Once opened the box, Arjun started laughing for the first time, ever since we announced dramatically about the bomb.
"Sir!!.."
He turned to me and said, "I don't know which idiot planted it here!"
"Why, isn't it a bomb?"
I asked and eyed Sakshi.
"It's a bomb, after all!"
He moved away as I came forward and everybody peered out with me.
'Oh, God!'
The bomb was there all right and a red wire was jutting out from inside, but was not connected. The display was dead like stone.
Someone said, "Sir, the cutter!"
I turned and saw a panting theater artist in bomb squad uniform extending a cutter to another fellow as rehearsed, dutifully.
.~.
We settled in the conference room.
Now we had to cover the unexpected, odd questions that would come from Arjun, without getting a mere chance to mourn, for our plan, which ended in smoke unreasonably.
"What's the source Ayesha?"
He started, digging.
"I think, we should wait until he calls again. After all he has said we'd hear from him, if we found the bomb before the given time!"
She started covering.
"Do you still believe that he has the guts to make another call?"
"I go with you sir! I don't think he has!"
This time Chottu volunteered.
Arjun's mobile buzzed.
One moment we relaxed, but the next-
'Who's it?'
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How was it gals? Do tell me!!
Cricket
Kumkum Bhagya
38