RI#2: DoubleAgent-Part3/Page9 Dec5th'2013 - Page 6

When I first met Ayush, he seemed to be a typical teenager with a cute smile and mischievous eyes. He had offered me Gems when I was starving in the middle of my Covert Operation. I thought he was really sweet, and someone who should be avoided for my own good.

I wasn't wrong about the last part. Ayushman Kashyap was definitely someone I should have avoided while I had the chance. It wasn't until the end of the mission that I saw the life I lived for seventeen years disclosing in him. Like a mirror, I saw every aspect of my spy life reflecting off him. When he and his friends walked through the doors of my highly secured and secretive school, I had seen the Ayush I wished he was, but he turned out something far from what I thought he was.

He was a puzzle. Every time I think I have placed to pieces together perfectly, another piece floats comes down out of nowhere that forces me to tear the perfection apart. How will I figure this guy out? I thought he was supposed to be inside the walls of Ashvamedh Academy.

When someone tries to kidnap you, especially with the orthodox hand-over-mouth kidnapping, you are suppose to elbow his stomach as first action. I would have, if Ayush's whisper hadn't stopped me.

"Don't talk." He said and dragged me to the back of the car. By now, I was just replying on my directional senses, because my surroundings were still pitch black. I heard him shuffling around a little and then he pushed me inside a little cabinet. It didn't take me long to figure out that he had pushed me inside the car's boot. He followed me inside and pulled the door down behind him.

"Give me one reason I shouldn't be kicking you." I whispered, trying to glare at him in the darkness, but realizing there was no use.

"I am hot?" He suggested. I had a sudden urge to strangle him.

"Ayush!" I hissed.

"Keep quiet Princess." He whispered back and despite my raging violent thoughts, I let out a breath and kept quiet. There was a lot of shuffling outside. I felt the car move slightly and figured the driver was back inside the car. A few seconds later, we heard the driver talk.

"She is missing." He said. "I don't know. She was here but everything blacked out for sixty seconds and she was gone. I have alerted them, they will be here an minute to look for her." There was a pause. He let out a heavy sigh and answered whomever he was talking to, "I understand ma'm."

I thought it was my mother, but that thought didn't go any further because I felt Ayush move a little and my ribs hurt a little due to the fracture.

There are many things in teenage life that should be taken care of correctly, because if they are not, they can be troublesome. Ayush's arm was wrapped around my waist. We were in the most twisted position in this small place, but he seemed okay to be here. Unlike me who was trying hard to breath, not because there was lack of oxygen here, but because the hormones told me breathing may lead to either turn on or turn off.

And none of them would make me happy.

"Are you okay?" He whispered. Even in the dark I could feel him pull his eyebrows up in amusement. I didn't answer, and instead concentrated on what was going on outside. "You know, you have knack of walking into trouble."

"Thank you, I have noticed." I told him. "And in case you haven't, the most annoying kind drags me with them." Ayush chuckled.

"If I hadn't known better, I did think you are mad at me for not coming to your rescue." He said. I rolled my eyes.

"I am glad you know better for one." I replied. "And for another, I got to a school of spies. The last thing I deserve to be called is a damsel in distress."

The engine started then and we were away from the scenario of crime. The biggest mistakes that even the highly intelligent agents make is underestimate things. It is in human nature to take situations more gravely than necessary. The people the driver had called were probably patrolling the area, completely oblivious to the idea that I probably never left the car. Once again I realize how good of an agent Ayush will make.

"I thought you went back to Ashvamedh Institute." I said after a long silence. If we were going to go back to school, we will be there in about seven minutes.

"Academy." He corrected me. "I had an unofficial mission to carry out. School didn't sound exciting."

For normal students, going to a spy school would be the most exciting part of life. But for those who had grown in this classified world, it was a burden of duty. The life outside it what we crave, and the farthest we can go besides being terminated is on missions. I can't blame Ayush for choosing mission over books, but I would like to know how it involved me.

We sneaked out of the car a minute after the driver left after locking the car. Ayush slid his hand into mine and pulled me towards the P&E barn quickly. I noticed what he was wearing for the first time. It was ironic how normal he looked in that green collared t-shirt with unzipped hoodie over it and ripped jeans. As he closed the door behind him and turned on the light, I noticed his hair sticking up slightly due to the cramming inside the car's boot. Unconsciously my hand patted my hairs, combing it down with the fingers. I doubt my hair can look even the partly as attractive as his did.

"They are fine." He said, and walked towards the window. He moved the curtain slightly and peeked outside in a very covert way.

"You know," I said, ignoring his earlier comment. "The car was going to bring me here anyway."

"Really?" He asked. "I didn't know that."

I let out a frustrated breath and walked towards him. "Why are we here?" He crossed his arms and cocked his head, giving me his copyrighted I-Know-Something-You-Don't look.

"You ask a lot of questions." He told me.

"Because you always forget to answer me." I replied. He let a small, amused smile slip into his expressions as he leaned back on the wall. I threw my hands in the air and walked towards the boxing bag and threw an angry punch

"You are cuter when you are angry." He said and for a change, the warmth that spread across my face wasn't due to infatuated teenage hormones, but due to the classified rage that existed in me before Ayushman Kashyap ever stepped into my life. I turned around and before my mind could gain control, I swung my left fist at him. He was quick, and held my punch but too slow to catch my right that hit him across his jaw. His gasped as his face turned and he let out a pained breath.

"You do not get it do you?" I asked. "This is not funny Ayush. I can't just let you deal with me like you want. If you are going to involve me in your mission, you have to answer me. I am a trained spy. I do not let people drag me around. I hope you had the sense to know that I could have kicked you or punched you back there. You could have been in RAW's custody for leaving your school grounds and following an unofficial mission."

"But you didn't." He said. His jaw was slightly red, and I think he ripped his skin inside a little because I could see a drop of blood in the corner of his lip. "Why didn't you?"

"Shut up." I growled. "Stop being..."

I stopped when the door to P&E barn opened and my mother stepped in with a laptop in her hands. I looked from her and at Ayush. She didn't even acknowledge me as she looked across the floor and at the boy before me, specifically his jaw, and said, "I told you to not mess with her."

"I was testing." He shrugged as if my punch made no difference to him. (Which was insulting because even Gen agrees that my punches hurt.)

"Mamma!" I turned to her. She walked to the table where sign-in sheets and files on practices laid in perfect stacks. "What are you doing here?" My mother looked at me and then turned to look at Ayush again with her eyebrows raised.

"You still didn't tell her?" She asked.

"She didn't give me a chance." He said innocently and I had to remind myself that Ayushman Kashyap is probably capable of anything but innocence. Before I can say anything, he talked again. "Mr. Saxena was taken under custody."

I stared at him, my mouth agape.

"He was suspected for the attack in Mumbai." He told me. My mind flashbacked to the parking lot under Elite Hotel.

"Why?" I asked, though I was sure it was unneeded. I glanced at my mother who was rapidly typing something on her laptop.

"When your father..." Ayush paused, to see my expressions or to find a word, I couldn't tell. "...Disappeared, Mr. Saxena was suspected and taken under custody. Even though there was no proof, your father was assumed murdered and Mr. Saxena was charged for the crime by Interpol."

I let the words sink in. It was hard to swallow down the heavy lump in my throat. My eyes blurred and I walked over to my mother. She paused on her laptop but didn't look up. "Mamma." I called her.

"I am sorry." She said. "It was too dangerous, I couldn't tell you."

"Why did you bring me here." I choked out.

"To get the charges off Mr. Saxena." Ayush said.

"What?" I said. "Where is he right now?"

"He is still in custody. We have to prove that he didn't attack you." Ayush told me.

"So I am..." I turned to my mother.

"Kidnapped." Ayush said, and grinned at me like he just completed the first mission of his life.