ArHi FF - Aftershock: Chapter 9, Pg 26, 23 September - Page 13

Originally posted by: shijinareneesh

is jha behind this or someone bigger than him ploting..curious..

Curiosity is good :-)

Very interesting stroy read last 3 updates..


khushi is on mission to find and prove her parents were innocent. .

but wht Arnav left her after all things happen to her.????

The way Anjali hurt her during dinner is so painful ...


now this accident Arnav knows something or khushi is going to tell him about her tracking? ??


Eagerly looking forward

Originally posted by: madhu1210

Very interesting stroy read last 3 updates..

khushi is on mission to find and prove her parents were innocent. .

but wht Arnav left her after all things happen to her.????

The way Anjali hurt her during dinner is so painful ...

now this accident Arnav knows something or khushi is going to tell him about her tracking? ??

Eagerly looking forward

Thanks. She knows something was afoot and that her parents were framed. Arnav had his reasons to do what he did. They will figure out things soon...

Chapter 8:

"Thanks for coming in," Arnav said ushering Khushi inside a small office.

"Yeah, sure, no problem." Khushi brushed off the mild apology that laced in his thanks and his palm that pressed at the small of her back. It was the first time he had initiated any sort of physical contact including coming five feet within her personal space. The once tactile man who found several reasons just to press his side next to her now ensured he consciously stayed away from her. It both amused and infuriated her at the same time.

"This isn't the first time Raizada fertilizer has been hit. In the past the attacks on us have all been on a smaller scale: few gunny bags of in a warehouse in village where we grow wheat, broken equipment in testing lab in another village, one of our research facilities was broken into and some samples was stolen. Nothing that screams high profile or-"

"High volume target," Khushi finished, sliding to a chair in the small office. Apart from Nathan and Arnav, there were two others in the room who Khushi identified as people from the private security firm.

"Nothing they have done till now is enough to attract attention of media or even companies to take them seriously. Earlier we thought it was simple break in by local gangs, pranks paid by rival companies to cause mischief - nothing that indicated a complex methodology of attack or plan of execution." One of the women from security firm said. Looking at Khushi's blank look she added, "I am Emily, by the way." Khushi nodded in reply.

"Haven't you found anything yet?" Arnav asked throwing a water bottle and Khushi. "This has been going on for three years already Emily," he said lips thinning at the image of burnt section of warehouse visible through glass separation. The loss hadn't been catastrophic. As Emily said, all the incidents borderline on mischief. But it was the ease with which it was executed worried Arnav. Someone had walked into their part of the yard and announced how easy it was to get into shipping warehouse. The lack of damage was what bothered him the most. The opportunity was ripe and it could have been utilized for a far greater impact. Why wasn't that used?

"Not much," a burly man said, placing few photographs on the table. "Look at these photos," he said circling shadowed figure on all four them. The locations on the photographs were different but the hoodie was hard to miss.

"We told you already Shankar, we don't recognize anyone from the photos," Nathan said bitterly. At Khushi's blank look he continued. "The surveillance system go down just before these people make their move. In smaller storage places, there are few guards posted outside as there is no high guarantee of electricity and it became too expensive to run generator all the time. The farmers hire their own kin or people they trust to guard their storages."

"How come the CCTV was operational during these cases of breaking in? Were they looking to get caught?" Khushi asked pointing to photographs.

The burly man, Shankar, replied. "Because they already knew it wouldn't make much of a difference. The cameras were either old or didn't have the resolution to identify the perpetrator, and they also knew exactly how to navigate through all the blind spots to get to the target. I can show you some footage we have of these incidents. This guy," Shankar tapped his finger on one of the photo pointing to the man wearing a dark hoodie, "walked around the place as if he has been there several times before. He walked in, did his job and walked out. As these places don't have someone monitoring the camera feed during off hours, the security came to know about it only in the morning when the doors opened. The small fire didn't trigger the alarm because the alarm was already shut off. Whatever they have done till now have been well researched, organized and very well planned. I am still surprised they are doing such small scale stuff." Shankar shrugged helplessly.

"How much do you know about these...criminals?" Khushi asked, peering at the photos and trying to see what the security firm may have missed. It was the first time she was looking at evidence of what she has been hearing about and making a private case file about them. It was too risky for her to go and look into it personally by hiring security agency or even private detective. Some things, she had come to known to be left alone and dealt with as less paper trail as possible.

"These four photographs are the only evidence that they have left till now." Shankar said. "They are too grainy to be processed or even pull a decent physical profile of the perpetrator, so we have no idea if the person is same in all these photos or are these crimes even related at all."

The answering silence was stuffy in the room. "They are related." Emily said slowly. Shankar groaned next to her. "If not all but most of them are - especially the obscure ones."

"Come on Emily, it's too farfetched and too movie clich for someone to execute in real life." Shankar admonished her. By their interaction it was clear there was a struggle of dominance underfoot and neither party seem to back down from the thought of solving the crime. "Most farmers take digs at one another - jealousy, old rivalry or greed. It cannot be anything more than that."

"What is it?" Khushi asked pointedly ignoring Shankar and leaning forward towards Emily, keen to know more about the investigation.

Emily shuffled through the tablet and found the bunch of photographs she had saved in a separate folder. "See this."

Khushi snatched the tablet immediately ignoring Shankar's grumbling and stilled when her eyes registered the photo.

"This is taken from a local newspaper - City Beat' which has a circulation of less than five thousand. It's an evening daily that many don't read as it contains too many ads and very less news. The image you are seeing on the iPad appears in this newspaper the day after a company gets targeted. The size of the image is about one square inch and looks seemingly innocuous but what makes it a connection to the crimes is that sometimes the name of the company that is hit gets printed in very small letters underneath the image." Emily finished, scowling at Shankar.

"The thing is, it isn't consistent. Sometimes this image gets printed and sometimes it doesn't. It's just an odd coincidence that the image has been printed few times. But not every time a company was hit," Shankar argued.

"That we know of," Emily growled. "We should go to the police. Maybe there is already an ongoing investigation and they have put a tight lid on it. We should-"

"No police yet," Arnav said coming around and looking over Khushi's shoulder wondering her sudden silence.

"Why does someone want to print a leaf in an evening daily?" Nathan wondered openly.

"It isn't just a leaf," Khushi whispered as if she was talking to herself.

"It's a fern," Arnav said instead. She swung around in her chair and looked at him with wild eyes.

"That looks like a Barnsley fern, doesn't it?" She asked Arnav quietly.

The room had fallen silent with Arnav and Khushi's private conversation. The panic look on Khushi's face surprised everyone but Arnav who was sporting similar look on his face.

"What is it?" Emily prodded looking at Arnav and Khushi. "Do either of you know anything about this?"

"No," Arnav said, still looking at Khushi. Emily frowned when Khushi echoed Arnav. Arnav and Khushi were obviously hiding something but there was only so much Emily could pry.

Arnav pressed his palm on Khushi's shoulder and smiled inwardly when she leaned into his touch. Whatever they may be at the moment, there was a part of each other that had been exclusive to one another all those years ago. There were incidents from their past that would always haunt them and could either bond them or potentially severe their relationship permanently.

Arnav retreated his hand when she stood up. "Assess the loss and let me know?" She asked Nathan. Nathan, surprised by the suddenness of her request nodded without any word. He could see Arnav and Khushi were definitely hiding something but given their shared history, he couldn't bring himself to ask them what was wrong.

"I'll take you home," Arnav said not as an offer but with a final tone. His hand was on her back as he escorted her out, both opting to sort their thoughts in their mind than speak. Khushi didn't want to read much into Arnav's sudden concern but the image they saw few minutes ago had brought down both their defenses.

"Arnav-"

"Not here." Arnav said ushering her into his car. "My farmhouse." He said. His driver was smart enough not to question or show any sort of reaction to the order. He simply muttered a soft "yes sir" and put the vehicle in gear.

He turned to look at Khushi who was leaning her head on the window with her eyes closed. If what they were thinking was indeed true, then...then he didn't really know how the situation could be fixed or even faced. He placed his palm on the back of her palm and squeezed it, letting her know he was there. He wasn't prepared for her to turn her palm and lace their finger together. He squeezed it again as a means of accepting her move. They had many unresolved issues between them that needed to be addressed before they got into a whirlwind of scandal. The angst would have to come later, Arnav thought, running his thumb on the back of Khushi's palm, there was yet another part of their past that had come to them in most bizarre way. Of course it was going to hit Khushi more than him because of the past that was shared between them. All three of them.

*****

"It's magic!" The boy exclaimed in sheer happiness looking at the rudimentary computer spitting out a grainy crappy image. The girl laughed along echoing his happiness and absolutely unable to understand the reason for his happiness.

"I have no idea what I am looking at," she said, trying very hard to understand pages strewn on the table or the image on computer screen. The hefty monitor whirred in serenity as one teenager danced - all flailing long limbs and complete lack of facial hair. The girl watched him in delight as she scampered her brain to catch up with the mathematics that was on the paper.

"My program simulate fractals into shapes, objects from real world. Don't you see Kuttu?" He laughed, calling her the special name that was reserved to just them: him, their other best friend and her.

"I see what you have done but I don't understand the consequences?" She scratched her eyebrow, her signature way of emulating curiosity and lapping up information thrown at her.

He sighed and looked outside his window. The vast greenery surrounding them always calmed him, the wonder of nature never ceasing to surprise him. "Mathematics is beautiful, just like the sun flowers out there with its perfect geometry and color. Everything you see out there is mathematics in real life. The shape of grass, the way a leaf grows, shape of floret in a cauliflower - the symmetry, the arrangement...nature continually ensures it perfects the mathematics to make itself more...perfect. It's sad that people want to mess around natural order of things by creating hybrids and whatnot. The color of rose is red...what's the point in making them blue or black, huh?" He finished his rant with a semi philosophical question.

She was thoughtful for a whole minute and formulated a reply worthy of his question. Or so she thought. "Why do you separate humans for nature? We are as much part of nature as nature is part of us. Technology has only fast forwarded what took ages before human intervention. Nature has a way of nudging us in the right direction whenever a human intervention is encountered."

"That's one way to look at it." He answered without hesitation. "Intervention isn't always good, is it? Technology has a way of overpowering thousands of years of evolution and bring humanity to its knees. Remember Manhattan project?"

She swallowed the words that were itching to tumble out but held them back. He was happy with his achievement and she was here to support him. They didn't need to get into a debate about the extent technology was infiltrating their lives. Had the third part of the trio been present, the debate would have been more heated and it would fall on her to take a side and get a closure to the argument. Another day, it would start all over again.

"Are you coming tomorrow? To the harvest festival celebrations?" She asked instead. If he was surprised at her deflection, he didn't show. "He is coming back from his vacation today and will be here by tomorrow morning."

"He called you?" The boy asked, smile taking over his face.

She shook her head. "His dad called yesterday, I think? Amma told me at lunch. Lunch that you missed." She poked his chest with every punctuation.

He laughed, contentment radiating from him in waves.

"You are like an ocean, you know?" He said linking his arm with hers.

"Hmm?" She asked leading them away from the small house amidst the fields and towards main house that was few hundred meters away.

"Your energy ebbs and flows like gigantic waves in an ocean, the speed with which you deflect an argument and induce segues whenever you find yourself in a spot: between him and me actually. You are violence waiting to happen, contentment beneath the violence. You know?"

She stopped walking and looked at him. "I don't think I do. But for now, dinner is calling. Let's go." She said dragging him with her quick gait.

Their laughter rang in the empty fields, air around them humming in anticipation. Neither knew how much everything was going to change in just few months.

Came across this story recently...well written and interesting...looking forward to read more..

interesting update..

Very interesting.. It is so involving

gosh! This is a new angle! Eager about the mysterious past which is about to unravel.. M glad Arnav n Khushi are rational enough to be there for each other at such a clearly vulnerable situation... Who is this guy introduced in the flashback? I somehow dont think it was Arnav.. Oh well!! :)

came across the story recently... its amazing!!!