We Were Restless Things

9. Best Served Cold

"If only Life could be a little more tender

And Art a little more robust" ~ Alan Rickman

𝄗𝄗𝄗𝄗♞𝄗𝄗𝄗𝄗

Sitting in the study, both were engrossed deep into their work. The file in Rabail's hand had every intel about the Sikanders. A to Z. Yet nothing caught her eyes. All reports were hardly out of the box- meeting party people, going out to the party office, servants going in and out for chores. She went over it five times and nothing was in her hands.

Placing the file on her table, Rabail pinched the space between her brows. The traffic in her mind stopped and suddenly her head was pounding.

"Anything caught your eyes?" Afra softly spoke out. They had been working non-stop for the last three days. Rabail even shifted her workload to Haveli to save up time and focus more. Stress was evident in Khanum's face. Dulled eyes speaking about sleepless nights, pale skin that looked haunting, and the array of coffees surrounding the room.

"Nada." letting out a sigh, Rabail started to put forward her finding. "Nothing eye-catching. Very normal. In fact, too normal. Either Bakht was stressed or we missed something."

"Hmm. How about we recheck the CCTV-s?" Afra offered. Earlier the day, they got hold of the CCTVs of the roads and the Sikander Haveli from Shehryaar Qureishi.

"Let's run down to IT." Rabail stretched as she stood up. Her joints were thankful as they crackled releasing from the numbness.

Walking out, they walked out into the illuminated hallway with the soft golden lightning. They strolled through the silence, enjoying the contrasting coolness of Aadhilabad's summer night. The moon was of a crescent shape today as it peaked to see the Earth dwellers.

"Oh, by the way, Iffy called." Remembering that idiotic cousin of her made her face scrawl.

"And you didn't pick it up." Afra rolled her eyes in the back of her head. God, at times her Aapi was the most annoyingly childish human on Earth. No arguments on that.

"Well, use bohot jaldi thi naa jaane ki? Use ab jaake mera khayal aaya? Wow, I am honored." (He was in a hurry, right? Now, he remembers?) Putting a hand on her chest, she blinked her eyes multiple times to express her gratitude.

Gratitude, meri ju-

"Aapi, you are being dramatic." Afra interjected her inner voice.

"Haw, Maham! Drama and me? Please, sweetie." She flipped her hair, only adding much more truth to the earlier statement. Afra simply let out a wave of chuckle seeing the slight pout on Rabail's lips.

As they reached closer to their destination, the doorman opened the door for them. Both had turned to their respective roles as they entered through the doors. Clicking sounds of the keyboard resonated throughout. The room had soft lighting to it for the ease of the employees' eyes. All around different lengths and widths of screens, printers, scanners, trackers, and advanced devices are placed.

"I want all the footage sent about Sikanders on the screens." Upon hearing the order, all started working on it. Within seconds every piece of data was in front of her. That was her team, fast-tracked and efficient. Results were given to her at all times. They have been at it for a while now and were going through every nook and cranny of the network to find out something.

The walls now had a shade of light blue as the dim room lit up with the screens on the wall showing the videos. Videos ranging from a month were in front of them and that was a lot of data being in the hands of a non-government person. Mentally she noted to thank Shehryaar in person. The man went against all odds and dug this out, even before taking charge of his office.