AvNeil: Chase Against Time

Chapter Thirty Two

"Snooping around doesn't suit you well for the position you hold," the voice boomed over him through the speakers and the door flew wide open. Like a deer caught in the headlight, his eyes widened yet he managed a goofy smile. 

Pushing the door farther, he stepped in to the room. He found the owner of the voice, Aman, seated at the chair in front of the huge screens. This was the CCTV control room, he noted. He quickly spared a glance to find no one else in the room.

"Stop snooping around and leave, NOW," Aman spoke clearly annoyed by him. He was about to retort when he heard another voice from the door.

"Aman, I want you to be on high alert and please make sure that the cops," her words came to an abrupt halt, probably as she felt the presence of a third person in the room. The shift in her expressions were clearly visible as she snapped, "What the hell are you doing here, Officer?"

"Snooping around," Aman stated, his eyes still glued to the screen.

"I was not," he spoke defensively.

"What is your problem?" She questioned clearly annoyed by the interference in her work. "Why can't you just mind your own business?"

"Firstly, I was looking for you and I landed up here. Secondly, this is my business," he lashed out. "Anyways, now that I am aware of this, I will have some officers from my team here as well," he fished out his cell phone already tapping onto the screen as he informed.

"No way," he paused as she growled, "I am not going to have a cop enter this territory," he raised his brows at her. He had already entered the forbidden territory. She shook her head disbelievingly and continued, "You have already scattered a huge bunch of useless police officers across the venue. I am not entertaining anyone from your team, not here," she stated firmly.

'This is going to be tough,' he thought. And it indeed was. Ananya as usual had given him a tough time to agree to allow a cop supervise the CCTV room along with Aman. Of course, she agreed on her own terms and conditions. At least, he could get her to agree.

Minutes later, DD walked into the room and went straight towards Neil. Without wasting much time, Neil briefed him about the task allotted to him. Expectations from him were crystal clear. As put forward by Ananya, Neil could only have one cop to monitor the surveillance cameras, while Aman was the in charge there. The only person Neil could put his bets on, in such a scenario, was DD.  

"Aman," Ali called out as he entered the CCTV room with Zeenat in tow. His words sank in his throat as he witnessed the cops involved in a discussion right besides Aman. Zeenat, on the other hand, fumed, "What the hell?" Her reaction was no different from Ananya's. She pinned her eyes accusingly at ACP. 'When would he ever leave them alone and not poke his nose in their business', she huffed at the thought.

The two cops, however, did not bother to answer them. Ali and Zeenat shifted their focus to the other two members of their team - Aman and Ananya. Zeroing her eyes at Ananya, Zeenat found her unusually calm. She could easily figure out that her best friend had given in to ACP's arrangements. Though she knew that Ananya would have strong reasons to have agreed, she didn't like the constant interference of the cops in their work. It never worked that way.

'Hope that we get through this as always, strong and together,' Zeenat wished.

All this while, Ananya kept her steely eyes trained on the cops. She couldn't afford to loose her calm and drain her energy on unworthy things and situations, when she knew that the storm was just around the corner. They all were required to be on high alert, and it was required from her the most. Letting out an exasperated breath, she turned to Aman. With hopes that he would be able to decode any situation they landed themselves into; and work for a solution, she reminded, "Keep your eyes open." 'And don't let me down,' her thought clearly conveyed to him through her eyes.

He blinked in response to her. One of his major goals and motivation at work had been the sight of his sister's eyes that held pride at his accomplishments. She wasn't any different; she too felt the push towards achieving goals to witness the satisfactory smiles on the face of her near and dear ones.

With assurance from her brother, she felt a tad bit relieved. "I will leave to check the arrangements one last time before the event starts," she announced before sparing a glance at her wrist watch. "We barely got any time, get ready guys!" she tipped her head at her team mates with a knowing look.

With that she walked out of the room. No longer could she bear the questioning eyes of the Officer. His eyes narrated the amount of questions that ran through his head and were on the verge of popping out any moment. She, on the other hand, was not willing to be assaulted with another interrogation session. Damn, didn't she have enough of them already? Like always, she didn't want to be answer him. 

*

Of course, I need to apologize. And I genuinely, with all sincerity, apologize for having kept you all hanging for updates for almost like forever. I am sorry, I am shitty with schedules and when there's a lot at the work front, it's practically quite difficult to put in my best into writing. I just hope, as readers you will consider the personal and professional lives that we have got and understand my situation. 

Apart from that, I will "try" to work on my schedule and not have such long break in between updates. Hopefully. I should be able to get there. Sooner or later. 

Anyways, this chapter is short. But I couldn't just put the next scene into this one. So that's there for the next chapter. Before that we will have the update wherein the characters would answer your questions. I have a few questions already mentioned to me. So, I will get to that. If there are more. You can leave them here. Don't know what I am talking about, refer to the chapter titled as "Author's Note".

Thanks for all your love and support. Whether you wish to continue to read this or decide to drop. :)