A budding writer with a bunch of ingenious rebels risk their lives to try and overthrow an oppressive government to earn back their liberty of expression. They need to unify and put aside their differences, interests and pasts, and race against time...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
NINA
The days had been hard for Nina. Alizeh hadn't called. She still wasn't over the disappearance of Aileana. Her brain refused to believe that she was dead, though there were a lot of shreds of evidence to the contrary. Aileana couldn't have escaped the fire. And if she had, she must be somewhere on the cloud. Ash's search party could do no good tracing her.
Things with Ash haven't been good either, lately. Though being a part of this entire End Game thing himself, he wasn't enthusiastic about letting Nina get involved in all of the dangerous business. Nina had outright said to him that she didn't like coddling and that love exists with mutual respect and giving each other space and letting them do things their way. Ash had argued that it was merely a concern for her out of love.
They had a row about babysitting her, following which she had returned to the cloud. Ash still called daily but they never talked about the work again, though Nina had tried to broach the subject many times.
The thoughts were churning in her head as she sat at her desk, moving the stylus over her notepad, giving finishing touches and adding little details to her new painting.
Nina almost fell out of her seat as Alizeh suddenly tumbled in with another guy in a sexy black mask. Then the wall opened wide like the gaping mouth of a huge monster and Lady A came in, her hands full of an assortment of gadgets. The others huddled in as a team and stared at each other and Nina in confusion.
"What happened?" Nina got up from her chair and ran to help them.
"We were attacked," Alizeh answered gravely.
Lady A put down her stuff on the nearest table and turned to Nina, "Actually we'd be grateful if you guys could shelter us for a while till we arrange for a new base in Cloud Two."
"Umm...Sure. I'll just call in Agent Cyanide," she turned around but Cynthia was standing at the door, her lips drawn into a thin line.
"Did they catch someone?"
"No," Lady A confirmed, "They killed one of us and we detonated the place on them."
"Well, you all are free to stay here. Make yourselves comfortable," Cynthia waved her hands. Her voice was resigned. No emotions, maybe a bit angry. Nina realized that relationships between these two factions were strained.
"She's always in a bad mood," Nina jumped at the whisper in her ears. Alizeh had quietly slipped towards her and now was leaning over her shoulders.
"Well, she is. Too much screen time gives her a constant headache," she felt a sudden need to defend her lady.
"Anyway, don't look now, but the guy to your right," Alizeh's voice was just a whiff of air. Nina watched him out of the corner of her eyes. A tall figure, dirty platinum hair and a muscular body, all clad in black leather.
"He's the one."
Nina turned back in surprise just in time to see Alizeh winking.
"Nina," she said out loud, "Meet Agent J, my new friend."
Agent J looked towards the girls and gave them gentlemanly bow. The two girls giggled, even in the tense situation.
"Friend haan? Mujhe sab paata hai. (I know everything). You almost clawed my eyes out to save him," Lady A said in a low voice coming towards them.
"I'm sorry for it. I panicked," Alizeh replied, hanging her head in shame.
"Love makes us do things, take risks. I know," Lady A gave a kind smile, patting Alizeh on the back. Nina glanced at the guy who was looking between the two of them with a half surprised and half-amused expression. Then suddenly in a flick of a second, he was at her side.
"Shit! Are you even human?" Nina whelped.
"Not really. But I love those half masks. These are real scratchy," he lifted the mask just a bit and scratched his clean shaved chin, just for emphasis.
"Agent A, you really got a weird one here," Nina commented. They all burst out laughing.
———————
Soon everything was settled in their place.
"A plan was circulating in my mind," Alizeh said to Nina, while they were alone. They had settled with two cups of tea, "The recent attack on our base seems to have jarred everyone. It is a sign that we have to move things faster now or else there is a huge chance that we would get exposed in one way or the other before End Game can even start."
"So what do you propose that we should do?"
"I'm going to call a meeting and discuss strategies. I'll be needing all of your bits of help.
"Ay Ay Captain," Nina answered, sipping her tea noisily.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
