An Imperial Affliction

Chapter 23- Be strong, saith my heart

Be strong, saith my heart; I am a soldier; I have seen worse sights than this.

- Homer, Odeyssey

People say, there is light at the end of tunnel, dazzling sunlight after the dark of night. The proverb is just another way of saying hold on, don't give up, even in the midst of great struggle when the willpower is lessening carry on, keep hope. Everyone just failed to mention that before sunlight, the light after tunnel, the darkness increase tenfold. Evening is darker than twilight, night is darker than evening, mid night is darkest. And sometime, keep going on through this pitch black dark is not so easy, especially when one only knows light will be after this but has no idea how long it will take. One need something solid, visible, to keep his or her faith on.

Agent Rahane and ACP Mukherjee walked in silence in the darkness of night, after coming out of the basement of a hacker who just dropped another bomb on their head. His eyebrows were knotted together in frown, thinking how something that should be small, easy, non-threatening, suddenly turned into this big bad ugly monster. Beside him, the ACP had no idea what made the Agent this thoughtful, but even she was thinking just when her life and quest went this crazy. When she had returned to her, she had a distinct idea what her life will look like, work in day, personal work at night. Keep personal and professional life separate. She had thought only she and the Commissioner will be in this together. But now, she scoffed, the said Commissioner was keeping tabs on her about which she had no idea, she was in touch with a IB-RAW officer even though everything that is coming out from that partnership is not making a bit of sense to her, the ETF Director will be soon on her ass the moment she knows the former was in touch with the victim of the case the team handling in his pre-death days, and amidst all these whirlwind the original motive of her returning has lost its way. She has no idea what exactly she is going through, or why she is doing this. Her both worlds in colliding in such a way that she can only do a little to lessen the damage. Nothing is making any sense anymore but then, she had no other choice.

"It doesn't make any sense." Vir mumbled mostly to himself, but she heard anyway.

Tell her about it.

"Care to share?" She asked lightly, to which his head snapped toward her, like he had forgotten her presence. He thought for some moment in his mind before speaking.

"The Man your hacker found," He started, "his presence in this country is not good."

She frowned, "He said that Man is a shady person, but not anything specific can be found about him."

"That's because it's classified." He took a sharp breath, "That Man is a sort of middleman, an agent."

"Between what?"

"Between criminal gangs, shady business man, terrorist gang. You name it. He came under our radar after we found about a weapon deal between two terrorist group somewhere in south Asia." He didn't say more, and she didn't ask anything, sensing he won't and should not say more about a classified person.

"So his presence in India, Delhi means he is doing a match making between terrorist groups? Or working with some shady business man?" She asked, crossing arms over chest. He put both his hands in pocket as the frown deepened.

"This Man is a bad news. He never comes out unless it's big, and important enough. His presence means something big is going on, something related to National Security."

"His connection to Nasir? What about that?" She asked.

"If he is actually planning anything, then Nasir may have been a pawn. Nasir might have helped him in past." His eyes suddenly flashed as he connected another dot in mind, "That explains why he went rigid the moment you show that picture. If Nasir knew even a slightest bit about this Man's reason to be in this country, if he knew how dangerous he is, he would chose to keep quiet. This Man may have got wind of his abduction and sent that arsonist to finish him off. Police will stand aside as external affair negotiate to bring him in, while he will remain free." He finished, excited to see something useful, never realizing how tensed she became beside him.