no man's land || kgf (slow updates)

twelve

2018
BENGALURU

"Deekshit? Wait what? This is getting so confusing I need a moment." Deepa said as she sipped on her tea and closed her eyes. 

Divya gave a nod of confirmation and asked, "I can come back tomorrow if you want. I understand that this takes time to sink in and- " 

"No!" Deepa said loudly and for a second Divya saw the woman she'd seen on television and held her breath. 

"You can't stop here. You need to finish it."

1978
BANGALORE
Five hours after Meghna's death

Knock. 

Knock. 

The fireplace crackled with dying embers and smoke and whiskey had infiltrated the air in the room. Andrews lifted his hand up and signaled the body guard to open the door. The door opened and someone stepped in. 

"Meghna is dead." He announced from behind. 

Andrews and Kamal, who was also there in the room, went still. 

"Why?" Andrews broke the silence with a clink of the ice in his glass. 

"Right after the meeting here, Meghna accompanied Rocky to his motel." 

"Why did she go there?" Andrews asked, a hint of suspicion and confusion in his tone. 

"I had the exact same doubt, so I climbed up through the window and saw her add some sort of powder into his whiskey glass."

 "She was trying to kill him." Andrews concluded. Deekshit nodded though no one could see him. 

"So I knocked her out and killed her." 

"You? You knocked her out? And killed her too?" Kamal asked with a sarcastic tone. 

Andrews laughed. "Tell me the truth Deekshit." 

Deekshit went red in embarrassment. Not knowing where to display his anger, He pulled at the reporter's badge in his hand and bit his teeth while he glared at Kamal. Thank god the lights were dim. 

"I have a gang of rowdies from Nalgonda in Andhra who'll do anything if they're paid properly. I handed her over to them." He admitted. 

"I trust they'll do their job well?" Andrews asked. 

"Yes, they will." 

"The money? How much do you need?" Kamal asked. 

Deekshit thought about it, he'd already paid them with the money he received from them. But who could say no to more money? 

"Two lakhs." He quoted. 

"Kamal hand over the money to him." Andrews ordered and Kamal nodded and walked out of the room, crossing Deekshit with a teasing smile. The latter just glared at him. 

"And what about Rocky? Does he know anything?" Andrews asked when the door shut with a soft click. 

"I wrote a note and left it there." He said, proud of himself for covering up. 

"What did the note say?" 

"That this was getting to burdening for her and that KGF is a place she's heard a lot about and that she didn't want to go in there and all that." He said casually waving his hand. 

The door opened again and Kamal walked in. 

"For the first time, you've done a good job." Andrews said and Deekshit smiled triumphantly and gave Kamal a haughty look as Kamal handed him the money.

"Rocky cannot know that Meghna is dead." Andrews started with a chilling voice. "Or else we'll have to explain why she died, who she is and everything to him. And right now, after I saw him volunteer to go into KGF, I feel like it's best we keep certain information from him. From this second on, we have to be very careful when dealing with Rocky. He's a very dangerous deal." 

The two listening nodded and the Deekshit walked out. 

How easy were they to fool. 

Not only did he spin a huge and elaborate yarn but he also got paid for it. 

Everything he said in there except for Meghna dying was one larger than life, intricate lie. 

But he knows Andrews, so he knows that Andrews wouldn't bother checking facts. 

He'd probably go and tell Rocky that she quit and leave it at that. And as long as he gets proper material evidence that she was in fact dead he wasn't going to dig around and find the facts. 

He was in a win-win situation. 

Working directly for the higher ups promised him control over KGF and working under Andrews gave him extra money. 

Where was he losing?

1978
ANDHRA PRADESH
one week after Meghna's death

"Sir?" Sub inspector Ramaiah peeped through the wooden door, asking for permission to enter. Inspector Narasimha wagged two fingers, beckoning him to enter, not looking up from the files he was going through. 

Sub Inspector Ramaiah walked in and saluted. 

"What is it Ramaiah? Anything important?" Inspector Narasimha asked as he continued to shuffle through the papers.

 "Sir, it's regarding the unidentified body we found on the outskirts." Sub inspector Ramaiah said as he wiped his brow with a handkerchief. 

"Is it going to take long?" 

"Sir, I think it's best the case is handed over to the CBI." Inspector Narasimha froze. 

"I am not handing over my case to that man." He said with spite and then proceeded with a tone of ridiculousness, "and it's just an unidentified body, get it over with. Close the case. It doesn't need the CBI to intervene." 

Sub inspector Ramaiah breathed out and opened the file he had in his hands. "Sir, you might want to take a look at this before jumping into conclusions." 

Inspector Narasimha eyed the open file before taking it into his hands. 

He flipped through the first page which had the post mortem report attached to it and then stopped at the second page which had a picture of two tattoos. 

Two tattoos which were very much similar and were tattooed in the same place. 

The ankle. 

He examined it closely. 

It was a string of numbers which were in a circular formation with some sort of design in the middle. The design and the numbers were unclear in both the pictures. 

"This second one, where is it from?" Inspector Narasimha asked. 

"A case which the CBI is handling. The details are kept very confidential but I managed to get this one picture from one of my sources." Inspector Narasimha considered it for a moment. 

So she just wasn't an unidentified corpse. 

She had an identity. 

A story. 

And if the only way it could come out was the CBI then he had no choice but to hand it over. 

Again. 

This was almost the seventh case this year which he's handed over to the CBI but all the other times, it was involuntary and with spite. 

But this time, he was handing it over himself. 

He had to.

author's note
guys don't make fun of deekshit's name y'all
he's my favourite kannada actor 😥
also,
i'm sick
and though i have the next chapter written i dont think i can post it right now.
got to leave you hanging
am i right?
i'm just going to jab we met and chill
love you all <3