Like you were never gone

Chapter 4

The next day, Pathan found himself sitting in front of his boss at the HQ for a debrief, that felt more like a court marshal.

"We've been after Victor for months Pathan MONTHS!" Col. Batra threw a file in front of him.

"You either catch the b*stard in next ten days or you're suspended!" And he stormed out of the room.

Pathan didn't care about the suspension, he was already putting together a plan to catch Victor Sams or even kill him if the situation calls for it. No one gets away by hurting one of his own.

-----

Later that same afternoon, he was attending Preet's funeral. None of her grieving family and friends knew anything about her alternate life. They were told it was a road accident. It was unfair, Preet was sweet, she was innocent. Hell he didn't even remember when was the last time he was like that. That's why he liked Meera. That's what he saw in her. The innocence, the life before and beyond all of this. And he wanted to have it all for himself.

Towards the end of the service, Pathan received a call from an unknown number.

"Hello?"

"Is this Mr. Pathan?"

"..."

"Yes. Who is this?" Very few civilians (exactly one) had this number or knew this name.

"I'm calling from the mailing service, Ms. Preet rents a post office box here and she has sent you a piece of mail from Sudan and had asked us to contact you when it arrived. It came this morning."

"Thank you." Pathan looked back at the pyre, Preet was trying to give him information from even behind the grave.

-----

Pathan went to the mailing service office to collect the package. It was nothing more than a post card, with no message. Just addressed to him. Pathan examined the card closely. He found a little bump in the stamp and gently pulled it off the card. Hidden behind was a micro chip. He handed that chip to one of his friends in the forensic department to decrypt and asked him to keep quiet about it.

It was amazing how the organisation worked when they were on a manhunt. Pathan was called back within hours to have a look at the contents of the hard drives they had confiscated earlier. They had found encrypted emails from Victor Sams. It said that Victor Sams would be coming to India in next two days. The purpose of his visit had something to do with the "Rabbit's foot" and millions and millions of dollars.

"What's a Rabbit's foot?" Pathan directed his attention to the forensic expert.

"Um.. I don't know." The forensic expert Ben hesitated.

"What is Rabbit's foot Ben? If you know anything, now's the right time to speak up." Pathan repeated his question.

Ben opened and closed his mouth for several seconds contemplating what he was about to say.

"Well, we had this professor in college, Mr. Khanna, who used to teach us physics and he would always say that some day the world would be destroyed by technology. He would say, that a compound, sort of biological mutator that would end it all. So whenever I see anyone willing to pay that amount of money, I always assume it's that." Ben continued to ramble.

"Have you told Batra about this yet?" Pathan asked patiently.

"Not yet."

"Good. Don't."

"What-" Ben started to interrupt but was stopped by Pathan.

"I don't want anyone else finding out just yet. Did you find anything off the microchip I gave you?"

"No I assumed the hard drive was the priority?" Ben looked confused.

"Yeah- yeah just keep me posted. But no one can know about the mission." Pathan started running out of the room.

"What mission?!" Ben shouted after him but got no response.

It was never a good thing when Pathan had something cooking in his head.