Like you were never gone

Chapter 6

Work didn't stop for anyone, so the next morning, Pathan found himself in a conference with his team, explaining to them the plan to get to Victor Sams.

"Tomorrow maybe the only time we can predict where Victor is going to be. Our mission is to infiltrate the building and kidnap him. Hopefully he'll be willing enough to tell us about the Rabbit's foot." Pathan said, failing to hide the smile on his face.

No one dared to question him, but Ben took one for the team and voiced it.

"What are you so happy about?"

Pathan simply ignored him and continued.

"Getting Victor Sams is not the challenging part. Getting his buyers is. We need to make sure they don't find out he's grabbed."

"What are you saying? No matter how we do it, his people will know he's been taken." Another young fellow interrupted this time.

"No they won't. I'll need 30 seconds and a distraction." Pathan replied.

The plan was simple. As per his itinerary, Victor Sams was going to be at the Oberoi hotel in Mumbai, a meeting was set up with his buyers. They had to kidnap him before he reached the hotel, make him talk. RAW had received intel that Victor Sams had never met his buyers, so they could send in someone impersonating as Sams to get to the buyers. The organisation made sure each agent had a anonymous code name and that their identity was protected. All they had to do was get Victor Sams and his buyers and then fly them off to Delhi.

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On D-day, things had gone as per the plan, the team had laid the trap and caught Victor Sams without any casualties. They even managed to make it look like Sams was the one that collapsed and had to be carried out. Pathan and his team were on the cargo plane that was carrying them to Delhi. Ben was on his computer decoding the microchip pathan had given him a few days ago. The encryption was sophisticated and it was taking him some time to get into it. At the tail end of the plane, pathan had already started interrogating Sams. He hadn't gotten any success either.

"You are going to tell us everything. Your buyers, your contacts, the names, the numbers-" Pathan spoke calmly sitting in a chair infront of Victor Sams. He was tied to the other chair.

"What is your name?" Victor Sams ignored Pathan's question and asked his own.

"- your inventory list, everything." Pathan continued to speak as if he didn't hear Sams.

"You have a girlfriend, a wife? Because you know what I'm going to do next?" Sams hadn't budged.

"It's up to you how this goes." Pathan looked at him with a bored expression. This wasn't new, in his profession, he had several people trying to threaten him. He wasn't worried, he trusted the agency and his agency had carefully hidden his life behind the moniker "Pathan".

"I'm going to find her. Whoever she is, I'm going to find her and hurt her."
For a split moment, Pathan's team mate standing next to him glanced at pathan.

"You were caught, carrying information about something called a Rabbit's foot-"

"I'm going to make her bleed, and cry, and call out your name. And you're not going to be able to do shit. You know why?" The one sided conversation the two of them had going on, had now come down to a staredown.

"Because you are going to be this close to dead. And then I'm going to kill you right infront of her." Victor Sams mocked Pathan.

"I'm asking one more time-" Pathan warned him, his voice slightly tense.

"What's your name? You have no idea what's going on do you?" Sams interrupted, "I mean you saw what I did to your little friend at the factory right? That was fun."

Pathan was already on the edge and the mention of Preet had his blood boiling. He got closer to the other chair and landed a hard punch accross Sams' jaw, making his gums bleed. Victor just let out a sinister laugh in response. Pathan dragged Victor along with the chair near the loading door. He flipped the switch and tilted Victor's chair over the open door so he was hanging out of it partially.

"What is a Rabbit's foot?" Pathan shouted over the strong noise of the wind.

"What is a Rabbit's foot?" He repeated the question as he started cutting the rope that was holding Victor tied to the chair.

"Pathan stop! Don't do it. Please stop!"

His team mate screamed at him repeatedly. Pathan regained his senses and pulled Victor Sams back at the last moment. Listening to all the commotion and alarms, Ben had also come to the sight. He took in the scene and asked the other agent to take care of Sams and took Pathan along with him. They went in towards the cockpit where there were a few empty seats. Ben started to talk once they were seated.

"What's the matter? It's unlike you to react like that. I've seen you interrogate several people in the past."

Pathan sighed deeply.

"It's- it's just that Preet- She was young, she had a bright future ahead of her. I feel responsible for her death. I was the one who recommended her name for the mission." He finally shared his guilt with Ben.

"You guys had something going on?" Ben questions.

"What? No!" Pathan sounded scandalized.

"Just asking. You seemed different since last week." Ben raised his hands in defence.

"Oh um that, well I got married 2 days ago." Pathan finally dropped the bomb.

"WHAT!?" Ben almost shot out of his seat screaming, drawing attention from others.

"Keep quiet." Pathan warned him before continuing. "You're the only person I'm telling this to."

"But- I thought, you and Meera had only announced your engagement last week."

"Yeah, I don't know what came over me. But it just felt right to marry her right away." Pathan replied with a fond smile, remembering the moment she had said yes.

"Well then, I'm happy for you!" Ben patted him on the back.