Shadows Of The Stumps

Chapter - 130

The tension was suffocating.

Meera's fingers flew across the keyboard, her heart pounding as she rewound the hotel's security footage for the third time. Arjun was on the phone, voice clipped as he coordinated with security personnel, trying to get a clearer idea of where Rahul had gone.

"Check the main exit again," she ordered, her voice sharper than usual.

The footage flickered—Rahul stepping out of the hotel at 4:12 AM, dressed in a hoodie and track pants, hands shoved deep into his pockets. No security escort. No message left behind.

Meera clenched her jaw.

"He left alone," she muttered. "Without informing anyone."

Virat, standing rigidly behind her, exhaled sharply through his nose. "Of course he did." His voice was laced with frustration, worry leaking through every word. "Why the hell would he do this?"

No one had an answer.

Dubai, with its towering skyscrapers and glittering streets, felt more foreign than ever. It wasn't like home. It wasn't familiar. And Rahul was out there—alone, vulnerable, weighed down by something he refused to share with them.

Hardik paced the length of the room, running a hand through his hair. "Have you tried his number again?"

"It's switched off," Arjun gritted out.

Rohit, who had been silent all this while, finally spoke. "What about tracking his card transactions?"

"Already requested access," Meera said. "It'll take a few minutes."

Minutes they didn't have.

Shreyas tapped his foot impatiently. "He wouldn't just disappear. He has to be somewhere."

"That's the problem," Arjun muttered. "We don't know where."

Meera's mind was running a mile a minute. Rahul wouldn't have just left. Not without a reason. And after the night he had...

She swallowed, pushing away the worst possibilities.

"He's not reckless," she said, more to herself than anyone else. "He wouldn't have left if he didn't need to."

But that was the terrifying part.

The air in the hotel security room was thick with tension. Meera kept rewinding the footage, her hands gripping the table so hard her knuckles turned white. Rahul's figure—hooded, silent, slipping out of the hotel in the dead of night—played over and over again.

Arjun was barking orders over the phone, trying to get a location trace. Hardik was muttering under his breath, hands on his hips, shaking his head in frustration. Virat looked like he was one second away from punching a wall.

"Try his smartwatch," Rohit suggested, arms crossed tightly.

Meera snapped out of her daze and quickly pulled up the tracking app on her phone. "Already checked. He must've left it behind."

Virat let out a frustrated breath. "Why would he leave his watch? His phone? What the hell is going on in his head?"

No one had an answer.

Meera felt something cold creep into her chest. She had known Rahul long enough to recognize when something was wrong. And last night, as he had sat in the dim hotel room, staring out of the window with that distant look in his eyes, something had been terribly wrong.