Reva

The gang

Abby and Aarav entered my room with some documents in their hands. Abby tossed them on the coffee table and sat on the couch. Aarav joined him there and switched on the television. He kept on browsing through the channels until he found the news channel showing the situation of Almire.
* * * *

The city was almost shattered. Political leaders were trying to use the situation to their advantage. This disgusted me. The city was divided into factions. Every faction was dominated by different religions. All these religions never tolerated any person of the other religion in the part of the city in which they resided. Things like these were hard to control. Some areas of the city held resources necessary for others, but they couldn't gain access to those resources.

There was also a common area of the city where people, who did not want to fall in the abyss of these religions, resided. It was also the area where the main Headquarters of S.O.P. was established to emphasize its neutrality.

S.O.P. had so far managed to calm the situation down a bit. The organization couldn't handle the fights that had spurred on in the other factions; but nobody dared to start a fight in the common area. Once a person from Rajas faction tried to whack up the things a bit in the common area, he was beaten down to a pulp by our people and sent back on a stretcher.

An announcement was made thereafter-- "People who want to die with a bullet in their heads should feel absolutely free to come in the commons and mock the other religions. S.O.P. would love you attend to such great minds."
Long story short, "Step in here and try to show your superiority, we dare you."

Even the politicians had backed off when concerns about S.O.P. was the topic of discussion. They knew better than to challenge S.O.P. Their deep and dark secrets were kept safely with us in exchange of silence and mutual exclusion of S.O.P. and politics.

Abhinav had worked his ass off to build this firm up. We had gone through rigorous physical training and an array of technological training to combat against any and every kind of threat.

I was left alone at the age of fifteen when my father died trying to save a Hindu woman who had come to join the residents of the commons. People from her own Dharma had tried to kill her because she had apparently betrayed her religion. I had seen several deaths by then and my father was just another person losing his life to this war of religions that had left me devoid of every emotion.

Abhinav had recruited me when I turned sixteen. He helped me in honing all the skills that I possessed. I was better at defense than gizmos. He helped me personally. He had taken care of me like my father would. He had seen how numb I was feeling after seeing and dealing with so many deaths. For some reason he didn't want me to be in the city and thought I'll be better off if I was assigned to the main agenda of finding Reva.

I was fine with whatever work he assigned me. I just wanted something to occupy my mind so that I could live a functional life. Abhinav handed me the escape that I wanted from myself.
                         * * * *

"We heard that you shot another man who tried to burn down the house of one of the residents of the commons. Is it true?" Asked the reporter.

"We had made the announcement. Now if people still want adventure, then obviously we are going to try our level best to cater to their needs," Abhinav replied with a sarcastic smile and equally fake politeness.

"I guess with training in combative and technological skills he has also honed our skills of sarcasm," Aarav joked.

That earned him a slight smile from both of us. I moved towards the coffee table and scanned the documents that the boys had brought in. I was hardly paying any attention to the interview that was going on the television. It was not new to me. It was not new to the people either but news channels loved to exaggerate matters and tried to develop sympathy that mostly did not exist in this society divided into religious segments. Feelings like sympathy, understanding and trust were a luxury for people who were stuck between the situations of fighting and fleeing.

I tuned out the conversation and concentrated on the documents in my hand. They were location details, pictures and reports on Reva's stay in Nilgiri.

"Siya, shall we head for the HQ now? It's in the southern area of the city and we're in the opposite direction. It will take us a hell lot of time to reach there if we don't leave right now." Abby interrupted.

"Give me a few minutes. Let me go through all these reports first. We've already lost yet another chance. They won't be pleased to see us anyway. At least we should be thorough with our reports." I replied.

Turning back to the report, I kept on reading. She had been living in a rented apartment in the eastern part of the city, near the hills of Tanishq. She would commute daily from the eastern part to the northern part of the city. She would eat her lunch at the same restaurant where we found her. She strictly avoided going to the southern region of the city. Maybe for the same reason as ours, I thought with a half smile tugging on my face. At the end was her photo, the only one we could manage to find. She was fair, with sharp black eyes, mahogany hair like me and lips painted fire engine red.

"By the way, when did you do all of this research, people?" I asked the boys.

"When you we're fast asleep," Aarav replied.

"We couldn't go to sleep yesterday so we went out to meet our source after having a filling meal and researched about all the places where she had been spotted.
"I thought you might be interested in knowing all of this stuff, so I compiled it and brought it for you." Abby finished.

"Okay!" I replied, quite surprised and impressed with them. Then I turned back to Aarav, "how's the wound?"

"Better than before. Thanks for taking care of me yesterday," he said humbly.

"You're a team member. That's what a team is like, isn't it? Taking care of each other and stuff?" I asked awkwardly. I could fight off my enemies with bare hands but while making conversations? I was a total loser.

"Never thought that I would ever get to hear that from Miss. Siya Chaurasia." He teased lightly and smiled.

All I could do was smile in return. What could I say? He was right. I usually didn't show any emotions and so when I did, people would be all surprised that I actually had them; expression of these emotions was an unknown territory for me.

I moved away from the table and sat on the bed, pouring down on all the information that the guys had provided. I was looking at the pictures clicked by our sources. I called Aarav to sit by my side and asked him to go through the pictures with me. I wanted him to try and identify those guys who had attacked him, if by any luck they were in the photos. We went through the photos one by one. We were looking at the fourth photo when recognition sparkled in his eyes.

He pointed at two men, one dressed in black tight fitting t-shirt with jeans on while the other was dressed in formal shirt and slacks. Both seemed to merge in the crowd and managed to look like any other normal local person.

"Those were the guys who attacked me; the guys with the French beard." He said.

"Jackpot." Abby said under his breath.

I looked at the photo closely. I was trying to figure out who these people were.

"Abby, do you recognize these people? Rings any bell?" I asked.

"No, I've never seen them. They were not there the last time either." He replied.

I nodded. "Anyway, let's get started towards the headquarters." I said, taking charge of the situation.

"Yeah, let's head back," Aarav said in a resigned tone and Aurobindo agreed.

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1413 words!!! This is one of the longest that I've written till now! I had promised 3 chapters update but uploaded only 2 so this is how I compensate for a missed update; by uploading a lengthy chapter! 
Happy reading!
Love you all! Xoxo
- uncensored thoughts