A Tale Of Friendship And Loneliness

Missing

 Vachana was looking at Ved in bewilderment. 

"Umm, Vachana earth calling!", said Ved shaking her from the suspicious thoughts she was having.

" I know what you are thinking Vachana" , continued Ved. 

"Yes we have the knowledge of all the happenings in the country and of every citizen. We have an indigenously built system called the 'ANANTH' which the world doesn't know of yet. This system helps us to keep track of and store information on every individual. We ignore all but for information pertinent for the security of the nation as a whole - terrorism, bank frauds etc which are delegated to us specifically by the government. We choose not to monitor everyone's action and intentions. A government cannot tell what a man can or cannot do. It would then be a dictatorship. Wiping out all the evil from the face off the earth would leave no value to goodness. I cannot explain more, hope you got the gist", explained Ved.

"Alright I get it, can we now find Sarah?" quipped in Vachana.

"We'l track him down by using his cell phone. It should not take much time, latest by tonight we will find Sarah", Ved assured Vachana.

Very soon, Ved traced Atharv's phone. Ved made a quick phone call to Amita , brought her up to speed. Ved texted Amita the location of Atharv. 

They were all about to leave when they were notified that they were required to report to the police station. Ved called the Sub-Inspector to get himself excused from reporting. The Sub-Inspector would hear no word, " If all of you don't report together now, you will be put under suspect's list. I want your damn asses brought within half an hour".

They had no choice but to report to the station. They were asked to give unnecessary details, provide alibis for themselves that they were not with her when she went missing, all of which seemed ridiculous.

This went on till evening when later they were all let off. Ved checked with his colleague's if the location of Atharv was still intact. On receiving the confirmation , all of them headed to where Atharv was traced to.

Ved punched in the location in his GPS navigator. Everyone except Ved were shocked when they arrived at the destination.

What the hell!

Ved had a confused look seeing everyone's reaction. What am I missing?

Nrutya taking notice of Ved's confused look, "This is Sarah's farmhouse Ved!"

"Sarah"

"Sarah"

"Sarah", the girls called out her name searching Sarah in every room.

Ved was the first to march into the corner. Diya came rushing into the room seeing Ved slow down after entering the corner room. Diya saw what Ved was looking at. It was a rope, Diya bent over to pick the rope. Ved stopped her, " No Diya, don't touch it". Ved went down on his knees studying the rope. It was severed, not with the help of a knife but with something blunt. He saw the strands and came to the conclusion that Sarah was being held a captive.She seemed to have escaped from Atharv's clutches.

Ved turned back to face Amita when he saw a mobile phone right beside her legs. 

"They sure were here", exclaimed Amita.

Ved picked up the phone though it meant meddling with the evidence.

Atharv's phone had fallen down from his hands when Sarah charged at him like a bull. In that time of agony the phone had completely slipped out of his mind, luckily, saving him from being caught.