AvNeil: Chase Against Time

Chapter Twenty Two

She looked up at him, "What all did you hear?"

"Doesn't matter," was his response, ice cold. His eyes left hers and he glanced at other three pair of attentive eyes. They seemed to be ready to pounce for an attack. "I think, it's going to be a long story," repeating Ananya's words from earlier. He pushed a chair for himself and spoke, "we should rather take a seat."

She settled beside him and he immediately shifted to face her as he leaned back into his chair with his right ankle resting onto his left knee, "Start talking," he quickly noted the time before adding, "I would like to wrap this soon, even though we do have all night," his eyes roamed around before settling onto Zeenat for a beat.

'He was here,' Ananya gulped at the thought. Her eyes met Zeenat's while the thought crossed her mind, 'he has heard fucking everything.'

'Think of a plan,' she prompted herself while others settled into their seats.

She blew out a breath, "You have definitely heard most of it, if not all. What else do you want to know?" His eyes were glued at hers yet alert for any other movement in the room.

"That was a just a part of it. What I need to know are the details about all that I heard and all that I didn't," he stated with no specifications.

'I don't think any of my plans can work now,' she gulped at th thought. However, she wasn't going to give up, not yet.

"We were talking about the attack," she mummbled. "I am sure you have seen the footage of the same," he simply nodded in response to her. "And you think it's a trap to mislead?" She lifted her questioning eyes to meet his.

"I am not here to answer your questions," he scoffed at her. "You are supposed to tell me what you have been hiding since so long," he gritted out while he gulped down the words that were about to follow, "from me."

"I take that as a 'Yes' because even I thought so when I first saw the clip," she naratted.

"Hold on," he interrupted, "where did you get the clip from?" When she didn't answer, he sat his right foot back onto the ground, inching forward. His palms rested on either sides of her chair while his eyes pinned at her. "I. Need. An. Answer. Ms. Verma," he yelled.

Aman couldn't take it anymore, without a thought, he jumped in, "I gave her the clip." Ananya's eyes snapped at Aman. Neil, however, looked unfazed.

"Can you please explain, how?" He raised his brow at him, intrigued to know. The way Aman's eyes looked at Ananya, he could guess that the former was asking for permission.

"He is doing cyber crime investigation courses. So," she stated nonchalantly.

"That's still illegal," he snapped at her.

"Nothing about this case, that fucking murderer or his fucking insane tricks; nothing of it is within the legal boundaries, Officer," she retorted, unable to supress the bidding tension within her. Moreover, he wasn't reacting much.

"That's what you think," he pinned her with his pointed stare, "if someone does wrong then it doesn't give us an excuse to turn a blind eye at what's right and take the path that's easy yet wrong. You can't mend things by wrong means. That's never the way," he explained. "But anyways, it's of no use to tell you that," he shrugged the topic away with distate. He would deal with all of that later. As of now he had more important things to deal with.

She brushed away the uneasiness that she felt at his indifference. "So, like I said earlier,when you look at it, the attack seems to be a trap to mislead us but that might not the case," she further naratted her suspicions to him.

'Quite a possibility,' he thought to himself.

"So why are you or anyone of those who are working on this particular project being targeted?" He questioned completely leaving aside the attack and it's motive.

"I have already told you," she started tiredly but soon his fist banged onto the wooden table making her flinch while she forcibly shut her eyes.

"I am not in a mood to hear the same old crap, Ms. Verma," he reminded her. "So, why?" His voice composed as he asked.

"There's a reason why the NGO is going ahead with this collaboration," she blurted, leaving others shocked with her words. Her eyes flew open as she realised that she might regret giving out this peice o information to him.

Zeenat was stunned. She had her eyes pinned at Ananya while she prayed to the Almighty that for once she could successfully attempt telepathy and save her best friend. Ali, on the other hand, could see things falling apart but was unsure of how he was deal with it. Aman, however, still had faith in his sister. She wouldn't do anything without giving it a thorough thought.

"Me and my team," she spun a look at the trio and continued,"we are here to investigate something. And before you ask me, I can't leak any details about it," she heard other gasp as she poured in information to the cop.

"Oh, come on, Ananya. What more's left? Hold on, there is. You might as well give him your real identity then," Ali bursted out.

"Ali," Zeenat whisper-yelled at him while Aman shook his head in disbelief. Nothing was going right.

'There's still a lot more that's unknown to him,' she thought as she found disappointment in Ali's eyes.

*

Firstly, apologies for the delay. Guest alert. These are times when I feel it's good to bank a couple of chapters.

Anyways. This is time when I am trying and shaping up the story. Hey! I don't mean that I have no clue what to write. It's just that I am in a zone where I am oblivious about what all to pour in the chapter. The mystery cannot be completely revealed, yet we can't play the suspense game for too long. Basically, I am just trying to figure that out.

It would be great, if you all can let me know the loopholes of this story and the drawbacks of course. Anything that you feel this story lacks, just let me know. I can try and work on it. It's always good to make efforts and try to make the story better with each passing day. Every update. So hoping that I will do my job.

I leave you to do yours. Please do leave your feedback and reviews. That's motivating. :)