In the Darkest Hour

Phase II

They did not risk meeting in the terrace or anywhere together. Jaddu and Jinks, India's quickest fielders, were in Virat's room, disguising themselves in black. Shikhar and Bhuvi were also there, helping them.

"Remember to go right when you're caught," Bhuvi told them about ten times before Jaddu begged him to shut up.

Past midnight, Jinks and Jaddu sneaked out and slunk over to the control room which Kuldeep and Yuzi had located earlier.

It was open sightly and the security who was supposed to keep watch in the CCTV cameras had nodded off to sleep.

They went in and Jaddu pulled his hair hard. The guard yelped and woke up and Jaddu howled in a hoarse voice, "He's awake! Run!!"

And Jinks and Jaddu, choking with laughter, ran out of the room. The guard realised what was happening and he ran after them.

Hardik and Rahul were hidden outside and they ran in as soon as the guard ran out. They dashed to the 1st floor CCTV controls and with Hardik shrieking unhelpful instructions, Rahul disabled them using the helpful instructions he had seen from the net earlier.

They completed it within five minutes and hurried back to Hardik's room without waking anyone else.

___________

In the meantime, Jaddu and Jinks had run out of the hotel and taken the right road which went straight to a deserted wood-like area. They could run so fast that they had left the guard far behind, but still they hid in the woods for precaution for a long time.

No guard came to capture them, however, and they spent the night roaming about in the woods peacefully.

In the morning Rohit came over with the good news that Phase II of their mission had been successfully completed. He carried a large bag where they could stuff their black robes and which also contained a large store of food, which the three of them demolished in little time.

After that they went in different directions, Rohit in one and Jaddu and Jinks in another.

None of them could wait for that night.

___________

In the practice session that afternoon, Rohit took a good catch at the slips, and Virat, next to him, automatically grinned and thumped him on the back. Then he noticed Yograj looking at him most suspiciously.

Shikhar sent him an alarmed glance and at some point, Yuzi whispered to him, "Be careful!"

So when they were returning from the field, Virat made some dumb joke to his friends in a careful whisper so that Rohit, who was walking ahead of them, could hear that he said something but couldn't make out what.

As they all laughed in unison, Rohit glanced back, and he suddenly felt so left out that he hurried away from them as fast as he could so that his friends didn't see his expression. Which was convincing for Yograj, but Rohit was getting that awful hollow feeling in his stomach again.

It's just acting. It's just acting, he thought again and again.

His brain knew that perfectly well, only... every time he saw his friends pretending to ignore him, his heart couldn't help aching, because it brought back his worst memories so hard.