Boom

She goes rogue. He goes capsized

He landed finally on the Chennai International Airport. He was worn out, half a day journey doesn't have much of a jet lag but three days of not sleeping could have that effect. Yet he had no time to waste like every other national agent who were working their a*s off to find her. He had to find her and find her quick. That woman lived right under the nose of India’s top agents and administrators. And worst of all, she was his partner for eight long years.

It hurt bad for him, It made him angrier but more so focused. So focused that he was hell bent on finding her and making her feel the same way. He was known for ruthlessness and she his anchor, the point where he could always go back. And without his anchor he was an unmanned ship sending anything on its way to the deep down of the ocean.

He met with the local operator, the man who flagged her location to the base of operations. As of time, she was eight hours ahead of him. With that kind of lead and her skill set, she could have disappeared and wreak havoc but no. She wasn’t going to run for all her life, she was going to end it, here in her home turf where she will probably make the deal. They were in the car and off in a flash to Besant Nagar, probably the one area in the whole city where men in suits and black cars doesn’t seem suspicious.

The operator upon seeing his famous frown said that, “She can’t escape, sir. We got her”. It provoked him

“Let me tell you something, Mr…”,

“Vishal , Sir. Vishal Vikram”, he introduced himself again.

“Yes, Mr. Vikram, She landed on Cochi forty hours ago and went dark. We put in every kind of emergency protocol to use and blocked every route in and out of that place, planes, choppers, boats, fishing boats, cars, bikes, buses, trains and even the freaking bull carts. We have been trying to locate her last known position using her tracker which she would have probably ditched it. But for doing so she must've hurt herself leaving a blood trail. And with all that, she managed to evade a level red manhunt and still be untraceable.”

“Yes ,sir but we managed to track her down at the borders to her safe house which is in probably the well known location in the whole state, she is panicking sir”, he said with a lame smirk on his face. ‘Panicking’, he chuckled to himself.

“Mr. Vikram, tell me, how much time does it take to travel from the border to Chennai by road?” he asked him.

“Eleven hours, sir”, he replied sharply.

“And when did you flag her in the border?”

“Around thirty two hours ago, sir”, he replied.

“When did you flag her in the city, Vikram?” Now his smirk was replaced by a wild amusement.

“Eight hours ago, sir”, his voice was almost inaudible.

“Apart from the twelve hour travel, she was dark for another twelve hour where she could have literally gone anywhere. And that too if she had travelled by road, if not, we might well be on our way to graves.”

“Every airports and train stations are under heavy surveillance, sir. There is no way she could escape that”, he didn’t give up. Still. That annoyed him because a good agent must know to respect his opponent and not underestimate him. He understood there was no way he can make the operator understand the ability of the woman they are chasing. It’s like a chasing a ghost but that ghost was freaking real.

They reached Besant Nagar, their local base of operations. After passing through the façade house, he reached the control room. The walls of the moderately spacious room were covered with monitors and a dozen people going berserk on their keyboards. A couple of feeds were of the street cam footage and some were the live feed from the agents posted around the house where she was seen entering. Some footage was even of the satellite feeds. That building in what they call T.Nagar, the busiest area in the whole state, was heavily under watch.

But something was off about the building that made him doubt the presence of her there. That building was not her style, maybe that’s why she chose it but something was scratching his gut. He was not convinced that she would just put herself in a corner unless she wants them to.

There were several things that weren't making sense about her activity. The twelve hour disappearance, The Eight hour of inactivity and the location of the house.

"Vikram, Tell me about the house", he asked.

"Sir, the house belonged to her parents where she lived till she moved to delhi", he was quick and he liked it.

"And you're sure that there is somebody in the house",

"Yes sir, there is definite activity inside the house".

"Okay, Continue", he left them to do their work and went back to the front house. He sat there with just a pen and paper. He wrote everything that made no sense on that paper. It was erractic to his eyes but there was a pattern in it that he couldn't find. A small tip that he learnt from her is that, ' take a step back when nothing goes your way'. And that's what he did. Took a step back and sleep finally caught him after three days of escaping it.

A faint voice woke him up, "Sir". It was Vikram. "Sir, it is the director",  he grabbed the phone and went to the corner.

"Agent, it is been almost two days. We are running out of time. If that gets out, we could well be in the way to war", the director voice was cold. It was as cold as lifeless body.

"I know sir, We found her location. She is under surveillance and once she makes a move, we could get both her and the seller" he explained. There was a long silence before the director spoke again.

"Keep me posted, agent." he hung up,

The stakes kept getting high and he had no hold over her. She was on top of her game and he was way off. He desperately needed a break and was hoping for a miracle. That is when he remembered his father's saying, 'Don't hope for miracle, son. Hoping doesn't help. Work for a miracle'. His father was always his first trainer. Fathers would always be their child's hero. And that's when he knew. He barged in to the control room.

"Vikram, where is her parents?"

"Sir...." he had no idea what he was asking.

"Her parents,  Vikram. Where are they?"

"In the house sir, maybe", he said with a hint of doubt.

"Then why haven't they come out, Vikram. Why for the past eight hours, they are struck in that house", still Vikram wasn't convinced.

"Maybe they went out, sir".

"Check the street cam footage, their credit card bills, phone records. I need to know where they are in next couple of hours", he was back, his adrenaline was pumping and that gave him a sense of focus.

 Vikram plunged into his desktop. After sometime he looked back at him with bewilderment.

"What?" he asked.

"Sir, they are vacationing at France", Vishal replied

"Then who the hell is in the house with her. How many bodies did the agents saw?"

"More than one, sir", Vishal knew that s**t had hit the fan.

'Damn it, the buy is happening inside the freaking house', it was one hell of a gamble she took and finally he had a hold on her.

"BREAK IN", he ordered.

The command passed down to the field agents when they finally broke into the house after eight long hours.

"Tell me whatever you see, agent", he ordered the agent though the wireless communication device.*

"A Bomb,  sir". A Grave silence prevailed over the control room.