Lying For A Living

15

Vansh was watching the video footage for the hundredth time. He sat back in his chair and sipped on his black coffee. He had come up with absolutely nothing, which freaked him out. He was not understanding the whole point of it. Why go through all the trouble of shooting a target who was not there, then bomb him in his home turf?

It could have been to simply involve India or it could be a much bigger issue. He went down to the modest lawn in his building and sat down on a bench. He then quietly looked around to see if anyone was there. Seeing no one, he took out a pocket knife from his waist in a fluid motion, took careful aim and let the blade fly. The knife nailed the mongoose on the ground. Vansh quietly walked over and took the knife out of the creature and wiped it clean. It had bitten a kid of the building very recently. He disposed the animal in the trash can and walked over to resume his place on the bench. He suddenly stiffened and turned. Kabir was standing behind him.

"What? You have eyes on the back of your head?" Kabir asked.

"Sometimes, when I need to," Vansh shrugged.

"Thought I would come to check on you," Kabir said, a hint of amusement in his voice. "In case you had late night visitors."

Vansh smiled and said, "It was Amritansh Pathak... a friend. And that was two nights ago... you following me?"

Kabir smiled. "I like to keep my partners safe," he said.

"Appreciate it," Vansh said.

"You nailed that mongoose pretty nicely. Those skills must have helped on the island," Kabir said.

"They did, more than you can possibly imagine," Vansh said. Kabir walked over and sat next to him. "It's a weird situation, man. It was wonderfully worked out," Vansh said.

Kabir slapped the older man's thigh and said, "We've gotta do something, old man."

"Okay, let's do a small sit-rep," Vansh said.

"Right, so the German PM is on a political visit to India, where he roams throughout the country, but on his final night in Kolkata, he is attempted to be shot at by an unknown party," Kabir said.

Vansh picked up from there. "But the PM gets to live another night because some other shooter decides to shoot before schedule and ends up messing things up, but lucky for him, nobody notices him and the van races off. We have no leads on the van, and no idea about the shooter. There are three people near the site. The woman, the armed man and me. The armed man is of an illegal organisation that works with RAW in the city," he said.

"Yes," Kabir continued, "The armed man cannot be involved, neither can you or the woman."

"Or not," Vansh said.

"I thought she explained her presence," Kabir said.

"Yes, but it can very well be an organised cover," Vansh said.

"So we get her?" Kabir asked.

"Not exactly... but I think we should pay her a visit," Vansh said.

"All right, old man. Let's see how much fuel you have in the tank," Kabir smirked.