Escape to Freedom

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Nirav Thakker

The Dragon stood right in their path blocking them from getting away. The Dragon and Rishi stood facing each other. Neither moved so much as an eyelid but both had their hands on their guns. The Mask was not dead yet but he was not completely out yet either. He got up struggling to his feet. He stumbled and fell. He had received a really strong blow. He crawled towards the Dragon. Rishi knew that if the Mask and Dragon got together it would put him to trouble.
Rishi’s Bobcat was still hidden away within his palm. Just when the Mask was within his range, he pulled the trigger with one hand and threw the knife from his belt towards the Dragon. The gun shot created the diversion that Rishi wanted. The dragon pulled his gun out to shoot at Rishi, but it was too late, the knife hit the target. The Dragon was down and out. The Mask was not however. Rishi had missed his mark fair and square.
The Mask quickly got to his feet and ran for cover. The gun shot had brought a lot of their men out into the open. The Mask called all his men to shoot at Rishi and also stop him from getting out of there alive. Rishi pulled Suman and dived behind a wall of Black Dog cartons. He asked her to be right there and not come out until he asked her to. He gave his Bobcat to her and asked her to use it for her safety. Suman’s hands shivered taking the gun.
Rishi pulled his Beretta and quickly checked the bullets. The gun was still loaded. He slowly looked out to see where the Mask was. He was hidden behind the table. Just then a bullet whizzed past his head lightly grazing his hair. He could smell his burnt hair. Rishi quickly dived back. He knew he could not stay hidden for long and would be caught if he stayed hidden there for long. He decided to risk it. Rishi got out pointing his gun at the nearest shooter and fired. The Shooter was dead. But the problem he was faced with was not just that one shooter. The Mask and all his men posed a big problem. A bigger problem was he did not know who was where and how many were there.
Rishi was back behind the wall. He pulled his flask of Black Dog and took a large swig out of it. He had to be prepared for any result now. He got out and started walking towards where the Mask was hiding. Men tumbled out in front of him like drums on a slope. Each man was dead before his bullet hit Rishi. Rishi was close to the Mask when he ran out of bullets. All the men and the Mask now came out of hiding. He had a clear view of who was where and how many were there.
The Mask gave a roaring laughter. He was sure Rishi was as good as dead now. Rishi shouted for Suman and asked her to run towards the door. The Mask laughed even louder. Rishi charged towards the Mask and pinned him down. The two got into a fist fight. The Mask still had the gun in his hand. The two wrestled to get a control over it. Suman was standing a little away from them. She was frozen! A gun shot rang in the air. There was blood on the floor. Both Rishi and Mask were stained. The two parted and lay motionless. The men were stunned as well. No one knew who of the two men were hurt. After what seemed like ages, both got up, Rishi had the gun. He fired two more rounds. The Mask was finally dead.
The ordeal was far from over yet. They still had to get back to the car. The two made a dash. They finally knew they would now be free. The sun was breaking into a dawn. A new day had just begun.

Where is Suman?

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Nirav Thakker

Rishi was calling Suman since the last four hours. Her phone was ringing continuously since the last four hours. He was very worried now. He called her office up a few hours back but then the watchman there confirmed she had signed out at around seven in the evening. She had not come back since then, neither had any one heard back from her. He even visited her house but found it locked. Her neighbours had not seen her come home. There was no point calling Sneha since she was not even in the country. He did not have her parents’ number, but then she would have definitely told him if she was going back home or there was some problem back then.
He was stuck with no leads in this case. He took a swig of his Black Dog. He had told Suman to keep her data connection on all the time so that they could Skype whenever they felt like. He had not thought about checking her online yet. She wasn’t there. This could only mean that her Location reporting would not be available either. Nonetheless he tried checking her last known location. It was a warehouse ten miles away from her office. What could she be doing there? Was her phone stolen? But if that was the case, why hadn’t she come back home?
There were a lot of unanswered questions, none of them seemed to have any leads. He was frustrated. He felt like a novice. He felt he had hit a dead end. He could not tell the cops. They would not even file a missing complaint before 24 hours. But then it may be too late by then. For whatever you know, her life may be in danger. He did not know where to start from. He had not visited her office yet. He should start from there. He had advised Suman to keep a pepper spray in her purse for her safety. If she was in danger, had she remembered to use it?
He fiddled with his laptop keys while he thought what to do. The TV roared at full volume. His fiddling with the keys changed the map view from last known location to location trail. She had travelled from the office to the Metro station and from there to the warehouse. It was an unmarked warehouse. He finished a full glass of his Scotch in one swig and got up from his chair. He had to do something and that something had to be done fast, really fast.
Rishi changed into his tuxedo and put on his hat. He had to work in style of the private detective that he was. He had to save her at any cost.