Chapter 3

It wasn't at all a good and lucky day for Vihaan as he was facing difficulties since morning. The time when he arrived at Ujjain by the train, only fifteen minutes were left for the meeting to commence at the mansion. He had lost his wallet and mobile, and he was unable to even contact his messenger Gora.

The weather conditions at Ujjain was poorer than at Indore, it seemed as if it would rain any time soon. He somehow hired a pool van to reach the main bus depot of Ujjain where Gora was supposed to meet him. As planned, Gora saved him for the day because he was already waiting for Vihaan at the depot. He paid the fare for Vihaan and they both took an exit to reach the mansion together.

Vihaan and Gora were late by ten minutes to reach the remote place and unfortunately, they fell into the trap of the attackers. They weren't allowed to enter the mansion and Vihaan's head was knocked from behind. He was tackling the goons valiantly until Gora fell defeated in their hands. Vihaan was forced to surrender to the odd situation in exchange for Gore's life. Taking Gora as their cue, they had captivated Vihaan by blackmailing him.

As the bloody tussle continued, a bullet landed on Vihaan's left upper arm and he whined in pain. This was when Sanchi arrived at the window and her whimpering gasps for Vihaan's dilemma spread in the dark and cloudy atmosphere inaudibly.

When Sanchi opened her eyes after witnessing the horrible gunshot, she whispered, her heart pounding heavily inside her chest, "Isn't he Vihaan Singh Bun-dela, the very courag-eous and valiant son of Viren-dra Sir? Thank God that the bullet pierced him side-ways."

Sanchi's work mostly oriented with the bureau and she had seen Vihaan only in the pictures of the articles sent to her or sometimes in the newspapers, either for his bravery or as the officer-in-charge for important cases. She hadn't met him personally though she had heard of all his audacious tales of police service. It was the first time she was seeing him physically, bare bodied with a lot of cut marks and wounds from the recent attacks and he was in such a helpless condition.

The attackers had forced Vihaan to tear his shirt away so that they could whip him directly on his bare skin. Vihaan lifted his chin up to glance at his attacker and he arched his eyebrows in disgust. "Is that you Tarun? I thought my dad always trusted you as one of his able officers!" Vihaan scoffed which worsened Tarun's anger.

"Your dad never trusted me, in fact he doubts anybody and everybody working with him. Since when you joined, you didn't leave a stone unturned to change the easy rules of the bureau. We always felt we were in shackles under you and I hated it," Tarun uttered of his baseless disappointment.

Vihaan groaned in his usual hoarse voice even if his upper arm was killing with the pain, "Rules were never considered to be easy at the bureau since when we took our oath to join the service. We are liable to undertake the most perilous tasks and it seems that people like you are ruining the good name of the CBI. It's only for you that the citizens think we work only for bribes and are capable of nothing. You people are those internal termites who are hollowing the nation more than the outsiders. You are petty betrayers for the country and..."

Tarun kicked Vihaan as he uttered scornfully, "I'm not here to listen to your lectures or abide by your orders. I tried hard to stop you from reaching here but you didn't. You didn't even bother before shooting my men, especially the most important member of our group, Lakhan. You deserve to die now."

Vihaan tried hard to stand up on his limbs but Tarun's men attacked him again. One of the goons held a knife against Gora's neck and gestured an agitated Vihaan to calm his nerves. Vihaan stood there motionless, trying hard to recover his poise in such a difficult situation. "Lakhan! How did he escape from the bureau? I had instantly thought Arjun was behind all these."

Tarun enjoyed a victorious laugh before stating, "He wasn't. He is just as innocent and honest like you. After you ordered him to shift Lakhan to our secret custody, I took the chance of fooling Arjun. I simply told him that Shiva was calling him for some other important case and that I would take care of Lakhan. A little later, I helped Lakhan disguise as a tea-seller and he escaped easily."

"So after the escape, didn't dad interrupt?"

"He did interrupt when I declared amidst everyone that Lakhan had escaped after hitting me. I had put on these real bruises on me and he had to believe me. He also sent forces in search of Lakhan all around the city. Now coming to you, I'll have to take my revenge and also deliver the cartons of passports out of the country's borders." Tarun laughed evily, unaware of the fact that the cartons were already destroyed by Sanchi.

"So just because of your CBI identity that the cartons were easily made to cross the borders without much hindrance! How could you do this, Tarun? How could you betray your mother nation?" Vihaan was painfully awestruck.

"What do we get from the nation for working so hard after risking our own lives? I had joined the CBI in the hope of earning huge but the group of honest officers at the bureau neither accepted bribes nor allowed others. This is my best way of earning lavishly," Tarun repeated without any mark of regret on his face for his wrong doings.

"It is just for some bugs like you in theCBI system that people think every policeman takes bribes. We are being rumoured to be dishonest for you people. They don't even realize to what extent our hard work orients and..." Vihaan was cut off by an another whip onto his back by Tarun.

"Will you shut the hell up? I don't need your advice again," Tarun yelled annoyingly and called for one of the other goons with him. "Raghu, get the bastard tied to the car and I'll give him the most painful death in the world. I can't let him escape alive or else he'll expose me. Hurry up and we'll have to stack the cartons on the truck. It's getting dark."

Sanchi was at a loss of words and thoughts upon realising the depth of the grave situation. She was losing out on time and wanted to inform Virendra of everything instantly. But Virendra was in the city of Indore and it would take him or his forces time to reach Ujjain. She could not waste time in sending phone calls, instead she was trying to find a way out to save Vihaan's life at any cost.

A brilliant idea struck her mind. Neatly placing the mini spy camera onto the windowsill, she rushed inside the dark room again. Collecting some glass pieces from the broken window pane, she returned to the windowsill and stared outside without making a noise.

They were trying to tie Vihaan to the car though he was obstructing them with all his might. One of the men had already caused half an inch slit on Gora's neck but the latter would also not give up.

Sanchi thought twice before taking the further step and her slender fingers crawled back inside her bag again. Taking out her catapult slingshot and the glass pieces as projectiles one by one, she aimed at the man holding the knife against Gora's neck.

As her first projected shot darted perfectly in the planned direction, the glass piece caused a considerable amount of slit on the man's wrist and the knife fell from his hand. With blood gushing out of his wrist, he bent to pick the knife when Sanchi projected at him again. The next glass piece pierced his forearm and he stood gaping, severely scared of the sudden unknown attacks.

"What the hell is happening? Who's attacking us and from where?" Tarun yelled and Sanchi took shelter in a corner. The surroundings had already turned dark, heavy wind was blowing and it was difficult for Tarun and his men to look through the window of the mansion.

One of the men who was extremely scared at the sight of it said, "What if this mansion is haunted? Someone definitely doesn't want us to stay here for long!"

"Shut up!" Tarun chided and aimed his gun at Vihaan again. "We are leaving soon but after killing him and collecting the passports."

As Tarun pulled the trigger, pieces of glass flung to his side and damaged the skin of his forearm and face severely. He could not acknowledge whatever was taking place all of a sudden while Vihaan frowned in anguish.

Vihaan was equally surprised and thought to himself, "There's nothing like ghosts as such. Has somebody followed us here? Otherwise who will shoot glass pieces at them?"

Gora had managed to free himself out of the wounded man's clutches and Vihaan recovered his tactics instantly. He caught hold of Tarun and rained severe blows on his groin and limbs soon after. His blows were more powerful than ever as he dug Tarun's head into the earth. Balling his fist, he punched his face as nastily as he could.

Vihaan wasn't giving him any room for escape as he held Tarun under his hostage. He had turned devilishly monstrous and gruesome for the time being. He wouldn't let the man go away easily who was betraying his country and had also inflicted wounds on him.

Notwithstanding what more was to be done in the situation, Sanchi became the quiet observer to the atrocious brawl taking place before her. She had successfully managed to turn the tables in Vihaan's favour and felt extremely proud of her clever brain. Her intelligence and presence of mind had finally turned out to be fruitful to such an extent.

As usual, Sanchi's happiness was always short lived and she was in for an another difficult situation. While Tarun was secluded semi-conscious on the ground, Vihaan was up on his fighting shoes against the other goons. Raghu took it as an advantage to aim his gun at Vihaan from a considerable distance, avoiding the latter's gaze at him. Sanchi stole a quick glance at her catapult and realisation struck her. She had exhausted all her glass projectiles and moving to fetch more of them would take time.

Without giving her venturing thoughts a second chance, Sanchi traced her way outside the mansion and pushed Vihaan away in the blink of an eye. The bullet from Raghu's gun traced a projectile curve speeding in their direction but landed on the bark of the banyan tree behind them, thus leaving the both of them unhurt eventually.

***** 

Dheeraj entered the Bundela mansion in a hurry with massive sweat drenching his brown linen shirt. Vidya was waiting by the window of the entrance when she saw him approaching towards her in long strides. She stopped him at once and he passed her a quick smile. "Vidya, have you been able to feed mom something?"

She nodded, and replied staring at the evening sky. "I failed miserably since morning. She's not ready to listen to me. You are back home and I believe she'll listen to you."

"I'm back home for a cause. Is dad at home? He left the bureau in the afternoon," Dheeraj asked wiping the sweat off his forehead.

The skinny folds on the skin of his forehead shuddered Vidya and she did not miss showing her concerns for him. "Uncle is most probably in his workroom. Is everything alright, Dheeraj?"

Vidya squeezed his forearm stealthily only for him to engulf her palm into a warm grip. "I'm afraid that nothing is right. I haven't heard from Vihaan since the time he left the bureau today and I'm sure dad is hiding something from us. How can he be so casually not tensed even after knowing Vihaan is out alone on a dangerous mission? And most importantly, he hasn't eaten anything since morning, I couldn't even feed him at the bureau."

Vidya and Dheeraj had been friends since the past four years even though both possessed unrequited and unshared feelings for each other. He had first met her at the city hospital regarding some post-mortem case and she had helped him to a greater extent. After Durga met with a major accident causing the dysfunction of her limbs was when he considered Vidya for his mother's regular treatment and she had started visiting their house daily.

Their friendship and bonding grew stronger eventually after the extensive care that she had taken of his mother. She had somewhat become an unofficial member of the family and befriended his parents with her soulful charm. It was only Vihaan who hadn't been much on talking terms with her for his stern nature and Vidya also never tried to annoy him.

Despite Vidya and Dheeraj possesing extreme feelings for each other, they were very stubborn and inwardly introvert to share it at all. They were yet juggling with their own emotions and feared of the feelings of the other. For them, maintaining their friendship was more important and transforming the same into love would ruin it somehow.

"You know how Vihaan is, do you think he has even informed uncle where he was going?" Vidya sighed and crossed her arms across her chest.

"I'm here to talk to dad and will then move out of the house in search of my brother. I can't let him alone out there anymore." Dheeraj turned towards the doorway to enter the house when his eyes narrowed down to a shocked figure. A pale faced Durga was right behind them on her wheelchair and had overheard their conversation.

As Durga rolled her wheelchair across the living room in a very pensive mood, Dheeraj followed her quickly with apologies. "Please mom, don't be angry. I know I've failed as an elder brother and couldn't keep my promise of taking his care but now I'll mend my mistake. Please listen to me."

Durga screamed on the top of her voice, "Dheeraj, you failed to take care of your younger brother and your father didn't even inform me when he returned home. You both have upsetted me to the extreme."

Virendra, who was taking note of the live session of the mysterious mansion at Ujjain from his workroom, heard the screams from their living room and had to deliberately leave the session midway only to rush downstairs. Sanchi was careful enough to have turned on the live session using her spy camera since the very beginning. When she jumped into the rescue mission, she was intelligent enough to have fixed the camera on the landing of the windowsill not to hinder the view for Virendra.

Dheeraj saw Virendra rushing downstairs and he jumped to his direction. "Dad, where is Vihaan? Why is his phone switched off? I think it's time that I leave for his help, please allow me now."

"Relax Dheeraj, I understand your concerns for him but believe me, he's alright. He'll return home in time," Virendra assured patting his son's shoulder.

"No, he isn't alright. You betrayed me, Vir. You hid the truth from me," Durga interrupted this time as she rolled her chair towards the home temple hurriedly.

Vidya rushed to her help taking the handles under her control. "Auntie, please stop losing patience. It isn't good for your health at all."

Both the ladies entered the temple together while Durga took solace in the feet of the idol. Vidya helped her to get seated on the hardwood floor and she herself hopped next to her.

Durga's stilled eyes concentrated on the lively eyes of the idol with her palms folded neatly. Her lips murmured softly in short and quick prayers hoping that her faith on God would save the life of her youngest son. She prayed hard in the hope that God would send His messenger to her son's help wherever and whatever condition he was in and that he would escape unhurt after fulfilling any sort of dangerous mission.

Least had Durga known that her prayers were already answered and that her faith on God had emerged victorious. If not His messenger from heaven but God had surely sent a pure mortal being to Vihaan's help. And it was none other than the blessed soul and innocent girl Sanchi!

To be continued...

A/N: Hey all lovelies, how are you liking my new story?

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