Shocked, Abhijeet opened his eyes to see Chandrakanth and Vasan standing
next to him. His first instinct was to run away. But to where he wondered?
Abhijeet saw the two closing in on him. He looked for ways
to escape, but he knew there was none. The place had neither doors nor windows
nor staircases. Just a lift. And entry to it was now completely blocked by the
two towering men who stood menacingly around him. He felt trapped.
“So what have you managed to find out?” Chandrakanth demanded
to know.
“Mr.Chandrakanth, what you are doing is very wrong,”
Abhijeet managed to find his voice; “you cannot do this to these people.”
“Oh, shut up!” said his boss, waving his hand in the air,
“you don’t be the judge of that. We pay them enough.”
“Money can never be the substitute for the risk you are
putting them through. You cannot justify your inhumanity and…”
Angered, Chandrakanth tried to land a hard slap across his
face even before he could complete his sentence. But Abhijeet turned in the
nick of time and his boss’s hand hit his protective head gear instead, making
him yelp in pain.
“Ahh…you swine, this will show you your rightful place.” Undoubtedly
the bigger of the two, Chandrakanth caught his hands and pinned him down. He
was trying to choke Abhijeet.
As he struggled to break free, he thought of Sahana and his
parents, he thought of the hard way he had come up in life, and now when things
had just started looking up, he could not afford to die like this.
Mustering every ounce of strength in his legs he pulled his
knee in and keeping his head in alignment with his knee, he moved his head and
straightened out all in one swift movement. He put his foot in between
Chandrakanth’s knees, and pulled him in. Chandrakanth was on the ground, as
Abhijeet got up and kicked him on his groin leaving the man crying in pain.
Vasan was taken aback by the quickness of the confrontation
and lunged forward to help his collegue. He swiftly attacked Abhijeet
from behind winding his arms tightly around his target. Abhijeet held onto his
attacker’s arms, and stepped on his foot and bowing down, head butted him using
the back of his head. Next he used his elbow to attack the abdomen. Vasan fell
down and Abhijeet struck his back with hands joined together and using the edge
of his hand as a weapon.
As both men struggled to get up, he found a fire extinguisher
on the wall nearby, and pulled it out and aimed it at Chandrakanth’s face. The
extinguisher failed to spray, and seeing Chandrakanth stand up, he threw the
heavy metal cylinder at the man.
He ran to the lift, with both men chasing him and closing
in quickly. His body felt heavy and he could not run as fast he wanted to. He
suddenly realised he was still wearing the heavy disinfectant spray pipe and
canister around his waist that he had taken from the staffer in unit 2. Before
the two men could catch up, he took a deep breath and tightened his grip around
the pipe and aiming directly at the eyes of both of them, he let out a
continuous spurt of the liquid, unheeding of the cries of pain let out by his victims.
Both of them were
completely blinded for the moment. As Vasan cowered, Chandrakanth tried to grab
him but missed. Abhijeet threw the empty canister on him landing it on his
boss’s head. As both tried hard to
regain their composure, Abhijeet seized the opportunity and ran to the lift and
emerged out of it moments later, beads of perspiration dripping down his
forehead.
***************
He knew there would be car waiting behind the building with
keys in it and as he ran his mind tried to form the route of escape. He was
agast to see guards running towards him in the direction of the lift. He felt virtually trapped. He did not even have the spray
with him anymore.
He suddenly realized that though the guards were running
they failed to see him as he was still dressed in the gear of the sanitization
crew, head gear included. They must have had orders to stop Abhijeet from leaving the building and
in all probability the two must have forgotten to mention that he was in the
crew clothing. He thanked his stars and walked out under the very nose of the
security into the streets outside to the parked car behind the building. He
drove straight to the discotheque where Sanjog had promised to meet him.
*****************
As soon as the Vasan and Chandrakanth were able to see they
sent an emergency message to HQ and to Samuel, their hit man.
“I want a clean job, no evidence. But before that find out
what he has been able to collect from here and bring it to me. Use your entire
team if needed, but he must not get away. Send someone to search his house and
deploy people at all exit routes from here, mainly the route to Noida. Catch
hold of his wife or his family.”
**********
Sanjog had been receiving the data all along, as soon as he
realised Abhijeet was in danger, he sent a copy of the data, recordings and
pictures to the commissioner, and to his boss. He called them up and begged for
their support. This time his efforts bore fruit and a large contingent of cops was
dispatched to the firm.
The basement floors were searched and the whole city was shocked
at what the cops had unearthed. The place was sealed off and the staff arrested.
They would need no better witnesses than the inmates themselves.
As soon as Samuel realized his bosses had been arrested, he
called off the search and went underground.
*************
Kalra was gleaming with happiness. Their paper was the
first to come out with the biggest scoop of recent times! They would be the
number one selling paper! He could not stop praising Sanjog, his star reporter,
and Sanjog could not stop smiling!
Sonia had visited the inmates at the hospital where they
had been shifted for further treatment and when she met Sanjog, her eyes were
brimming with tears. Tears of shock at the plight of the inmates and tears of
gratitude for Sanjog and Abhijeet, and for Alok and Debashis.Luckily both of them were alive but looked like ghosts. It would be a long time before they were cured.
They knew more skeletons would eventually tumble out of the
closet. The trustees of the charitable home were now under the scanner too and
the police were probing their role in the crime..
“How can I ever thank you enough, Abhijeet,” she asked
still teary eyed.
“How about letting me take you to Shimla for a holiday?” he
winked.
“Hello..?” Sanjog butted in. “She’s already taken. You stay
away from her, ok?”
“Then you join in too,” he mocked, “Sahana’s already there,
and before she gets worried sick hearing all the news, let’s all go and
surprise her” he said as the other two let out screams of delight.
*******the end*********
(Disclaimer: The series is purely a work of fiction and bears no resemblance to any person/s or organisation. Any resemblance to anyone or anything would be completely co-incidental and unintentional.)
