TEAM-UP

Rakesh sat still in the darkness, his heart pounding as he watched his girlfriend’s father, Kulkarni, fall lifeless on the floor. The sound of the gunshot reverberated in his ears, the weight of what he had just done crashing down on him. He hadn’t planned for this. The mission had taken a turn he hadn’t anticipated. His hands trembled as he reached for his watch.

The device flickered to life.

“Headquarters,” Rakesh muttered. The screen displayed the familiar face of his superior.

“Rakesh! What is it now?” the voice from the other end crackled.

“You didn’t tell me Kulkarni was my girlfriend’s father,” Rakesh said, his tone laced with frustration.

“Wait—what? You have a girlfriend?” the voice responded, clearly startled.

“Ahh… Congratulations to me, right? But now, how the hell do I get out of here?” Rakesh could feel the walls closing in. The guards were on high alert, and every move he made would have to be calculated.

The watch screen flickered out, and Rakesh was left alone in the dimly lit room with the cold, lifeless body of Kulkarni. He had to act fast. His mind raced as he formulated a plan. Sneaking past the guards should be easy enough, he thought. He had always been good at this. It wasn’t the first time he had needed to escape.

As he crept through the corridors of the mansion, he noticed that the guards, whom he expected to be vigilant, were strangely absent. Dead bodies lay in the hallway, and Rakesh froze for a moment, confused.

“Who would have done this?” he thought, his mind unable to wrap around the situation. He continued onward, his heart pounding as he wondered what had happened. Was there someone else at play in all this?

Once in his room, Rakesh locked the door behind him and flopped onto the bed, exhausted from his frantic escape. His hands trembled, not just from the fear, but from the weight of the betrayal he had just committed.

The next day, the news was all over the place. Social media, news channels, and newspapers were flooded with the breaking news: Kulkarni had been found dead. The police were on the case, and people were talking about everything—was it murder? Was it suicide?

For Rakesh, the truth seemed irrelevant at this point. He was the prime suspect, no matter what.

The investigation quickly zeroed in on Raghu Ville, and the police, led by the notorious Gaitonde, were sent there without delay. He had a gut feeling that Rakesh was involved, and Gaitonde’s instincts had always been right.

At the police station, Rakesh found himself sitting in a holding cell, his hands cuffed tightly.

“You have any proof that I killed Kulkarni?” Rakesh sneered, trying to keep his composure.

“Listen, boy, Gaitonde told us to arrest you. We’ll find the evidence soon enough,” the officer said, his face hard as stone.

“Yeah, this is India,” Rakesh muttered under his breath with a grin. It was a statement that almost seemed to convey that he wasn’t too worried—yet.

A few hours later, Parth Raghu walked into the station. He was Rakesh’s connection, but now was his savior. Parth had pulled the right strings, and Rakesh was soon walking out on bail.

As they neared the car, however, Gaitonde’s car screeched to a halt in front of them.

“You!” Gaitonde shouted, pointing at Rakesh. “Why did you kill him?”

“Whoa! Look at me! Do I look like someone who can hold a knife?” Rakesh tried to play it off, but Gaitonde wasn’t buying it.

“You think I don’t know? The cameras were recording everything before 11:00, but after that, nothing. The guards are dead too, and I know you were involved. I just regret I can’t kill you now,” Gaitonde spat, his eyes burning with rage.

Rakesh, ever the negotiator, quickly weaved his way out of the conversation. By the time he got back to his room, his mind was a whirlwind of confusion and questions. His watch buzzed again, and he turned it on immediately.

“Who killed the guards?” Rakesh asked, his voice shaky, filled with both frustration and curiosity. “How did you know to find me? And what’s going on with the cameras?”

A voice, calm yet mysterious, replied, “You think we would give you a master key and a gun without preparing for it? We fitted a tracker on both. And as for the guards, Agent 3 took care of them.”

“Agent 3?” Rakesh repeated, his mind whirling.

“Yes, Agent 3 is an expert fighter,” the voice answered.

Rakesh frowned but didn’t question further. He was more concerned with what lay ahead.

“And the cameras?” Rakesh asked again, his thoughts focused on the missing footage.

“That’s where we come in,” the voice responded. “Agent 1 is a hacker. We can manipulate the recordings. We’ve got everything you need.”

Rakesh’s plan was simple, but it required precision. He had to get into Jay Raghu’s room without being seen, find the evidence, and escape undetected. The house had surveillance cameras, but he had a solution for that.

“Agent 1, I need you to loop the footage in the hall cameras,” Rakesh ordered. “Make sure the guards don’t see anything. Can you do it?”

“Of course,” Agent 1 replied confidently. “But there’s a catch. I can only hack two cameras at a time due to the software limitations.”

“No problem. We’ll turn off the lights and disable the footlights. The cameras don’t have night vision, do they?”

“Smart,” Agent 1 said with a chuckle.

“Agent 3, can you get the chloroform gas? We need to knock everyone out except us,” Rakesh continued, outlining the plan.

“I’ll get it,” Agent 3 said, without hesitation. “But this isn’t a nice thing you’re doing.”

Rakesh raised an eyebrow. “I need results, not lectures.”

At 11:00 PM, everything fell into place. The team was in position, and Rakesh felt the adrenaline coursing through his veins. The gas was released, and soon, everyone in the house except for the three agents fell unconscious.

The three agents made their way to Jay’s room. With the cameras hacked and the lights off, they moved through the darkened house like shadows.

“We need to be quick,” Rakesh whispered, his mind focused on the task at hand.

Agent 1 hacked the cameras, his eyes flicking over the screen to make sure everything was under control. Agent 3, with the chloroform gas at the ready, kept an eye on the hallway.

Rakesh entered Jay’s room, his eyes scanning the room methodically. He checked the drawers, the cabinets, the closet. Everything was in order. But nothing stood out as suspicious. He then spotted Jay’s phone on the nightstand.

“Agent 1, can you hack this phone?” Rakesh asked.

“Sure, I’ll get the call records for you,” Agent 1 replied.

Within a few minutes, the call records were up on the screen. Rakesh’s eyes quickly scanned through them. Then he saw it—an important call, made to Kulkarni the night before at 9:00 PM.

“Play it,” Rakesh ordered.

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