I decided to post another chapter.
Chapter 2 – The Hunt
Arjun got up from his crouching position after inspecting the part of the road where the kidnapping occurred. It was a relatively deserted stretch of road, so the evidence of struggle was still there. Couple of tire marks of a vehicle suddenly pulling away had imprinted on the dirt. A couple of drops of blood and a few patches of fur further added credence to the struggle. He frowned a bit at the blood drop and turned to look at the kids and the dog. A visual inspection didn’t reveal any wounds.
“Are any of you hurt?”
The kids nodded in denial.
“Then do you know whose blood is this?”
Suddenly Aryan’s face lit up as he recalled a specific piece of information.
“When initially the kidnapper tried to take away Choco, Mimi bit him hard, so that’s the kidnapper’s blood. But then the second kidnapper came to help and they got away”
Arjun’s face lit up in hope that the lab may be able to analyze the blood stain and found any matching criminal on the database. The ETF lab was out of bounds after what happened, so he had to find some other forensic expert to analyze the samples. That’s when he realized that he had forgotten an important part of information.
“What kind of dog is Choco? Do you have his pictures?”
Nila fished out a mobile phone and handed him over a picture of herself, Aryan, Mimi and a brown and black colored Shih Tzu, who could be only Choco. It was a very cute picture. He said that to them. Nila beamed at him.
“This is my favorite picture. Maasi took this. She is very good at taking pictures you know.”, her smile faded. Arjun noticed this and asked her what happened.
“Choco is my Maasi’s baby. She found him when he was a tiny puppy. She fed him, cleaned him, and took care of him like a baby. She would be devastated if she found that he is missing.”, said a forlorn Nila.
Arjun slowly patted her shoulder, comforting her.
“I think you should tell your family. She should know about this. Also, you need to go back home, your family would be worrying about your whereabouts.”
“No, you don’t understand. We can’t go back without Choco.”
Arjun frowned at this. The vehemence in Nila’s voice raisedred flag for him. Were they being abused?
“Listen kids, do you feel safe? Do you think that your Maasi would get angry with you and hurt you if you go back without Choco?”
Aryan, who was silently listening to Nila and Arjun’s conversation, jumped in with righteous indignation.
“What? NOOO. Our Maasi is not like that. She loves us the most in this whole world. She and grandpa took us in since we were orphaned as babies. She has been our sole guardian since grandpa died 5 years ago. She would never hurt us. Nila, tell him.”
Nila nodded her head vigorously.
“He is right, our Maasi is really good. She would never hurt us. She always took care of us and sacrificed everything to provide us a good and stable home. She is currently away on a business. We can’t go home yet. If she comes to know about this, she would leave no stones unturned until she finds him. That would put her career and life in danger. Please help us uncle. Please help us find Choco as soon as possible so that our Maasi doesn’t come to know about this.”
The earnest pleading looks melted his already melting heart further. The puppy dog eyes of Mimi didn’t help the matter. He gathered them in a group hug trying to sooth the distraught children. Suddenly his phone rang and the collar ID showed Shree. Frowning, he picked up the call.
“Arjun sir, please don’t yell. You were right and we were wrong. We, well except Sakshi, realized our mistake after you left. I have been tracking the stolen or missing dog reports and I found that in that area, there were 15 missing/stolen dog reports lodged with the local police station. They didn’t of course investigate about it, but the reports are there. It looks like an organized gang and not a one time incident.”
Arjun’s brows furrowed as he processed this information.
“Shree, get to this address as soon as possible with Liza. Tell her to carry the field kit. There are kidnapper’s blood at the scene as Mimi bit one of them before they could flee.”
Once the call was cut, he turned to the kids and told them that his colleagues were coming. A dark look passed between Aryan and Nila. Sighing, Arjun tried to speak up in favour of his colleagues,
“Look, I am not defending what they said or did. What I know is that, my team, apart from Sakshi, are good people. They had a momentary lapse of judgement. We have been working non-stop on a case for the past three days and they were all tired. On top of that, you can blame it on their upbringing and society. In fact, as you know, most of the people in India doesn’t really care about animals, especially dogs or cats. So the society as a whole doesn’t put any value to their lives above humans. I agree that it is plain wrong, and people are slowly changing with the exposure to the rest of the world through internet and whatnot. ETF team is a perfect example for that. Your words today changed most of their thought process. All I would ask is that to give them a chance to be better person.”
After a moment of silence, the kids nodded in yes and Arjun sighed in relief. After 20 minutes of waiting Shree and Liza came there. He informed Arjun that Rathore and Aaisha were going through the CCTV footages captured in the other incidents. After Liza took the blood sample, the team plus the kids and the dog went back to ETF. They were greeted by a still sulking Sakshi. She was going to say something when she saw Mimi, but one glare from Rathore was to enough to shut her up. She took her bag, flipped her long hairs in disdain and walked out of the room.
It was like a fire was lit under the team’s behind. They worked frantically trying to piece together any clues regarding the culprits. They wanted to redeem themselves in the kids’ eyes. By the time they pieced together the clues and found out the criminals’ hideout, the sun was already set. They geared up checking their guns and other weapons. They were going to get someone to watch over the kids and Mimi when all of a sudden the Commissioner Raghu Dixit arrived. Everyone stood up and saluted him. He waived at them gesturing to be at ease.
“Raghu sir, what a pleasant surprise! What brought you here?”
“Well Sameer, I am here on a personal capacity. I am here to take them”, he gestured towards the kids and Mimi.
This stumped the team. What in the world! How did the kids knew the Commissioner. The kids seems to be hiding behind Arjun whereas Mimi didn’t have any such inhibition as she was trying to hug the Commissioner. Raghu patted her head at this exorbitant welcome, chuckling slightly. Looking at the kids, he sobered immediately. He knelt down and opened his arms wide.
“Apne naanu ke pass nahi aaoge?”
That undid it. Kids ran to him and the damn burst as they cried earnestly in his shoulder. Their heart wrenching pain dropped like an acid to the present ETF team members, reminding them of their initial folly once again. Raghu soothed them with an experienced motion, slowly patting their hair and muttering sweet nothings into their ears, while Mimi curled around them. When the sobs gradually turned into hiccups, he slightly parted away from them and kissed all three of their foreheads.
“Does she know?”, asked a meek Nila.
He smiled in reply. When he realized that she was going to panic,he added,
“Don’t worry, by the time she came to know, she was already on her way back. Her business concluded early. She wanted me to come and get you first. She asked me to tell you not to worry and everything will be fine.”
She sighed and kept her head back in his shoulder.
The ETF was confused with what was going on in front ofthem. Arjun cleared his throat making Raghu to look up.
“Aaah. Sorry, I forgot about you all for a moment. I know these kids. I was their grandpa’s best friend and of course I became the Godfather to all of his kids. Naturally, when these kids were born, I became their God grandparent, if you would say. They call me Naanu. And Mimi calls me Woof Woof. Isn’t Mimi?”
“Woof Woof”, replied Mimi earning a chuckle from all of them present.
“I didn’t know about them being here, but then Sakshi came to me half an hour ago complaining about this case. Naturally, she didn’t know about my connection to them, but I realized that she was talking about my kids, so I came here soon after that. Can you give me an update regarding the case?”
“Certainly sir. There were 15 dogs apart from Choco were either stolen or missing from that area. Even though the number plate and colour of the vehicles which were used to ferry the dogs were different, while going through the CCTV footage, Arjun found out that every vehicle had same dent on the side, which means that it was same vehicle, but with fake number plate and they changed the colour of the vehicle often. We were able to track down the same van entering a road and exiting with a different colour. That road only leads to a big warehouse, so we are assuming that that’s their hideout. As you came in, we were just going to raid that place.”, finished Sameer.
“Good. I am not going to waste anymore of your time. Moveout. Try to bring Choco back. He is very important to this family.”
Sameer and Arjun nodded, and the ETF team moved out of the building.
As the ETF vehicle approached the warehouse, they could see that the entire warehouse area was well lit. Arjun ran out of the jeep, followed by his team members. They could hear dogs’ barking, growling and whining sounds from inside the warehouse. Their progress was halted by the kidnappers who came out to investigate the vehicle. Sudden onslaught of bullets forced the ETF members to take cover. They returned the fire, Arjun’s marks hitting the destination each time. Out of the 10 or so criminals, only 5 were remaining. As they realized that they are running short on people, then ran inside the warehouse while ETF pursued them.
The conditions inside the warehouse broke their heart. There were dogs of all size and breeds kept in tight cages, some even looked emaciated. Arjun gestured his team members to look after the dogs while he was going to pursue the criminals, much to Sameer’s chagrin.
Righteous fury flowed through Arjun’s veins as he stalked his targets. How inhuman of them! He was going to show them that there are people who protect those who can’t speak up for themselves.
He saw a silhouette of someone ducking to backside of the warehouse. He followed the figure. Next moment, the gun fell from his hand as a heavy object collided with his fingers. Arjun turned and found a criminal. He evaded the next blow by moving slightly to right side. He landed a hit on the criminal with a right upper cut on his chin. The criminal stumbled with the blow.
Suddenly Arjun felt a searing pain on his right side, he turned around and there was another criminal with some kind of machete in his hand and painfully, Arjun realized that the pain in right side was from that blade. He looked sideways and he could see the blood tickling from an open wound in his right upper arm. The previous foe forgotten; Arjun turned to the new foe which became his undoing. A blow from the behind caught Arjun on his thigh dropping him on his back. Soon he was surrounded by all 5 criminals. Blow upon blow rained on Arjun as he struggled to get up. When he thought that if he doesn’t get up soon his life was going to end, in his peripheral vision he saw a figure flying over him and landing a kick at one of the criminals faces, knocking him out cold. The other criminals looked shocked at this sudden turn of events. The figure lowered the hoodie, revealing a feminine face beneath it. The remaining criminals seeing this, started snickering and encircled her. They walked around like predators. The girl looked at the men with a cool face, then looked at him and back at the men.
“Aurat ki kabiliyat pe kabhi shak nahi karna chahiye”, said she provoking the men.
One of the men lunged forward, which she easily moved away from. She brought her left leg up and brought down in a straight line hitting the man’s head in the process and forcing him on the floor. The man went down without a word. The other three criminals realized that she was not someone to be taken lightly and started attacking her. She started running towards the wall with the criminals pursuing her. Without stopping, she kicked the wall using her right leg and did a complete back flip letting her body soar through the air and landing behind the men. Arjun was astonished seeing this as he has seen that move only in some parkour videos. The men were also as astonished as he was. That caused them greatly as with two more blows to the pressure points, two men went down like sacks of potato. Only one remained. He took out a knife and tried stabbing her with it. She parried the attack with her left hand, while her right hand chopped at his Adams apple. He clutched his neck and started making choking sound. She hit the back of his neck rendering him unconscious. She surveyed her surroundings making sure that no threat is remaining. Her gaze then fell upon Arjun who was looking at her bewildered. She walked to him and knelt in front of him.
“Are you okay? Can you get up?”
Arjun nodded his head in a slight daze. She helped him to get up, supporting him as his legs seemed still a bit wobbly. By then some police officers have entered the scene and apprehended the unconscious criminals. Looks like Rathore had called in the backup, thought Arjun. With the help of the mystery girl, Arjun walked back to the warehouse. His teammates ran to his direction as soon as they saw him. The girl moved away immediately and started towards the dogs.
There were veterinarians and animal support groups on the scene. They were checking the dogs and giving them food and water. Amidst all this noise, a sudden bark caught everyone’s attention and a small dog squirmed away from his handler’s grasp and started running towards the mystery girl. The girl, hearing the bark, turned her head towards the direction of the bark. Her eyes lit up as she saw the dog. The dog jumped in the air and the girl caught him gracefully. She started peppering kisses all over the dog while the dog started licking the girl and jumping all over her hand. She ended up laying on the floor as he jumped up and down on her body, his tail wagging nonstop. Everyone present there had smile on their face seeing this reunion. It was Arjun who realized the connection first.
“Are you Nila and Aryan’s Maasi?”, asked Arjun after the initial excitement had died down.
The girl looked at Arjun’s direction. She got up from the floor and patted her body to get rid of any dust. She then picked up the dog whom by now everyone recognized as Choco. She walked towards them.
“Yes, I am Riya Mukherjee, Nila and Aryan’s maasi. Thank you very much for finding Choco. I apologize for any kind of inconvenience you had because of my niece and nephew.”
She gave them a grateful yet embarrassed smile. Arjun waved her concerns away which gifted him with a brilliant, dimpled smile. Arjun forgot to breath for a moment. His heartbeat started raising and a flush slowly crept up his face. His legs buckled a bit, which thankfully everyone mistakenly thought was the result of his injury. Thanking the team once again, she left with her dog, leaving the ETF and rest of the police force behind to reunite the other dogs with their guardians.
It was only when she left that they remembered one question. How did she get there and how the hell did she took out 5 men without any weapons and saved Arjun’s life in the process???
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