part 16
hi everyone iam back with my nxt updt. i know, i know iam late again and my apologies"sorrywala face"
hope u like it:-)
manvi and virat had no idea how long they were in the place. it didnt matter. they were enjoying a rare moment of solace, of contentment with each other. for once neither of them needed to say anything. the magic was felt in their surroundings or may be it was just in their hearts. after finally confessing virat was on cloud nine. he held manvi closer to him as they laid down on the grass happy just to be with her and fearing at the same time as the thought of being separated from her passed through his mind . "no, i will not let that happen to us" he resolved.
after some time manvi slowly spoke up,"virat der ho rahi hai"
he said" bus thodi der aur"
manvi said in an indulgent tone"virat"
virat teased"manvi, tum record todna chahti ho kya?"
a confused manvi asked"record?!"
virat gave a smirk and said, "aaj tak kabhi aisa hua ki hum saath baithe ho aur chup rahe ho?itni der tak!? its a first!!! to yeh hamara record hai na!"
virat grinned at his childish joke and manvi joined in. as they laughed manvi said," records ka kya partner ! hum to unhe todne ke liye hi to hai! aaj nahi toh kal todlenge! lekin abhi hum ghar nahi pahunche toh tumhe ek naya record banana padega!"
when virat looked questioningly she griined and replied, "bolt se bhi zyaada tej bhaagne ka record banana padega pa se bachne ke liye!!!!! is liye abhi humari date ko khatm hona hi hoga.!"
virat smiled in goodnaturedly and nodded. even though both were reluctant to leave, they knew this wouldnt be the last time they would spend here. and that hope made them getup and proceed to home
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just as manvi and virat got up, virat heard a distinct sound , that sounded like something heavy dropping. virat instinctively looked up and found in the moonlight, a small boat coming towards the shore in the not too far distance. the boat was far to spot from where he was in the dimlight but near enough for a huge sound to be heard by him. instinctively virats hand went upto manvis head and made her crouch while manvis own hand held on to him tightly. call them both paranoid, but all the recent experiences had left their danger radars hyper alert and both of them were wary.
manvi whispered," virat! u said these were your family lands. is that boat yours or of anyone else at home?"
virat grimly replied,"no! dad hates travelling by water and none of us have aversion to it but we dont own boats. so that does not belong to my family and yet is in my family lands! somethings wrong."
manvi said"we need to get closer"
virat said" no not we, only me"
manvi just glared at him. virat glared back equally adamant."how could the guy say iam his partner and then just go alone in to god knows what!!?" manvi thought. but she knew theres no point arguing with chep in terminator mode. so she tried a different track. " what if they r some gunde and with you gone iam alone here and they catch me?"
virat didnot like her arguement but agreed. he knew it was not fear for self that made manvi voice out that particular arguement, but fear for him and as usual her super girl mode. but still may be together they might be in less danger. so he nodded and both stealthily neared the place.
as they neared the place, both of them saw that the boat was close enough but not exactly anchored to the land. it swayed on the clear water eerily. manvi and virat spotted a few men hardly discernible in the moonlight , throw some boxes on the land from the boat and two men on the bank were deftly catching them. it seemed the sound they heard was one of them accidentally dropping the"catch". the men handled the cargo with a deftness that indicated familiarity with the task which meant they had done it before. even as manvi and virat were debating in a silent language whether they should move closer or not, they both heard the voices they both recognised- adhiraj and yuvraj!!!!!!
"i hate this" yuvi was in a whiny protest. they had been doing this for half hour and unaccustomed to this kind of hard labour(considering the only labour he did was strut around the town), he was in a mutinous mood. the only reason his protest sounded like a whine instead of anger he had no qualms letting out on weaklings was that he feared his bigbro. the guy is scary even if his own sibling.
adi looked in disgust at his young brother," i usually do this myself and i dont need you per se. it was dads idea to involve you so suck it up and if not go back to dad and ask him to give you the same work he gives saloni- primping up."
yuvi cut back his scathing reply for he knew it was not good to rile his bro when at work. so he sighed and continued working. after sometime again unable to stay quiet, " this stream runs around our lands too. its difficult enough to navigate these boats to here. its not a huge harbor we have here. so why the double work. we can let them come around our lands and unload there and save all this strain na?"
adhi replied in condescending voice" sometimes it surprises me how thickheaded u are. a bull's horn cannot penetrate that skull of yours. this cargo is precious and u know that. we go round about through these stupid vadera lands to avoid trail. if anyone follows the boat, they will see it stopping up at vadera lands and suspicion will be in them and not us. and this has worked well so far . and before u ask, theres the danger of them finding out but thats exactly why we should be silent which u apparently cannot be! now one more sound from you..." adhi paused in a menacing voice and continued" i have been doing this for two years with gr8 success and will have no one , not even my idiot brother jeopardise this!"
that shut yuvi up and no more sounds emerged. they completed the unloading in silence and once their cargo van which was near by was filled up , they and the boat silently parted unaware of the fact that virat and manvi were watching them.
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manvi looked up at the clock in vaderas study room. she had no choice but to go back there for she couldnot miss this for anything and ofcourse someone neded to be with virat as he was seething. the thought, no the fact that rathores were using vadera lands to smuggle goods is not exactly a happy one . so she came back hoping her pa would not notice her absence. and she listened as virat,viren ,inder uncle, jeevika, along with her speculated. manvis eyes were heavy with sleep. she had been having a veeery long day and she just wanted it to end. jeevika rubbed her back understanding her tiredness, and manvi felt her eyes grow even more heavy and slowly she drifted into sleep right there even as others continued discussion.
manvi woke with a start, disoriented as to where she is and blinking at the lights. the study room came back into focus and manvi looked up again at the clock to see it was midnight and she had been napping for an hour now. but her grogginess disappeared when she remembered what woke her up. manvi looked up at the room and said to all of them, "guys i got a theory"
they looked up surprised and manvi continued," its more speculation but it possibly makes sense. when i was hunting for rahul, i mean adhi, the police officer there once told me this when they raided the college joint where he secretly sold drugs. the officer said that they had arrested users with drugs on them but not adhi and his supply hoard"
manvi remembered the officers words like they were said just yesterday...
"flashback"...
the officer was saying," manvi iam sorry we couldnt..."
manvi didnt let him finish" i dont want ur apologies ,officer. sorry to be rude but all i want is rahul to pay for his crimes"
officer said" i agree and thats what i want too, but this rahul is turning out to be one slippery guy. i havent searched the underbelly of mumbai for anyone as much as i have done for this guy. but thats just it. he is nowhere."
manvi asked " how do you search for criminals like him?"
officer replied," when the regular search fails,like say trying to identify him with public help and such, our next step is that we search for three things associated with this kind of business- known associates, money and goods themselves-the things we can track down. here we are flummoxed coz the guy has no associates! its rare not to mention impossible to conduct a business like that without help and yet he did it.we dont know how he got the necessary money , his accounts are untraceable and as for the goods we have not been able to track them either. this scale of operation requires they have a store and i have scoured mumbai for that and have been unsuccessful. he must be very paranoid and careful to be able to bring this up single handedly and thats why he is successful so far but we too dont give up easily. trust us manvi, we will track him someday"
"flashback ends"
as manvi finished her retelling everyones faces cleared as things fell into place like a jigsaw that was solved. adhi's whole operation is done from morena! drugs r stored here, money is here thanks to his scum of a father and he doesnt need associates from anywhere else when he can have them here where his fathers loyal chamche r always readily available. no one, not from morena or mumbai would suspect that a small and quaint city like morena would be the center for such an operation and hence noone would follow their trail! it was a brilliant idea and it succeeded in fooling many. but not maya! she found out when she stumbled on to the fact that the factory of rathores got unnecessarily closed. she possibly had discovered the hoard there and paid the price for trying to expose it.!
all of them were sitting stunned as eachone of them reached the sme conclusion. and just then they heard a screech of tyres at the entrance of the house, followed by loud banging on the door. as they looked up, manvi heard her fathers voice loud and clear"open up inder vadera! where is my daughter?"
manvi looked up at everyone in the room and said in a terrified voice as it was the first time she had heard her father angry," hey bhagwaan! main to gayi!"
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