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“F*cking hell,” Krish curses. “Manish, hurry up.”
Ayaan is only a few feet away from the door, completely oblivious that his wristband will not allow him entry inside and will get him caught instead.
“Krish, do something,” I shout.
“Send the backup team inside,” Krish shouts, grabbing another phone connected to the side. “I want Ayaan out of there. Now. Also, keep the local police on standby. If the backup team needs help, we will involve the police. Not until then.”
Krish is doing everything in his power to protect Ayaan from imminent danger, but my body trembles with every step Ayaan takes towards the door. I keep flipping my gaze between Ayaan and Manish on the live feed on the monitor, praying that Manish prevents Ayaan from accessing the door and getting into trouble.
Meanwhile, Raghav is still in the crowd, making his way towards the same door as Ayaan. Both of them are still wearing masks, making it difficult for Raghav to identify who is ahead of him, heading straight for the VIP door. Our last hope is Manish, but just when we think he can reach Ayaan in time, he stumbles and accidentally spills a man’s drink all over his suit. Although Manish apologises, he can’t run to Ayaan without arousing suspicion. The man he stumbled upon is furious with Manish for ruining his suit.
“Manish, get out of there and stop Ayaan,” Krish screams at the top of his lungs. Even though Manish can hear Krish’s command through his earpiece, he is unable to get away as the man starts yelling and arguing with him, holding his shirt collar.
This situation is enough to give me goosebumps, with Raghav so close to Ayaan, Manish unable to stop him, and Ayaan almost reaching the door. Krish is constantly on call with his backup team, who have by now entered the pub.
But before the backup team can reach him, Ayaan stops at the door and swipes his wristband over the device. I shut my eyes in fear, my heart beating at its maximum level, knowing the alarm would go off at any moment and Ayaan would be in trouble. This is it! He will be caught. I cannot even imagine what would transpire if that happened.
The silence stretches for almost a few seconds before I hear Krish screaming at the top of his voice again.
“What the hell!” Krish screams.
Krish’s loud voice forces me to open my eyes and look at the monitor. Wait! The alarms didn’t ring? My jaw drops in surprise as I look at the monitors and see the door of the VIP level slide open, and like the King that Ayaan is, he walks inside like he owns the place. What the hell! I can’t help but follow Krish’s lead in swearing. The situation is such. How did the wristband work? According to Krish, it didn’t have the access it needed to enter the VIP level. Then how the heck did it happen? Before we can dwell on it further, we lose all visuals of Ayaan from all the monitors as he enters the VIP level of ‘The Roost’, where no cameras are allowed. This is where Ayaan will finally get the answers he has been seeking.
CHAPTER 11
AYAAN
The blaring alarm erupts just a minute after I slip through the door, indicating that there has been a security breach. A sly grin creeps across my face, realising the alarms weren’t triggered because of me but because of the man who owns this damn place –Raghav!
Yes, that’s because Raghav is now wearing the same wristband that I did when I first entered ‘The Roost’. Today, once again, my instincts came into play just in time. When I had entered the restroom a while ago, anticipating an encounter with Raghav, I noticed his suit jacket hanging on the side rack as he engaged in a phone conversation. His call revealed his plan to meet someone in his cabin at the VIP level in thirty minutes. Rather than risk an interruption in the restroom, I opted to confront him in his cabin.
As I was getting ready to leave the restroom and make my way towards the VIP level door that led to the basement, I noticed Raghav’s wristband hanging over his suit cufflink. And I used this opportunity to exchange our bands because my intuition told me so. I realised that if I exchanged my wristband for his, I would have access to the entire place rather than just the limited access granted by my own wristband. I didn’t want to take any chances, so I replaced my band with Raghav’s before making my exit from the restroom and here I am. I could make it through that door while Raghav, who tried to walk in wearing my earlier wristband, was denied access and it triggered the alarms. His own guards thought he was an intruder and quickly surrounded him.
I watch the circus unfold in the mirror before me as I make my way to the elevators that’ll take me to the basement. Raghav throws off his eye mask and yanks the collar of one of his guards who has aimed their guns at him under the assumption that he is a traitor trying to breach the property. It’s a sight to behold. In reality, I should have been in Raghav’s place, with his guards pointing their guns at me. However, I’m able to walk around their den freely without attracting any attention. That’s because when a King plays his moves on the board, a lot of unexpected events tend to happen. A King doesn’t play to win, he plays his moves to make his opponent lose.
While the chaos behind me continues and Raghav scolds his security team on why his wristband malfunctioned suddenly, triggering the alarms, I make a beeline towards the elevator and hit the basement button, descending two floors into the abyss.
**************
The doors of the elevator open at the basement level. Muffled voices keep echoing through the doors around, hinting at some dealings happening inside those rooms. I move cautiously, looking for Raghav’s cabin, but it’s a damn maze down here. It’s hard to pinpoint which one of these rooms would be his office. Suddenly, I hear footsteps approaching from behind. I quickly take cover behind a nearby pillar, ready to defend myself with the gun in my pocket – my sole means of defence.
“I’m fine,” I hear Raghav’s voice echo through the hallway. He is on a phone call again. It was his footsteps that I’d heard behind me. “These fools forgot to update my wristband. That’s why the alarms went off.”
Suppressing a smirk, I watch him stride to the last room in the dimly lit hallway – his cabin.
“Johny has some news for us. I have called him here. I will keep you posted,” he adds before concluding the call and barging inside the last room, slamming the door behind him.
I don’t know who he was speaking to, but I have to leave this place before Johny arrives. Without wasting any time, I start moving and head straight to the same room where Raghav went a minute ago. I stop outside the door and look around to make sure no one is watching me before unlocking it with the nozzle of my gun. I gently push the unlocked door open and take a peek inside. I see Raghav standing alone in the room beside a large mahogany desk, with his back facing me. The room is dimly lit with a red light, and the black and dark blue furniture is enough to create a creepy atmosphere that is felt at almost every corner of this place. I take off the eye mask and step inside, kicking the door shut behind me. That one movement is enough to alert Raghav. In a fraction of a second, he turns around to face me, his gun pointing at my head and my gun pointed at his.
In the profound silence that envelops the room, the only sound resonating through its walls is the click of our guns. That is now replaced by the rapid rhythm of our breaths as we lock eyes in a fierce stare. Raghav is shocked to see me here. He would have never imagined I would find him in‘The Roost.’
“You?” Raghav clenches his jaw, his gun still pointing at me. “What are you doing here?”
“Remember, you gate-crashed my wedding reception? How could I not return the favour?” I snicker.
Raghav clenches his teeth, his gaze falling on the wristband, the one I exchanged in the restroom earlier.
“Oh, so it was you who exchanged the wristbands? That’s how you were able to reach this far into my den.”
