“But you don’t have anything in Kashmir.” Sufiyaan pointed. “Take your pick from South Kashmir. My candidate will not stand from there. You will win. Make your clout outside of Jammu and these few lanes of Srinagar.”
“10 minutes are up,” Samar remarked, and got to his feet.
“Offer is open, Samar sahab. Think and answer. Nobody has earned any extra points by being a loyal dog to their Party President.”
Samar turned and thudded down the stairs.
Nobody had earned any extra points by being loyal to their Party President. But nobody had ever lived with themselves after trading people either.
————————————————————
“Hello.”
“We found him.”
“Where?”
“In Shankracharya Forest Reserve,” Faris relayed. “Adil was there and Atharva came later. They talked about radio frequencies last night. There is static noise from their playback. Possibly old sound recordings.”
“What is happening now?”
“They are trying to recover the recordings.”
“They haven’t yet?”
“No. Adil worked all last night.”
If Adil was unable to retrieve the data in one night, then it was seriously tough to pry open. But if he was pulling all-nighters and going to these lengths to hide it from him, it meant there was something solid in there. About Aamir Haider.
“Should I send in a raid?”
“No.” Samar stepped out of his car and locked it. Both the houses were silent, dark. It was way past 2. The time for everybody, even the late-nighters, to sleep.
“Why?”
Samar walked towards the outhouse. “You will raid it and take it, then what will you do with it?”
Faris didn’t have an answer.
“Wait him out. He will crack it open. He won’t stop until he does. We will see then what to do.”
“Should I keep surveillance until then?”
“Hmm.”
“Always Hmming.”
Samar halted, turning his head to the right. To Amaal.
“Ok,” he said into his mobile and ended the call. Then turned to her — “What are you doing here?’
She was decked up. A dress and all. A coat over it all to cover it up. Even in the lamplight, he could see she had makeup on. Her hair was not down. It was wound up in some bun.
“Coming home.” She said, pulling her mobile out of her purse. “You?”
Samar eyed the mobile in her hand. If there was a surface available somewhere here, she was bound to forget it there.
“Where were you?”
