“In this, I wasn’t about to let you go solo.”
“So you kidnapped Adil and sliced him open?”
He stilled. “I…” he opened his mouth, then shut it. “I… never intended for anything to happen to him. All I wanted was to secure whatever he had discovered. But he didn’t have it… my men couldn’t get anything out of him. Then he escaped and his guard tried to scare him with a knife.”
“Your guard had to know that man was a soldier. Nothing scared him. Nothing.”
“Listen, Adil, he is…” his voice broke, “as much mine as he is yours.”
“Leave.”
The shock returned, this time with fear.
“Give me a chance to explain properly. I know you think what I did was wrong, my means were, I know. But try and see it from my perspective. My intentions…”
“Leave.”
Panic was creeping up his body. Samar stared at Atharva. A wall. Nothing could get through to him right now. He himself wasn’t in a condition to say anything sane right now.
So he turned and did what he always did best — walked.
————————————————————
Samar sat on the windowsill in his room. He knew Atharva would come. When, he did not know. But he knew Atharva would come before the night was up.
It was past midnight when the door of his room was thrown open.
“How is Adil?” He asked.
“Alive,” Atharva closed the door. “You didn’t leave here.”
“Don’t I know you would have me watched?”
“Why.”
“Atharva…”
“Why.” He crossed his arms across his chest, looking calm enough to listen.
Samar sighed. “You kept me out of this. I asked, I hinted, I even gave you opportunities… but you didn’t let me in even when you believed Adil was gone. You knew Aamir Haider is a personal thorn. You knew how badly I needed this closure…”
“That’s exactly why I kept you away!”
“That was not your decision to make!” Samar shot to his feet.
“And so you went and kidnapped our friend. Then you kept him for weeks, god knows in what condition, and stabbed him?”
“I swear to you that was not how we kept him. I… shit. Adil was kept very well. But he wouldn’t give anything. Patience was wearing thin. And then… one of my men tried alternative tactics…”
“Fuck you.”
“I didn’t know until it was too la…”
“Fuck you, Samar.”
His head was exploding. Samar pulled off his spectacles and shut his eyes, hanging his head to get the blood flowing. It was too bad to settle now.
“What did Sufiyaan Sheikh offer you?”
