by Unknown
“Such a sharp officer.” The man continued. “To identify the license plate of a car a hundred yards away at the crack of dawn. And so obliging as to promise to hide key information from the head of the police investigation for your sake.”
Aditya felt a weight drop in his stomach. It had been a trap. The entire events of yesterday had been a setup. And he had been so blinded by his eagerness to get to Satbir's captors that he had fallen for it.
“I am glad events unfolded the way they did.” The man rasped. “After all, it gave us a chance to be formally introduced to each other. I look forward to continuing this conversation at a later date.” With that the man rose, and walked back the way he had come in. Payal sat in her seat, her mind still in shock as her heart hammered in her chest.
Virat was already out the door. He ran down the stairs, out the doorway and into the restaurant. Payal had risen shakily from her seat and was making her way away from her table, a slightly dazed look on her face. She spotted Virat and relief flooded across her face. “How did I do?”
Without stopping to think, Virat strode up to her and gathered her in his arms, ignoring the hotel staff and restaraunteurs who were openly gaping at them. “You did great. Really great.”
“Thanks.” Payal's voice was sligthly muffled, but she hugged him back as well. “I don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon. This James Bond stuff is harder than it looks.”
“I know.” Virat finally released her as it occurred to him that she was still wearing the speaker, and their conversation was being recorded on the other end. “Let's get you unhooked from that machine.”
“Right.” Payal said quickly. Her face was slightly flushed as she followed Virat out of the restaurant.
* * *
In the hotel room, Shahid was replaying the video from the restaurant. They watched as the man spoke his final words, then rose and disappeared from the camera view.
“Was that him?” Shahid demanded, pausing the video and turning to Aditya, who was staring at the screen in silence. “Was that the man you're looking for?”
No. Aditya felt a strong urge to say the word out loud. But he did not. The conversation he had listened to was floating around the corners of his mind, taking on various shapes and colours. And yet, the bigger picture was still murky.
“I don't think that was him.” He spoke at last, more to himself than to Shahid. “Or it could be. I can't say for sure. He's definitely involved in some way. For him to know all that. To come face to face with Payal knowing we're watching him. But there's something else. Why was he acting so strange? The way he spoke. The way he sat their with-”
Aditya stopped talking abruptly. He stood rooted, gazing out of the hotel window unseeingly. In his mind he was seeing the man sitting with his head cocked to one side, watching Payal intently, but with slightly unfocussed eyes. He heard an echo of his own words to Payal less than an hour earlier. The body language had been wrong. The body language had been all wrong. And this was not the man he was looking for.
“He was listening to someone else.” Aditya spoke at last. “That's why he was wearing the scarf, to hide the headphone. He was just a lackey. Someone was feeding him information. Telling him what to say. Someone who knows about my investigations. Someone powerful, and with resources. Someone who's been following my movements and knows who I am.”
There was a pause as the implication of his words registered on Shahid.
“So that means, when Payal was talking to that man,” Aditya turned to gaze at him. “I was talking to X.”