Chapter 2
She heard a sneeze in the distance and her eyes flew open. The feeling that something was amiss dawned upon her and she blinked rapidly to adjust to the darkness. Slowly, she lifted her head and took a cursory glance around the shack.
"Arrogant son of a..." she muttered and rolled her eyes. Of
course he would go off on his own first. Why trust a team comprised of the best
of the best when you were Arjun Sadu-kant Raute, right?
Sighing irritably, she flung her legs over her hay bed and stood
up. A sharp breeze hit her and she almost crawled back into the bed, missing
arrogant super cop be damned. But another quiet sneeze put her on alert and she
eyed Chotu and Shree's sleeping bodies with jealousy before grudgingly weaving
around them and out of the shack.
She found herself surrounded by a looming silence and cursed
quietly as she realised that she had forgotten her sandals. Rousing the
slumbering wrath of Sameer Rathod was too great a risk to take and she began
walking forward briskly while grumbling about the thankless nature of Arjun
Raute.
A third sneeze, louder than before, unnerved her, more so
because she now knew which direction to head in. She briefly analysed the
dangers of what could happen if the sneezer was not Arjun and her fingers fumbled
as she located the Swiss army knife in her pocket.
So busy was she in finding said knife that she did not
notice the large, jagged rock in her path. She stepped right onto its sharp
point and tripped over the hulk of stone, landing face first onto the dry
ground with a painful thump. She waited until the sand in the air cleared before
opening her eyes, only to find herself looking down into what appeared to be a remarkably
deep pit. An animal trap, she assumed. She lifted her head and looked about
herself frantically, thanking every force on Earth when she realised that neck down,
she was still lying safely on flat ground; it was only her head that lay on the
crook of the pit.
Her relief was short-lived, however, when she heard a snide
voice remark, "So are you planning on continuing to make a fool of yourself or
are you going to help me up too?". She looked down at the voice in surprise to
see none other than Arjun himself, sitting casually at the bottom of the pit
while throwing and catching little pebbles in the air.
"You know, that's quite a risky choice of tone for a grown man stuck at the bottom of a pit with no one but myself to turn to."
"Don't pat yourself on the back just yet," he drawled sarcastically, "You'll be doing little more than exhibiting some of that wonderful teamwork you're always blabbering on about".
Her nostrils flared. "I have more than half a mind to leave you there to rot, ACP Arjun Raute. And frankly, the word 'teamwork' is quite the dirty slur coming from your lips. What the hell is the matter with you, anyway? Do you really believe yourself to be that much of a God that you cannot even rely on the rest of us - the most competent members of our respective fields, might I add - to solve a case that has been assigned to us all?" He opened his mouth to interrupt but she was on a roll. "Dear Lord, remind me to congratulate the entire ETF team on actually refraining from throttling you for constantly undermining us by going off and doing your own thing. I guess there really is a bit of a saint in everyone!"
Fuming, she ended her diatribe; her chest heaved with the exercise.
He looked up at her and stated simply, "You're right. Now, go away."
She blinked stupidly. "What?"
He rolled his eyes and continued in a flat tone, "I'm irritating and you're right, I don't give a damn about the opinions of the rest of the ETF. I also don't give a damn about your help. So once again, go away." He didn't seem angry in the slightest and she found herself at a complete loss on what to say.
"Better leave while on a high, Riya," she muttered to herself. Aloud, she announced, "Fine. I'll be on my way then".
He nodded nonchalantly, as if she had just announced that she was going to get some ice cream, and, a little hesitantly, she began walking away from him.
He watched her leave and didn't bother telling her that she was walking in the wrong direction. She could find that out for herself.
Edited by kaamchorni - 10 years ago