So, What happened?

"So....you want to tell me what happened?"

I looked around. The plain gray room. The metal table I'm between. Two chairs. Opposite ends. On one end, I sat. On the other.....

"Well?" Anton said impatiently.

"Is this an interrogation?" I asked.

"Oh no, not at all." He said, flustered.

"However," he paused here, taking a cigarette out of his pocket and lighting it.

"You do understand that there are other people involved, who, shall we say, are not as fortunate as yours truly."

I cringed. That was a low blow, and he knew it. Not that he cared. Policemen rarely did. Not that Anton was a police. Actually, I had no idea who he was. What I did know was that he was someone extremely important.

"I dont think you'll believe me." I said listlessly.

"Try me." Anton said, as he placed his hands on the table, and turned his gaze towards me.

"Well, it all started with 20 lakhs......."

"KARTHIK!!!!!" The voice came like a whip.

I jumped from my chair and nearly fell, but managed to stand up.And look at the extremely imposing image of Devi aunty.She did not look happy.

"Did you arrange the seating for lunch?" She asked in a dangerously low voice.

"Yes."Of course I hadn't.

"You didn't, did you?" She asked again.

The obvious lie didn't work. Plan 2 then.

"Just a minute, aunty." I said, as I bent down, then quickly turned around and ran.

Man, these aunties have very colourful vocabularies.

So I went down to the hall and helped with the seating arrangement for lunch. It was a very big wedding.

The police commissioner's daughter was marrying the businessman's son.

And the wedding was a congregation of all the people who were filthy rich.

And then me. My dad was a police constable, and I was more of a nanny to the commissioner's daughter, taking care of her when her parents were away and so on.

So we were invited to the wedding.

And I was given odd jobs. Because you know.

On a hunch, I grabbed the newspaper left on one of the chairs and checked my horoscope.

"You will face a great difficulty in the near future" it said.

                               **********

Two men sat inside an old ramshackle building, waiting for something.

The older of the two, was tall, had a goatee and had a cigarette in his mouth. He kept his keen eyes on the entrance, waiting for the package.

The other guy sat on a broken chair, flicking a switchblade between his fingers. He was short, and bald, and had a long scar extending over his right eyebrow.

"He's late." The short guy said.

The tall guy said nothing, but kept his eyes on the door.

A minute later, the door opened, and a well dressed person wearing spectacles came in carrying a black briefcase. He saw the two persons, gave a curt nod, kept the briefcase down, and left.

The tall guy, called Ashok picked up the briefcase and motioned to his friend.

Their instructions were simple. Kill the police commissioner.

"You over there! Come here!"The manager yelled.

The diminutive worker quickly shuffled to his side, wondering what heavy things would he have to lift.

"Take that table to the second floor dining hall. Now!" He barked.The worker went up to the table and picked one end. At the other end, another guy held it.

That's a painful scar, the worker thought, looking at him.

                          **********

The briefcase had 4kgs of c4 in it, along with a timed detonator. All Ashok had to do was to get near the bride's room, find an inconspicuous place, and keep the bomb. Once the bomb went off, nearly everyone in the hall would die.

Ashok came to the ground floor of the hall and looked around. People were moving all over the place, in colourful dresses. Hardly anyone paid attention to him. This is good, he thought, as he quietly slipped past the horde of women coming through towards the stairs to the first floor.

The bride's room was in the second floor.

                         **********

"You look lovely darling!"  Mrs.Shah gushed.

Mira Shah blushed, and then looked at the mirror. Clad in a red wedding saree, all kinds of jewellery, henna covered hands, she looked every inch the beautiful bride to be.

"Doesn't she look absolutely ravishing, dear?" Mrs.Shah  asked.

Commissioner Shah looked at his daughter and smiled. The same hardened face that had seen through various criminals was now writ with a sadness.

A sadness that his daughter was leaving home.

"You look lovely dear." He smiled.

                           **********

Perfect, thought Ashok.The stairway ended at the second floor and extended across to a large dining hall. The dining hall then branched into 4 narrow hallways, each hallway flanked by doors on either side. It was near one of these branches that Ashok found a small cul de sac. The cul de sac was in between one of the hallways and the main hall, right behind one of the tables. One could hardly see it from the hallway. Or from the stairs. Perfect.Ashok went to the cul de sac, kept the briefcase, and started the timer.

30 minutes. And it'll all be over.

                              **********

Bunny had a problem.He had to hide. And there was no hiding place.Bunny went through the ground floor, the bathrooms, the kitchen, and the first floor.

And now he was at the dining hall.

He frantically looked around trying to decide where to hide.

Then suddenly he stopped.

Huh? He thought, as he went closer to investigate.

"Found you!" Raji squealed, as she bounded towards him and patted his shoulder.

"I'm bored of this. Let's play something else." Raji complained.

"I've got just the thing." Bunny grinned, as he turned to face her.

He had a black briefcase in his hand.

                                                   **********To be continued...