Noor has been my best friend since our trainee days as NIA agents. So when she was suspected of the bombing of a new facility in the regional branch of NIA, Junagadh, it was a tough pill to swallow. She's a dedicated agent and my best friend for Christ's sake!

The accusations began with her ID card being found underneath the rubble at the bombing site. A massive scale of ammunition came to be installed in the new building owned by the NIA, equipment and technology work destroyed along with the infrastructure. The enquiry commission suspected an insider involvement. Not a bad hunch, I'd say, there is an insider.

The agency knows I am her best friend so it's a surprise when I am put on the investigators team who are to look into the matter.

Arjun Raj Chadda. He and I date back to our academy days. He was my snobby senior I despised. We basically didn't get along on several training assignments as he was rude, principled, all uptight; it was aggravating to work with him. Years later you would think it would be a different scenario but it’s not. Presently, I'm in the agency's cafeteria downing my third cold coffee at the late hour. Our investigations and enquiry procedures sometimes go day and night. There is always a mountain of paperwork to handle. The summer's heat is brutal. Our teammate collapsed the other day. I’m determined to persist, desperate to prove my friend's innocence that none of that matters.

I’m forbidden to check on her. She has been officially suspended from her duties for 4 months now. I have been worrying, yes. But I didn't contact her, obeying the rules.

She's presently still on house arrest. I frown at the message I just received from her asking me to meet at the abandoned pub on the city's outskirts. If she was under house arrest how did she get access to a mobile and how did she just send me a message? If she just wants my soothing presence then I will just give her that.

I wait outside the pub. A while passes before a hand grabs me by the elbow and drag me towards my car.

“I was tailing you because you were acting odd. Here you are, Alana!”

“Arjun!”
I stare at his face. His handsome 30-something face, a couple of years older than me, all serious in profile. I look like a kid compared to him, you know?

“Are you daft? Why come to this shady place alone at night? Why defy my orders? You were supposed to work with Milind to unlock Noor's laptop. We need proof against her. You were put on the team hoping to get her through you, and you fall into her games? How naive you are!”

***
I only understand the gravity of Arjun's words when the accusations find a new target. Over the week, we didn't find any clue on Noor's involvement but the shadows of suspicion leave her, slowly clinging on to me.

The pub I visited, the message I received… Turns out, I even replied to her though I didn't. Milind suspects my phone was hacked! He and Arjun are sure Noor is working with an unnamed terror outfit and she is the one who hacked my phone. Her laptop is the likely culprit that installed a bug in my phone.

That sunny afternoon my head spins at the proof the enquiry commission gathered against me. My call data with this terror outfit.

I think I am doomed, then Arjun and Milind back my case. I'm on house arrest the following weeks, while the restrictions on Noor are loosening. There’s nothing I can do to help Arjun, Millind or the others on my team.

Miraculously, they unearth the pictures of Noor inside the pub and various other places, her secret called data exposing her link to the terrorist. Tears flood my eyes when I’m proven innocent. I’m filled with regret and gratitude.

As I resume my agent duties in the coming week, Arjun meets me in our cafeteria late that night. Milind is with him, their eyes and smile consoling me. Arjun tells me I am not a terrible person for believing in my friend. I never expected he'd  comfort me. I accept it with a smile. Thus begins an unlikely friendship between us…

Never did I think we would be friends. He's certainly a big part of my rescue. I’m forever grateful to him and everyone who reached me. All these years, I considered Noor to be my light and Arjun to be a dark shadow of the past. But in the end he was the shadow to my own light that saved me.