Ciphers, codes and strategies had always fascinated him. There was a strange pleasure, in finding out what was unknown to all.

Infact, he was perhaps the only cadet in his batch, who knew clearly, why he had joined the army.
It had always been his goal to be recruited in Intelligence.
The thrill of working with codes as a speciality, was what made him feel alive.

And thus, since the past one and half years, he was growing more and more frustrated.
He had never imagined he would have to leave what he loved.

And yet, here he was today, staring at the email he had just received, on his secure email address, which had not pinged for the last 18 months.

A set of numerical entities, to make sense of.

So Intelligence was inviting him back, as covertly as it had disowned him.
Strangely, it angered and pacified him at the same time, as he sat down in his study, and started working, regardless of the hour.

.......

Pooja had told Naina, happily, that night when they were at her base, that Ali had finally proposed to her.
They would be getting married in about 2 months.

Naina was really happy for her friend, whose love life too hadn't been exactly smooth, what with pacifying two families, so different from one another.
But atleast she Ali had with her, through it all.
Naina sometimes found herself sad, at how alone she felt, the next moment scolding herself for such thoughts.
She should be thankful. Thankful for how smoothly things had gone, especially after her roller-coaster KMA days.

When her parents heard of Puja getting married, they had asked Naina to consider it too.
Shown her loads of pictures, some of the guys actually very cute.

She laughed it off, sometimes citing she was too young for it, sometimes that her career had just started, sometimes that the boy in question was not interesting enough.

Raj had decided against going back to Netherlands.
He figured, he could always go, the next time Intelligence fired him.
He wouldn't be so forgiving, then, he had thought, jokingly.
He had been given a new posting in Pune.

.....

Things had returned to a semblance of normalcy, for each of them.
However, each had Naina at the back of their minds.

Huda, who had been the longest with Raj, had obviously guessed that Raj still loved her.
That he probably always will.
And probably will never tell her.

It was the last bit, that puzzled and sometimes worried him.
Everything was fine, then why was Raj still so formal with her?
And she just followed his lead.

Puja, who talked to Naina the most, of all of them, was puzzled too.
She knew Naina's side of the story.
She knew Naina loved him.
Yet, Naina had never admitted that.

Posted at Pune, she often met Raj, though they weren't at the same place.

And by what she saw, Raj remained aloof.
He was never seen at official events, unless compulsory.

Whenever they met, he would always politely enquire about her friends, but never explicitly about Naina. Yet Pooja knew, that was what he wanted to know, because she would breeze over the others quickly, and start gossiping about small silly little things concerning Naina and her posting, and he would listen with a smile.

And he always would ask the same question next time.

......

The wedding was approaching, and Puja had taken about 3 weeks off, so Raj suddenly found himself, with no news of Naina.

At first, he tried to be normal.
But as days went by, he found himself more and more worried.
He would scold himself the next moment, about this unnecessary paranoia, but the fact was, he hadn't been without news of how she was, even in Siachin.
His faithful Bunty was still in KMA, posted under a new undercover officer, but he remained in contact with Raj.

2 weeks had gone by, and Raj finally decided to call Alekh.

He had fumbled through the conversation, confusing Alekh at first, as to why suddenly, Raj had called him.
But soon, realisation dawned on him, and he, casually mentioned her, and soon afterwards, Raj had hung up.

But not before Huda comming up from behind him, and seizing the phone, demanding that Raj attend Ali and Puja's wedding, saying Ali had given him this important responsibility, of bringing him in, at any cost.

Raj, amused, hadn't promised anything, but Huda was sure, he would turn up.

And this time, he was determined to confront him, about Naina.