Bohot der kardi Krishi ne update karne mein, hai na?! Lekin kya karein, kaafi pol khulne wale haiii!

This is a mysterious spin wala part toh, keep your inline comments and keep guessing my loveliessss! :P

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Rustling leaves denoted the ominous presence of a strong gust, floating by every now and then.

Manik's heavy footsteps came around the corner as he noticed Nandini by a black door that was shedding paint. She was examining the intricately crafted lock. Leaning against the door, his bare, perfectly sculpted shoulder brushed the dark plank as he crossed his arms. He passed a fleeting glance at the blinking numbers and nonchalantly mused, "It takes in a number code."

"Pata nahi kaunse mehnge gehne chupe hain in this godown looking thing ki they need to secure it!" She bit sarcastically, registering that there were nine stupid blanks to fill in the unknown code. The sheer number of permutations and combinations that the code could comprise of... her grey matter ached to even think about it.

The phrase incited a smirk from her partner, who had usually pinned Nandini to be filled with sunshine vibes. "It's strange na..." he begun, unclear of where exactly to lead the conversation. All he knew was that it was beyond remarkable that for once, just once, Nandini was more grumpy than him!

It reflected that the optimistic, glowing woman was furiously hustling towards finding something very significant to her. And even though he was led like a blind sheep in the dark, he was glad to be a part of it.

Warm bubbles from within, as a result of their companionship, spread across the naked skin on his shoulders and forearms, lighting his spirits ablaze. "Tum ab mujhse lad nahi rahi ho. In fact... tum normally baatein kar rahi ho." What sparked the shift in their dynamic, he struggled to understand while what took Nandini by surprise was the disbelief in his remark... as if it was the last thing he had anticipated from her.

Not that he wanted her to fight with him, even though he would not complain about it if she did. Be it a steel-like deathly punch, skin pierced by her herbivorous teeth or sharp whimpers emanating from her beautiful throat because of his sweet administrations, knowing he could generate a violent reaction out of her – be it out of toe-curling pleasure or hair-ripping distress – was a huge ego-booster.

What more did a man need from his woman?

His deep wonderment on the matter offended her to say the least. Throughout the evening, when she had been in search of answers surrounding him, he had been tight-lipped and evasive of it. Now, when she wasn't badgering him with any sort of questions and was instead accepting him for whoever he portrayed to be, he had a problem with that too?

Reverse psychology was indeed a boon!

Her head fiercely spun to him. "Ab meri sweetness se bhi tumhe dikkat hai? People normally smile when others speak nicely to them lekin nahi, smile ka toh rehne hi do... you're instead surprised about this, somewhat irritated, maybe even angry... humesha ki tarah khadoos, that much is clear!"

Her arms animatedly flapped, forming dramatic movements larger than herself, capturing his attention even as Manik's facial muscles grew increasingly tense. "What?!" He ridiculed.

Impatience radiated from the petite woman. Her arms crossed over her chest and she rolled her eyes, tapping her foot restlessly. He had learnt through fresh experience, on receiving a famous punch, that it was best to not to meddle with her in that state.

Her flaring nostrils and scrunched up eyebrows perfectly profiled her as an angry bird. Gulping to traipse cautiously and not make matters worse for himself, his brain was ransacked for ideas on what he could say or do next. Anything could fling the angry bird into dangerous territory. That was when it dawned on him what she was implying.

His mystifying eyes twinkled. "You... you want to see me smile?"

When did she ever say that?

Nandini's cheeks heated from the inside at the mild realisation that she would indeed love that. His endearing smile was far superior to his lopsided grins that were slightly infuriating – and moderately added to his appeal – if she had to be honest. She opened her mouth to counter him on his resolution with a mild taunt.

The background of an oddly abandoned road, the lack of street lights. and how deserted the house they were presently examining was got her rehashing her moves. If she fuelled a fight with him on this petty topic just to one-up him, there was no way she could get back home in one piece.

"Listen, tum na..." She was searching for words while Manik merely admired her, giving her the glorious smile she had so innocently asked for without her knowledge. Too bad she wasn't even looking. Running her finger beneath her nose, she distracted herself from being conscious of his stare. "...aise ainvayi baatein karna band karo and make yourself useful."

Manik's jaw fell: the audacity of her to say such a thing, after being the world's biggest chatterbox! "Kaun, main?!" 

"Obviously you! Pay attention now! This code has nine blanks." The corners of her lips twitched when he side-eyed him and noticed his overt displeasure at being reprimanded. He was behaving like a toddler who was deprived of his favourite icecream. Making sure not to cast anymore glance in his directions, Nandini was notably still flushed when she suggested, "Did you see the plot number when we entered? It was something like 13/13... if we expand that to a date na,"

Interrupting her tangential implorations with a sigh, Manik exasperated. "You've got to be kidding me." Nandini appeared grim. "That's far out, Nandini. Tumhe kya lagta hai, the house-owner wants ki loug aise hi andhar ghus jaaye? The code won't just be out in the open like that."

"If it's a normal house, yes, but didn't you see? There wasn't any furniture properly set up, nor any sign of it currently being occupied." His unremarkable silence, as he registered how observant she was, probed her to continue.

"Look at the abnormalities, Manik. The mailbox is empty. Nobody lives here... yet, it's protected with electric-powered fences and a modern number lock – not a key. You see, with keys na..." She took a step closer, "...it would have to swap hands, and that would mean whoever owns this place would have to reveal themselves, at some point, to some occupant."

A scorched heave of breath left his body as his instincts flared. The weight of her awareness on the topic concerning immoral activities bore on him.

"But anyone can know a number code and enter," he asserted, imbibing her point as casually as he could pretend to. What she said made complete sense and twisted his guts uneasily, but he hid that well. "They're not concerned about securing the place as much as they are worried about their privacy."

Nandini nodded while she noted the appearing paleness in his features. It must have been the most jarring perspective for him to put his feet in. From the few hours she had gotten to see him, in close proximity and without a lover-boy filter he posed seven months ago, she had learned that his primary motivation for anything was a strong feeling of protectiveness.

Not only ensuring a sense of security, but being responsible for it... even at his expense, if it came to it.

It didn't quite fill the gaps she had in her understanding of him, especially the version of him she had fallen for months ago. Presently, however, him immorally kidnapping her, yet giving her free-will in his presence, was proof of that instinct ruling his decisions and choices.

Perhaps, seeing the abnormalities from the other side of that coin – the selfishness that would motivate such an act – threw him off, just like how the immorality of a man, associated with the military and her best friend, had flipped Nandini's world upside down.

His calm voice broke her trailing thoughts that were beginning to sympathise with him. "It can't be a personally significant code then, Nandini, because that could link back to them and they wouldn't want that."

The little bit of strength he showcased, to rebel with his instincts and see another perspective beyond his own, got Nandini opening up about the theories that were brewing in her mind for months. "If you think about it, doesn't this sound like the perfect location to stash secrets... right there in plain sight so nobody bats an eye?"

Even though he knew she was saying something, it was hard to focus on the content. His brain wish-washed in his head, and his palm fiercely struck the door for balance. Freezing his gaze on the beautiful woman, who distractedly dropped to her knees to scan her tote for something, a wave of blackening vision dissociated Manik from the reality of the situation. With her Appa's pen, she scribbled in her black diary. Manik tipped his head backwards, blinking rapidly while heaving deep breaths.

"Look. 1st of March 2013... that is 0 1 0 3 2 0 1 3. Eight numbers."

On noticing Manik still standing, Nandini lifted her head. At that same moment, he promptly crouched beside her to regain some stability, pinching the bridge of his nose with his right hand just in case he bled.

The book was on her lap and the pen was smacked on the spine of it. "Or 3rd of Jan 2013... by American standards." He carefully picked up the gold-encased device and hesitated, feeling light-headed.

Badly needing some physical support yet second-guessing how his actions might be perceived, Manik trembled in his spot. There came a point where thinking any further was impossible. His arm put gentle pressure on the book, and in turn her thigh, as in jagged strokes amidst his vignetting vision, he jotted down the numbers 0 3 0 1 2 0 1 3 on the line underneath hers.

Taken aback by the unexpected rush of some soft unnamed emotions, Nandini remained rooted in her spot. Wispy strands of hair were swaying with the wind, magnetising towards her. A small mark on his forehead, that she had not priorly noticed on his otherwise unblemished skin, caused Nandini to magically blink. From that angle, she saw all the reasons why she had been attracted to him in the beginning. None of those reasons could explain the tenderness in her heart at their current closeness. 

Torn between her unexplainable urges to wrap her hands around his bicep and to tenderly lean on his shoulder, and the logical decision to shove him off her and enforce some distance between them, Nandini debated the consequences of each.

Then the weight on her was suddenly gone. "Right." She said, snapping out of her trance as he softly placed the pen back where he picked it from. "Either way, we're still missing one digit so it can't be that. 1, 3, 13... does it strike a bell? Some kind of pattern? Prime numbers?"

Manik stood to his feet, turning his back to her as he ran a finger under his nose and mildly examined an absence of red. "How are we so sure those are definitely the numbers?"

"We're not, we're just guessing all possibilities."

"But all possibilities would be..."

"Nine to the power nine, it'll run in crores. We can't try all of them, that's why we need to pick and choose the most plausible ones... from whatever information we have so far." Which also wasn't much, she resolved dejectedly. What they had gathered so far was that there was that boat that was painted Pecoraro, some military engineering statues within the house and a Mona Lisa painting decorating the otherwise drab and oddly vacant living room.

Manik shrugged. "Theek hai, let's consider the prime numbers theory – 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 1, 1, 1, 3... it sounds likely, but 1 is not a prime slice," In a 'as-a-matter-of-fact' tone, he said it, unaware of the small smile growing on her lips: he was indeed knowledgable.

Her grin just as quickly disappeared when she picked on something.

Did she hear him say prime number or prime slice? Because prime slice was actually from...

"It's a pizzeria," a lightbulb triggered itself on as she murmured nearly to herself, gobsmacked by the irrelevant revelation that was neither here nor there.

Pizza? Was she hungry again? They had only left the safehouse after she ate her lemon rice, and it had been less than an hour since that event transpired. At that rate, it seemed like she was even worse than Cabir when it came to satiating her appetite.

"What?!"

Nandini jumped to her feet, closing the black diary in her hand with a pen stuck between it. "Pecoraro is a pizzeria, it's along Panambur beach, that's where I knew that name from. Established in 1982 by Leonardo Pecoraro."

Lethargically blinking, Manik mulled, "So... What exactly?"

"The painting we saw inside... it was by Leonardo da Vinci, right? The boat... it had Pecoraro painted on it, the same name as the pizzeria. And who founded it? Leonardo Pecoraro. What if... what if that's the link?"

She dove into her tote to grab out her phone, acting on that impulse. A Google search would show her what she needed.

"You mean the name Leonardo? Don't tell me abhi tum Leonardo di Caprio ke saare films list out karke count karne wali ho?!" Despite him talking, she was aggressively typing. "Trust me Nandini, woh ek nine digit number toh bilkul nahi hoga!"

Humongous innocent orbs widened at an illuminated screen from a resulting search. As he turned, he further peered over her shoulder at the first bits of text that appeared in bold: Leonardo Fibonacci.

"The Fibonacci series," he said back. They gazed into each other's marvelled eyes, which were further enhanced by the glow of her phone screen.

In a series of seconds, Manik dictated the sequence as Nandini wrote it down in her notebook.

"1, 3, 13... they're all there!" She assured, sensing some accomplishment from the task at hand that had turned fruitful.

"And it's nine digits!" He answered, verifying their claims. "Tch, what are you waiting for? Go on, prove your theory."

At his probe, brimming with irredeemable joy, her shivering hand keyed in the sequence: 0 1 1 2 3 5 8 1 3.

A meek buzz echoed before the clasp on the lock retracted. Manik's hand wrapped around the padlock latch at the same time that Nandini's rose in the air. Temporarily lost in each other, they both mildly reflected that even though they had each individually tried to put some pieces of a puzzle together, it had never amounted to anything viable.

Neither of them had been competent on their own, yet together they had solved something. Well done, partner... said their mind voices.

Wiggling the latch free, he pushed the door open inwards.

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We're entering the final leg of the book! I am a little emotional thinking about it and OMG it sounds absolutely amazing in my mind as I'm picturing it, I hope you end up loving it too!! <3

Did any of you guess that twist? .P

You know what to do :") Please don't forget to vote, comment and share!