Dedicated to Heitcleff (Thank You for this fantastic cover!)❤

New week and here I am with another update. Enjoy!

I worked particularly hard with the descriptions of the Dargah as I have never been to one. So, if you have been to one, and find something wrong let me know!

*★,°*:.☆*.°★* 。

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" I told you to come alone," the woman in a black burqa says, staring straight ahead.

I turn to look at the Peer who's busy chanting in Arabic or Persian, I am not sure, " He wouldn't let me."

"Come to the bathroom after me. Wait sometime before you do so." She says as she now drags her palms from her forehead all the way to the back of her head, closing her eyes in concentration.

I notice through my peripheral vision how she bends down touching her forehead to the floor before she stands up, then moves away from my range of vision. I don't turn to look at her.

I bow down like her touching my forehead to the floor before I stand up, making my way to the Peer, bowing down before him.

He brushes the feathers on my burqa clad head before muttering, " God will show you the way, you only need to follow it."

My eyes lazily scan the insides of the shrine before I make my way to the shadows, lazily going through the carvings on the wall, some hymns in Persian.

There is no artificial source of light in here, the only source of light being the narrow streams of light coming in through the jaalis, some of it absorbed by the red colored threads tied to the jaalis. The pillars are all gilded, a beautiful contrast to the white colour of the walls. My fingers lightly graze the lotus patterned jaali separating the inner sanctum from the wide patio outside. I look outside through the jaalis, scanning the crowd for a certain face. But, he is nowhere to be seen.

My wrist watch shows it's already been ten minutes since Apa went inside. I turn back, bow to the grave of the saint, quickly scan the crowd for a hulking male figure before venturing in the direction Apa had gone.

I ask someone for the way to the ladies bathroom. It's outside the dargah on the western side. i hastily climb down the stairs as I make my way to the harrowing stopover for pilgrims. The pungent smell of ammonia from overuse and the remnants of bleaching powder perhaps from the time it was cleaned hits my olfactory sense as soon as I enter the worn down one storey building.

The bathroom is unexpectedly empty so it's not hard finding a certain burqa clad woman. I find her washing her face in a basin. Now that her veil is pulled up, revealing her face, I find I am still not familiar with the face. For a moment I struggle to identify her, but the sharp look in her eyes is unmistakable. She efficiently uses a handkerchief to wipe away the droplets from her face.

She strides upto me in long steps before pulling me by my hand into an empty bathroom stall. The stall is just large enough to fit both of us. The walls are stained yellow by the iron in water. It's relatively clean compared to the other stalls but still the strong pungent aroma of piss makes it hard to breathe.

She folds her semi wet, cotton handkerchief into a perfect square, "You have exactly 5 minutes before you need to get out. What do you choose?"

" I will stay." I don't tell her how wrong she is to assume Basheer trusts me. There's no other way than to stay.

" Good," she says, taking out a gun from her burqa, "This is a Ruger LCP. Light weight, easily to carry around and hide. And here's the holster for you to carry it in." She says holding the gun and the holster.

" Where will I carry it?" I ask her.

"Pull up your salwar pants," She orders and I do so, the salwar pants easily glide up my sheens. She bends down, strapping the holster to my right leg, before securing the gun and pulling the pants down.

I move my legs in a swinging motion, testing the weight and comfort given the little space here doesn't allow much movement.

" As much as this gun sounds useful, you mustn't carry it unless absolutely necessary. It is enough to blow up our mission. You must hide it, where no one can find it and under no circumstance should you ever reveal how you got the gun.

Now, hand over your watch." She says her eyes flicking between me and over the stall to see if anyone's nearby.

I unstrap the belt handing it over. She takes it in her palm and efficiently attaches a small button device to it.

" Whenever you need to contact us, press on this button once, we will get your location.

Remember what I told you. Be his shadow. Do anything it takes to earn his trust and information. And, trust your instinct, always. If you feel the need to run away, press the button twice, we will get your location and come to your aid. Here's a bundle of notes, it will help you in some situations.

About the mission, we want you to know anything relating to Abdul Gaffar, who also goes by the name Baba Saheb or The Messiyah. There's some huge planning going on, we need to get to the root before it blows up on our face. Remember lives are in your hands now. Jai Hind!" She finishes.

Noticing five minutes are up, " Jai Hind, Apa." I reply as I stroll out of the stall, hidden from view, stopping once in front of the mirrors, adjusting my veil before striding out.

Messiyah? How can one killing hundreds be the Messiyah?

Although lightweight, the extra weight on my right leg is highly uncomfortable and with every step I take I feel highly uncomfortable.

Where will I hide it?

I am way too aware of the device attached to my wrist watch.

I come back to the same place I was just moments ago, hoping to see Basheer standing there searching for me. I will just tell him, I went to pee. My chests contracts painfully at his reminder. As soon as I said yes to her proposal, I had already decided our fates, one that doesn't include us together.

Together? Really Nehali? When was that even possible? My inner self scoffs at me.

It's just some nasty hormones or a heart disease playing tricks at the first sight of a handsome man.

I need a check up, perhaps an ECG?

A flashback reminds me of my mother's words.

" Many will come and go, this is the time to build your career." She had said when I had developed an apparent crush on my classmate. So apparent that my mother took one look at the way I looked at him, and knew I had a huge crush on that guy. That was in 11th standard, when I was supposed to be sitting for NEET just one year and three months later.

Like the good girl I was, I did let it go, stopped talking to that guy, and it did hurt in the initial two weeks and later one morning I woke up to realise I had no crush on anyone now.

Later when I googled it, I found Dopamine causes the feeling of euphoria followed by depression. This feeling of euphoria is what is known as 'crush'.

If my mother would have been here, she would have said, " Many will come and go, your duty towards your country can't wait."

Exactly, why is there even a debate?

Because your hormones go crazy at his one look.

Now that the original task was done, I wanted to venture out, look into the place.

He has the tracker, he can find me.

I decide to come out to the patio. The wide patio is laid with white marble that circles the shrine on all the four sides. To the west of the shrine, women covered in burqa and men with their traditional white dress and Taqiyah are sitting on the floor facing the west in various stages of theri namaz. A group of sufi saints are sitting on the eastern part of the patio, singing various hymns.There's a set of stairs leading to the shrine that divides the northern part of the patio into two halves, beyond which lies the bazaar.

I make my way to the southern part of the patio that is hidden from view. Beyond the white railing that encases the patio, lies a vast garden with many different colours of flowers in their different stages of bloom. I close my eyes as I feel the wind gushing from gardens, carrying the scent of the flowers on a bloom, softly blowing on my face, slipping through my veil as my fingers curl on the marble railing. I wish I could take the damn burqa off.

"Is that you Nehali?" The sudden voice jolts me out of my reverie as I turn to face Dr Nizamuddin, this time without his white coat, instead in a traditional white kurta and Taqiyah.

How did he identify me with all the veil?

Still facing the garden ahead I ponder on if I should pretend to be someone else but then decide that would be rude.

I need to know how he identified me. I turn to face him as I answer, "Hello, Dr Nizamuddin."

"Oh, thank God!" He exclaims, wiping his mouth before continuing, "If it had been someone else it would have been embarrassing." He says as he pulls off the Taqiyah, revealing his dark brown mass of unruly hair, some of it shielding his eyes. He swipes his hand through them trying to tame them back, effectively removing the locks from his eyes.

" How did you know it was me?" I enquire.

" I saw you pray inside with folded hands, I was about to approach you after my prayer, but when I opened my eyes, you weren't there. I knew only you would pray here."

She was right, my posture did indeed draw attention.

"Where is Basheer? I saw him come in. Did he happen to leave you alone? He is going to get angry if he can't find you." He says, as he looks around to see if he's nearby.

" How did you find me here then?" I inquire still having not got the answer.

" Oh, that? I just guessed." He shrugs his shoulders. He is quite the guesser then.

I contemplate if he's indeed saying the truth or there's more to it. If he saw me inside and then followed me, he would know. But then no one got into the bathroom while we were there. So, even if he followed me there's no way he knows what I had been doing.

I direct a polite smile at him before I say, " Excuse me, I must get going. It's getting late." I look around impatiently for Basheer. Last thing I want is for Basheer coming here to find us alone. The southern part of the patio is relatively empty and hidden from view. If he tracks down my position and finds me here, that certainly will look suspicious.

"Neha-"

I raise my hands motioning for him to stop, " I will see you tomorrow at the hospital, Dr Nizamuddin."

I turn around making my way to the northern part of the patio. I might have been rude but there's no way I will risk my mission for him. Still no Basheer. I sweep my eyes through the crowd looking for Basheer when I spot a familiar figure in the crowd talking to a rather lanky man near a flower stall.

I strut towards him. Done with the work, I want to get home. The gun strapped to my legs feels too heavy as of now. I won't have a peace of mind until I hide it somewhere safe.

"-fine." I catch the end of the sentence.

" Basheer." I beckon, resting my palm on his biceps.

As soon as he notices me his brows wrinkle for a second before they normalize and his eyes twinkle with identification," I told you to wait inside. What are you doing here?"

" I waited for you, but it's too late. I want to get back home." I say. My eyes move to the lanky man who has started watering the flowers already. Turning to look at him, I inquire," What are you doing here?"

" I was just getting flowers for you. Anyway since you are done, we can get going." He says as he takes my hands in his pulling me along. It seems as if he's in a hurry to get away.

I look back to find the man glancing at me curiously, but as soon as our eyes meet, he looks away resuming his work.

He took the entire time for selecting a flower basket when he didn't even buy one.

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Where was Basheer? Perhaps find it out in the next chapter! *winks*

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