Chapter 3: The Beginning...

 CNN IBN, Mumbai branch.

“Gupta!” someone yelled and she tripped and fell on the stairs. Of course, where ever Khushi was, accidents were bound to happen. She swore some choicest swear words before getting up and turning around to face her friend, her colleague, Rohit Pandya.

“What?” she asked gritting her teeth. She hated when someone called her using her surname. It made her feel old.

“How come you always fall?” Rohit snickered.

“Why do you bother?” she scoffed, “why did you call me?”

“Boss is looking for you...” he replied grimly with an expression on his face that perfectly suited funerals. “She apparently says it is very important. You are in trouble, I think, Gupta!”

“Thanks,” she said coldly before going away from Rohit in the direction of her boss’s cabin. Before Khushi goes into her death trap, a quick introduction of Boss. Heading the Mumbai CNN branch, Arti Saxena AKA Axe is someone not to be messed with. Sharp eyes, aristocratic nose, and a mouth that rarely opened, she was feared by everyone in the branch not just for her looks but also her steely determination which wasn’t able to be handled by many in the office. Yet, a few choicest employees earned her appreciation and Khushi was one of them.

There was a knock on her door and she adjusted in her seat before muttering a, “come in...”

Khushi walked into the cabin and gave her small smile, “yes mam.”

“Gupta,” Arti got up from her chair as Khushi flinched slightly at the mention of surname, “I have a work for you.”

“Yes mam,” she replied.

“I need you to take an interview of Arnav Singh Raizada. He is the man behind stopping that woman trafficking mafia case.”

“I know him, mam,” Khushi replied seriously.

“I know you do,” Arti said pointedly, “that is why I am asking you to go.”

“I didn’t understand,” Khushi said confused and Arti smiled a small smile, “Khushi let’s just say he is worse than me. If you can handle me, I think you will manage just fine with him. If I send anyone else, I don’t think I will be able to get any decent interview from them.”

Khushi smiled before agreeing, “Sure mam. I will do the interview. When do you want me to go?”

“Tomorrow morning 10 AM,” Arti replied, “I haven’t managed to get an appointment. He just doesn’t receive the calls nor read the messages. I think you will have to try our luck in meeting him. It might take whole day or even may be a week to get an appointment with him but I want this interview at any cost. You get it?”

“Yes mam, I will try my best,” Khushi assured.

“Good, then get on with your work,” Arti said before picking up a paper from her desk, “these are the list of questions I want you to ask him. Improvise it further.”

“Right,” Khushi said as she took the paper from her boss, bid her a good afternoon and went out of the cabin. Arti sighed as she picked up the phone, “Inform your boss the job’s done.”

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Somewhere in Mumbai.

“Boss, the job’s done!” Arus spoke into the phone. The boss who knew everything already just smirked before replying, “You are late, Arus. I already got the report.”

“But how did you?” Arus blurted out but immediately regretted it. The boss’s voice turned a little colder if that was possible, “you are not the only informer I have, Arus.”

“I am sorry, boss,” Arus apologized. The boss chose to ignore it.

“Boss, the bait has been well placed...” Arus spoke, trying very hard to sound calm when his heart was beating hysterically, “Raizada wont know what hit him...”

“He will never know what hit him...” the boss smirked, “he thinks too much of himself to give any importance to anything else happening around him. Anyway, the reports?”

“Sent boss,” Arus replied hoping to get an appreciation for the work done but all went in vain when the boss cut the call without any pleasantries...

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Morning, 9:45

Sharma knocked at his boss’s cabin, who from morning seemed really distant from the time he entered into the precinct. A cold and absolutely boring “come in,” indicated Artesh that Arnav was in one of his foul moods and better left to be alone but the meeting someone wished to make was another pressing problem.

“Sir, there is a reporter to see you,” Artesh got straight to the point understanding that twisting and turning of the actual reason of his knocking the door would do no good to him, especially when his boss was busy pulling off an ASR.

“What does he want from me?” snapped Arnav, still looking into a couple of files that were all over the place on his desk.

“Not he, sir...” Artesh said, hoping that may be then mention of a girl can make him come out of that angry ASR mood, “she...”

Arnav looked up and raised an eyebrow, “So?” thereby successfully bursting the balloon the junior officer was blowing up.

“Actually, she says it is important to meet you sir...” Artesh muttered. Arnav just twitched his jaw and turned his attention back to the files.

“Sir, she is from the CNN IBN....” Artesh finally managed, “and it wont be good to turn our backs on CNN people. They write the hell about us then.”

“Really?” Arnav scoffed, “if you are so worried about your reputation, why don’t you go and speak to her?”

“Sir, but...” Artesh tried to argue when Arnav got up from his chair, effectively shutting Sharma up, “Dont you dare tell me what I have to do and why I have to not...”

“Sorry sir,” Sharma mumbled before running off from the office in top speed.

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“I am sorry, mam...” Artesh spoke to the woman standing in front of him, “sir is busy right now...he cant speak to you.”

Khushi bit her lip in frustration but calmed herself quickly, “it’s okay. I will come two hours later,” and scarpered off from the building, trying to think of new techniques to get hold of Arnav Singh Raizada.

This interview was her big ticket. She knew it. It would propel her into one of the high designations inside the cubicles of her drab looking office of CNN IBN, giving her a new sense of authority and power over her colleagues and she wasn’t about to ruin her chances by giving into attitude of some insufferable man. To hell with him if he wasn’t interested in giving an interview because she was hell bent on taking one and she would leave no stone unturned for this one mission that Arti had given her, knowing full well that she had in her an uncanny ability to control animalistic humans and if she could do that with Arti, this Arnav Singh Raizada would be cakewalk...

 She smiled herself as she circled along the CBI office’s compound looking for security cameras and stuff that would give her presence away and making sure that there was a way to enter the premises without getting caught in the act by the eyes of irritating CCTVs, she took a deep breath and launched her plan into action.

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Arnav Singh Raizada, a commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police and Special Task Force Director, was a lazy man sometimes and hated to climb too much stairs to get to his office. Hence his spacious but boring looking office was in the first floor, facing east and looking out at congested area of Fort, Mumbai.  

Highly disinterested in the happenings of the traffic in his city, Arnav sat with his back to the window whilst he studied some high priority files of the investigation he had just laid his hands upon and was extremely taken aback when the window of his air conditioned cabin opened with a snap and turned around in alarm to see a girl, probably in her late twenties, in a pair of jeans and Kurti, climbing into his cabin with the help of the wall projection his window had.

“What the hell,” he roared, “who are you and how did you even come inside?”

“Hello, Mr. Raizada. I am Khushi Gupta, a journalist from CNN IBN and I have come here to interview you on the infamous Mumbai Girl Trafficking Case. Do you think you could spare me some minutes?” she said calmly, with a smile on face that reached her amused eyes as it took in the highly disoriented appearance of one of high ranking and ever feared crime branch officials, ASR.

PRECAP:

     Not going to accept your defeat, are you?

     Not a chance...all I want is some titbits of your heroic act and you will see the whole of Maharashtra praising you tomorrow...

A/N: So how did u like it? :P