Rito and Laihan collapsed onto the bed as soon as they walked into Abhijat’s hotel room. “God, I could sleep for a century,” Rito moaned, rubbing her face into a pillow.

“I thought we’d never get out of that place,” sighed Laihan, spread-eagled beside her.

They’d dropped Afreen off at the offices of Pragati on their way to the hotel. She needed to see a doctor, anyway. Abhijat was pretty sure her nose was broken.

“I suppose I should call Ruqaiya,” Jehan muttered reluctantly and stepped out of the room, pressing his phone to his ear.

Abhijat thought about asking him not to wander the corridors covered in glitter, but decided it would be funnier to take pictures. After all, opportunities like these didn’t present themselves every day.

With only the three of them left in the room, he rounded on his sister. “What were you thinking going to a place like La Fantome without telling me about it? Without telling anybody! Are you out of your mind? What do you think would’ve happened if we hadn’t been there? You’d all be dead, that’s what.”

“It’s ironic how you don’t see the hypocrisy of that statement,” she retorted. “You went there all alone, didn’t you? Without any backup. Does Papa know about that?”

“You know, she does have a point,” Jehan said, stepping back into the room and pocketing his phone.

“Shut up. And I was literally doing my job. What’s your excuse?”

“I don’t need an excuse. I was there to help my friend.”

“What I’m curious about,” Jehan said, sitting gingerly down on the couch and massaging his injured wrist. “Is how you managed to infiltrate the sanctum in the first place.”

“Afreen took us inside. As her clients,” Laihan piped up, rolling to his side to face Jehan. “We found her in the outer hall minutes after we entered the club, kinda dazed and acting really strange. Rito knew her from her college days, so she recognized her straight away, despite all that weird makeup.”

“I asked her what was wrong,” Rito continued, sitting up on the bed. “But she didn’t seem to care. One of the attendants came up to us and asked if we’d like a suite with the girl.” She shrugged. “We thought it’d be a good idea to talk to her in private, get to know what the matter was.”

She looked over at Laihan, who grimaced. “She was too far gone to tell us anything useful. But we knew they’d injected her with something at the door, so we thought maybe it was because of that. She just kept smiling and agreeing with whatever we said. She didn’t seem to be in any pain, but...” he shuddered.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“She seemed fine in the car,” Abhijat frowned.

Rito lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know what happened. We waited a while in the suite for the drug to wear off, you know. Asked her to shower and change, ‘cause we thought the water might help.

“But nothing seemed to be working, so eventually, we left the room. Thought we’d try to find a way out. Some kind of a back door or something, or maybe we could sneak Afreen out as a client. We weren’t really sure, but we knew we couldn’t leave her there. We had no idea what they’d given her, or what kind of side effects it might have. She needed a doctor.”

Laihan nodded. “We were just about to go back out into the hall when this random dude at the bar tried to grope Afreen. He was drunk, and he seemed to recognize her. We tried to ignore him, but he was a persistent motherfucker, so Rito kneed him in the groin.”

She grinned. “He tried to punch me, but his aim was off and he hit poor Afreen instead. God,” she shuddered. “There was so much blood.”

“Hmm. That’s probably what caused the drug to lose its effect.” Jehan glanced at Abhijat. “Sudden, intense pain, remember?”

“Your turn,” Rito said, her eyes narrowed. “What were you two doing at that club? And why in the name of God are you dressed like that?”

“For camouflage, I’ll bet,” Laihan chimed in before Jehan could answer. “It’s really quite impressive. I wouldn’t have recognized you if it weren’t for Rito. Shit. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Cause all the tacky makeup in the world wouldn’t help you pass for a teenager,” Rito quipped. “I can’t believe you agreed to this, Abhi. This is ridiculous. Not to mention dangerous. He’s the damn prime minister, for heaven’s sake.”

“I didn’t,” Abhijat snapped, trying to glare at all three of them at once. This proved to be quite difficult, so he focused on his sister for the moment. “I didn’t agree to any of this. And just for the record, you’re all out of your fucking minds.”

Laihan cocked his head at Abhijat. “So, what were you doing at the La Fantome?”

“If you say you have a thing for glitter-drenched teenagers, I’ll have to disown you,” Rito warned.

Abhijat could feel the veins throbbing in his temple. Rito’s lips started twitching, and he had to resist the urge to smother his sister with the pillow she was giggling into.

“I was tracking a suspect, who might’ve been responsible for the fire in the PM’s office,” he said through gritted teeth.

He didn’t realize his mistake until he heard her suck in a sharp breath. “You mean...you mean to say that fire was deliberate? An assassination attempt?”

It was too late to backtrack now. “It might’ve been. We aren’t sure of anything yet, but we have to explore all possibilities.”

“Don’t bullshit me, Abhi. Did Qia know about this? How could she keep something like that from us?”

“The more relevant question here, I think,” Jehan interrupted astutely. “Is did you manage to find the guy you were looking for?”

Abhijat thrust his hands into his pockets and walked over to the window overlooking the crowded streets of Weritlan. The city was almost as chaotic as Qayit, if not quite as chic. “We did.” He pulled out his phone. “I just received word that Sajal was arrested from one of the suites in the sanctum. Just like you’d said,” he glanced over at Jehan.

“He was caught during the raid that followed our departure. He’s currently in custody, being processed by the local police. The NIA will take over soon enough, take him back to Qayit for questioning. If I’m lucky, I’ll get to have a go at him before we leave the city. It won’t be easy to convince Vyas, though.”

“He will find himself thoroughly convinced, before the day is out,” Jehan assured him. “You really think you’ll be able to get anything useful out of this guy?”

“I do, if his initial reaction is any indication. Apparently, he’s naming names already, and the interrogation hasn’t even started yet.”

Jehan arched an eyebrow. “And who has he named?”