Page 57 of Married in Deceit

Thirty-One

AGASTYA

“Agastya.”

The voice on the other end of the line was guarded leading to Agastya’s already ironclad mental shields reinforcing themselves.

“Tell me,” he invited, signalling to the people in the hotel suite to clear out and give him privacy. Ganesh ushered them out and took up a spot behind the shut door, far enough away not to overhear Agastya’s conversation but close enough to be of assistance if required.

“I think we should meet in person.”

“I’ll call you back,” Agastya murmured. He always had several burner phones available to him. He would just grab one and call.

“No.” The other man was nothing if not firm. “In person. Alone.”

Agastya stilled, his senses tuning in to what the man was not saying. “You know?” he asked now, a frozen sense of calm descending on him.

The man exhaled. “Yes.”

“There’s no doubt?” He stared unseeingly at the wall before him.

“No.”

His chest tightened. Whatever news the other man had to impart, it wasn’t good. After a month of Agastya’s team’s investigations into the pandemic fund fraud, he’d realised they were going round in circles. Agastya had gotten impatient and hired an outside resource to work on it, a resource he trusted implicitly to work under complete cover of confidentiality and with none of the bureaucratic nonsense that hampered his own team. A resource who also happened to be one of his best friends and the best in his line of work.

Whenever Agastya needed stealth and efficiency, he went to Virat Jha. He had never let Agastya down. Not once. And yet he knew without a shadow of doubt that whatever Virat had to say now was going to implode his life. But still, it was better to know. Now he could put a pin in the whole damn thing and move on with his life. He could build a future with Veda without any of the past hanging over it.

“Agastya?” Virat’s voice rumbled down the line.

He cleared his throat and answered, “I’m here.”

“When do you get back?”

Agastya swore under his breath. If it was that urgent, he’d better get home sooner. He’d need to use the jet this time. Luckily, it was here in Delhi having flown another party member over.

“Tonight,” he told Virat. “I’ll see you at home for drinks. Shall we say eight o’ clock?”

“I’ll be there,” Virat confirmed, disconnecting without a goodbye.

Agastya put his phone down on the table in front of him and folded his palms in front of his mouth. He wished he could scream, rage, smash something but, as always, his fury was never an inferno. His fury was an avalanche that buried everyone and everything in its path.

“Sir?” Ganesh looked worried as he watched Agastya stare at the now-silent phone on the table.

“Prepone our departure. Get the jet fuelled and ready. I need to be home by seven tonight.”

“Is everything okay Sir?” Ganesh asked, his worry ratcheting up into anxiety territory with each cold word Agastya bit out. When his boss got like this, no one was safe from his wrath. No one.

“No.” Agastya picked up his phone, pocketed it and stood. “But it will be.”

Whatever Ganesh saw in Agastya’s face had him backing a step away from him. “Can I help in some way?”

“You can get the jet ready,” Agastya replied curtly, his mind already working on a plan to handle the fallout he knew was coming. When Ganesh didn’t move, he snapped, “Now!”

Ganesh nodded, chewing on his lower lip. But he didn’t probe any further. He left the room without another word, barking orders at the aides outside.

Agastya already knew the ‘what’ of the news. He now knew why his team had never found the missing documents or the culprit. They hadn’t wanted to. He’d asked the culprit to search for the proof and why would he furnish proof of his own guilt?

The ‘why’ of the news, sadly, was self-evident. Greed was what brought down Kings and Governments. Greed was what ruined homes and razed countries. Greed was what brought the most powerful men to their knees for greed was what broke their grip on their own truth. They started to believe in their own hype forgetting that they were the ones to build that hype to begin with.

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