Here You Do Here You Pay...

“Yuri then opens the window and takes a deep breath of the fresh air. The illuminated Vasco da Gama bridge is looking more beautiful in the evening. He opens the diary in which he had written –

‘Aqui se faz, aqui se paga’

Hilda again enters the room. This time, she is wearing a gas mask. The ambience of the conference room is contrastingly opposite this time. The room which was looking vibrant despite in the dim lights sometime back is now shrouded with the sound of dead silence!

Everyone in the room is lying motionless. Hilda looks towards the monitor screen and waits for the command.

“Please confirm”

Hilda takes a walk around the table, and closely monitors everyone, she also checks the pulse. Looking at everyone, it seems that they all are sleeping with their heads on the desk, as if asked by their school’s teacher; the pen and the diary beside everyone’s head makes this notion more concrete.

“Everyone’s dead!”

“Are you sure all of them?”

Hilda looks at the monitor with a confused look and nods her head in affirmation.

“Check Yuri again. I’m sure he must’ve dodged the death… He’s good at it”

Hilda checks Yuri’s pulse again. She lifts his head, places her ear on his chest and tries listening to his heartbeats. She is surprised to find him alive. She looks at the screen, anticipating further instructions.

“What… I know he’s alive… wake him up!”

Hilda picks a glass from the table and sprinkles some water over Yuri’s face. Yuri wakes up gasping for breath, while Hilda moves a step behind.

“Welcome back Yuri… I’m proud of you my boy…! You risked your life for our experiment… Bravo… Bravo!!!”

Yuri slowly nods his head, then looks around him. He is surprised to see everyone lying motionless. Yuri tries recalling the events which took place after he had opened the packet. All he remembers is that he was writing something before everything turned dark. He checks the person next to him and sprinkles water on his face…

“He’s dead Yuri.”

Yuri is shocked and looks towards the screen.

“As a matter of fact, they all are dead. You survived because of the antidote.”

Yuri is still in a state of shock… he checks his coffee cup, there’s still some coffee inside.

“I think you should take some rest. You have a flight to catch.”

With this, the screen turns off. Yuri looks at Hilda, who is still wearing the gas mask. He again looks at the screen, then goes towards the window taking his coffee cup and the diary along with him. Hilda looks at the dead bodies, then looks towards Yuri; she tries saying something but leaves without saying.

Yuri then opens the window and takes a deep breath of the fresh air. The illuminated Vasco da Gama bridge is looking more beautiful in the evening. He opens the diary in which he had written –

Next Chapter...

Aqui se faz, aqui se paga’

(*Here you do, here you pay)

Yuri thinks for a while, then leaves the room after throwing the coffee cup in the trash-bin.

“What… You don’t have a trash-bin in your car… where do I dispose this cup then…? How boring!!!”

Ira’s frustration is justified as she had to wait for almost two hours at the airport for Elham.

She is making a point that she cribs and complains about every possible thing… Poor Elham is trying his best to pacify her, while Humzaad, who’s invisible to Ira, is enjoying.

“The navigation system of your car is also not good… it is showing twenty minutes to reach home for the last twenty minutes…”

“We’ve almost reached Ira… in next ten minutes, we’ll be at home…”

“See… I told you… the navigation screen shows twenty minutes to home, while you are saying we’ll reach in ten minutes…”

Humzaad can’t help controlling his laughter, which is irking Elham the most.

“Why don’t you tell her about your new friend… the mystic… and your desire for that courage of lion…”

Humzaad is enjoying pulling Elham’s leg… finally Elham loses his cool and yells at Humzaad –

“Will you give some rest to your tongue and keep your mouth shut???”

Ira is shocked to hear this.

“How rude…”

Ira pauses for a moment, then continues,

“To hell with rude… HOW DARE YOU?”

Elham realizes his folly, nevertheless he quickly makes up for that.

“This is exactly what I told to Clara… I had asked her to book a cab for you since I was busy…”

“Who is this Clara…? Don’t you try fooling me Elham…”

“Why do you think I’ll ask you to shut up!?”

“… and why do you think that I’ll believe you Elham?”

“Well… I asked Clara to keep her mouth shut because she was continuously chit-chatting on her phone and forgot to book the cab for you… by the way, Clara is the new intern in our office”

Ira doesn’t buy Elham’s story and ignores him. Elham looks at Humzaad through the rear-view mirror and is chagrined to see him laughing at him.

“Isn’t this your bag…?

Ira asks Elham while looking at the brown leather messenger bag.

“Yes indeed!”

“So that article… I get it now… it was just a publicity gimmick… right…? and I was so worried for you… for your bag… I know how important this bag is to you… and you played with my emotions… I’m not going to forgive you for this Elham…”

Elham tries explaining to Ira, but in vain. Soon they reach home and Ira straightaway enters the bedroom; closes the door without speaking a word.

“She’ll be normal in the morning… Trust me.”

Elham looks at Humzaad, who is smiling at him in his usual style.

“You know what Humzaad… I’m forgiving you today because I enjoyed the fight…”

“With Ira???”

“NO… With those hooligans…”

“Ah… that was just a trailer Elham… there’s lot more to come… much graver… more interesting!!!”

A confused Elham looks at Humzaad… but he tells him to go to sleep without thinking any further.

The next day when Elham wakes up, he is pleasantly surprised to see Ira, who has made coffee for him. Elham tries to apologise for everything, but Ira tells him to forget… Elham decides to take a day off from his work. He phones Sharma to inform him the same but gets disappointed with his reply.

“What… leave rejected…?”

“Not exactly… since we are expecting a delegate from our international office by evening… uncle Sharma wants me to meet him… I’ll have to go to the office in the evening… but I promise I’ll be home soon…”

While talking to Ira, Elham notices that Humzaad is standing right behind her…

“What are you doing here…?”

Ira looks at Elham, and before she can say anything, Elham continues talking to Ira, but with a changed tone,

“Aahh… wrong question… what are WE doing here… I had planned to go to the supermarket to buy some juices, ice-creams and other stuffs… the kitchen’s running short of supplies…”

Though Elham manages to save his day, Ira senses something weird in Elham’s behavior.

Later in the evening, Elham drops Ira at a mall while on his way to office. Soon, Elham reaches his office and after parking his MG Hector in the basement, he heads straight towards the elevator. He finds Humzaad in the elevator waiting for him.

“Oh no… not again…”

“Trust me… it’ll be fun…”

Humzaad smiles and winks at Elham.

Soon, they reach the office. Though Elham knows that no one can see Humzaad, he is still worried. Elham knocks at Sharma’s cabin and enters to find him casually talking to a foreigner. Sharma then introduces Elham to that person.

“Elham… meet Yuri Green… he has recently joined our Lisbon office in Portugal…”

“Hi Yuri… please to meet you… como vai?”

Yuri looks at Elham, smiles at him as he is surprised to know that he can speak Portuguese.

“Estou bem… e quanto a você?”

“Hey… I don’t know Portuguese… just learned a word or two”

Everyone laughs… while Elham sits on the chair next to Yuri.

“Do you understand English?”

“Yes indeed… not fluent though…”

While Elham is casually talking with Yuri, little knowing his mean motives, Humzaad senses some danger. He once again enters into Elham’s body, and the trademark smile of Humzaad can now be seen on Elham’s face.

“You know what Yuri… you are too smart to be a journalist… you’ve got the macho looks… dashing personality… and that complimenting beard… you are a Hollywood material man…”

Yuri blushes, while Sharma is enjoying the conversation. Suddenly Elham changes the topic of discussion…

“What do you think is the purpose of this Global Peace Summit?”

Yuri looks confused with the sudden change of topic.

“I don’t know… Maybe to ensure that peace prevails globally…”

Yuri replies in his Portuguese accent.

“… and what if this doesn’t happen… I mean… how to ensure that this peace prevails globally…?”

“Guerra pela paz… I mean…”

“… War for peace…”

Yuri looks at Elham and is now confident that Elham understands Portuguese… Sharma is also looking surprised and impressed as well. Elham then tells Sharma that he has some urgent work and asks his permission to leave.

While leaving, Elham shakes hands with Yuri and says…

“Here you do and here you pay!”

Elham leaves while Yuri is left perplexed.

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