Bright! Every eye in the room closed as a sudden surge of light rekindled the room, bathed in murkiness, dressing it luminescently.

Finally the lights came after the blackout.

Nictitating and rubbing his eyes to adjust with the sudden ablaze set in the room that was jet-black moments ago, the colonel spoke over his bluetooth in a stinging voice," Did you run a facial recognition on this old hag?"

A funky voice replied," Yes sir, she is not in our database."

The room being finally lit everyone could see the veins rooting out from the side of the colonel's forehead as he howled over the call," Find me that crone this instant!"

After that he frenzied like a maniac and started grating," Damn it! damn it! damn it all! First that old hag Olivia, she called the police and that moron escaped in the chaos and now there's another crone who was withdrawing his money. Just what is he! A fucking James Bond of the grannies!"

Seeing him lose control the lieutenant spoke in a serene voice," Sir calm down, it's not a time to panic, we can't catch the target if you become unstable. Just look at the video carefully, it's the middle of the market, there are a lot of cameras there, he can't have escaped them all, we will surely find leads there."

Snorting like a bull, the colonel closed his eyes and then took in deep breaths. After doing it for a few seconds he came back to his self.

Now putting a finger on the bluetooth, he closed his eyes and spoke over the call," Alright, listen carefully, first find all the routes connecting this place to the market, then send each team a route to search, next get me the footages of every camera from the market and the surrounding roads. He must be on at least some of them! And start tracking the note numbers, if any shot of transaction is made with them I must be the first to know."

Analyst 1: Right on it, sir.

Then putting the call on hold, he took his walkie talkie out of his waist belt and said over it," Listen all units! target has escaped the vicinity. 

In a moment each team will receive a different route to the last active position of the target, I want you to search each of the routes thoroughly and question every possible witness in the market place. 

We must find him at all costs."

From the other side of the walkie talkie," Copy that, sir."

Now putting down the walkie talkie he got back on the call.

Colonel : Any updates?

Analyst 1 : All the teams have received different routes for the target's last active location and we are also going through all the cameras to find the target.

Analyst 2 : We have also located the old lady, her name is Grata Wills. She is a 69 year old retired professor of the Bronze-Man University. She lives with her social activist wife, Richa Adams in Loose Street, Block 20, Apartment number 19. We have sent the co-ordinates on your phone sir.

Colonel : Good work, now inform me immediately if you find anything on the cameras.

Hanging up, he immediately headed towards the given location along with the lieutenant.

[ 8:20 PM. Inside a certain house in Loose Street. ]

Grata : Stop sticking your eyes to the screen and get your ass up here, come help me with the broth.

Richa : One minute, almost finished uploading our pictures of hugging the trees. Come see, some of the girls are even wearing their wedding gowns and kissing the trees. We must stop that monster cement company that recently opened near the hills. It is destroying all the greenery there.

Grata : Ooh ho! Wedding gowns! My dear, did you forget that polygamy is banned here. Let alone your cement company, if the spouses of those girls happen to see your blog, the greenery of the hills will turn to grey over night.

Richa : Stop talking nonsense, we also got pictures of Ronald kissing the trees, they hit 1K likes just now.

Grata : What! You used Ronald again for your those environment programme thingies. Richa! he is our son. How can you put his life in danger?

Richa : Put his ( ding-dong... ding-dong.… the calling bell rang ) life in danger! How come? When did I put his life in ( ding-dong... ding-dong..) danger?

Grata : Don't you watch the movies, how those evil ( ding-dong.... ding-dong.. ) companies kill those social activists, ( ding-dong.. ding-dong.. ding..ding..ding... ) see, they came. Hide Ronald immediately.

Colonel grew more impatient  as the frown lines on his forehead became more prominent with each click on the calling bell. Finally after ringing it for quite a few times the door opened at last.

 A ghostly dry, brown and lean figure made an appearance.

" Who are you looking for?", the old lady asked.

Colonel : Miss we are from the police.

Grata : Badge!

Colonel ( showing a fake badge ) : Miss, today you withdrew a sum of 68,700 from an account. How did you do that?

Grata : You big buffoon! You trying to accuse me of theft without proof. I gave the little boy all his money back after withdrawing the sum.

Richa : Honey, come inside. I've called the police, they will be arriving any moment now.

As Grata was trying to close the door  the lieutenant stopped her and spoke in a sweet and calm tone," Granny, you misunderstood us. The boy you gave the money is in grave danger, he didn't return from the market and now he is nowhere to be found. We suspect he was kidnapped."

Grata : What! Ooh dear! that poor little thing, he went missing. Dear God please don't let any harm come to his way, please let that poor soul be alright. Why are you standing outside? Come in. Tell me, how can I help?

Grata invited them in. Making them sit on the sofa she poured them each a cup of tea.

Colonel : No, no, mam, we don't need anything.

Pouring herself a cup and taking a sip from it she said," See, no poison, now stop being shy and drink the tea."

Richa : Grata, who are these gentlemen?

Grata : You remember the boy I was talking about before, it seems that poor kid was kidnapped.

First Lieutenant : Granny will you please tell us what exactly happened when you encountered the boy?

Grata : Yes, that poor kid was crying on the road, when I asked him he told me that his mother send him to withdraw some money while she was shopping but he forgot how to use the card. So I withdrew the cash for him.

Suddenly colonel's phone rang. Picking it up he heard from the other side," Sir we found the delivery bike dumped in the bushes in a park nearby and we also found witness who saw the target."

Colonel : Great! give me atleast some good news.

Team member : Sir we found clues but there's no good news. We hit a dead end. The witnesses are all small stall owners in the market from whom the target exchanged the large notes for retail money, so we lost the track of his money and none of the cameras here has captured him.

[ 8:45 PM. Old Railway Lines, Clay street ]

Taxi Driver : Did you find it?

Asher : Yup, finally did. Are we there yet?

Taxi Driver : Yes we have reached the old railway lines.