"I spy you!" - 37

Vasu stared at the slip for a few minutes and went into the kitchen. She found a candle and a matchbox. She lighted the candle. She steadied the candle by pouring a little wax on the stone platform on which the stove was placed.

She then held the slip of paper little above the flame of the candle. After two minutes brown letters appeared on the slip. She read it and felt very uncomfortable.

The secret message was ‘You are treading on a dangerous ground. Please be careful. Destroy the message immediately after reading’.

She absent mindedly held an edge of the slip to the flame. The fire hungrily ate away the paper. She could let down the last slip of the paper just in time. Otherwise she would have burnt her fingers.

That was the power Pushpahaasa was having on her. Her mind to the message details. What did he mean, you are treading on a dangerous ground? Of course, the job never was a bed of roses. It is always full of thorns and sharp stones. I will be careful. And the last one, destroy the message. As if she would have kept it as a prized possession! She may not have been in great number of assignments. But she had been trained well or it can be told that she looked out for hidden lurking dangers.

‘Did he mean I should be careful of SahishNu, husband of Amruta? May be! So, I shall be very careful during the complete execution of the project, whether I have been warned by my own colleague’ was Vasu’s final thought.

After the excitement of the first day, the following days just rolled by. It was almost a formed routine. Amruta was coming to her home running. Does this lady not know how to walk? Thought Vasu smilingly.

Her strength was her non-stop talk. Most of the times the talk had no meaning. May be Amruta loved to hear her voice! Vasu very carefully listened to her talk. She was sure that she will get useful point in Amruta’s talk about her husband.

Why not she record Amruta’s conversation so that she could listen to the talk more carefully for any possible clue? This was another idea Vasu had.

She could not find any bug in the room. She had quite relieved. Not that she had some secret meetings with her colleagues and what transpired among them would get transmitted. She felt happy because she had the practice of combing the whole area for any presence of a hidden microphone.

She was wondering what to report back to office if sahishNu does not turn up for the whole of three months. Her cover was that she was not well and the doctor had advised her to have some fresh air of the mountains so that she can recoup her health.

‘Oh, it is already 75 days!’ thought Vasu looking the calendar. Amruta had fixed a movie watch in the theater near the Mall Road.  Amruta did not turn up that day. Generally she would come at least half an hour earlier than she promised.