The Facility

Ishar took a deep breath, put on his 'important' attitude, and entered the facility. Without paying heed to any of the other soldiers (except the tea-seller, obviously), he went straight to the hallway that led to the secret room.

Grinning, he took out his passkey and held it to the two bodyguards who were standing on either side of the large doors. They seemed to be different from the last ones Ishar had seen, but he paid no attention to that.

What did get his attention however, was when one of the bodyguards spoke in a rude voice, 

"Your passkey is not valid. Please leave from here."

Ishar would've retaliated, had he not been frozen by shock. His passkey. Not valid? This was outrageous! It had never, ever, ever happened in all his time at the facility.

"Try again." Ishar urged, "Something must be wrong."

"Haha!", the guard cruelly laughed, 'Wrong? Are you trying to say that the equipment used in this place is faulty? I'm warning you, young man. Get out of here before we drag you outside."

Ishar's glee turned into suspicion. He stopped himself from bursting out of anger and counted backwards from 10. 

After a few…intense…seconds, he put on a smile again and said, "Can I talk to someone else over here? Many people know me, I am sure they can vouch for me."

The guard looked at him with a disgusted look. 'Are you deaf? OR perhaps, just plain stupid? Didn't we tell you twice to leave from here? Or do we need to take some actions now?"

This was it. Ishar had enough of the man's cruel words. He opened his mouth, ready to hurl his fury at the bodyguard, when he heard a voice behind him. A very, deeply familiar voice.

"There will be no need for that. I will handle this situation. I know him very well."

Ishar turned around on the spot. Standing before him was the figure of the one and only, General Aarush Verma.

"Sir?" 

Ishar said, trying to keep his suspicions from seeping into his voice. "These gentlemen are saying that my passkey isn't working…that there seems to be a problem."

Aarush turned towards him, his eyes full of an intense expression. Ishar was too scared to identify, and led him inside the secret room. It was obviously frightening to see someone close to you behave in such a weird manner. It was just like seeing your best friend transform into a zombie.

As Ishar entered the secret room, he was confused, for the first time in his life. Everything seemed so calm, too calm. All the scientists and researchers had disappeared, (though he knew some of them, hopefully the brightest, had gone with Gargi and Anjani). Now, there were just soldiers and officers, who were tracking down some stuff, and doing normal army things.

In a corner, there were some heavy-load boxes, plans, and models of planes and jets, but there was none of the earlier hurry that Ishar used to spot in the room.

"I hope you aren't following that stupid, old, 'spaceship' mission anymore, Ishar." Aarush said out of the blue, "We have more important business than trying to defend a virtual, almost non-existing threat, and create an unnecessary panic in our country."

Ishar decided to go with the flow. 

"Of course sir. We abandoned the mission right away. We were just wrapping things up in Kerala. I hope the…computer malfunction…has been solved?

Aarush grinned with a nod as they walked into a corridor Ishar had never quite seen before. That was saying something, since he had obviously been to every single part of the secret room.

"Err.." he asked, "Is this new sir?"

"Yes Ishar." Aarush said, "It's a storage room that we just built, you know, to store supplies and vital data."

"Then why are we going there?" Ishar asked, flabbergasted.

"To do some important work." was his strange reply.

You know that feeling in your brain? When you know something is about to go wrong but you can't do anything about it? That was exactly the thing Ishar felt. He couldn't help, but be on high alert, waiting for something, though he didn't know what, to go wrong.

They turned into a dark passageway and into a room with the heading, 'Storage And Medical Aid'. Footsteps echoed off walls as Ishar looked at the aisles of medicines and mops and clothes that towered around them. Aarush stood in the doorway, waiting for Ishar's reaction. Obviously, Ishar had no idea what to say.

"Umm..sir? Why are we here?" Ishar asked, not bothering to hide his suspicious voice.

Aarush smiled. 

"I think you know Ishar."

Ishar's eyes widened. 

"Don't tell me you are going to make me mop the floor!" he said, hiding his worry under layers of sarcasm. Of course he knew what Aarush was talking about. After all, you can't just carry out secret operations without the maestro of secret operations knowing about it.

Aarush sighed, and gave a terrifying look, a mix of pity, and a slight, a very slight hint of anger. Why was he angry? Ishar had no idea, but he didn't want to find out.