25. I want to resign

*****

One thing about illegal businesses was that the chain never ends. Taking down one chain does nothing to the whole web, instead, a new one sprouts just as fast as the one that was taken down.

"Bizi alt edebileceğini mi sanıyorsun?"

(You think you can take us down?)

The man coughed up blood as he spoke. Marwan's expressions could have drilled holes in his skull as though the bloodied bruise next to his left eyes was non-existent.

Squatting down to meet the man's gaze, his lips pulled into a smirk and he watched in satisfaction when the man flinched, wincing due to the amount of broken bones he was carrying the load of at the moment.

"Seni çoktan alt ettim, aptal."

(I have already taken you down, idiot.)

Yes, the man had taken the most of his precious time and finally learnt the basics of Turkish. Even though at first the words and spellings felt alien to his mind, Marwan had anyhow soared through the temporary dyslexia and aced the language tests that Daiyan had mercilessly sent his way.

Gripping the bruised jaw in between his fingers, Marwan applied a bruising force making the man cry out in pain and spit out more blood.

"Kim o?"

(Who is he?)

The man rapidly shook his head, tears of agony streamed down his face as he tried to speak through the pain.

"Bilmiyorum! Allah'a yemin ederim ki, bilmiyorum!"

(I don't know! I swear on my God, I don't know!)

"O zaman bir işe yaramazsın, değil mi?"

(Then you are of no use, are you?)

Marwan tsked in disappointment and released the man from his grip. Standing up, he dusted his commando jeans and tilted his head to take a look at the base that was now nothing but remnants of what it once was. Broken glasses, blood on the ground, unconscious and some men that were crying in pain. The lights were broken too and the furniture, oh the furniture was left in pieces.

His eyes looked at the wires that were lying uncovered on the ground and he could feel the electrical sparks running through the copper strands.

The man slowly followed Marwan's line of sight and a fear like none other enveloped his form. He tried to crawl away with a face as pale as that of snow and the sounds of his movements made Marwan look back at him.

Understanding dawned on him and slowly, a devious mirth gleamed in his eyes. Ignoring the man whose breaths were now coming in fearful pants, he took hold of the part of the wire that was covered with PVC and raised it in the air for a second. And just as he took a step towards it, a loud cry made him stop in his tracks.

"Tek bildiğim soyadının Kaplan olduğu."

(All I know is that his last name is Kaplan.)

The man spoke as loud as he could, hoping that this admission would stop more pain from being inflicted on him.

Marwan looked between the man and then the wire and with a tsk of annoyance, turned on his heels and left the place, leaving the mess that he created to be cleared by his fellow comrades but not before muttering under his breath,

"Wasn't that tough, was it?"

Trying to cover the pain in his expressions at every step that he took, Marwan sat in the van that waited for him outside the base. Kabir looked up from his laptop and raised an eyebrow on seeing his condition. A sly smirk tugged at his lips when he found Marwan letting out a small groan but it was quickly wiped out when the said man glared at him.

"Kaha toh tha take back up. But someone was just too confident that he'll handle it all."

"Technically, I did handle it all."

Kabir scoffed and pointed his finger at his friend's bruised form.

"With not-so minor consequences, did you?"

Marwan looked away from the smug face and slowly rumbled through the stuff at the back seat, trying to find a first aid box, which he did after almost breaking his elbow.

"Baki sab kaha hai?"

He asked on finding no one around. Kabir kept typing randomly on his laptop before pausing for a second and sparing a glance to Marwan who was now cleaning his bloodied bruise.

"They went to the theft market."

"Hum side business shuru kar rahe hai kya?"

Kabir couldn't help but roll his eyes at Marwan's confused face. Taking a deep breath, he shook his head and resumed his tracking.

"Nahi, duffer. They went to see if they can find any useful information."

Marwan hummed in response and bit the insides of his cheek to not make any sound as he tended to the cut on his upper arm, hoping for it to magically disappear. It had been a while since he was hurt to this point and his body was aching enough for him to pass out in a blissful sleep.

The doors of the van were opened and before Marwan could even comprehend, he was thrown aside like a rag doll and came in a huffing and puffing Daiyan and Aliya, both looked as though they had run a marathon with sweat dripping down their forehead and breaths so uneven.

"Aye Khuda! I want to resign!"

"Zyada bakwas mat kar. Couldn't you hold your tongue for a while?"

"Turkish mein gali de rahe the woh saale! What did you expect me to do? Smile and say 'thank you, handsome'."

"Aliya!"

Kabir reprimanded her softly at her choice of words, slightly jealous of the way she addressed the said man's look but on seeing the sulking face that she had on, he warmed up and scooted aside, making space for her beside him.

"Haan haan, yeh toh akele jang ladke aayi hai. Main toh afternoon stroll mein gaya tha, nahi?"

Daiyan bit out the words and glared at the couple who ignored him skillfully.

A pat of his thigh made him look towards his right and his eyes widened on seeing Marwan sprawled on the seat with a painful look on his face.

"Agar mere janaze ka intezam nahi karna toh abhi ke abhi side hut you heavy bastard!"

Marwan screeched out the words like a lady in the 19s whose heavy make up had been ruined and Daiyan was smart enough to move away from the injured man-child.

"Sorry..."

"Sorry ka kya main bandage lagau?"

Marwan gritted the words out as he sat up again, making sure to keep his injured arm away from the catastrophic scene.

"Waise hua kya tha?"

Kabir asked, curiosity clearly glistened on his face and Daiyan couldn't help but give a stinky eye to Aliya who acted all innocent and placed her head on her husband's shoulder before closing her eyes in peace.

-As though it wasn't her who almost had them murdered not minutes ago.

"We were trying to find something about the racket, obviously in a discreet way but miss-I-know-it-all decided to directly ask the dagger merchant without any filter and the man was clearly cautious about how much he revealed. Long story short, more than a few curse words were exchanged in every language possible and in no time half of the market was behind us for our heads."

Daiyan took a deep breath as he finished speaking and was met with a pin-drop silence for a while before a loud laugh boomed from beside him. Scowling in annoyance, he narrowed his eyes at Marwan who was trying to laugh or cry was not very visible but anyhow ignored his friend who was running low on brain cells and looked at the couple in front only to cringe when he found Kabir scolding or smoldering Aliya with stern questions of concern.

Ahh, he was missing his wife, damnit!

"By the way, the man's last name seems to be Kaplan."

Marwan dropped the information as though it were not a big deal and not even seconds later, the van was synonymous with the word 'chaotic'.

*****

"Eren Kaplan, a small businessman in Sirince. Doesn't have much on his name, seems like a typical middle class with average income- if not for the many bank accounts linked with his main one. Surprisingly, even after the lockdown, his income did not decline, in fact, it seems as though it has doubled. Sounds shady, or does it?"

Kabir filled in everyone on how much he found about the man. Kaplan was a pretty rare surname with how much he could find and hence it wasn't tough to track down the people with it. Out of the total, only Eren Kaplan seemed to be hiding something beneath the cover and they could only hope that they had found the one.

The group was currently in the hidden base at Sirince, a nurse aided Marwan's injuries to see if anything was serious or not while the rest tried to find as much as they could on the mysterious man.

Major Mathur listened intently to Kabir's words, taking in everything to connect the dots that were still blurry.

"Eren?"

Aliya mumbled to herself. A deep frown made its way on her face as she tried to recall the familiar name. Her eyes found Daiyan's and he too seemed to be thinking something similar to hers.

"When we were running from the men, I think I heard someone talking over the phone in Turkish and along the lines, maybe he said something around Eren."

"Not too sure though."

Daiyan mumbled, giving his own doubts and uncertainties about the information.

Major Mathur glanced between the two, seemingly lost in whether to use the data they provided or let it slide but seeing that they were already standing on transparent ice blocks, he spoke just a few words.

"Find more information on this Eren Kaplan."

Marwan smiled in gratitude once the nurse was done with her job. The cut on his upper arm was stitched and the bruise on his knee was bandaged. His forehead was wrapped in a gauge due to the huge swelling that looked bad enough for the old nurse to grimace.

After Major Mathur's words, silence surrounded the whole room if not for Kabir's keyboards that kept making minimal sound every now and then.

Sighing to himself, Marwan looked for his bag and upon finding it, started fishing for his phone. A glint of victory glistened in his eyes when he found the said object and unlocking it, he hoped for anything but the 23 missed calls from Hafeez along with numerous texts from his mother and Laiha.

Concern flooded his conscious mind and he quickly rang a bell to Hafeez, tapping his feet anxiously on the ground with the way his blood was currently racing.

The bell rang but no one answered and that added fuel to his raging fire of concern.

"Pick up, idiot!"

He whisper-yelled to himself, annoyed and agitated at the same time. Daiyan observed the acts of his best friend and frowned in worry.

"Kya hua?"

He couldn't help but ask and Marwan rolled his eyes.

"Pata hota toh zaroor batata."

Daiyan scowled at the sarcastic reply and hit him on the back of his head, making Marwan groan in dismay.

Without saying anything, he forwarded his phone to him and Daiyan looked through the reason for Marwan's worries. His own heart suddenly raced with unease on seeing the missed calls and texts.

"FOUND IT!"

Kabir's scream made everyone jump in their places and Daiyan tried not to let the phone slip from his hand due to the sudden sound. Aliya woke up from her subconscious state and couldn't help but hit her husband with a force enough for him to squeak.

Marwan snatched his phone back and glared at Kabir who blushed in embarrassment and anyhow, swallowed it down and like an excited kid, waited for Major Mathur to arrive.

Marwan gave one last look to his phone with a sigh of defeat, switched it off again and threw it back in his bag.

- but found it tough to throw the disturbing feeling in the pit of his gut away in the same way.

"The guy has a good upper cover, itna toh credit dena banta hai. His list is as clean as it can be but the back of it is just as dirty. Sirince seems to be his area of crime. Theft, robbery, human trafficking, and what not. The market that you both-"

He pointed between Daiyan and Aliya before continuing,

"-went to is where he carries out his trade. Materials and things of high costs are sold for the passersby to see and the bidding for-", he cleared his throat, slightly uneasy to read what he found out.

"For 'people' happens in a separate underground base somewhere in the center of the market. If lucky, we could find him during the biddings sometimes."

The sound of something being crumbled or more like smashed was heard and all heads turned to Marwan who had a glass fisted in his death grip. The material would have broken into tiny pieces if not for Daiyan who pried it off his best friend's hands and kept it back on the table.

Kabir felt like he had committed the most unforgivable crime with the way Marwan glared holes in his skull and he couldn't help but gulp and scoot closer to his wife who herself was busy fuming- well, at least her laser eyes were not etched his way.

"When?"

Marwan's question couldn't get a proper answer and he cracked his knuckles, a cold grin took over his features as his eyes landed on Major Mathur who shook his head and cleared his throat.

"Since we can't be too sure about when and where we'll find him, we'll be working in groups- alternate days and the best disguises to make it look natural. Wander in the market for a few days in your new identities in order to make yourself familiar with the place and the people. After a week, we'll take turns to go to the bidding and find him. Am I clear?"

"Yes sir!"

Numerous voices boomed in agreement, a new wave of energy and determination filled the room and Major Mathur felt a small smile tugging at his lips at the response of his fellow commandos.

It was about time things were set straight- even if it was just a single chain in the whole web.

**********

Was it boring? Idk, but for me it wasn't though, cuz in all honesty, even if it was just a little bit of action, Marwan just seems too good to be true.

And and and, we've reached 2k votes! Yikes! Shukriya people. It has been quite long since we started the journey of Posheeda (thanks to me disappearing due to my academics) and now that we're reaching the climax of the book, I can't help but feel giddy.

To all those who have stuck around since the start, THANK YOUUU SOO MUCHHH FOR BEING PATIENT WITH ME!!😭😭❤

And to those who have just joined in the ride, I can only hope that you find it enjoyable enough to not give up on it anytime soon!!🤗❤

Love you all to Saturn and back!!😭❤

- Dilara💕

************