**Forest Rest House, Haryana delhi border, evening**
Inside an abandoned cottage, a wooden table sat at the center of the room. Upon it, Kasim was splayed out like a broken animal meant to be dissected.
He was a mountain of a man, broad-shouldered and imposing even in his late thirties, but now reduced to a map of white bandages crisscrossing his face, ribs, and limbs, barely holding him together. He lay unconscious and naked, his hands and legs tied to the four corners.
This was the same man abducted from the hospital. Now he was here, in a grimy room with no sunlight, only darkness, cobwebs, and dust.
Splash.
Without warning, a bucket of cold water hit his face.
"Where is he?" he growled hard, as if the question had been waiting even in his unconscious state. "Where is he?!"
He strained against the bindings, the wood groaning under his bulk, but his body refused to obey. The realization hit him like a second wave of cold water.
He couldn't move.
