BLACK POISON
PART 3
The next morning, Veer was already out.
He had barely slept. But that was nothing new.
He rode his motorbike through the quiet early morning streets toward the first location Armaan had mentioned. The city was just waking up around him. Shopkeepers opening their shutters. Chai stalls firing up their stoves. Auto rickshaws pulling out into the empty roads.
Nobody looked at Veer twice.
That was exactly how he liked it.
He spent a long time at the first location. Walking slowly. Watching faces. Checking every corner, every building, every street. He stayed far longer than most people would have bothered to.
Nothing. No unusual activity. No signs of any preparation. Nothing at all.
"Sir," Max said through his earpiece. "Should we move to the second location?"
"Wait," Veer said quietly. "Let me check one more time."
He walked the area again. Even slower this time.
Still nothing.
Then Max's voice changed. "Sir. Something just happened near the second location."
Veer was already walking back to his bike.
"How far?"
"Five kilometres, sir."
He started the engine and pulled out into the road.
---
He reached the second location in under ten minutes.
At first it looked completely normal. A few parked vehicles. Some small shops on the side. Not many people around.
Then he saw the crowd.
A small group of people had gathered further down the road, all looking at the same thing. Veer walked into the crowd quietly and looked.
A car was sitting in the middle of the road. Completely burnt. Still slightly smoking. The windows were gone. The tyres had melted into the road beneath it.
But nobody was hurt.
People around him were talking.
"This heat has become too much these days," one man said, shaking his head.
"Good thing no one was inside," said another.
Veer looked at the burnt car carefully. Then at the road around it. Then at the buildings nearby.
He turned around and walked back to his bike without saying a word.
Max, do you really think it's because of the heat?
"Sir," Max said. "What are you thinking?"
Veer sat on his bike for a moment without starting it.
"They already changed the plan," he said quietly. "Both locations are useless now."
He started the engine.
"Where are we going, sir?"
Veer's voice dropped very low.
"To see our friend."
---
That evening, Veer walked into Armaan's room.
The water drops had been stopped. The room was quiet. Armaan was still tied to the chair, looking exhausted. But his eyes came up the moment the door opened.
Veer pulled up a chair and sat down across from him, completely relaxed.
"Hi Armaan," he said. "How are you feeling? Any problems?"
Armaan just stared at him.
Veer's smile was still there. That same calm easy smile that was somehow more unsettling than any angry face could have been.
"I checked both locations," Veer said. "Nothing useful at either one." He leaned forward slightly. "So now I need something new from you. Who is your direct boss? Who gives you your orders?"
Armaan was quiet for a moment.
"I told you already," he said. "I don't know."
Veer said nothing. He just looked at him steadily.
Armaan looked away. Then back. Then he spoke again, his voice lower this time.
"I don't know who the top person is. I really don't." He paused. "But the last meeting was probably cancelled. Which means another one will happen soon." Another pause. "There is another group connected to ours. Their leader is a man named Mahesh Rao. He controls that group. If you follow him, he will lead you to whoever you are looking for."
"His location?" Veer said.
Armaan told him.
Veer nodded slowly.
After that,
He stood up to leave.
"Wait," Armaan said.
Veer stopped.
"You said you don't care about our gang," Armaan said carefully. "But you are still investigating it. Why?"
Veer turned around slowly. For a moment his face was completely still. No smile. No expression. Just quiet.
"I don't like it," he said, "when people get punished for something they didn't do."
Armaan frowned. "What does that mean?"
"Someone told me once," Veer said, "that when a punishment comes that you didn't deserve — that is never okay." A short pause. "I agreed with them."
He walked to the door.
Then his hand moved toward the button on the wall.
"No!" Armaan said immediately. "Why again? I answered everything!"
Veer paused. He looked back at Armaan for a moment.
"Your question reminded me of something from my baad times," he said quietly. "Something from a long time ago."
He pressed the button. The drops started again.
"One hour," he said through the door. "Consider it the price of the memory."
---
Back in his room, Veer lay down on the bed.
For just one moment — one quiet unguarded moment — something crossed his face. Not pain exactly. More like the shadow of something that used to hurt a long time ago.
A park. Sunlight. A friend laughing at something silly. The smell of grass and open air.
Veer was lost in his own thoughts,
Then Max spoke and the memory was gone.
"Sir. I have tracked the location Armaan gave us. What is your next move?"
Veer stared at the ceiling for a moment.
"You already know, Max."
"Mahesh Rao," Max said.
"Mahesh Rao," Veer confirmed.
He sat up. "But first — I am giving you something new."
He moved to his laptop and started typing. Hours of quiet work. Then he also work on his drones. Then--
Veer said, it is complete and I am uploading it.
"Upload complete. Try it."
A short pause from Max.
Then — with something that almost sounded like surprise in his robotic voice — "Sir. I can control the drone."
"Yes."
"I know, Max."
"This is—" another pause — "this is really something, sir."
"Don't crash it," Veer said.
"I will try my very best, sir."
Veer says let's check it first, first we have to see if there is any problem in it or not. So let's start Veer then flies the drone through Max. Initially, the drone takes off easily, but as it gets to the slightly complex controls, That's why Max can't control it properly, ---
Then Veer goes back to work, checking and fixing the errors in those codes.
After 2 hours of work, Veer again uploads the codes into Max's system, and this time Max is able to control the drone, but still can't work with fast reactions.
Max says, "I don't think I'm quite ready for this yet. I can only fly the drone normally right now."
Veer says, you can learn by watching flying videos of racing drones online, but for now this is enough for me.
Then Veer said now we should leave for Mahesh Rao's location, we are already quite late.
It was fully dark by the time Veer reached Mahesh Rao's location.
He parked his bike far away and came the rest of the way on foot, staying close to the walls and out of the light. He found a good spot with a clear view and stayed there, watching and waiting.
The area was deserted and dark. But armed men moved quietly around the edges, watching every direction at once.
"Tight security, Veer said. "Which means someone important is here. Or coming here."
He waited.
Twenty minutes passed without anything happening.
Then headlights appeared at the far end of the road. Three black SUVs moving together, slow and careful. They stopped in the middle of the area. Men got out first, spread out in every direction, checked everything carefully. Then one man stepped out from the middle vehicle and the others immediately moved to surround him.
Veer watched him carefully.
"Is this Mahesh Rao, it seems so with so much security ," he said quietly.
He kept watching. After a few minutes, two other men came out from a building nearby, spoke briefly with Mahesh Rao, then got back into one of the SUVs. All three vehicles began moving away together.
"We follow," Veer said, already moving back toward his bike.
But at that exact his moment, one of the guards turned and looked directly toward where Veer was standing in the shadows.
Their eyes almost met.
"Moving now," Veer said under his breath.
He was already pulling back, low and fast through the dark. Behind him he could hear voices calling out, footsteps picking up speed, a vehicle engine starting with a roar.
He reached his bike and pulled out hard and fast.
Two cars came after him without hesitation.
"Max," Veer said, riding hard through the dark road. "Is the drone after Mahesh Rao right now. Don't lose him."
"Already done, sir," Max said calmly. "Drone is following the vehicles."
Veer cut left sharply. Then right. Then through a narrow lane that no car could follow without slowing down badly. He doubled back, lost one car around a corner, then the second one at a crossing. He slowed down, breathing steady, and started following Max's drone signal.
---
The drone led him to a factory on the edge of the city.
Large. Isolated. No nearby roads, no nearby buildings, no lights. Just a massive dark structure sitting alone far from everything.
Veer stopped his bike at a safe distance and looked at it for a long time.
Even from here he could tell this place was completely different from everywhere else he had seen so far.
"Security here is not heavier than Mahesh Rao's location," he said.
But
Max said. "Every guard is armed. All entry points are covered.
Veer studied the building carefully without moving.
"Mahesh Rao come here because this is his place," he said slowly. "He came here to meet someone. Someone above him."
He watched as the meeting ended inside. One by one people began leaving. Mahesh Rao's SUVs pulled away first.
Veer was looking towards Mahesh Rao's convoy, but then Max said, "another group of vehicles left from the other side of the building" — quieter, fewer people, moving with more care.
Veer's eyes followed the second group.
While following
"That is the real boss may be," he said quietly. "That is who I need to find."
"Max analyse this all area, this too weird, and abonded",Veer said.
He sat completely still for another minute, memorising everything Max could see — the layout, the entry points, the guard positions, the lights.
"Sir," Max said. "Should we go in tonight?"
Veer was quiet for a moment.
Then he said, "No. Not tonight." He first call back the drone, started his bike slowly. "Mark this location, Max. Next time we come properly prepared."
He turned around and rode away into the dark.
The sky at the edges was just beginning to lighten. Another full night gone.
But this time, he knew exactly where he was going next.
---
*End of Chapter 3.