Op Rooppur VI: Human

Ratnodweep Resort

21:30

Sohel and Naomi come up to the 2nd-floor corridor. Sohel tells Naomi to take a shower and change before coming to his room. Both of them enter their room. Sohel takes off his jacket and his weapon holster. He took off his other clothes too and took a shower. After the shower, he took out his phone and called a redacted number. 

"Sir. This is Ghost."

"What's the situation over there?"

"The police should've taken over the safehouse by now. Without weapons, it will be tough for them to complete their mission. But still, we don't know how many of them are going to be there. And now that they know we are here they will be more alert than ever."

"Don't worry. Bangladesh Army will be on standby close. You just have to get in and get any type of evidence of Lu-Shen's involvement in this attack. You go in, take the evidence and get out. The moment you give confirmation the army will attack."

"But sir if something goes wrong...Is it really necessary to risk all these lives just to get one person?"

"It is, son. Soon you will understand. If we don't stop him now even at the cost of a thousand lives. He's gonna kill millions tomorrow. Sometimes you have to lose a few now so that you don't lose much later. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. How are your comrades?"

"Both of them suffered mild injuries in the evening's battle but they'll be alright."

"Ok then.Contact me if you need anything."

"Yes sir. Bravo 2-1 out."

As he puts down the phone and turns around he sees Naomi standing in his room.

"So I forgot to lock the door huh?"

"You shouldn't, you know.We are not exactly safe here."

"It's okay.Come here and sit. I'll patch you up."

Sohel gets up and takes out a medicine box from a wall cabinet. Naomi sits on the side of the bed.Sohel sits beside her and starts dressing the wound.Naomi was wearing a white sleeveless gown. Both of them stayed silent for a long time.Even after Naomi's wound was dressed they stayed silent. Naomi looked at Sohel and noticed his face.It was full of guilt,regret and sadness.She tried to cheer him up.

"What's wrong lt?"

"Nothing."

"You know you should share your thoughts with us.Me,Jacob,Annabelle all of us are like a family right? If something troubling you share with us.Don't keep it to yourself please."

"Naomi, I shouldn't have stopped you on the highway. I knew they had no intention to surrender. But still...…..but still I was reluctant to kill them. That reluctance put my friends' lives in danger.If something grave happened to any of them…..."

Naomi puts a hand on Sohel's shoulder.

"Calm down.We are humans, not machines.Even after training for years we are still reluctant to take someone's life even though we know that if we don't they will take some innocent's life. That reluctance is what makes us humans."

"I've decided. I won't hesitate anymore. Next time I have to do something like this I'm pulling the trigger. I can't hesitate with thousands of lives at stake."

Someone knocks at the door.Naomi and Sohel were so immersed with talking to each other that they jumped at the sound.Naomi stands up while Sohel's hand automatically reaches under the pillow on the handle of his XM17.

"Sohel are you inside? It's me, Mitali."

Sohel gets his empty hand out from under the pillow and opens the door. Mitali quickly gets in and says, "We almost died on the highway today. After visiting the city we wanted to explore some rural areas too. Nasir said he knew a place but he had left to do something. So he gave us the location and went away. So we were going there in Nasir's Car. Suddenly we were hearing gunshots and cars rushing the other way we were going. Before we could understand what was going on Tahmid abruptly stopped the car. And there were people engaged in a gunfight and then ... .and then...."She starts sobbing. Sohel calms her. He tells her to calm down. She seemed to calm down a little and sat on a chair on the side of the window. Naomi pours a glass of water and holds it to Mitali.Mitali takes the glass and drinks the water. After drinking she stops for a moment and hurriedly looks up and sees Naomi looking at her worried.

"HUH!!! Who are you?"Mitali asks.

"I'm Naomi. Sohel's colleague.We met at the restaurant before, did you forget?"

Mitali calms a bit. But gets agitated again. She says,"Wait wait wait…Why are you in Sohel's room?"

Sohel speaks then, "Now now..Calm down. I was getting bored so I called her here and we were gossiping."

"So…You guys were only gossiping?"

"Of Course. What else would we do?"

"Oh.okay." Mitali says, hiding her embarrassment.She then suddenly gets up and leaves but before she could leave Sohel asks her if she could tell Jacob that he was looking for him. Mitali says she would and leaves.A few minutes later Jacob enters. Sohel tells him to lock the door. Jacob locks the door and sits in front of Sohel in another chair. Just as he sat down, Jacob started to apologize for what happened in the evening but Sohel stops him and says he has a little idea as to why it happened. Jacob calmed down a little as he saw Sohel wasn't angry at him. Sohel stops for a minute then Explains everything he and Naomi found out about today. As Sohel continued with his talks Jacobs' face became more and more serious.After Sohel finishes his talk Naomi speaks, "So,What do we do now?"

Sohel looks at the door and says,"Hmmm There's a lot to do. But first let's get the peeping tom." He gets up and opens the door and Mitali falls inside.