The hunt for the beasts!

It didn't take long to go to her house. Prakash was hiding in the alley while Leonard was going around the town looking for her. But before his patience could dwindle, he saw a girl coming to her door wearing a pair of denim jeans and a white top. As he focused, he was sure she was none other than Ananya.

Before she could open the gate of her house, he came from hiding and said, "Hello, Ananya! How are you?"

She smiled at me and said, "Namaste, Uncle! Good Evening."

"Good Evening! So, how are you doing?"

"I am quite fine. I just came here for a walk."

We both were looking at each other, hoping the other would say something.

"So Uncle-"

"Where is Akshay, by the way?" I said, interjecting, avoiding running around the bush.

"Huh!"

"Where is he?"

"I… don't know. I didn't meet him today."

"I know about you guys. So, don't worry. Just tell me, where is he?"

There was a moment of shock on her face.

"What!? How do you…"

"Please don't worry about that. Just tell me where you guys separated."

"We guys met at the alley in front of the 'Gupta Electronics', but after that.." she thought for a second, then an expression of fear came to her face, "I.. don't know.. I can't seem to remember anything. I am so sorry, Uncle.. I don't know why-"

She was freaking out.

"Calm down. Don't worry. Things like that sometimes happen. Just tell me the last place you remember."

"The main road. Yes, the main road near that same electronics shop."

"Thank you very much! Now, please go home, it's quite late. I should be going too."

As Prakash was about to go off, Ananya asked, "Uncle, please don't scold him.. And please don't tell my parents-"

"No! Don't worry. Nothing will happen. Right now, I just want to hug him and say, 'Your father loves you, Akshay'."

Ananya blinked for a second.

In that instance, Prakash dashed off instantly to the main road. On the way, he called Lenoard and told him to come to Gupta Electronics.

"So, what's the plan?" I asked Leonard.

He clicked his watch, and the map appeared again. Then, he swiped the map to our desired location- Gupta Electronics, The Main Road.

Leonard looked at Prakash in the eyes, the hologram of the map in front of them, and he said, "Trial and Error."

"Hmm? Trial and… Error."

"Yes! Trial and Error. Let me put it simply. They haven't used their teleportation devices since they came. They must not have gone too far from this location if they hadn't used it. Just imagine yourself, if you had kidnapped someone, you would not go around roaming the streets. If your whole intent is to interrogate him, then the best course of action would be to get a safe location, take out the info from the suspect, and then move."

Prakash silently listened to each word and then gave his own opinion, "Then they would have taken some quiet, silent, and unused location where no one passes by."

"Certainly. So, what are these suspected locations? I don't wander enough here to know about these places. You have grown here. You tell me."

He thought for a second and then replied, "In my opinion, there are five such locations—the Pamazin warehouse, which has been abandoned for months; the Central Delhi School, which is closed due to holidays; the alley behind Badnam Samosa itself, which is always haunted; the old illegal fireworks factory; and lastly, that old home of Dr. Kashis."

While Prakash rattled the names, Leonard placed a pointer on these locations on the map.

"Done!" and he closed the map and said, "So what are we waiting for! Let's go. You go to the first two locations, and the other three, I will go."

"Hope everything works out!"

"Have no worries when Leonard is on your side. If you find them, the first thing you will do is to inform me."

But Prakash did not reply to his command, and then they both left separately.