My grandpa's dagger

 "Jeez, what an unpleasant guest we have here," I said as I support my body and got up. The one who sat in front of me was Maya. A fitting name for some who can disappear without a trace like magic. 

Technically she an agent from government that is code named underworld. As I said those not belonging to the underworld (real one) get caught by the officials all the time, because they want scapegoats to create a false hope that the government is functioning, while on the inside agents like Maya negotiates with the government and covers up for incidents that comes into light of regular civilians.

It is not at all a surprise that she is here after what happened in Udaipur. 

"After I came here settling the matters regarding the ruckus 'YOU' caused in the middle of the night near a tourist destination, stealing a bike and then completely thrashing it and then as if it was not enough you even stole a car which took me the whole day to find, you call me unpleasant." She said as she came towards me stomping her feet on the ground.

Her face has turned red and her eyebrows formed deep ridges. She has a very eccentric personality as compared to other agents. Among those that I have dealt with, she is the most emotional and overly dramatic. 

I guess sarcasm doesn't go well with her personality. 

"So what is it that you want?" I asked Maya who is still sulking. 

"Ah! right I almost forgot, you have to pay the 1 million dollars, which is approximately 73 million rupees as compensation for the damage you caused at the hotel. They don't mind the sofa or the carpet as it can be washed but they can't leave the matter regarding the glass pane that you broke and the compensation to the engineer to seal his lips. So what do you think?" She said as if it was natural for me to pay.

Well it was but who does she think I am. First of all I don't have that kind of money on me. If I had I would not have undertaken this messed up job. Secondly I don't give a damn. It was those idiot guards of Herrscher that caused all this, ask him not me.

"I don't have such money go ask someone else."

"Don't just casually say it as if I am asking for a loan!"she exclaimed. "Don't you think it is your responsibility to pay for the damage you caused?"

"Look miss?" I said "Don't you talk about responsibility with me, if I were responsible I would have never! ever! entered this field of work. So don't talk shit like that, okay?"

She nodded teary eyed. Maybe I went overboard with even using my killing intent, but I had to make sure that my thoughts are transmitted properly and that she wouldn't think much about it.

I may call it killing intent because it sounds cool but it is just me posing as if I will kill her any second. It is not something mythical that can make you from a distance. You have to be absolutely be within my range for it to work, and the person should be aware of it as well.

"Bu-But" 

"No buts, you can go back home now. I am already tired give me a rest." I said. I stood there with my hands folded.

She looked at me smilingly and parted her lips, " Your name is Mahendra in XXX Bank, your account number is 523XXXXXXXXXXX, and your net banking password is ********, isn't it." She said as she gave a sharp look. 

I have known Maya for a long time and the way she changes from being clumsy to being sharp is almost frightening. For long I have proved myself time and again in combat, but if I were to fight her one on one be it swordplay, barehanded martial arts or information I don't have a chance against her. The only chance I have is if I use guerilla tactics.

She had been my agent since the previous agent mysteriously vanished. I don't know if she has any connection with his disappearance but at the moment I can't find any reason to suspect her.

"What are you getting at?" I said.

"You know what I am getting at or should I spell it out for you, DA-ARK WE-EB." she said as she moved around.

Dark web, a digital labyrinth that was formed after the government decided to regulate what is accessible to the public and what is not. You can get any information you want and can hire all sorts of illegal people, but the only drawback is that you can easily get scammed and there is always the risk of getting unnecessary junk download on your PC.

A good move, I approve it. Maybe she knew that I was broke so she went for the dark web. I don't mind her posting my bank account details on the dark web or even regular web, because there isn't much there for anyone to steal. I only have around 10$ worth of money in the bank.

"Hmm, a commendable effort at trying to frighten me, but you missed the point. If you did what you said, then that would be a breach in the Grayscale contract, which I don't think will be very pleasant for the big shots." I said as I sat on the sofa in front of her.

"That would have been a problem if it were us breaching the contract, but it is you who is breaching it and that is why I can easily arrest you, get your personal information or even have you executed." She said as she got up from the sofa and moved around the room. She stopped in front of a table that had a photo of mine. She stared at it for sometime and placed it on the table facedown."So what is your answer, will you pay or will you disappear."

"She is dangerous." I thought. My face was twitching and my eyebrows formed deep ridges. Maybe because I was not at my best after spending three days straight without sleep I guess it is taking a toll on me. I can't think straight at the moment. I have kept the number of expression I showed on my face limited but this exhaustion is making it difficult for me to keep a straight face.

"Sigh fine, I will pay but currently I only have half the amount. So how about this." I showed her a dagger. It was no ordinary dagger but an ancient one. The blade had a nice recurve and had beautiful damascus pattern. But unlike the fake damascus made nowadays, this is the real deal made from a single ingot of wootz steel. Not only is its blade beautiful, but its handle as well is heavily decorated with intricate koftgari work.

"Isn't this wootz damascus. Where did you get this from?" She asked assessing the dagger I showed to her.

"It is indeed wootz damascus. This is a family heirloom I got from grandfather. I will mortgage it to you in exchange for time. Once, I get my payment I will pay you the remaining amount and take it back."

"Two months. I will give you two months time. If by that time you didn't pay up the balance I will sell it without delay."

"Fine by me."

"So where is its sheath?" she asked

"Its sheath is the one thing I absolutely cannot give you." I refused her.

"What do you mean you cannot give. Won't the blade rust in open air?" she said in surprise.

"I cannot tell you the reason as to why. By the way, isn't that wootz? Do you think it will rust that easily?" 

"You are right. But how do you think I will carry it around. I mean I don't want to be seen carrying a dagger around in public." Is what she said.

"Just wrap it in newspaper or something. Here." I said as I picked up a newspaper lying on the table and threw it towards her.

"Now as for the money." I said and walked to my room. I picked up my phone and transferred the money that was in my secret account over secure line. This secure line allows me to transfer money from my actual account to anyone with anonymity.

My other account that Maya showed earlier acts as a decoy and is used for any transaction in the surface world. Us underworlders use a different internet than the rest of the world. Our servers or client devices cannot be accessed by the surface worlds machines. 

We have seperate satellites for the transmission of data and these satellites were launched in pretext of failed missions across various space agencies.

Maya accepted the paper I gave her and wrapped the dagger in it. She then looked up her phone and confirmed that the amount is transferred. 

"Good, make sure you behave and learn from it." she said as she went to open the door.

"Yeah, yeah. I know so can you leave me alone now." I said as I followed her to the door and closed it behind her.

Finally, she left. It was already a pain with what happened in Udaipur and then her. I am desperate for some rest. 

By the way the dagger I gave her was something I stole from the palace. They had it displayed as a decorative item. I picked it up as I was being chased by Herrscher's bodyguards, so that I can use it as a throwing knife, but I totally forgot about it. It is also the reason why I didn't give the sheath because I only had the dagger and not its sheath. 

Given how Maya liked to collect ancient weapons I knew she will allow it if she were given something that is both beautifully decorated as well as a functional weapon. 

How do I know that Maya collects ancient weapons? Well that is because she is not the only who keeps information to be used as a leverage against her opponents. But I couldn't just show of that I have her info, so I slipped a believable story so that she doesn't suspect anything. In reality I don't even remember my parents let alone my grandparents. Maybe she didn't notice it, so I am safe for now.

Anyway, I must sleep or else I will faint, but before that a bath. I removed my clothes and dumped them into the washing machine. Since my clothes including my underwear are black in color I don't have to seperate them. I threw the clothes I got from the engineer into the dustbin and walked into the bathroom, got myself clean and went to my room.

I was too tired to think about anything and the relaxing bath has made it worse, so I didn't bother putting clothes on and just jumped on to the bed and closed my eyes as I let sleep take over.

"Oh, right I didn't ask Maya about what happened to Herrscher. Maybe I will ask about it tomorrow." I mumbled still half asleep.

It was already dark when my sweet slumber was disturbed by a sudden knock on the door. I opened my eyes in surprise. "Knock Knock". When I heard the knock second time I sat straight on my bed.

I rubbed my eyes and let a yawn. I pressed a switch beside my bed and the dark room lit up. I looked at the clock hanging from the wall and it showed 7:30 pm. 

"Knock knock"

"Yeah, I am coming. Don't break the door." I cried as I got up from my bed and walked towards the door wondering who it might be at this time of the day.

I opened the door and the one that emerged was Jyoti. She is the secretary of this building and one responsible for all the maintenance work for this building. She wore a salwar kameez that had pink as its main theme. She had a notepad in her hand and a pen in another.

"Oh, Mahendra... Um.. That." She stopped abruptly and quickly turned her face to the left. She also hid her. 

I got confused from this all and leaned forward and asked her. "Hmm, is something the matter Jyothi? Why are you hiding your face?"

"Below" she mumbled in a low voice.

"What?" I asked her leaning forward so that I can hear her voice.

"Below" she mumbled once again.

"Oh, below. Did something happen? Is there a meeting that I must attend?" I asked her.

"No! Below. You are naked." She said with all her might.

" Oh so I am naked. So that's what it is... Eh wait naked?" I looked down and saw my boy swaying around. I quickly covered him and slammed the door behind me.

 I ravaged through my closet and wore a blue t-shirt and beige colored shorts. I then quickly opened the door once again. 

"Huff huff, please huff, please forget about this I beg of you." I said as I gasped for breath. 

"Please don't worry about that, anyways I came here because for the past week I have been getting complaints from the Joy uncle who stays below you of strange noises coming from your apartment. Noises like heavy stomping and things falling on the ground. So I came here to ask if you could please stop doing whatever is causing those noises.

Uncle had been coming to us multiple times a day and even as late as midnight. We came to speak to you many times but we couldn't contact. Today was a lucky day as we could contact."