Wishing him well - 1 !!!

"Final emulation on the go. Bug fix 22 applied", Simon said and then looked at Mike who was already on board for the trial runs before they left for the airport.

"Enable controller override", Mike said and looked at Raymond.

"Are you sure?", Raymond asked.

"Pretty sure", said Mike as he started maneuvering his emulator drone through the guild.

Raymond pressed Alt+Shift+F9 without moving his eye form the main display screen.

Mike's adept hands moved over the controlled like butter, pressing one key or the other every now and then.

"Target locked".

"Snatch", yelled Raymond.

"Victorious !!! You have received a massive 380 points for the Snatch", echoed the system and the War room was filled with hysterical and jubilant cries of happiness of people.

Akira hugged her brother and whispered in his ears,

"You are the best !!!".

A boisterous Simon came forward and asked,

"I can take you for a victory lap you know kid? Adept hands I must say", and saying that he gave a pat on his shoulders.

Raymond stood there and just looked at his people, all emotional. Unable to describe in words, how much this entire jaunt meant for him.

"I will be right back", he said and left the room.

Both Akira and David saw him leave and they both knew what was going in his heart. Akira looked at David from across the room and he gave her a look in the direction in which Raymond went. She understood what he meant and left the War Room immediately.

She went near the lift lobby and saw the lift already hitting the terrace. She knew he would have gone there and immediately took the stairs.

As she reached the terrace top, she saw him standing in one corner and looking into the distance.

She went close to him and asked,

"Were you jealous that my brother has started getting the attention?"

He heard her voice and smiled and turned back,

"Oh yeah !!! Indeed. I feel like my throne is about to be snatched".

And they both smiled together looking earnestly at each other.

She went ahead and held his hand in her own and asked,

"Why are you so scared? What is wrong?"

"I don't know Akira. There is a weird pit feeling in my stomach and it's not going away, no matter what. What if I disappoint my people. What if I do some mistake in the final leg of the competition?"

"That's' not going to happen".

"I don't know. With so many things going on, I am just really scared. I have never felt like that before. There is too much lying on my shoulder right now. All their hopes, all their hard work, and all my dreams. The weight is pushing me down. I don't know how to explain it to you".

"You don't need to", saying that she took a deep breath and continued,

"I hope you know one thing that no matter whether you win or you lose. Each and every one of us will still love you and respect you the way we did before. That is not going to change. Plus we have foiled every move that had been targetted against us and in future also we will".

"I have a bad feeling about it Akira. A real bad feeling. What if there is a factor that I haven't taken into account? My father has been silent all this time, so I am not sure what game he will play. And he has defeated me every single time if you are unaware of that. Plus there is your Vikram".

"What is Vikram going to do now? We have mired all his plans right?".

"I might have added fuel to the fire".

"What did you do now Raymond?"