Hashwini was livid now. She felt a tap on her shoulder. It was Kaustubh.

“How can you run off with my…”

Hashwini did not let Kaustubh finish his sentence. With all the strength she could muster, she shoved him towards the middle of the exit lane and ordered, “Stop the next bus!”

Kaustubh froze like a petrified deer blinded by the headlights of an oncoming vehicle. But the indignant honking of the bus unfroze him and he quickly skipped off the tarmac onto the grass patch. The driver threw vulgarities at him as the bus swerved into the main road.

Disappointed by this useless specimen of a man, Hashwini decided to take things into her own hands. She scouted the immediate vicinity and quickly spotted what she needed. As the third bus inching towards the exit, she raced to a rubbish bin by the road, toppled it and rolled it towards the middle of the lane, creating an effective blockade. The bus driver stared at her with incredulity and began to honk furiously. Hashwini marched to the side of the bus and ascended the steps once the door was opened.

“Siao ah li?” the bus driver shrieked in Hokkien, which translated into “Are you crazy?”

Hashwini held up Kaustubh’s mobile phone like it was a badge and shouted, “Police!” Almost immediately, the impropriety struck her, so she added, “The police are coming. I am doing a search on this bus. Kill the engine!”

The bus driver was intimidated by Hashwini’s forceful command and took it that she was an undercover police officer. He broke out into a cold sweat when he suddenly remembered he was driving his cousin’s bus and that the latter sometimes conducted clandestine operations smuggling in untaxed cartons of cigarettes from neighbouring Johor state. What if there were still a load of contraband in the secret compartment adjoining the engine? He meekly obeyed the undercover police officer when she ordered him to switch on the overhead lights to facilitate her manhunt.

Hashwini was momentarily stunned when the lights flooded the cabin and forty pairs of eyes stared back at her. But the entire busload of migrant workers had heard her shout “Police!” a moment ago and everyone watched her with unease and trepidation. Hashwini could smell the fear in the air. Emboldened, she marched down the aisle and inspected the faces with unlicenced authority. Every single man looked fearful, if not downright guilty. Hashwini fed on their collective uncertainty and felt like she towered over these men, even with her lack of height. She practically shouted with triumph when she spotted her quarry cowering in the second to last row.

“You! Stay right there!”