Death and Dishonor

by Abhimanyu Saxena

  “Dispatch? I need backup here. Send SWAT team and RAF to my coordinates. Also, I need a search warrant for St. John Church at Defense Colony. Put out a BOLO that Arjun Rathore has been spotted in the vicinity. Treat all the requests ASAP.”

  ~*~

  Pratap entered the station in a leisurely way. Today was a good day for him. He didn’t fight with Neha, and he had a feeling that something good was coming along for him. He was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn’t realize that the entire station was on a run.

  “What is happening? Is it a zombie outbreak?”

  One of the SI’s halted, and saluted him. “Sir, Zayed sir has requested backup and multiple teams.”

  This peaked his attention. “Why?”

  “Apparently, he has Arjun Rathore holed up in a church right here in our Defense Colony.”

  He couldn’t believe his ears. Arjun was here, and he was trapped by Zayed.

  “Why didn’t he report this to me first?” he shouted.

  “Don’t know sir, but the Intel has gone viral, and it is all over the news.”

  Pratap nodded. “Come with me. I have to reach there at once.”

  He didn’t want to miss the chance of meeting his old friend. If only Zayed had not hurt him till now. Pratap had to help Arjun at all costs.

  ~*~

  FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER

  All the Police cars screeched to a halt. There were at least a dozen of them outside St. John’s Church. Zayed was ecstatic. He quickly jumped to the nearest Police jeep to take the search warrant but was greeted by a familiar face. Pratap was walking towards him.

  “Sir, I didn’t know you were also coming here,” he said saluting his superior.

  “At ease, I didn’t even know myself till the last moment. Have you forgotten that I am your superior? You have to report to me, and get all your clearances from me.”

  “Sir, we can argue later. This is our golden chance in apprehending him. He is still inside, and I can see that the rogue officer Tia Majumdar is also on the premises.”

  “How do you know for sure?”

  “I have a tracker placed on her.”

  Pratap nodded. He could see all the devotees, and press reporters swarming like bees all over the place. Even if he wanted to, helping Arjun was impossible.

  “Proceed!” he ordered.

  Zayed took a megaphone in his hand. “All the devotees start exiting the place by the front gate slowly one by one. Do not push anyone, and wait for the checking by our officers. This is not a joke; we have a fugitive amongst us.”

  People started leaving in small groups. The officers checked the faces of each, and every one before letting them go. After half an hour or so, the entire place was deserted except a few. Pratap was secretly praying in his mind. Today had to be a good day for him; he had a gut feeling.

  “Officers, search each nook and cranny of the entire place – the halls, the confession booths, the residential premises, the wine cellar, everything,” Zayed ordered.

  A bunch of officers marched inside, while he looked at his device. She was still here. After twenty odd minutes, all of the officers returned.

  “All clear sir!”

  “How can this be?” shouted Zayed.

  John sat on one of the benches with a candle in his hand. “Do you want to pray, my child?”

  He scoffed and caught hold of the Clerical clothing worn by John. “I know you are involved too.”

  “Son, you are lost,” John replied chokingly.

  “Officer Zayed, do not proceed further. You are clearly not in your senses,” shouted Pratap.

  Zayed hung his head low, and that’s when he saw something. Under one of the benches, he saw the tracker that he had placed on Tia. He was outsmarted somehow. He picked it up and smiled.

  “They realized about the tracker, but how the hell did they escape?”

  Pratap ordered all the officers to do a full sweep again, and the result was same. After an hour, all of the officers and jeeps returned except Zayed and him.

  “Sir, I am still not able to understand how they escaped from here. We were checking each and every person’s face.”

  Pratap thought about it for a minute but didn’t have anything to say. “Meet me at the station; we will discuss the strategy ahead.”

  With this, he left the church too after giving some updates to the press reporters outside. Zayed wanted to question John but realized that the timing was not right this time as he already had disrupted the Sunday mass. Once he was out, his fellow officers brought the jeep, and he sat inside.

  “Mahesh, you all were stationed at the back, right? You didn’t see them too?”

  “No sir, there was no one. They must have vanished from the roof.”

  Zayed scoffed. “They are not wizards; I am still not getting as to how they escaped.”

  “Sorry, sir! We all were vigilant enough as per your orders. We had a close eye on the back gate, and didn’t allow anyone to exit or enter the premises.”

  Zayed nodded. “You did good Mahesh, let’s turn back to the station.”

  Mahesh blushed with pride. “I did my best sir. I evacuated the head priest & nun to safety myself.”

  Zayed’s lips turned into a line as he looked at the others. He smashed his hand on the glovebox in anger until he started bleeding.

  “Motherfuckers!!!!”

  HOPE

  I screeched to a halt outside the gateway of Akshay’s junkyard and drove the car in. I still couldn’t believe that the church was compromised now, and I had been banished from my own home having nowhere to go but on the outskirts of Noida. I hoped that John didn’t get much heat on him. It would really kill me if he went to prison because of me.

  I drove further in between all the junk, trying to remember the way. With Zayed and his force this close, I needed answers fast, and Akshay could be the key. I knew I had withheld some information from him, but it was time to build that trust otherwise this would not work. If he is true about having some contacts, he can help me get some substantial Intel regarding Ali and the flash drive. Zayed had already made out the church, and he knew I had been to Noida on this same highway earlier. It was a matter of time before he puts the Intel together, and starts tracing my steps leading back here.

  ‘That bastard! You wait till I get my hands on you,’ I thought, thinking about Tia’s guy selling us out. It seemed like things were at a dead-end everywhere. Forget decryption, now I wasn’t even sure I was getting Shikha’s phone back from him.

  There was a loud snap suddenly, and the car jerked me out of my thoughts as I entered the junkyard. I tried to remember the route as hard as I could to avoid any trap. Akshay was inside the bunker, looking at a photograph of Aditi and him from the childhood days. He was smiling, which faded when he heard the sound of a car. He got up frowning and kept the photo inside his wallet. Then he went up to the table in the corner of the room, where his berretta was lying. He cocked the gun and came rushing out.

  “Arjun?” he asked with raised eyebrows.

  We had entered the bunker and were in the Intel room. He set his gun down on the table and went up to the mini-fridge.

  I growled, “Hey, were you planning to fire at me?”

  He snickered and brought a beer to me, “You could use one.”

  He sat down on one of the chairs and drank a few sips from his bottle. After setting it down, he said, “So, what is with this sudden visit? You didn’t inform that you were coming.”

  “Oh, I am sorry I didn’t call, was too busy shaking cops off me! My last hideout has been made, so I had to run. I didn’t know any other place, so came straight here-”

  “No, no, no, no, no!” He got up in panic. “They already red-flagged this area all over the news before because of our stunt.”

  He came rushing towards me and grabbed my collar, “You will lead them straight here. You will take us both down.”

  “Hey, I am not that bad a case,” I retorted back. “I made sure I lost t
hem for now,” then I looked down, and said, “Although that cop Zayed is still not to be underestimated.”

  Akshay let go of my collar, then started walking slowly to his chair, “You don’t understand what the Cops could uncover at this place.” “However safe we are right now; we are still on the clock. We need to seek answers fast if we need to solve this mess. Did you find anything at your end, any clue connecting to Aditi?”

  “I didn’t find anything much, but one of my contacts has a contact who has worked with some guy from UP who knew her. This was when she had visited a small town there. I didn’t get his identity, but-” he paused as he noticed me raising my eyebrows, then continued, “Why do I get the feeling that you know more than I do?”

  “His name was Ali; he was the DSP of that city, Mirzapur,” I answered, “He knew Aditi because they worked together in clearing a major disturbance in that town some time ago.” He stared at me blankly, and I steered to the facts and told him about her apartment, and how I had learned of the two significant pieces of evidence before the police arrived. One of them being Ali of whom I had learned from Aditi’s articles of the Mirzapur incident. I told him that they had worked closely, and trusted each other through weeks of hardship. Hence he must know something. Another being the note telling me to follow my heart, I told him about my thoughts and actions till now in that regard. I told about Ajeet being after a certain flash drive; about Shikha’s mystery phone, and to think that everything could be connected to Aditi.

  His mouth was hanging open when I had finished, “That is some theory, and you believe this is all connected?”

  “How could it not seem like that?” I replied. “The events up until now are suggesting it. If I could just find a few more answers here and there, I could try to connect the dots.”

  “Huh! If that is true, then my dear sis was in some knee-deep shit!” He finished his beer, “Okay, let me make a call.”

  “To whom?”

  “I have a contact who might know our DSP. He is a local gangster named Patel, and he has snitched for the police numerous times to make them look away from his dealings. He owes me big time.”

  Akshay called the guy and put him on speaker.

  “Akshay bhai, what a pleasant surprise, any new spoils for me?”

  “Not as of now, but I need to call in one of the favors you owe me,” Akshay said, “This is about your other line of work. Have you ever worked with a guy named Ali? He was a former DSP in Mirzapur, UP.”

  There was a pause, then he said with a grave tone, “What’s in it for me?”

  “A chance in future to get more spoils from me. You know that I don’t disappoint. You really wanna give it all up?”

  “I crossed paths with him in Delhi once when he came here as an Inspector. I helped him for a case that time because he had got me out of a tough spot. After that, he became DSP and used to take my help sometimes in gathering some significant Intel on crimes, which I gladly gave because I owed him. After the Mirzapur incident though, I heard that he was suspended, and I didn’t hear from him.”

  “What is his connection with journalist Aditi Mehta who was murdered?” Akshay asked.

  “Look, I already told you all I know. I don’t know anything about Aditi. Akshay bhai, our business is at its place, but if you led cops to me, then there will be consequences.” he said firmly, and hung up.

  “We already knew all that,” I said in anger as we were at another dead-end.

  ~*~

  Ajeet came out of his apartment and lit up a cigarette when his phone rang.

  “What did you do?” the voice on the other end demanded.

  “It has been enough,” Ajeet said.

  “What? What the hell’s going on with you?”

  “It is enough,” Ajeet shouted at the top of his voice, making a few nearby pigeons fly away out of fear.

  The voice on the phone said after a pause, “You need to listen to me; you shouldn’t have joined the force just yet.”

  “No,” Ajeet cut in, “You listen to me now. It has been enough of me behind the closed doors of hideouts. You have made me show quite enough that I am a coward. My days of being pansy are over. I am not afraid of Arjun, and I will prove it. I will go after him myself now which is what I should have done a long time ago instead of listening to you. I am back now, and I am gonna finish him off.”

  ~*~

  “What is it?” I asked putting my hoodie cap over my head to avoid suspicion.

  Tia didn’t say anything. She was shit scared. Her eyes looked tired and swollen due to crying and lack of sleep. She hopped inside the auto-rickshaw that we had booked.

  “At least cover your face,” I mouthed at her.

  She hid her face with a pink floral scarf but still didn’t say anything. After a couple of minutes, she broke down and started crying.

  “Tia, you can tell me anything. What happened? Why are you crying? What was it that you called me so urgently for?”

  She was about to say something, but her throat choked. The auto driver had a sick grin on his face. His focus was not on the road, but on the rear-view mirror. He kept eyeing us as though he had earned the tickets to our matinee show.

  “Hey! Keep your eyes on the road instead,” I shouted.

  He was taken by surprise and looked straight ahead.

  “Why are you getting so angry?” Tia asked me.

  “Because you are not saying anything to me,” I replied.

  “I got a call from Dr. Vijay,” she blurted out, sobbing.

  I took a deep breath. “Is it about baba?”

  She nodded and rested her head on my shoulder. I caressed her hair. “Is everything alright?”

  “I don’t know. He just called and asked me to reach the hospital as soon as possible. I am so scared Arjun- ”

  I cut in her sentence. “Can we at least not use our real names?” I whispered.

  “Yes, sure. Why not? Everything is about you only, all of us are living to help you or work for you, and if we are of no use to you, you can shoot us one by one. You probably would have considered it an achievement kissing the daughter of the man you had target practiced on.”

  I was pissed off. I wanted to shout at the top of my lungs but decided against it. There was no point of greeting a tornado with a volcano. She was scared, and I did a piss poor job of consoling her.

  “I am sorry.”

  “Fuck you and your sorry,” she snapped.

  “Sorry na!”

  She scoffed and turned her face the other way round.

  “I am sorry! Mere pyaare, jaane do. Hota hai chodo bhi, jaane do.”

  She giggled and hugged me with tears in her eyes.

  “I am there for you always.”

  She started praying under her breath. I hoped that everything goes good.

  There were enough deaths and blood spilled due to me; I couldn’t handle more. I was scared of myself now. At that moment, I remembered Shikha’s face and felt some more guilt. I adjusted myself and sat in an upright posture slightly away from Tia.

  “What happened to you?”

  “Nothing,” I replied.

  I had to control my urges. Sure, this felt amazing, but I couldn’t do this to Shikha. I was being reckless and irresponsible. I had already caused everlasting damage to Tia. I had no right to turn her life into a train wreck just like mine. John was right; I can go spiraling down any time with my drinking and smoking. I was a broken man, and she deserved someone much nicer.

  “Bhai sahab, hundred rupees,” groaned the driver.

  I realized that we had finally reached the destination. Agastya hospital at CP was a reputed one, and we had high hopes that Tia’s dad Shantanu would get up someday. We paid the driver, who looked at me in a funny way.

  “I guess he is trying to remember my face,” I whispered.

  Tia shushed me, and we crossed the road and walked towards the hospital. However, we had not thought of one major problem – the Police. After our recent altercation at t
he church, the Police in the entire city had been increased to tenfold.

  “We cannot strut like that here.”

  “We will cover our faces. I have to meet the doctor at all costs.”

  My lips turned into a line, and I gulped. I tasted the sour taste of bile in my mouth. “It could be a trap; maybe the cops had asked the doctor to call you. Even if it is true, then the cops know that your father is admitted in this hospital, and you will come here.”

  She finally realized the gravity of the situation. “I will go inside; he is my Baba. I trust Dr. Vijay too. He is our family doctor, and I have known him since we went to school together. I will take the risk, but you should not accompany me. All these escapes would be futile if you can’t uncover the truth or clear your name.”

  “Shut up! You are not going alone, and regarding the truth uncovering, I have just been running from one place to another. I hardly find any time to analyze the clues or decide the next course of action. I am tired of running every time.”

  She gave me a minute. After that, she took a deep breath. “What to do now?”

  My mind was racing like a ticking clock. All the ideas, whether good or bad were floating in my mind.

  “I have a plan. It would be helpful for John too.”

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “I will ask John to call the Police and report that I was at the church trying to overpower him. I will ask him to plant some clues indicating the same. He is an intelligent man; he will figure out the rest. The Police will relax around the hospital if they realize that I am somewhere else. They all will swarm there.”

  Tia nodded her head in agreement. “But they will have some Police at the ICU.”

  “I have a plan for that too,” I smirked.

  “It can even cause problems for John if Zayed realizes that all of this is bullshit.”

  “I hate that guy,” I replied.

  “He has got something in him; nobody has reached this close to us.”