Zayed took a breath of the morning air in after he cut the call. The fresh cool air was seen rare these days just like their peace and quiet had been for a long time.
“And so the end begins,” he said.
~*~
Devraj made it to his destination with a few minutes to spare. His car stopped outside one of the gates of the Sanjeevni Park, another car on its tail. He got out and glanced at the park. The standard security and patrol cars around there had already been notified discreetly and ordered to ignore the affair.
He started walking inside and noticed a little later that his detail is still following him. He stopped them with a show of his hand. One of the guards said, “Sir, I know your instructions, but we are obligated to our duty.”
“You are obligated to follow any instructions that I give you,” Devraj said sternly, “Just stay here and keep watch. I will not be long.”
“Sir, if there is any danger-”
“Then I am sure you are trained enough to know what to do,” Devraj snapped back.
He entered the park grounds and started scanning them in the dead of night. They were deserted at this point excluding a few night owls. He didn’t have to worry about him being made at this time though.
He stood at a place under the shadow of a tree from where he could see his detail. He pressed his finger on his ear and whispered, “Status?”
“We are around and ready, sir. We have you covered,” the voice at the other end said.
“Good,” Devraj whispered, “He should not survive to exit this place. Do what is needed once I am in the clear. Keep it clean.”
“Understood perfectly,” the voice confirmed.
There was a beggar sleeping a few meters away from his position, who rolled over in his sleep. He whispered into his ear, “Sir, he is here. Although, your suspicions were valid. The amount of foot traffic of armed goons that I have seen in this park in the last hour, there is a good chance that you might not have survived this meeting.”
“And no one would have suspected because he would have just looked like a victim of a random attack,” Zayed’s voice scoffed at the other end, “I would have died a hero in this act, trying to save him.”
It had been thirty minutes with no sign of Zayed, and Devraj’s anxiety had turned into frustration.
“What the hell! Is this a bloody joke?”
He came back and sat down in his car, fuming because Zayed had been a no-show for this important matter, especially when he had only asked to meet.
‘Did he get to know my plan and got spooked?’ Devraj thought, ‘No, it couldn’t be. He couldn’t have known. Looks like I might have to think of some other way.’
“Take me back to the residence,” he said.
His phone rang. It was a familiar name, and Devraj was a little surprised before picking it up.
“To what do I owe the pleasure of receiving your late night call again? I thought you were done with me.”
“I can’t sleep,” Rita groaned from the other end.
Devraj managed to slip away from his frustration and give a small smirk.
“You always knew what to do then,” Rita whispered.
“Running back to me when I am in the hot seat of CM? Do you want some favors, a promotion, maybe?”
“For now, how about coming here and putting me to sleep like you always did,” she finished.
“I did always like you sweet talking me into it, and my mood requires some uplifting if you catch my drift,” Devraj said and informed the driver about his new destination.
~*~
“That was great,” Rita whispered excitedly as she and Devraj both sat up on their bed. She giggled and got out of it.
She took out a bottle of scotch from her kitchen cupboard and showed it to him with a mischievous wink.
“Oh! You went the whole nine yards?”
She laughed and pulled out two glasses. She looked at him, about to say something but it was like he already knew.
“You know exactly how I like it,” he said, “But if this is an assassination, you do know that you won’t even be able to leave this apartment alive.”
“What?” she said with her smile fading slowly, coming back to hand over a glass to him, “You think that is why I brought you here?”
“Something definitely changed tonight with you, after you have been acting like shit about us since before the Delta event,” he mentioned.
“If you thought that this is a trap, then why did you show up?”
“To find out your part of the story to which you haven’t given me a straight answer,” he looked straight into her eye as she was standing by the bed.
She sighed and slid back into the covers, “You got me. I had to think practically about it which showed me that you were right. I had been nothing without you, and it was proved right after the event when the station gave me a ton of shit because they were tortured by the fact that I didn’t cover and give them an exclusive about the Shangri-La disaster. They forgot the fact that I barely made it out alive and all they cared about was me failing to capture the action even when I was at the heart of it.”
“But why tonight all of a sudden? I have already been through one fiasco tonight, can’t help but think that this might be another.”
“I don’t know anything about what you have been through tonight, but you know very well that I am here for you whenever you need me. I wouldn’t have called otherwise if I hadn’t realized my mistake. I am here if you want to talk about it, unburden your mind.”
“You weren’t until yesterday though, so forgive me for finding that hard to believe,” he spat back in anger.
She looked at him for a minute in silence and then to the drink in his hand and said, “If you want, I can drink that for you to make you believe me. I assure you that it just happened right in sync with your bad mood,” she folded her hands, looking in the other direction.
Devraj laughed and then kissed her, saying, “No need for that. I need this drink right now more than you. It might help to quench my anger.”
He finished his glass in a go and closed his eyes, “Ahh! This is good stuff and made just right with the magic of your hands. Fill it up.”
She took the glass and looked into his eyes, saying, “Please don’t be angry. I really want to help you because I have never stopped caring for you. Heck, I might need your help as well. I can’t just get kicked out of my career because the channel is being a bitch.”
“We can see something about that, but right now my anger is channeled towards a different person,” he said, frowning at the wall as she went to fill his second drink.
“Who?” she asked.
“Some scum who thinks they can threaten me and still get to see another day,” he answered.
“Oh my god!” Rita turned to face him, “Someone is threatening you? Who would have the audacity to do that?”
“You don’t need to be concerned about that. I am built to handle scumbags, heck I am the biggest scumbag myself,” he said, now looking curiously towards her, “How’s that drink coming now, slowpoke?”
She hurried and handed him the glass, keeping the bottle on the bedside table beside her. She went inside the sheets, caressed his cheek with her hand and said, “I am just looking out for you, baby. You can’t be Chief Minister without making a few enemies, and I am worried.”
He finished half of his drink which really did a number on relaxing his nerves. He was feeling warm and cozy inside the sheets with Rita’s loving touch, and he couldn’t exactly plan his next words.
“Zayed, that stupid bug in my ear. He thinks he has got an edge because he has got some dirt on me from the Mirzapur fiasco. He called and blackmailed me about it.”
“What the fuck! Really? I thought you had him in the palm of your hand.”
“Puppets these days have a built-in rebel in them. A little spark could have them running about to be free, trying to strike back. He doesn’t know that he would be dead on his feet if I wa
nt.”
Rita sighed and put her head on his shoulder, saying, “I am sure he is bluffing though.”
“I don’t think he meant to bluff,” Devraj got up and sat at the side of the bed. He sighed heavily after finishing his glass, “He seemed certain that a flash drive was in his possession which has some incriminating contents. I never trusted him and that dead reporter then, I knew they had stashed some evidence away. I can’t forget his voice on the phone call today. He really has it.”
“But Mirzapur is so long ago and weren’t you the hero who saved it all? What would be bad in that?”
“Huh!” he got up and wore his night robe, then helped himself with the next refill. He barked at Rita, “You seem to be having a lot of questions today, woman?”
Rita looked down and said slowly, “I am sorry to intrude. I care for you, and so I got carried away when you said that he is threatening you. It is obvious that you might not trust me yet.”
He grabbed a bunch of her hair and pulled it back with her wincing, “Do you think I am afraid of a tiny threat? I wouldn’t have been at this place if I had been scared by these all the time. I can make him disappear overnight with a blink of an eye, but I wouldn’t do that,” he let go of her hair, “I want all that he has on me, and I will act accordingly.”
She held his hand, “You saved that town, what could he possibly have that could change it?”
He set his glass down with a loud tap and said, “I wouldn’t have to save that wretched place if they would have kept my operation under wraps. I had to start a riot to get things moving, but that too was escalated to a near extinction level shit. I don’t know how those two were the strongest gangsters of the town. Lowlife assholes, gawaar saale, immature imbeciles! They didn’t have a clue how to handle the situation, and you know the rest.”
“Your operation? Alchemist?”
“I was a shareholder on that,” he sat back down after filling up another one, “We had a great plan, a really simple one of setting up shop there. I told them to do all of their research quickly without raising suspicion but it all went the other way around, and I had to clean up their mess.”
He sipped his drink and continued, “It helped me in my campaigns though, so it was a win-win. People love to love somebody here, and I am on my way to the Centre now. However, I got wind of a flash drive having the worst of it.”
Rita smiled, “I am sure that is nothing for you to retrieve. You have handled Zayed before. You just need to shake him down till he drops it.”
Devraj shook his head, “He is out of control this time. I am thinking of more than just a shakedown.”
She took his glass and said, “Oh! Cheer up, please. You are the CM now; you have all the power. You came here to relax, remember? Just look at what you have already accomplished. Arjun behind bars just when you took the oath. You really set an example. Do you think people would really believe all the bullshit Zayed has after your feat in capturing the great mass murderer? It can all be proved that it was cooked up.”
Devraj laughed, “You are starting to think like me, but I wouldn’t give Arjun that much credit. If you ask me, I wanted him killed. They are all related, you see, and I have grown a hatred for them all. The reporter was his friend too. Moreover, Zayed’s little stunt today shows he might be trying to save him because I remember he cared for that girl. He might even use the flash drive in his desperate efforts, but nothing related to Arjun is in there.”
“But how can he save him? Arjun will pay for his crimes, right? He did commit cold-blooded murder and then escape from the law for months.”
Devraj said, “Yes, he will pay dearly,” his eyes looking sinister, “I have made sure of that.”
He started laughing again, and this time, Rita joined in, flinging her arms on his shoulders and asked slowly “Okay, I don’t mean to intrude again but what did you do?”
Devraj was feeling very light-headed now, the smile not leaving his face as he thought about how much of a genius he is and continued, “What didn’t I do? I made sure that all the witnesses were bought and none of them spoke shit which could help Arjun’s case. I did everything behind the curtain, and everyone believed it was Arjun’s doing.”
He continued laughing so much that the glass slipped out of his hand and shattered on the ground. The louder noise though was that of the door of the room flinging open, and Zayed leading a team of cops inside. Devraj gasped and stood up from the bed, looking at Rita and Zayed in turns with big widened eyes.
“What in hell’s name is this? Zayed? You can’t just barge in here,” Devraj shouted.
“Oh, but this was my cue after our little sting there,” Zayed smiled, “So I think I needed to barge in right at this point.”
“NO,” Devraj barked, “Security? Security?” he said in his earpiece as well as shouted a few times, but no one responded. He said angrily, “Where are those dumb heads?”
“They are resting, we helped them with that,” Zayed informed, “Honestly, they were quite tired of having to follow your bossy ass around.”
Devraj was trying to think fast but was just ending up breathing heavily, “So, this was all- you didn’t show up and then Rita-” he looked at her with big eyes, “You set me up. How could you-”
He lost his voice, and Zayed continued, “Yeah, quite a setup you had back there to kill me which proved my suspicions and I had to carry onto this phase which you can say was already set up when you treated her like shit.”
He turned to Rita, “You did a great job for someone who was scared already. Although, I felt glad when you controlled yourself and didn’t go too far on the mixology of his drinks. We needed him to be able to talk at least.”
“You bitch! I made you,” shouted Devraj raising his hand to slap her across the face.
However, the tables had turned dramatically. Rita caught his hand and flung a tight slap across the CM’s face which sounded thunderous, to say the least. Devraj was horror-struck and his eyes were about to burst with anger. He couldn’t believe that he was slapped by a woman and that too the same woman, who he used to thrash for fun.
“Arjun is a much better person than you. He saved my life at Shangri-La and offered his help when he saw the bruises and cuts that you gave me. It was at that moment when I decided to help him take you down.”
Devraj looked at Zayed, who was enjoying what he saw. Without wasting any more second, he pushed Zayed a little and fell down himself in the process. Zayed regained his balance and said, “Need to do the honors now. Hon’ble Chief Minister, you are under arrest for assaulting a Police Officer and if I may add to the list - Mirzapur conspiracy, being in affiliation with the company which kidnapped people for unauthorized human trials, facilitating and hiring local gangsters to orchestrate bombings and riots leading up to the deaths of hundreds, for manipulation of witnesses who were brought in to testify in relation to Arjun Rathore’s case and for possible withholding of potential and viable information regarding the same case suggested by your confession.”
Devraj raised his finger at Zayed, staggering a little as he was finding it hard to steady himself and held the side of the bed with his one hand. He screamed, “You can’t do this. You won’t get away with it. You have nothing against me. I am the CM. I will see within my power that nothing will be proved against me. My lawyers will see to that.”
“Take him,” Zayed ordered his officers and they took him away, his threats still echoing throughout the corridor outside.
Rita shed a tear and took a deep breath after Zayed left giving her a nod of gratitude.
~*~
“The court is now in session,” the announcement made my insides jolt again as I shifted nervously in my wheelchair inside the witness box. The defender got up. Zayed was standing beside me, looking determined. However, there was this constant nagging feeling inside me for the first time in my life that I wasn’t in control of my own situation.
He looked at me and said, “You don’t have anything to worry abo
ut now.”
I nodded. “I am just not used to be on this side of the room.”
“Your honor, if I have the permission to proceed,” the defender asked.
“Permission granted,” the judge said.
“Your honor, our minds are generally built to avoid conspiracy theories. Maybe we think it is just the element of our movie industry or that how would someone go to such lengths to cover such vast things up. In light of some new evidence, a lot of thinking and planning can be witnessed as you have been informed and this case is just at the bottom of it. You will realize that this forces our mind to re-think everything. A special request of a closed hearing was done today due to this same evidence as it would be in the best interests of the public. It makes sense that this would be the work of an experienced mind who is an expert in influencing people, our very own Chief Minister.”
“Objection, your honor!” the prosecutor stood up and began shaking his head showing signs of disapproval. He continued, “This is totally absurd, your honor. There has been plenty of evidence proving that the accused is guilty. Dragging our Hon’ble CM into the mix who has this capital’s affairs on his mind already just to prove the accused not of the fact? Let me correct the words of my fellow lawyer, the defendant who is a bit mistaken. This is not a conspiracy but being turned into one and that too a very far-fetched one.”
“Objection over-ruled at this point as the court needs to examine this new evidence,” the judge said, and the prosecutor sat down.
The defender handed over the audio evidence they had to the clerk who presented the same to the judge. The lawyer continued, “I would like to summon the chief minister to the witness box as you listen to his own confession.”
The judge looked at him and said gravely, “Permission granted.”
I couldn’t believe that it was all about to be over. I saw Devraj being brought to the court by Zayed’s officers. He nudged free from them as they stood him inside the witness box.
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