The chief of the San Francisco General Hospital’s obstetrics department weighed in, ‘Amoka General Hospital is one of Minnesota’s smallest hospitals. What were Dr Guru and Dr Radhika trying to accomplish with this live Cesarean? They need to clear this up for us because it is quite apparent just by looking at this video that let alone a live C-section, this hospital is not sufficiently equipped for performing even minor surgeries. I have never seen a Code Blue and a Code Red in succession just seconds apart in any hospital. Shouldn’t there be some minimum preparedness, at least when you are performing a surgery live on TV? At least something as fundamental as preempting any power cuts? It’s a Quixotic experiment and in my opinion, a botched attempt. In fact, the whole show was a big failure in every sense of the term.’
After having seen both the programs, I switched off the TV.
The following day, all newspapers had a field day feeding off the Amoka News. The headlines from their front pages were vivid and sensational: ‘Successful live Cesarean from Amoka’s doctors’; ‘Dr Radhika’s live Cesarean section on two Sanghaali women’; ‘Live Cesarean: DONE. What next?’; ‘A drama of live Cesarean amidst Code Blue and Code Red. What next—Code Black?’; ‘Live Cesarean section—What really happened?’
The whole spectrum of print media, from local newspapers to the tabloids, had written about this experiment. They devoured and regurgitated this news like a hungry python. While Radhika and I felt that this entire coverage by the news media was not completely accurate, we also acknowledged that whatever they saw and experienced may be subjective but not false. It was quite possible that the person who had captured the video of the surgical field standing behind me was alarmed and even scared looking at the blood-soaked gauzes, After all, isn’t it true that there was heavy bleeding? Otherwise, why would Radhika order blood transfusion for Asha?
The Minnesota Electric Corporation had issued a statement: ‘The probable reason for the power outage at the Amoka General Hospital yesterday was an internal malfunction. Generally, our distribution transformer at the hospital is rated for taking the load from the power required to run the emergency electric lights and other surgery related equipment only. It is not designed to take on the consumption from the TV camera lights, the camera gadgets and other sundry equipment of the media channels, not to mention the air conditioners operating in the tents pitched outside the hospital. This overload led to its failure and the power outage. We subsequently fixed the issue in only five minutes.’
Jack Powell had given a rebuttal on behalf of the hospital. ‘We gave the electric company a heads-up that we shall be organizing a project like the one we did and written to them asking for steps that we need to take. They did not respond at all. Yet, to be proactive, on the advice of our electricians we did not draw any additional lines from our hospital’s transformer. As far as our studio and media personnel are concerned, they had made their own power arrangements and did not tap into the hospital’s main line. The hospital’s management is not aware of the nitty-gritty here. However, our electrical engineers have worked closely with them. There will be further enquiry and we will keep you informed as soon as we uncover more information.’ We knew he was only telling a half-truth.
In summary, according to the Minnesota Electric Corporation, consumption overload caused power failure which led to the failure of the electric cautery that Radhika was using, and this also likely caused some sparking or burning with smoke. This is what they thought was the real reason for the power outage of the entire hospital.
A picture of a shocked Radhika’s ‘Oh my god’ moment went viral on social media. Another picture of a couple of dead geese hanging from the power lines near our hospital’s transformer was also circulating all over the internet. Additionally, someone was circulating pamphlets claiming that the real reason behind the hospital’s power failure were the Jihadi Moms. Mohammad Mohammad had shared both these pictures on his Facebook page. And he had tweeted the same as well. It would have made no difference even if he had not done so; Radhika was a household name by then!
Radhika had received a letter from the American Medical Association saying, ‘Doing a TV program like this is not within the defined scope of your medical license. We have to conduct an enquiry in this regard.’ When she showed this letter to me, I directed her to Jack Powell and Rick Jackson. Rick asked Radhika not to worry about it. He said he will write a letter to the American Medical Association on behalf of the hospital.
Apparently, the Association has not contacted Radhika even once.
PART 2
Two Years Later…
25. Black Life’s Matters
Nusrat comes from a small village near Dahir-Bar in Sanghaala. It has been twenty-two years since she came to Amoka. She founded and runs a restaurant called Nusrat’s and looks after all aspects of the business. Her husband doubles as the chef of the restaurant. She has nine children. Now, she is pregnant with the tenth one. The first one Samira, a girl, is studying in medical school. The second one is a boy, Mohammad Igal. Then there is Hamdi Ahmad, who was previous year’s Minnesota Wrestling Champion. The fourth one is a girl, Nazafi, who won the third prize the previous year at the National Spelling Bee Championship.
Nusrat speaks very good English. All her children were born and raised in Amoka. Nusrat had her children once in every two years as if she was on a schedule. Radhika had told me that two years ago, when all young Sanghaali mothers were killing themselves, she had considered Nusrat for the live Cesarean section, but unfortunately Nusrat was not pregnant at that time. Apparently, Radhika and Saanvi had even visited her restaurant to discuss this matter.
She sees Radhika now for her prenatal checkups. Radhika says that it is not clear yet, if she will have a C-section or have a natural delivery.
There is however one problem of concern in Nusrat’s family. Her son, Mohammad Igal, has not been living in Amoka for the past six or seven years. Igal was a troubled young man. He apparently had fled home when he was fifteen years old. According to the FBI, he’d fled to Syria and registered with the Islamic State. Now his name is on the FBI-Minnesota’s ‘Most Wanted’ list. As per the FBI, during the past two years eleven Sanghaali young men including him, had registered with terrorist organizations based out of Iraq and Syria.
Nusrat’s son had a track record of serial crimes; he had joined a gang in Minneapolis and was arrested several times for activities like stealing car parts, armed robbery of grocery stores and gas stations, assaults, and peddling drugs. He had spent some time at a Juvenile Detention Center. These were all petty crimes and not enough to indict him for longer and harsher sentences. One day, after his release, he had shown up at Nusrat’s restaurant suddenly and purloined nine thousand dollars in cash and had disappeared. Last year, the FBI’s Minneapolis bureau chief had released a statement that they had reliable information that he was in Syria. This was after six years since he left home. There was also some information on Wikipedia that he was one of the masterminds of an explosion that rocked Turkey last year.
Nusrat had given statements everywhere asserting that she had not seen her son for the last seven years. The Bureau and the police had interrogated Nusrat on this very question several times. So far, Mohammad Igal had not tried to contact either Nusrat or any of the other family members.
It was said that three months back, suddenly, there was a parade of agents in spiffy suits from the Minneapolis Bureau visiting Nusrat’s restaurant. Apparently, they had some leads that Mohammad Igal was in Minnesota and was planning for a big strike on the Mall of America. They therefore had suspected that he may visit Amoka to meet his mother on some day or the other. They were making regular visits to the restaurant and had even interrogated Nusrat’s husband. Now that Igal was on the FBI’s ‘Most Wanted’ list, there was news across the town that the Bureau would always have an eye on Nusrat’s house. But Mohammad Igal had so far not visited Amoka at all. He was the phantom right in the middle of it all, waited for by his family, sought
out by law enforcement agencies, and followed with interest by the Sanghaali diaspora. None had any luck so far.
The code name that the FBI had assigned to Mohammad Igal was Black Eagle.
Martin Luther King was a resident of the Minneapolis-St Paul twin cities region. While he was born in Chicago, he had moved to St Paul when he was three and was raised there. For the past two years he had been working as a supervisor in the Nutrition Services Department of St Paul’s M.M. Mill Montessori School. Shaniqua Reynolds is his current girlfriend. They had met each other four months ago. They may have gone out just about six times since then. She was the mother of a child from an earlier relationship. According to the students at his school, he was a mensch, always smiling, altruistic and an honest man. They all had the same kind words for him: ‘He always fed us, he was very hospitable, and he was like our gramma, may be grandpa sometimes,’ and so on.
Martin Luther King is not related in any way to the American civil rights leader, but he is proud to share the same first and last names with the leader.
The world first became aware of the existence of another Martin Luther King on November 8th.
November 8th was like any other day, nothing out of the ordinary. It was a Tuesday. Since it was just past Halloween, orange, carved pumpkins stood in front of many homes. It was turning cold. Trees stood bare, stripped of their leaves. It had not snowed yet. Martin served meals for the school children at noon. He did not have much work that afternoon. He usually eats at school after serving food to all the children. Today, he felt like eating outside. He went alone and ate a steak sandwich with Diet Coke in a deli. He went to a nearby salon and got his haircut.
It was only two in the afternoon and he was finding it hard to kill time. He called his girlfriend Shaniqua. She did not work on Tuesdays.
‘What are you doing?’
‘Nothing much. I’m watching TV. The baby is sleeping.’
‘Shall we go out somewhere?’
‘Where?’
‘Nowhere specific. Let’s drive around for some time and do some shopping in the evening. Can you come over to my apartment tonight?’
She thought for a couple of minutes, ‘I’m not doing anything either. I can certainly make it. Can you pick me up from my place? I will have the baby ready by then.’
‘Sure.’
He picked her up from her apartment. Shaniqua seated the baby in the child seat in the back and sat next to Martin. The baby fell asleep barely ten minutes after settling down in its seat. Martin saw the sleeping baby in the rearview mirror. He stretched out his hand backward even as he was driving and wiped the drooling saliva from the baby’s mouth. He straightened its cap and its head. Shaniqua, pleased at his gesture, squeezed his hand and asked, ‘Where are we going?’
‘If we drive north on the highway, there is not much traffic by Lake Minnetonka. It’s great fun to sit by the lakeside and drink beer,’ he said wistfully.
‘We have work tomorrow, don’t we?’
‘We shall be back soon. It’s only 2 pm now. The lake is an hour’s drive. If we spend a couple of hours there, we can be back by seven. Why don’t you stay at my apartment tonight?’
She smiled and said, ‘Okay.’
The car raced on the highway. Shaniqua started changing the radio stations. She liked none of them. She switched it off and asked, ‘Is there any good CD in the car?’ She reached out to the glove box and opened it. There she found a brand-new silver-plated Smith & Wesson Governor model pistol. She was aghast.
‘Why do you have a gun here?’ She asked.
He smiled and replied, ‘I have the license to keep it.’
‘Of course, I know that, silly! You and I had gone to get the license.’
The one thing they had done together in the past three months since they started dating was to get his gun license renewed. They had both joined an amateur shooting club that was rather unimaginatively called ‘Target Shooting’.
Shaniqua expressed her concern. ‘Whatever, you should not have kept it in the car. The baby will be playing around and moreover, these aren’t good times. What if the cops stop us?’
‘Why would the cops stop us?’
‘Have you read the bumper stickers on your car?’
Martin Luther King drove a 1989 Chevrolet Impala. There were two stickers on its bumper. One had the famous ‘I Have A Dream’ line from King’s iconic speech and the other, a more recent one, was a ‘Black Lives Matter’ sticker.
Martin was in the forefront of the Black Lives Matter movement in the Minneapolis-St Paul region. He had coordinated several peaceful protests. He had even gone to jail for a day after his one-man protest sitting outside Minnesota’s world famous Mall of America.
Martin did feel a little shaken for a moment after listening to Shaniqua’s words. He had completely forgotten about the gun in the glove-box. He had three more guns and a 22 Magnum Pistol in his house.
For some unexplained reason, ever since he took an active role in the Black Lives Matter movement, Martin had felt a need for keeping a gun in his car. He felt more secure with a gun in his glove box.
The car exited out of the Highway onto Larpenter Avenue and was moving along slowly. Shaniqua turned around in her seat. The baby was still asleep.
‘I forgot to get formula for the baby. There is none if he wakes up.’
‘Just a minute. I’ll get it right now.’ He stopped in front of a grocery store and bought baby formula, diapers, a six-pack Miller Lite beer and a couple of condom packets, just in case. He kept the beer in the car’s trunk and continued driving for about an hour.
Shaniqua asked, ‘Do you know the way? Let’s not get lost. Remember, we have a gun in the car.’
Almost as if they overheard her, a police car started following them with its loud siren blazing. Martin checked his speedometer. It did not look like he was speeding. He drove over to the shoulder and stopped his car tentatively.
The two police officers, John Mendez and Matthew Whitaker, who were parked on the side monitoring traffic violators had apparently received a message from the Central Dispatch to look out for a red Chevy Impala and do an ID check on the person inside. It was suspected that Black Eagle maybe inside the car.
The news that Nusrat’s son Mohammad Igal aka Black Eagle from Amoka may be planning an attack on the Mall of America was in the FBI chatter and this in turn had generated a great deal of buzz and put the Minneapolis-St Paul twin cities as well as Amoka on high alert. All traffic and CCTV cameras—in stores, gas stations and restaurants—were closely monitored. The internet and the social media did not escape this security regimen either. There was tight monitoring of emails with names such as Mohammad and Ahmed and social media posts that looked suspicious.
Apparently, when Martin was paying at the counter in the grocery store on Larpenter Avenue, an agent had noticed him on the store’s CCTV and had sent his picture to the state’s FBI Office. On that day, Martin was dressed in blue jeans and a white Under Armor t-shirt. He wore the local team Twins’ baseball cap. Only the profile of his face could be seen on the store’s CCTV.
One of the agents at Minneapolis’s FBI field office compared the profile picture of Martin Luther King with that of Igal and concluded that the pictures were of the same person. Nobody knows how such a glitch can happen in this day and age of state of the art facial recognition technology. Immediately a message was transmitted to all dispatch stations: ‘High-valued suspect Black Eagle spotted at the junction of Larpenter and Maryland Avenue. Stop and search.’
Officers Mendez and Whitaker were doing the beat on Larpenter Avenue. They were regular police officers and had no clue about the Black Eagle. When they got the message, they responded with the standard protocol questions: ‘Copy that. Is the suspect armed? Did you run his license plate? Can you check for the registered owner?’
The Minnesota bureau chief who was listening to the conversation decided that it was not appropriate to discuss Black Eagle over the police radio
and called Mendez directly on his mobile. Hurriedly he went over with him who Black Eagle was and how dangerous he could be and promised to send additional forces and assured him that he would also come along in the helicopter as soon as he could. He promised Mendez that he would be in constant contact with him. He also made it clear that it was Mendez’s responsibility to ensure that the car does not go out of the neighborhood.
Dispatch announced: ‘Suspect presumed highly trained and dangerous. Running license plate now.’
After a couple of minutes there was another message on the radio which said: ‘The car is a Chevy Impala and belongs to one Mr Martin Luther King.’
Apparently both Mendez and Whitaker were stunned. They felt a small surge of fear inside. Mendez came to his senses and asked, ‘Martin Luther King? Is this a real name or an alias?’
The dispatcher said, ‘How am I supposed to know? I have no idea. I’m more confused than you are.’
Mendez grumbled, ‘What the fuck do these dispatchers know about our problems? They say he is very dangerous. Other than a handgun each, we have nothing else. His background is very scary. His name is Martin Luther King! Which terrorist would give himself a name like that?’
He spoke over the radio. ‘We need backup. Are you one hundred per cent certain that this is your guy. Is he the Black Eagle?’
Even before there was a response on the radio, the bureau chief called Mendez to say, ‘I cannot guarantee one hundred per cent. He resembles the suspect from a certain angle. Stop the car and do a search only. I repeat, search only. If he has proper ID, then let him go. We are also sending you the feed from the closest traffic camera. The face is clearly visible there, but we still cannot confirm the identity. There is also a woman with him. It is advised that you be on your guard. Additional force is on its way. Follow him and wait till the backup arrives’.
Hijab Page 21