The Memoir

by Vaibhav Reddy IVN

  ‘Adam, have you got a rod in the van?’ he asked, not taking his eyes off Manyap.

  Adam nodded and brought him a rusty iron rod from the van and handed it to him. Jeremy tapped the rod against his knee, not taking his eyes off Manyap. He squatted in front of Manyap. ‘What’s your name, mate?’

  ‘Manyap!’ he said confidently. ‘Why? Are you going to puke all over the place? If so, better notify me.’

  ‘You wish to show some attitude? If you want to sound unafraid, you are welcome. But you don’t know what pain I inflicted on your friends before I slit their throats. And, the two of you are going to show that stubborn bastard what it is to oppose me,’ he said, swinging the rod in Xavier’s direction, who was lying on the ground.

  Jeremy stood up from his squatting posture and massaged his aching thighs. He mustered all the strength he could and swung the stick.

  OUTSIDE THE BARN

  John, who was busy smoking his cigar, did not notice the Toyota, which noiselessly drove into the tall hay behind the SUV. Once he was done with it, he dropped the butt onto the ground and walked into the hay to pee. As he stood there peeing, Cynthia approached the SUV’s open door, removed the gun from the glove compartment and went behind the beefy guy. However, she realized that it would be her path to self-destruction if she stepped in the hay and made noise. She stayed beside the car door and waited with a heavy stone in her hand, while the gun remained tucked into her trousers’ waistband.

  As John began to turn around, she swung the stone at his head. As she watched its initial trajectory, she doubted it making any contact. Ultimately, it ended up knocking him down on the ground and the hay began turning red at the base. If not for the number of surgeries she attended as a medico, she knew that she would have fainted. But it took her less than a minute to realize she had been watching too many movies lately, when John stood up holding the back of his head. He turned and motioned towards her. Unable to find an alternative, she retrieved the gun from her trousers and shot at him blindly. The first one flew right above his head, but it slowed him down. She tried to steady her shaking hands and concentrate. It was not the first time she was firing a gun; she had fired many rounds in the firing range along with her father. She tried her second chance, which ended up grazing his right arm. As he stood holding his arm, the third bullet hit his thigh and he fell back onto ground.

  As she stood perplexed in her spot, the doors of the barn opened with a loud noise and she turned around with her gun drawn, ready to blast at the sight of trouble.

  IN THE BARN

  As the rod drew closer, Jeremy observed Manyap’s hands breaking loose. But before he could take it in, he heard a gunshot from outside, which made him withdraw the strike. As he gave attention to the two successive shots, which followed the first, Manyap broke loose and charged at Adam with the knife he pulled from his boots aimed at him. He slit Adam’s wrist, then cut the fabric of his shirt and his chest. In his attempt to evade Manyap’s knife, he swiveled backwards and banged his head hard on the ground, falling unconscious.

  As Jeremy charged at Manyap, Daniel pulled himself off the ground and drove his shoulder into Jeremy’s abdomen and the both of them fell on the ground. Daniel regained his balance and drove his knee into his abdomen again, pushing him back to ground. Sensing Daniel’s struggle, Manyap came to his rescue and cut the duct tape loose. Once he was free, Daniel began kicking Jeremy, draining his anger and rage, while Manyap tried to drive him away.

  ‘Daniel, this is not the time for this. Come on. We need to leave. Come!’ he said, dragging a protesting Daniel.

  Outside the barn, they were shocked to see Cynthia standing with a gun aimed at them.

  ‘She’s my friend. Let’s go,’ Daniel said.

  Cynthia got into the SUV and kept the engine idling, as the both of them approached the car. But Daniel stopped a feet short of the car as he remembered Xavier.

  ‘I will go get Xavier,’ he said, running in. Manyap followed him and the both of them helped Xavier onto his feet and dragged him out. In the endeavor, Daniel took the chance to kick Jeremy in his face with the sole of his shoe and expected it to cause some impact.

  Once the three men were back in the car, Cynthia put the car into “drive” and sped away. As the car made it for a few yards, a black Ford van sped past them, which terrified Cynthia since it was the same van, which had abducted Daniel in the morning, and had left the barn after Jeremy arrived. She slammed the accelerator hard despite the irregular road and tried to make some progress before the people in the van found out about the mayhem at the barn.

  Once she lost sight of the van in the rear-view mirror, she felt a surge of relief. However, her relief lasted only a few moments, before the van reappeared in her rear-view mirror, closing in on them. She sensed the danger and tried to accelerate. The increased speed decreased the stability of the car on the irregular roads and it began to sway to either directions. She tried to keep her fear at bay to prevent it from playing with their chances and looked behind at the men in the rear seat. Only Manyap made eye contact; instead of expressing some appreciation for her bravery, he displayed suspicion in his deep eyes. She turned back to the road to find the van appear in the rear-view mirror and continued her effort to escape.

  As the SUV approached the railway gates on the way, she observed the railway gate closing down. She pressed hard on the horn to notify the man-responsible about her urgency, and he halted the gates just for the SUV to pass through and she made it to the opposite side, while the van lagged behind the gates. Using the opportunity, she accelerated her way towards the highway. Once she drove the SUV onto the highway, she maintained the speed within the speed limit, while at the same time running the names of different places they could use as cover without running into the military.

  Realizing that the stress had exhausted her thinking capacity, she said, ‘Daniel, can you suggest me someplace we could use for our escape?’

  Daniel stayed silent for a few moments, while she concentrated on the road, expecting some reply. When she looked into the mirror, she witnessed the embarrassment on his face.

  ‘Daniel, I asked you a question.’

  ‘Of all the people in the car, you decided to ask this question to an amnesiac?’

  She raised both her arms into the air and then grabbed the steering wheel again. ‘Daniel, you told me that you don’t remember anything about the last four years. But it does not mean that you don’t remember even the names of cities. Cities are part of semantic memory. It should be pretty intact in your case.’

  Daniel covered his embarrassment and said, ‘You are even more embarrassing than that bastard, Jeremy. Do you know that he was the one who killed my father?’

  While he expected a pitiful response, she lashed out at him. ‘So what! I have lost my father the last month and his murderer is roaming the streets like a fucking sparrow. Am I bitching about it? What we need to do is worry about our existence, not mourn the death of our fathers.’

  As he thought of a response for her insensitivity, he caught site of the truck on their left side, which began closing in on them from the side. As it closed in on the SUV, forcing them to the extreme right of the road, Daniel yelled at Cynthia.

  ‘Cynthia, watch out!’

  Before she could respond to the situation, the truck made a sudden maneuver to right. Cynthia, in her attempts to evade contact, steered right and the SUV collided into a light pole.

  THE COUNTRY OF CHAOS

  ON THE STREETS OF SILVINKERIA- ON THE DAY OF ROCHEN FORT BLASTS

  SANTO HAD THE muzzle of the gun pressed to Ross’s side, as Ross drove through the traffic. He put the safety on, anticipating Ross not to do something stupid. He had expected Ross to ask questions on the way. In contrast, he was welcomed with complete silence from Ross, who drove on as if he was driving his way to his office. Santo came to the resolution that it was his dedication towards his family’s safety, which made him obey his orders without asking any questions.


  Once they reached the destination, which was the under-construction flyover passing adjacent to the newly built Rochen Fort, Santo ordered Ross to halt the car. The flyover’s construction had begun at the end of 1988. However, the decision taken in 1990 to build the Rochen Fort in that particular place led to the halt of construction of the flyover. Ross pulled over to a side and looked at Santo.

  ‘Is this it?’ he asked.

  Santo raised his hand in his direction and pulled his satellite phone out of his backpack. He connected the call to his employer and got out of the car.

  ‘Remember that your family is in our hands, before you decide to do something stupid,’ he said, before walking out of hearing range of the car.

  ‘Are you there?’ his employer asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Santo said.

  ‘OK, you take the wheel and drive onto the flyover. The guards at its entrance have been informed about your arrival. Drive past them and ascend the flyover. Drive few yards till the incomplete end, which has been set with a slope, and halt the car few yards in line of the slope and wait for my call. I want you to get Ross on the line.’

  After the call ended, Santo stood for a few seconds looking at the masses outside the Rochen Fort, who had assembled to witness the inauguration of the new parliament building. Though he was uninformed about the plot of the mission beforehand, he deducted it himself as the mission progressed. If everything went accordingly, many of them were going to be wounded or dead. But as per his principles, he was no one to decide bad or good. He was just a by-stander, who waved at whatever fate people were served. What made him nervous were his affiliations with that particular mission, which proved to be one of the riskless, yet the most crooked mission he had ever performed. He looked around to find any trace of backups or crossers, who his employers might have employed to get rid of him after the mission’s accomplishment. Failing to find anyone of that sort, he walked back to the car and looked in through the window.

  ‘Get into the passenger seat,’ he said and occupied the driver’s seat after Ross moved. He drove to the specified spot and waited. He received a call few minutes later and he handed it to Ross and told him to speak.

  ‘Is it Ross Jankis?’ a voice asked, instantly as the call connected.

  ‘Yes, who’s this?’ he asked nervously.

  ‘You may not know me. But I know you. And as the person with you must have informed you, we have your wife. So, what I need you to do is obey my orders.’

  ‘OK,’ he said.

  Santo adjusted his posture in the driving seat of the car, as he gazed at Ross beside him. He had been speaking on the phone for over a couple of minutes and he began doubting what his employer had to say to him. He anticipated the next move to be Ross filling back the driver’s seat. As he began opening the door, Ross handed him the sat phone and told him that the man wanted to speak to him.

  Once Santo was out of the car to speak on the phone, Ross reached for the gun with the silencer under his seat, which the man on the phone had said was taped to the bottom of the passenger seat. He removed the safety, as instructed, and hid it in his blazer. He sat still in his seat for a few seconds, with his eyes closed, as he weighed his options. Thinking it over and overdid not do him any good, but remind him that he had no other option but to do as instructed, to save his family. As instructed, he stepped out of the car, walked over to Santo from behind, who nevertheless reacted to Ross’s sudden appearance. The sat phone slipped from Santo’s hands when he caught site of Ross raising the silenced-gun from his blazer. Ross sensed his anxiety rising, which made his hands tremble. As Santo began to take advantage of his delay and lunged at him, he pulled the trigger. The bullet missed his head by few inches and Santo lunged at him. Ross swayed backward and fell down with Santo falling on top of him. However, his tight grip on the gun’s handle did not let it go. He raised the gun instinctively and shot in Santo’s side. The bullet splattered blood and tissue on Ross, while Santo turned about and ended up on the ground, clutching his wound. Ross got to his feet and moved a safe distance from Santo. He looked at the bleeding man and wondered what he had to do. For a moment, he thought of letting him die for himself. However, he had no time to afford. He looked at his watch and realized that it was 11.00. He raised the gun, pointed it at Santo’s head and shot him. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, unable to witness life evade him. Ross got into the car and reversed it a few feet back. After ensuring that Santo was dead, Ross picked him up and dragged him to the driver’s seat.

  After making him sit in the driver’s seat and buckling him up, he ignited the engine, pressed the clutch with his hand, put the car in gear and kept the accelerator pressed with the rod that he retrieved from the trunk. He jammed the stick tightly between the accelerator and the seat. When the time was 11.12, the moment he had to launch the car off the flyover, he released his grip off the clutch. The car sped forward and ascended the elevated slope, before flying into the air and then landing into the people, who had assembled to witness the inauguration.

  Ross had deduced that everything he did was to launch the car onto the Fort. Instead, it landed in the people, which part-worried him for the safety of his family and part terrified him for killing those people. But as he stood looking at the chaos, which erupted from the assault, the car blew up and the blast spread to a radius of few yards, before it was followed by a series of explosions from the Fort, which brought down the Fort onto the ground within a few moments. He felt a paralyzing effect, as he stood there gazing at the erupting flames, smoke and the chaos. Before he had time to take-in the series of blows, powerful hands clutched his face and dragged him away.

  THE ONE WITH GLIMPSES OF PAST

  KRAMINKO GENERAL HOSPITAL- TWELVE DAYS POST THE JUDGMENT DAY

  DANIEL SHELBY WATCHED in horror as Cynthia was loaded into the ambulance. Everything had happened so fast that he still believed it was an illusion. However, belief has no power to change the past, but can modulate the future. The crash had left the three of them in the backseat jolting back and forth and hit their heads on the soft leather, except for Manyap who ended up falling forward onto the gear and was gifted a bump to the forehead. But, Cynthia’s was a serious case as she banged her head to the side after the airbags exploded and became unconscious before the broken glass bruised her arms and face mildly. Daniel Xavier’s bleeding nose gushed out blood from the jolt and he had to be crammed into the ambulance along with the rest of them.

  As the ambulance weaved its way through the not-so-busy flyover towards Kraminko, Daniel assisted the paramedics in ensuring that she had not gone beyond point of retrieval. To his contentment, she proved to be holding good since her injuries were not as fatal as Daniel had feared. Daniel’s idle mind began marveling about the idea of the truck’s maneuver being a setup to kill them, and Jeremy got into his mind. The idea of having missed death, despite the accident, made him thank God for saving them and, at the same time, rebuke him for putting them in such a scenario.

  Pushing aside all the thoughts, he concentrated on Cynthia, who seemed like a sleeping baby instead of an unconscious girl. Looking at her, he remembered that he had Margaret to care about; whose whereabouts were a complete mystery. He shifted his gaze to Manyap, who had claimed to be his friend. As he recalled the episodes the both of them had gone through after meeting in the police station that morning, he believed that Manyap was a generous person. He decided to take Manyap’s help in finding out about Margaret, since Manyap belonged to the RCAF.

  It was only after admitting Cynthia in casualty and Xavier for fixing his broken nose did Daniel give attention to the bruises on his arms and face. While Manyap sat with an ice pack to his bump, Daniel went in search of a nurse to treat his wounds. As a medico, he had wandered the corridors of that hospital for times-unknown. When he found a nurse at the nurses’ station, the response he received surprised him.

  ‘Dr. Shelby, are you alright? You seem to be wounded,’ she said.

  He looke
d at her for a moment to try to recollect any memory of her. But he could only remember passing her in the corridors during his various shifts. ‘I am fine. It’s just the bruises that need to be dressed,’ he said, managing a meek smile.

  As he sat down on the couch, she approached him and asked him to lift his shirt. For a moment, he looked at her bemused. Only then did he recollect the abdominal wound, which had begun bleeding in the barn. He wondered how she had come to know about the injury, which he felt he knew the answer to. He looked down at his shirt, which was caked with dried blood and some liquid blood.

  ‘Dr. Shelby, why did you leave the hospital so early before you were discharged?’ she asked, removing the blood soaked bandage.

  ‘Well, I felt disoriented in this environment. I thought it would be better to take a stroll,’ he said, realizing that it was not a good explanation.

  ‘You better say this to Dr. Martello. Since you left, he has been very furious. He blamed us for leaving you unattended,’ she said, without fading her friendly smile.

  Amidst all the chaos he was going through, he took a moment to appreciate her spirit and believed that she made a wonderful caretaker.

  ‘You mean Dr. Milan Martello?’ he said, recollecting the name of his best friend.

  ‘Yep, as if you don’t remember,’ she said.

  He nodded his head.

  ‘I better call in Dr. Martello to stitch the wound again. And, you both can get some time together,’ she said, once she was done with cleaning the wound.

  After she left, Daniel leaned his head against the couch and thought about Cynthia. His over-concern about her made him doubt the kind of feelings he had for her. But he comforted himself saying that it was his concern towards her as a friend, but nothing beyond that.