Brad smiled for the first time since Adam had met him, and nodded. After he left after the complete-check, Adam called out for Harvey and repeated the same to him about Brad. After that, he assigned Jake and Cook the corridor just outside the front door and repeated the same words. After that, he repeated the same for Ken and Billy, and assigned them the back door. After assigning them their places, Adam took the terrace and waited, wondering if his method was right.
Brad impatiently checked his watch and realized that it was more than twenty minutes since he took the first floor balcony with Harvey. Through those twenty minutes, he watched patiently as Harvey extracted a comb to comb his hair, a cigarette to smoke and a protein bar to eat. Each time he had extracted them out of his pocket, Brad half-raised his gun to shoot him, but disappointedly lowered it when he saw that it was a harmless object.
Standing two feet to Harvey’s right, Brad studied the shadows of Jake and Cook as they moved about the front corridor under the extended roof. Brad despised the whole group and hated being part of it, but his hatred was particularly towards Harvey and Cook. Less than a year ago, Brad had nearly killed Cook and Harvey when his sister complained him about Cook and Harvey misbehaving with her. If not for the police’s intervention, either Cook or Harvey or the both of them would have been dead. Now, standing there beside Harvey, Brad wished for Harvey to reveal something threatening so that he could blow his brains out.
But before he could complete his wish, he caught sight of something shining in Harvey’s hand as he raised it to his ear. Grabbing the opportunity, Brad raised his gun at him and pulled the trigger.
Harvey felt the dryness of his mouth as he stood there and resisted the urge to drink. Finally, giving in to his addiction, he removed the hip flask from his blazer and took it to his ear to shake it for the liquid. Before he could get it any nearer to his ear, he caught sight of Brad’s raised gun, and the bullet pierced his temporal bone and temporal lobe before he could face Brad.
Cook was leaning to a pillar in the corridor, watching Jake pee in a corner of the corridor, when he heard the first shot. A body landed with a thud on the ground from above him. In spite of the blown head, Harvey’s face was unmistakable in the meek light. He knew that Adam had assigned Harvey the balcony with Brad, and he doubted Brad’s ideals. His fears proved right when Harvey’s body landed on the floor. Cook loaded his gun and ran into the open beside Harvey’s body. He aimed the gun at the first floor balcony, where Brad stood watching Harvey’s corpse. With Jake making a run to his place, Cook pulled the trigger just as Brad did and the two bullets crossed paths by a few centimeters, finally ending up in Brad’s chest and Cook’s throat.
Adam was still reviewing his decision, when he heard the first shot. He was standing at the back of the terrace at that time and he ran to its front. Before he could reach the front, two more shots rang out. Trying to figure how many had come to attack them, Adam reached the front of the terrace and found three dead bodies in front of the front door, and the silhouette of a man standing beside them, with his gun aimed at them. Reflexively, he aimed the gun at the man and pulled the trigger before realizing that it was Jake. Fortunately, he deflected the aim in the final moment and the bullet missed him by less than a feet.
‘Someone’s on the roof!’ Jake yelled, aiming his gun at Adam and firing it.
Adam ducked behind the three-foot wall and yelled, ‘It’s me! Adam!’ But another shot from Jake’s gun masked his yell.
Aiming for a second try, Adam rose from his cover and gazed in Jake’s direction. He was not there. Suddenly, Adam sensed movement to the right of the bodies and before he could react, Jake shot him, which lodged a bullet in Adam’s pectorals. Adam fell down on the wall on his belly and he slumped backward to prevent anyone from shooting him again.
As he struggled to get himself up, he heard Ken yell, ‘Jake fired at Adam. He’s a fucking mole!’
As Adam paid attention, another shot followed, followed by Jake’s growl of agony as the bullet hit him. Sensing that Billy and Ken recognized him, Adam raised his head above the wall and gazed as a collapsed Jake shot at Ken and Billy, before Billy’s bullet hit him in the head. Three dead bodies turned to six, as Adam watched in horror. Unable to hold himself in that position, Adam fell back onto the floor of the terrace holding his wound. The blood had already formed a small puddle around him. Fear of death leapt up into his mind as he saw his blood dripping out of the injury and he reached for the small phone he had hidden in his shoe. Dialing his wife Samantha’s number, he experienced chills as the idea of dying a week before his baby was due to deliver crossed his mind. He stirred around and lay facedown on the floor. She answered the call after the second ring.
‘Hello, who’s this?’ she asked.
He struggled to restrain his pain and form the right words. Before he could answer, he felt the cold touch of a gun’s muzzle as someone pressed a gun against the back of his neck.
IN A TRUCK OUTSIDE KRAMINKO-TWELVE DAYS POST THE JUDGMENT DAY
Lehane Ryu Plainview changed the gear of his truck as he sped past the meager traffic on the road leading to Byason’s Junction. Selvin, his mole in Adam’s team had messaged him minutes back that they were waiting at Byason’s Junction. Not interested in losing time, Lehane had begun his quest to save time. His previous mole, whom he had sent as a driver for Jeremy’s van was shot while passing him info about their whereabouts. Lehane regretted not his death, but not gaining info, despite paying the guy a hefty amount.
He had always been a family man, who believed heaven resided in a healthy and happy family. And he worked day-and-night as a truck driver for Holland and Co. to fulfill his role as a responsible father.
Agreeing to crash Evelyn’s car was part of that very principle; as the events unfolded following it, he found what lay at stake for him. While Ethan managed to use his influence and manipulative powers to lower his sentence to eighteen months, Jeremy, claiming Lehane responsible for his family’s death, killed his wife and son within two months after the accident. After his release from prison, Lehane survived Jeremy’s assault on him and changed to another company as a truck driver, but did not forget the harm Jeremy had inflicted.
As part of it, he continued his endeavors to find a chance to kill Jeremy and finally found Jeremy’s SUV on the highway that morning. He just saw four people in the SUV and assumed that Jeremy was in there too. But when the car crashed into a pole and the ambulance arrived, he found four complete strangers. Following one of them, he reached the hospital, then an old apartment in Orego District where he witnessed a brief rumble between the man and Jeremy’s gang; he regretted his assault on those people, whom he believed had something to do against Jeremy. In the narrow countryside roads which Jeremy’s van took, Lehane failed to catch-up and finally lost him.
Seeing Adam with Jeremy, he contacted Selvin who showed him Adam in a public place once as his new employer. Lehane had tried hard to shove Selvin away from the path of crime, but he did not budge. Lehane feared that the kid too would grow to become a useless being like his father, who had lost his life a decade ago in a drug deal gone wrong.
Driving along the road towards the junction, Lehane saw a man and woman standing beside a parked Chevy with the hazard lights on. Lehane saw that the time was 10.35 in the night. If not for the woman, Lehane would have continued. He halted his truck behind the Chevy and walked towards them. The man was holding his phone in his hand, which illuminated his face. He was the same man whom he could have killed with the rest of his friends.
THE ONE WITH GLIMPSES OF PAST
BESIDE THE CAR OUTSIDE KRAMINKO
THE MESSAGE SCARED the hell out of Daniel. He felt the tremors crept up his hands and he steadied them by clutching the steering wheel tightly.
‘Daniel, what’s the matter?’ Margaret asked.
‘Jeremy has kidnapped Vanessa. He challenged me to be at some specified location by 12.30.’
‘OK, calm down. We can handle this. We can
call the cops,’ Margaret said calmly.
‘No, I couldn’t risk it. I need to be there. I better get going. Tell me where to drop you. I will leave you there.’
Margaret found no point in trying to convince him. She took the phone from him and studied the route to the location Jeremy had sent. ‘You can drop me off at Byason’s Junction.’
Daniel started the car and drove the car following the route. He felt happy at choosing that particular road to escape from the restaurant, for it helped him cover certain distance. But his happiness did not last long, as the car erupted smoke from beneath the hood and came to a halt. Cursing the engine, he stepped out and opened the hood. The engine let out a cloud of smoke onto his face and he moved away.
‘What happened?’
‘The engine’s having some problem,’ he said.
‘So, what do we do?’ Margaret asked. ‘Maybe, we can call for a cab.’
He gave her his phone and said, ‘Try that. I will look for some kind-hearted person to give us a lift.’
Daniel tried to stop someone for help. But no one seemed interested to stop for them so late in the night. As he continued his vain attempts, Margaret called out for him.
‘Daniel, one of the companies says they will send a cab outside the city. But, there will be extra charges,’ she said.
‘OK,’ Daniel said, taking the phone.
As he read the terms, a truck halted behind them and a tall man leapt out of the driver’s seat and walked towards them.
‘What’s…the matter?’ he asked.
‘The engine is having some kind of problem. Can you give me a lift?’ Daniel asked.
‘I will check the engine and see if I can fix it.’
Daniel gave way for the man as he walked to the front and examined the engine in the light of his flashlight.
‘So, where you headed?’ he asked.
There followed a momentary pause as Daniel marveled with the idea of revealing the location to him. ‘We are headed to some place in the countryside.’
‘Someplace?’ he asked instinctively. ‘What is that someplace?’
‘You must take a left at the Byason’s Junction and go a thirty miles towards the shore of River Anolusa,’ Daniel said, studying the Google map.
There was a pause before he murmured, ‘A perfect hiding place.’
‘What?’ Daniel asked.
‘Are you going for Jeremy Miller?’ he asked out of the blue.
The question struck Daniel like a bullet from the blue. ‘How do you know?’
The man leaned back from the engine and looked at Daniel. ‘Well, this afternoon, you met with an accident. It was by that very truck that I tried to ram you off the road. However, my misinterpretation of your vehicle was the reason I did it. I thought it was Jeremy in the car. I meant you no harm.’
‘A misunderstanding?’ Daniel yelled, grabbing the man’s collar. ‘You could have killed us all. Now, Vanessa is in his hands. It’s as if everything is against me and her.’
Margaret restrained Daniel as he shook with fury.
‘Vanessa?’ he asked.
‘Yeah, she was the one driving the car this afternoon.’
‘OK, listen to me carefully. I am having a mole in Jeremy’s team now and he can tell us about the conditions there. The both of us will confront him. What do you say?’ he insisted.
Daniel found sense in the plan and he nodded his head. The man’s reasoning compensated for Daniel’s fury. ‘OK, let’s go. But, we must drop her at Byason’s Junction.’
‘But, I can fix this car within five minutes for her. She can take this. By the way, I am Lehane.’
As the man leaned forward to fix the engine, his phone began ringing. He looked at the screen and his face lit up.
‘It’s my mole,’ he said and answered the call. ‘Selvin, I know the location. So, what are the conditions there?’ He listened intently to the person on the other side before his face lost color and he dropped the phone on the ground.
Daniel bent down to pick-up the phone and handed it back. ‘What did he say?’
‘There are a total of eight men apart from him and Jeremy. Now he is dead,’ Lehane answered with a blank face.
‘Dead?’
‘Yes, I heard the shot and his shout. They must have caught him,’ Lehane said, burying his face in his sleeve. As Daniel struggled to calm him down, his face returned with an excited look. ‘This isn’t the time for grieving. We must seek vengeance.’ At that moment, Lehane reminded Daniel of those characters in movies and books, who suppress their grief and inspire the protagonist not to give up. Daniel nodded his head, unable to find the appropriate words.
‘OK, apart from Jeremy and Adam, the team has seven men. But, Selvin told me that the group is unstable and that some people in the group have had a history of feuds in the past,’ he continued.
Daniel recoiled from his sympathy-mode and said, ‘So, you said they found him?’
‘Yeah,’ Lehane answered.
‘OK, call him and tell exactly as I tell you to,’ Daniel said. ‘We must implant a seed of doubt in Jeremy’s mind about his own team and expect the tree by the time we reach the place.’
Lehane nodded and listened to the dialogues he had to repeat on the phone.
Seated in the passenger seat of the truck with the KGH belongings bag in his lap, Daniel nervously gazed at his watch. It was 11.50. Fixing the car took more time than he had expected, and the frustration made him impatient. The maps said that the estimated time till destination would be 53 minutes, which was beyond the dead line. Daniel tried to settle his racing heart, and helped himself to a can of tuna and a Coke to replenish his energy.
Once he was done with them, he turned his attention to the belongings bag in his lap. The date on the bag said 29 August 2016. Daniel counted the numbers and came up with two weeks. In his hassle, he totally forgot the crime he had committed, and that he had intended to kill himself. He tried to shove those questions away and concentrate on saving Vanessa. However, his mind reverted to Donald’s murder.
‘So, Donald Miller died on 29th August?’ he asked, trying to spark a conversation.
‘No,’ Lehane said after a pause. ‘He died on 31st August. I remember it pretty well.’
Daniel experienced a rollercoaster of emotions following the new revelation. First, he felt sure that he couldn’t have killed a man in his coma. Second, he feared whom he must have actually killed, whom he must have misattributed to Donald.
Amidst his turmoil, the radio blazed, ‘It’s been two hours since the ESAF released the video showing Jeremy Miller’s murder of the Late Prime Minister Donald Miller, his father. However, his whereabouts remain a mystery and the cops claim that he is absconding. As of now, the question persists.’
Lehane muted the radio and said, ‘That stupid son of a bitch. He first killed his wife and son, and then his father. People like him don’t deserve to live.’
Daniel’s big blow left him oblivious to Lehane’s remarks and he wondered whom he must have murdered in that instant he remembered. Marveling over it, he felt a sudden weak feeling in his stomach, which he attributed to his raised vitals. He breathed heavily for a few seconds and attained some quiet. He handed over his phone to Lehane to follow.
‘I shall have a quick nap before we reach there,’ Daniel said, trying to calm down.
Lehane took the phone and fixed it in the phone slot. Daniel rested his head to a side and closed his eyes.
THE MEMOiR
MARCH 28, 2012
Dressed in my only suit, I stood outside the small glass conference hall in the five-star hotel, as Gabriel Romero waited inside the conference hall for Donald Miller. I had actually come to meet Gabriel Romero on Vanessa’s insistence, which I felt difficult to evade. Gabriel asked me to wait until he completed his brief meeting with Donald Miller. Donald Miller came from the opposite door and shook hands with Gabriel. As I stood impatiently, my phone vibrated in my blazer’s pocket. It was mom. I thought s
he was calling out of her enthusiasm about our meeting.
‘Hey Mom,’ I said.
‘Daniel, it is Elizabeth,’ my neighbor said. ‘Your mother collapsed suddenly in your yard. She is on her way to KGH. Get there immediately.’
I ended the call and stood gazing at the photo of my mother on my phone’s screen. The idea of losing my mother crept up into my mind, and the thought paralyzed me. My body felt suddenly heavy and my knees buckled under the sudden weight. I realized that my psychological stress has induced a blackout.
I collapsed on the ground with my eyes partially open. I watched sub-consciously as a waiter approached Donald and Gabriel with coffee cups in a tray. Immersed in conversation, Gabriel swung his hand and knocked the tray off the waiter’s hands and the coffee ended up on Donald’s suit.
‘You idiot!’ Donald exclaimed, slapping the waiter.
‘Sorry sir,’ the waiter said, before Gabriel slapped him. ‘Learn some decency.’
The waiter stood with a slouched head as both of them rained their rebukes on him. Only after raising his head did he see me on the ground, and came to my rescue.
‘These two are a pair of indecent assholes’, I noted.
BACK FROM THE PAST
Daniel woke up with a start, sensing that the recollection gave him the answer as to whom he killed. He thought it over again and it seemed to make sense. Margaret’s explanation justified it. He realized that it was Gabriel Romero he had killed, not Donald Miller. Jeremy was Donald’s murderer. Daniel no longer needed an answer for Vanessa’s assault. Daniel sat regretting his action as the truck came to a sudden stop at a distance from a lone summerhouse on the river’s shore.
‘That must be it,’ Lehane said, pointing the house.
Daniel shifted his attention to the silhouette of the lone house and felt a chill down his spine. They sat in silence, with their individual thoughts running through their minds, for a few seconds before his phone rang. He answered the call.
The Memoir Page 23