‘Luggage? What luggage?’
‘There were some bags, I couldn’t see them properly, and I just avoided what looked like the outer casing for an assault weapon,’ the driver said.
Afridi’s eyes narrowed as he turned to face the driver. ‘What assault weapon are we talking about here?’
The driver mumbled something under his breath.
‘No,’ said Afridi, ‘I asked you to tell me what assault weapon you saw the casing for. I do not recall asking you to mumble incoherently.’
‘It was an RPG case, sir,’ the flustered driver conceded. ‘I don’t know where they got it, but maybe they just had the box.’
Afridi’s eyes looked like pale saucers with olives in the middle. But he curbed the burning urge to smack the driver over the head and reached for his walkie-talkie instead. He clicked the broadcast switch on his handset and began speaking into it.
‘Be advised, the suspects are in possession of an RPG,’ he said.
‘Do you have visual confirmation, sir?’ came a firm but respectful voice.
‘They threw its outer case at us two minutes ago,’ said Afridi, slightly annoyed that he had to explain himself.
‘But sir, it’s possible that they just had the case in the van and threw the–’
Afridi’s patience had reached its limit and he flew off the handle in trademark style.
‘Why on God’s green earth would anyone carry around the casing of an RPG without the actual projectile launcher inside? Are you being intentionally difficult or are you really that daft?’ he asked the hapless soldier at the other end of the walkie-talkie.
‘No, sir,’ the man fumbled.
‘Do you think people like collecting gun case–’ began Afridi, as his eyes focussed on the van, ‘All right, I’ve got your fucking visual confirmation for you. I see one of those cockroaches holding an RPG aimed at us!’ He turned to his driver and screamed: ‘RAM THAT VAN AS HARD AS YOU CAN!’
‘Steady, Vikrant. Collateral damage must be avoided at all costs,’ said Brijesh.
‘Okay,’ said Vikrant, with a hint of a catch in his voice. ‘The jeep is closing in fast. If I need to shoot this at him, it’s got to be now or they’ll be too close.’
Ray turned and looked with horror at the jeep speeding down the expressway – having almost caught up with them. It was when he saw the whites of Afridi’s eyes that he turned around and took cover.
‘Too late,’ said Vikrant to himself as he swivelled around, placed the RPG at his feet and picked up an MP5. Before he could turn and discharge a few rounds at Afridi’s head, the jeep had rammed into the van.
Kang tried to swerve and avoid the full impact of the jeep, but, he only succeeded in sending it sliding across the road. The shock took its toll on the broken Kang and he grunted loudly as he steered the van back into the middle of the road and drove on. ‘Are you all right?’ asked a very concerned Laila, but this time Kang had no response for her. He feared his time was nigh and he just had to get the van to the right jetty. And then everything will be all right, he thought, as he turned quickly off the expressway.
Vikrant had managed to regain his composure and he stood back up with the MP5, waiting for Afridi’s jeep to get within range. But it didn’t. Another vehicle from the convoy charged at the van and Vikrant fired at its tyres. After Brijesh’s strict ‘no collateral damage’ instructions, he had to take a non-lethal shot. The first shot was a negative impact. The second hit the jeep’s grille harmlessly. This was proving to be a more difficult task than he had imagined.
It was with the third shot that Vikrant registered a hit and blew out the front left tyre. The vehicle seemed to wobble, but nothing more.
‘That was a waste,’ grumbled Vikrant, as Brijesh grabbed his wrist.
‘Don’t you understand what he’s doing? He’s sending out cannon fodder to deplete our ammo,’ said Brijesh. ‘Then, when we’re out of ammo, he’ll come in and kill us all … or worse.’ Just then, the wobbling jeep somersaulted and crashed upside down in the middle of the road that led off the expressway towards the port. A cloud of smoke rose from it, as its occupants struggled to pull themselves out of the wreckage.
‘Good work,’ said Brijesh. ‘You’ve blocked the road and bought us some time.’
The jeep had skidded to a halt on the narrow road, making it impossible for any sort of vehicle, barring a scooter or a motorcycle, to get past. They watched the soldiers, crushed under the weight of the jeep, desperately trying to claw their way out. Brijesh turned back around and thought to himself, what’s the difference between them and this group of people in the van? Both are fighting for their country. How is it the soldier’s fault if his political leadership is wrong? A soldier’s job is to follow orders and protect his country and its people. Isn’t it?
He heard a loud crash and screams. In a bid to catch the enemy, Afridi’s jeep had ploughed straight at the upside-down jeep, sending it flying and crushing its occupants. If they hadn’t already suffered serious injuries, this was sure to have smashed all their bones. Afridi was a man possessed. Vikrant was frozen as he watched him standing up on his seat with what looked curiously like an RPG on his shoulder.
Vikrant leapt for his own RPG. It was already loaded and was just a matter of placing it on his shoulder and aiming – but it was too late. That tell-tale hissing sound of a rocket flying in their direction meant that there was to be only one course of action.
‘Take cover!’ he yelled, as he threw himself to the floor.
‘DIRECT HIT!’ yelled a triumphant Afridi, as the hissing rocket-propelled grenade smashed into the rear left tyre of the van, making it fly sideways. It landed on its side and slid along the road towards the grassy bank before coming to a rest. Ray was the first to emerge, climbing out of the door that opened skywards. He climbed out and offered a hand to Brijesh, who was busy securing Waris.
As Vikrant crawled out of the rear window of the van, he noticed Afridi’s jeep rolling slowly towards them. He knew the man was toying with them. He opened fire with the MP5 to buy some time for the rest to get out of the van. Unsurprisingly, Afridi’s jeep pulled over to the side and his co-passengers began returning fire from behind the vehicle.
By the time Vikrant had fired another volley and worked out that he only had a couple of rounds left, he turned around to see Brijesh slowly climbing out of the van with Waris on his back. Laila too was out and seemed unscathed, save for a cut across her forehead. ‘Where’s Kang?’ he asked, just as a shot rang out.
Vikrant reeled and fell behind the van, clutching at his right arm, from which blood gushed. He had been careless and turned away from the enemy, leaving himself open to attack. Laila returned fire with her pistol, sending the attackers scurrying back behind their vehicle. That, however, did not stop them from firing rounds at the van. Most bounced off harmlessly, but there was the ever-present danger that six of those bullets had the team members’ names on them.
Brijesh yelled out to Vikrant. ‘Do it! This is your time!’
Vikrant turned to find Brijesh diving back into the van to extract Kang, and picked up the RPG that had fallen out of the van when it toppled over. He got on one knee and heard Kang scream as Brijesh tried to free him. With the RPG propped on his shoulder, Vikrant moved out from behind cover, took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.
Ray looked on wide-eyed. Laila was helping Waris stand up as he pointed at the trajectory of the grenade. Brijesh was inside the van trying desperately to help Kang out.
The grenade hissed, leaving a white trail as it swerved and crashed headfirst into the bonnet of the jeep, causing it to jump a few feet in the air and explode in a ball of yellow and white flames. Afridi was flung from the jeep into the trees that lined the road. The others were tossed around in different directions. One man came flying and landed closer to Vikrant than the rest. He hit the ground with a splat and as he rolled over, Vikrant had to keep his gag re
flexes in check – the man’s stomach and chest were split open and blood, guts and intestines were gurgled out of the gash and spilled out onto the black tarred road.
The man lay on his back, breathing heavily. As Vikrant walked over to him, he saw the anger blazing in his eyes despite his obvious pain. Amid the sounds of Kang screaming in pain, the police sirens in the distance and the crackling sound of the fire emanating from the bombed jeep, Vikrant clearly heard the man mouthing expletives, accusing him of being a kaafir, among other things.
But it was nothing Vikrant hadn’t heard before. The thought of letting the man suffer crossed his mind, but that wouldn’t be the right thing to do, he decided, and reached for the MP5 and took aim. He fired a shot clean through the forehead of the wounded man, who stopped twitching at once.
Meanwhile, Kang was still struggling. They heard a crack and a loud, animal-like roar of pain, and knew he’d been extracted from the van – but at what cost?
As the team would soon discover, that had just been the sound of Kang’s leg breaking in another place. Brijesh slid out and said, ‘Guys, gather around. Leave me one gun and the RPG and make your way to the dock. We’ll follow. Vikrant, take the lead and make your way to the jetty. To Sky’s speedboat!’
‘Bullshit!’ said Vikrant. ‘We’re going nowhere till we get Kang out.’
‘I appreciate that but this place will soon be swarming with soldiers and the ISI. And when that happens, we’ll hold them off to buy you guys time to get out of this goddamn country,’ said Brijesh.
‘But Bri–’ began Laila.
‘GO! NOW!!’ said Brijesh, as he dived back into the van.
‘There’s no time,’ said Vikrant, as he placed one of Waris’s arms over his shoulder and with Laila and Ray covering them, made his way towards the jetty.
‘Remember,’ Brijesh called from inside the van, ‘when you get to the boat – reach for the sky!’
Afridi held his head and sat up in a muddy patch covered with leaves. Aside from a few grazes and bruises, the awful ringing in his ear and the disorientation associated with being near an explosion, he was in relatively fine shape. He dusted himself off as he stood up and made his way towards the road. He allowed himself a little laugh at just how far he’d been flung from the jeep as he walked briskly towards it and picked up a pistol from the ground.
He craned his neck as he walked out of the foliage. Had they been killed? Were his men parading the streets with their carcasses? Not for the first time, his thoughts were interrupted by reality. The remaining members of his convoy and three armoured assault vehicles had turned up alongside the smouldering remains of his jeep.
‘What the fuck is going on?’ he asked.
‘The road was blocked, sir. It took us time to get here,’ offered one of the policemen.
‘Do you have them?’
‘No, sir.’
‘Of course you don’t,’ laughed Afridi, ‘why would you? Why would anyone think it is important to save this country’s honour?’
He lifted his hand and slapped the policeman in the face with all his strength. His nose and mouth imploded microseconds before blood spurted all over his face. ‘Now,’ said Afridi angrily, ‘who wants to join this Indian sympathizer without a face and who wants to join me in nailing their balls to the wall!’ The men grunted their approval and boarded their respective vehicles.
‘Get out,’ said Afridi to a policeman who was entering one of the armoured vehicles. Snatching the keys from the cop, he jumped into the driver’s seat and sped off in the direction of the port.
Using the RPG’s body as a splint attached to his shattered leg, with what seemed like kilometres of insulation tape, Kang limped along the road with a rather unorthodox prosthetic limb and Brijesh for support. ‘All good?’ asked Brijesh, as Kang struggled to keep moving.
‘No, this thing weighs a ton!’ fired back Kang, who was still bleeding although most of the blood flow had been suppressed by the amount of insulating tape—a rare surplus commodity found in the van—that had been wrapped around his wounds. As strong as Kang was, it took Brijesh’s grip on the RPG handle to keep the new ‘leg’ moving.
‘Not long to go now,’ said Brijesh, pointing to the lights along the harbour. ‘We’re almost there.’ The sound of police sirens was coming closer every second. ‘Come on, we have to move faster,’ he said.
Suddenly, the duo was caught in a flash of headlights. Without thinking, Brijesh placed his hands on the sedan’s bonnet as it braked, shocked at the sight of the two men.
‘Sir, we need your vehicle, please,’ said Brijesh humbly, desperation in his voice.
‘I can give you a lift,’ said the gentleman behind the wheel. He seemed to be in his late fifties, with a head of finely coiffured hair and an accent to go with it.
‘You don’t understand, sir, we need your car.’
‘Young man, this “car” as you put it, is no ordinary car. It is a finely engineered German vehicle with five thousand three hund—’ said the man before he was interrupted by a raging Kang.
‘It’s just a fucking car! Now if you would be so kind as to PLEASE GET THE FUCK OUT OF IT? Thank you,’ he said, before resting on his RPG launcher leg again.
The startled gentleman climbed out of the vehicle as Brijesh helped Kang into the backseat and took the wheel, gun in hand.
‘Thank you, sir,’ said Brijesh as he started the engine, ‘Your vehicle is insured, I hope?’
‘Well, of course it is. What kind of—’
For the second time, the man was interrupted. This time the interruption came in the form of Brijesh flooring the accelerator and zooming off towards the port. As Brijesh followed the road signs, Kang sat quietly looking at the state of his arm and leg, and thinking about the electric drill. He was still haunted by the sound of it, the way his skin had flecked off his body as it entered and the burning wound it had left.
‘Kang, I need to ask a major favour of you,’ said Brijesh gravely.
‘What?’
‘I want you to ready that RPG,’ said Brijesh.
‘I guess this won’t entail cutting it off my leg.’
‘Cutting it off you will take too long, so it will need to be fired from your leg. But the recoil could take your leg off completely.’
Kang began to lift his leg out of the window and position himself behind it. The pain was so great, he was now numb. Once Brijesh was content with the arrangements and had loaded up the last grenade, he sped towards the phalanx of Pakistani security agency vehicles and then made an audacious handbrake turn – to line the mouth of the RPG launcher with the vehicles.
‘Fire!’ yelled Brijesh as he turned to put his hands on the gun and hold it in place, trying to secure Kang’s leg.
Kang pulled the trigger and the hissing grenade began its flight to destruction.
Brijesh felt a spray of blood on his face as the RPG launcher blew out of the opposite window of the car – with Kang’s leg still attached to it.
Brijesh turned and drove swiftly down Beach Avenue towards Clifton Beach.
An anticipated volley of bullets pulverized the German automobile, but failed to slow it down. Brijesh was hit, taking bullets in the collar bone, shoulder and tricep as he drove towards the jetty.
Meanwhile, the team had arrived at the boat marked ‘BMW’ at Kiamari village, but were unable to enter, mainly due to the presence of a mysterious miniature aircraft on top of the boat. ‘That’s a Hornet I,’ said Ray. ‘A light unmanned combat aerial vehicle.’
‘That’s marvellous, Ray!’ said Laila, with more than a tinge of sarcasm. ‘Any idea how we get it off the boat?’
‘I don’t see a control panel or an ignition slot of any sort. Do you see any remote controls around?’ he asked, missing her sarcasm entirely.
‘Guys, hurry up, I hear gunfire. We have to be prepared to leave without Kang and Brijesh,’ said Vikrant, as he placed his hand on the unconscious Waris’s shoulder. The senior officer sat propped up agai
nst a crate.
‘No, there’s nothing here,’ said Ray. ‘There’s no device.’
‘Maybe it doesn’t need a device,’ said Laila.
‘Yes, there’s always the chance it could be voice-operated,’ replied Ray.
‘Stop bickering, you two!’ snapped Vikrant. ‘We need to get this off the boat at once. Sky would never knowingly place a defective—’
And the penny dropped.
‘Remember, when you get to the boat, reach for the sky’ had been Brijesh’s words to them. What a strange thing to say, unless …
‘Here goes nothing,’ said Vikrant, and said the words clearly: ‘Reach for the sky!’
The drone powered to life and an array of lights flashed, as a small engine within it came to life. It slowly ascended and hovered in the air above them. ‘You’re a genius,’ said Ray in awe. ‘No, Ray,’ replied Vikrant, ‘You and Laila are the geniuses.’
He lifted Waris and carried him into the boat, adding, ‘If it hadn’t been for your bickering, we never would have worked it out.’
The drone seemed to be controlled by something or someone else, because it suddenly zoomed back towards the city. They watched as it rained down a flurry of bullets and heard the explosions it was causing. ‘Death from above,’ said Vikrant softly, to no one in particular, as a white sedan appeared at the end of the jetty. It seemed to be hurtling towards them.
‘Guys, take cover,’ said Vikrant as he propped himself up with the MP5, one final bullet in the magazine.
The sedan braked suddenly and Brijesh’s face appeared.
‘Get Kang into the boat,’ he said, sombrely. ‘He hasn’t got much time.’
‘But you’re bleeding too,’ said Ray.
‘I’m fine.’
Afridi stood at the end of the jetty and watched the boat leaving the shore. He hopped into a speedboat with two of his men and began to give chase. What he needed was some air support. His speedboat was doing thirty-five knots per hour, which was about as fast as the Indians’ boat and it would be difficult to overtake them or even intercept them, given their headstart. He decided to call Raheel Sharif.
Mumbai Avengers Page 32