“I should thank you for bringing us all together,” Seema said with excitement. “We have a couple of eyewitnesses now and a man who knows how they function internally. Fit these things together and we have a story.”
She noticed a frown on Prakash’s face. His forehead was creased. Since the moment she introduced Divakar to him, he appeared lost in his thoughts. What is bothering you?
Divakar took out a packet of cigarettes from his pocket and passed it around. Mrinal took one. He now pulled out a lighter, gave it to Mrinal and started walking towards the window.
“I think we need a laptop with Internet connection to document everything we know,” he said, sliding the windowpane and letting fresh air in. “I have one in my room. Let me bring it in.”
“That’s great. It seems you are prepared with a lot of things already,” Prakash said with sarcasm. “You can be our most important source, you know why?”
“Why?” Divakar asked.
“Because I think all of us know only about the incidents which have happened with us. We don’t have any names. But you’ve been inside their organization. You must’ve met people, seen them doing bad things. Why don’t you give me a name? This man…” Prakash said pointing towards Mrinal, “… can dig out some really nice dirt about people.”
Mrinal shrugged and smiled sheepishly.
Divakar didn’t answer. With an uneasy face, he looked at Seema for some support, but found only questioning eyes staring back at him.
“Who did you take orders from, Divakar?” Prakash interrogated again.
“I don’t know his name. We used aliases,” Divakar replied.
“How did you get into their organization?” Prakash pushed him further.
Seema looked at Prakash. What’s he doing?
“IB got me in. They have been tracking this organization since long.”
“Who in IB?” Prakash barked.
Divakar was getting worked up. He spat, “What the fuck is this? 20 questions?”
Prakash pressed him further. “I asked you a simple question. Who in IB helped you get inside?”
Seema decided to cool things off. “I guess it was an Ex-IB Joint Director. A. K. Rastogi, if I’m not wrong.” She looked at Divakar for approval.
“Hey, hey, hey! Why are you guys so interested in my past?” Divakar said. “Seema, I think you should tell your smartass buddy that we’re all on the same side here. OK? I don’t like someone questioning me like that.”
Seema made an apologetic face, but Divakar ignored her and began fidgeting with his mobile phone, not looking up.
Prakash was in no mood to relent, though. “Mrinal, why don’t you go and look up this man called A.K. Rastogi. Let’s check out who this man is,” Prakash said loud enough for Divakar’s ears. “I hope our friend here can help you with his laptop.”
“What is all this?” Divakar yelled. “I thought we were all here to tie up loose ends and build an airtight case against this organization. What you’re doing is digging up dirt about me!”
“Because I think you’re hiding something from us! And I have to find out what it is. Mrinal, go!”
Mrinal started walking towards the door. But, he had taken hardly a few steps when Divakar grabbed his shirt collar and shoved him back with force.
Seema cried, “Divakar!”
“Shut up, bitch! I am done tolerating you guys.” Divakar took out his pistol from the small of his back.
But before he could point it at anyone, Prakash jumped at him like a tiger. He caught his weapon with his left fist and thrust his right shoulder into his chest in a rugby-style tackle. Both of them crashed on the floor, Prakash lying on top of Divakar. Mrinal kicked the latter’s right hand with all his might, flinging his pistol away.
“Motherf…” Divakar raised his head up and slammed it into Prakash’s nose.
Ahhh. The reporter shrieked, blood dripping from his nose. Before he could recover, Divakar hit him again on the same point with his head. Awww. In agony, Prakash rolled down his chest and lay flat on the ground.
Divakar took out his mobile phone while still lying on the floor. He dialled a number, smirked and said loudly, addressing everyone in the room, “Meet you in another world, buddies. Good bye!”
Kunal, who had been standing at a corner and watching the proceedings till now with caution, understood what was going to happen. “It’s an ambush!” he yelled and charged at Divakar.
But, before he could reach him, there was a loud boom. He yelped and fell on the floor like a dead pigeon. His head bore a golf ball sized hole, blood gushing out from it in torrents. He was dead.
“There’s a fucking sniper outside!” Prakash screamed, holding his nose. He was pointing at the window opened some time back by Divakar.
Everyone got down on all fours as a barrage of gunfire erupted from outside. The bullets smashed through the windows and struck the walls, dropping chunks of glass, plaster and cement all over.
Seema was too stunned to react. She looked around in panic. Mrinal lay in a foetal position below one of the windows, clutching his head. Divakar had taken up a crawling position resembling a soldier in a trench. Bastard.
Prakash was crouching on the floor behind a chair. He gestured to Seema, indicating that he was about to attack Divakar. Carefully avoiding the line of fire, he picked up the chair and smacked it with full force on Divakar’s head. Thakk! There was loud thud – the sound of a cracking skull.
Divakar cried and rolled over, writhing in pain. He was facing Prakash. Blood streamed into his eyes, making him shake his head to clear his vision. He was losing consciousness. In a few seconds, he slumped over the floor, lying in his own blood.
“We have to run!” Prakash yelled.
Book 3
54
Raman was crouching on the terrace of an under-construction building, only half a kilometre away from Acacia Inn. A plume of smoke curled out of the barrel of his Dragunov SVD long range rifle. It had pumped seven rounds into a window on the Inn’s third floor just now. He counted only one hit however, quite unhappy with the way things had gone here.
Firstly, he was upset not being told in advance about this ambush. Sultan. Son-of-a-bitch. You knew where this trio was going, but still kept me in the dark.
The second problem was that he had got a very small timeframe to reconnoitre the area and locate a vantage point to take the shot. The under-construction building was the only place he could find in a hurry. Although the structure was not completely deserted, he decided to use it, taking the grave risk of being noticed by people. The rooftop was splattered with moist lime, cement and plaster. It made him rule out a ‘prone’ position for sniping, the one in which the shooter lies flat on his chest. He couldn’t afford to leave clues for the police. Besides, he knew that the prone position wouldn’t give him a clear view of the target. The ‘kneeling’ position would have to do.
His compromises didn’t end there. The original plan was that Sultan’s agent Divakar would keep conversing with the targets till the trap was closed around them. A ground team would have surrounded the hotel while Raman had them in the crosshairs of his Dragunov. At Divakar’s phone call, the ambush would have begun.
But, things did not happen that way. Even before the ground team could reach the hotel and surround it, he received a call on his mobile phone. It was a green signal, which meant he had to shoot. He complied.
Raman pondered over the two options in front of him: either remain put, watching over the targets in the hope of taking them down if they came into view; or rush out and support the ground team. He wanted to go for the first one, but then recalled he was not in a safe place. These bloody construction workers can remember my face. Even the police could trap him in the construction zone.
He looked through the rifle scope for one last time. The crosshairs brushed past a TV and the top of a cupboard inside the hotel room. No movement of people. So, no use sitting here. He disassembled his rifle quickly and ran downstairs.
55
“Oh my God! This was a fucking trap all along,” Seema screamed. “That’s why I could escape so easily. They let me go!”
“And they lured us in. To ambush us together,” Prakash said, shaking his head in disbelief.
Seema sobbed and moved her eyes towards Kunal’s mangled body. Lying in a puddle of pulpy mass, his head looked smaller than before, as if his skull had caved in. She closed her eyes in disgust.
“Our main witness is dead!” she grunted. “I’ve put you guys in danger too.”
Mrinal interjected in panic, “Hey people, we can do the talking and crying later. Let’s get the hell out of here first. I don’t want to get cooked in this gunfire.”
“Our escape won’t be easy,” Prakash said with a grim face. “We might be surrounded.”
“Yesssss… you are surr…oun…ded.”
All three of them looked towards Divakar. He was lying on the ground with unmoving eyes pointed at the roof.
Prakash turned his head 180 degrees, his eyes looking for the pistol Mrinal had kicked away. It was lying aligned with the wall, buried in a pile of cement and plaster. He picked it up, pointed it at Divakar and snapped, “How many men?”
Divakar didn’t say anything. He just gave a smirk. His face was a bloody mess from the deep gash caused by the hit from the chair. Blood was dripping from his head onto the floor.
“Tell me you son-of-a-bitch. How many men have come for the hunt?” Prakash shifted the gun to his left hand and punched him hard on his face. The force was so strong that his hand began to ache.
Divakar’s lower lip was cut badly. He groaned in pain and replied, “Seven… maybe eight.”
Prakash thought for a few moments. He got an idea. Looking around, he found Divakar’s mobile lying nearby. He picked it up and said, “You’re going to call your men from your mobile and tell them that we’ve escaped. You got me? You need to send them on a wild goose chase.”
Divakar shook his head in refusal.
Prakash got agitated. This man was wasting precious time. The attackers could rush in any moment. Gritting his teeth in anger, he thrust the pistol’s barrel into Divakar’s mouth. “You say ‘no’ once more and I swear to God, I’ll put a bullet in your head.”
Seeing a faint glimpse of fear in his eyes, Prakash looked at the list of dialled numbers in the mobile. The last two numbers belonged to men named Raman and Patil.
“Who should I call? Raman or Patil?” Prakash roared. He removed the barrel from Divakar’s mouth, taking care not to press the trigger.
“Patil,” Divakar said, gasping for breath.
Prakash dialled Patil’s number and handed over the mobile phone to him. “Tell him that we escaped through the backside wall.”
Divakar kept lying on the floor while he took the call.
“Patil… No, only one is dead… The remaining three have escaped! … No, I am not in pursuit. One of them injured me badly… Rush into the road behind the hotel. I think they have jumped over the backside wall… Tell Raman also… No, I don’t need any help now. Deep Alpha,” he talked into the phone and then hung up.
“You sure they aren’t coming here?” Prakash asked.
“No,” Divakar said, losing breath. “They… they may still decide to come here.”
Prakash looked at Seema and Mrinal and said, “Time to run.”
“What if the sniper is still waiting for us to raise our heads?” Seema asked, pointing towards the smashed window.
Prakash nodded in agreement, turning his head towards the door of the room, “We won’t raise our heads, in that case.”
56
Raman was just out of the building when his phone started ringing. Patil.
“Give me some good news, Patil.”
“I have bad news. The targets have escaped by climbing over the back wall. Divakar turned out to be a sissy. He got thrashed by one of them and is now lying injured in the hotel.”
“Damn! Are you in pursuit?”
“Yes. We’ve changed direction and will emerge in the road behind the hotel. Let’s hope they are still there when we reach.”
“Make it fast. We can’t let them go,” Raman said and then added with a suspicious tone, “I still can’t believe that they were able to climb that wall. That too so quickly. It looked pretty high from my rifle scope.”
“I was also a bit surprised.”
“Are you sure Divakar wasn’t speaking under duress? Did he mention some code word which may have seemed odd to you?”
Patil thought for few seconds and replied in a slow and doubtful manner, “He did use the words ‘Deep Alpha’. I thought it must be his code name…”
“That is a duress code we use internally, you fool! How the hell aren’t you aware of it?”
“I… I’m new here. You know that, Raman.”
“Don’t give me excuses, motherfucker!” Raman said, scowling. “Tell me how far have you come from the hotel?” These moronic civvies!
“We can get there in ten… I mean five minutes.”
“Then move!”
“We are already on our way,” Patil said, trying hard to calm Raman. He then added, “And… I’m so sorry, Raman,” sounding like a driver who had just dented his employer’s costliest car.
“I will deal with you later. First, I need to get back into my position.” Raman hung up. He started running back towards the same building he had got down from.
1 minute to reach the top floor. 30 seconds to assemble the rifle. 30 more seconds to focus and spot. That makes it two minutes. Run, Raman, run.
57
Prakash looked at Seema as she cat-crawled out of the hotel room. He was standing in the corridor, having come out of the room the same way as she was doing now. On opening the door, he had expected it to explode with the next barrage of gunshots. Thankfully, it didn’t happen.
“We need to get to the lift,” he said to Seema and sprinted towards the other end of the corridor.
“Keep your head down,” she shouted, pointing at a large window on the wall beside the lift.
Prakash lowered his head in response. The window was large enough for a sniper to spot him and pump in a few bullets. He reached the lift. Crouching in front of it, he pressed the up button and looked at Seema. She was walking towards him with a stooping position. Mrinal was following her.
The lift door opened and Prakash rushed in. He was joined by Seema and Mrinal in a second.
“I don’t want to move into another ambush,” Mrinal said, as the lift started to go down.
Prakash nodded. His friend’s fears were not unfounded. He bit his lips in tension as the lift reached the ground floor and its doors began to open.
The lift area was empty. Thank God! “Watch out for people with weapons,” he whispered and walked out.
With careful steps, he reached the reception area. There was no one sitting over the desk. Everyone’s involved. From his position, he could see the main gate of the compound clearly. He turned towards Seema and Mrinal and said, “We’ll have to get out of the front gate and find some conveyance.”
All of them dashed towards the main gate – Prakash followed by Seema and Mrinal. Prakash reached the gate first and opened the latch. As soon as he swivelled the door, he heard the sound of a ‘crack’ and then Seema’s shriek. No! He immediately turned around and stood there agape with horror.
Mrinal was lying on the ground, with Seema crouched and looking at him. Oh! No… No… No!
“He’s hit. The sniper is still there!” Seema yelled with terror in her eyes.
“Tell me he’s not dead!” He fell to his knees and dragged himself towards Mrinal. He saw his friend writhing in pain, his shirt soaked with blood. You’re alive. There was a thumbnail sized hole on his left shoulder, a few inches from the heart. He slid his fingers behind Mrinal’s neck and checked for any exit wounds on his back. There was one. Good.
“Just hang on, dost. We’re going to get help,” he said, unsure whethe
r his friend could hear him. He then instructed, “Seema, use this gate as a shield, move out and hire a vehicle. I’ll follow you with Mrinal.”
She nodded and crawled out of the main gate. Prakash took Mrinal’s hands in his own and pulled him towards the gate like a sack of potatoes. He wanted to ensure that they remained in cover from the sniper’s range. The metal gate was their saviour now. Even a few seconds’ wait felt like an era.
Seema finally appeared. “I could only find an auto,” she said in a low-pitch, apologetic voice.
“There is no time to think. Let’s go,” Prakash said. He held Mrinal by his torso while Seema held his legs. They shoved him into the auto-rickshaw and then got in themselves.
The driver looked at them with shock. “What is this, Madam? What are you guys getting me involved in?”
“Please, bhaiya, help us. We are reporters and have been attacked by some wrong people. Just take us out of here,” Seema pleaded.
The driver thought for a moment, unable to decide. He then shook his head and started the auto. “I won’t take you far,” he barked. “Keep looking for a cab while I drive. I’ll drop you once you find one.”
She nodded.
58
“Where are you guys?” Raman roared into his phone. He talked while his eyes were on the riflescope.
“We are just about to reach,” Patil replied.
“Where?”
“The… the hotel.”
“They are leaving, you idiot. Drive fast!” Raman snapped. “I have slowed them down for you.”
“How so?”
“Pumped a bullet into one of them.”
“So, only two of them remain?”
“No, I’m not sure whether the target is dead. It was not a headshot. One of them appeared in my scope and I pressed the trigger immediately.”
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