Agniputr

by Vadhan

  From floor to ceiling, the room must have been about fifty feet. On the far end of the room was a pair of wooden doors on a sheer wall. Each eight-foot door was at least four feet wide. On one side, just under the windows, was a dusty table. On the other side, a few broken chairs. Other than these, the hall was empty. Dried leaves, old paper and a thick carpet of dust covered the wooden floor of the room. They stepped into the room in quick succession. One gunman, Ramdas, entered first and the other, Poti, entered last.

  They walked softly. The thick padding of dirt made their entry into the hall noiseless, albeit dusty. If there was anyone else in that room other than the six of them, they were invisible. Hearts hammering, they moved further into the hall, ready to run for the door at the first sign of trouble.

  ‘What’s behind the doors?’ Sheila whispered into Raghuram’s ears.

  ‘The actual resting place of my ancestors, it contains the samadhis,’ Raghuram replied.

  Priyanka shrugged. ‘So what now?’ she asked, disappointed with the anti-climax. ‘We didn’t come to examine broken furniture and an old dusty hall. There’s nothing else here. Where’s the phenomenon?’

  Raghu shrugged, ‘You tell me, you’re the ones who swore by it.’

  ‘Your father was last seen in this hall. We are the first official entrants here in about forty years.’ Sheila’s jasmine perfume filled him, which made him smile in spite of the grim surrounding.

  ‘Forty-three actually.’

  ‘Let’s go into the other hall. Maybe there are some clues there,’ Priyanka pointed out.

  ‘That...is a very bad idea, I don’t like this place. Let’s not do this,’ Vidush objected. He appeared dazed, pawing his forehead and the nape of his neck at short intervals.

  ‘Nonsense,’ Priyanka said, ‘I did not spend a sleepless night scared half out of my wits just to roam around an empty room. There’s nothing here, what the Hell can be so bad in an adjoining room?’

  Vidush looked very worried. ‘I hear voices...in my head, little child voices. They’re hungry. They’re calling us in. Don’t you guys hear them too? We are their food.’

  Priyanka laughed, ‘Next, you’ll see dead people. You’re stressed out, dude.’

  CHAPTER 24

  RAMDAS, who did not understand a word being said, had walked right up to the doors of the second hall. He beckoned for them to follow him. Poti, with his gun at the ready, cast furtive glances around as he followed them to the door.

  ‘Babu Garu, what do you say?’ Ramdas asked Raghu.

  Raghu did not answer him; he did not have time to even react. With a wild scream, Vidush threw the doors half open and charged in like his feet were on fire. He was immediately swallowed by the darkness inside.

  The rest of the team whisked out their flashlights and stumbled into the inky blackness. The first thing that hit them was the scalding heat, that and the odour of burnt oxygen. Their flashlights picked up glimpses of Vidush speeding across the hall through a garden of vapours erupting out of fissures in the ground. Like they were standing on a volcano about to explode.

  Ramdas flashed his light on the wall, apparently in search of something.

  ‘Ah!’

  He skittered around lighting a few of the fire torches notched to the walls. After all the years, the flames sputtered and fizzed before they came on uncertainly. By the firelight, they gaped at the old ruins. Sheila was not interested in the devastated structure, she, along with the rest of the troupe was staring at Vidush who was edging speedily towards the far end of the hall.

  It was wrong.

  Sheila was seeing it but her mind refused to accept the truth.

  Vidush was not running to the far end of the hall.

  He was floating. Like a helium balloon on a rope.

  He was about four feet from the ground. At least that’s what it felt like at first blush.

  It was Raghu who realised what was really wrong.

  Vidush was strung.

  Like meat on a meat hook.

  The rear of his white shirt was stained red.

  Intense heat scathed them as though they were close to a miniature sun, like they were standing in the very depths of Hell. All of a sudden, the fire torches were snuffed out like birthday candles by hot gusts of wind, throwing the group into darkness. They turned on their flashlights.

  Sheila screamed, more in fright than in pain as the searing heat began to singe her skin. Through the waves of heat and the flashlights, Vidush was nothing more than a shimmering mirage.

  ‘I am not your food, leave me alone...’ Priyanka suddenly screamed. She pulled her hair vehemently, and took off after Vidush like a bullet.

  ‘What’s happening here?’ screamed Sheila, training her flashlight on Priyanka. She chased after her assistant. All she could make out through blurred watery eyes was that the far end of the hall was practically invisible, as if it had no walls, just endless waves of heat.

  Raghu chased after Sheila. He grasped her shoulder and twisted her around. She lost her balance and fell against him. He could barely make out the wild look of panic in her eyes in the darkness. Holding her tight, Raghu called out to the two runaway scientists.

  For some reason, Ramdas chose to fire both barrels of his weapon into the air and gave all of them a start. The blast reverberated in the room. A fleeing figure stopped, it was impossible to make out who it was. Raghu fairly threw Sheila at Poti who had joined them and ran after the duo. He caught up with Priyanka, who stood with her hands by her side. She was crying.

  ‘Get back,’ Raghu hollered at her. The air in the hall was so thick that Raghu had to fairly yell to be heard.

  Priyanka looked at him pitiably. She raised her hand as though in a trance and pointed to something, his eyes followed her finger and he froze.

  Vidush was about fifteen feet away from him, dangling about six feet in the air. With tremendous effort, the young man turned his head towards Raghu. His lips worked soundlessly. He was trying to say something. Raghu figured out what it was.

  ‘I am here Vidush, I am going to get you out,’ he screamed.

  All of a sudden Vidush began to squeal, literally like a pig. Raghu ran towards the young man. Over broken granite he ran and leapt over outcrops of rock until he was almost an arm’s length from the young man. That was when he stepped into nothing.

  ‘Oh God!’ Raghu yelled, realising too late that Vidush was bait. Nothing more.

  Raghu stopped dead in his tracks. Not that he intended to. He had run out of the hall. One foot was dangling over an expanse of emptiness opening out right under his feet. There was something down below, crackling with electricity. But Raghu hardly paid attention to it. He realised he could not have stopped from falling into the chasm even if he wanted to. The forward trajectory of his movement would have led him down to his death.

  Yet, something simply pulled him back. A force. Strength so powerful that he was a mere toy in its grasp. The wind went out of his lungs making him collapse to the ground coughing, his eyes still focused on the young scientist. In that instant, right before his eyes, Vidush was ripped apart.

  Like an exploding firecracker.

  Chunks of the scientist’s flesh fell into the darkness. It was only then that Raghu’s gaze fell into the emptiness under him.

  The chasm yawned under him. Lightning blazed within the chasm, originating from a greenish globule. It was of tremendous girth, with sparse hair like growth that generated bolts of electricity. Was it someone’s head? Could there be a creature that big? Was that hair on the head, or some sort of device? Was it actually spewing out electricity? Raghuram stared down into the chasm even as the illogical and unseeming questions whizzed through him.

  A hand fell on his shoulder. Raghu looked up to see P. Eshwar standing above him. Both his swords were sheathed on his right hip, one below the other. He wore some sort of animal hide gloves. His hair was wafting in the hot wind from the chasm.

  ‘You are brave, that much I can give you,’ he
said calmly. Raghu rose unsteadily.

  ‘Your friend was only a lure. If you did die, the Sutram is home and free and we can’t have that, can we? It’ll try to kill all of you now. You must go.’

  ‘Wh...? What the Hell is that thing?’

  ‘That, my friend, is your enemy. It will take a lot of explaining Surya, maybe even about the secrets of the universe. This isn’t the time or place for it. I’ll meet with you toni...’

  A high pitched scream cut Eshwar short.

  ‘It’s begun. The Sutram has tasted its first flesh in a long time. It will not stop now.’

  They ran towards the scream.

  ‘What’s this thing, I…can’t begin to think what it is?’

  Eshwar said, ‘An anomaly or a wrong measurement if I may say so. Its purpose is to consume, it would have consumed the world whole by now, if not for your father. Yet...he wasn’t successful.’

  Did you know my father?’

  ‘We were good friends.’

  ‘How? Where did you meet? I know all my father’s friends. They’ve never mentioned anything about you.’

  ‘That’s a tale for another day. Focus on getting out of here.’

  By this time, they had reached Priyanka. The girl was now suspended in the air like Vidush.

  Hot wind brushed past them. Priyanka screamed again. Raghu could feel the sharpness of the pincers. His skin burned feverishly, but somehow the pincers did not latch on to him. Poti was on the ground, thrashing about. Then Sheila was screaming as the hooks pried into her skin.

  Priyanka’s blood splattered over Raghu as her skin tore like paper.

  Twin swords cut through invisible cords. Eshwar’s long hair fell on his face and he flicked it away. Priyanka fell to the ground in a heap. She was a mess. Raghu did not wait for an invitation; he scooped up the injured girl and ran for the door. The footsteps behind told him the others were following his example. The twang of steel on what sounded like metal meant Eshwar was still at it against things only he could see.

  It was hard to hold on to Priyanka, there was just too much blood all over. He took a firm grip of her blood soaked clothes and threw her over his shoulders, all the time running. He reached the door and hurtled through.

  The first thing that struck him was that the immense heat within the inner hall was conspicuous by its absence in the outer hall. It was like entering an air-conditioned room. He wondered how that was as he ran. Only when he was in the open did Raghu throw a glance backward to see if they had all made it. A bleeding Sheila was right behind him and Poti behind her. Ramdas was nowhere to be seen, nor P. Eshwar.

  The Xenon was parked on the roadside, a few metres away. Poti ran down the path, past startled villagers who gawked at his blood spattered countenance. In spite of his wounds, Poti was the faster runner. He opened the rear door of the Xenon and jumped into the vehicle in one quick motion. Poti grabbed the unconscious scientist from Raghu into the vehicle as Sheila staggered towards them. She pulled open the front door and collapsed into the passenger seat. Raghuram rushed around the car. The Xenon lunged forward towards Javaaram, its oversized tyres kicking up dust.

  CHAPTER 25

  THE Srimati Sushila Reddy Speciality Care hospital in Javaaram was a state-of-the-art-establishment, built by Mohan Reddy Esq., granite quarry, granite cutting and polishing factory owner and one of the richest men in Javaaram. The hospital was in the fond memory of his late mother who had died of tuberculosis.

  Raghuram carried a blood soaked Priyanka into the hospital, his screams for help echoing down its polished granite and marble hall. The moment they recognised the blood spattered man as Raghuram Surya, the hospital staff had been more than co-operative. Within the hour, Major Kant was notified, the local police had cordoned off the place from inquisitive public and newshounds while phone calls were made to family members.

  Major Kant was in uniform. It felt good. Civilian attire was all right but he had earned his uniform and he liked to be in it. It was the one thing that distinguished him from the rest of the world. He sat in a chair and placed his cap gently on the table in the brightly lit consulting room.

  The doctor though, was uncomfortable in his presence. He had that effect on people. It was the aura around him. He had been through many combats and skirmishes for the country. He was scathed by them. His very persona exuded those scars. Kant knew the effect he had on people.

  There were a bunch of photographs spread out on the table. The doctor extracted a pencil from the pen stand and stood up.

  ‘Major Garu,’ he said and placed his pencil on what looked like a series of needle marks on skin, ‘this is a close up shot of Priyanka’s face, her cheek in fact. It was torn open, not with a knife or a hook but, in my opinion, by at least seventy needles or needle thin pincers. They’ve been inserted, rather abruptly, into her skin and she was quite literally hooked up like a piece of meat.’

  Kant stared at the picture with a morbid fascination. He had seen some pretty gruesome sights in his time on the heights of the Siachen peaks and in the valleys of Kashmir. He had yet to see a torture so morbid. The young girl’s face had been practically torn apart like a piece of paper.

  ‘The pincers did not per se do this to her. Her own body weight did. The skin of her face was just too flimsy to support her body weight,’ the doctor explained dryly.

  ‘What about Sheila and that little man, Poti?’ Kant queried.

  ‘The same thing, perhaps with lesser intensity. Someone must have cut them loose just as he did with Priyanka, only, it was before extensive damage was done. Sheila will heal in a few days, so will Poti. Priyanka is a different matter altogether.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Her physical injuries will heal eventually, Major Garu. You should consider extensive plastic surgery. We recommend reconstructive and aesthetic procedures to restore at least eighty percent of her features. What worries me most is her complete mental trip off. Her mind has switched itself off, as it were. The human mind can only take a finite extent of trauma. Thereafter it would become either imbalanced or shut itself down. It’s a built-in safety mechanism. Priyanka’s mind has shut down. The fact is, medical science is still at a nascent stage in understanding the complexities of the human mind, so frankly, we can’t be sure when it would power up, so to speak, or if it would at all. Let me add that this is only a preliminary diagnosis. Maybe we can find a way out as we investigate further. It’s just been five hours since they’ve come in and my team is still inside the operation theatre with her. As of now, we can tell you that Priyanka will survive, she will exist... I don’t know if she will ever know it.’

  Someone had to pay. Kant was sure of that. He had a good idea who.

  In the meanwhile, a mild sedative ensured that two people in a private room in the same hospital did not go into hysterics. Poti, for one, was too tired and wounded to attempt hysterics but he was glad for the sedative.

  The sedation helped Sheila Pitambar control her agitated heart and overwrought mind. Sheila dreaded that the horrors of that day would never leave her as long as she lived. She could still picture poor Vidush being hooked and dragged around the room like a hunk of meat. The image of Priyanka’s tender skin tearing like so much paper sent uncontrollable shivers through her. Even with the sedative, she had to fight back tears.

  Raghuram Surya, sitting in a chair between Poti and Sheila, did not need a sedative. Not only was he the only one not injured in the murderous assault of that morning, he was also the most composed.

  Major Kant stepped into the room with a couple of cadets who promptly took positions on either side of the door. Kant’s handsome face was tight with controlled fury. He had been betrayed by people he thought were part of his team and he meant to act on it, one way or another. Sheila read as much by the grim lines of his face. She realised that Kiromal would have got wind of their misadventure by now.

  ‘What the Hell happened there? Who did this to you people?’ he roared at Sheila, unmindfu
l of her delicate condition.

  She shook her head, ‘I...d-don’t know Major. I have no idea what happened. One minute we were inside the hall and the next...’ Sheila broke into fresh tears. Raghu was immediately by her side.

  ‘Easy now, easy’ he said.

  ‘You stay away from me, you hear. Just stay away,’ she screamed at him.

  Raghu was taken aback at the vehemence. ‘Sheila...’ he began.

  ‘Back off mister...you heard the lady,’ Kant growled at Raghu.

  ‘Listen, we went in together...’

  ‘And yet, the only person unhurt is you. Except for minor abrasions and bruises you are perfectly fine, unlike Priyanka who may never recover at all. No one is able to explain why you were not ‘attacked’, can you?’

  Raghu appeared flummoxed, ‘I don’t know...’

  ‘You don’t know. You don’t know. Bullshit! I am placing you under arrest till we decide what to do with you,’ he roared.

  Raghu realised Kant was taking advantage of whatever had happened in Gudem to box him into a corner. This was the Home Minister’s one chance to get into the hall. Raghu was more than ever determined to fight the mad man. Kiromal was no different from that thing that attacked them. They could not allow the minister to take control of the hall. God only knew what he would do.

  ‘For pity’s sake man, he just saved all our lives. Why would you want to arrest him?’ Poti protested.

  ‘That’s for the police to decide you little twerp and if you come in between, I will have you arrested for murder too.’

  ‘Murder? I did not murder anyone Major. I...don’t know what happened.’ Raghu said.

  ‘We’ll see about that.’

  A police inspector slipped into the room. He saluted smartly, Kant acknowledged the salute.

  ‘Arrest this man for the murder of Vidush Kherwa and the attempted murder of Priyanka Kapoor. I want you to take him under custody right now,’ he ordered the inspector, pointing to Raghuram.