The Jugni

by Gagan Saini

He proceeded to the toilet carefully with the gun still pointed towards Simar. He knocked on the door, but no one replied. He opened the door and saw his two men’s dead body on the floor. He checked the pulse of both one by one over carotid artery with frustration but there was nothing he could feel. He was still in the toilet and Simar came closer to the door. Before he could do anything or say anything Simar fired three bullets on his back around the heart. He fell on the ground motionless just next to his fellow terrorist. Boys from her team took all the weapons from the body.

  One after the other, Simar and her team kept on moving forward on the train. They secured most of the metro carriage by carriage. It was a tough job, but teamwork helped.

  On every occasion they secured the next compartment, they kept on finding people with different skills. She found one wrestler and a strong farmer, who acted as her main soldiers. The fight kept on going and the army of common people was getting stronger and stronger. The lady on the phone was constantly updating the police headquarters regarding the latest developments. The common man army tied two terrorists alive in seats on Simar’s instructions. Rest of them were killed. The number of coaches, the leader got updates from reduced one by one. This made him very concerned.

  “Let’s attack this last one as well.” Men form Simar’s army talked to each other.

  “No, we are not attacking this one,” Simar said with a stopping gesture with her hand.

  “Why? This is the last one. We will kill the terrorist in there as we killed the rest of them.”

  “This one has more men and their leader in it, as I judged from their conversation over the walkie-talkie. By now, they must be aware that they are under attack, they will be alert. Moreover, they will use passengers as their shield.”

  “So, what we do?”

  “We will bring them outside!”

  Simar brought a walkie-talkie in front of her face and pressed a button on it. “Hey coward, talk to me.”

  The captain was just surprised to hear a girl’s voice on one of his man’s walkie-talkie. “Who are you, girl? And do you know who you’re talking to?”

  “Yes, I know who you are; you are a coward who uses innocent people as their shield and bleeds useless blood for his evil motives.”

  “Hey girl, I don’t know who you are, but I am sure if you come in front of me I will kill you for the way you are talking.”

  Simar giggled and said, “That’s the only thing you guys know, to kill people? Anyways, I give you one chance to surrender otherwise the moment I come in front of you, that will be the last moment of your life.”

  The captain of terrorists was angry now. “Hey girl, tell me where you are, I am going to kill you now.”

  Simar laughed out loud and became serious the very next moment, “I have the rest of the train in my control. Am only three compartments away from you and I am coming for you. I will come there and kill you.”

  The captain stopped the conversation and wanted to check whatever she said was true or not. He tried to contact his men, but nobody answered. He slammed his walkie-talkie on the floor. He asked three men to go and check. This left him and one more terrorist in the first compartment.

  Simar lied about where she was. She and her best soldiers were in the second compartment, just next to his, ready to attack. Kids, old people, and ladies were sent in the carriages at the rear. This door did not have a glass window in it. Three of them entered the second carriage hoping it will be okay; still they had their guns ready. As the third one left the first carriage, the terrorist in the first compartment closed and locked the door. All of a sudden a normal looking passengers attacked them. The first two were tackled by Simar’s soldiers. Simar dealt with the third one.

  The physically strong soldiers held two terrorists tight while the gun snatching department took their guns swiftly and safely. Although a couple of gunshots happened, no one got injured. Simar did not give a chance to the third one to use his gun. She made quick and deep cuts on the pressure points of the arteries on his upper body. The blood rushed out with pressure. Simar’s Patiala suit got some splashes of blood. Soon, the body of that man was swimming on the floor in his own blood.

  The gunshots in the second compartment created suspense among the terrorists as well as passengers in the first.

  The one killed by Simar had easy death as compared to the other two who were beaten to death by nearly ten people each. Although it was a brutal scene, Simar did not stop them. She saw the anger in the eyes of common people who did not want to be terrorized.

  The captain asked his fellow to contact those three. He asked on the walkie-talkie, “Did you find that girl?”

  Simar again answered, “Yes, they did, but they all are dead now.”

  The captain and the passengers in that carriage were listening to it and were startled how a girl could do that. The captain signaled his fellow to turn the walkie-talkie off. They both took positions with guns pointing towards the connecting door. Simar’s plan to provoke them to come out worked partially. The number of gunmen left in the first carriage was still unknown to her, yet she decided to infiltrate like she did the rest.

  The two terrorists were ready in position to fire as soon as the door would open. The same happened; the door opened, and they started firing blindly. They pierced each part of the body of that person with bullets. The frustration and anger were so much that they did not notice who that person was.

  The subordinate of the captain stopped him from shooting as he recognized that he was one of their men. He was one of the terrorists held by the passengers. Simar’s army could sacrifice one as they had another in the custody for investigation.

  The guns of both ran out. They quickly started to put new magazines in their guns. This gave Simar a time window of a few seconds to step into the scene. She jumped over the body lying in the connecting gate. She hit the dagger with full force towards one terrorist while she was still in the air. By the time she landed on the floor, the dagger was in the throat of that man. The captain saw him falling on the floor.

  He became mad with anger. He just wanted to kill Simar, he was confident in his physical abilities, so he did not bother to get the gun. He just attacked her with fists. Simar smiled because she knew nobody could beat her in boxing.

  Simar was good, but the terrorist was a strong man and a trained killer. Simar did not have answers to some of his attacks. She got punched in the face once and on the abdomen twice and fell to the floor. Her associates who had entered this carriage wanted to intervene, but she stopped them to come closer.

  “I got this,” she said as she cleaned the blood from the left corner of her lips.

  “Do you really think you can beat me? I can fight four black belt men at the same time, and you are just a girl.” The terrorist leader laughed and said as he removed his shirt to enable a more efficient range of motion of his arms.

  Simar laughed back and stood up slowly.

  “For your kind information, this ‘Just a girl’ is an IPS officer of Delhi police who just messed up your plan. As far as the fight is concerned, there are so many mistakes in your moves.”

  “I don’t think so, police lady. You are the one who got blood on your face, not me. I guess your trainer did not teach you proper blocking.” The leader said as he flexed his arm muscles. The passengers and her team members looked at Simar for her reply.

  “Let’s see who has got better training.” Simar stood in the attacking stance, so did her opponent. She gave a little mysterious smile and invited him to attack with the movement of her fingers of the front hand.

  He attacked with all of his energy and skill. This time Simar blocked all his punches and kicks. She did not move even a single inch, which made him angrier. The more he fought, the more frustrated he got. Frustration led him to the loss of concentration which Simar sensed. She delivered two quick punches on his face. He lifted his le
g to kick Simar and she twisted her body and kicked him in the groin. That kick was the deciding point of the fight. He came on the back foot. Simar kicked and punched continuously until he dropped to the floor. All the passengers clapped with great appreciation but Simar did not react to it. She asked her men to tie him up strongly. She rang Sinha.

  “Hello Sir, the train is secured. All the terrorists on the metro have been eliminated.”

  “What? Did you just say all the terrorists on the train are eliminated?”

  “Yes Sir, the metro is secured now and needs to be stopped from the control room.”

  “You have done an unbelievable job, Simar.”

  “Thank you, Sir, but I did not do it alone. I had an army.”

  “Anyways, I will get the details later. Let’s get the control room back.”

  He hung up the call with Simar and contacted Zahid.

  “Zahid, you are good to go. The train is secured and needs to be stopped from the control room.”

  “How did it happen, Sir? Our commandos did that?”

  “No, Simar did it.”

  “Simar did it? She fought with all those terrorists, who were heavily armed and trained.”

  “Yes, but she was speaking of some army. Anyways, we will get to the details later. Get your men ready, it is the time for the attack. The black cat commandos will be dropped on the roof. They will be our main attack. I want minimum civilian causalities.”

  “Understood, Sir.”

  The commandos stormed the building. After a tough gun battle, the control room was secured. All the terrorists were dead. Some of the control room workers got shot as well. A couple of them died on the spot and others got injured. The overall outcome was satisfactory.

  The geek asked one policeman that who was in charge of the operation. The policeman redirected him to Zahid.

  “Sir, Sir….” That geek tried to catch up with his breath after a short sprint and a lot of anxiety.

  “Relax man, you are safe now.” Zahid tapped on his shoulder and continued to find the person who could stop the train.

  “Sir, people in the train are in danger.”

  “No, they are not. All terrorists have been killed on the train.”

  “I know sir, but they are still in danger.”

  “Hang on a minute. Only a few of us or people on the train know that the terrorists are dead. How come you know it?”

  “Sir, they made me do their technical stuff at the gunpoint. The last message from the leader on the train was that they were having some problem. After that, the leader here tried to contact him so many times but he could not.”

  “Yes, because he was dead. So, what is the problem? Stop the train now.”

  “Sir, they all came here to die and were ready for all possibilities. The in charge here gave the digital control of that metro to their boss sitting somewhere in the city. So, he is controlling the metro now.”

  “You did it for them; now reverse it, what is the big deal?”

  “Sir, everything is digital. After giving him all control he changed the codes. This means I can’t stop the train from here!”

  “Now that… is a problem.” Zahid scratched his head with confusion and concern.

  “Sir, that’s not all.”

  “What else?”

  “All terrorists had a backpack with them; all of them have explosives in it. The scary thing is, they are controlled remotely by the same person.”

  “Someone in the city can explode the train anytime and you are telling me this at the end?”

  “Sorry Sir, I did my best.”

  “Is there anything you can do to stop the train or disconnect the bombs?”

  “No Sir.”

  Zahid did not waste any more time with him and rang Simar.

  “Yes Zahid, why is the train not stopping still? Did you secure the control room?”

  “Simar, the control room is secured but we can’t stop the train. Their leader has all the control. But the important thing is, they had explosives in their bags. Their leader can trigger them anytime.”

  “Oh my God! A lot of people will die. Is there anything you can do from there?”

  “No, it is all digital and it will take time to crack the codes. But we don’t have that much time. How about, you ask everyone to throw all the bags out of the windows?”

  Simar looked outside through the window. “No Zahid, I cannot do that. The metro is running over slums. Thousands of innocent people will die. If bombs stay in the train, fewer people will die. Okay, I will talk to you later, let me think.” She hung up the call.

  She paused for a few seconds. She went to her deep-thinking level, where no noises and stress could disturb her. In this thinking bubble, she did not have any disturbance to distract her from thinking of a possible way out. She closed her eyes and went back in her short-term memory and recalled every little detail, the things which her subconscious mind noted. As soon as she came out of the bubble, she made a conference call to all her team leaders in each compartment.

  “Hey, listen everyone, locate the bags the terrorists had with them and put them in the last compartment. If you can’t find them, let me know, I will tell you. I am in the first carriage, I can’t go in each one. Ask the passengers from the last two carriages, to evacuate and move to the next ones.”

  “Why are we doing this?” One man from the conference call asked.

  “The bags have explosives in them which can explode anytime. We can’t throw the bags outside. Putting them in the last compartment will reduce the impact, and no more questions, do it now.”

  Everyone understood the urgency of the situation. Firstly, the bags were located and moved to the last carriage. Then people from the last two were squashed in the rest of the compartments.

  A lady passenger approached Simar and asked her to come with her, there was something important. The pregnant lady was having contractions. The lady was lying on the floor and was screaming in pain. Her husband sat beside her providing his leg as a pillow for her. He held one hand of his wife and with other, he was constantly clearing his tears. He did not have the courage to deal with this situation, but he was asking his wife to have courage again and again. Simar saw the situation of the lady. She quickly ran to the next compartment, stood on the seat and yelled out loud, “Any nurse or doctor in here?”

  One middle-aged lady came forward. “I am a nurse.”

  Simar went to her and grabbed her wrist, “Please come with me.”

  She took her to the first cabin and showed her the lady. Simar did not say anything, the nurse analyzed the situation very quickly. She turned to Simar and said, “The lady needs privacy, she is going to deliver the baby.”

  Simar again yelled out loud and asked everyone to go to the next compartment. So, in this first compartment only Simar, the lady, her husband, and the nurse were there. The last two compartments were empty because of the explosives in there, and the first one was changed into a temporary labor room.

  All the passengers were packed in the middle compartments, but no one was complaining. Everyone was just praying for the train to stop and they could jump out.

  In the control room, the geek and Zahid were trying to cut the communication of the train with the terrorist leader. The leader sat relaxed in his chair in front of the TV. The News channels had started showing that terrorists were under control and efforts were going on to stop the train. This made him angry and he dialed a number on his phone.

  The geek in the control room noticed something on the screen.

  “Oh no!”

  “What happened?” Zahid asked impatiently.

  “Sir, the detonation has been triggered, the bombs in train will explode soon.”

  Zahid rang Simar, “Hey Simar, they have detonated the explosive. Do something and get out of there.”

 
“I can’t Zahid. The doors are remotely locked, and I am not a coward to leave the people behind for dying.”

  “Just want to tell you that I love you.” He did not cry but tears from his eyes came out and he could barely speak.

  “What? How long?”

  Zahid said, “Since I saw you for the first time.”

  “Are you stupid Zahid? I am asking, after how long the explosion will happen?” “Sorry, it will explode in four minutes.”

  Simar was stunned for a moment but soon she recovered. She asked Zahid, “Is the control room secured now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then detach the last compartment from there, we have put all explosive in that.”

  Zahid rushed to the geek and explained everything in one sentence.

  “Sorry Sir, we cannot detach the compartment remotely. However, it can be done from the train. There is a detachment button in the area joining the last and the second last compartment. That button has to be pressed manually.

  As Simar was still on the phone she heard it. She could not go to do that because she was in the first compartment and by the time she would reach there it will explode. She made a conference call to the passengers in the compartment closest to last one. She explained to them and asked if anyone could go and press that button. The old man didn’t even ask anybody to go and press that button. He himself ran there. A couple of minutes were left, and he had to run from this section to the last one and to find the button. After looking for a few seconds he found and pressed it and started running away from it.

  Simar went to the driver section and found the announcement phone and said, “Listen carefully my fellow passengers, the bomb has been detonated and it will explode in a few minutes. Please don’t panic, the bomb has been moved to the last chamber and hope it will not impact a lot. Stay where you are. Everybody, please hold on tight to anything you find. Keep the kids away from the windows. Pray to the God whoever you believe in, to give us the courage to face this.” She tried to speak more but couldn’t, some tears came out of her eyes instead.

  She looked at the baby being delivered right in front of her. The baby was halfway out, the mother was screaming in pain. The father was very worried. Simar was looking at this all happening like if everybody was going to die because of her. She was feeling guilty, thinking she hadn’t done enough. Her eyes were open, but her mind wasn’t working anymore.