‘Get out of the van. I need the van now.’ He went round the car and entered to take a seat by the driver’s side, the gun pointed at his head all the while. He opened the rear door for Henna and motioned her to get in. The priest had seen the gun and immediately ran back inside the sanctum of the temple, still muttering incantations, burning camphor flying in the air.
The driver was trembling in fear and sat there dumbly, at a loss for any words.
Jai took the passenger seat, closed his and Henna’s doors, his gun still cocked at the driver’s head.
‘Drive!’ he bellowed the order to the driver.
The driver jerked into action, shifting gears and accelerating like a horse out of the gates at the races. When he was a kilometre further on the East Coast Road, Jai asked him to park on the verge.
The driver obliged, still trembling in fear.
‘Please don’t kill me, Sir. I’ll give you whatever I have.’
‘Yeah! That is a good idea. Empty your pockets and get out of the van.’
The driver had five thousand rupees, some change, and a Chinese ‘Nookia’ mobile that he dumped on his seat and bailed away from the van, running for dear life.
Jai shifted to the driver’s seat, put the van in gear and drove on till he reached the southern entry road to Kalpakkam. On the way, he stopped at a roadside motel just outside Kalpakkam town, and booked a room with cable TV.
Having booked the room, he then drove on with Henna, reaching the perfunctorily guarded Nuclear Research Centre campus. He asked one of the guards about the staff quarters and drove on to them, looking at the names on the gates. Professor Ananthakrishnan occupied an A-type staff bungalow that was not very difficult to find. The bungalow had high compound walls and an ornate wrought iron gate with an armed gatekeeper at the gate, holding a sub-machine gun of some kind.
Jai parked the van about twenty metres from the house and waited. There was still some time for the assassins to arrive.
Jai turned to Henna and asked:
‘Who do you think will have an answer to what’s been happening to me?’
Henna was puzzled for an instant and it took her a moment to understand what Jai was referring to. She had no idea how to explain what Jai was going through. She thought over it, going through various possibilities, but finally did not say anything.
Jai continued:
‘Should I seek the help of a god-man or a science-man?’
‘I have no faith in God or his men,’ Henna replied tersely after an infinitesimal pause. Then she pleaded with Jai:
‘Will you tell me what happened today with you, with us?’
‘The gang tracked us to Chennai, came into our home, and killed both of us.’
There was silence in the van for a minute.
‘When did this happen?’
‘A couple of hours from now.’
‘What are we doing here then?’
‘I saw something on the news.’
‘What?’
‘The the man in that building gets shot and killed by two men on a motorcycle.’ Jai pointed to Professor Ananthakrishnan’s bungalow as he said this.
‘Who is this man?’
‘Some hot-shot big nuclear scientist who has also done a lot of research on the human brain. Actually he said something about the dreams that we have and probably that’s what has brought me here to help him help me.’
‘A science-man,’ Henna echoed Jai’s words, then continued, ‘But Jai, we are fugitives and we cannot risk exposure like this.’
Jai nodded his head and muttered:
‘I think we may not have to, if what I have planned goes through.’
They waited for another half an hour and Jai narrated his ‘dream within a dream’ sequence of flight on a strange flying creature over a strange land.
The gate of the bungalow creaked open and the old man, whom Jai had seen on TV in his ‘dream’ and whom Jai wanted to save, came out of the gate holding a dog on a leash. Jai had not seen the dog anywhere during the news telecast. Maybe it had run away by then or maybe he had just not noticed it earlier.
He hushed Henna who had another question about his dreams.
‘Sshh... I think it is time. They should be coming anytime now.’
Henna looked to where Jai was pointing towards and saw the old man and his dog. The man was fair, with a mat of white hair on his head, large ears, a long face with deep-set eyes, and an amiable air about him. He stood near the gate chatting with the gatekeeper, and they shared a laugh.
That was when the motorcycle passed by them from behind. Jai gave a start; he had not expected that.
He had seen them approaching from the other end, on TV. He could easily identify the men and the bike. Both of them wore helmets. Jai recovered, and was about to start the van when Henna held his arm firmly.
‘Wait. They are not stopping there.’
Jai looked up and saw them passing the scientist’s bungalow without stopping. Nevertheless, both of them had turned their heads towards the house and Jai was sure that these were the men. They went on beyond the house for another fifty metres and then stopped. Jai saw them turn and ride back towards the house again.
Jai turned the key in the van’s ignition and it quietly purred into life. The motorcycle stopped in front of the gate and the man behind leaned forward and asked a question of the old man. Jai stepped on the accelerator and rushed full speed towards the motorcycle. He was only twenty metres away when the man sitting pillion on the bike, pulled out a gun. Jai honked loudly and the man got distracted for a moment. Jai pressed his foot on the accelerator and he ploughed into the bike and the assassins. There was a loud report and the assassin’s bullet found the gatekeeper who had by then, very bravely and instinctively, covered the professor, not having had the time to draw out the submachine-gun slung on his shoulder.
Jai got down from the van, drew out his gun and pumped two bullets each into both the assassins. The guard was lying on the road, shot in the shoulder. Jai could guess that the guard would live. He went to the badly shaken scientist and held him hard by his arm and whisked him into the van. For some strange reason the professor complied, probably too shaken up to respond or to question someone who had just saved his life.
Jai backed up the van from the wreck and sped past the dead assailants on the road. There was still no commotion on the road although he could still feel eyes prying on them from their hidden shelters in the neighbouring buildings. Professor Ananthakrishnan only managed a couple of questions.
‘Who were those men?’
‘They were terrorists who wanted to kill you,’ Jai responded. As an afterthought he added:
‘You are safe with us. We need to take you away to some safe place.’
‘Are you with the police?’
‘Something like that,’ Jai lied.
He drove the van at full speed, getting away from there before anything else happened. He went straight to the hotel and the professor accompanied the couple to their previously booked room.
Jai ordered a cool drink for the professor and made him lie down on the bed while Henna kept watch over him. Jai had forbidden the professor any phone calls.
‘Just wait for a couple of hours till our guys tidy everything up. I have been asked to hold you here until everything is safe. Then I will drop you home myself.’
The professor had, in a state of bewilderment, believed the yarn Jai had woven, but doubts were emerging in his head now. He knew that these two teenagers could not belong to police. It had to be some sort of intelligence agency. He did not know which intelligence agency they belonged to. Neither did he understand which agency would recruit teenagers like them.
Jai waited for another hour before he pulled up a chair by the bed and said:
‘Sir, I am sorry but I have to tell you the truth. I am Jai and she is Henna, and we are not from the police.’
The professor sat up on the bed; he had guessed that much. Jai continued:
; ‘Sir, you have to believe me that I had no part in the attempt on your life. I came to know what was going to happen to you and I had to save you. Not out of the goodness of my heart, but for a very selfish reason. I need you to help me sort out my life.’
The professor still had a shocked look on his face. He glanced from Jai’s face to the door and found the girl standing near the door, ready to leap at him in case he made a run for the door to escape. That brought a smile to his face despite the situation he found himself in.
‘How did you come to know of the attack on me?’
‘It’s a long and crazy story, Sir, the story of my life. I want you to bear with me for a while. Then if you feel you do not want to have anything to do with me, I will let you leave.’
The professor looked into Jai’s eyes and all he saw was the earnestness and pleading of a young boy who had had it rough all his life.
‘What’s the story?’ the professor asked Jai with all the compassion he could muster. The least he could do was to hear him out. After all, the boy had saved his life and he did not intend to wrestle his way out with the feisty-looking teenage girl by the door.
Jai took a deep breath, looked at Henna, started from the earliest memories of his life, his dreams, and then as methodically as he could, narrated everything from the start to the end.
Almost an hour had passed by the time he finished and it was time for the news by then. The professor was speechless. He had not opened his mouth since the beginning of Jai’s story. It was an incredible story, perhaps too incredible to be false. Moreover, the professor was a good listener. He could see the strain on the boy’s face as he struggled to keep the narrative in a straight line. He did not want to befuddle his narrative by asking any questions in between. The patient hearing was worth the tale he got from the boy. How could a slum boy of seventeen weave such a fantastic yarn all by himself? That meant there was a possibility that all of it was an elaborate prank, and that this boy was not what he claimed to be. Or it could all be true. Could that be the case? Wouldn’t that be fantastic? They looked harmless, definitely in some kind of mess. He was in no danger. They would not harm him.
He had to find out more about this story.
Finally, with all these possibilities running around his head, the professor asked:
‘But why should I believe this incredible tale of yours?’
Jai got up from his chair and switched on the TV.
‘I am glad you asked me that. I have been with you this whole time and what I am about to tell you should be proof enough for my story.’
‘What are you going to tell me that can possibly convince me of such a fantastic story?’ the professor wondered aloud, dismissive in his tone, not believing that there was anything that could influence him enough to believe in the story as anything beyond what it was… a great story.
Jai continued, ignoring the disdain in the professor’s tone:
‘When I saw the news about your murder, I also remember seeing three or four other news items. I have been with you now for the past two hours or so and this time round I have had no way of learning of them and getting them right. I hope you understand what I am trying to tell you and hope this satisfies you, Sir. And after my small demonstration, I sincerely hope that you will believe in me, Sir.’
Jai took a pad and a pen and wrote down a list for the professor:
From the ‘Aaj Tak’ channel sports news
India defeats Australia by 120 runs. Dhoni makes 43 runs and hits the winning four runs with three overs to spare.
South Africa defeats New Zealand by three points in a rugby match.
Some Vettel guy wins the F-1 race.
From the ‘India TV’ channel
Showing rescue attempts of a bus that has fallen into a gorge in Rishikesh
The professor read the list and looked up at Jai. Jai looked back into his eyes and said:
‘Well, if it is any consolation, your death got top billing in the news channel, which will, of course, not be shown in the news now.’
The professor laughed a tense laugh.
‘Yeah! Some consolation that is.’
The news had started. There was obviously no news about the shooting and death of Professor Ananthakrishnan and Jai felt happy about his role in averting that. He looked at Henna and she smiled at him.
The sports news started and the professor was busy comparing the news with what was written on the list that Jai had given to him. India’s victory and Vettel’s winning the race had happened within the last fifteen minutes and Jai had no way of knowing about them. The rugby score line had matched too and that had happened within the past hour as well.
Jai then switched channels to India TV and yet again, the bus accident was a breaking news item, having happened just over an hour ago.
The professor was shocked, to say the least. It could all be an elaborate ruse, a big conspiracy. But in all probability, it was possibly just the truth. Plain and very complicated, but the truth.
He fell silent for a long while, considering what had played out in front of him.
Finally he nodded his head and looked up at Jai.
‘Yes, I believe you. But tell me, what if I had not believed your story and the proof you have shown to me?’
Jai smiled and looked at Henna.
‘I probably would have played cards with you but that is a very long and painful process for me and I am glad that I don’t have to.’
Henna smiled back at Jai and somewhere between their smiles, the Professor too understood the importance of a card game as proof for Jai’s incredible adventure.
The Professor was actively involved in research in the field of noetics and had seen amazing things done by some people but nothing could hold a candle to what Jai had accomplished right before him. He had seen and researched mathematical idiot savants and had an inkling as to what was possible with the human brain. But what he had witnessed today was novel, even within the bizarreness of his exotic scientific pursuit.
Jai had just told him an extraordinary story. Could it all be true? Were these just fantastic visions that were coming to his head? Or could he be the real thing? Over the years the professor had come, with a number of other significant scientists, to believe in the concept of a non-linear time, which bent on itself as did the space that it enveloped. Time was just another dimension as were the co-ordinates of space and it was theoretically possible to scale up and down this dimension just as you would on any other coordinate. It was even possible among scientific circles to boldly say that time in all its forms – past, present and future – existed together and all at once. Could Jai’s brain simply have the ability to see into different swathes of this non-linear ever-present time? There have been people who have predicted the future and some have even made claims of having been there. But there was not a single shred of reproducible proof for all the hullaballoo that went on in the paranormal circles. Jai was an opportunity. The gift that Jai possessed was extraordinary and it was serendipity, an act of God or a quirk of fate that had landed him right at his doorstep. Not that the professor believed in either God or fate, or in their ability to influence the cycle of action and reaction that governed everything in this world. Could he work with Jai and the girl and get to make a tangible scientific discovery using what was happening to Jai? He had to make a quick decision.
And he made that decision in a few seconds. At least the boy and his story, and the evidence that he had placed before him, merited an investigation.
‘Okay! I want to help you. Not because I am entirely convinced, but because I just want to help two lovely people who just saved my life. Is it okay with you two?’ He looked at Jai and the girl who he now knew as Henna. Henna smiled at him. Jai looked at Henna and she nodded to him.
‘Yeah, it is okay with us,’ Jai replied.
‘So, what do we do now?’ the professor asked Jai.
‘Whatever you want to do. You can leave now. We will stay here for some more time a
nd then leave this place. We can take your number, get in touch with you, and give you my new phone number as soon as I have one. You can let us know when to come in. To be very frank, I don’t know where to go. I guess I will have to just keep running with her,’ he pointed towards Henna, ‘and if anything harms her, I will just reset my life and save her. Nothing means more to me than her.’
‘And will you be running from the police all this while?’ the professor asked of Jai.
‘Well, it’s not only the police that we are running away from. I mean, the police is easy but it is the gangs I am worried about.’
There was a moment of silence and then Jai laughed.
‘But hey! I get to reboot my life, isn’t it? So, I guess we will get by.’
Professor Ananthakrishnan thought hard. It was not safe leaving them there. Moreover, he did not want to risk losing them.
‘No, that will not do. You are leaving with me. I have a friend who has a farmhouse some twenty kilometres down this road. I can hide you there until I see what I can do about this interesting situation that you find yourself in. Is that okay?’
Jai nodded.
‘Okay with us.’ He looked up at Henna and she nodded again.
Within ten minutes, Jai, Henna, and the professor headed for the farmhouse on a public bus, abandoning the van at the hotel. Jai knew that with the police and the scum of Mumbai’s underworld after them, the closest thing to help was this elderly, retired professor. He was possibly the only one who could possibly explain to Jai what he had been going through and help him understand the nightmare that had dogged him his whole life.
***
Superintendent of Police, Mumbai West, Ajith Swaminathan was flabbergasted. He had just heard about the re-appearance of Jai and Juliet on a video grab from an attempted assassination of a renowned scientist in Kalpakkam near Chennai.
‘What the fuck is happening?’ he cursed loudly. He did not use cuss-words easily but this was definitely not an easy situation.
The CD had landed at his desk an hour ago and he had played the one-and-a-half-minute clip back and forth thirty times until now.
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