I nodded. “We have to…”
“So we rescue Sarla – the detective gone bad – who goes around shooting in malls?” Raima sounded incredulous.
“Okay, I admit I don’t have all the answers. Like why she shot me. But she’s in danger and we are her only hope.”
“And like in Hamlet, Sarla’s ghost appeared to tell you this?” Sid widened his eyes, throwing his hands about.
“Remember, when those sick vampires were torturing us, one of them recorded the whole thing and sent it to someone?” The other three nodded. “Sadists, all them,” said Raima with a shudder.
“Yes, totally. But it wasn’t only that. We were being used as bait.”
“Bait for what, Kavya?” asked Sid doubtfully.
“Bait for Sarla. They want something from her and she won’t talk. They were using us to make her talk. Think about it. A bunch of adults actually believing we stole the vaccine?”
“And they picked on us because…?” asked Raima, still sounding like I had told her that the Earth was a triangular plate, balanced on roller skates.
“Because they figured Sarla knew us. We called on her cell.”
“And that’s why Manish Bhasin, that scoundrel security head at the Lab, knew your name. Your name popped up on Sarla’s phone when we called,” completed Raima slowly.
“Which means, Manish Bhasin has Sarla,” said Varun. “Let’s go rescue her.”
“Sit down, Varun,” ordered Raima. “Use your brains. We don’t know any of this for sure. We could well be walking straight back into the arms of those horrible men. The sensible thing to do is to wake up Venky sir.”
“He probably won’t believe us. Even if he does, he’ll want to call in the police and wait till tomorrow morning,” said Varun.
“And that’ll be too late,” I added.
“And why will that be too late, Kavya, assuming, for a moment, this fantastic imagination of yours is true?” asked Sid.
“Because now that we’ve escaped…” Sid’s eyes were steadily narrowing as I spoke. “Basically, it’s a hunch.”
“We should go quickly,” said Varun.
“Go where, Varun?” asked Sid calmly. Varun didn’t have an answer.
“Has to be the Lab. I guess. Where else could it be?” I replied. Though, in a gigantic forest like ISIC, Sarla could have been imprisoned on one of lawns and we wouldn’t know. Then again, there was an entire city out there. She could be anywhere in Bangalore.
“You’re right, Kavya. It has to be the Lab,” Varun agreed vehemently.
The argument continued: me with 0.1% logic and the rest hunch (or was it fiction, coming out of reading too many mystery stories, as Sid claimed?), Varun the charging bull, Sid calmly drilling more holes in my theory than there were stars in the universe and Sensible Raima wanting to call in the adults (although even Sid agreed that Venky sir wouldn’t believe us).
Sid and Raima were absolutely right. No doubt about it. But I was me – possessed and totally psycho. “Guys, I’m going to the Lab. It’s a brainless thing to do, but I have to go.” Insane. Profoundly insane, I know. Those vampires must have inserted a brain control chip in me, like you see in the movies, which forces you to do things you don’t want to do.
“I’m coming with you. That Manish Bhasin deserves to be thrashed,” said Varun. Sid looked at him like you would look at an impossible four-year-old.
“Don’t be silly Varun. This is not one of your PSP games. You won’t even be able to enter the Lab,” said Raima crossly.
“We’ll figure it out by the time we reach it,” said Varun airily. There were many, many more things we would have to figure out by the time we reached the Lab. Kavya, you just graduated to being the biggest dodo in history, I told myself.
Within minutes, Varun and I had changed and worn our keds, looking like we were off on a trekking expedition.
Sid shook his head. “Man, you’re impossible. Come on Raima, get dressed.”
“Sid, have you gone crazy too? You know this is the stupidest thing to do. I’m going to wake up Venky sir.” There was finality in Raima’s voice.
“Raima, the two of them are going to the Lab, come what may. The only way to keep them safe is to go with them.”
Raima crinkled her nose in protest. Eventually, she relented.
The four of us crept downstairs and headed towards the main door.
“Wait,” mouthed Sid, gesturing to the study room. “Appa’s swipe card for the Lab should be here,” he whispered, gently opening each drawer of the study table. Venky sir was definitely obsessively organized. Papers stacked perfectly, black pens stored in a separate pen-holder, blue pens in another. No surprise then, that Sid found the access card easily.
Sid unlatched the main door of the house as noiselessly as he could. The self-lock clicked as he pulled it shut from outside.
The four of us readied ourselves for slaughter.
Silence.
No chirp of a cricket, no faint rustle of breeze. Just silence. Deathly silence.
Icy shivers ran down my back. I clutched onto Raima’s hand. She didn’t seem to mind. The tall trees on either side threw ominous shadows on our path.
A thin cylinder of light from the flashlight on Varun’s phone lit the way. We walked slowly and carefully. Even the gentle sound of stepping on a soft leaf crackled through the air. Varun turned off the flashlight as we neared the edge of the clearing.
The low windowless structure of the Lab oozed silent evil. A terrifying sort of evil, which fills you up completely but you can’t describe it. My urge to enter the Lab and rescue Sarla evaporated. Venky sir’s house beckoned.
No one moved. No one spoke. “Let’s go back,” said Raima finally.
I nodded and even Varun swallowed his pride and agreed.
Lunacy struck me again. This time it was totally brainless lunacy. “Let’s go in.”
I shut my eyes, took a deep breath and tread tentatively towards the Lab. It was the longest walk ever in my life – a walk to the guillotine, completely out of my own choice. The metal door of the Lab loomed over us, daring us to enter.
“Last chance,” muttered Sid as he extracted Venky sir’s access card from his pocket. None of us spoke, scared our response would be echoed by the others and we would lose the nerve to enter the Lab.
The access card slid noiselessly through the slot, followed by three clicks. My heart drummed louder.
Varun pushed the door gingerly. The crack was too narrow for the darkness outside to creep in. At least I hoped so. It was also too narrow for us to see anything except the clean-room coats.
“All the coats are there,” Raima mouthed.
“That’s bad news, isn’t it?” whispered Sid.
Raima nodded. “It means the guards are at the reception. We need to drop this idea.”
“They could be in the guard room,” I countered, not really believing that. Even Varun looked skeptically at me.
“We’ve come this far. Let’s not give up.” I was truly possessed – what else could explain such bravado?
“Kavya, we are walking into a tiger’s den, knowing there are five ravenous tigers inside. You know that, don’t you?” said Raima.
Of course I did. And I had no genius plan in mind. Raima, though, was right. It was senseless for all of us to get captured. Again.
“Here’s what we’ll do.” I told Raima and Sid to hide by the side of the building, while Varun and I open the door further. If, by a freak chance, there was no one at the reception, the four of us would enter. Otherwise, Sid and Raima were to race back home and wake up Venky sir. A highly reluctant Raima and Sid slunk away from the door.
Varun pushed the door a tiny bit more.
No one.
The door opened a little more. Through the transparent upper portion of the glass wall, we could see the TV was playing in the guard room. Bang Bang - the Hindi movie - was airing.
My heart stopped pumping. I nearly died each time Varun pushed open t
he door a bit more. I could bear it no more. I thrust open the door.
Was I dreaming? I blinked my eyes. Unbelievable luck. There was no one at the reception.
Raima and Sid followed Varun, delicately closing the door behind them. Varun, who was a little taller than me (okay, may be a wee bit more than ‘little’!), gestured that there were five people in the guard room. Manish Bhasin and his four guards? Their backs were to us. Although Varun could only see the top of their heads, he mouthed that one of them was probably Manish Bhasin.
Movie dialogues blared into the reception area, muffling any sound we made. Miraculous luck, but how long would the precarious tower of cards hold up for us, I wondered?
I pointed to the door leading into the main Lab area. It opened smoothly and we stepped into white land. I swear. Shining white floor tiles complemented the immaculately white walls. The work counters were white, as were the cupboards above and below the counters. Even the chairs were off-white.
A glass wall separated the guard room from the Lab. Fortunately, this too, was made of frosted opaque glass, except for the top quarter. So, as long as the guards remained seated, they couldn’t see us. But, if one of them stood up… I prayed the movie was interesting enough. And they weren’t like my father who gets restless every time the movie breaks into song.
Varun and Sid bent low as we crept through the length of the Lab. Each footstep was deliberate and slow; the slightest slide of my shoes against the smooth floor would let out a squeak.
Most importantly, where was Sarla? Had I led the rest into a hell-hole for nothing? There were no closed rooms here. No nooks, no corners. The entire area was an open rectangle. Even the cupboards had glass panes with only a border of white wood.
The Lab extended rightwards from the far end, forming a ‘L’ shape. A part of the shorter right wing was cordoned off. A three-sided perimeter had been created by tying a rope around four chairs. The solid wall between the reception and the main Lab acted as the fourth side of the perimeter.
The location of the theft, I guessed.
A work-table extended perpendicular to the wall with cupboards above and below it. The glass pane of the upper cupboard had been smashed inwards. Both the lower and upper cupboards contained a few cylindrical containers, which looked like a cross between a test tube and a mini thermos.
Raima brought me back to the present. “Sarla is not here.” Unless she’d been magically shrunk and hidden in a cupboard, that was true.
“What’s that?” said Sid, barely audible. At the end of this wing was a door. A solid wooden door.
A bolt of lightning flashed through me. Had we finally found the place?
I glanced behind. I could hear strains of the typical action-sequence music. Oh no! Was this the climax? We had to get Sarla and ourselves out of the Lab before the movie ended.
Varun opened the door and we entered a fairly spacious pantry cum dining area. A long rectangular table, which could seat five people on either side, stood in the middle of the room. Against the wall, to our right, was a sideboard, with a microwave atop. Next to the sideboard stood a fridge.
A closed wooden door faced us. Varun walked up to the door and pressed down the handle. It wouldn’t open. He pushed the handle harder. No luck. Sid raised his eyebrows and crossed the room to help Varun.
“It’s locked,” he whispered. “Sarla,” he called softly through the door.
No response.
“Maybe she’s been drugged,” I said.
In a movie, the detectives would break open the door, but this was real life and not a movie. Besides, how would we escape with a drugged Sarla?
So close and yet so far.
Chapter Seven
I bomb the Lab
To keep myself busy, I absent-mindedly opened the drawers of the sideboard. The first drawer held forks and spoons of various sizes, neatly stacked. The adjoining drawer contained packets of paper napkins. As I was about to close it, a glint caught my eye. Between the pink and yellow stacks of paper napkins, I espied a pair of keys.
Trembling, I handed them over to Sid. The key turned effortlessly in the lock and the door opened. A short passage led to two doors on either side: one marked ‘W’ and the other ‘M.’
Who keeps the entrance to the bathrooms locked? Unless you have a massive secret to hide.
Raima and I charged into the girls’ bathroom.
Empty.
Of course! The girls’ bathroom was way too obvious. My IQ level was definitely plummeting. They would hold her in the boys’ bathroom.
The despondent look on Varun and Sid said it all.
“Let’s get out of this place,” said Raima softly, touching my arm. I nodded. What an absolute, total idiot I had been. Risking our lives for a silly fantasy. Sid had been right – reading so many mystery books had twisted my brain.
We stopped at the edge of the wall, before turning down the length of the ‘L’ leading to the reception. Varun, the tallest of us, leaned forward to peep into the guard room. His brows wrinkled. He stood on his toes and peered again. Something was not right. Varun put his hand on Sid’s shoulders, gesturing for him to do the same. Sid’s eyes widened.
“There are two doors in the guard room.” Barely any sound escaped Varun’s mouth.
“One could be a bathroom, but the other?” whispered Sid.
“With five guards in the room, there’s no way we can enter it,” said Raima.
After all the danger we had been through, I wasn’t going to give up so easily. “We have to get the guards out of the room.”
“And how do you propose doing that?” asked Raima in her teacher-talking-to-a-moronic-student tone.
“A distraction.”
“Kavya, you are not living in an adventure book. Get real,” Sid said with a tired half smile.
“There must be a way,” I muttered. What would my favourite detectives – so what if they were fictional – have done? What would Sarla have done?
“Kavya, this is not a movie where you start a fire and everyone comes running out,” said Raima. “We need to get as far from these horrible people as possible.”
I stared at Raima. A crazy, crazy idea slowly started to take shape. Today was loony day. I had done more insane things in one day than I had in my entire life.
“In my Science for Fun club, the teacher once got us to make a smoke bomb. Completely harmless, but lots of colourful smoke.”
“Kavya, you’ve seriously gone completely bananas,” declared Sid. “In any case, don’t forget the Lab is equipped with advanced fire detectors.”
“Actually, Sid, hopefully it is,” said Varun, eyeing the white, circular plates fixed on the ceiling. “Dad once gave me a day-long lecture on fire detectors. Called it safety precautions at home. Basically meant, no football that Saturday; so, instead of football pro, I turned smoke detectors’ pro!”
Varun’s father (unlike Varun) was a super Maths and Physics genius. And he was perpetually trying to teach Varun the science behind everyday things. “There are two types of detectors: the Ionization alarm, which is better at detecting fast-raging fires and the Photoelectric alarm, which is used for slow-growing fires. Dad says it’s safest to use both. That’s what the Lab guys must have done too.”
Varun, being Varun, even at this moment of crisis couldn’t resist showing off. Really, what is it with him! “Dad told me that advanced detectors are designed to avoid false alarms. I’m assuming Kavya’s smoke qualifies as a false alarm. Well, at least initially.”
I looked around. This was an ultra high-tech Lab. All the chemicals required to make a smoke bomb should be available, I reasoned. The good thing about these scientist types is that everything is insanely organised and labeled, even if they themselves look like they’ve been through a hurricane.
I immediately spotted potassium nitrate. Sounds strange, but baking soda – that stuff you put in cakes to make them fluffy – was also a key ingredient. Finally, sugar – Raima got that from the pantry. M
ost of the work counters had vertical cylindrical burners with a tripod each.
Hopefully, I remembered the procedure correctly.
Step one: heat a mixture of potassium nitrate and sugar, in 60:40 proportion, on low flame, till it becomes gooey, like chocolate fudge or peanut butter. Next, add baking soda. The Lab was like a magic cupboard. Raima found a bottle of purple dye powder, which I added to the mixture. I stuffed the concoction into an empty cardboard box.
“We need to be out of the Lab before the bomb explodes,” said Varun.
That was the really tricky part, assuming I accurately remembered how to make a smoke bomb. We joined six wicks to make one long wick. Instead of lighting the wick directly, we lit a candle close to the tip, placing the wick in the middle of the candle. This meant, the wick would catch fire only once the candle burnt halfway.
But, we had absolutely no idea how much time that gave us. It could be three minutes or 30 minutes.
A song from the movie started playing as we huddled near the edge of the shorter ‘L’ arm. Varun leaned over on tiptoe. The guards seemed to be enjoying the song. So far.
I glanced behind – the candle was burning fast. The wick would be on fire anytime now. We needed to exit soon.
Varun gave the thumbs-up sign and we sneaked along the length of the Lab. So far, freaky miracles had protected us, but for how much longer? We reached the connecting door between the main Lab and the reception area without incident. Phew!
Now for the difficult part.
Varun gestured, telling us to wait. He bent low, tread stealthily towards the main door and pushed down the red handle-bar. You have to give it to these geeky types – not a sound, every door was noiseless. Guess they don’t like being disturbed. Varun held the door partly open as we crept outside, one by one – Raima, Sid and me.
It felt so absolutely terrific to be out in the open. The tension almost evaporated. Varun closed the door, leaving only tiny crack for us to peep through.
“We’ve seen a lot. We should go back home now,” said Raima.
The Case of the Vicious Vampires Page 4