Chapter 25 #2
“Nothing will happen. Don’t worry. She ran behind Atharva without even a moment’s breathing room. There was no other way for me to get to her. Relax.”
Samar turned his eyes to the train.
“Hold on…” Sufiyaan’s voice went dead. Samar stared at the small phone.
“Samar Bhai!” Fahad jumped down from the train steps and he cut the call and pocketed the phone. “I can’t reach him, still can’t reach him!”
He nodded, holding his shoulder.
“Where did he go?” Fahad was panicking. “Why are you all not doing anything!” He yelled at the Police. “Should I call our people? How far are we from Leh?!”
A pair of headlights blinded them as a Scorpio screeched to a halt a few metres from the tracks.
“Fahad, wait here with the security.”
“Who are they? I am also coming.”
“Wait,” Samar commanded. “In case we need backup.”
“Who are they?”
Samar did not wait to respond. He strode to the Scorpio, opened the rear door and pushed in. Two of his men slid tighter, and the car turned in a whirl.
“Where are we going?”
“Follow the trail for now. Find wheel marks. Ammunition?”
“In the back.”
Samar reached behind into the last seat and grabbed the first thing he found. A Glock. Amaal’s face invaded his senses. His mobile buzzed, and he saw it light up with Atharva’s location alert. Samar opened the map and punched Atharva’s number. He picked it up on the first ring.
“Atharva!”
“At this location.”
“Got it,” Samar put him on speaker and eyed the map. Atharva was there, but across the lowland of brambles that they couldn’t cross in a four-wheeler. “We are tracking you but we took the other route. Where is Iram?”
“With me. Is there a stream nearby?”
“Wait… checking… Yes, south-east as the crow flies.”
“I think I heard it. We are going there.”
“We will meet you there.”
The call went dead, and Samar pushed his mobile to the front seat — “Here.”
“We will have to go around the forest.”
“Whatever is the shortest route."
The open plains started to become rough, uneven brambles and dry foliage thrashing in the wind.
“It might snow soon.”
Samar felt his burner phone vibrate.
“Hello.”
“What. The. Fuck. Is your friend doing?”
Samar remained silent.
“Fair game then. This is the last time we talk and the last time you see your friend. My bikers are after them and when they find them, they will kill him.”
“They will not do anything like that.”
Samar pushed between the seats, gesturing for their ETA.
Fifty, his driver gestured five and zero.
“Tell me where they are.”
“I don’t know.”
“You have your eyes on them. You have your eyes on everything.”
“And you think I will give you the location after that threat?” Samar went to end the call.
“If you don’t give it to me, then your friend will die.”
Samar stopped, listening quietly.
“Give it to me, and we will only take Iram.”
Samar remained silent, trying to think and failing. Panic hit him.
“Atharva Singh Kaul dies today. My condolences to you in advance. May his soul rest in peace.”
“No.”
“Bye Dr. Da…”
“What is my guarantee that you will leave him alive?”
“What is my guarantee that you will not mislead me with a fake location?”
“No.”
“Then let’s work on our own terms. Pray that you reach before me.”
The line went dead. Samar stared at the back of the seat in front of him. If his men reached before them… they would… they had bikes, how many were they? What did they have? Atharva was alone…
Samar found his finger pressing redial. The ringer went on and on. His teeth ground. Fear like he had never felt gripped his neck. Panic exploded and he pressed redial again.
“What?!” Sufiyaan answered.
“Atharva will not be touched.”
“He will not be touched. My only concern is to bring Iram to our side. You people are not even close to where I have reached today. He will live to lose.”
“I am texting you the location. You will leave him at the lake, unharmed.”
“Deal. Let this end peacefully.”
Samar cut the call, then punched in the location coordinates of the lake into his burner phone. He hit send.
————————————————————
Deserted.
The lake was deserted.
The night was falling fast and snow was pelting.
Samar tried Atharva’s number.
No response.
He couldn’t track his watch either.
Signals were messing up.
“Bikes.”
He turned and his men were on the bank of the lake. He ran, eyeing them pointing to the tyre marks.
“Four of them.”
Samar took a torch and swung it around — “Atharvaaaa!”
No response.
“Atharvaaaaa!!!!”
The snow intensified, and it began to hail. Even the torch couldn’t light more than a few metres in front of them. Samar rubbed at his face, clearing snow from his eyelashes.
“Check the area, check for any signs of…”
“Blood!”
“Where?”
“On the lake bed.”
Samar followed the torches. The lake bed was cracked, blood frozen on the edges. But there were no other signs of any skirmish.
“Fuck! Fuck!” Samar pressed Dial on his burner phone. No response. “Fuck!”
“There is a fort nearby. That’s the only location with a roof.”
“Let’s go.”
————————————————————
The fort was burning in a fire that was dying under pelting hail.
Empty.
His body shivered under the hail but he kept running around it, screaming. “Atharvaaaa! Atharvaa!!! Iraaaam!”
“We are all drenched. We need to get into the car.” His arm was caught.
Samar shrugged it off, following him to their car and pushing into the heat. With numb, cold fingers, he managed the buttons on his burner phone.
SAMAR
Where is he?
Where is Iram?
His mobile vibrated in his pocket.
ATHARVA KAUL DISTRESS ALERT
His swollen breath puffed out.
The panic left his chest. Fuuuuuuuck.
“We found him!”
He called Atharva, it wouldn’t connect.
SAMAR
Where are you?
Nothing.
But now he had a location. And reassurance that Atharva was alive, safe. The fog clouding his brain cleared. He handed his mobile to the driver — “Let’s go.”
“This is high ground.”
“So?”
“There is no road.”
“Then find a trail.”
“There is no trail for a car in this area.”
“Then let’s go on foot.”
All the men stared out of their windows. Everything outside was white. The windows were beginning to turn white.
Samar thought on his feet, and called Fahad.
“Hello?” His voice crackled. “…id you find Ath….va Bhai?”
“Yes.”
“Ir...m?”
“Fahad, contact Qureshi…”
“D…id did.”
“Have him arrange a rescue chopper.”
“What?”
“A RESCUE CHOPPER!”
————————————————————
The chopper blades whirred as the bird touched the ground at the crack of dawn. Samar jumped out before anybody else did and ran, his footsteps heavy, wading through stuck snow.
“Atharva!” He yelled, the mild sunlight and his torch guiding their way.
“Atharva Bhai!” Fahad yelled beside him.
“Atharva!”
“There!”
They ran to an alcove, framed by fronds of pine, Atharva climbing his way out.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! You are ok, Bhai!” Fahad launched himself at him. “Fuuuck!”
“I’m alive.”
Samar hung back, taking in the sight of him, reassuring himself that he was alive. His voice was crusty, his face sooty, but he was alive — standing, in his full senses, here. Samar’s body loosened.
“Where’s Iram?” Fahad asked.
“She is safe.”
Atharva cleared the leftover pines and showed them Iram, buried in ice, her face pale as ice, marks on it. Samar staggered.
“We need a stretcher. She has broken her thigh!” Atharva called out.
Samar stepped closer, closer and closer, his eyes frozen open. She looked… brutalised. Handprints on her face. Purple. Her mouth was cut. Dried blood on her chin, bruise swollen. Smoke charred her cheeks.
Shock paved way for training. “Get her blankets, someone!” He shouted back and crouched and reached her forehead. Cool to the touch but not cold. Pulse was slow but strong. Atharva had done right by keeping her buried in ice.
“Water too,” Atharva coughed behind him.
“Promise me…” she mumbled. And Samar’s eyes widened. “Go… go.”
“What? What did she say?”
“Just ramblings,” he muttered, ducking out of the alcove.
“What happened to you?” Samar pulled down the bag under his eye. “Your eyes are blood red!"
“Inhaled smoke while saving her. I think there might be smoke poisoning. Breathing has been difficult, my chest hurts too…”
“You fool, start moving!” He ordered. “Can you walk?”
“Not without her.”
“She is coming on the stretcher, you start moving right now!”
“No. I’m not leaving her alone… I can’t…” Atharva sagged, looking at him like only he would understand this helplessness. “I won’t spare any of these bastards."
“What did they do to her?”
Not what I am thinking. Please, not what I am thinking.
“They molested her, hit her, tried to rape her, a gang first and then Sufiyaan Sheikh.”
His eyes cut to her.
“They tried to burn her alive.”
Samar whirled his eyes back to Atharva.
“He has made this personal now.”
Samar stared into unyielding resolve in grey eyes.
The paramedics ran down with the stretcher and Samar stood back, gaping, as the girl he had handed over to the enemy with his own hands was carried to safety, beaten and brutalised.
Packed in warm clothing and first aid, as they carried her, and Atharva limped beside her to go to the chopper, Samar pulled out his burner phone. A message had popped up.
SS
4.33 am
I spared him only for you dr dang :*
He deleted it, along with all the ones before it.
Then he ejected the SIM card and crushed it between two fingers.
He tore it with his teeth and spit it in the snow left by the storm.
Samar looked up into the sky, face hardened.
He wasn’t used to feeling guilt. He wasn’t used to not being right.
Never had he faced a situation where he had to question his own decision, its legitimacy or righteousness.
He knew he was right in doing things his way, he always had. He wasn’t used to committing sins.
With Iram and Atharva, he knew he had committed the goriest of them. And didn’t know where to begin resolving the tangles he had knotted.
Sufiyaan Sheikh, you betrayed me.