Chapter 20
CHAPTER 20
VEER
“ I ’m not giving up so easily,” I announced into the silence that followed.
“Of course not,” agreed Ranvijay, but I could already see the defeat in his eyes.
I knew as well as he did that treason was the death knell to a political career. Our politicians had successfully fought charges of corruption and murder, but the voting public refused to pardon treason. Rightfully so.
“Is there a chance this allegation is true?” I asked Isha carefully.
She refused to meet my eyes.
“I have never seen that man with Baba. But I cannot honestly claim he never met him because my father did not care about anything but money and power. Land, loyalty and country did not matter to him as much as it should have,” she said bitterly. “If it had, he would never have become an arms dealer.”
“Your father was a minister in the central cabinet! Do you really think he would have stooped to treason?” I asked with disbelief.
“Veer, he came from a long line of illustrious Maharajas. And he stooped to a lot of things that would have shamed them. What’s one more thing?” she asked wearily.
“We need to warn Dheer that this scandal is going to break sooner rather than later,” said Ranvijay.
Fuck! This was the last thing he needed right now, what with Diya’s troubled pregnancy.
“We need to find the person behind this and discredit them,” I said angrily. “Even if we have to manufacture evidence against them.”
“That’s not you, Veer,” said Isha. “You’re saying that right now because you’re upset. But you wouldn’t be able to do such a thing. You’re far too straight.”
Damn it! She made that sound like a failing rather than a virtue!
“And that’s not a bad thing,” she added hastily. “Your whole appeal lies in the fact that you’re clean and straight. If you start playing dirty politics now, you’ll regret it later.”
“She’s right, Veer,” agreed Ranvijay.
“Fine! Then get Raman Chandel on the line right now. Browbeat him into taking my call if you have to, but do it,” I ordered.
Ranvijay called Chandel Sahab on his personal number, but he didn’t answer. Finally, he called his secretary.
“Bansal, this is Ranvijay Rathore. You get Chandel Sahab on the phone for me right now, or I swear I’ll wear your guts like a Rani Haar around my neck,” he growled.
His threat worked and Chandel Sahab came on the line. Ranvijay put him on speaker.
“What is it now?” he asked irritably. “I thought I made my stance on this issue very clear.”
“Namaste, Chandel Sahab,” I said bitterly. “Don’t tell me you’re discarding me without even giving me a chance to defend myself. And after I just donated a hundred crores to your party fund. That’s a little too convenient for my taste.”
“I don’t like what you’re implying, Ranveer,” snapped the party president
“And I don’t like what you’re implying about my wife’s family, Chandel Sahab,” I snarled back. “If you have any evidence to back up these crazy allegations, produce them immediately. Otherwise, I’ll see you in court for defamation of character.”
“I know you’re upset, Ranveer. But try and understand my position. It has taken me years to get the party to where it is. I cannot endanger my reputation and political career for your sake. As for your money, I’ll return it happily,” he said coldly.
“Let’s not be hasty, Chandel Sahab,” said Isha. “I know you’re both very upset right now. Let’s think about it for some time, and try to find a solution to the problem. Someone is trying to malign Veer’s reputation, and we’re taking steps to address it. Let’s not burn any boats here because I promise you, you will be ready to welcome Veer back into the fold soon.”
It was a lovely speech, but the old coot hung up without replying.
Isha hung her head in defeat.
“I’ll get my people to find out who’s behind all this,” promised Ranvijay before he left us alone.
“This had the Goels written all over it,” said Isha.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s over,” I replied.
“No, it’s not,” she said fiercely, coming over to take my hand. “Don’t you dare give up now, Ranveer Singh Sisodia! The Jadhwals are not quitters!”
“What choice do I have, Isha?” I asked quietly.
Her lips wobbled and tears welled up in her eyes.
“You do have one option, and I think it is the best one,” she replied. “Throw me to the wolves.”
I stared at her in confusion.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Divorce me and tell your people that you refuse to be married to a traitor’s daughter,” she said bluntly.
“Are you out of your mind?”
“I am not! This is your only option, Veer. You have to pick between me and your people. Choose your people because they need you far more than I do.”
Her words sounded as if they came from a distance.
“Really?”
“Yes. Look, our marriage already has an expiry date. Let’s bring it forward by a few months.”
Was she serious? After all that we’d been through, was she really planning to walk away from me after a year?
“Is that all that our marriage means to you? A contract with an expiry date?”
What about the past ten days? Did they mean nothing?
“I’ve been frank with you from the beginning, Veer,” she said severely. “Our marriage was a means to an end. I’ve already got what I wanted from it. And the only way you can get what you want is by calling it off before it’s too late.”
“And you think denouncing you in public will fix the problem?”
“It should,” she said with a shrug.
“What about Diya and Dheer? Am I supposed to denounce them too?” I asked harshly.
“Maybe,” she said slowly. “You might have to stay away from your sister until this settles.”
“My sister and her baby. You really want me to cut myself off from the people I love most in this world?” I scoffed. “My family, my friend, my wi…”
“I don’t count,” she said angrily before I could finish my sentence. “Why don’t you get it through your fat head that I don’t count?”
“And why don’t you get it through yours that you do?” I asked sadly.
I couldn’t believe she was willing to end our marriage over this. Still, I guessed it was good to know where I stood with her.
I walked out of the room before I said anything else. There was nothing left to say anyway.
I was madly, deeply, irrevocably in love with my wife. And to her, I was just a convenience. A royal convenience, but still, just a convenience.
My phone rang as I walked out of Isha’s precious house, but I ignored it. I needed to get out of there and clear my head for a bit. It rang again and this time I checked to see who it was.
“Not a good time, Diya,” I bit out.
“I just heard,” she said softly.
I exhaled slowly. Everyone was going to hear about it sooner or later.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“There’s nothing I can do,” I informed her. “Meanwhile, my wife wants to leave me. For my own good, apparently.”
“What? I don’t believe that,” she said furiously. “What did she say exactly?”
Of course, she’d believe her best friend was blameless.
“She said that our marriage came with an expiry date anyway, so why not bring it forward?” I said bleakly. “She doesn’t care enough to stay with me.”
“She’s an idiot,” snapped my sister. “And if you believe her, you’re a bigger idiot. Don’t you see what she’s doing?”
“What?”
“She’s sacrificing herself to save your dreams, you moron,” yelled Diya. “Listen to me, Veer. That girl has loved you for years and years. And she will do anything to make you happy. Don’t fall for her uncaring act now.”
“Do you really mean that, Diya?” I asked fiercely.
“Of course, I do!”
I thanked her and hung up, and then I turned to stare at the house. What was that Isha had said on our wedding night? That I had sacrificed her for Diya’s sake. And now, she was sacrificing herself for my sake. Because she didn’t think anyone would ever choose her.
But she didn’t know that being with her was the biggest dream of all. And that I would sacrifice everything else for her sake.
I knew that if I didn’t do as she said, she was quite capable of leaving me. She would do what she thought was right for me. I had to act before she did anything stupid.
I called Ranvijay and he answered immediately.
“Call Raman Chandel and tell him to stuff his party ticket up his uncompromising ass,” I ordered.
“Were you dropped on the head as a child?” he asked politely.
“No.”
“Then are you out of your fucking mind?” he roared. “We’ll get through to him somehow, Veer. This is not the time for hair-trigger reactions. Like your wise wife said to him, let’s not burn any boats.”
“Oh, I don’t just want to burn the boat. I want to incinerate the entire fucking armada,” I said with relish.
“Are you sure you weren’t dropped on your head?” he insisted on knowing. “Not even a little bit?”
“Just do it, Ranvijay. Do it for your precious Isha, if you won’t do it for me. Tell him I don’t care about anything my wife’s father ever did. And tell him I’m retiring from politics for good.”
Ranvijay turned dead serious.
“What the hell is going on, Veer? I thought you were doing this for your people. You can’t give up on the first obstacle, buddy. Politics is a very long game, and voters have very short memories. We’ll find a way to get you elected.”
“I do want to help my people, Ranvijay. But not at Isha’s cost. I will never sacrifice my queen, no matter what. But I do have another plan. Meet me at Dheer’s house in twenty minutes. But first call Raman Chandel and give him the good news.”
“No, thank you. I’ll wait until I hear your new plan,” he said drily. “You might be in a mood to burn your boats and bridges, but I’m far more cautious.”
“Fine, then I’ll see you at Trikhera Palace.”
I asked the chauffeur to take me to Dheer’s house, and when I got there, Dheer and Ranvijay were waiting for me in the study.
“What’s the plan?” asked Dheer.
I didn’t respond to him directly.
“Did you guys know that the Goels are descended from a notorious bandit who lived in the early 1800s?” I asked instead.
“Thank you for the history lesson, but I thought we were here to discuss battle plans,” said Ranvijay sarcastically.
“Patience, idiot,” I said, with a smile. “As I was saying, he terrorised these areas in the nineteenth century, and guessed who managed to stop him?”
“Does this have anything to with that armada you mentioned?”
“How did you ever become a lawyer, dumb ass? Donation seat?” I asked, with a hard eye roll.
“Get to the point, Ranveer,” growled Dheer.
“What’s bitten him?” I asked mildly.
“The fact that my father is about to be declared a traitor in the media,” he snapped.
I decided to get to the point before he pulled out his rocket launcher and blasted me into outer space.
“The Maharajas of Trikhera, Jadhwal and Mirpur joined forces to catch the bandit, and together, they killed him. Our ancestors killed one of the ancestors of the Goels. Which explains their hatred of us.”
“What does this have to do with your current situation?” asked Ranvijay impatiently.
“Well, my main problem is that the mafia is trying to displace my villagers. And who runs the mafia? The biggest stakeholder in the nexus is the Goel family.”
“I’m beginning to see where this is headed,” murmured Dheer.
“So am I. And I don’t like it,” said Ranvijay sharply.
“Why do the Goels want all that land, Dheer?”
“To distribute the drugs they make in their underground labs on my land,” he replied promptly.
“And what will they distribute if the labs don’t exist?” I asked, with a smile.
“First of all, how do you guys know all this?”
“Kirori Ji,” said Dheer. “He figured out that the reason why the smugglers keep coming back to my land despite the truce with the mafia bosses is that the Goels built their labs in the underground tunnels on my property.”
“And what are you going to do about it?” demanded Ranvijay.
“I suggest we put that rocket launcher to use,” I said, banging a fist on the desk. “Our ancestors came together to defeat the Goels once before. I say we do it again. We beat them back once and for all. We destroy their business at the source, and they’ll never come back. And it will send a message to the other bosses to stay away from our villages.”
“Sounds like a plan,” said Dheer. “Are you in, RV?”
“I am,” said Ranvijay excitedly.
“I have enough ammo to blow their operation to kingdom come,” said Dheer, with a laugh. “But we have to do it at night under the cover of darkness.”
We laid careful plans based on the information Kirori Ji had gleaned for us.
I texted Isha to say I was staying at the palace for the night. Nothing more. She didn’t even bother to reply.
After dinner, we dressed in camo and Dheer led us to the huge cache of weapons he had in his dungeon, and we picked up sticks of dynamite and blasting caps to blow up the whole operation, in addition to basic surveillance apparatus. We set off for the desert on horseback because horses were quieter than cars.
“Kirori Ji sent me the location of the entrance to the labs. It’s built to look like an ordinary sand dune, and it’s one of those,” said Dheer, who was navigating, pointing to a bunch of dunes in the distance.
We stuck a post in the ground and tied the horses to it before we set off on foot. It was a dark, moonless night and the black horses were practically invisible in the dark.
When we got to the dunes, each of us took one and went searching for the entrance to the labs. We converged on the last one and began knocking on the floor in front of the dune, looking for a metallic sound to indicate a grate.
“Did you hear that? It sounds like there’s metal underneath,” said Ranvijay.
We dug the sand out with our hands and sure enough, a metal grate came into view. Dheer pulled out a thermal imaging camera and checked to see if there were any humans around.
“The entrance is clear,” he murmured.
We pulled the grate aside, exposing a deep hole below it.
Dheer shone a torch into the hole and jumped in before we could stop him.
“Come down, guys. It isn’t very deep,” he called out.
We followed him down and found ourselves at the opening of a tunnel. The thermal camera still showed no human activity, so we forged ahead, despite my misgivings. It feels too easy, said a voice in my mind that sounded suspiciously like Isha.
The tunnel opened up into a rabbit warren of little tunnels filled with lab equipment and boxes upon boxes of a white powder that looked a lot like cocaine.
We used the thermal camera to check the whole area for any guards or workers lurking around the corners but found no one. Each tunnel led to a dead end, which meant that this was the extent of the entire operation. If we blew this up, we had a very good chance of crippling the Goels’ business.
At a nod from Dheer, we set up the dynamite sticks and connected them to the blasting caps with remote detonators. The plan was that we’d wait until we were at a safe distance away from the tunnels before we blew them up.
After we placed the last bomb, Dheer did a quick scan of the area and we set off for the exit. Ranvijay was first in line to exit, so it came as a surprise when he suddenly came to a hard stop in the large tunnel. I peered around him and saw the barrel of a rifle pointing at us.
We backed up into the lab and the person pointing the gun at us slowly came into view.
“Aao, Sa. Welcome to my little world,” drawled Sapna Goel.
Damn it! I knew it was never going to be so easy.
“You know, I was just about to wind up my work and go home when I saw a movement on the cameras. Yes, you didn’t know about the wire cameras stuck in the sand at regular intervals, did you?” she asked, with a cackle.
Dheer made a quick move, but Sapna aimed her rifle at one of our homemade bombs.
“Make any move and I’ll blow us all into the next world, asshole. How would your poor pregnant wife like that?”
Dheer froze in place but kept his eyes on her.
“You can’t fight all of us,” said Ranvijay. “Even if you kill one of us, the others will get you.”
“Will they? Will the mighty Rajputs really attack a woman? You’ll have to hit me because I don’t see any weapons on you. Not even a gun,” she tutted. “Very poor planning.”
It wasn’t poor planning. It was a tactical choice. We didn’t want to accidentally detonate the bombs if a gun went off. Dynamite was very unstable and we couldn’t take the risk. This was supposed to be a clean operation. But Sapna Goel had tripped us up with her wire cameras.
“Blow us all up. I dare you,” said Dheer furiously, taking one step closer to her.
“Don’t be a fool, Dheer,” I warned. “Stay where you are!”
“Yes, don’t be a fool, Dheer,” she mocked. “Look at you good boys. Incapable of hitting a woman.”
I was trying to figure out a way to jump her when a rock came flying towards her from the tunnel and knocked the gun out of her hand.
She cried out in pain and cradled her injured hand as she turned around furiously.
With my heart in my mouth, I turned to the entrance to the tunnel.
Isha came into view, with Basanti trained very carefully on Sapna Goel.
“Rajput men may be incapable of hitting a woman, but never underestimate the power of a Rajput woman,” she said calmly.
In a rage, Sapna flew at her with a little scream. I ran ahead to pull her off Isha, but I realised I would never have to defend my fierce princess because she could defend herself quite well.
A gunshot echoed through the little chamber and Sapna collapsed just as she was about to make contact with Isha. The dead woman looked as shocked as we felt.
One minute she was taunting us and waving her gun around, and the next minute, she was lying on the ground. Quite, quite dead. Killed by a clean shot to the head.
Anyone else would have jumped out of the way of a madwoman on a rampage, but Isha had stood her ground and shot her point blank. How did she not see herself as the goddess that she was? I swore to devote my whole life to showing her exactly how much I worshipped her.
“Are you out of your mind?” I roared, as I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her hard.