Chapter 18
SAMRAT
“ W hat happened to Mani?” asked Meher again.
“It was my fault,” I admitted. “Letting people down seems to be my superpower. I let you down. I let Bhai Sa down by neglecting him for years. And I let Mani down in the worst way.”
Meher ran her fingers along my forearm gently.
“What happened?”
I told her about how we planned to extract Qureshi and take him for questioning.
“It was a simple neutralise and extract, and to be honest, it was one of my cleanest and quickest operations. Until Mani suddenly froze in his tracks.”
I closed my eyes and forced myself to relive one of the most painful memories of my life.
Mani was leading the way into the house after we got rid of Qureshi’s guards, and I heard him swear under his breath.
“Move it, fat ass,” I grumbled, trying not to feel the mosquitoes making a meal out of me.
Instead of moving, Mani held up his fist, and I froze in place.
Across the courtyard, a door opened slowly, and we saw a man we had only seen in photographs so far - Nadeem Qureshi.
He caught sight of us and froze for a few seconds.
His eyes darted around, looking for his guards.
I thought he’d make a run for it when he realised they were dead. But he did something weird.
He smiled at us and crooked a finger to beckon us forward, before he whirled around and ran up the stairs on the right.
“Benchod, I’m going to break that finger when we catch him,” growled Mani, as he took a few steps forward. Then he stopped again suddenly and gasped.
“IED,” he whispered, and I felt my blood run cold.
“Step back,” I ordered, but he shook his head and pointed two fingers downwards. He slashed his flat palm over the ground, and I realised in horror that his foot was perched precariously on a mine.
“Retreat, sir,” he said shakily.
“Not without you, Mani,” I said firmly.
But he shook his head again and held his hand out in warning when I took one step towards him.
“The whole path is booby-trapped, sir,” he said, shining a small light over the ground in front of him.
I saw at least twenty IEDs half-buried in the floor of the courtyard, scattered randomly across the path.
This was the only route leading in and out of the house, and I realised that the motherfucker had planned this on purpose.
Someone had tipped him off about our arrival, just like someone had tipped us off about his movements.
Or maybe it had been a bad tipoff, set up to ambush us anyway.
“Let’s retrace our steps. Back away slowly, Mani,” I said in desperation.
He gave me a sad smile because he knew as well as I did that as soon as he took his foot off that fucking IED, it was going to blow him to bits.
“Tell my mom I love her,” he whispered, before he raised his hand in salute. “Jai Hind, psycho. Now get the fuck away from me and out of the haveli. I’m not moving until you’re safe.”
“Not without you, asshole,” I snarled, preparing to hook my arm through his and swing him to safety if I had to.
“Don’t even think about it,” he warned. “I have no choice but to die right here. But you have to go back for the sake of the team. Tell them what happened. Protect them from any further ambushes awaiting them. And find that fucking Qureshi and pound him full of bullets for my sake, Sir Ji.”
I drew in a sharp breath and tried to ease the tightness in my chest as I poured it all out to Meher.
“I didn’t want to leave my brother to die.
But there was nothing else I could do. I was forced to watch dry-eyed from the safety of a tree away from the haveli as one IED after another exploded in a row, blowing the best man I ever knew to bits, while Nadeem Qureshi escaped from the back of the haveli.
And I had to wait there until the fire brigade and the cops showed up because there was no way I was leaving Mani’s remains behind.
Rumi, Sid, and I escorted his remains to his home, and I had to look his mother in the eyes and tell her how her son died a hero. ”
And somehow, as I poured my heart out, the tightness in my chest began to ease a little, and to my surprise, I felt a telltale wetness tracking down my face.
“Badi meherbani, babe,” I whispered, as I felt my tears flow for the first time in years.
And Meher held space for me, dry-eyed, as I poured all my grief into her.
W e fell asleep sometime around dawn, exhausted, but finally at peace. I woke up to bright sunlight streaming onto my face. Meher was next to me, watching me sleep.
She reached out a hand and stroked my face gently.
“Wake up, sleeping beauty. We have work to do,” she whispered.
“What work?” I asked with a big yawn.
“We have to avenge Mani, and we have to catch our poachers, and if possible, we have to find a way to stick it back to Nilanjana and Sanjay,” she said firmly.
“You can do the last if you like, but you’re going to keep your pretty nose out of the first two tasks, Meher. And that’s an order,” I countered just as firmly.
She rolled her eyes in reply.
“It’s cute how you think you can order me around like I’m one of your men,” she sneered.
“Listen up, army boy. I’ve spent the past eight years locked out of my own life through no fault of mine.
Now, I’m seizing my power back, and I will stomp on anyone who gets in my way with my favourite steel-toe boots. ”
“I would never have pegged you for a Doc Marten girl,” I mused, and she smiled. A dangerous smile that sent my heart tumbling all over my chest.
I’d really done it this time. I’d fallen in love with Meher all over again, and there was no getting over her this time.
Whether she kicked me out of her life when my work was done, or she kept me on as a situationship until she tired of me, my heart would always belong to this woman.
And there was nothing I could do about it.
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Major Sahab. Now, get off your lazy ass because I have a solution to your first problem.”
“What’s that?” I asked as I walked to the bathroom.
“You need a private detective. I’ve called the best one I know. If there’s anyone in the world who can find out all the locals who are suddenly cash rich, it is her.”
I retraced my steps to glare at her.
“This is the army, Meher. We don’t outsource our work to civilians,” I said furiously.
“Umm, it sounds as if your old CO did exactly that,” she pointed out. “Are you an independent contractor for the army? And by that, I mean are they paying you for this mission?”
“No! I don’t need money to avenge my best friend,” I exclaimed, offended that she’d even ask.
“Then, they do outsource to civilians. Samrat, your problem is that you’re trying to do this the army way. When you can do it the easy way.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but I could think of nothing rational to say. So I said nothing. I just marched into the bathroom and slammed the door.
“There’s a war room meeting in the downstairs conference hall in thirty minutes. Refreshments will be provided,” Meher called out - on purpose, to provoke me, I was sure.
Nevertheless, I went downstairs and found Dheer, Ranveer, and Ranvijay waiting for me with a woman I did not recognise.
“Fellows, meet Raksha, the private investigator our firm hires for all our cases,” said Ranvijay, who was a shark of a lawyer. If he vouched for Raksha, she must be good, indeed. But she had no business being here.
“Guys, we don’t need a private investigator. The army needs to set up an investigation and action team that includes the local police as well as the Border Security Force, because we need to access bank records of a lot of people in a way that will be admissible in court,” I said bluntly.
“With due respect, sir, you won’t find anything in anybody’s bank statements. Large financial transactions don’t take place through banks in these areas. They are mostly done in cash,” said Raksha.
“Which means anybody who got paid for the use of their land got paid in cash,” added Dheer.
“How the hell can we find them then?” I demanded in frustration.
“Sir, I have a very strong network of confidential informants amongst the locals. Most of whom work for the local royals and zamindars in a domestic capacity. I can tap into them and find out who’s been throwing around a lot of money lately,” suggested Raksha.
“While you do that, can you also dig up some dirt on my sister-in-law, Nilanjana, and her brother, Sanjay Jhala?” I asked on a hunch.
“I want to know exactly how much money she’s been stealing from our estate and transferring to her family.
I know that she tried selling a few of our smaller properties as soon as my brother died.
Luckily, I found out in time and put a stop to that.
But she’s not the type to give up so easily.
And I need something that I can use in court against her. ”
If there was any way I could shut down Nilanjana’s gravy train after what she’d done to Meher and me, I wanted it done now.
“Sanjay Jhala?” she asked in an odd voice, her eyebrows going up in surprise.
“What’s wrong?” I asked in surprise.
“It’s just… well, I’ve been investigating him in relation to another case.”
“Is this the forest land dispute?” asked Ranvijay, and she nodded.
He turned to us and explained.
“One of my clients is being intimidated by a faceless corporation to vacate his land that abuts the leopard reserve.”
“Can you give us the details of this company?” I asked
“Sorry, dude. Client confidentiality,” said Ranvijay regretfully.
“Well, what if I gave you the names of a few companies? If any of them ring a bell, could you persuade your client to talk to us? If we pool our information, it might strengthen both our causes,” I explained, sliding a sheet of paper over to Ranvijay, with the names of the shell companies that were buying up land near the border.
He stared at the names inscrutably for a few seconds before he rose.
“Excuse me while I call my client,” he said, as he strode out of the room.
He returned with a smile on his face, and for the first time, I felt we were going somewhere.
“It’s done! He’s just sending over written permission to share pertinent details of this case with you.”
“How is Sanjay tied to all this?” I asked.
Ranvijay nodded to Raksha, and she went to the large whiteboard in the centre of the room and wrote the names of a few companies on the board.
“All of these are layered or nesting shell companies, but when you get to the companies in the innermost tier, the names Sanjay Jhala or Sanjeev Jhala appear on the director’s lists for all of them.”
“Sanjeev Jhala is Nilanjana’s father,” I explained. “But how can they afford to buy up all this land? The Jhalas have always been penniless.”
“Well, they are rolling in money these days. I’ve been surveilling the family for a few weeks now, and they’ve bought two Fortuners and three Defenders recently,” said Raksha, pulling out another folder from her big backpack.
“This is the latest surveillance report that I brought along because I wanted to hand it in to the boss. But I’m sure it will be useful for your case as well, sir. ”
She dropped it while placing it on the table, and a few photographs fell out.
“What are those pictures?” I asked.
“Surveillance images, sir. This one is at a nightclub in Jaipur. This one is at his girlfriend’s house. And that’s at a shady dhaba near the highway,” she said, pointing at the images before she began to put them away.
“Hold it,” I said urgently. “Can I see the third image, please?”
She handed it over, and I stared at the image of the man sitting across from Sanjay at the dhaba. It was the same man in Col. Bhagat’s photograph outside Amer Fort. And it was the same face that had haunted my nightmares ever since Mani died.
“That is Nadeem Qureshi,” I announced softly, and the others leaned forward with interest.
“What the hell is Sanjay doing with Qureshi?” asked Veer.
“That’s the million-dollar question,” I replied softly.
“I have more pictures of them together,” said Raksha hurriedly. “They were together all of last week. I trailed them all over Jaipur. They visited Johari Bazaar and Bapu Bazaar at night quite a few times.”
“Qureshi is planning something big for Gandhi Jayanti, and the markets get very dense footfall during public holidays. We’d better warn Col. Bhagat,” I said, getting to my feet.
I scanned the pictures and sent them to Col. Bhagat with an email detailing everything Raksha had just told me. Hopefully, his team could catch any signs of trouble long before the day arrived.
“Is Qureshi staying with Sanjay?” I asked, as I typed.
“No, sir. They’ve always met in public places like the dhaba and a chai tapri near Johari Bazaar.”
Just then, there was a sharp knock at the door, and Navya’s nanny came running into the conference room.
“Hukum, your Bhabhi Sa was here just now. She snatched Navya Baisa from my arms and drove off towards the forest. And Meher Baisa has gone after them.”