by Mainak Dhar
‘If there’s any trouble out there, they will hear us from far away. There are no other cars or auto-rickshaws running around here.’
I cursed myself for not having thought of that. ‘Good thinking,’ I said, patting Mahadev on the shoulder. ‘Now, do you have any idea how to use this?’
His eyes widened as I handed him the .22.
‘I’ve never fired a gun before. Never even held one. Do you think we’ll need to use guns?’
‘That airplane was certainly not one of ours, and had no markings on it. We have no idea what we’re walking into, so it can’t hurt to be careful. This is the safety, just flick it this way when you need to use it and then hold the gun with both hands like I’m doing, with the stock resting on a palm to keep it stable. Hold it out in front of you so that you can look down the sights and then just keep firing.’
He was shaking a bit as he took the gun, but he was as eager as I was to find out what had happened to the bus. The driver had been a young man whom Mahadev had taken on as an apprentice and who had helped restore the buses to working condition.
We proceeded on foot, Akif in the lead, the gun at his shoulder, me behind him, my pistol gripped in both hands, and Mahadev behind me. With the way he was shaking, I only hoped he didn’t end up shooting me in the back.
It was a straight road down with hotels on both sides and a left turn to the elevated roadway that led to the airport. There were a few abandoned cars on the roads, but no signs of any people. I looked at the hotels to my left and while there may have been people inside, there was nobody at the gates or the lobby. Knowing what had happened at the Meluha, I only hoped nothing similar had occurred here.
The distinctive dome of the airport terminal was visible in the distance but there was no way of telling who was there from this far. We had walked about a quarter of the way down the road when Akif raised a fist, signalling for us to stop. When I caught up with him, he was looking at a truck by the side of the road, about twenty meters up ahead.
‘What is it?’
He motioned for me to look, and as I peered past his shoulder, I began to register what he had spotted.
There are some things that our minds are not conditioned to see, things which we may miss if only because something in us blanks them out since they are so alien to the world we are used to living in.
Things like a row of dead bodies lying behind a truck.
I raised a finger to my lips and whispered to Mahadev to not utter a single word as we proceeded. He had not yet seen the bodies and there was no telling how he would react, but having come this far, there was no way we could go back without finding out who these bodies belonged to.
We were about five meters away when two things became clear.
First, most of these bodies were those of foreigners—the blond hair and white skin were apparent. While it was not yet certain that these were the people who had left our community, the coincidence was chilling.
Second, we were not alone. Two men wearing black fatigues, their heads covered with scarves, were kneeling among the bodies, their backs to us. Akif raised his gun to fire but I signalled for him to stop. We had no idea who these men were, whether they were the killers or Indian soldiers. We crept closer and I signalled Akif to go around the truck, so that if there was trouble he could flank the men and catch them by surprise. I signalled for Mahadev to come alongside me and to take the safety off on his pistol. I saw that while his hands were still shaking a bit, his face was set in a mask of rage. That was good. He had seen the bodies and, if we were in for a confrontation, it was better if he reacted with anger instead of being paralyzed by fear.
I walked towards the men, hoping not to be seen till I was ready to challenge them. At three meters out, I could recognize Don amongst the bodies. And three of the kids. They all had pools of blood under their heads. They had not just been shot at. They had been executed.
My grip on the pistol tightened. If the men in front of me were the killers, they would not live much longer. Two meters out and I saw AK-47s lying on the ground next to the men, who were rifling through the pockets of the victims. One of them pulled out a cigarette and said something to his friend that was in a language I did not understand.
‘Keep your hands up.’
I had said the words with as much authority as I could summon, but when the men turned to look at me, I felt a stab of fear ripple through me. These were not Indian soldiers at all. The one closest to me was a large man, thick around the neck and shoulders, and had a face lined and weathered with experience and age. The other was much younger, perhaps just out of his teens. They both had longish beards.
The older man’s eyes had betrayed surprise when he heard my words, but now I saw him smile at me as he reached for the AK-47 by his side. I covered the distance between us in a second and kicked him in the right shoulder, rocking him back and sending the rifle skittering away under the bus. Before I could think of what to do next, he was on me, pushing me back with immense strength till he had me pinned against the bus. He held my right hand in his left, keeping the pistol out of play, while with his right hand he tried to get at the large knife hanging at his belt. I brought up my left elbow in a narrow arc and connected with his head, and while his head spun, he quickly recovered and swung his head back towards me, trying to head butt me. I moved out of the way just in time to avoid having my nose smashed, but caught a painful glancing blow to my cheek.
I could hear sounds of struggle and then the sound of automatic weapons fire, but at that moment, all my attention was focused on contending with the brute in front of me. He brought his knee up at my groin and I twisted my right leg to block his move. He went for his knife again and this time I head-butted him, sending him rocking back, blood spewing from his nose. That was hardly enough to put him down though—his grip on my right hand didn’t slacken. He looked at me, pure hatred in his eyes, and then he brought out his knife. He was about to stab it up into me when his expression changed to one of shock as three bullets from Mahadev’s pistol tore into his thigh and back. As the man loosened his grip on me and stumbled back, Mahadev put another bullet into his neck and he went down, not to get up again.
I slumped back against the bus and out of the corner of my eye saw Akif standing over the body of the second man. He bent down now, and stripped the men of their weapons and gear, telling Mahadev what to take. I was drained by the sudden violence and also the realization of the kind of adversary we were up against. I stole a glance at the bodies lined up along the side of the road and realized that these were indeed the expats who had left our community, along with the driver. All executed with a single shot to the head. Except that only the men and boys were lined up there. There were no women or girls. That brought a sinking feeling in my stomach as I processed what that might mean.
Akif had taken a pair of binoculars from one of the men and was looking in the direction of the airport.
‘Have a look, Aadi.’
I took the binoculars from him and put them to my eyes. I could see some activity in front of the terminal, and when I looked closer, I could see several men getting into two jeeps.
‘Shit, they must have heard the gunshots and are coming to take a look.’
‘That’s not all. Take a look at the flag in front of the airport.’
I shifted the binoculars a bit and caught sight of a black flag fluttering in the wind. It had replaced the large Indian tricolour that used to stand there. It was all black, except for a line of white text near the top and a white circle in the middle with some black text in it. It looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. I felt Akif tug at my arm.
‘We need to run. They’ll be here within a few minutes.’
‘The women and girls, Akif. They must have them. We can’t just leave them!’
Akif pulled me hard towards him, but his voice was soft. ‘Aadi, they will be avenged, but now—against so many men with automatic weapons—all we’ll be doing is throwing away our live
s.’
I nodded. We sprinted to the auto-rickshaw and got in, breathless and with our adrenaline racing. Mahadev immediately took off and drove faster than I’ve ever seen an auto-rickshaw go. Akif and I kept looking back to see if we were being chased, and it took a few minutes for me to be reassured that no one was behind us.
‘You took quite a blow. Your cheek is already swollen.’
I looked down at my hands, which were still shaking a bit.
‘I thought I could take care of myself, but that guy nearly killed me. Who the hell are they?’
‘Don’t be so hard on yourself. You trained in a dojo, while men like him learned in battlefields. Your conscience is still bothered by hurting someone, while he’d slit your throat without a second thought.’
‘Akif, who were those guys?’
‘You didn’t recognize the flag?’
I thought back to it; the flag was one I had seen in news bulletins and articles, but had never imagined I would see so close to home. The name was on the tip of my tongue when Akif voiced it.
‘Daesh. That’s the name we know it by. You must know the English name, the one that used to be all over the media. ISIS.’
I closed my eyes. Hardened killers roaming the Middle East under their black flag. Hostages beheaded and burned alive, women enslaved, entire communities wiped out—and now that horror had come to Mumbai.
TEN
When we walked into the meeting room at my society, a buzz of anticipation greeted our arrival. It stopped short on seeing the weapons and gear we were carrying and the injury on my face.
Mrs Khatri came up to me. ‘My God, Aadi. What happened?’
Akif intervened on my behalf. ‘He needs that injury to be taken care of and needs some rest. I’ll tell you what happened.’
Mahadev was leading me out towards the club when Megha met us on the sidewalk. She had heard of our arrival and had rushed to see how I was. When she saw my face, she ran into my arms. I tried to reassure her that this was the only major injury I had but she insisted on checking my face and my arms to see if I was hurt anywhere else. In a few minutes we were at the club and Dr Guenther was putting some antibiotic ointment on my injury.
‘You’re lucky nothing’s broken, at least as far as I can tell. But it will be very sore and swollen for a few days. I’d recommend you take some painkillers.’
I nodded in agreement and, once he was done, I told him and Megha what had happened during our trip to the airport. I could see both their faces recoil in shock as they heard of the fate that had befallen people who, just a few hours earlier, had been in our midst.
Megha wanted me to rest in the apartment, but I wanted to get back to the meeting room. I could only imagine the panic when news of our encounter spread. The walk back to my building was sombre, and I could see that both Dr Guenther and Megha had been hit hard by what I’d told them. It was one thing to know that our nation, and perhaps many parts of the world, had been hit by some sort of coordinated terror attack. However, it was quite another thing to see that terror less than thirty minutes’ drive from where we lived, and to see people who had been our neighbours killed in cold blood by that same terror.
I didn’t say a word either, as we walked. To be honest, I was more scared than I had been at any point since the Blackout began. In the initial stages of the crisis, my instincts had kicked in and, more by accident than by design, I had done what I could to keep those around me safe. The only real physical danger had been from the gang. However, the confrontation with the terrorists had come as a cold dose of reality for me, telling me that I was quite out of my depth. I was pretty confident I could handle a looter in unarmed combat, but if a dozen men like the one I had grappled with attacked us, armed with assault rifles, then we would be slaughtered.
As I walked towards the society gates, it seemed like every single person who lived in our community had come by. People were thronging the sidewalks, and I saw many of them point towards me as I walked in. The meeting room itself was overflowing beyond capacity and people walked up to me to shake my hand and pat me on the back. What the hell was going on?
As I entered the room, I saw Akif and Ismail in a corner. They came up and stood next to me, each carrying one of the captured AK-47s. Pandey was carrying his rifle and the two sten guns had been passed on to two of the younger men whom Pandey had been training. Even Mahadev was carrying the .22 pistol in his hand and he smiled broadly at me as I entered. Two others still were carrying pistols. Less than a week ago, we had been executives, students, businessmen and an auto-rickshaw driver. Now we looked like members of some sort of armed militia. The General was sitting in a corner. I noticed that he was carrying a walking stick for the first time since I had met him, and his face seemed to have a slightly bemused smile. Even Suri, who had opposed most of our initial plans and then contributed little to our efforts since then, held out his hand for me to shake.
‘What the hell is going on?’ I whispered to Akif.
The General got up and walked towards me, leaning on his walking stick for support.
‘Come aside, my boy, and we’ll talk before you address the group.’
Megha was still holding my hand as I moved into the next room, and Akif and Mahadev followed, along with the General.
‘You see, Aadi, Akif just told people how you killed two of the terrorists.’
I glared at Akif. ‘Why would you do that? I barely managed to get out of there alive.’
Now the General’s smile was gone and his expression was deadly serious. ‘I told him to say so.’
‘Why?’ I asked, taken aback.
‘When Akif began talking of terrorist killers, black flags and dead bodies lining the street, you should have seen people’s expressions. Unfortunately, Nitish pitched in saying that he thought the lights being on at the airport and it being under terrorist control confirmed that they’d had cells in place here before the Blackout. They were prepared with generators and probably protected their vehicles from the EMP by putting them in Faraday cages or some such contraption—basically shielding them in metal boxes, as far as I can understand. Talking of an abstract faraway enemy is one thing, contemplating such an enemy so close at hand would terrify anyone. They were on the verge of panic, so I nudged Akif to embellish the encounter a bit, to tell them how you managed to fell both terrorists with ease.’
‘But why lie to them?’
‘My boy, you see it as a lie. I see it as giving them some hope. When they see a leader who is capable of standing up for them, they will rally behind him as one, otherwise they will panic and scatter.’
I looked down, trying to control my anger, and said, ‘A lie which will make people have false confidence in a leader who really cannot do much to lead them? What chance do you think we stand against armed terrorists like those?’
The General laid a hand on my shoulder.
‘Sometimes it doesn’t matter whether you stand a chance or not, but whether the fight is worth fighting.’
I looked up at him and he continued. ‘Or would you rather surrender? From news reports before the Blackout you know what to expect, what these men used to do to captives in Iraq and Syria. Now you’ve seen it with your own eyes. Men will be slaughtered, and women and girls will be taken as slaves. Do you want Megha to be taken as a sex slave by one of those terrorists?’
‘Shut up!’ I spat out my rage, all my doubt and indecision replaced by cold fury.
‘Keep that anger. Stoke it. Channel it. Against the men who have destroyed our world and now threaten our homes and loved ones. But even anger needs a lightning rod—a leader who can channel our collective anger into constructive activity, and you, my son, whether you like it or not, are that leader.’
‘Will they come looking for us?’
‘Are they going to attack?’
The anxiety was perfectly understandable. It was one thing to talk of fighting for our homes, quite another to do it when you knew the lives of your loved ones were at r
isk. I felt an emptiness in the pit of my stomach as I contemplated any imminent attack on our community, and I had only Megha to worry about. As I scanned the room and saw worry on the faces of those who had children and parents to worry about as well, I could only guess how anxious they felt. I could do nothing about that, but what I could do was to channel that anxiety into some action and to make us as well prepared as we could be, now that we knew what we were up against. I still felt scared, I still felt I wasn’t up to the task, but I forced all those feelings back, instead focusing all my energies on one simple truth—the fact that I would gladly die rather than have Megha taken by those animals.
‘We cannot control what they may or may not do, but we can focus on what we need to do.’
That got their attention and they leaned forward to hear what our plans were.
‘First, Kundu, we need the supply teams to divert their energies to one specific task for a little while. Get bags filled with sand and mud and line them up along the barricades facing Ghatkopar and Chandivali. If they come, those are the likely routes. We can barricade the others tomorrow.’
‘Should we use rocks?’
‘Easier to get, but if a bullet hits them and sends pieces of rock flying, we can die just as easily from a splinter as a bullet.’
His eyes widened at that and he rushed off to gather his teams.
‘Also, let’s get the cooking teams to work early. Let people eat an early dinner so that when it gets dark we can focus on sentry duties.’
It was now past six in the evening, and Anu and a large number of people moved out to get dinner organized.
‘Pandeyji, how are we placed for weapons?’
‘We have a lot more than we did before. Two AKs and two pistols that you brought back, to be precise. The problem is that we’ve been rotating weapons duties and a guy holding a gun was enough to dissuade a looter or refugee, but against these guys we’ll need people who can use the guns in a firefight.’
‘What do you suggest?’
‘We move to two teams who are qualified to handle the weapons and they’re the only ones who get them in rotation. Other volunteers can do spotting and sentry duty. I have in mind folks who’ve shown aptitude and welcome other volunteers to try out, but we have limited weapons and ammo, so we need to ensure that the people using them know what they’re doing.’
