03:02

by Mainak Dhar

  If they made it through our defences then all was lost, and having my head taken was honestly not the biggest thing I had to worry about. Akif and Ismail had been telling our boys stories of how these killers would swoop into villages across Iraq and Syria, slaughter the men and take the women as slaves, to be sold like cattle. We had heard and read about it on the news, but to hear it from people who had lived close to where all this took place, and to contemplate it happening to those we called our own, made it much more real.

  Mrs Khatri had gently asked Akif to not alarm people, but honestly it had the opposite effect. People were fired up and determined to not let the same thing happen to our community.

  I got up and walked along our lines, patting Subin, Prashant and Yash on their shoulders as I passed. Two young girls were there as well, and while none of them had been trained enough with firearms to use guns, Pandey had said their spirit earned them a spot. One of them, Anagha, looked at me and grinned. ‘Don’t worry, boss. They won’t make it through us.’

  I took a look at the four beer bottles she and her friend, Mira, had in front of them.

  ‘What are those?’

  ‘Nasir made those for us and, believe me, we have good arms.’

  Nasir winked at me as I reached him. ‘The girls wanted to help, so I made them some Molotov cocktails.’

  ‘You, my friend, are the most destructive nerd I’ve ever met.’

  He laughed and said, ‘I always wanted to be in the Army but my parents made me write the IIT exam.’

  ‘I wanted to be in the Army as well, and I guess now we don’t need to be soldiers to fight a war.’

  ‘They’re coming!’

  It was Mahadev who had shouted the words. He was heading towards us at high speed in his auto-rickshaw. We had posted him as a lookout to give us advance warning.

  The General got up and shook my hand. ‘Give them hell, my boy.’

  With that, he got out from behind the checkpoint and walked briskly towards the abandoned car about fifty meters away, where he was to lie in hiding. Wires from all three concealed bombs lead to the car.

  ‘Guys, don’t shoot till they’re beyond the General’s car. I doubt we’ll hit much beyond that range, so no point in wasting bullets.’

  Yash and the others nodded, and I could see a mixture of fear and anticipation on their faces. They were keen to help, to defend their own, yet the prospect of being in real battle for the first time was of course something that was weighing on their minds. As was the realization that it was quite possible that we might die within the next few minutes.

  Mahadev was standing by my side, the .22 in his hands. ‘Mahadev, that pistol will be of little use against men in bulletproof vests armed with rifles and rockets. Why don’t you get to safety?’

  He looked a bit hurt at my suggestion. ‘Sir, Akif told me that he’ll be busy with the fighting and may not be able to watch your back, but he said our leader must be kept safe. I volunteered to be your bodyguard, so I’m not going anywhere. ’

  It didn’t look like he was about to budge, so I asked him to get behind cover and not shoot unless someone was within a dozen feet or so from us. There was no point telling him that if the enemy did indeed get so close to us, then all was lost.

  My heart was pounding as we all took cover behind the boundary walls. There were two small gates that we had now closed and fortified with sandbags. Ismail and two more boys came up and joined our group as we waited for the enemy to appear.

  Akif’s radio crackled to life again and he translated for us.

  ‘They’re asking whether they should shoot or give us a chance to surrender.’

  ‘What’s the answer?’

  Akif shook his head. ‘The message back is to kill every single person in sight.’

  I don’t think any of us at the checkpoint had seriously contemplated surrender as an option, but now it was clear what we were in for. This was going to be a fight to the death, after all. The first vehicle came into sight as it turned into the approach road, perhaps three hundred metres away, a squat, tan coloured armoured vehicle with a machine gun mounted on top.

  ‘What the hell is that?’

  I think Subin asked the question and Ismail answered. ‘A Humvee, probably captured from the Americans or the Iraqis.’

  I looked at the Kalashnikov in my hand and then at Akif. ‘Any chance these bullets could go through the armour on that thing?’

  He sighed as he got into shooting position, resting his rifle on the wall. ‘No. We just have to hope the bombs work. The 50 calibre gun on that thing will rip us to shreds if it gets into the fight.’

  Other vehicles were now visible behind the Humvee, two open jeeps, each filled with five or six masked men clad in black. I looked at the silver car where the General was hidden and sent up a prayer that not only would he succeed, but that he would come back to us. As I looked around, I saw that I wasn’t the only one praying.

  As the last vehicle fully cleared the turning, it was blasted off the ground and smashed against the adjoining boundary wall as the first bomb exploded. A masked man got out of the hatch on the Humvee and began to fire the heavy machine gun at our positions.

  That was when our plan began to unravel.

  We were hunkered down behind the wall, being showered by brick, sand and cement as the machine gun raked our checkpoint. There was no point in even trying to return fire with our rifles against the monster now bearing down on us.

  ‘Come on, General,’ I muttered. ‘This would be a good time!’

  As if he had heard me, the General triggered the second bomb, and I peered above the wall to see the Humvee being rocked to its side by the impact. It wasn’t destroyed, but the man handling the machine gun was certainly dead, his body thrown clear of the vehicle by the impact. The remaining jeep had now pulled alongside the Humvee and six men dismounted and moved forward, seeking cover behind cars and firing at us with their rifles. Two more men clambered out of the back of the Humvee and joined them.

  The General should have triggered the last bomb by now, because once the enemy was out of the vehicles and dispersed or behind cover, there was little our bombs could do. As the men continued to close in, moving from cover to cover, I realized to my growing horror that the last bomb was not going to explode. I saw the General emerge from behind the car and grab at the wires, perhaps trying to fix something that had gone wrong. One of the black-clad men saw him and kneeled, bringing his rifle up to his shoulder to shoot at the General. I fired a three-round burst at him, and, while I missed, my bullets kicked up dust around his feet, causing him to take cover behind a column.

  ‘General, get back! Please!’

  But the stubborn old man was not going to give up so easily and, as if oblivious to the enemy now just metres from him, he kept playing with the wires. Akif, Ismail and others were now firing at the approaching men, not just to kill them but to try and protect the General, but it was all too little, too late. Several of the black-clad men fired at the General and I saw him being thrown back against the car as a bullet slammed home. I screamed, a cry of pure anguish and rage, and stood up.

  ‘Come on, you bastards!’

  Our attackers would have seen me, wearing their vest and carrying their rifle, and now they moved forward purposefully, some of them shouting loudly, ‘Allah ho Akbar!’

  Several shots hit the wall in front of me as I took cover. One of the attackers fired a rocket and I felt it whoosh past us and explode against the wall behind us. Nobody was hurt but it brought home the overwhelming firepower we were up against. I could see several of us start to waver. Thinking you’re prepared to fight is one thing; actually being in a pitched firefight against trained men is quite another. Many of our team were simply raising their guns over the wall and taking a blind shot, and yet others were just huddled against the wall, not even firing. Akif and Ismail had kept their nerve and were squeezing off carefully-aimed single shots. When I looked over the wall, I saw an attacker move
between a car and a pillar, seeking new cover, and I fired two bursts. The first missed, but the second caught him in the leg and he went down. Akif fired several shots at him and finished him with a bullet to the neck.

  The enemy was now less than a hundred meters away. One of the men had gone back to the Humvee and was trying to get the machine gun to work. The others kept coming at us. I heard Ismail shout in pain and turned to see him grabbing at a bloodied shoulder.

  We had kept motorbikes by the roadside as distance markers, and now the enemy was just fifty metres away. We had tried to remove as many of the stranded vehicles as possible to rob the enemy of cover, but there were several roadside pillars they could use. Also, the adjoining lot had been a construction site, and there were heavy vehicles parked by the road, which we had no way of moving in the time we had.

  An auto-rickshaw skidded to a stop behind us and Pandey came running over, having decided to help as news of the battle spread. He placed his rifle on the wall, took careful aim and fired. His .303 was an ancient weapon, but was powerful, and at this range did the trick. He’d aimed at the man with the rocket launcher, and hit him with one shot to the chest. While his vest saved his life, he staggered back from the impact. That was when Akif and I both unloaded on him, hitting his legs as he collapsed. That gave me an idea and I shouted to our people. ‘Aim for the legs!’

  One more attacker went down as several of us hit him in the legs and he lay there, writhing in pain, before I saw a red mist to my left as Yash was hit in the head. He fell back, dead before he hit the ground. The enemy was now barely fifteen metres away and pouring fire down on us from behind cover. One of the kids next to Yash lost his nerve and got up. I’m not sure if he wanted to run or wanted to shoot the enemy, but the attackers fired at him and his body spun around as it was hit by multiple rounds.

  Anagha screamed and ran forward with a lit bottle in her hand, launching it as she dove for cover behind the wall. The bottle twisted and turned in the air as it landed just short of one of the attackers, creating a small pool of fire. The man had been moving behind cover and now, seeing his path blocked by fire, turned to the right. That was when one of our bullets took him in the head. It was a lucky shot, but he was just as dead as he would have been had we planned it all. For once that evening, luck worked in our favour. And, at that moment, I thought it was for the last time too, since the man on the Humvee got the machine gun working and began firing at us. Mira had been rushing forward to launch her own bottle when she was hit by heavy calibre machine gunfire. I saw her body being thrown back, almost as if she had been bodily lifted and flung aside by a giant, and her bottle fell to the side where it burned harmlessly.

  As bullets from the machine gun continued to hammer against our checkpoint and the enemy continued moving in for the kill, I remember thinking one thing.

  This is indeed how it ends.

  I kept the rifle aside and took out the pistol the General had given me. Mahadev was right next to me, his pistol in hand.

  ‘Guys, cover me. There’s no point just sitting here and waiting to be killed.’

  Ismail grimaced in pain as he sat slumped against the wall, but he grabbed a pistol with his left hand. Akif nodded at me and readied his rifle. Pandey grinned. ‘Yes, sir. Let’s give these bastards one last surprise.’

  The machine gunner had stopped now, perhaps for fear of hitting his comrades as they closed in, and that was when I rushed out from behind cover. I was shocked at just how close they had got and, no doubt, they were shocked to see me rush them. I ran towards the first man, less than ten feet away, and as he saw me he screamed, ‘Allah ho Akbar!’

  He brought his rifle up to his shoulder, but before he could shoot, I began firing as I ran at him. I don’t know how many rounds I fired, but I saw his head rock back from the impact of a bullet. He died when I was no more than six feet away from him. I then felt a blow to the side of my body, harder than any punch I have ever experienced, and felt the wind being taken out of me as I was thrown back to the ground.

  There were only two attackers left, other than the man with the machine gun, and as I lay there, I saw them almost at our position. One of them put a bullet in one of our boy’s legs and moved in to finish him when his head exploded. I tried to see who had shot him as the second man also stopped, unsure of where the new threat was coming from. Then his head exploded as well. I pulled myself up to a sitting position and saw the machine gunner on the Humvee swivel his gun towards me. He was the only one left standing of the attackers, and, even if this was it for me, at least I’d go with the satisfaction that we had defeated them. No doubt they would attack us again, and I would regret not being there because, if they came again with such a force, we would probably not be able to resist them a second time.

  The first bullets kicked up the dust and gravel around me as he began firing. I lay back, thinking of Megha, wishing I had been able to keep my promise to her. He fired another burst, this time the bullets striking even closer to me, and I was temporarily blinded by the gravel thrown across my face. I felt a stinging impact on my forehead and, as I looked away, I felt warm blood flowing down my face.

  I blinked, trying to clear the blood that was obscuring my vision and then wiped it off with my hand. That was when I saw two black-clad figures move in from behind the Humvee. One was carrying a long rifle, while the other had a knife in his hand. The second man clambered onto the Humvee, grabbed the machine gunner, and stabbed him in the side of his neck.

  Who were these men? Were they more attackers? If so, why were they attacking their own men? I tried to get up on one knee and pick up my pistol, but I fell back down. My side felt like it was on fire and I could barely see with the blood that was flowing down my face. My eyes closed as I saw the men approach.

  Then all was black.

  When my eyes opened, I automatically grabbed at my side, trying to get at the pistol. Then I felt a familiar touch on my bare chest and Megha whispered in my ears, ‘Everything’s okay, Aadi. It’s okay. I’m here.’

  She kissed me on the lips and I lay back.

  ‘What happened?’ I asked.

  I could see tears in her eyes as she replied. ‘You’ve been out for a couple of hours. You took a nasty hit to the head that needed stitches. When I saw all the blood, I thought…’

  She stopped, trying to compose herself as I held her hand.

  ‘Megha, the last person I thought of when it looked like it was all over was you. They say that when you die your life flashes in front of your eyes, but for me it wasn’t the life I had, but the life I wanted to have with you.’

  She smiled and said, ‘Now please, get some rest.’

  Images of the General, of Yash, of Ismail, of the others being hit flashed before my eyes, and then I remembered the two men who had come in at the end. ‘What happened to everyone? There were two strange men there…’ I got up, trying to ignore the pain on my left side. As I looked at it, I saw an ugly purple bruise.

  ‘Dr Guenther said the vest saved your life, but you’ll have a painful bruise for some time.’

  I limped out of the room and saw Ismail and Pandey sitting there. Ismail had his right arm in a sling and Pandey stood to salute me, his left leg bandaged as he leaned on a crutch. I asked him what had happened to him.

  ‘Good to see you’re okay, sir. I picked up some shrapnel but otherwise I’m fine.’

  I shook his hand and clapped Ismail on the left shoulder. ‘Good to see you guys are okay.’

  Ismail grimaced as he replied, ‘I don’t think I’ll be shooting for some time, but at least I’m alive to teach our people to use all the new Kalashnikovs we captured.’

  That brought me back to the battle.

  ‘Tell me what happened after I passed out. I saw two men…’

  Pandey handed me a fresh t-shirt and my pistol.

  ‘Get dressed, sir. They’re all waiting for you at Central Avenue. They wanted to start but we said we needed you there. The doctor has passed word th
at you’ve gained consciousness.’

  Megha was there by my side as I put on the t-shirt and the holster.

  ‘Since you won’t listen to me and rest, at least let me come with you.’

  ‘The General?’

  After seeing Ismail and Pandey, I had been holding out hope that somehow he had made it, but Megha just shook her head and looked down.

  Mahadev was waiting for us just outside the club and he came and embraced me. ‘Next time, wait for your bodyguard before you go and do crazy things like that.’

  He drove us to Central Avenue in a jeep that I recognized as one of the vehicles the attackers had come in. Mahadev looked behind at me as he drove. ‘We’ve got an upgrade for you as far as cars go. No more auto-rickshaws.’

  There was a huge crowd gathered at Central Avenue. Lamps and torches had been lit along the streets, bathing the area in a yellowish glow. I saw Mrs Khatri, Kundu, Bhagat and the others of our committee huddled in a group. With them was a tall man wearing a black uniform and a black bandana. When I got down from the car, he spotted me and walked over with a warm smile on his face.

  ‘If someone had told me a civilian had killed four hardened terrorists in hand-to-hand combat, I would have called him a liar.’

  I saw a smile on Akif’s face and realized that, once again, tales of what I had supposedly done had far exceeded my real contributions thanks to people like Akif and Pandey. The man in black now offered his hand to me and I took it as he finished.

  ‘But after seeing you in action, all I can say is that it is a real honour to meet you. My name is Ronald Ely, and my colleague Shaikh and I are with MARCOS—the Marine Commandos of the Indian Navy.’

  Realizing that the men who had come to our aid were our own troops and that the failed air strike had not been the only attempt by our government to fight back, I grinned and hugged him.

  ‘Boy, are we glad to see you. Where are the rest of our troops?’