by Sweth Water
“What?” Gin said. “Why would you take the risk? So you called me that day!”
“I didn’t. Everything was covered. I called you that day to tell you that I was alive. Then I thought otherwise. Hacking their system was necessary to get away from the authorities. But now they know who I really am. They are hunting me.”
“Where are the documents?”
“In a safe place.”
“I need to have them.”
“Not until I go out of the country.” She rotated the steering wheel and stopped the car near the motel.
“You are thinking that I will betray you, aren’t you?”
“Don’t take this in a wrong way. I don’t want to lose the leverage that I have.”
“They know about Base?”
“Soon they will. RAAD and Top One, they have genius people. They will connect the dots.”
“But you fooled them.”
“Yes, I did. This is how we work.”
“What about Taking? And your brother?”
“My brother?”
“I know, Rose. He said he had something to do with the accident. Coal knows it?”
She looked in the rear-view mirror. Base’s mouth was open, but he didn’t say anything. “No. I called him but couldn’t tell him. But he knows it now. I mean about me. Holl is still out there somewhere. I had this intuition that Holl did abduct you. I used his cell phone to track him; I had the access to the satellite before the government shut down the servers. Few minutes back he was in the building where you were kept. And he had been in my house. You should tell at the Headquarters.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“He figured out that I was working with you. He will definitely go to the Headquarters or somehow leak the information to the press.”
“Damn it.”
“Taking will listen to you, Gin. You should talk with him.” Base said.
“What is your plan?” Gin asked.
“I will leave you guys. They don’t have my picture. It should stay in this way. I took care of the second person who was there. We were glad that there were not many people there. You need any help, call me.”
He left them in the car.
“What now?”
“We will stay here for the night. I need to clear my head.”
They paid money and had a room on the first floor. It was a clean room for two people. Rose removed her jacket and kept her purse on a shelf near the table. She left her suitcase in the car. Gin sat on the chair, her hands clasped. She looked spent, and her face was swollen. She would have died had Rose not come there, or reached a minute later. The satellite that she hacked helped her to find Gin. Top One and RAAD were blind from the top, but they had eyes on the ground.
“Base was right. I will talk with Taking. He can help us.” Gin said.
“He will put a bullet in my head first and then talk to my dead body.”
“He is a good man, Rose. I worked with him.”
“You think he would come and meet us without letting authorities know about it? No. He will have the motel surrounded first, and then ram that door down.” Rose pointed with her finger.
“Any other option you have?”
Rose shook her head and scratched her forehead.
“In the morning then.”
“In the morning.”
Fanter was sure that the woman who came in his motel was familiar. Taking had given him a picture of some officer to look upon. He believed that one of them was the woman Taking was looking for. Fanter had helped the government people many times in his life; he believed that it was his responsibility too to keep the country safe for everyone. He remembered Taking coming to him many times. Usually, people who were on run would stay at the roadside motels for a night or two. He was in contact with other people too who would update him regularly on any suspicious activities happening around their places.
Fanter was not a police officer, but he liked to be the one. The one about whom culprits didn’t know about. It was like a chain of people. Some of his friends had disputed that it’s risky to have links with the government people. Bad people wouldn’t think twice to gun him down. I am ready for anything. I am a small part of this country, and I will do everything to save it from those who are running drug businesses or killing innocents.
He opened the drawer and took out the picture. Using his specs, he looked at it. There was no doubt that the woman was same who came in the motel. She had a swollen face; showing the torment she passed through. Taking had said she was abducted. Maybe she was rescued by the other woman with her. He sighed.
From the notepad, he took Taking’s number and dialled his phone.
Chapter
31
“You will talk first. Promise me.” March said.
“I have no intention to hurt him. I just need to ask him few questions. You checked with him, right?”
“Yes. He is at home.”
“What did you say to him about the visit?”
“I said I wanted to talk with Katy. His wife. We have been close for a long time. Went to high school together.”
“Katy knows about her husband?”
“You mean that he planned to attack you?”
“Yes.”
“This is an accusation, Coal. You are not sure about it.”
“What if he says it himself?”
“Then I will start believing that you can’t trust anyone.”
“You should better start believing that from now onwards.”
They rode for twenty miles. Not many cars were on the road but near Ben’s Burger they found a long line of cars. Likewise he had seen in Venhoa. Was the martial law declared in this city too? He looked out of the window: two men were fighting, and the rest were watching. Two police officers showed up soon and arrested them.
The cars ahead of them moved.
“March.”
“Yes?”
“You remember I was in your house and talked about you calling me?”
“I do.”
“How many times you called?”
“Once.” she said. “But you said two. I didn’t ask you why. Perhaps you were not feeling well or distressed.”
“Damn it!”
“What?”
“You won’t believe me.”
“Try.”
“I am sober, you know that. It will be hard to understand the whole story, but I will tell you in simple words.” He breathed and looked at her. “Rose is alive.”
“What?”
“Yes”
“You are out of your mind!”
“No. Listen to me before saying anything. She faked her own death. She was an impostor, the Commissioner of Police in Venhoa. Officers working with her never checked at the Headquarters. She worked there for days and then she was unreachable.”
March didn’t say anything.
“Say something.” Coal said.
“I don’t know what to say. Are you sure?”
“I saw her photo, March. She coloured her hair to black. It was my wife. I can’t be wrong. Likewise I never was when I said somebody knocked at your door.”
“We are not certain about it.”
He looked at the street signs. “Soon you will nod to my words.”
They stopped at the house. It was not a big house. The brown colour of the house was faded. Stairs going to the top were covered with the dirt. It seemed like nobody lived here for days. Or they were here just to plan everything?
He set his gun under the T-shirt – he always had one gun in his car – and knocked at the door.
A woman opened the door. Katy. March’s hug was enough to tell him that. She shook hands with him when March told her about him. She kept the introduction only to the names. Nothing more Coal was expecting. The only thing that he needed was the expressions on Fin’s face. A little of jitters and the gun would come out.
They sat on a big couch and started talking.
Coal listened to both
the women and passed the smiles. Their words were not what he was here for. Katy said Fin was out with the kids and would come back soon. It was enough to make him suspicious about Fin. But March hadn’t told him that she would be bringing a person with her. He might be wrong.
His thoughts were faded when Katy asked a question.
“What do you do, Mr. Coal?”
She was not more than five-foot-six. She was cute and had dimples when she smiled. He was seeing that first time. He gave a fake smile.
“I work at the Headquarters.” He said the truth just to check how she was going to take it.
“Then you must know Fin.”
There was nothing over her face. She was genuinely asking as if she was so bovine not to know her husband’s involvement in the plan to kill him. But he was bovine too; his wife did the same what her husband was doing. Why one of the partners has to be like that? Why can’t they be true to each other?
“Actually no. So many people work in different police departments. Meeting and talking with each one of them is not possible.”
“I thought you had met him. You look familiar.”
Of course he did. His picture was all over the news channels. She didn’t seem to recall from the ungrateful opinions about him by different reporters. Good. At least she wouldn’t ask him about his wife and how he was feeling, the thing that people were asking him lately. Including March.
Coal ignored that and March started laughing and talking. They were again into their own worlds.
He gazed around. This house had more windows than walls. Dying sunlight was entering through the windows. He didn’t want Fin to leave the place if he saw him. A criminal will have jitters in a dire situation. Fin was a police officer. He might handle these situations perfectly.
Two years back, he arrested four police officers giving the vital information to the reporters. It took three months to capture them. While interrogation, they admitted they had been doing it for six years. He felt as if anybody could be bought with money. Police officers who are supposed to protect the civilians shouldn’t be involved in bad activities. What hope will the countrymen have then? He wondered what would happen if the judiciary was compromised too. Criminals would be roaming free and innocents would be behind the bars. Democracy dies when criminals and politicians start influencing the decisions of the judges and police officers with money and power. He hoped that day would never come.
His thoughts vanished when the gate opened and kids ran into the house. And there he was. Fin, Coal assumed. He was a tall guy with black stubble on his face. He was in black pants and loose T-shirt that made him look like a sportsman. Kids went directly to their room.
Fin shook hands with Coal and sat on the couch. March introduced him.
Coal was so close to him that it was getting hard to recognize his face. Was he the man? He squeezed his eyes a little and thought of the man who knocked at March’s door. His face was not directly towards him. He ran away, but somehow he had the shape of the face in his head.
Fin waved his hand.
“I am sorry. You said something?” Coal smiled.
“He asked how many years have you been at the Headquarters.” March said.
“Six years.” Coal said.
“You have been in Venhoa?” Fin asked.
“Yes. My wife and I were there before our marriage.”
“You must have liked the place then. Don’t you? Katy and I bought the house there because of its bewitchment. I just love to be there. Awesome place.”
“I agree.” March said. “The Office there made it more special for the foreigners. People come there to see the building in brown marbles. I wish they would allow them to go inside. I don’t know if there is any other edifice in the world that is brown, where the President lives.”
“Our place is also good.” Coal laughed. “Earling is also a foreigners’ spot.”
“Of course.” Fin muttered.
“Fin and I came here to see that. My mother gave us this house last year. We come and stay here for a couple of days. Even kids like this place. Don’t they, Fin?” Katy said.
“Yes, darling, they do.”
“So, this is the second time then?” Coal asked.
“Yes.” Fin answered.
“I think you will be here for a few more days. We can meet somewhere outside.”
Fin nodded. “We came here two days back. And Katy is saying to stay here for a week. I can have my vacation extended for more days. You can approve that for sure.”
They all laughed.
Coal talked with Fin for twenty minutes. Fin didn’t recall from the news too, just like his wife. They discussed nothing about the ongoing searches in Earling or Venhoa. Even about the martial law. Coal was sure that Fin was not aware of it otherwise he would have said something; they were police officers, they usually talked about these things.
He was a nice person. There was no chance that he wanted to kill Coal. Fin didn’t even flinch while talking with Coal. He was clean.
Coal and March left the house after that.
“What you think?” March asked as soon as they were in the car.
“I should have agreed with you.”
“He is not the man then?”
“I think.”
“Thank God.”
“I need to find him.”
“Why are you trying, Coal? Rose is alive, according to you.”
He looked at her. He was sure that she still didn’t believe that Rose was alive. “I know. The man who tried to kill me rammed Rose’s car. But somehow she survived. She won’t if he does it again.”
Chapter
32
Rose put her hand on Gin’s mouth. Her eyes opened with a jerk.
She shushed Gin.
“Someone is outside.” Rose murmured and removed her hand.
“Police. If I am not wrong.”
“Wake up. We need to move.”
“How many officers?”
“I don’t know.”
Rose stood near the wall. Two people were outside the motel, both men. They pulled the guns and gazed around.
“You are carrying any gun?” Gin asked.
“I am a programmer; we have brains, not guns.” There were only two assailants when Rose rescued Gin; and the gun that was pointed at Gin, they left it there.
“Taking?”
“Not sure.”
“We can go down by the stairs.”
“Not an option. They would be waiting for us.”
“Any fire exits?”
“None that I saw.”
“I should have called Taking right away.”
“Don’t worry.” Rose looked at Gin. Her eyes were red, and the grimace showed that she was hurt. “Are you all right?”
“I ...”
She collapsed on the floor. Quickly, Rose crouched near her and checked where she was pressing her leg. She slid the pants up and found a bandage.
“Oh my God. What did they do to you?” There was a look of horror on her face. Bandages were soaked in blood. She couldn’t have guessed what type of injury it was. Gin was surely in pain. She had seen that while driving here.
“Nothing.”
“It doesn’t look like nothing. You need to see a doctor.”
“Not now. I can walk.”
“You are hurt, Gin. I will take you to the hospital.”
“They will ask so many questions. We don’t have time to answer them. It’s okay. They hospitalized me.”
Rose didn’t have the time to argue. She would persuade her to go to the hospital later. But now they needed to sneak out of here.
“Okay. We will go out by the window once they get inside.”
Gin nodded in agreement.
Rose waited near the curtain until the men were inside the motel. She opened the window and looked left and right. A small shedder was there. They could utilize that if it was not brittle. She wetted her lips. Walking on this thing would be a suicide. She was not trained to
do that. Any help that she had was from her brain. She didn’t have the stamina or agility to do the things that the army would do in the training.
Gin tapped on her shoulder and muttered. “Walk behind me.”
Rose swallowed and took her belongings.
Gin put her right foot on the shedder, and then the left foot came out. She took Rose’s hand and pulled her out and told her to walk slowly. It was not concrete but tin. A little of weight would wail like a beast. She heard the sound. Gin turned her head and shushed her.
Rose took her sandals and threw them into the room. Now it was working. No sound.
They passed in front of the three windows before moving to the right side. The shedder was not more than three feet broad. A little jittering and she would fall on the ground. Probably dead this time. She closed her eyes and didn’t look down. It was not more than fifteen feet from the ground, but she’s scared of the heights. She used her hands to walk along the wall.
Gin was ambling without any fear. Rose admired this woman. Woman with courage and a kind heart to do good things for the whole human race. She stopped when Gin raised her hand. Ahead of them was a concrete way.
On their right side a roof was there, and then the stairs on the right side of it. Below them was a street.
“We have to jump.” Gin said
“What!”
“Can you do that?”
“No. I will fall.”
“You won’t. I will jump first. Just look how I do that and then you’ll do the same. These men are in the motel; soon they would know we escaped. And I am assuming that they are not police.”
Gin ran and jumped over the other building. Rose blinked her eyes. It was not the fear of falling and dying, no; it was more of the safety of the child. What if she fell over her belly? What if something happened to the child? All the thoughts were rushing in her head, and she stood there like a statue. Gin was muttering under her breath and waving her hand.
Rose caressed her belly where the baby was. I won’t let anything happen to you.
Sound of footsteps she heard. Were the men in the room? The window was open! She needed to hurry.
She ran and jumped over the building. She managed to land on the other side. She was safe and happy. Gin took her hand and walked behind the wall.
