Taklu and Shroom

by Ranjit Lal

  Dr Sham stroked his goatee and nodded. Anantram went back to him and the two men conferred in low voices.

  ‘Is everything all right?’ Gaurav asked. ‘We haven’t seen any owls here.’

  ‘Yes, everything’s all right,’ Dr Sham laughed. ‘In fact, things couldn’t be better.’

  And then Gaurav’s heart missed a beat. A gun, an evil-looking snub-nosed pistol, had suddenly appeared in Dr Sham’s hand.

  ‘Chalo, come on,’ he said, jerking his head towards the others. ‘Wake up the sleeping beauties.’

  ‘But, but…’ He stared at the gun in disbelief.

  ‘Do as I say or Anantram will put a bullet in her tiny bald head!’ Dr Sham snapped.

  ‘They’re bloody terrorists.’ Shroom’s voice rang across the cave. She had been woken up by their voices and was now staring at them with wide eyes.

  Dumbly, Gaurav nudged Zara. ‘Get up, Zara, wake up!’

  ‘Tie them up, Anantram.’

  ‘What are you going to do?’

  ‘You’ll see.’

  Anantram was beside him, lashing Gaurav’s wrists behind him and then shackling his legs with rope. For a second, Gaurav toyed with the idea of kicking him in the face, but Dr Sham’s gun was steadily pointed at Shroom. Anantram went to Zara next, the whites of his eyes gleaming.

  ‘Hurry up!’ Dr Sham snapped.

  ‘Keep your filthy hands to yourself!’ Zara screamed, suddenly kneeing Anantram in the chin. He reeled back but quickly recovered, and leered at her.

  ‘Now the girl…’

  ‘She can’t stand up. She’s broken her ankle,’ Gaurav said.

  Again the two men conferred.

  ‘Now listen to me,’ Dr Sham said. ‘We’re going down to the path. Anantram will untie you, so you can carry the little girl down. But don’t try anything funny, else we’ll shoot her. Got that?’

  Gaurav nodded as Anantram came up to him again and untied his bonds.

  They staggered into the rain. The downpour was diminishing, but it was still freezing. With Zara’s help, Gaurav lowered Shroom down the steep slope, while the two men covered them with their guns.

  Back on the track, Zara clutched his hand. ‘What’s happening, Gaurav? Who are these men?’

  ‘What do you want?’ he asked them. ‘What’s going on?’

  Anantram smiled unpleasantly. ‘You will see.’

  They were walking back towards Shroom’s Perch now. ‘We’re sending the little girl home, special delivery. You and your girlfriend will follow.’

  ‘Stop here!’ Dr Sham snapped. He flashed his torch down the slope and Gaurav could see the glint of water, lapping unnaturally high against the pine trunks. Far below, the lights of the house glimmered mistily; they were bang opposite the embankment wall.

  Anantram couldn’t stop gloating. ‘See, the water’s nearly over the wall,’ he said, flashing his torch in that direction. ‘We’re going to throw you in the water and blow up the wall. You’ll reach home in no time, little girl.’ His teeth glimmered. ‘And I believe the prime minister is visiting. You’ll all go down over the mountain together… What a tragedy.’

  ‘You bastards!’

  Anantram had taken out the remote trigger from the case. ‘One trigger for all the bombs, so they go off together and the wall collapses in a heap. The others are spares,’ he explained proudly. ‘The bombs have already been planted in strategic places – when we were looking for bird-nesting sites!’ He stared at them, suddenly quiet; they looked just like a young family – the boy carrying the little girl with his pretty girlfriend standing beside him…

  ‘Anantram, tie them up again! Then push them in. The boy first, followed by the little girl, the other one last.’

  Suddenly, Shroom tugged at Gaurav’s sleeve and whispered in his ear. His eyes widened. He was about to say something, but then simply nodded. At this moment he had no choice; he had to trust her. He bent down and whispered something to Zara. She was very pale, but she nodded and clutched his hand. She ought to be waking up from this nightmare in about five minutes, she thought.

  ‘All right! Enough of that!’ Anantram strode forward with the rope, stuffing his gun into his belt.

  ‘Wait,’ Gaurav said, still carrying Shroom, ‘let me put her down first.’ He switched on his headlamp. Carefully, he lowered her. ‘Okay?’ he asked, and then whispered, ‘Be ready!’ He turned, directing his light straight into Anantram’s eyes and in one swift movement, lowered his head and rammed it hard into his stomach, shoving him back towards Dr Sham with all his strength and anger.

  ‘Into the water, Zara! Shroom, piggyback! Get behind the tree trunks and make for the wall!’

  Swiftly, Zara hoisted Shroom onto his back and they plunged into the swirling water.

  Anantram had staggered backwards into Dr Sham, narrowly missing getting shot.

  ‘Fool! Set the bombs off!’ Dr Sham exclaimed.

  Anantram took out the remote triggers from his belt and grinned. He pressed a button on the remote. Nothing happened. Then his face paled as he felt the weight of the device. Panicstricken, he pressed the buttons on the other two. Again, nothing happened.

  ‘Hang on, Shroom! Zara, dodge behind the pines and make for the wall! It’s getting deeper now; we’ll have to swim.’ Swiftly, Gaurav made for the wall, dodging the trunks of the pine trees that loomed up suddenly in the torchlight. The water was already beginning to surge over the wall. Zara focused on his madly swinging light and followed.

  ‘Bloody assholes!’ Shroom shouted in his ear, clinging onto his neck, her face against his cheek, much revived by the cold water. ‘I took the batteries out of the remotes in the cave and threw them away. They’ve got duds. Yoohoo!’ She kissed him repeatedly.

  A shot rang out as Dr Sham and Anantram realized what had happened, followed by a fusillade. The sturdy trunks of the pines took the bullets, as sharp shards of wood whistled past them.

  Gaurav whirled around, facing the fire, Shroom still clinging onto his back for dear life. He grabbed Zara and pulled her roughly behind him, as three more shots rang out. Shroom’s face was still alongside his. A light flashed straight in his eyes: Anantram had picked him out. Then he saw Dr Sham deliberately raise his gun – as the cop had done to Rani – and take aim at Shroom. He pushed Shroom’s head behind him and moved his head into the line of fire. The gun spat and he felt something sear his cheek but he was already shouting. ‘Take Shroom, Zara! Push her over the wall, and follow her!’

  Zara plucked Shroom from his back and turned her towards the wall. Shroom rolled over the wall and squealed as she landed on her hands and knees on the other side with a soggy splash. The ground was soft and saturated and cushioned her landing beautifully.

  ‘Get them!’ There was a note of high-pitched panic in Dr Sham’s voice.

  ‘She’s safe; come on, Gaurav!’ Zara screamed as she scrambled over. Gaurav turned and followed, even as more shots rang out. He dropped down heavily on his hands and knees and glanced sideways. Shroom was sitting down, her eyes alight with excitement, and Zara was catching her breath beside her.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Gaurav gasped, trying to get his own breath back.

  ‘Slide down on your bottom!’ Shroom yelled exultantly. ‘That’s how I go down in emergencies. Whoosh!’

  ‘Hang onto me, Shroom. Wrap your legs around me.’ He wrapped his arms around the little girl, pressing her face against his chest, her legs clinging around his waist. Then he slithered down the steep, sodden forty-foot bank, desperately using his feet to slow his momentum in the slushy mud and streaming water. Behind him, Zara slid down on her bottom, shrieking as the wet foliage and branches whipped her face and slashed her arms.

  ‘We’re down!’ He couldn’t believe it; they’d made it – they were in the gardens of the Geek Empress’s Palace. He rose to his feet shakily, hitching Shroom to his hip like she was a baby. Someone shouted, and then, from the side of the house, three commandos came charging, guns at the ready, fla
shing their torches.

  ‘Stop!’ one of them barked, levelling his gun.

  ‘Oh, fuck off, assholes!’ Gaurav shouted. ‘What are you going to do? Shoot us? Go ahead!’

  The man suddenly realized who the bald girl was. ‘Put her down!’ he yelled, jerking his barrel.

  ‘She’s hurt; she can’t walk!’ He tightened his grip around her.

  ‘Your cheek is bleeding a lot, Special Agent,’ Shroom said suddenly. ‘Does it hurt?’ She added, with awe in her voice: ‘You took a shot for me, partner… You faced the blazing guns.’

  The commando lowered his gun uncertainly. This didn’t quite seem like a hostage situation. He signalled the other two. ‘Check them for weapons.’

  The two men moved in and Zara shrank next to Gaurav.

  ‘Don’t touch her!’ he screamed. ‘Don’t you dare touch her!’

  The leader shrugged. ‘Get inside.’

  With Zara by his side and the commandos behind him, guns levelled and still wary, Gaurav carried Shroom into the living room where Vijaya and the PM sat anxiously, leaving a trail of mud and leaves and blood in his wake. The two personal security officers with the PM reached for their guns. The trio blinked owlishly in the bright lights, water and mud streaming off them, their hair plastered over their heads, festooned with dead leaves, twigs and little crawling things.

  ‘She’s hurt her ankle and has a cut on her head,’ Gaurav panted, conscious of the sight they must make and the globs of mud sliding off them onto the beautiful floor and rugs. A huge wave of relief flooded through him. ‘But she’s all right otherwise.’

  Vijaya had one hand halfway to her mouth in horror and relief, the PM’s mouth was opening and closing like a goldfish. The personal security officers stood as if turned to stone, their hands static over their holsters.

  ‘Get the PM’s doctor from his room at once!’ Vijaya ordered one of the security officers.

  ‘Taklu, please put me down,’ Shroom said.

  ‘Dr Sham and Anantram – they’re trying to kill everyone, I think,’ Gaurav mumbled. ‘They’ve put bombs on the embankment wall to breach it. I don’t know who they are – terrorists or what – but it’s okay: Shroom took the batteries out of the triggers.’

  ‘Special Agent Taklu, put me down! That’s a direct order from your commanding officer!’

  ‘Boss, your ankle is busted! You’ll fall down if I do and bite my head off!’ And as impulsively as he had blown a raspberry on Mihi’s tummy, he kissed her on the cheek and grinned at her astonishment. Then, gently, he deposited her on one of the flowerbed sofas. ‘There you go, ma’am.’ Her expression was priceless: a mixture of pure joy, horror and embarrassment, her hand on her cheek where he had kissed her.

  Savita and Gudiya had charged up to the stone bridge, where the water was just beginning to gush over dangerously. They splashed across and rushed down the lower path, but soon realized it was flooded up ahead. They turned back and ran smack into the commando team that had set out almost immediately afterwards.

  ‘Upar… the upper path!’ they shouted, and pounded past the men. The six heavily-armed men just followed them. Somehow they scrambled their way up to the higher track and jogged full tilt towards Shroom’s Perch.

  Hearing them come, Dr Sham and Anantram switched off their lights and ducked behind the trees. The commandos passed by at a steady jog.

  ‘Come on,’ Dr Sham muttered, getting down to the level of the water. ‘If those kids could swim across, so can we! This is it: we get in, over that wall and shoot everything up. We have no choice; the whole operation is blown!’ But he looked uneasily at the water – it swirled around, making sucking, sloshing, dangerous noises. This was angry water, with nowhere to go except through or over the wall.

  ‘If we wait a bit, sir, the wall will give way,’ Anantram said. ‘In another ten or fifteen minutes.’

  Dr Sham played his powerful torch across the wall. The volume of water gushing over it had increased. There was a limit to how much pressure it could bear. Anantram was right. He nodded. ‘Okay, we give it ten minutes; it should breach by then. They can’t escape – flying in this weather is impossible and the stone bridge should be under water too. They’ll be too busy to come after us.’

  Up ahead, the commando team along with Savita and Gudiya had reached the point where the upper path met the lower one.

  ‘Look, the water’s blocked there!’ Gudiya said, aiming her powerful beam at the blocked gorge.

  The leader of the unit nodded. He could see the water spurting through the crack in the rock and from the sides, desperate to escape and take the huge tree lying across it. The water level had dropped considerably on their side. It would be easy for the men to wade in and plant their explosives near the crack in the rock.

  He gave the order and within minutes the men were back. They climbed up higher and detonated the explosives. Humpty Dumpty, already cracked and under pressure, simply shattered. For a second there was a pause, and then suddenly the water rushed out with a deep-throated roar of triumph, taking the huge tree with it as though it had been a toothpick.

  Upstream, Dr Sham had just tentatively entered the water, and was playing his torch over the wall, looking for likely breaches, when he found his feet suddenly sucked from beneath him. He gave a shout of fright. One second he was there, and the next he had been swept down and shot through the gorge, like a cork from a champagne bottle. Half a minute later he was over the waterfall. By the time Shroom’s chaperones and the commandos reached the perch, he was long dead and gone.

  Stunned by the sudden disappearance of Dr Sham, Anantram’s nerve gave way. He had to get away from here as quickly as possible. They’d be after him with everything they had. He scrambled up to the higher path and fled, thankful for the darkness and rain.

  At Shroom’s Perch, ashen-faced Savita and Gudiya flashed their lights everywhere, yelling for the little girl. And then Gudiya grabbed her partner. ‘Look at that,’ she whispered, her hands on her cheeks with horror. On a ledge below the ridge, Shroom’s yellow backpack still lay where it had been left. The two women shook their heads and, with tears streaming down their faces, set off towards the house with the news.

  Vijaya had recovered from her shock and had taken swift charge of the mud-covered refugees.

  ‘Put some ice on that cheek, young man,’ she told Gaurav. ‘You!’ she snapped at one of the PM’s personal security officers. ‘Don’t stand there gaping – get some ice and a towel, and give it to him!’ A minute later, the PM’s doctor, with a nurse in tow, came bustling into the room.

  Then they started as they heard the explosion when Humpty Dumpty shattered and within moments the message came through: the gorge had been unplugged, the stream was back on course, the embankment wall was safe.

  ‘Yes, and the waterfall sounds normal again, thank god.’ Vijaya smiled at her brother. ‘I think you’d better go to your wing. I have these kids to look after. Come on, doctor, upstairs please.’

  ‘Nani,’ Shroom said, sleepily, ‘Special Agent Taklu took a shot for me. When they shot at me, he put his own face in the way; he turned around to face the blazing guns. He saved my life. And when I was dangling from the tree, he, err…’ She suddenly realized it may not be wise for her to go down this track with the Geek Empress. A lifelong ban on going to Shroom’s Perch would surely follow. She closed her eyes instead.

  Vijaya looked at Gaurav and nodded faintly. ‘Thank you,’ she acknowledged. ‘Thank you very much for whatever you did.’ Then she turned to Shroom. ‘Come on, Rukmini, you’re going to change and get into bed, and the doctor will see to this cut and that ankle. You two also come with me.’

  They followed her upstairs, and she disappeared inside Shroom’s room with the doctor and nurse. ‘I’ll put her to bed and be with you in a moment,’ she told Gaurav and Zara.

  They waited quietly, sitting in Savita’s and Gudiya’s chairs. ‘Here, I’ll put the ice,’ Zara offered. ‘You just sit there; your cheek is horri
bly gashed. Does it hurt?’

  ‘A bit.’

  Twenty minutes later, the chaperones came slowly up the stairs, crying, soaked, muddy, and completely out of breath. ‘Baby ka bag… it was down; it seems like she’s fallen…’ Gudiya stammered.

  ‘It’s okay.’ Gaurav nodded towards the closed door. ‘She’s inside; I caught her.’

  Weak with relief, the two quickly disappeared inside. And Vijaya emerged with the doctor and nurse. ‘Sorry to make you wait,’ she told them. ‘Rukmini should be okay – the cut is not as bad as it looks. Otherwise she just has minor cuts and bruises, but her ankle has twisted nastily – she won’t be able to run around for a week, which is just as well. Now let them look at your face, Gaurav; it looks like you’re going to sport a very fashionable scar for a bit.’

  The doctor peered at his cheek. ‘You’re going to need a couple of stitches, my friend, and a tetanus shot too,’ he said as the nurse began loading up a syringe. Fifteen minutes later, he was done. ‘Get the dressing changed tomorrow,’ he said. ‘You should be fine. You’ve been very lucky, young man. A fraction of an inch this way or that, and it would have taken half your face off.’

  Vijaya opened up another room at the end of the corridor. ‘This is the guest suite.’ She led Gaurav to the bathroom and switched on the lights. The taps gleamed brightly, green and white towels neatly hung on the rails, and there were soaps, shampoos and gels. ‘Get out of those clothes and have a hot bath,’ she said. ‘I’ll bring you something to wear in a moment. You, my dear,’ she turned to Zara, ‘come with me. My bedroom’s downstairs.’

  Zara, still feeling like she was sleepwalking, looked at her sodden skirt and saturated woollen sweater, and frowned. ‘But I was wearing jeans…’ She shook her head; there was no point trying to figure it out – it had been that kind of evening. Then, dimly it came back to her: that horrible cavern; Gaurav had told her to change, and then she had dozed off, and then… She smiled. Ah, that was something she was going to tease him about.