by Deva, Mukul
Jennifer’s body hit the ground with a thud. Life had already deserted her.
The smell of blood rose, mingling with the smoke curling out of the Browning in Ruby’s hand. For a second she froze, but then her training took over.
Time was short. Ruby ran for the door.
Ravinder was pacing the corridor on the eighth floor when Boucher’s first rocket decimated the roadblock. Galvanized into action, he ran for the elevator to get to the control room. He was halfway there when the second rocket struck, just a few windows away from the conference hall.
Silence returned. But he knew the attack had just begun and that rockets fired from a distance could only be a diversion.
From the other end of the hallway he saw Chance and Peled racing towards him. They all had only one thought: the delegates needed to be secured.
‘Code Red.’ Grabbing the radio from his belt, Ravinder snapped into it. ‘I say again, Code Red. Lock down the floors.’
Boucher dropped the rocket launcher and raced towards the taxi stand 200 metres down the road. He would commandeer a car from there. In his head he had already begun to race towards the airport.
What Boucher had not factored in were the snipers on all sides of the hotel roof. Ruby had known of them, but had conveniently forgotten to mention them when the two Aussies showed some reluctance during her briefing. Their lives meant little to her, considering she was putting her own on the line.
Despite the confusion below, the Indian Army sniper manning the side from which Boucher had fired was watching his area with eagle eyes. He spotted Boucher when he started running. Though he had seen the flares of the launcher’s back blast, he had not seen Boucher due to the overhang of a tree. But the minute Boucher ran for the taxi stand, the cover had been removed.
The sniper did not hesitate. Rocket launchers going off and a man running away from the place they’d been fired. The picture was clear. The weapon in his hands steadied. His cross hairs sought out the running man and homed in. He took a lead to compensate for the target’s motion. His finger curled around the trigger of his Snayperskaya Vintovka Dragunova Sniping Rifle and began to squeeze. A soft click.
A 7.62x54mm rimless round snapped out of the barrel and raced forward at a velocity of 830 metres per second. It covered the distance before Boucher had managed to take one more stride. The bullet smashed into Boucher’s back, tearing out his heart.
No second shot was required.
After dropping Thakur off to the conference hall, Mohite was returning to the control room. He was in the elevator when the rockets exploded. The canned music playing kept him from hearing either of the blasts. Unaware that the Summit was under attack, he was entering the control room when Ravinder’s voice erupted out of the radio.
‘Code Red!’ Ravinder’s voice was strident with urgency. ‘I say again, Code Red. Lock down the floors!’
‘What the hell is happening?’ Mohite asked the men at the monitors.
The minute Ontong heard the first rocket fired by Boucher explode, he grabbed hold of the rocket launcher in his van. He knew the second blast would soon be on its way.
He had already loaded the launcher. His second rocket was also ready to go. Double-checking everything, Ontong shouldered the weapon and stepped out of the bushes, as the second rocket fired by Boucher slammed against the walls of the top floor.
Starting the count, Ontong steadied the launcher on his shoulder and took careful aim.
Ten, nine, eight… Ontong fired.
Ontong’s HEAT round smashed into the security post at the hotel’s entry gate. Its boom, much closer now, echoed dully through the control room.
Mohite ran to the monitor for the main gate. It had suddenly gone dark.
Unaware that the rocket had killed the camera, Mohite thumped the monitor, trying to bring it back to life.
‘What the fuck happened?’
Ontong reloaded swiftly, now in a rush to get it over with and get clear. He had no idea what had happened to Boucher but didn’t wish to tarry a second longer than he had to.
Moving quickly to his left, he brought the security post at the hotel exit gate into his gun sight. He steadied himself and fired again. But in his hurry to finish and get away, he forgot that the Maruti van behind him had been on his left when he had fired the first time. When he had moved left to acquire the second target, he had strayed too far. The van was now directly behind him, just metres away.
He’d made a small mistake, but a fatal one.
The furiously flaming back blast of the rocket launcher caught the van head-on. Ontong had reversed the van before he’d parked it so he could take the weapon out of the luggage compartment and bring it into use instantly. The back blast caused the fuel tank to explode, decimating the van. Flaming shards of metal sliced out in every direction, scything through everything in their way. Including Ontong.
Ontong’s second rocket destroyed the security post at the hotel’s exit gate. Another monitor in front of Mohite went blank as its camera too succumbed. However, a peripheral view of the carnage at both gates was visible from the feed of the cameras mounted in the porch. He could see that both posts were in serious trouble.
Jolted, Mohite grabbed his radio and screamed, ‘We are under attack. Both gates are down. All seventh-floor security personnel and reserve guards, move down and reinforce the lobby!’ His voice was shrill. ‘They must not get through. Seal everything off !’
He kept shouting instructions into the radio as he ran. Accompanied by the three men held in reserve in the control room, he ran for the elevator and pressed the button to the lobby. As the elevator doors opened, he grabbed both the elevator guards and hauled them inside.
In response to his orders, the guards at the stairwells on both ends of the floor also grabbed their weapons and headed down.
Silence fell upon the now unguarded seventh floor.
Yet another mistake had been made. This was a cardinal one.
In Chance’s room, Ruby was hurrying past Jennifer’s body when an idea struck her. She grabbed the baseball cap Jennifer had been wearing. Her fingers immediately felt its sticky wetness. The touch of blood sickened her. She fought off the nausea, but could not keep her eyes away from Jennifer’s face. She saw blood all over it.
Then Ontong’s first rocket exploded. She stiffened and began to pull off Jennifer’s flak jacket. Some blood had seeped into its collar. But this time Ruby’s face stayed expressionless as she quickly wiped it clean on Jennifer’s shirt.
She was wrong. I am right. Wasn’t that reason enough for me to have pulled the trigger? Of course it was. That is all there is to it… nothing to fret about.
The sound of the second rocket explosion goaded her into action.
Slipping on Jennifer’s jacket, Ruby raced to the door. The ping of the elevator closing greeted her. She peered out.
The floor was empty. Even the elevator guards had vanished. Not believing her luck, she ran out, the red master access card in one hand and a pistol in the other. She’d have to move fast if she wanted to exploit the opportunity Boucher and Ontong had provided.
‘Just as a precaution… not that we are expecting any trouble… but just in case of some emergency we have also secured the top two floors of Samrat hotel and duplicated all the same arrangements there.’ Mohite’s briefing to the home minister echoed in her head as she used the access card to open Ravinder’s room and slipped inside.
The bank of monitors was what she needed so that she would know as soon as they began to evacuate and which route they would take. It had to be either of the two staircases or the elevator, though that was less likely – one elevator would not hold all the delegates and the security team would be reluctant to split them.
So far, things were working out… better than she had hoped.
They are wrong. I am right… the words now played like a litany in her head. One by one, she began to switch on the monitors.
Waiting impatiently for the elevator to
reach the eighth floor, Ravinder, Chance and Peled caught Mohite’s transmission loud and clear.
Anger exploded through Ravinder.
That fucking idiot! He’s done it again. Instead of waiting for the attackers to come to them, he had started reacting to a still unclear threat. How could he even dream of abandoning the control room? That fucking…
Cursing under his breath, Ravinder reached for his radio set and began to speak when he realized that Mohite was still talking. Realizing that he would not be able to transmit until Mohite released the transmit button, and itching to get to the control room, Ravinder decided to take the stairs. The floors needed to be resecured, no matter the cost. And he needed to keep an eye on the top two floors of the hotel, which was why the control room needed to be manned by a senior officer at all times. His every instinct was screaming at him that the security breach had already taken place, that the rocket attacks on the gates were not the real threat.
They have to be diversions. So where is the real attack coming from?
He suddenly wished he could check on Ruby’s whereabouts, but now was not the time.
We need to draw out the attackers. ‘Activate Plan Bravo!’ he yelled at Chance and Peled. Chance and Peled ran to the conference hall and herded the delegates to a conference room at the other end of the corridor. Peled took position outside the door. Chance ran down the corridor to activate the second part of the plan. The decoys were ready and waiting.
The first set of monitors that Ruby switched on showed the confusion in the hotel lobby. The second set remained black. Ruby did not know it, but these were the ones that had been connected to the cameras installed at the hotel gates.
Next, the monitors connected to the cameras on the seventh floor flickered to life.
Ruby was surprised to find both stairwells empty. Where are the guards? Is this some trick?
Her mind ferreted forward to spot a trap. She was activating the next monitor when she saw Ravinder rush out from the stairwell on the left and charge towards the control room.
Then the eighth floor monitors came alive, flickering a bit before the picture stabilized. Chance hove into view. Weapon in hand, he was in the lead. Behind him was a ragged line of men in a variety of outfits. Bringing up the rear was one of the Palestinian PSOs. Ruby saw the two ex-SEALs travelling with the Saudi Arabian prince running up to join them. They took position at the head and tail of the column and headed for the staircase closest to the conference hall.
Bingo!
She began to study the deployment of the security personnel and to freeze them in her head. She also took note of their firepower, a formidable array of Uzis, Glocks, Magnums and Brownings. She evaluated her options and made her decision.
From the rear, that’s where I’ll attack. I just need to take out the guards and two or three of the delegates.
She stopped to study the stairs, especially the landings. She needed a place to hide, for just one moment.
In the control room, Ravinder too was studying the secure zone. His attention, however, was not on the party moving behind Chance. He was searching for some other movement. Any other movement.
‘Come out, come out… wherever you are…’ he muttered aloud. ‘Whoever you are…’
That reminded him. He needed to find out where Ruby was. His eyes continued to track the monitors as he reached for his mobile. ‘Where is Ruby?’ he asked when the surveillance team leader answered.
‘In the hotel, sir. Haven’t you met her yet? She went up with Mr Thakur and Mohite sir.’
Ravinder went still. He couldn’t breathe. Suspecting was one thing. Having it confirmed was another. All this while, he had hoped that Ruby would not be involved in something so heinous. Now there was no doubt.
Why, Ruby? Why?
His head began to spin.
Not now. Right now you have a duty to perform. A quote from the Bhagavad Gita echoed in his mind:
And do thy duty, even if it be humble, Rather than another’s, even if it be great.
To die in one’s duty is life.
To live in another’s is death. ‘I know you well, Ravinder. I know you will always do the right thing. Just trust your instincts. It will all work out in the end,’ Simran’s words returned to him.
He no longer knew how this could end well, but he was determined to take charge.
On the monitors he began to scour the seventh floor. It lay still and silent. But he knew she was out there somewhere, waiting for the right moment to strike.
‘Ruby, come out, come out…’ He barely noticed his lips move. ‘Come out, come out… wherever you are…’
His ears did not hear his words.
His eyes remained riveted to the monitors.
His hands held a gun.
Their childhood game of hide-and-seek had turned deadly.
Satisfied with her plan, Ruby withdrew both weapons from her belt and calmed herself. Her eyes were still focused on the monitor, watching for any change in the deployment of the men she meant to ambush.
Chance’s party had reached the stairwell between the two floors.
Perfect. Ruby took a deep breath, willing her metabolism to slow down, but her adrenaline had peaked. By now her body was craving to catapult forward.
She knew the next few minutes would be her last. But it was okay.
Mom’s waiting. She – they – are banking on me. I will not let them down.
Drawing a long breath, she stilled her nerves once again and started to turn.
That was when the third man behind Chance looked up, an inadvertent glance, not aware that the camera overhead could capture him so clearly.
He was dressed like Sir Geoffrey Tang and made up like him, right down to the slightly greying, long sideburns and pointed goatee. But Ruby knew he was not Sir Tang. She had travelled with Tang for a week and knew the British MP well enough to know that this man was an imposter.
Ruby held back. One by one, she began to closely examine all thirteen men behind Chance. The subterfuge was obvious. Despite their clever make-up, she could tell they were not the delegates; they were all imposters, decoys. As she intensified her scrutiny, she noticed that they were carrying concealed weapons.
Ruby’s mind changed gears.
Where are the real delegates?
The answer arrived with a snap.
In one of the other conference rooms on the eighth floor.
It was logical.
Her mind began generating a new plan.
If that guy had not looked up I would have walked right into their trap.
A new feeling of respect for Ravinder swept through her. He was one hell of an adversary.
Like father, like daughter? But he did not want me… Stop! Think!
The minute they launched the decoys, hadn’t they also given her an open playing field?
Every tactic has a weakness: the more daring it is, the more crucial the weakness. That was the nature of the beast.
Ruby could not see any security personnel on the eighth floor. She knew they would be there, but not too many. A lot of guards on a supposedly abandoned floor would have been a dead giveaway.
Adapt!
Ruby re-evaluated. If the decoys had been deployed, it meant that they knew she had penetrated the secure zone.
By now the decoys had crossed the seventh floor and were continuing down. Ruby watched Chance peel away at the landing and head for the control room. She waited till he pushed open the door and entered. The door began to swing shut behind him. The corridor was clear.
Now!
Strike!
Ruby raced out, headed for the stairwell on the far side, away from the control room. She was moving silently, as fast as her feet could carry her, straight for the eighth floor.
Going for the kill.
The control room door was swinging shut behind Chance when Ravinder saw Ruby on the monitor, charging out of his room. Pistols in both hands, she was sprinting down the corridor. He knew her destination. T
hat she was moving away from the decoys showed that she had seen through their plan and spurned the bait.
He ran out of the control room, shouting at Chance to follow him. As they ran, he explained. A few words were enough. The two put on a burst of speed, knowing that the delegates were in mortal danger.
They were passing the elevator when the door pinged open and a harried Mohite stepped out. He was about to say something, but Ravinder pulled him out of the way and dove into the elevator with Chance behind him. Chance stabbed at the eighth floor button, frantically willing the doors to close, but they took forever. The elevator began to rise, slowly and sedately as always. The two men inside strained to be unleashed.
The doors pinged open and they dashed out on the eighth floor.
There wasn’t a soul in sight.
Ruby raced up the stairs two steps at a time. Though she was in peak condition, her breath burned through her lungs in short ragged bursts. Her mind stayed sharp and focused. Her fingers were curled around the triggers of the Hi-Power Brownings, itching for the delegates to appear. Nothing else mattered.
She reached the eighth floor a split second after Ravinder and Chance. She heard the ping of the elevator doors before she saw them. Swivelling, she changed direction, heading for the two smaller conference halls across the floor.
It has to be one of those two rooms.
Chance saw her, a blur of movement, and shouted. The two turned and chased after her. Despite the hours in the gym, Ravinder was not moving as fast as he wanted to. The younger, fitter Chance began to pull ahead but he too wasn’t moving fast enough. Summoning up his reserves, Chance ramped up the pace.
Suddenly Ruby spun around and fired – twice. Then she was off again.
