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I looked at the middle-aged man who had said the words and realized there was no point in trying to convince him. I just wished them luck and headed back into the auto-rickshaw.

As we turned into Sakinaka, I saw a chemist shop with its shutters open. The food and chocolates had been ransacked, but most of the medicine shelves were untouched. As we got out of the auto-rickshaw, I looked at the list of medicines Megha had given me. Would taking the medicines from the shop be looting? Someone had ransacked it anyway, and it was likely someone would be back again later; it was not as if I was going to help prevent it from being looted, was I? I had killed people, and now it looked like I would have to steal. That was when I felt a strong grip on my wrist. It was Akif.

‘My friend, you do not have to take the burden of every decision on your conscience. Let this be on mine.’

Akif went into the shop and emerged a few minutes later with his arms laden with boxes. ‘I got most of what Megha wanted and also some basics like paracetamol,’ he said.

As I stacked the small boxes by our feet, Akif went in again, this time coming back with a box of batteries. As we proceeded further, turning right towards the road that would lead to the airport, we saw a scene of utter chaos. At the best of times, this was a busy intersection, and while the Blackout had happened at three in the morning, there were still several trucks, taxis and auto-rickshaws stranded along the road. And then there was the occasional body. It was hard to believe our city had been reduced to this, and harder still to reconcile to the fact that someone was responsible for it.

Mahadev pulled over at a gas station and came back with two jerry cans filled with diesel. ‘There’s more in there, but I don’t think we can carry that much. We should bring more auto-rickshaws or maybe get a bus here and stock up.’

I nodded, but my mind was elsewhere. We had completed the mission on which we had ostensibly set out on, but I knew that less than five hundred meters ahead was the road that curved left towards the new International Airport terminal. A road our expatriate friends would have taken to reach the airport.

If I had any doubts about whether or not to check the airport, they vanished when we heard a loud droning noise. We looked up to see another airplane coming in for landing. It seemed to be of the same type that had come in earlier. The difference was that, this time, we were much closer to it and, as it passed overhead, I could see that it didn’t have the familiar roundel of the Indian Air Force. In fact, there were no markings on it. Who was flying into the airport and who had taken control of it?

‘Mahadev, go on till the airport road. Let’s see what’s happening there.’

We had not said anything to each other, but I could feel each of us tense as the auto-rickshaw approached the airport road, having passed a partially burnt down Times Square office complex and ransacked shops and restaurants. I had the pistol out of its holster and was holding it with both hands and I could see that Akif also had his sten gun ready on his lap. Mahadev stopped just at the edge of the road.

‘What happened?’

‘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 lives.’

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.

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.