Immortals (10 page)

BOOM!

There was a loud explosion just behind Jai as he circled towards the tree line, and he was knocked off Wrecko. He started falling free, clutching at nothingness, his body spread-eagled, backwards. Wrecko was diving straight at him but he was falling too fast. He felt the leaves and the twigs brush by his side, followed by a branch splintering under his body, flipping him over. He now fell face down, seeing the ground rise up to him as his body was bruised and battered by the forest canopy. He looked back and saw the outline of his beast, Wrecko, a couple of feet from him, diving right behind him, its suckers bared open, revealing a row of inwardly directed teeth.

***

Domus-Nova

Mouse-tail Galaxy

Domus-Nova Year 2548, Earth Year 7859 AD

He felt his body smacking into the ground, and he jerked as he opened his eyes on the cot in the white room. He was sweating profusely, still paralysed on the cot.

Damn! What had happened? Was he dreaming?

He looked around. He was still strapped to the cot in the same featureless white room with the bizarre clock face. The clock hands stood aligned horizontally, a two forty-five back home but with sixteen numerals, he had no idea.

Jai opened his mouth to shout but no words came out. He heard the whirring behind him and the white began to slowly fade away…

***

Mumbai, India

11 May, 2012

He woke up with a start, on the couch. Henna was still fast asleep on the bed.

Jai was shaking

What was that this time? Where was he before he woke up in the white room? Why was he fighting against the
Humae’its
? And who were the
Humae’its
? What is a
Xuenemaia
? He had never drawn a bow in his entire life… let alone with
Quesenium-
tipped arrows.

Things could not get any weirder.

What in the name of fuck was happening to him?

Henna stirred and got up. She was sweating and had woken up with a start. Jai realised that she had seen yet another of her nightmares. He wondered what she had seen, but was sure it could not be more bizarre than what he had seen. He had to tackle the problems of his real world before he tackled those of his weird dreams.

He hoped he would put an end to all of Henna’s nightmares today. But for that to happen, he had to go through what he had planned for this day.

He pushed a small stool between them.

‘Henna, you said you know cards, right?’

Henna nodded.

Jai handed her the pack.

‘Shuffle the pack well and place five cards face down here.’

Henna was puzzled but she obeyed him.

Jai got up and sat with her on the bed.

‘Have you shown me the cards?’

She shook her head that she had not.

‘Is it possible in any way that I know the cards that are here face down?’

She shook her head in a no, again.

‘Do you yourself know what the cards are?’

She shook her head yet again, puzzled as to where all this was leading.

Jack looked into her eyes and said

‘Well here goes – Jack of spades, Queen of hearts, four of spades, Ace of diamonds, and three of clubs.’

Henna looked at the cards, still face down on the bed.

She looked up at him and he nodded.

Her hands trembled as she turned the cards over.

The cards came up in the exact order that Jai had said a moment before.

Jai was counting on that happening, but he was surprised, nonetheless. He smiled at her puzzled look, picked up his gun, and headed for the door.

‘Where are you going?’

Jai turned back to her.

‘Henna, I am going out now. The card game was no trick. I will tell you all about that when I come back... if I come back. Do not open the door for anyone but me. Wait for me for two hours. If I am not back by then, just leave, never to come back, never to look back, as far as you can; for I will be dead for sure and they will be coming to look for you.’

Henna listened and nodded.

Jai waited for her tears that he knew were coming after that. He let things happen, as they had done the last time and soon she was holding his face, drawing it closer to hers.

Jai trembled as she locked her lips on to his – he had his first kiss, for the second time that day.

He decided not to change the order of things.

He alighted from the auto and hid behind the tree waiting for one of the machine-gun-wielding guards to leave for his patrol walk.

The rest of the events unfolded as before and in a matter of minutes, Jai had killed the guy at the gate and the two guards inside the compound.

It was probably a second before the instant when the machine gun had torn a hole through his neck last time that Jai whipped around and let go of another flurry from the machine gun in his hands. The second guard with the Sterling, sneaking up from behind Jai, was taken by surprise and fell in the sudden hail of bullets directed at him.

There were three other guards converging on him, towards the gate.

Jai discarded the LMG that he had picked from the first man and picked up the Sterling of the second, lying dead behind him.

He looked towards the house. There was some activity there and three or four men had taken positions around the CRV and behind the pillars in front of the house. The front was perhaps the only way in, and Jai decided to go in that way.

The third guard with the Lee-Enfield fired at Jai. The bullet hit the ground in front of Jai. He immediately got up and rushed towards the guard who had fired the bullet. Jai knew that the guard would have to reload his gun and that would take time.

Jai reached the guard before he could get the next shot fired at him. Jai aimed for his head and fired a short burst from his gun. The third guard fell down. The fourth and fifth guards had also taken their shots at Jai and had missed. Jai rushed towards the fourth one and dropped him before he could get his gun ready for the next shot.

Jai turned and rushed for the fifth guard. But this time the guard was ready with his gun and the bullet buried itself in Jai’s chest. The bullet had come from behind a fountain in the middle of the garden and had hit him at an upwardly directed trajectory.

Jai knew he would have to duck just seconds before he took the hit… next time.

He reminded himself of the order of the cards one more time.

***

Domus-Nova

Mouse-tail Galaxy

Domus-Nova Year 2548, Earth Year 7859 AD

Jai woke up in the white room with the weird clock, yet again. The clock was showing another time though. Both the hands were together and they pointed down this time, six thirty back home.

But this time there was no war, no Xuenemaia, and no Quesenium preceding his waking up in the room. A brief, uninteresting interlude later, Jai felt the now familiar clouding of his vision and the whirring noise, followed by darkness.

***

Mumbai, India

11 May, 2012

Jai woke up in his room, performed the simple yet impossible card trick for a baffled Henna, had the first kiss of his life for the third time, and headed out for action.

He followed the same routine until the point when the fifth guard was about to shoot him. This time he knew about the shot and ducked neatly, avoiding the shot, which still managed to graze the skin on his left shoulder. Jai made a run for the fifth guard and was upon him before he had even lowered his gun after the shot. He stared at Jai’s face and then at the Sterling pointed at his face. He swallowed in fear and the bullets finished him in an instant.

Jai made a run for the building now. A single gun kept firing at him but none of the bullets found their target. Jai knew the guys hiding there would have seen the massacre up front. Therefore, he was not surprised that the bullets were missing their target. He had seen guns being fired from point blank range and still missing their target. The reason was always the same – fear. Jai knew the swift massacre of the guards had put fear amongst those who remained. He was counting on the fear, actually.

There were no shooters there: only a few muscle-men, and probably some business associates, all of whom would be terrible with the gun.

Jai rushed forward, perfunctorily dodging the wayward bullets. He had the first shooter in range: a hefty fellow who was partly hidden behind a pillar. Two bursts from his Sterling would do the job.

Jai shot the first flurry of shots towards his hips and arms that were seen beyond the pillar, the man being too huge for the pillar. The shots made him drop to the ground in anguish, exposing his torso. The second volley of shots went through his back and through his heart as he rolled over clutching his chest, dead.

The other guy with the gun was portly, with a potbelly, and had dodged into a room and was firing blindly from behind the door. Jai sidestepped the door and found a gap between the hinges, where he wedged his gun and aimed at the person. The burst of fire dropped the man to the ground, possibly dead of a weak heart.

Two other burly thugs immediately charged down the stairs inside the house, coming at Jai with a machete and what looked like a kitchen knife. Jai could not stop a smile as he cut them like jungle weed.

That would be the whole lot.

Jai had to figure out where Rashique was. He must have heard the commotion and shut himself somewhere. Jai bounded up the stairs because that was where the last two goons had come from. There were two rooms at the top of the stairs.

Jai burst into the first one, which was empty.

The second one was locked from the inside. A couple of rounds from his gun shattered the lock and the door swung inwards.

The first thing Jai heard was the hysterical screaming of a female voice. He stepped inside gingerly, watching out for possible fire from within. When he got inside, a girl in her late teens crouched,+ hunkered by the bed, shivering and shouting incoherently.

‘Show me both your hands!’ Jai shouted above her shrieks.

Even though it was a girl, it was prudent to make sure that she did not carry any weapons.

‘Where is Rashique?’

The girl meekly pointed to the door that presumably led to the bathroom.

Jai was immediately alarmed lest Rashique had escaped through the window. He burst through the door.

Rashique
Bhai
was sitting on the commode in a white shirt and trousers.

This bathroom window had iron bars.

There was no gun on
Bhai
.

Jai went near
Bhai
. He did not look very menacing now, sitting hunched on a toilet seat. His face was expressionless.

‘Rashique!’ Jai hissed under his breath, his eyes bloodshot with anger.

Rashique looked up at Jai, resigned to his imminent death.

‘Rashique
Bhai
!’ Jai snarled in anger again.

‘You have no idea how much I want to empty the remaining magazine of this gun into your body now,’ Jai continued.‘But as much as you deserve to die, I want you to live – to know that I, Jai, a puny seventeen-year-old shooter in your gang, have decimated your fortress and have reached you today; and also to know that I can do it all over again tomorrow if I want to.’

Jai paused for breath, and went on:

‘But I want to call for a truce now. I will leave Mumbai and go away forever. I do not want you or your dogs hunting me after this. If you dare utter my name again, I will come back and bury you in your toilet seat all over again.’

Rashique nodded his head, shaking in fear and yet nodding his head as he saw a glimmer of hope. He opened his mouth, words coming out shaky, revealing the fear that was hidden under a bland countenance.

‘But I need that bitch, Juliet. I need to make an example of the bitch.’

The bullets found their mark even before Rashique had finished speaking the words.

Jai lowered his gun and spat on Rashique
Bhai’s
dead face before storming out of the house.

Chapter 14

The Revelation

Mumbai, India

11 and 12 May, 2012

Jai returned to the hotel room, having dumped the Sterling in a gutter on the way. His shirt had spots of drying blood and a splatter of blood was present on his neck.

Henna shrieked when she saw Jai.

‘What happened?’

Jai came closer to her, held her face in his hands

‘I have killed the bastard.’

There was a stunned silence in the room as Henna looked up in shock at Jai.

‘I have killed Rashique
Bhai,
’ Jai repeated.

Henna burst into tears. Years of having been subjugated and tortured by Rashique had imprisoned her spirit to her memories of that man. Her spirit would never have been free as long he walked the Earth.

Today Jai had liberated her.

She cried, wailed, and cried some more, tears running freely down her cheeks as she slumped to the floor near Jai’s feet. Jai stood resolute on the spot, allowing Henna to cry with abandon, clinging to his legs. After a while, he gently disengaged her arms, and moved away. There was much to be done.

It was another half an hour before Henna got up from where Jai had left her. In the meanwhile, Jai had packed their meagre belongings, prepared to leave Mumbai. It was not safe for them to stay on in Mumbai and get caught in the crossfire.

Things had not gone as planned. He had meant to leave
Bhai
alive. He had wanted to put the fear of the devil in him; nevertheless, he had wanted him to live. It was important that he lived so that he could take his dogs off their trail. That had not happened.
Bhai
was dead now and there would be mayhem soon. News would spread that it was he who had culled
Bhai
and his entourage, and there would be people baying for his blood. They had to get far away from there.

They left the hotel quietly and headed for the railway station in a cab.

Jai took tickets for the first long-distance train out of Mumbai headed towards Chennai. He knew of some help in Chennai, one of his few contacts outside of the gang-world.

They found themselves enough space to stretch their tired bodies and soon slept through the noise of the general compartment of the Mumbai–Chennai superfast.

Jai got up early and found Henna still asleep. She slept so peacefully, it tugged a few strings in his heart. She was looking lovely, having for the first time in a long while applied kohl in her eyes. Trinkets hung from her earlobes and a tiny nose stud adorned her sharp, pointed nose. She was wearing a
salwar-kameez
and the
dupatta
heaved over her shapely bosom each time she took a deep, contented breath. Jai knew then why he had fallen in love with her, and that feeling was wonderful. He was seeing a beautiful woman for the first time; not the harrowed, vulnerable girl that reminded him of his sister, whom he had failed. He saw something that he could love, an object of desire, and the stirrings in his loins invigorated him. He smiled, looking at that bosom rise and fall. He realised he was hooked for life with this girl.

Henna woke up after a while to Jai looking intently at her form. She hesitated a bit, rearranging her dishevelled attire and then smiled at the continued and piercing gaze of Jai.

She laughed, hesitatingly, shying away from the gaze of Jai.

‘What are you looking at?’

Jai’s trance was broken by the question. He hastily averted his gaze from her. That made her laugh some more, the laugh ringing like the tune of a songbird in Jai’s ears. He looked back at her and laughed along with her.

The rest of the long journey was pleasant. Both of them knew that there was going to be a lot of trouble in the near future, but they had successfully managed to block those worries mentally, to enjoy each other’s company for almost the first time since they had left Mumbai.

Chennai was hot, humid, and noisy. They took to the streets of Chennai and got into an auto after haggling for a fair price in a completely alien language. Jai directed the auto to Mogappair where his friend, Raja, worked as a waiter in the food court of a shopping mall. Raja was a boy who had fallen out of favour with another gang and Jai had saved his life and had helped him vanish to Chennai. Raja had done well for himself, having found a job that paid seven thousand rupees a month and had a double-room rented shack for two thousand rupees a month.

He received Jai and Henna with welcoming warmth into his humble home. He still felt hugely indebted to Jai for his life. Jai told him the gist of what had happened in Mumbai, over a couple of beers.

‘It’s a huge risk that you are taking in giving shelter to me and that’s why I wanted you to know what happened in Mumbai. You don’t have to have us here if you don’t want us here,’ said Jai.

Raja protested nonchalantly, a little drunk by now

‘Whatever I have here is because of you. You know, I owe you my life and am glad to be able to do something for you.’

Jai smiled and thanked Raja.

Henna had been given the only bed in the house. She had made a simple meal of rice and
dal
for the night. After dinner, Jai and Henna sat alone on the roof looking at the stars on a moonless night.

Jai turned to her.

‘I want to tell you something.’

Henna looked at him enquiringly.

‘It may be difficult to understand, as I myself do not understand most of what I am about to narrate to you. I only hope you do not take me to be a lunatic after hearing what I have to say to you,’ Jai continued.

‘You know I would never think that of you, Jai.’ Henna brushed her hand over his hair.

Henna had become very forthright in expressing her emotions over the last couple of days. Jai could see almost a new Henna: a beautiful, happy Henna, full of zest for life. The smile on her lips always brought one to Jai’s. The kohl of her eyes curved into a smiley at the corners and her dresses were pinned together tighter to accentuate her form. Henna had Jai in a knot each time he laid eyes on her and she loved being able to tease him thus.

‘Well – do you remember the cards?’ Jai asked Henna.

‘Yes, I do. I haven’t understood to this day how you managed to do that,’ Henna replied, a little confused.

‘Hmm… I knew that you wouldn’t. That was the intention, dear. It’s a long story but I want you to hear it, nevertheless.’