“What happened?”
I told her about how we planned to extract Qureshi and take him for questioning.
“It was a simple neutralise and extract, and to be honest, it was one of my cleanest and quickest operations. Until Mani suddenly froze in his tracks.”
I closed my eyes and forced myself to relive one of the most painful memories of my life.
Mani was leading the way into the house after we got rid of Qureshi’s guards, and I heard him swear under his breath.
“Move it, fat ass,” I grumbled, trying not to feel the mosquitoes making a meal out of me.
Instead of moving, Mani held up his fist, and I froze in place. Across the courtyard, a door opened slowly, and we saw a man we had only seen in photographs so far - Nadeem Qureshi. He caught sight of us and froze for a few seconds. His eyes darted around, looking for his guards. I thought he’d make a run for it when he realised they were dead. But he did something weird.
He smiled at us and crooked a finger to beckon us forward, before he whirled around and ran up the stairs on the right.
“Benchod, I’m going to break that finger when we catch him,” growled Mani, as he took a few steps forward. Then he stopped again suddenly and gasped.
“IED,” he whispered, and I felt my blood run cold.
“Step back,” I ordered, but he shook his head and pointed two fingers downwards. He slashed his flat palm over the ground, and I realised in horror that his foot was perched precariously on a mine.
“Retreat, sir,” he said shakily.
“Not without you, Mani,” I said firmly.
But he shook his head again and held his hand out in warning when I took one step towards him.
“The whole path is booby-trapped, sir,” he said, shining a small light over the ground in front of him. I saw at least twenty IEDs half-buried in the floor of the courtyard, scattered randomly across the path. This was the only route leading in and out of the house, and I realised that the motherfucker had planned this on purpose. Someone had tipped him off about our arrival, just like someone had tipped us off about his movements. Or maybe it had been a bad tipoff, set up to ambush us anyway.
“Let’s retrace our steps. Back away slowly, Mani,” I said in desperation.
He gave me a sad smile because he knew as well as I did that as soon as he took his foot off that fucking IED, it was going to blow him to bits.
“Tell my mom I love her,” he whispered, before he raised his hand in salute. “Jai Hind, psycho. Now get the fuck away from me and out of the haveli. I’m not moving until you’re safe.”
“Not without you, asshole,” I snarled, preparing to hook my arm through his and swing him to safety if I had to.
“Don’t even think about it,” he warned. “I have no choice but to die right here. But you have to go back for the sake of the team. Tell them what happened. Protect them from any further ambushes awaiting them. And find that fucking Qureshi and pound him full of bullets for my sake, Sir Ji.”
I drew in a sharp breath and tried to ease the tightness in my chest as I poured it all out to Meher.
“I didn’t want to leave my brother to die. But there was nothing else I could do. I was forced to watch dry-eyed from the safety of a tree away from the haveli as one IED after another exploded in a row, blowing the best man I ever knew to bits, while Nadeem Qureshi escaped from the back of the haveli. And I had to wait there until the fire brigade and the cops showed up because there was no way I was leaving Mani’s remains behind. Rumi, Sid, and I escorted his remains to his home, and I had to look his mother in the eyes and tell her how her son died a hero.”
And somehow, as I poured my heart out, the tightness in my chest began to ease a little, and to my surprise, I felt a telltale wetness tracking down my face.
“Badi meherbani, babe,” I whispered, as I felt my tears flow for the first time in years.
And Meher held space for me, dry-eyed, as I poured all my grief into her.
We fell asleep sometime around dawn, exhausted, but finally at peace. I woke up to bright sunlight streaming onto my face. Meher was next to me, watching me sleep.
She reached out a hand and stroked my face gently.
“Wake up, sleeping beauty. We have work to do,” she whispered.
“What work?” I asked with a big yawn.
“We have to avenge Mani, and we have to catch our poachers, and if possible, we have to find a way to stick it back to Nilanjana and Sanjay,” she said firmly.
