“Ok,” he swallowed. "But if there ever is a point where you are stepping back from something because of me, I want you to let me know.”
“Two months are left. We will not be working this closely after that. Don’t worry, it won’t last.”
“It won’t.” He agreed, and prayed, and pleaded.
Samar turned, opened the door and lifted one foot to step out. For the first time, the foot fell heavy on the path moving away from her.
24. Touring Ladakh was like stepping back into the SFF…
Touring Ladakh was like stepping back into the SFF. The same rugged mountains, the same broken craters, the same white desert, the same unforgiving climate. And the same smell of vastness. His nostrils, though, only smelled blood. Memory was a bitch like that.
“Daaxsaab! Daaxsaaaaab! One down!”
“Take him!”
“Suction!”
“Daaaaaaxsaab!”
“Go, go, go!”
“Samar, quick!”
And then, out of nowhere, a waft of lilies would float across his nose.
“Is that why you walked away from me four years ago?”
Samar startled, eyeing the crowd in front of him.
The ground was packed, the air cold, the night falling fast. He stood on the sidelines, feeling the reverberations of the public’s euphoria thump through his ears. For all his faults, Atharva knew just how to get a rally going. He knew how to get people going. He knew how to get a stagnant situation going. This afternoon, they had discovered that CM Mohsin Sheikh had filed multiple cases against their dummy candidates with the Election Commission. If that wasn’t enough, he was coming for a rally in Leh tonight to challenge Atharva.
Atharva had just said — “We cannot start cross-firing but counterfire is ours.” And then gone on to attract a crowd double of what they had expected for this big show.
The mobile in his pocket vibrated. Samar pulled it out and saw a horde of missed calls. From different contacts, including Faris, and his informants from Awaami. But the contact that made him snap to attention was Amaal.
He didn’t even do it consciously. His thumb pressed her contact for a return call, and he plastered it to his ear, turning away from the noise and towards the stage. Two rings. Three rings.
“Hello?” Her voice was broken, muffled with all the noise in his other ear.
“You called?” He yelled into the phone, pushing a finger into his ear.
“Yes, I was not able to get through to Atharva o…r ureshi…”
“They are at the ground's gate… You are breaking up.”
“Hell…o? What?”
“I said they are at the ground’s gate!” He turned his volume up. “Rally!”
“Mohsin…kh is…”
“Can’t hear you!”
“Dead! Dead!”
Samar stilled.
“Dead?” He confirmed.
