“And tell her what?” Samar growled. “Fix it so that I am still in the CM race?! You do realise that Sufiyaan Sheikh is now in the race and holding up a whole World Cup of sympathy points? You are the brawler and the reckless…”
“Ok, ok, calm down,” Qureshi stood to his feet again. “Take the night off. There is nothing anybody can do tonight. Atharva, let it be. I will coordinate with Amaal. We have our karyakarta meetings all day tomorrow and day-after, but we will leave immediately after by flight. We will need to be present at Mohsin Sheikh’s funeral.”
Atharva nodded. Then he stood up, threw his coat over his arm and walked out of the conference room. Samar waited all of two seconds before charging to his feet — “Fucking hell!” He stormed out behind him.
“What the hell were you trying to prove there?” Samar pushed out of the door, only to find the bane of their existence standing right there, beside Atharva. He stared hard at Iram Haider until she looked away.
“This could have blown up in our faces!” He pinned Atharva with his glare. “What did you think before heroically running up the stage? There could have been more petrol bombs or suicide bombers or…”
“It would have been a stampede,” Atharva said, staring straight ahead.
“Or another explosion!” Samar hissed.“And then you went and picked a fight with that inspector! You are all over the news now for hitting thepolice. Thanks for crushing this whole tedious trip and throwing it in the bin in one moment. There are all these people who have worked their asses off to get you here, to getushere.”
Samar glanced at Iram, and she flinched. He hated these helpless poor-girl expressions. She was not helpless, and definitely not poor.
“He misbehaved with Iram,” Atharva bit out, as always, ready to destroy everything where Iram was concerned.
“And just what exactly was Iram doing? Shewasinterfering in a stampede situation. Nobody, and I meannobodyis allowed special privileges in such a situation. You know it as well as I do. Then whose mistake was it? Who instigated it?”
Iram stepped in —“He had no right to arrest me without…”
“He certainly did, Iram,” Samar stated. “You were asking him to admit two people who did not belong to the media, Forces or our Party in a stampede area where a bomb had gone off. They could have been anybody. Terrorists, Militants, suicide bombers… He wasn’t respectful I agree, and it was wrong, the way they behaved. But first, you were wrong, Iram.”
She opened her mouth, then shut it. Good. He hoped she would keep it shut for the rest of her miserable life.
“Wedo notwant a narrative of corruption to creep into our image, Atharva,” Samar pushed one finger into Atharva’s chest. “You shouldn’t have done this today. There will be all sorts of stories and damn it, with what just happened… and all these cases!”
“It wasn’t his. This mistake was mine. I apologise,” Iram cut him off.
Samar wanted to ram somebody’s head through the wall today. Preferably his own. This girl did not stop acting good in front of Atharva, and he did not know what would become of this fool when it was all over. Reputation would go, party would be out of hand, election would definitely be lost. And then Samar would like to see if this Iram Haider still stood there by his side.
He heard the conference room door open behind him and sealed his mouth before he fired again. It was a loop, this reasoning with Atharva. The man was blinded in Iram Haider. And she was not even budging from her place holding his strings. Samar moved out of the way of the members trickling out, then turned and quietly walked down the alley.
His mobile rang.
“Yes?”
“Adil has cracked the tapes open.”
“Are you there?”
“My men sent a video but I can’t hear anything clearly. I am going there.”
“Stay away from the garage. He knows you. Inform me as soon as you have more information.” Samar ended the call.
What a day. It was all closing in on him. He had been passive for a long time. If he did not do something now, Iram Haider and Atharva’s madness for her would eat this party and their future alive.
25. It’s Aamir Haider’s voice…
“It’s Aamir Haider’s voice…”
Samar walked out of the hotel under the night sky of Leh, mobile pressed to his ear.
“Send it.”
“It is not audible when we record it. Very noisy. Adil has made a video call, I think to Atharva. What should we do?”
Samar hesitated, thinking.
