“It’s ok. Adil is safe.”
The line went dead.
“Call an ambulance there.”
Samar made the call.
They hit a dense patch, and he noted Atharva focused on navigating it. That’s when he grabbed his mobile again and pressed call on Faris’s contact. As soon as the ring went, he cut it. Single ring was their signal to abort. Samar hoped he had heard the ring. If they came face-to-face with Atharva… Atharva knew Faris. And he also probably knew some of the new boys. He knew everything even when he did not participate.
The car came to a screeching halt outside a public toilet and Atharva tore out of his side and ran. Samar followed, realising that one of their security cars had also tailed them.
The steps leading up to the structure were crowded. Women stood guarding the entrance, brooms and bats in hand.
“Aye, hey…kahan ghus rahe ho? Tumhaare doston ko bhaga diya toh tum aa gaye?[96]” They barred Atharva, pushing him. He managed to break through just before Iram appeared from inside the washrooms.
“Rukiye! Yeh humaare saath hai.[97]”
The ambulance’s siren tore through the chaos and Samar rushed inside. Adil was lying on the floor, his face swollen.
“Adil!”
He had passed out. Pulse was strong. Samar went to take his weight from a woman’s lap when his hand fell free from his side. A knife. Buried to the hilt under his sternum.
“What’s wrong?” A paramedic came rushing, stretcher behind him.
“Knife under sternum, vomited blood, passed out, pulse strong,” Samar briefed in a jumble, his own breaths coming rapidly. It had been a while since panic had hit him in an emergency. Twelve years, to be precise. He held his hand steady over the knife hilt as Adil was transferred to the stretcher, flowing with the shock, as warm, wet blood flooded over his fingers. Adil’s blood. He ran with the stretcher, pushed inside the ambulance and did not even think to check if Atharva had seen Faris.
————————————————————
“Please clear the room, sir.”
“I am a doctor.”
“We still cannot allow relatives to remain…”
“I have a permit, I am not going anywhere,” Samar bit out at the nurse. She shrivelled. Adil’s doctor looked up from where he was working on him.
“Doctor, keep it down or we will forcefully remove you. Move back five steps and stay there.”
Samar retreated into the background, holding himself from taking over. Adil’s vitals were not stabilising, his heart rate was consistently high…
Samar felt his mobile vibrate inside his pocket. He pulled it out.
FARIS
He tried to escape and Akram had a knife
He tried to scare him
I will call you
His mobile rang. He silenced it.
“The blade is twisted,” the doctor observed.
“Operate then.”
“Not until his pressure stabilises.”
