Himalayan White by Amitabh Pandey

Author:Amitabh Pandey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: null
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

TWELVE

GAUTAM DROVE BACK home, showered, changed, set his mental alarm for 3.30 a.m. and fell asleep. He woke up as planned, dressed in a dark track suit and hoodie and black sneakers and was at his living room window, which overlooked the main road, at 4.00 a.m. It was cold and dark and slightly misty. He scanned the street, dimly lit by few functioning lamps, with his high-powered binoculars. It was silent and empty and remained so till 4.30 a.m., when a dark SUV, running without headlights, rolled up quietly and stopped across the road, fifty yards from the main gate. Gautam observed it for a while but could only make out three dark figures, who seemed to be looking intently at the colony gate. He put away the binoculars, picked up a Beretta .22 loaded with hollow points and two spare magazines, and left the building quietly. He hopped over the rear wall on to the service lane, which ran parallel to the main road, turned on to a secondary road, and came out on the main road several yards behind the parked SUV. He crossed the road quickly and moved up to the vehicle silently, gun in hand.

The first inkling the occupants of the SUV had of his presence was when he rapped sharply on the rear window. Three pairs of startled eyes turned to see a black-clad figure, complete with black balaclava over his face, pointing a gun at them with one hand and gesturing with the other to get out of the vehicle. They hesitated, the gun rose to point directly at the nearest forehead and they slowly obeyed. Gautam indicated wordlessly that they should sit on the pavement and they complied.

‘What are your names? Where do you live? And who has sent you?’

For three seconds they were silent. Gautam pressed the gun barrel to the nearest Tiwari’s right shoulder and fired three times. The .22 made very little noise, but the hollow point bullets did a lot of damage. The afflicted Tiwari grunted in pain, clutched at his shoulder and keeled over. The gun was then levelled at the second brother.

‘The next one goes into your head, if you don’t tell me what I want to know.’

The second brother broke down immediately. The floodgates opened and a stream of information bubbled out hysterically.

‘We are Tiwaris. I am Guddu, he is Munna, and this is our cousin Bhaiyya Pandit. Suraj Bhan sent us – he is Angad Yadav’s man for this area – to beat you up because you interfered with Angad’s woman. But sir, we were not going to do any permanent damage, just beat you a little as a lesson. Please, sir. My brother will bleed to death. May I …?’

‘Put him the back seat in the far corner. You get into the front seat and you, Bhaiyya, into the driver’s seat slowly. Keep your hands on your head. If they slip off, you’re dead.’

Once everyone was in the vehicle, Gautam got into the rear passenger seat and told Bhaiyya to drive slowly to their house in Nihari village.

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