Sniper's Quest by Mainak Dhar

Author:Mainak Dhar [Dhar, Mainak]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-04-21T23:00:00+00:00

EIGHT

‘Dada. Dada.’

I held Aman up as we sat with his toys scattered around us. He had barely begun to string together words, but the worry he couldn’t yet put into words showed in his big eyes. His little life had been turned upside down. He didn’t know what the guards outside our home and his school meant, but he sensed that his daddy was going away and his mommy didn’t seem happy about it.

‘Dude, I’ll be back real soon. I just need to do some job at work.’

‘Job?’

A great question. I had been trying to figure that one out for a few years. If you had asked me five years ago, I would have been certain not just of what I did, but what I planned to keep doing for as long as I could. Serve as an officer in the Indian Army. In the journey since then, I had found many things, perhaps most precious of all Zoya and Aman, but one thing that continued to elude me was peace.

Zoya was packing my clothes and she was doing her best to put on a brave face. I left Aman with his toys and went to our room, holding her from behind, nuzzling her neck.

‘Major, is that your way of bribing me about your going off on another dangerous mission?’

I began to protest when she laughed. ‘Well, don’t stop. It was working.’

As I started to get back to what I was doing, my phone rang.

‘Talk about bad timing.’ When I saw that it was the sat phone, I picked it up.

It was Gopal. ‘Major, we have definite information on the target’s whereabouts. Your cover’s in place, and I’ll leave it to you to decide which plan you use. You don’t need to check back with me, that would slow things down. We will have an officer there to help you, someone you already know.’

As I hung up, I tried to put the trip out of my mind and get back to Zoya. We lay together for hours, talking, touching and part of me realised that both of us wanted to make this night last forever, because neither of us was sure what lay ahead, and whether we would have another night such as this together.

‘Aadi, I’ve never asked you, but when you went to the Taj knowing you were the target, or earlier, when you were in the army headed out on missions, weren’t you ever scared?’

I turned to face her. ‘I was scared every single time, and I was scared at the Taj. Nobody’s brave all the time. The ones who survive in combat are the ones who train themselves to be a little less scared for the few seconds that matter.’

She looked at me, eyes widening in surprise. ‘You never told me that. All the time I’ve known you, loved you, you’ve always seemed in control, so sure of yourself.’

‘I am scared even now. Not for my own safety, but that I won’t be able to come back;

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