The Acquaintance Read online

  “Are you feeling alright? You don’t look so good.” said Ram, not unkindly. Nargis shook her head. She had to be more careful in trying to conceal her illness from those around her. She took her seat by the divan again. Ram placed a plate on her lap. It had a bunch of saltine crackers and cubes of cheese on them. “I heard you in there. Stress of the job?” Nargis didn’t answer, she bit into a saltine and chewed loudly. “I’m sorry I couldn’t offer anything else. All I’ve got is some leftover Chinese food and I didn’t think your stomach could handle it. I could heat you up some if you want?” She shook her head. She drained the rest of the beer in a single gulp and handed the bottle to Ram. “Long story short, I need you services for the next three days after which you can go back to playing catch up with me.” Ram didn’t answer, he was still scrutinising her. She didn’t like that.

  “Do you want the case or not?”, said Nargis impatiently. “When do we start?”, said Ram with his hands on his hips. “Right now. Grab what you have to grab and meet me downstairs.”

  Ten minutes later Ram was jogging towards their unmarked SUV with a mini duffel bag in tow. He got into the passenger side seat and greeted Jogi with a smile. Before Nargis could say anything, he dropped a manila folder in her lap. Nargis looked at it and her breath caught in her throat. Shit. It was the Gorakhpur file. She had left it behind. She looked at Ram. He stared ahead without looking at her.

  “So, where are we headed?”

  CHAPTER 10

  The boy was led into a room. The Mahdi sat cross-legged on a mat with three bearded men. Their spines bent forward as they spoke in hushed whispers. The Mahdi listened to these men with quiet intent. They were his advisors. The boy wanted to be where they were, in the Mahdi’s inner circle. But he was only a child, pushed around and slapped around when he got in the way. No one gave him a second glance here, even the Mahdi, after having rescued him from the silver monster. The Mahdi too had abandoned the boy for more important work. The only person in the caves who ever gave him any notice was the Maerifa.

  The Maerifa, walked up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. He quietly led the boy out of the cave and away from Shahzad. “Do you want to be a leader, Rizwan?”, asked Maerifa. The boy looked at the man, determination in his eyes, before he nodded. Maerifa smiled. “Are you willing to do whatever it takes to lead these warriors against the infidels?” The boy nodded again. The Maerifa gripped his shoulder tightly and the boy winced, “I ask you again. Are you willing to do whatever is necessary for the good of the cause?” “Yes, I am”, said the boy without hesitation. “Then I shall make you a leader”, said the Maerifa with a smile. “Your training begins with the sunrise.”

  “When will I get to shoot a gun?”, said the boy morosely. He had been training with the Maerifa for weeks but so far his training only included learning the Quran, reciting the Quran and getting beaten if he got it wrong. Every waking moment he had spent memorising scripture from the holy book. “I don’t know why I have to learn and memorise the entire book, everybody here knows what it’s about.” The Maerifa smiled, “That’s where you’re wrong my child, nobody here knows what is in that book and that is why you need to learn it. Only then, when the time comes you are able to lead.”

  The boy grumbled. “Being a leader in these caves is more about getting these warriors to shoot guns for you, be Shaheed for you so that you can spread the word of the Mahdi to the world. There are enough people here who know how to shoot guns but no one here knows why they shoot the guns.”

  “To destroy the infidels of course”, said the boy defensively. “Is that what you think Allah wants, for you to destroy the infidels. Is that what you understood from the Quran?” The boy looked uncertain, he was beginning to question Mahdi’s motives. That was a good start, but the Maerifa didn’t want the boy questioning too much.

  The boy was on the ground, his nose was bloody and his chest throbbed. The Maerifa was laughing. The boy had tried to fire an AK-47. He had not heeded the Maerifa’s advice on stance and aim. Instead of legs apart, minding the forestock and firing while exhaling, he had tried to ape the warriors and placed the gun right above his midriff and directly over his rib-cage. The barrel of the gun had leapt out of his hand and struck him hard on the nose but not before the recoil had cracked a rib or two. It was a valuable lesson in disobedience. The boy would never ignore his advice again. The Maerifa had been wrong.

  CHAPTER 11

  South Mumbai in the early hours is an idyllic portrait of tranquillity. A muted portrait of decadence. Crisp, serene and disgustingly wealthy. Ram parked his car right outside a nondescript residential building adjacent to the Scottish school. The building was a posh residential tower with an obscene price tag. The sun was breaking through the clouds and the first wash of light bathed the car in luminous warmth.

  Nargis was feeling faint, she did not know how much that had to do with her illness and how much it had to do with being in such close proximity to Rizwan. She couldn’t believe that after all these years, she was a stone’s throw away from the man she had once considered to be the love of her life. She opened the six pack of cancer tablets that doctor Varma had prescribed at the onset of her treatment and popped one in her mouth, she had no idea of the regimen of medication she was supposed to follow, all she knew was that she had to consume a litany of tablets a day, starting with the white tubular one in the morning. She had already popped a few.

  She looked around. Rizwan couldn’t afford this place and here he was.

  She had spotted John’s surveillance team. She knew he would be tailing her. The bastard wouldn’t leave her alone. Always an albatross around her neck. They had already secured the perimeter. Agents had been scattered across the park, the adjoining residential buildings and the school grounds. She already had a plan to get Rizwan out without them knowing. The school worked in two shifts, the morning shift from 6 am to 12 pm and the afternoon shift which meant that Rizwan would be coming to class any second now. It was 5:33 am, if Rizwan stuck to his old habits he would be coming out of his house in exactly two minutes. Nargis alerted her team, no matter what happened Rizwan would not be allowed to attend class today. There was a nervous energy permeating the air, or maybe it was just her. She pulled the binoculars to her eyes, their vehicle was parked out of the way in an inconspicuous spot with a clear view of Rizwan’s building.

  One minute.

  Nargis could hear every tick on her Ulysse Nardine watch. Like clockwork, at 5:35 am, the front door to apartment 5B opened and out stepped a bespectacled man with a slight stoop. From this distance he looked like an aging college Professor , with jet black hair and horn-rimmed spectacles. He sported an impressive beard. She noticed a slight discoloration on his forehead. When she knew him, Rizwan had never been devout. But then again there was a lot she didn’t know about the man if she knew anything at all.

  She brought the walkie-talkie to her lips and uttered one word, “Go.”

  Ram intercepted Rizwan with a hug. He held him for a moment and Nargis saw him whisper instructions into Rizwan’s ear. They turned and began walking towards the van. Rizwan looked pale from the shock of being accosted outside his house but he wasn’t making a scene. The other agents on the scene did not know that Rizwan was their target, so Nargis had instructed Ram to escort Rizwan into a marked sedan with civilian license plates that would be ignored by the seasoned spies. Ram would bring Rizwan to the dead drop.

  He hadn’t seen her yet. That would be later. She watched as Ram put Rizwan in the van, it was admirable how he wasn’t putting up much of a fight. Then again he never was much of a fighter. Nargis knew that her vehicle had been tagged, so she would have to lead the agents and anybody else who was tracking her on a wild goose chase while Ram took Rizwan to the dead drop. A dry clean run.

  She gunned the engine to the van and peeled out of her hiding spot. She drove south through Vile Parle and watched two black sedans following her. She checked the live feed on her ipad as she drove. Rizwan was
secure.

  She knew that John would put a tail on her, so she had taken a van and gone all the way to Santa Cruz to throw off the hounds at her heels. John’s men would not watch her for long after they realised that she was onto them, but she couldn’t let them see Rizwan at any cost. She reached Western Express Highway and parked under the Metro track. She got into a crowded restaurant, a vegetarian place famous for its south indian cuisine. She would meet her decoy here who would then lead John’s men on the second leg of her dry clean run, they didn’t care about her, they wanted her source. Nargis spotted her contact, Jogi, at an empty table outside. He was dressed in jeans and a tee shirt, hiding his face behind a menu card. A bit theatrical but she had to sell the idea of a nervous civilian meeting a spy. After all her contact with Shahzad was a civilian.

  Jogi would man the steering wheel, he was the best analyst she had worked with but he was also an extremely efficient bomb-tech and one of her best students in evasive driving. A true multi hyphenate. He had been ready to take the social media world by storm. But he had decided to give all that up and serve his country. He was a commodity they needed. Nargis did not know the intricacies of Jogi’s thought process but she had been thankful he had chosen to work with her at the CTU.

  She strode towards the table and without a word slid the man behind the menu a thin folder. Jogi took it and slid it into his backpack. Nargis watched from the corner of her eye as two agents entered the restaurant. Nargis stood up abruptly, they would have to sell this next bit to get John’s men off her back. She pushed a glass of water off the edge of her table, the only distraction Jogi needed to bolt like a rabbit with the agents behind him like hunting foxes.

  Nargis sighed and went towards the metro station, she couldn’t risk her car being tracked. She entered the crowded station and swiped her metrocard at the turnstile. She checked to see if she was being followed but there was no one behind her. The Mumbai metro was a mass of moving bodies. Nargis found herself being jostled towards the escalator. As she waited on the platform, her eyes darted over every face in the crowd. Thankfully it was the weekend which meant the sheer mass of bodies floating through the platforms would be devoid of the office crowd, always a welcome mercy. She would have enough breathing room to be on guard. The train arrived and she got into the stifling compartment. The air-conditioner did very little in the closed space packed with people. The air was ripe with stale breath and body odour. As the train moved along, Nargis was hit with another wave of exhaustion, all this subterfuge was taking its toll. If only she didn’t have to worry about John meddling with her operation and messing everything up. She could have gotten the information she needed out of Rizwan by now. She got off at Andheri, an inconspicuous place where her protégé would pick her up and they would head for the dead drop.

  She used the escalator at the exit. As she descended, she could have sworn she saw someone looking right at her. She walked down the remaining steps and made for the taxi stand. She crossed the street and ducked into an alley way. She had caught the man staring at her only for a moment, she could have sworn, he did not look like any one the agency would employ. She couldn’t see his face, he was dressed in dark jeans and a denim button down. He was talking on the phone and barely glanced her way. Maybe she was just being paranoid, this entire operation had her on edge, but at least she had a lead now. Rizwan was in custody and it was only a matter of time before he gave her what she wanted. She heard a honk behind her and started.

  She turned around to see Jogi calmly waiting for her in an Uber. She broke into a smile. Jogi always had to go the extra mile.

  The man she thought was following her took a picture of the license plate as her white Uber sedan sped off.

  ***

  The dead drop was an unassuming villa on Grant Road. Nestled inside a private, nondescript plot. Nargis stood outside the house where she had conducted countless interrogations. But she knew this one was going to be different. She took a deep breath to collect herself. Ten years. She strode up the stairs and into the house. The interior was dark and Spartan. She knew every inch of this house, but today it felt different. She could feel the walls and the darkness close in on her. She was feeling short of breath. Her chest constricted. She steadied herself on the wall and held her breath. She counted till 22 in Bengali and released a breath. She was okay. She would be okay. A mantra and a lie but still effective. She heard footsteps before she saw him. The tall, muscular frame towered over her.

  Ram greeted her. “He’s in room 3. He’s getting comfortable.”

  Nargis looked at him, “Did you hurt him?” Ram shook his head, “I was waiting for you to do the honours.” Nargis made for the observation room first, she needed to see him. She opened the door to the identical room with the two-way mirror and glanced at the man seated in the offending chair with his head resting on his chest and his hands chained to the desk. He wore a silk kurta, aquamarine green to complement his eyes. On his wrist, right below the cuff was the rudraksha bracelet she had gifted him. “Give me the keys”, said Nargis holding out her hand towards Ram. “I don’t think that’s a good idea”, he said. “Give them to me”, she snatched the keys from him and entered the interrogation room. Ten years.

  And here she was facing her husband again like no time had passed at all.

  He looked up. Nargis felt a surge of satisfaction when the colour drained from his face, leaving in its wake, pallid and blanched skin surrounding an expression of horror. Nargis took the seat at the other end of the table. Sitting down, she pulled the chair closer to the table. She could tell that Rizwan was watching her every move. He was alert, his left leg had begun its restless to and fro motion like a pendulum. She recognised it as a sign of nervousness, just like with Jogi. It was a tell, he didn’t even know he had. It was a pity she couldn’t draw out this moment and prolong his discomfort. But she had to get to business. “Mr. Zaid…”, she began but was cut off. “I’m so sorry”, he whispered and Nargis felt the air leave her lungs. The words hung in the air drawing out the moment into infinity. Nargis calculated the impact those words would have on the people behind the glass, especially Ram. She composed herself, her team didn’t know about her history with Rizwan yet. Ram who would have a few things to say. “Mr. Zaid, you must be wondering why you’ve been brought here?”

  Rizwan didn’t take his eyes off of her. He looked at her like the very first time he’d laid eyes on her, like she was his saviour. Like she was going to make all the bad things go away. And just like last time, he wasn’t grateful. As she looked into his eyes, she was back at her Niqab. Dressed in bridal clothes and happy to start the next chapter of her life with the man she loved. She looked at the man in front of her and remembered the man who had made all those promises to her during their wedding. False and hollow promises. Not this time Rizwan. She pulled her chair closer to the table and leaned in. She could see the whisper of a five o’ clock shadow that defined his jaw, his lips with the little cut in the corner that only showed when he was smiling. She wanted to stroke those lips, but she also wanted to rip them off his face. Rizwan was stoically observing the silent war in her head. He had not yet made a move to touch her even though his hands were within kissing distance. “What are you doing here?”, he whispered. “Please tell me. Where am I? Who are these people? What have you gotten yourself mixed up in Nargis?”, he spluttered. His breathing was fast and shallow. He was always good at jigsaw puzzles. He would soon put the pieces together.

  She unlocked his cuffs and sat back. Rizwan rubbed his wrists, “Thank you”, he said in a voice barely above a whisper. Now that the shock had settled he was having a hard time looking at her. He was feeling guilty. Perfect. Let’s get right to it. She inhaled, “Mr. Zaid, one of your students is in danger.” Rizwan looked at her, confusion and fear etched clear as day on his face. “What?” he sputtered. Nargis nodded, “We need your help to keep her out of harm’s way.”

  No one in her team had been briefed yet on why they had picked up
Rizwan Zaid, they were about to find out.

  CHAPTER 12

  “So, political discourse huh? Sounds heavy”, said Rizwan as he casually sidled up to Nargis’ side. He was looking at her homework assignment. He was wearing an oyster pearl button down and khaki pedal-pushers, he clearly didn’t care about the way he looked. She smiled at him politely. “So, what classes are you taking?”, he said in a higher soprano. He clearly wasn’t going away. She had to nip this in the bud. Nargis stopped and turned to look at him. “Is there anything in particular you need Amar”, she said her patience starting to wane. She was on her way to meet Professor Sita Kalyani, her thesis advisor and she could have done without the unnecessary delay. “It’s Rizwan actually”, he said sheepishly. But when she rolled her eyes, he added earnestly, “But you can call me anything you want.” Was he quoting Drew Barrymore?

  She raised an eyebrow in derision. Was this guy serious? Maybe she should have let those thugs beat him up after all. “I’m sorry, that came out wrong. I wanted to thank you for the other day. Most people would not have done what you did.”

  “Well I’m starting to see their point”, she said. He grinned. His lips curving into a brilliantly captivating smile. It caught her off guard for a moment. The moment seemed to stretch into something longer as she could now see past his unkempt and mismatched clothes, to the dotted dimples in his cheeks, the hooked nose that perfectly bisected his cheekbones, his dark hazel eyes that looked like honey dews when they caught the light and his full lips that outlined his brilliant smile. If not for his personality, Rizwan, whatever his name, would have been attractive. She snapped herself out of it. Rizwan was still grinning at her. She didn’t have time for this. She strode past him towards the main faculty building. “What I wanted to say was I would like to thank you properly for your help the other day.”