A Man among Wolves

Chapter 2

Agilan was in Purasaiwalkam, an almost half hour travel (city bus from Selva's place in Triplicane. It could take more than half hour, if the Chennai traffic wasn't merciful. Anbu and Selva travelled together, standing shoulder to shoulder among the smothering crowd of office-goers, students and pickpockets. For the next half hour, all they felt were the smell of someone's hair in their face, heavy sweat rolling down their bodies and the struggle to maintain their footing as the bus swerved and jerked along the road.

Once they got down at Doveton stop, they began walking. Anbu lead Selva down different streets. Though Selva was very lean and nimble enough to walk fast, he let his slow, slouching friend lead the way. As they travelled, Selva felt the buildings becoming shorter and roads becoming narrower. He had never been in this part of Purasaiwalkam before. The roads were riddled with potholes and lined along the side with shabby, desolate buildings most of which were abandoned. The only signs of life were shopkeepers who shot dubious glances at the passers-by out of their small booth-like stores and the stray animals.

They turned into a street which was a dead-end. There were a lot of trees on both sides.

Anbu directly walked to an iron gate behind one of the trees, which lead into a bleak, two storey building.

The gate gave a loud, unpleasant outcry as Anbu swung it open. To Selva, it sounded like a metallic version of the alarm that rings in factories during a major accident.

They walked in silence, with nothing but the sound of their own footsteps for company.

When they climbed a short flight of steps and entered through the open door, it was darker than Selva had assumed it would be. The dinginess inside was unbearable and he immediately took a dislike to it. To add more to the unpleasantness of the environment, Selva noticed some people huddled in the darkest corners of the room. He was reminded of pigeons that nest themselves in gloomy pockets of a temple tower. Although their faces weren't visible, he could feel their stare as he walked by in his duck footed gait.

One of them stepped forward and stopped them.

"What is it, Anbu? Who is this?" The man grunted in a voice that crackled like a Policeman's Walkie-Talkie.

Selva suddenly noticed that Anbu was shivering beside him, when he answered. "This is my friend, Selva. He drives cars well. So, I thought Agilan na would want to..."

His voice trailed off into nothingness weakly.

The man walked straight to a room that was visible to their right and knocked on the door, before opening it. He disappeared for a moment or two before reappearing again and waving at them.

"Come in, Anbu."

They entered into the room. It was more brightly lit than the rest of the building.

Two men sat inside the room, wearing completely black outfits, on either sides of a table, talking. They stopped to look at the visitors.

One of them was a heavyset, balding man, with a cross hanging from his neck by a chain. Selva could almost hear his chair groaning from the stress of holding his weight. He had a thick mush of facial hair which was starkly different from his head. There was a keychain in his hand that he was absently playing with.

The man on the other side of the table was at least six foot tall, if not more. He had the build of a standard, textbook police officer that is usually emulated in Tamil movies. Selva imagined that this man could easily be cast as a protagonist in some movie, for he had an intimidating, yet smart, aura about him. Closely cropped hair and a handlebar moustache adorned his face. There was an unwrapped parcel before him on the table which revealed idlies drowned in a pool of sambar, that he had been eating before they had walked in.