A Man among Wolves

Chapter 9

The two severely wounded men couldn't be taken to any hospital since bringing in two gunshot victims would definitely cause unwanted attention. The information would be conveyed to the police and a lot of feathers would be ruffled. It was reckless to do so.

But Selva knew the right place to go to.

There was a hospital in T.Nagar whose chairman had close ties with Agilan and The Party. There were a couple of political messes that Agilan had rescued him from. Thus, it was always a place where Agilan's men got treated, in case of an emergency, as long as they remembered enough to enter unseen through the side entrance.

And this definitely was an emergency.

Although located in one of the posh areas of the city, the hospital looked far from it. Gloomy hallways where sunlight refused to enter, stretchers with broken wheels, the occasional sight of discarded syringes and cotton on the floor were the first things that Selva noticed. But the nurses had been quick to respond and the doctor began the First-Aid procedure in a timely manner. All Selva had to do was to mention Agilan's name to the right people.

Once, he had delivered the two injured men into safe hands, Selva was unsure of what he must do next. He decided to have another smoke, hoping it would help him think more clearly.

He sat on a bench in a corridor. There was no human in sight and as it was with the entire hospital, there was very little illumination here too. Absently, he ran his fingers along the rough edge of the bench. There were wooden chips sticking out of its surface and he fidgeted with them.

He lit another cigarette. This was his fourth one since he had started from Perungudi. The warmth of smoking it extended from his nostrils to the ends of his body, like the web of a spider.

There were a myriad of emotions that he felt (although which ones were the effect of continuous smoking was an unanswerable question!). They were heavy and contradictory at the same time. He wasn't familiar with many of those emotions. The only feeling he did recognize was the calmness. He felt calm enough to notice the smell of sweat and dried blood that his shirt was immersed in. He could also eavesdrop on the common banter of a few nurses from a room nearby. But at the same time, his brain was buzzing with a lot of activity by itself that he didn't feel the need to listen to that. On the whole, he was sitting amidst a lot of noise and flow of information and he could concentrate on any one of those strands of information, if he chose to. At that moment however, Selva was only interested in the clamour in his brain.

It was flashing images from the past couple of hours in quick succession. Those images included trees, dirt road, junkyard, the gun, Gugan's face in agony, Albert's head hanging dizzily from the edge of Gugan's muscular thigh and the images always ended with those eyes.

Those brown eyes that were at first resistant and then became stupefied.

In a way, they were like the face of an Ayyanar statue he had once seen in moonlight. They were powerful enough to be plastered into Selva's memory. He just had to close his eyes and they would appear. In fact, Selva wasn't even sure if he remembered anything else from Balaji Rangan's appearance except those eyes. He probably wouldn't even recognize him if he walked past him in the same corridor, unless their eyes met.

He began tapping his foot on the floor, staring into nothingness.

A nurse marched up to him out of nowhere and asked him to put out his cigarette.

His immediate urge, which surprised him, was to bark at her to run far away if the smoke bothered her. But he obliged. He was also obedient enough to throw the extinguished cigarette butt into a dustbin placed at a distance.

"Selva!"

He turned.

It was Agilan.

The sight of that man splashed ice-cold water into Selva's face. He jogged quickly to his employer's side, feeling an uncomfortable jolt inside him.

Agilan adjusted his black shades on his eyes. His other hand was busy with his phone. It was actually hard to identify him, dressed in black, in this ill-lit corridor. Selva wondered if he had been standing there all along, like a haunting spirit.

Selva expected Agilan to enquire about Gugan and Albert's health. But what came out of his mouth was enough to squeeze the air out of Selva's lungs thoroughly.

Shooting a glance across the uninhabited corridor, Agilan asked: "Is he dead?"

It could not even be called a whisper. It was quieter than that. Even if someone had been standing close to both of them, there was a big probability they would have missed his words. Perhaps, Selva's ears only managed to grab them because of his nicotine-induced alertness.

Selva's brain urged him to say something. Or nod his head. Or move any body part! Anything was better than this state of complete paralysis!

"Is he dead?" This one was a hiss. Like that of a snake. Those eyes were piercing him again.

Selva nodded. It was the reflex nod again.

The bottom dropped out of him, at that very moment. His body was going into a state of free-fall while he stood rigidly. He wasn't sure if he would have been able to answer any other questions.

Thankfully, Agilan didn't ask any.

"Go home!" He muttered, shoving his phone into his pocket. "Stay hidden for a few days. I will call you when you are required. Don't get caught."

With that, he turned on his feet and walked off briskly. His hands were already taking out a tobacco packet.