The Teak Forest

Chapter 5

Ram

The stench of low-grade wine made my nose twitch. The great officer Ram now has to rely on a drunkard to find his wife. What an idea.

"I don't like him," I told Shankar who was standing next to me.

"You're not a bride to choose a man, and you're in no position to do so, we have to work with what we got," He whispered to me.

The tapping sound of the rain on the roof tent calmed me down significantly.

"Officers..." The drunk man started. "Myself Prabu, Forest officer for this area" He introduced himself with a shaky salute and took a sip from his bottle.

"Do you know where Veera is?" Shankar asked him.

"I..." He trailed off. "I do..." I raised my eyebrows. "But not for sure..."

"Tell us what you know," I sat on the floor next to him.

"What would I get from it?" He asked. "Veera will kill me if I help you, My life is at stake.....here, what do you...
have to offer?" He looked at me with an irritating smile on his face.

"What do you want?" I asked him.

"Uh...A promotion for my serv...ices, a medal and some money...for my family.," He raised his eyebrows "Will you do it for me?"

"deal," I agreed to him, but he didn't reply, instead, he just stared at me, waiting for me to do something. "What?"

"Do you think I'll trust your mere words?" He laughed.

I fisted my hands in frustration and looked at Shankar."I-I'll send Bala with some cash," He walked outside leaving us alone.

"Tell me now," I moved closer. "Where is he?"

"After you guys destroyed...their village with the," He scratched his eyebrows. "bombs...They moved north," He took another sip from his bottle.

"Where?" I asked, he pointed at the window behind me, and I looked back. Behind the heavy rainfall, a beautiful scenery raised.

A series of mountains raised up and down and up and down in the distance. They looked completely green, Pavi is in there somewhere, he is in there somewhere and I'll find them.

"I'll meet you tomorrow morning, be sober, We need you" I got up.

"Sirrr...Even when drunk, I'm clear as day," he blabbered, he slowly began falling asleep on the ground. I took out an umbrella from the rack and went outside.

"Shankar!" I yelled. I walked towards his tent, the mud puddles made my boots and socks wet, which reminded me of the times I and Pavi used to play in the rain. Kicking our legs, making meaningless arguments, and...just loving each other to the core.

I pushed open the front covers and entered the tent. "Can't you--" He was crying. "Why are you crying?" I sat next to him.

He shook his head and wiped his tears, His hands were shaking pretty badly. "Cold," He said with a shaky voice.

"Do you want to go home?" I asked him, He refused. His eyes didn't stay in one place, they swayed here and there clearly indicating that he was lying.

"We need to find your wife first," He patted my shoulders. "It'll get better," He said pointing at his nose.

He can hide his little secret for as long as he wants, I don't have time to take care of any of his tantrums, I already have a full plate.

1) Kill Veera.

2) Rescue Pavi.

"by the way, the new troops just arrived, I can arrange a meeting if you want," He suggested. I nodded in agreement. After he left the tent, I jumped into my uniform, picked up my police cap, and looked at myself in the mirror. I ran my hand through my light stubble.

"You should probably shave, Ram," I heard Pavi's voice judging me, even if she isn't there with him. I put on on cap and left my tent.

"Sir," an inspector saluted at me. I nodded in acknowledgment. He was the local inspector for this area.

"What's the status, Mister Jagan," I asked him as we made our way to the meeting house.

"They executed their plan perfectly sir, not a single mistake or evidence," He said.

"Is the government paying you to compliment them?" I asked.

"No Sir," He said in a low voice. "Our officers who were responsible for guarding ma'am at the festival are hospitalized, I've informed them to call us when they're awake,"

"Hmm," I hummed as I pushed open the meeting house's synthetic sheets. "Take a seat," I offered the officer, Jagan took a seat at the end of the table. I removed my cap and gun sling and placed them on the table.

The officers stood up and greeted me when I entered the place.

"Most of you already know Veera I presume," I started. The officers nodded in agreement. "If it was any other criminal I would've finished this case with just my officers, but he's not any other criminal," I touched the bridge of my nose, "There are people who are ready to throw themselves into the fire for him," I said. "Why?" I asked Jagan.

"Sir...You've only been working on this case for five months, I've been working on it for five years," Jagan started.

Still, he was not able to even touch him.

"Veera is a God for some, A demon for others," He looked at me and stood up. "He has a case in every single police station surrounding this district, 63 to be exact," He clarified.

"Then why didn't you arrest him," A young lad asked.

"We can't touch him, people surrendered in place of him and we had no evidence to prove anything," He paused. "That's why we called an SP, him," He pointed at him. "To fix everything, but he just screwed everything up," He said disgustedly.

"Mind you, I did more in five months than you did in five years," I spat. "I put a bullet in that man, twice," I stepped forward.

"Is that the only thing you did?" he stepped forward. The tension between us was fuming, it took me everything to stop myself from putting my fist in his face. Shaker took notice of it and separated us.

"Sir...Calm down, We need their help," He made me sit down.

Japan took a deep breath and resumed talking to the officers. "Manorajan, Veera's older brother," He stuck a picture of a man, who looked about thirty, round and pompous to the board.

"He takes care of the verbal disputes between the villages, his younger brother, Sekar," He stuck a picture of a younger man, in his early twenties, he looked more level-headed than Veera and his older brother.

"Then the man himself, Veera," He stuck a picture of Veera laughing maniacally onto the board. "for any violent activity which takes place in this district, Veera will be there ten minutes before, causing the chaos...Or five minutes after to get revenge on whoever caused it," He looked at me again. "Maybe that's why he abducted your wife," He said sarcastically.

What is up with this dude? Why is he trying to one-up me?

"This case is not about my wife but about getting rid of a dangerous criminal, that is Veera," I half lied.

"Right..." Jagan narrowed his eyes.

"Thank you," I got up forcefully, picked up my cap, and left the meeting house. I began stomping to my tent, Shanker caught up with me after a few minutes.

"is anyone normal in this town?" I let out. "Or are you deliberately finding people like this? First that forest officer now him," I scoffed. "Keep an eye on Jagan," I said as soon as we entered my tent.

Something's not right about him. I've worked with him before, he was not like this, what made him so bitter now?