Burn The World

Chemical

It was 1 am. Meerab was pacing anxiously inside the lounge, wringing her fingers and biting her lip with worry. She felt sick. Her legs felt like jelly and she was sure bile would rise up to her throat soon. Murtasim had been gone for hours now.

He had received an urgent call in the late afternoon. Meerab had no clue what it was about, but she had seen the colour drain in Murtasim’s face and his demeanour turn angry.

He’d rushed off immediately, not telling her where he was going, but he quickly mumbled something about ‘urgent business issues’.

At first she managed to brush off her nagging worry that something major was wrong, but now that hours had passed and he hadn’t picked up any of her calls, Meerab was panicking. She called as many staff members as she could, but they were just as clueless as her as to where Murtasim could’ve gone. Naurez wasn’t picking up either.

Meerab had run across their building’s level to Mai and Bakhtu’s flat to see if they knew what had happened. Mai mentioned Bakhtu had also left just as suddenly to accompany Murtasim to wherever it was he had gone. Bakhtu had told her the same thing; Urgent business. Don’t worry.

But it’s been so long now! What business meeting takes place in the middle of the night? How should I not worry? Should I call the police?

It was just as she was thinking this when the door knob rattled due to the sound of a key opening it. Meerab rushed to the front door as it swung open.

The sight she saw didn’t calm her heart though. Murtasim stood there, but he looked dishevelled and a little weak. Behind him stood Naurez and Bakhtu and they both looked dishevelled as well.

“What happened?” asked Meerab confused and frightened.

“One second Meerab. We’ll explain,” responded Naurez. “Let Murtasim come in.”

Murtasim stepped inside, but his steps were slow and he looked like his back was in pain. Not caring who was watching, Meerab took him by the arm and led him to a couch in the lounge. Murtasim smiled gratefully at her and lowered himself onto the couch slowly, but he winced in pain again. Meerab noted that he didn’t lean his back against the couch; rather he sat hunched forward slightly, his elbows resting on his legs. He also wasn’t wearing the same shirt he had left the house in. He was wearing a much looser t-shirt that clearly wasn’t his own. Naurez and Bakhtu also traipsed inside and took seats opposite him.

“What happened?” Meerab asked again, taking turns to look at each one of them.

“Meerab, sit down first,” said Murtasim. His voice sounded fairly stable despite him looking weary. Murtasim patted the spot next to him. Meerab sat down at his command.

It was Naurez who answered. “Well the story starts with how we’ve all had our doubts about Pirwani for a while now. To make a long story short, he’s been committing embezzlement, fraud and corruption throughout our mills.”

A look of comprehension passed across Meerab’s face. “Is that why you came out of the blue to attend to the business?” asked Meerab suddenly, turning her head towards Murtasim. “You’ve never run the business personally before. You’ve always preferred to do caretaking of the lands.”

Murtasim nodded slowly. Meerab could tell he wasn’t feeling up to speaking too much so she turned her attention back towards Naurez for more answers.

Naurez continued speaking. “Murtasim’s been reviewing the accounts, noting our losses and collecting evidence against him so we can have a strong case against him in court. We’ve had people trail Pirwani too but he always managed to dodge them after a few days. Nevertheless the work was pretty much done and we were close to getting him arrested. But today one of our informants tipped us off that he was planning on running away to Dubai on a private jet.”