Bombay Romance ♡ COMPLETED

[ 53 ] Chakravyuh ■

Twenty days ago:

'Did he really say that?' Rajshekaran asks again.

'Yes bhai, you have to hear it yourself.'

The hospital ICU ward is quiet and lit up with bright tubelights. Long blue curtains line the windows and the scrubbed white floor reeks of antiseptic cleaners. Rajashekaran is seated on the metal chair beside the patient's bed, wearing his usual white-and-white shirt and dhoti. He has finally been granted bail, subject to conditions, for the flesh trade allegation case. His men stand still in the background.

As Amarnath had anticipated, the newspapers and initial reports said it was Suraj's men who killed five of Rajashekaran's men near the port on Ganesh Chaturthi. But what nobody knows is that all five are not dead. One of them has been discreetly shifted to a hospital by Rajashekaran's henchmen and he has regained consciousness after two whole days.

The boy had mumbled the name of the person who shot at him and four others at the port. Upon hearing it, Rajashekaran's men had stepped back, gaping at each other in terror. They panicked and insisted he personally visit the hospital and listen to what the boy had to say.

Right now, as they wait patiently, the boy slowly opens his eyes again and takes off his ventilator mask, breathing heavily. 'Bhai ... Raju Bhai ... '

'Who was it?' Rajashekran asks slowly. 'Did you see him properly?'

'It was him, Bhai ... I saw ... ' The boy breathes. He remembers the fleeting moments after the first round of bullets was shot when Arun asked him to fetch help. He ran in between the stacked-up cargo shipment boxes and collided with someone who lifted the gun and shot at him. A fraction of a second he saw the person's face before the AK47 bullets whacked into his stomach.

'Yes, bhai ... ' he says now. ' ... I saw him only for one second. But ... I'm sure, Bhai ... ' The boy says, panting. 'Nakkica ... it was DCP Amarnath'

●●●

Present Day:

'Sorry Bhai, I-I shouldn't hav-' Suraj Bhai mutters apologetically. 'You're like my elder brother. And I listened to some third person and ... maaf kar de bhai.'

Rajashekaran pats his arm, his usually oiled and combed salt and pepper hair scruffy. 

'It's my mistake also. I should have known better. I don't know Parthiban's intention when he told me about you ... he and that Amarnath, they don't get along at all. And I've got people watching them; they aren't in contact also. Why he said all that ... ' he says doubtfully and pauses. 'He must be brainwashed ... I'll talk to him after all this is over ... '

Suraj's eyes suddenly fill up with rage. He jams his fits against the sofa's armrest, the only furniture in the dimly lit room apart from the rickety table stationing some drinks.

'I'll not spare that madarchod Amarnath,' he says savagely. 'He's done too much. Kitty, Arun ... he's killed so many of our men! Now he's trying to make us fight with each other ... Raju Bhai, I'll not ... I won't spare him!!'

'Suraj ... sit down.'

But Suraj doesn't listen. 'It seems he's roaming around with some lawyer girl.'