Yaathreegan (a.k.a The Journeyman)

CHAPTER 3

Somewhere in the countryside,

I was waiting for kezhava who decided to go out for a nature call. A month had passed since 'Klang Raid' as it was termed by the police. The organization was called the 'Alam Syndicate' and the police only went public about the counterfeit money operations. I guessed that if they went public with whatever we saw it would've been tantamount to scaring tourists away from Malaysia. They never went public about the slave shops and drug operations. Man, the things we saw in there, if a normal man saw them he'd go insane. Things like these made me question the world.

Just when I was about to dip myself into deep dark hole of contemplation, I was interrupted by the sudden opening of the car door. It was kezhava.

"Fuff, you scared me, kezhava"

"What da? Dreaming ah?"

"Ok, where to?"

"We need to get to Kuala Perlis"

"That's a six hour drive, this piece of junk won't make it"

"We've got no other choice, kutti payya. We're short on liquidity"

I gritted my teeth and followed on with no choice. Meanwhile, kezhava took out another bottle of booze, compliments from Klang, and started to chug it down this time with water mixed in.

"Want some?" he asked

"No I'm a tee-total and I can't while driving."

"Chicken" he said trying to provoke me but never am I touching that. Kuala Perlis a border city between Malaysia and Thailand. Many tourists take road trips from Bangkok to Langkawi just to take in the sights. The border is always safe and those with a Malaysian passport are given a free visa into Thailand and vice versa.

"Hey kezhava, I never asked you this. Have you got a family?"

"Kutti payya wants to know about me, I'm touched."

"Just wanted to ask, so we could have a conversation and its kinda odd that you know literally everything about me but I don't know much about you"

"Fair point" he said gritting his teeth bitterly.

"Okay, huh, where do I start? I was in this trade from the time I was fourteen-years-old and operated out in Chennai. I never had a proper mentor, like you did, but I always had friends, comrades whom I could trust and in this trade it is very hard to find people like that. I had my first kill when I was 17-years-old. He was a local don of the slums, he slashed my best friend's face. I took a skewer and drove it into the base of his skull when he was in the brothel shagging off a girl younger than me. Later, my friend and I jumped onto a cargo ship and managed to get out of the country. My friend and I, we visited a lot of countries, saw both sides of society, learned to blend in, smuggle, kill, fight by working for different gangs. It was a normal smuggling routine in the French Alps and that was when I saw her............"

I was listening intently on his story while driving and never did I notice kezhava get wasted and an empty bottle. It was futile to wake him up once he gets wasted and he just had to get wasted at the most interesting part. Damn, kezhava had been through a lot. My age would just be half his experience. I was only in this trade for 7 years but he's practically made the trade as his life. This got me real scared.

Would I turn out like him?

Only time would tell

**********

6 hours later, Kuala Perlis

I parked the car in front of a restaurant and woke up kezhava.