That Week in April

Closing In...

Back at home, I bit my lips and started thinking hard. What on earth was happening in the Park? Ever since I came here 10 years ago, I had known the colony to be very peaceful. But these two strange incidents were making me think otherwise. And the Gunpowder House was an aged building, and lied in a dilapidated state. Many of my friends even called it Bhoot Bangla (Haunted House). The place seldom drew any attention from any passersby. So, maybe those men were storing illegal arms and ammunitions...

A faint picture came across my mind. It was of the lean and thin man dressed in a guerrilla outfit with an AK-47 pointed straight at my head. "Bang"... "The bullet must have hit me, and I am dying, I suppose.."-I thought. But as I opened my eyes slowly and gulped, I saw Srijan laughing his head off. It was actually Srijan who had come to call me for a CSGO match.

(CSGO is one of the most popular computer games, and is a regular category in all Esports events. Owing to the lockdown, even I and Srijan had downloaded the game.)

Perhaps I was just thinking too much about the two incidents. I decided to divert my mind for some time. So, soon we were up on the same side of Counter Terrorists, on the way to defuse a bomb on the Dust 2 map- with a terrorist still lurking around, trying to defend the bomb.

We didn't have much time. The bomb would explode. We switched from primary guns to our knives, and rushed faster to Bombsite A.

As I turned around the corner just before Bombsite A, I saw a projectile headed straight for me. I was too stunned to do anything.

"Dada, get away from there!"-Srijan shouted, but before I could take cover, the frag grenade unleashes it's lethality and kills me.

I took off my headphones and watched Srijan taking on the enemy as well as the bomb single-handedly. He throws a smoke grenade before barging in to the bombsite. A full round of AK-47 spray followed, and a drop of sweat trickled down Srijan's head when he barely managed to survive from the spray. I could now hear the bomb ticking down.

But now the odds were totally against Srijan. Having an AWP while on just 1 XP health against an unforgivable enemy, with the bomb adding to all the problems... A smoke grenade lands in front of Srijan. It seemed the terrorist was hell bent on finishing Srijan. Before I could spot the faint outline of the enemy, Srijan gives the death blow with a single shot of his AWP without his scope on. But there wasn't much time...The bomb started beeping faster. Srijan somehow managed to defuse the bomb, thanks to the defusal kit he had picked up.

"Dada, that was one hell of a match!"- Srijan exclaimed.

"Yeah, you played very well! But how did you sense the enemy through the smoke cloud?"-I asked, curious to know about his game sense.

"Observation...Sometimes you need to observe well... From the footsteps, I could pretty well understand that the enemy was barging in from the right. I didn't have much time before the bomb exploded, so I took the chance and fired. It clicked!"- He beams happily.

"Nice! That was smart indeed!!"- I told, taking in the word "observe"...

I had to observe well...

Finally, I got freshened up. I sat on my study table after breakfast. I opened my drawer to find the chit, neatly folded in half. Half an hour passed and still no progress...I casually started scrolling the pictures I took this morning. As I moved my eyes from one photo to another, my eyes got stuck in one of the photographs of the annex. It was on the back side.

I looked at one photograph after other and then again back to this picture. The last arch's design striked my attention, almost immediately.

Strange! Of all the arches I saw, this one seemed pretty offset. In fact, the arch's beauty had been ruined by adding a rectangular group of bricks. But why would there be such a drastic change to one of them? What was the man looking here yesterday?