I was woken up by the frosty concrete floor beneath me. My eyes felt heavy, my head was throbbing, and I felt hammered. I was struggling to focus my mind on my surroundings. I pulled myself up from the floor and strained to sit upright.
The brief reprieve provided me with enough strength to stand up. My squinting eyes could finally locate a door. But as I tried walking towards it, I felt a force on my left leg not allowing me to move forward. I looked down and saw my left leg being chained to a peg sticking out of the floor. The room was completely vacant and there was no furniture or any window which could clue me in as to where I was held, hostage.
The last thing I remembered before being unconscious was the taste of the halwa prepared by Koushik Dada. Suddenly it dawned on me that the halwa might be the very source of my current predicament. My mind struggled to find any coherent reason as to why Koushik Dada, a person who adored and loved me could do such a thing to me. A part of me wondered if I was wrong and both, I and Koushik Da were in danger.
I knew I did not have time to dwell on the what's and how's of my situation. The only thing mattered right now was getting out of my chains and finding my way back home. Wondering if anybody was around who could help me, I let out a shout.
"HELLO... IS ANYONE AROUND? PLEASE HEELLLP MEEE..."
I could hear the loud echo of my voice resonating within the room. I waited with bated breath for somebody to respond to my cry for help. The longer I waited, the louder the deafening silence became. I kept repeating my cry for help numerous times. For the first time in 11 years I understood what it feels to be scared.
As my voice began to turn hoarse with exhaustion. I was desperately craving my mom's safe hug and presence. At that moment, all kinds of thoughts started running through my mind. At one point I hoped that by some miracle if my Dad or Miss Sengupta and her team would just come breaking through that door and scoop me away from here to the safety of my bedroom.
As I laid myself down on the floor by the peg, with an exhausted body and battered mind, I started losing hope as the resounding silence assaulted my ears. With seemingly endless hours passing by, I was barely holding on to hope when I heard the sound of firecrackers outside the room.
A few moments later, the door was broken and someone fell through the door right next to me. I shuddered and dragged myself away from the person.
Someone else was walking through the door. I could not see much of his face as it was covered with a black cloth. By the looks of it, the man seemed well built and had a striking resemblance to my father.
I saw Capt. Sagar and his three friends in uniform with guns in their hand, trailing the man with the covered face. Suddenly it dawned to me that the sound of firecrackers was probably the sound of the guns they were carrying. I wondered if my mind was playing tricks on me and somehow my desperate hopes had shaped this reality.
"Are you all right, my dear?" Captain Sagar asked me.
As he walked towards me. His familiar voice broke my catatonia and shocked state.
"I am alright Sir... But my legs..." pointing my fingers towards the shackles, "are hurting me...".
On hearing this, Sagar sir sat down next to me and pulled me up in his arms in a consoling hug. His comforting embrace calmed my nerves and I could feel my pain subsiding.
"JP bhai...Please remove her chains. The poor child is in pain."
"HEY... where are the 68' Whiskey's?"
Upon his command, his team began trying to break me out of the chains. The man with the covered face exited the room.
As I peeked over Sagar Sir's shoulder, I could see the mysterious stranger coming back into the room. He was dragging a man by his collar behind him. Upon having a closer look to check out the man who was being dragged, I recognized him. It was Rahat, the Banerjee's gardener.
I hated him so much that I never could gather enough respect for him to address him as Kaku. He is a pervert. He looked very scared and frightened beyond his wits by the towering and scary demeanour of the masked guy.
I heard a snap and looked down to see my leg being freed from the chains. As I felt relieved, I was welcomed by the familiar faces of my mother and Miss. Sengupta walking behind the man pulling Rahat. Along with them were 2 army officers, who rushed to my side and started inspecting my feet for wounds.
They had a tag on their arm which spelled A.M.C. The masked man kept mumbling to Rahat in a mean voice, "You like touching children na, you fucking pervert."
Suddenly, he came to a halt. With one swooping motion, he wrapped his fingers around Rahat's throat and pushed him up against the wall. As he struggled to breathe, with his body hanging one feet above the ground, the man started yelling.
"HOW DO YOU LIKE IT NOW? HOW DO YOU LIKE WHEN I TOUCH YOU. YOU SAD PATHETIC EXCUSE OF A MAN..." Landing a gut-wrenching punch straight to his privates with his one free hand.
As Rahat coughed under the continuous blows and punches, the man continued in the same pitch, "HOW DARE YOU LAY YOUR DIRTY HANDS ON MY DAUGHTER."
"Dad, is that you?" I asked alarmed by the familiar voice and the mention of the word daughter. Prompted by my voice, the stranger looked towards me.
"Jairus, I think its time for you to discard your disguise." My mother chimed in.
"Mr. Christopher, please let go of this man. We need him to know the truth." Mrs. Sengupta prompted. As I saw the familiar face of my dad revealed from behind the mask, I pushed myself away from Sagar sir's arms and rushed to my dad.
My dad picked me up in his arms and hugged me tightly. His long and familiar hug consoled me.
After a long time, he put me down and checked my leg for injuries. On seeing the bruise mark on my leg, he asked me, "Does it hurt my dear?" and pressed gently on the bruise.
As I wailed in pain, he stood up, caught hold of the guy lying next to Sagar sir and started punching him on the face this time. I have never seen this angry and aggressive side of my father before. Sagar Sir and his friends intervened and tried restraining my dad in an attempt to save the man from his wrath.
"STOP SIR... YOU ARE GOING TO KILL HIM." Sagar sir continued yelling trying to stop my dad.
It took the four of them several minutes before they could pull my dad away from that man. I could not help but feel scared by this angry side of my dad. As he controlled himself and glanced towards me, something in my expression seemed to have a calming effect on him and he restrained himself.
Looking at my face he said, "I can see that you have a lot of questions on your mind right now. I know you have never seen this side of me. I am sorry dear for frightening you."
"Its ok Dad. I know how much you love me and care for me. But what I don't understand is why are you wearing an uniform" I asked.
Mom came towards me and replied, "Honey, your dad is not who you think he is. He is Commander Jairus Christopher, of the MARCOS(Marine Commandoes). Because of his nature of work, this was kept secret from the 2 of you."
I couldn't believe what I just heard but after witnessing this hostile and commandeering version of my dad I was convinced that this might be true.
Suddenly dad caught hold of me by my right arm and said: "You might be having lots of questions right now, and I think it's time for you to know everything."
"Actually... I don't have a lot of questions, I have only one. Why did Koushik dada drug me?" I asked.
Dad looked at me and countered my question, "Are you sure Koushik drugged you? Try to recall what happened when you stepped out of the house to get on his motorcycle."
Dad's counter-question made me think back to what happened that moment after I had the halwa and walked out of the house. After a lot of reminiscing, I finally recalled feeling like something biting me on my neck and me blacking out after that. Before I fell unconscious, I remembered a silver-coloured SUV entering our premises.
"But how did you guys find me and what happened at the house?" I asked.
Dad looked sad and replied, "Before you know what happened at the house, we want you to be strong to endure what you are going to hear from us."
I saw dad caught hold of Rahat's collar once again and continued "Want to start talking or you want me to start convincing you." and raised his fist to punch him on his face.
Rahat raised his hands and tried covering his face and pleaded "Please don't hit me, I will talk."
Before Rahat could start talking, Miss. Sengupta received a call. "Hello..."
"Yes sir... tell me"
"Ok... we will be ready, just let us know where to meet you?" and disconnected the call.
Miss Sengupta looked at us and stated "It was Mr. Tribeni Mazumdar. He and his men have caught someone. He wants Commander Christopher to meet. Further, Babul and his old friends were able to get in touch with someone whom Brigadier Shahi would be really interested to talk to."
The man with the big moustache stepped forward, he was the same person who was at our home the other night. "What are you talking about Miss Sengupta?"
"It was Babul who called and informed about an incident which happened seven years ago and how it was linked to you, Commander Christopher and Abhinu. They have apprehended a man who has knowledge of a secret related to Colonel Banerjee and once they reach Purulia, they will hand over the custody to Mr. N.N. who will ensure that the military police gets the custody of that man. You wight want to know what he has to say about the murder of Col. Banerjee. He will call again to share the location," replied Miss Sengupta.
There was a lengthy silence, and Miss Sengupta advanced towards Rahat and shouted menacingly: "DO I HAVE TO SEND YOU AN INVITATION TO TALK?"
With all the people coercing him from all directions, Rahat looked helpless and was left with no choice but to talk.
He began, "That morning when Ma'am," looking towards my mom he continued, "came to the hospital and asked Banerjee sir and her son to go and have breakfast, he doubted that you were up to something. So as soon as they left, he called me up and instructed to keep a watch over your house."
"He enquired Geeta about her conversation with Ma'am to which she informed him that she was just asking about her leg and the incident that led to the fracture of her left leg."
Suddenly Sagar sir leapt like a lion and caught hold of Rahat's neck and shouted "THAT'S A BOY YOU PERVERT... NOT A GIRL... STOP CALLING HIM A SHE... AND HIS NAME IS ABHINU..."
The other officers rushed towards Sagar sir and tried to pull him away from Rahat. Suddenly a familiar voice called out "Captain Stand down"
"Sir, he disrespected and violated a child. He doesn't deserve to live," replied Sagar sir.
"Captain... STAND DOWN... THIS IS AN ORDER..." shouted the man with the moustache.
The commanding voice was enough to calm him down and he let go of Rahat, but not before landing a good punch on his face, knocking 3 of his teeth out of his mouth. "Start talking...".
As blood dripped from his battered face, Rahat continued, "I continued monitoring your house, and saw a lot of people gather in your house in the evening. I crossed over the fence, eavesdropped on your conversation, and overheard your plans to trap Mr. Banerjee by digging up the child's past."
"I called up Banerjee sir and informed him of your strategy."
"He told me that the boy will turn 13 in another month, and the doctor needs him alive. The day he turns 13, his body's immune system will be strong enough to withstand a uterus transplant. Once that is complete, he will be the first child in history to be transformed from a boy into a girl. Till date no child had survived a full sex-reassignment surgery. However in case of Abhinu, every test conducted on him was successful and so they wants the child safe for the final stages of the surgery. Fearing that during the final stages of our experiment we cannot afford to lose our golden goose and we very well knew that all of you might plan a rescue or something worse, we planned to take him away to a safe place where none of you could lay your hands on him."
Before continuing further, Rahat started rubbing his neck and begged: "Please can I have some water?"
I saw Sagar sir take out a flask of water attached to his belt. As he was about to hand him the water to drink, dad snatched the bottle from his hand, sat next to Rahat, held him by the collar with his left hand and asked: "Did you give my daughter anything to eat or drink the last 2 days you kept her in your captivity."
I couldn't believe I was in restraint for 2 days and it took them that long to find me. As I was deep in thought, I heard dad's loud voice growl again "I DIDN'T HEAR YOU... WHAT DID YOU SAY?" and saw dad pouring the water from the bottle into the floor. "You are saying something..."
Rahat didn't utter a single word about the water and continued " When we saw everyone leaving the house, I called up sir and informed him about you leaving. He called boudi and told her that he had to leave for Kolkata for some work and asked his elder daughter to be in the hospital. Our plan was to kill the family and incriminate the eldest daughter for it."
"When everyone's attention would be diverted at the murder of the family, we would have taken the boy away to the doctor."
"And how did you plan to do that?" asked dad.
"Sir, had paid money to the inhouse doctor that night to send him to Mother-Teresa hospital for a check-up which cannot be done there. On the way to the hospital, we were supposed to attack the ambulance and kidnap the boy and the eldest daughter and a few days later we would have killed her too. I was instructed to feed misinformation to the cops that she is in love with your son, and since boudi was prohibiting her from meeting him, she lost her mind and threatened to kill everyone at home."
"But how could you have proven that she is capable of doing such a thing." Miss Sengupta asked.
"It would have been easy to inculpate her on account of her bad temper. Right after the family shifted to Purulia from Kolkata, she was admitted to a trauma centre and was held there for three months because she assaulted Geeta...," he saw Sagar sir's angry face when he said the word Geeta, "sorry Abhinu... she beat him up with a leather belt till he was unconscious. He was in coma for nearly 3 months. Sir had to bring doctors from abroad to get him treated, during which time his elder daughter was sent off to a trauma centre for anger management therapy."
"So after his elder daughter left for the hospital, Sir came back home and we waited for the lights to be turned off at your residence. I made sure that Darika and Garima would be unconscious and not feel a thing by mixing Xanax on their food when we were killing them. But then something unplanned happened. The girls were so excited to know that their punching bag was coming back the next day, they went off to sleep without consuming their food."
Upon hearing this, I was really fuming with rage at Darika and Garima. They had started to take the good nature of Abhinu for granted.
"As the girls slept without taking their drugged meal, we used chloroform to make them lose consciousness,"
Rahat continued. "We tied their hands and sir shot them on their head. The sound of the weapon woke boudi and uncle had to shoot her too."
"After killing them, we left the house to execute the next plan. The doctor was asked to make sure the ambulance leaves the hospital at exactly 1:00 AM and at 1:15 it would cross the station gate where we would attack the ambulance. Sir waited in Gopaldham lodge which is right next to the highway, so that when he receives the call from the cops to inform him about the murder of his family he can tell them that he is travelling and would take time to return."
I was stunned, and the shocked expression on the face of every person at that moment must have resembled mine. What we all had just heard is just unbelievable.
"But if your plan was to kidnap Abhinu and the elder daughter, why on earth did you kidnap my son?" asked mom.
"The kidnapping never happened… When we heard about the kidnapping, we figured it was you guys who committed it, so he asked me to round up all of our men and capture the weakest link amongst you so that he can make a deal with you to get Geeta back."
Upon hearing the word Geeta, Sagar sir shouted again "I am ordering you not to call him by the name."
Before Rahat could say another word, both my Mom and dad began to laugh loudly. Everyone looked at them in a confused look and then Sengupta Aunty asked "What's wrong with you two… what there to laugh?"
Dad was still unable to control his laughter and replied "Weakest like my foot… if you guys would not have hit her with the tranquiliser dart… it would have taken atleast 7 or 8 guys like this Rahat to kidnap our little Monika. She is a trained level 6 advanced Kalaripayatu fighter and has been trained in weapon and hand-to-hand combat by none other than Gurukkal Sri Shankara Narayana Menon."
Sagar sir looked at me and smiled proudly. Rahat continued
"I am sorry sir," he folded his palms together in a gesture of seeking forgiveness.
Mom interrupted Rahat and asked "Wait a minute... You don't know where Joe is, we didn't kidnap Joe..." mom looked at Miss Sengupta and continued "I hope you don't have anything to do with this?"
"Nope... I and Babul left for Kolkata that same evening... I arrived today... Babul and his men are reaching back day after tomorrow..." Replied Miss Sengupta.
I saw the worried look on Mom's face, Miss Sengupta touched my mom's arm and replied: "Please trust us, Mrs. Christopher, we are going to find Joe."
She suddenly turned to look at Rahat and asked "I have one question I need to know…"
Everyone stopped in their tracks and looked at Miss Sengupta "You claim to be a gardener… but how come you know about Xanax, Uterus Transplant, Sex Reassignment Surgery or Immune System… These things only a learned man would know about… You are not a gardener whom you claim to be…"
"Ma'am do you think the doctor would leave one of his test subjects without anyone to look after him in case there is any medical complications…" he paused and rubbed his dry neck with his hands and continued "I was asked by the doctor to keep a watch on him and occasionally conduct tests to check how tough he is, both physically and mentally. The doctor believes that if the surgery is successful, Abhinu will need to be mentally strong to survive his new life as a woman. I am a fully qualified clinical psychologist."
What kind of a twisted mentality these guys have. They have ruined the life of a Abhinu for the sake of a twisted experiment.
Suddenly Rahat asked "But how did you find us. No one knows about this place, and we made absolutely sure no one followed us."
Hearing his question Miss Sengupta looked at him, caught hold of him by his tattered shirt and raised him up, and then before any of us could understand, she landed a kick into his kneecap. As he felt down wailing in pain she replied, "You don't need to know how we found this place. Where we are going to send you now, this answer will have no significance."
Dad looked at Mom and continued "Aki, I think you should take her home, she is exhausted and hungry." he looked at me and pinched my cheek softly and said "Sweety... I made a promise to Abhinu 6 years back about protecting him, and now the time has come."
The man whom Miss Sengupta earlier referred to as Brigadier Shahi started discussing something with Dad, Sagar Sir, and his team and then looked at Mom and said: "Mrs. Christopher I will drop you home."
As I was following mom, Brigadier Shahi saw me limping and asked me if I needed any help. He picked me up in his arms and as we stepped out of the room.
I saw a few bodies covered in blood lying on the floor. I tried to ignore and shut my eyes to what I just saw. As we walked out of the house, there was a group of people standing outside. It was a huge crowd consisting of about thirty people and of them, some were wearing ragged clothes and a few of them were dressed in sarees and wearing trashy pieces of jewelry.
Their features were not feminine and they were wearing very heavy makeup. It suddenly dawned on me that these were the friends about whom Koushik dada informed me the other day.
Suddenly I heard the sound of gunshots coming from inside the room and Brigadier Shahi telling me "Monika... your friend has no need to fear Rahat's group of goons anymore... We have taken care of them... They have been dispersed to their rightful place."
TO BE CONTINUED…