Agumbe Ghat… Climbing Up…

It took few minutes for my eyes, once opened, to adjust to the dull light of the bulb glowing without any enthusiasm right above my head. I looked to my right; the face of the person standing beside me was duller than the bulb. I looked to my left; Sandy was standing beside me blinking his eyes as fast as he could. I bent a little and found Shetty staring in front of him. I too followed his vision and looked to my front. A man, who seemed to be in his mid fifties, clean shave, hair neatly combed just like Shetty, wearing spects, stood in front of us. Behind him stood the two kidnappers. Another person who looked similar to them except for he had a clean shave, stood far behind them leaning to the door smoking a cigarette.

The whole setup looked similar to the climax scene of the films of 80’s and 90’s!

“Where is the toy?” he said in a soothing voice after a complete two minute silence.

“Now don’t tell me people get kidnapped because of toys in this century when the kids are busy with X-Box” I whispered to God, who was busy playing his X-Box.

“Which toy?” Sandy asked

“The one he bought today morning near the beach” the man leaning to the door said, in his coarse voice, pointing at Shetty.

All three of us were dumbstruck and looked at each other with our eyes wide open.

“Search his bag” said the person, again with his soothing voice.

The person standing to my right walked to the corner of the room, picked Shetty’s bag, opened all the zips and started searching it. Within seconds his hands came out holding the wooden doll, a woman with her head oscillating in all the directions. Every time I saw her, she looked cuter, her smile her eyes neatly painted and her head that never rested in one position. But why was that so important all of a sudden?

The man with soothing voice, who was the boss, turned back towards the smoker. The smoker threw his cigarette and walked towards the corner of the room and took the doll and walked straight out of the room. 

Their sign of talking in signals looked cool, just like the films. I was so impressed by all that, I had almost forgotten we were kidnapped and still in danger.

Within minutes, he walked back and whispered into the ears of his boss. There was faint smile on the face of boss. He nodded without speaking anything and the smoker walked out of the room.

“Tie them up again” the boss said and walked out without even looking at us.

The three giants tied us tightly and walked out closing the door behind us. They dint bother to blindfold us this time.

We three were again left alone clueless.

“Shit man, they took my doll” Shetty said meekly

“Shut up. Atleast they left us alive” Sandy said.

“But why did they want it so badly?” I asked

“Who the hell knows buddy. If I knew if this is all gonna happen I would never have even touched it” Shetty said.

“There must be something about it. This is not as simple as it looks” Sandy said to which we both nodded.

We sat in silence for some time till even the faintest sound from the farthest land died down. It was dark everywhere, not even a sign of light, except for a white line between the window door from where the moonlight was trying to sneak in along with the chilled wind.

“We will run” Sandy whispered

“What??” both Shetty and I said together.

“We will escape from here” Sandy continued, “who knows what they will do? Who they are?”

“By the way they tracked us just for that doll, it seems they don’t like to leave trace behind them” I said

“Exactly” Sandy added

“Yes, you guys are right. Escaping tonight is the only way to get free. Once out of this forest, we can go to police” Shetty said.

“Let’s untie each other as quickly as possible” I said.

Shetty and Sandy moved and sat in such a way their backs touched each other’s and they started untying the knots. It took longer than expected with lots of confusion and fuss, but finally they did it. Once free, Shetty untied me while Sandy tried to open the window.

I quickly ran towards the door and kept my ears to it trying to grasp any sound I could hear but everything was so silent it seemed like we were the only guys in the whole house.

The window cheated on us, with iron rods put in so close that not even a snake could sneak in.

The only option left was the door, which was bolted and even might be locked from outside.

“We can break it open and just run” I said

“Are you mad? They are outside. They will wake up” Shetty said

“That’s the only way. I remember well, this is the first room from the main entrance; it’s just a few steps to the left of the door. Break this door, run towards main door, open it and just run into the forest. No one can find us in the forest.” I said.

“We can hide in forest till sunrise and then find our way out” Sandy said

“Let’s do it. Let’s show these guys we can beat them” Shetty said.

Sandy held the handle of right door and Shetty held the handle of left door. They would pull it open and I would run towards the main door and open its latch. We would then run towards the first direction we saw but would run together.

After a highly inspirational planning, it was time for some really perspirational action!

Both of them waited for few seconds and pulled the door together with all the effort. There was a small creaking sound but nothing moved. They waited for few seconds and repeated their act again. Yet another creaking sound.

 “It moved a bit” Shetty whispered.

They waited for few seconds and pulled again with all their might and this time, the door came along. The latch broke off with a not too loud noise and door moved back as both Shetty and Sandy slipped back.

I suddenly tried to focus out of the room in dark, but before my eyes could focus I ran straight out of the door.

Thud!

I hit something hard and slipped back. Behind me was Sandy who hit into me and both of us fallen on something. Upon us stumbled Shetty.

Before we could realize what happened, the lights were switched on.

Slowly getting up, I realized we had hit into the giant kidnapper and stumbled upon him. The other kidnapper was standing right beside the door with his hands folded and the wickedest smile on his face.

Again we three were held and pushed into the room. Again our hands were tied, more tightly. Then the smoker walked in furiously and stared at us.

“I knew you three would try this” he said looking at us with all the anger he could spit out from his eyes.

“That’s why I had them guard this door” he continued lighting a cigarette.

“You are really a psychic” I said, to myself.

“Before the boss comes, you will be gone far” he said puffing out smoke on our faces.

He then turned to the giant on whom we had stumbled upon and nodded to him. The giant nodded back, scratching his beard, in the exact way he scratched while holding gun at our faces few hours back at the Agumbe ghat.

The smoker stepped out of the house. The two kidnappers walked out of the room and went out. We could hear whispers but nothing was clear.

I bet all three of us were now damn real scared. The boss had meant business, but this smoker meant destruction. His eyes always looked like they enjoyed salvation. His silence always wanted a disturbance from a cruel act to entertain him. The two kidnappers also seemed to belong to the same cult. Their hands always twitched for some action.

But the worst part was this silence. They just tied us and left us in that room not even locking the door. Anything could happen any moment. Our minds, that had been highly active few minutes back, were now totally blank. One wrong step and the landmine would blast throwing us in air. All three of us looked at each other again and again, blinking our eyes. The lines on my forehead, caused by the tension building up, seemed like the tight strings of guitar. I could literally feel them.

The two kidnappers walked in without any emotion on their face. The way they walked in, was like the assassins walking in exactly like the Hollywood flicks.

How I wish we walking in like the heroes and saving other three guys instead of being the goats.

The giant, who seemed more pissed off just because we fell on him, pulled out a gun from behind his back and pointed at us. He turned towards another kidnapper with the shabbiest beard I had ever seen in my life and smiled.

Ah, now I understood why they stepped out of the room for two minutes. They took a toss on who would shoot us and the giant had won the toss. I wanted to share this profound information with both my buddies but the time and the place was more than inappropriate.

Banggggg!

There was a loud sound. The loudest sound I had ever heard.

Banggggg!

There was another shot. These two were the gun shots, I realized.

But wait! Gunshots? Who the shit shot them and to whom?

I opened my eyes and found Sandy and Shetty standing in disbelief just like me. Our eyes were open so wide, that even our eye lids couldn't touch each other!

I turned to my front and saw the giant lying down in pool of blood. He was still struggling, while another kidnapper lay without any movement. On concentrating, I found blood flowing right from his stomach.

I turned back and was more surprised than I was surprised looking at the two kidnappers being shot.

It was the same person who was following us while we took a walk on the Agumbe Ghat.

Everything seemed happening so fast, that my reflexes slowed down.

“Bend down” he shouted at us.

We bent down and heard another shot.

Turning back I found the smoker falling down. But he had missed the shot and was now getting up quickly. Another shot and he bent down again moving out of the door.

All three of us moved behind the door while the person standing outside the window took a better position. We heard a few shots but couldn’t really make out what was happening.

Finally the shots died down, but the person outside the window stood unmoved. He signaled us something, which atleast I could never understand. He then suddenly bent down with the sound of another gun shot.

Then we saw the smoker slowly crawling towards the giant’s body trying to get hold of his gun.

Suddenly Shetty kicked his bag and it hit the smoker taking him by surprise. We three then fell down on him creating more confusion. There was hue and cry and some rolling and kicking.

Before I could realize anything, the follower was in the room with his gun pointed at the smoker. He signaled us to get up. We got up and then he asked the smoker to kneel down with his hands held behind his neck. He then collected the two guns lying on the ground and went for the third gun fallen in the other room. The giant, who no more looked a giant and fearsome, was still struggling for his life.

Then followed a time, moving slowly, when our hands were untied, two jeeps screeched in front of the house, police ran in, arrested the smoker, gave a first-aid to the giant, declared the other kidnapper dead, searched the house, took control of the scene.

It all looked like a Hollywood bust! And we three sat silently on the corridor of the house, still feeling our heart beats in that crazy chilled wind. Now and then the sound of gunshots echoed in my ears though there were no more gunshots.

After a long wait of two or more hours, in which none of us talked, the person who had been a follower few hours back, but a hero few minutes back, walked to us and shook our hands.

“You three are really brave” he said with a simple smile.

We looked at him in surprise and smile widened looking our confused faces.

“So here is what happened with you since this morning” he continued, “these guys are drug traffickers. They transport drug in and out of South India and they control the coast of Karnataka. The doll which you guys bought this morning was one among the pack that has drugs hidden in it. The boy at the shop dint knew this and sold it to you. I am an undercover cop working on tracking this. At first I thought you would spoil everything and started following you, but now I must really thank you guys for you brought me till their real hideout. Once the owner of the shop realized the boy sold one of the dolls to you guys, the whole team got active on tracking you down till that bus. And then they started following the bus right from Udupi. It was good that I followed you guys instead of covering the shop. The puncture just was their luck and you three taking a walk helped them more.”

“But what would have happened with one doll?” Sandy asked

“Slightest sign of smoke leads to the place where fire has been lit. If police got hold of that one doll and the information of the shop, we could have always tracked them down. Even a small disturbance hits heavy on this business”

“And if this was all about drugs, why did they keep the doll for sale in that shop?” I asked.

“It’s exactly how the drugs get transported without being noticed” he said turning at another policeman and signaling at him to take out the jeep. He then guided us to the jeep and continued, “A whole package of dolls is easy to be tracked down. They send this doll into shops and then they themselves come independently, buy the dolls just like normal shoppers, like you did, and then the drug travels easily, untracked to its location.”

“The only mistake that happened today was the special doll that had to be sold only to special customers was sold to you by a new boy in the shop. And you, how did you select that specific doll out of hundreds other dolls?” he asked turning towards Shetty.

“It looked cute. How could I know it had drugs in it?” Shetty said.

“Anyways it turned your purchase help us crack a major drug bust. All is well that ends well” the undercover cop said starting the engine of the jeep.

“Dude, your kick was awesome!” Sandy said looking at Shetty and gave a hi-five to me, to which I responded obediently and all three of us laughed together, after a long time which seemed years to us!

Inspired from the one of the finest novels I have ever read, Jugari Cross!!

Vishal…

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