Riders by Aniruddha Banhatti (buy e reader txt) 📕

see that the hinges were well oiled. A chain holding the gate together with a padlock. A board on the gate. Written on the board in English :

Private Property
Do not enter
Tresspassers will be prosecuted.

It was rumoured that The Man had his headquarters in the Bondla forest. Also that he had a helicopter there.
The chain broke with a single jerk. The gate opened easily. The Jeep started climbing the earthen road, sloping steeply upwards. Sawant received Shiva’s call on his mobile.
“Shiva, we are on the road to Bondla forest, in through a gate with a board saying ‘Private Property’. Convey this to Inspector John or to Raykar. I don’t have the time.”
The Jeep lurched to a stop again. In front of them another gate with another sign board. This one read :

Derelict Property
Do Not Enter
Landslides
Danger!
Opening that gate, the Jeep again started further up.

***

With bandages on his face , back and arm, Andre Molier sat in a wheelchair. Louisa Bruny flopped out on a couch near him. The Man was on the other couch, smoking his small four square cigarette. He said in English,
“We leave after two hours. Everything is ready. After take-off, our helicopter will land within fifteen minutes on a ship floating in the open seas. From there, we reach Dubai and from Dubai we go to the U.S. You two remain there but I’ll return here after a few months.”
The top three commanders of The Army were with him. One was the pilot of the copter and the other two his two top men.
“After the take off of the helicopter, you two abandon the house and disperse. Take off the vigilance cameras with you.”
There were four cameras and four screens of CCTV. The Man looked at the screen and screamed seeing one of the screens,
“What is that? What the hell is that?”
The third screen was showing the police Jeep climbing up on the hill.
“Oh! We can’t wait for two hours now. Commanders, pack all the cocaine and diamonds and other stuff on the copter NOW! Pilot, start the copter and warm it up NOW!”
Andre gaped at the screen. The Jeep reached a bridge made up of planks held together by ropes. The bridge appeared quite strong. Sawant drove the Jeep onto the bridge and The Man pushed a button on the wall. The rods supporting the cables of the bridge were retracted in and the bridge broke and swung down in the valley. The Jeep fell down in the valley, but Sawant and three of the policemen jumped in the nick of time and caught the swinging cables of the broken bridge and clambered up on the edge of the valley, but on the down side! Now there was no bridge to cross over to the up side. A deep gorge was in between.
Good! Got a little time! – thought The Man, when the commanders said,
“Sir there is lot of stuff. It will take at least fifteen minutes to pack it properly.”
“That’s alright! We have some more time. FAST!”
After five minutes, suddenly with dhak-dhak-dhak of firing, four Riders appeared on the TV screen on their bikes- Shiva, Pinto, DeMello and Khandeparkar. But the abyss ten feet wide in between remained as it was, how to cross it? The rotor of the copter started revolving and nothing was audible in the din. Meanwhile, on the screen, Shiva and Pinto pulled up some planks from the broken bridge swinging in the valley and started building a sort of ramp with them and some stones. The Man started dancing in agony, “Fast, FAST!” he shouted. Commanders actually started running around packing the crates in the copter.
On the TV screen, Shiva made Sawant sit on his pillion seat and taking a start of about 30-40 feet, raced his Pulsar ahead on the ramp with tremendous speed, it climbed up the ramp, overshot into the air and jumped safely on the other side even 10 feet ahead from the edge of the abyss! Seeing this, taking one policeman behind each of them, Pinto, DeMello and Khandeparkar also jumped from the ramp and landed their bikes safely on the other side. The Man saw this and ran to the chopper and sat in it. Louisa Bruny had hurriedly gathered all their things and with a bag came running and started pushing Andre’s wheelchair to the helicopter shouting “Wait for us! Wait for us!”
Even while sitting in the helicopter The Man was looking at the third TV screen and saw the four bikes entering the gate of the bungalow.
“Take off!” he shouted to the pilot awaiting this order. Louisa almost reached the helicopter, but not quite, as before her incredulous eyes the helicopter rose straight up in the air and within half a minute looked like a small toy in the sky. Such anarrow slip, between the cup and the lip, she just couldn’t believe it! As she turned, she faced Inspector Sawant with his pistol pointing at them and three other policemen with their rifles trained on them. Inspector Sawant said,
“In the name of Government of India, I arrest you, Charles Wilcox alias Andre Molier and Louisa Bruny alias Carol Sanders.”

Shiva came in with the other three Riders. He was startled seeing the decoration of the room. There were skulls of fluorescent greenish plastic each with a half burned thick candle on top.

Andre and Louisa surrendered without any attempt at resistance.

“Now only one question remains,” said Inspector Sawant, “I understand why the head was cut, but now the question remains, where is the cut off head?”
Shiva was looking at the skulls curiously. Suddenly he noticed that the skull kept in front of the TV was not like the others. It didn’t seem to be made of the green fluorescent plastic.
“Sir, the skull in front of the TV! That is the cut off head!” he said to Inspector Sawant. Sawant looked closely. Yes, indeed! It was a real human skull and not a plastic one! He turned Andre’s chair to the skull and said,
“This, if I mistake not, is the head of George Shellings, correct?”
Andre said a weak ‘Yes’ and collapsed in his wheelchair.

On television screen number one, the police Jeep with John and Raykar in it became visible. It was trying to climb the hill from the other side. Looking at it, all the Riders shouted together “Hurrraaayyyyy!,” and seeing the pathetic condition of the Jeep and its occupants as they tried to climb up the rough surface of hill where there was no road, their Hurray turned into a loud shout of laughter!

***


Imprint

Publication Date: 05-30-2010

All Rights Reserved

Dedication:
Dedicated to my days in Goa at Farmagudi Engineering College as a lecturer...Those Were The Days!