Page 54 of A Shimla Affair
‘He never got any passports or identities made,’ Afreen said. ‘He doesn’t have them, he doesn’t have anything for us. I asked him, and he clearly didn’t know our new identities. There’s nothing to save us after the ball tomorrow.’
The more I heard, the more my heart crushed into a thousand pieces. I looked at the others, whose faces were as full of despair as mine.
‘But then why haven’t they arrested us yet?’ Noor asked.
Silence followed her question. If Beeson knew the whole plan, why even let us get on this far?
The very floor on which I sat seemed fragile, threatening to give out at any moment and swallow us in a vortex of pain and death. I saw Noor’s expression change from confusion to one of hope.
‘If they knew that the Viceroy is going to be killed tomorrow,’ she said, ‘we would not be standing here, our hearts sound and healthy.’
‘So, you think that Sood didn’t tell Beeson? He’s playing us both?’
Ratan Babu seemed thoughtful, but Afreen seemed to have cracked it. ‘I don’t think so. No, my bet is Beeson knows andwantsthis to happen. Didn’t we hear that he wants the top job? Well, maybe Beeson wants us to get rid of the Viceroy, so he can step in and prove his calibre. He will take the Viceroy’s place by stopping a revolutionary coup. And the only way to stop it, would be to let it happen in the first place. Let it get out of hand a bit, and then step in to save the day.’
‘That’s a mighty big risk to take.’
‘But worth it for his career if it works out, right? The man who saved India … from happening. He will be here at the ball, but not Ripon, so, he can be at the centre of it, take all the credit. He will tell Lord Ripon that the army has to be brought in, and Ripon will have to concede. Beeson’s prepared for war—if he wins, India is his. If he loses, he loses almost nothing, no one will know his plan.’
What Afreen just said made complete sense, but shattered reality as we knew it. If all this were true, everything and nothing was happening as we had planned it.
‘I can’t believe it,’ Noor’s eyes were shell shocked, ‘all this time we thought we were playing them, when, instead, Beeson was the one playing us. With Sood as his ally!’
I got up suddenly, struck by a memory. ‘Remember when they didn’t stop our wagons at the borders? I knew that the guard had seen the guns inside, from the way he looked at me! He had obviously been given instructions by Beeson—or maybe Sood, I don’t know—to let us pass through. They wanted us to be able to have the ammunition, to let us go ahead with the plan!’
‘Good God,’ Noor took a deep breath, ‘They will shoot us as soon as the Viceroy’s dead. Immediately. No warning, no chance of escape. No going back.’
I didn’t know I was shivering until Afreen hugged me from the side. Tears rolled down my face. I didn’t want to lose this. I didn’t want to lose her, or Noor, or Ratan Babu, my family, my life, this hotel, the town. She thumped my back until I calmed down and regained control.
‘What if we just don’t do anything tomorrow, and let the ball go on as a regular ball?’ Afreen asked. ‘Leading the Viceroy to Guruji is in our hands, and if we don’t do that, nothing happens.’
Noor shook her head impatiently. ‘No, it doesn’t work like that—now that they know, there is no going back. Beeson could plant doubt about us at any moment, and then we’d be arrested no matter what. If they find any proof that we were involved in the plan, it wouldn’t matter if we commit the crime or not. He could have Sood testify against us, and we’d be done for, all of us! The fact is, we only got this far because Beeson, already knowing about it, decided not to crack down on us. No, if we back out, we still have to leave town. Immediately. This is it.’
Silence followed her pronouncement. How the evening had changed. The songs we had sung earlier, arm-in-arm, seemed like a distant dream.
‘Well played, Sood,’ Ratan Babu said furiously. ‘I had called him my brother! We can neither move forward nor back out; doomed either way.’
They were right. Sood had us well and good here. Even if we went up to him now, locked him up or threatened him, or even killed him, Beeson already was privy to our plans. I still could not believe that Beeson was willing to sacrifice the life of the Viceroy for his ambitions. Beeson was betraying his boss, just as Sood was betraying his. Poor Guruji, trusting Sood with all his heart.
Ratan Babu decided that it was too volatile now to tell anybody else in the Shimla Circle, not even Guruji—who knew if Sood was acting alone?
‘We have to do something,’ Afreen said. ‘Our lives are threatened. Our hotel is threatened. India’s freedom is threatened. Moreover, none of this changes the fact that they killed our father, in a similar, conspiring way.’
‘I’m not sure what you are suggesting. How can we go ahead with the ball tomorrow knowing that we will most certainly be shot at the end of it?’ I asked.
‘They won’t kill us if the Viceroy is alive. Remember, Beeson wants us to get rid of the Viceroy before putting his plan into action,’ she said.
‘So? The whole point of the ball is to kill him, not keep him alive!’
Minutes passed by as we sat wondering, debating, assaying, until Noor interrupted us with a suggestion. ‘There is one more person who would be interested in this information, who would perhaps even have some other information we could use. Who could possibly figure a way out for us … let’s summon BegumJaan. Nalini, hand me that photograph that Guruji gave you, there is one more thing I want to see. Call Khushilalji.’
ACT FOUR
The Summer Jubilee Ball
19
The day of the Summer Jubilee Ball unfurled with a clear sky that promised plenty of sunshine, the soft hum of daybreak, and the sweet, courageous smell of Shimla, my town. I opened the windows: it would be the last time I gazed at this breathtaking sunrise, the last time I inhaled its pine-fresh air, the last time I would be calling this place my home. I wished to extend my arms and take the valley into an embrace. But I needn’t worry, for its hills and its splendour would far outlive me, and the comfort of that knowledge would stay with me forever.
