Page 70 of A Shimla Affair
‘How did you have the file?’ I asked him.
‘Once you told me about the meeting, I searched for it and somehow, and what you said turned out to be true. Not that I believed that your intentions in spying on the meeting were in any way innocent. I brought the file with me to the ball but, when I saw you there, I knew you weren’t up to any good.’
I stared at him, my heart a wild mess.
After some time, Noor started taking low, deep breaths, and some colour returned to her cheeks. Her eyes however were full of worry, as the realization that we must act or perish hit her. They had tried to bomb us, fire at us, even hurt Noor. It was only a matter of time till they stormed the place if we didn’t show them that we could also react.
Ratan Babu seemed exhausted but dogged, his white shirt stained with spots of Noor’s blood, his face struck with guilt.Afreen fussed over Noor, but behind it I could see her eyes were tired and numb. Charles stood a little way away from us, leaning against a wall, confused and worried. Khushilalji was the only one who seemed calm, and it was him I turned to for reassurance, for instructions, for what comes next.
‘You must act, Sahiba,’ he offered. ‘Respond adequately and swiftly. Or they will eat you alive—if you don’t learn to bite, you will end up a barking dog.’
Afreen gave me her hand and I held it tightly, and we looked into each other’s eyes. We stood up, holding each other’s hands.
‘I’ll come with you,’ Ratan said, but we made him sit back.
‘Stay with Noor,’ I said, ‘we need to do this. She’s our sister.’
We walked to the hostages with steady, measured steps. The sight of the quiet, desperate, helpless men, tied up and looking at me with fear, should have banished my own, but no such thing happened. I was as afraid of them as they of me, of what I would have to do to them, of what was expected of me. I was glad when Afreen took the lead.
‘So, your Lord Commander violated a basic peace talk. He invited us out in the open, and then tried to blow us up. Knowing that this singular action of his could put all of you in direct harm, he went ahead and did it. He doesn’t care about any of you, he’s even willing to give up some of you as collateral damage, so long as it appears that he took drastic action. How does that make you feel?’
None of them could answer except stare at us, bound and gagged as they were. Khushilalji came and stood next to them, ready to do as we bid. I walked to each one of them, and bent to look into their eyes, despite every nerve in my body screaming at me to get as far away from them as I could.
Lord Biggs and Lord Gaunt sat with their eyes half closed, barely conscious of what was happening around them, having surrendered themselves to their circumstances. Lord Fraseroscillated between falling asleep and trying to break away from the rope that bound him, the rest of the time he stared at us in a state of shock. Captain Ramsden and Lord Harris leaned against each other, awaiting their fates. It was mainly Mr Brown and Lord Beeson who I worried about, both seemed to be ticking time bombs with their wandering eyes, their proud chests and the hatred under their skin.
I avoided looking at the back, where Guruji and Wagner were secured, hoping somehow that they would evaporate with my ignorance. The Viceroy seemed terrified, but it was not him that we would threaten now.
‘So, we have to give it back to them, right? Show them we are not just making empty threats,’ Afreen said with aplomb. She looked at me to continue.
I swallowed. ‘Khushilalji, help Lord Beeson up and bring him to us.’
Beeson struggled with all his might, but there was not much he could do except make muffled noises. I will not deny myself the mirth that came from seeing him like that, and I focused on that emotion. I faced him and his struggling body and tried to steady myself. The gun in my hand felt limp and useless. It grew heavier by the minute, and I, paler. Devastated, I realized I could not bring myself to point it at him. I looked to Afreen and saw the hesitation in my eyes mirrored in her own.
‘The two people on whom the chandeliers fell earlier,’ Afreen said quietly, ‘Their bodies still lie in the ballroom. Let’s start by displaying them to our welcome party outside.’
I nodded and felt nervousness at the pit of my stomach. It was as if I was six again and had stolen my friend Simmi’s pretty little doll, hidden it in my bag, and watched her look for it in panic. I knew that I had been doing something wrong, but I could no more return the doll to her than stop watching her look for it. Iwas much too interested in what I could do with the doll at home to feel guilty about how I had gotten them.
We made Beeson lean closer to the window. ‘Watch closely,’ I whispered to him before going back to stand next to Afreen. Along with Khushilalji, we brought the two bodies forward. I saw the battered, shocked faces, and shut their eyes. After checking once more for their pulse, we got them close to the window and, on the count of three, flung the bodies outside. They landed with a thud, crashing against the road. I had to shut my eyes tight to remove myself from the moment.
And then, we suddenly heard Ripon’s voice over the horn. ‘You are dangerously close to being dead, all of you! You have murdered citizens of Great Britain and you will be killed so brutally that you’ll be begging for a death like this one! Surrender your arms immediately, and hand over the rest of the hostages or the consequences will be far worse than your wildest imaginations!’
Blood rushed to my ears on hearing what he said. I wanted to fling him by his neck and hurl him down the building, over and over until I had squashed all of his big words. He had just tried to kill us, all of us. He was sly and underhanded and completely unconcerned about what we fought for, to the extent that he was deaf to anything we said.
I grabbed Beeson and pulled him closer to us with a strength I hadn’t known I possessed. I pulled his shirt tightly from the back until he spluttered and choked behind his gag. Following my cue, Afreen picked up our speaker horn.
‘You dare threaten us again! Your men will fall, one by one, if you don’t start taking our demands seriously, Lord Commander! You made a fool out of your own negotiation, and you—’
The air was knocked out of me with a sudden thud. My gun fell from my hands. A few moments later, I realized that Beeson had somehow managed to hit me with the back of his head andelbow Afreen down to the ground. I struggled to put the world in perspective again, tried to push away the darkness that engulfed my eyes. His hands, tied up though they were, inched towards my fallen gun.
I saw Afreen throw herself at him as he shook her off with pure, brute strength. I tried to refocus and reached for the gun before he did, but he still managed to knock me down sideways. Now he was on top of me, and my hand was stuck between my body and the floor. His hands crawled up my spine, to my neck but, before he could get a grip, I managed to wring my hand out. I placed the gun against his body and pulled the trigger.
His body stopped thrashing, and the life went out of him as a warm pool of blood spread over me. He groaned in agony and I felt it too, on my person, under my skin and soul, in every fibre of my being. He collapsed and suddenly felt much heavier. I too could barely breathe now, squashed as I was under him. It took the combined effort of Afreen and Khushilalji to finally pull me out from under him. He lay whimpering on the ground, and I emerged, drenched in his blood and my sweat.
‘We have to fling him over,’ I said, and the three of us picked him up. He moved and struggled, still alive. With a deep breath, we hurled him down the window, just as Charles ran to us to ascertain what was happening. Beeson fell with another thud, and Charles looked on horrified. I won’t lie and say we were not equally horrified. But we had to act immediately, or on the outside it would appear as if we had been taken down. Afreen picked up the horn.
‘Your gift, Lord Commander. You dare shoot at us again, or try to break your word, and each of these hostages here will end up the same way. Consider yourselves warned!’
I leant against the window panting and avoided looking at Charles. I left Afreen to warn the other hostages against trying something, and ducked into the kitchens to collapse on theground, to let what had just happened sink in. Ever since I had learnt how to hold a gun in my hands, I had been most afraid that I wouldn’t be able to do what was required. That, when the time for it came, I wouldn’t be able to pull the trigger.
