The Benefit Season (36 page)

He’d stolen into the washrooms and informed
Krishnamala of the grand design for the evening. She’d promised to
be there with backup. All he had to do was press a red button on
his phone when the cards had been dealt and the crooks could be
nabbed red-faced and red-handed. And the cops would appear within
seconds. Krishna would get the blueprint of the place and surround
it from all sides.

Arjun waited for the comfort of the dark.
The girls, in anticipation of a windfall, kept ordering wine after
wine and got higher with each passing hour.

Later, when they’d had enough and it was
time to leave they trooped downstairs, the girls lurching and
laughing, and waited for the usher to fetch their car at the hotel
entrance. Out in the open, the night fog, weighed down with
notorious Delhi pollutants and smoke, smothered them like a thick
blanket, and filled up and choked their mouths and throats and
lungs like tar.

It was an hour’s ride out to the Mandi. Even
though it was chilly, they kept the car AC on and did not roll down
the windows for fear of breathing the dirty, sickening air outside.
The large gates to the warehouse were open and Ruby swung inside,
and parked in the middle of the vast courtyard. A few trucks were
randomly parked in the open. There seemed nobody around. Arjun
looked around for any signs of cops on the rooftops or the high
walls outside, but found none.

They walked into the large steel and
concrete multi-storied building. The walls, made up of galvanized
metal sheets with C girdles supported on concrete pillars were
several meters high, having the usual vertical storage racks,
lighting panels and ventilators with birdcages at the top. A couple
of yellow forklifts were backed against the crates. Freight
elevators and pallet hoists lined the neat rows of steel bins that
rose towards the roof. They were in a large central corridor that
divided the building crossways and was overlooked by concrete
floors with iron railings on both sides. A couple of lighted
offices seemed located at the end of the corridor. They walked
towards them, their footfalls echoing off the high walls and roof.
Arjun scanned the floors above and around him again for a fleeting
silhouette of a lurking cop, but could discern none. He prayed
Krishna wouldn’t land up with just the baby and that
pacifier-wielding midget in tow again. Just Monal, barehanded
alone, was quite a match for a couple of armed, pudgy cops. And he
had no clue how many thugs were hiding behind the numerous crates,
ramps and the dock levelers above them.

One of the doors opened
and a dapper man, dressed in a sharp blue suit walked out. He
greeted Monal loudly and ushered them into the office. His hand
strayed to her domed bottom and never left there. Monal addressed
him as “Bhai”-
another Bhai, Arjun mused.
He’d had enough of them for a lifetime he
figured
. A couple of men in dark
glasses-
all Bhais again
probably
- stood with their backs to the
wall, impassively observing them. It was obvious they were armed,
as the bulges in their coat pockets showed. They sat around a large
white laminate table and a bottle of whisky and glasses were
quickly brought to it. The Bhai sloshed drinks in the glasses,
plunked ice after it and slid the glasses across the table to his
guests. The girls drank thirstily while Arjun didn’t touch his
glass.

‘
Who’s he?’ the Bhai
asked.

‘
A friend of ours… works
in our company’.

‘
He’s on the
ball?’

‘
Yeah he’s on a
roll’.

‘
So tell me what I can do
you for,
Bhabiji
⁶
’
, he said and wiped his sneer with
his lapel. The men behind him sniggered too.

‘
I am here to collect
something that belongs to Vishal’.

‘
Then why isn’t he here
himself?’

‘
He’s abroad. He’s asked
me to’.

‘
Is he shy of
calling?’

‘
He must have his reasons.
Why, Bhai jaan
⁷
, is there a
doubt? I hope the trust remains. This isn’t the first time we’ve
done, or are going to do- business.’

‘
Of course not. Except
that I hear things that are not very pleasant’.

‘
Such as?’

‘
Such as that the money he
punted with, didn’t really belong to him. Someone else, someone
much bigger than all of us put together, and then many times over,
says the money belongs to him’.

‘
Has he told you that
himself?’

‘
Naah’.

‘
Vishal punted with a good
many people’s money, some good, some not so… you know that well.
You never asked up until now what the color of the money was that
we placed many a time on this table right here. Why
now?’

‘
Look I don’t want to mess
around with these people from Mumbai and Dubai. I just want to be
sure I’m not helping someone make away with what belongs to the big
bosses. The retribution is severe, and swift’.

‘
So is a reputation, and
its downfall- severe and swift. If the Bhai is afraid, and doesn’t
want to honor a promise, let him say so. If he wants our business
taken elsewhere, let it be so said’, Monal said, placing the glass
firmly on the table. She took out the note from her pocket and
placed it under the glass. ‘Tell me and I’ll walk’.

The Bhai looked at his men and then back at
his visitors. He shook his head- he was impressed with the spunk in
the women. On his nod, one of the men picked up the note and handed
it over to him. He opened a small safe and searched for something.
Finally he found a half note and matched it with Monal’s. It was a
fit. He looked up and smiled.

‘
I owe you’, he said. ‘
But what if I tell you that I know for sure the big Bhai is looking
for his money… and this here is his money?’

‘
They say…they say! Why
don’t you call him and ask him in person?’ Monal shook her phone at
him. ‘I also hear what you say they say. And if I have heard better
than you, then they say he’s in a police morgue these days-
unclaimed, unmourned’!

‘
What do you
mean?’

‘
Yeah. Got shot in Sariska
in an old hunting lodge. Check’.

‘
You sure?’

‘
Hmm’.

The Bhai dialed a number and spoke into it
and then threw down the phone as if there was current in it. He
waited for the phone to ring again while Monal fixed another stiff
shot and threw back her head and gulped it in one go. The Bhai’s
phone vibrated after a tense pause and he brought it to his ear and
listened closely. Then he kept the phone down and stared blankly,
his face pinched of color.

‘
So what do
they say
?’

‘
Mohsin, bring them their
money’, the Bhai said, clasping his head in his hands. ‘And collect
the rest…everything- the diaries and papers and the phones and
computers and shut down this place for a few days. We are going to
lie low for a while. Come on, move it’! He thumped the desk
impatiently.

Monal smiled at Ruby, who was busy quaffing
her drink, unaffected by the goings on. She smiled back and looked
away again, as if she couldn’t care less. Though the bastard
daughter of the sheik, she was still his daughter, and she knew she
was untouchable by these low lives, and she was unafraid. Neither
did she chase money- she knew she would never be short of it. She
played along with Monal as long as it brought spice and adventure
to her boring, humdrum life, and intended to move on as and when
she felt like.

‘
How much are we talking
about here,’ Monal asked the Bhai.

‘
He won the bets. He gave
us 27 crores; he bet 3 to 1, so give and take my commission and
overheads, I owe you… around 55 crores. Are you going to carry it
with you?’

Monal closed her mouth with some difficulty.
’55 crores- you said?’

‘
Yes- you wouldn’t steal
my commission and livelihood from these poor boys, would
you?’

‘
I wouldn’t, provided you
bring the cash out quick before I change my mind’.

‘
Wait then’, he said and
rose from the table. His men followed him out through a backdoor
into the safe behind the room. Arjun slowly removed his phone and
under the table pressed the tiny red button on it. A few nervous
minutes later, which saw Monal fidgeting and drumming on the table
and swinging on her chair, the men walked in with two large steel
suitcases and flung them open on the table. They were filled to the
brim with 1000 rupee wads. ‘Want to count? It’s all
there’.

‘
I trust you’, she said,
motioning to her two companions to grab the suitcases. Ruby said
she’ll bring the car in instead and left. Arjun leaned on the lids
of the bulging cases and shut them and sat down in wait. The last
thing he hoped to hear was the giggly cackle of an overfed baby who
was immune to the crossfire of bullets and explosions.

He was lucky at last.

A loud voice boomed from a megaphone,’ this
is the police! You are surrounded! Put down your weapons and come
out with your hands held high!’

‘
Bitch!’ the Bhai aimed a
gun at Monal. ‘You brought the cops!’

‘
Of course not!’ she
cried. ‘Would I give up my own money?’ she looked at Arjun
suspiciously.

‘
I don’t know anything!’
he shrugged. But the gangsters and Monal glowered at him
disbelievingly.

Monal cursed under her breath and took out
the Uzi and snapped its magazine into its slot. ’How many men do
you have in here’, she spat out and asked.

‘
About a dozen- they’re
watching this place’.

‘
Watching my foot! They’re
probably in cuffs right now. Is there another way out?’

‘
No… through the front
only’.

‘
Front only! Some show you
are running here
Bhai!’

‘
Come on out!’ the
megaphone boomed again. ‘Or we’ll shoot! We already have your other
men. There’s no one here except the police!’

‘
Crap!’ Monal said,
stomping her foot. She wistfully watched her money on the table. ‘I
am not letting them get at my money!’

‘
Don’t be a darn fool!’
the Bhai said. ‘We can be back out in no time. Leave it to the
lawyers!’

‘
No! It’s my money!’ Monal
said, gritting her teeth and waving her gun at the door.

‘
Back off Monal- it’s not
worth it. If we live another day we can make the money again- with
my contacts and your information. Let’s walk out!’ the Bhai goaded
her, and beginning to sweat. When he found her intractable, he
nodded to his men and they threw their weapons on the
floor.

‘
We’re coming out now-
don’t shoot- we’re unarmed!’ he shouted. The Bhai kicked open the
front door, and after showing his hands, walked out. His men
followed him. Outside the waiting cops quickly handcuffed them and
led them out to the waiting jeeps. Ruby had already been
held.

Arjun spoke softly to Monal, ‘come on, game
is over, let’s go. You can still walk free; it’s not your money.
Cops won’t hold anything against you. You can live a life of
dignity again ‘.

‘
It’s my money fool! And
money, in my world is dignity! Can’t you see how hard we worked for
it! Now even the don is dead! No one is coming after us now! Come
on Arjun don’t be chicken. We can take these cops on easily. Come
on pick up that gun. We’ll shoot our way out! What have they got-
single shot World War II rusty rifles? We can make it!’

‘
I’m walking out Monal-
it’s not for me.’ Arjun began to edge slowly out of the room. Monal
swept her gun around and fired just above Arjun’s shoulder. ‘No you
don’t! You promised- now you stay with me!’ she motioned with her
gun, asking him to get away from that door.

‘
What was that! Are you
okay Arjun?’ it was Krishna speaking on the megaphone
now.

Arjun could have slammed his head into the
wall then. Monal looked at Arjun in shock. A sharp wave of pain
flickered across her face twisting her features into an ugly mask.
She spat roughly. ‘So it’s you that brought them in you rascal! I
trusted you! You ditched me!’ she lunged at him and grabbed him by
the collar. ‘Now take me out of here’. She dug the gun in his side
and asked him to pick the heavy suitcases. When he’d heaved them
off the table she prodded him; ’walk!’

‘
Come on, don’t do this,
please, throw your weapon and walk free’.

‘
Shut the fuck up and
move!’

She forced him out of the room and they
stepped into the central passage. Krishna was standing with her
back to the crates, holding a megaphone and a gun. ‘Stop!’ she
ordered. Two more cops, clutching stumpy rifles, hid behind a
forklift, looking very unsure and unhappy.

Monal spat out at her, ‘get out of my
way!’

‘
You can’t go far! There
are cops outside’.

‘
Cops like those two out
there?’ Monal said with a sneer. ‘Like you?’ she raised her gun and
without blinking an eye, shot Krishna in the chest, sending her
toppling over the crates onto the floor behind. She waved her gun
at the cowering cops and shouted,’ drop your guns and
run!’

The cops looked at each other, at their
fallen colleague, and throwing their rifles bolted as fast as their
tubby legs could carry them, without looking back.