A Pebble for Dickey by Tkraghunathan - HTML preview

Chapter 17

Back at the Maoists camp. Morale was low. Sathya was seething with rage. He had made a big mistake giving the charge to Malliah. They had failed to liberate Ravi and Samaraweera. Now , no one knew  about their whereabouts. He was not sure if he should still go ahead with the mission against the army academy. The meeting had been postponed to allow the police time to hunt down the raiders. At the army academy, Dickey had managed to identify the informer. Security at the academy was very tight.

Malliah was keen on another strike against the doctor. He was hard core Maoist who believed in using power to gain an advantage. For him fear was the key. If the doctor could flourish again, it meant a big failure for his movement. So he kept a watch at the hospital to strike at appropriate time. He wanted more men and material for his work. It was becoming difficult to control him.

Sathya cursed Dickey for all his failures. Even though Dickey had not confronted them directly, he somehow  played a hand in helping the police to nab   Ravi and Samaraweera. That young firebrand APC was being hailed as a great hero. Police were becoming more aggressive and demanding. It appeared suddenly, there were more police on the streets than ever before.

He wondered if he should worry about Ravi and Samaraweera at this stage. Disturbing the Army civilian  co ordination exercise was now becoming top priority to keep the government in tenterhooks and at the same time keeping a restive cadre in control. Satya had to execute that operation himself. He was not able to trust any of his assistants with important assignment.

At the Army Academy, security personnel were on high alert.Arussian made tank now stood at the beginning of long road that led to the massive gates of academy.Machine guns were mounted on either side of gate.

Snipers were sitting on top of tall trees lined up on either side of bolaram road coming in from the city. Bolaram cantonement was sealed and no civilian vehicles were allowed to trespass. Some local MLA S raised some objection, but they were silenced. Army jeeps patrolled all roads leading to academy. Senior officers made rounds of inspection in random manner to test the state of alertness. They were ready for war.

At the secretariat, it was police show all the way. Elite police cadre manned strategic points. Police had mounted machine guns in the second floor of secretariat complex and could look down on the vast  front part of the complex. Two brightly painted buses made of armoured plate and re inforced chassis were standing by to carry the delegates. The drivers were personally selected by Dickey. Each driver had a rapid fire Kalashnikov rifles under the seats and fully loaded automatic guns in the side holsters.There was a tea stall at the secretariat grounds that served needsof public who visited the secretariat for various reasons.Dickey wanted the stall to be closed, but he was vetoed by the home ministry as he did not want public to be alarmed by too much of security.He said, take all precautions.The owner has security clearance and he has been operating for quite some time on a nrenewable licence issued every year.

Dickey had made a dummy dry run driving the bus and he found that the road to the academy was too straight and long.That meant attack on the bus enroute was not possible.The roads were watched day and night, so no scope for installing land mines.Police had banned all parking of vehicles for two days to remove planting of remotely triggered bombs  , in the parked vehicles

Dickey was back at the secretariat and was talking to inspector Ashok Reddy.The Ias officers were going to board the bus at exactly 10 oclock and it was now 9.30Dickey felt he was on top of situation.Mouli was with the IAS team, to ensure that they would board the bus one after another and not go in group.Dickey’s cell phone rang  suddenly.Dickey always hated such calls coming at tense moments.With irritation written large on his face he barked , ‘yes, what is it?”

Dickey, kamalkant  here.Krishna says you should blast some tea stall.Is there a tea stall near you?”

Dickey froze.

Dickey watch out.

Dickey cursed kamalkant.He had checked with Mouli about Tea stall.He had cleared it.

On a hunch, Dickey decided to take alook. He checked that his handgun was there in his pocket. He was carrying old fashioned hand held walkie  -talkie.He strolled upto the stall. The owner came forward to greet him and asked if he would like some tea.. Dickey brushed him aside and walked in. It was not a big place. Dickey’s trained eyes looked for some indication of abnormality of any sort. There were a few people sipping tea. He stopped at one table. Satya was sitting there with a tea cup in his hand. There was a label  with  letters PRESS in large letters pinned to  front  of shirt.Dickey glared at him.satya returned the gaze .

Dickey talked to the owner, stop all service. Call all your boys back. I want a head count.

I can’t do that. They are all over the place.

Dickey shouted, ‘I said, call them back.”

There was clamour for space as the owner tried to reach the door to call his boys. Dickey could see them nicely spread each carrying a tray.

Dickey frowned. THE BOYS WERE WAITING FOR SIGNAL.

He looked at the buses. All the boys were on one side of bus, the side where the door of bus opened. As Dickey was watching, the IAS officers started walking towards the bus in a single file one after another. They were calm.

Satya unclipped his label , that was the signal for the boys. But the boys could not see him remove the label because the massive body of Dickey was covering satya..

The owner shouted. The boys held their ground. Dickey was staring at satya. Satya had got up from his seat and moved towards the door so that the boys could see his shirt front with out label. Dickey caught the difference .Instinct told him to grab satya, but his eyes were looking at the table.

Dickey knew immediately. He started talking to his men on his  hand held walkie talkie.” Target the tea boys. watch out for their trays. Take them out. take out all chaiwallas. I repeat chaiwallas.’

Guns started firing and boys spun the trays in the direction of buses. One by one the trays hit the bus and exploded. Luckily most of IAS officials had got into bus. Only chief secretary was outside. He was a little slow. He heard the  firing of guns and jerked himself to jump into open door of bus. A flying tray caught his leg  , glanced off and exploded in air. flying nails and shrapnel caught the secretary in the legs. He collapsed and fell on the ground missing the bus..

A yellow painted van raced in and two hands reached out and picked up the chief secretary and raced away. 

At the tea stall, Dickey was in trouble. The  tea stall owner was behind him and sathya in front.The owner pressed his gun to Dickey’s back and sathya was waving his gun in Dickey’s face. Satya was smiling, “Dickey, I have been waiting for this moment for a life time. I told my bosses that I can out think you  and even catch you alive. You are our trump card. You will lead us to safety, sandwitched that you are between me and Malliah. We have our transport at the back road behind the tea stall. We have made a hole in the wall and we will all crawl through the hole together  .”

Dickey held his ground. He never liked people who gave speeches when situations were tense. He was busy calculating his chances. The gun at his back was held high up, Dickey had put on his bullet proof vest, but a bullet fired at point blank range always penetrated the bullet proof fabric. So risk  was there sure. Sathya did not present much problem. He had to do some thing.He knew some thing suddenly would divert the tea stall owners attention.  Mouli burst through the open door with his gun firing. Dickey timed his kick backward to a nicety heel catching the owner in the groin. At the same time his right hand lashed out catching sathya on the chin. Sathya had looked up to see Mouli screaming as he burst through and just for a moment he had taken his eyes off Dickey. A moment  of distraction is sufficient for people like Dickey to turn tables. Satya fired just as Dickey lashed out and knew he had hit Dickey. Dickey went through his right cross to chin before the he felt impact of the bullet. He staggered for a moment and steadied himself catching the edge of tea table. He watched  sathya fly in air and knock his head against steel rod. The point protruding out of wall to serve as a hanger for clothes. The point penetrated his skull and he kept hanging from there. Mouli in the meanwhile had mowed the owner down and when he got his breath back , he found he was sitting on top of a dead body.

Dickey screamed at him, ‘YOU FOOL, YOU SAID YOU HAD CLEARED THE TEA STALL  OWNER’

Yes, I did.  But this one is not the owner. They had taken over the stall after killing the owner. I suppose from the way you are screaming, you are not hurt. I have lot of work to do, if you do not mind.

Blood was dropping from a gaping hole in the shoulder. Mouli helped Dickey to get up and walk out. His eyes were misty.

Dickey came out in the open and took a deep breath.it hurt him to breathe.

A police doctor came running to attend , but Dickey brushed him aside.

‘what is the damage outside?’.

‘They took the chief secretary away. He was too slow. The buses were not damaged.is the conference still on?. Shall I ask the buses to proceed?’

Of course. The conference is still on. I do not think they have men or equipment to follow up this strike with another one on the road. Still tell them to be watchful.

Dickey started walking towards his car

‘Where do you think you are going?’.

Home. There is an old doctor at home waiting for me to show up. He was a famous doctor once .had worked at GUYHOSPITAL IN UK.I will let him extract the bullet from my shoulder. He has been retired for some time. I think, he can start practicing again. I am happy to be his first patient. Let him make a beginning with me.

‘What the hell are you talking about?’

‘The swamiji. he tipped me off about the tea stall.’

How the hell did he know about it?

‘His Krishna told him.’

Who is Krishna?

‘Krishna is a stone, a pebble in fact, a pebble that talks.  At least it talks to him.’

Dickey are you alright?

‘Sure I am. The good swamiji promised to give that pebble to me’.

Dickey could not carry on anymore. His strong legs shook and he dropped to the ground. Mouli was sufficiently alert to catch him and lower him softly

Dickey held Mouli’s hand.’ don’t worry kid. I will not die.it is a nice way to retire from the army, though.’

Mouli hugged dickey. Tears rushed out uncontrolled .