I. big bang on the train.

Subordinates crowd the stationmaster’s office, looking busy, and the
stationmaster sits at his desk, paying no attention to them, watching
the trains. In fact one particular train he has watched all morning. He
catches glimpses of the train as the throng of people on the platform
stand and move. There’s something puzzling about the empty train.
Nobody knows where it is going, and it has a large flat bed truck
attached, one of the few in the Indian Railways fleet. Uncalled for, it
replaced a similar train that arrived yesterday. The stationmaster has
spoken to the driver and conductor, and they are unconcerned by the
special train. Nobody knew where it was going but it picked up plenty
of passengers enroute. It is still crowded, though no one knows when it
will leave. The stationmaster diagnoses this to be the result of a
computer virus. He picks up the phone and dials. Somebody, somewhere,
must know what’s going on.

Harry’s Maruti truck stands on the platform, out of sight of the
stationmaster’s office. He watches while twelve coolies, hired at a
heavy discount, surround his truck. They shout smoothly meshed
instructions at each other and lift the truck and move it across to the
low loading train. Harry smiles at the battered piece of train
machinery, he knows exactly how many of this type exist. Very few.

He feels a tap on his shoulder. Harry turns and sees Alonso, obviously
agitated, and he says calmly

” I drew a blank and I think we should go now.”

” Simi’s gone. ” Harry blinks.

” How do you know ?”

” I know because a cop just told me. We have to find her. ”

” Is that really a good idea. She is very likely safe.”

” You heartless bastard. One man has already died in front of your eyes
and you ask me to forget about her. I have to look now. ”

” it’s your life, ” Harry says with a shrug as Alonso turns to leave.

Harry looks back. The truck is a few inches above the bogey as the
coolies shuffle it into place. A wailing sound comes from inside the
truck and the coolies drop it instantly. It bounces once and an flat
American voice from the truck says clear the area, repeatedly . The
coolies hastily back away. A hatch in the back of the truck opens and
Dhnush exits rapidly, then runs away down the platform. He knows the
procedure when the truck prepares to destroy itself.

Harry groans, kneels and covers his head with his arms. The coolies and
many bystanders take the hint and lie flat on the platform. Alonso
turns and breaks into a run, leaping over the prone bodies. The
explosion is a dull thump, and the truck contains most of the force in
the rapidly expanding gases, though the windscreen is blown out and
followed by smoke. The black sooty gas convulses out of the truck and
the big fans in the roof of the station speed up to a roar. There is
suddenly a lot of shouting, though thankfully nobody moves. Especially
not Harry. He knows he is the centre of attention, and that if he
starts to run the crowd will move with him. Hundreds will try to get
through the narrow exit. He stands, turns to face the crowd, and
smiles. ” Nothing to worry about. ” He says in very bad Hindi. The
voices quieten and he adds, ” For my next trick…”

Harry knows someone has blown the scuttle charge in the truck, and a
furious gleam fills his eyes behind the fixed smile. Policemen rush
towards him, lathees first. ‘ … Nothing to do with me but I get
another night in the cells.’ He is resigned to the bad food, and he
holds out his hands to the scared and astounded cops.

Alonso runs through the empty floor space on the entrance hall, dodging
sleeping forms, then he is outside of the main doorway and he spots a
scooter. A courier has left it idling. Alonso climbs on, kicks the prop
stand away and wobbles away.

After twenty minutes spent making little progress he reconsiders the
move. He lacks the skills required to negotiate the traffic. Then the
scooter seconds his opinion by making an old fashioned bleeping sound.
It draws attention to the instruments and they are telling him he is
out of power.

Alonso realises that he must do something to ensure the continuing
sevices of the scooter, but he has no idea what. Clunky old machines
are not his forte. He halts beside a row of cave like shops, and props
the scooter beside a technical looking establishment. A bemused looking
crowd gathers and looks on. Alonso waits for something to happen. He
examines the scooter and finds and opens a large hatch. It makes no
sense to him. He notices a few young boys in the crowd gathered around
him and hopes that they won’t ask him what’s wrong. Finally he catches
the eye of one of the boys and nods at the scooter. The kid hops on,
flicks a switch and listens to the fierce beeping.

II. sound. ” Battery dead. ” He announces matter of factly.

” Battery dead, ” the boy announces.

” Can it be fixed ?”

” Why not, just take it to the station. ”

” How do I get there ? ” With no further ado, the kid pushes the
scooter forward, and Alonso follows.

The power station is surrounded by a large, irate crowd, and it is
apparent that no one is about to ride away. The boy leaves Alonso and
pushes through the thicket of scooters and the impatient riders to get
close to the station owner. He returns with the bad news. ” The
station is broken. ”

” Where is the next one.”

” They are all broken. Power cut”

” Why didn’t I get a petrol scooter. ” He says, mostly to himself.

” They are very bad for the air. ” Alonso looks at the boy.

” Where do you live ? ”

” At the market where you stopped. ”

” I know , but which house. ”

” Just the market. ”

” How much does a scooter cost. A gas scooter. ” He starts to peel
notes off the bank roll. ” That’s enough says the boy.

” Take this money and get me me a gas scooter, with a full tank. ”
Alonso adds another five thousand. ” This is yours. ” The boy takes the
money without a word and walks away from the station.

Alonso sits on his scooter and waits, and thinks. Singh will be at the
gym, he knows that, it is one of the few physical locations that Singh
visits. And this is the day he spends the afternoon there.

Half an hour later the boy returns as a pillion passenger on a beat up
blue scooter. The rider looks like he could be an older brother. They
both dismount, one says ” here you are. ” and they walk away.

Alonso crosses the white marble floor of the Hotel and makes his way
down a short flight of stairs to the gym. He fully expects to find
Singh here. Alonso knows he keeps to a schedule, as Alonso once did. He
makes his way to the gym and sees Singh at the far end of the narrow
room.

Singh kicks shit out of an exercise machine , doing kung fu kicks and
stuff like that. He is a muscular man in his thirties, with a pencil
thin mustache. At work he dresses formally, making him appear a
Valentino, but now he wears boxing gear. Golden trunks.

Singh has a powerful personality behind his subdued, always half
smiling, exterior. alonso knows he is ambitious, and though he is good
at his job alonso tried to keep Singh away from the powerbrokers on the
deccan board, and beyond. He did not realise that the managing
director sees himself as the power behind the throne at Deccan. Singh
is built to play hard. He likes people to think he is a sportsman.
Alonso suspects that in this conflict Singh will have the loyalty of a
professional sportsman. Loyalty to the side which picks up his
contract.

A trainer is watching over the gym. Alonso marches up to him and hands
him a large note. The trainer melts into his cubby hole of an office.
Alonso takes a helmet from the shelf and puts it on as he crosses the
room to Singh.

Singh has no warning that Alonso is closing in on him, the trainer is
supposed to observe at all times. Alonso stands beside the box and hits
the emergency stop button. Singh lurches forward and bounces his
raised elbows against the padded wall of the room. He turns around
with anger in his eyes that fades quickly when he sees Alonso. ”
You’re here.” Singh says. There is a silence. Singh knows that Alonso
is suspicious and he continues. “Alonso, I couldn’t contact you. For
your own safety. ” So you know who I am. ” says Alonso, who cannot
believe it is going to be so easy, He sets Singh’s machine to two
player and hits the reset. Then he steps onto the platform. He circles
Singh, moving feet apart, then sliding them together , keeping on
balance. ” I’ve done everything I can . I think I know who is behind
this, are you prepared to listen ?”

” I hear you, and I believed, for a while. ”

” But can you handle the truth. ”

” I’m sure you were heartbroken when you saw the body .”

” How could we see a body that’s been through an incinerator. They
found some teeth. ” Alonso feels suddenly sick, has a vivid mental
picture of flaming hair and scalp.

” So tell me what’s going on. ”

” I don’t fully know .”

” You should know. You’re plotting all of this. ” Alonso says, coolly,
pausing in mid jab in order to look closely at Singh. Singh smiles his
all-embracing smile, a note of uncertainty sounds in Alonso’s head.

Then Singh punches him in the chest and then the face. Not too hard ,
but Alonso falls to the floor. ” I’ve wanted to do that for a long time
Alonso Sahib. It’s not me, and if you want my help you had better
start talking.” He hops back into the real world and picks up his
towel. Alonso falls out of the playfield. ” Let’s get out of here,”
says Singh. He puts the towel round his shoulders, then turns and sees
that Alonso has rolled and is walking fast towards the door, throwing
the helmet down as he leaves.

Alonso finds his scooter, at the rear of the kitchens, where it has
been moved. A sticker on the speedo says checked by the Hotel Bomb
Squad. Harry’s dog is sitting on the pillion. ” You followed me ? ” The
dog nods. ” I needed you inside there, now get stuffed. ” The dog rolls
forward and thuds to the dirt , then turns and watches Alonso ride
away.

A random police checkpoint is just visble ahead. He missed the tell
tale thining out of traffic. He turns the scooter against the flow of
the traffic, like many others. He wants to get the scooter onto the
sidewalk and abandon it. Then melt into the crowd. Two groups of cops
appear and nip the flow of people on scooter and foot who are leaking
away from the checkpoint. They have made a box about sixty feet long
and the width of the road. The cops begin to herd the crowd towards the
men on the checkpoint. Two cop with a scanner on his chest faces
another cop with a gun. The Gap between them is wide enough for a
single man to pass. The rest of the street is blocked by a wall of
blue. A cop takes Alonso’s scooter and says ” pollution check. ” The
scooter is rolled from hand to hand towards a small testing unit. ”
It’s electric ” Alonso says, then remembers the scooter being changed.
” pollution check ” repeats the cop, sheperding him forward with a
lathee held at knee height. Alonso stands between the cops. He freezes.
” Scanner touch ” the cop says. Alonso runs for it. One fifth of the
cops in the barrier are covering the exit, they have their backs to the
oncoming people. They raise their guns. A heavy lump hits Alonso below
the knee and he sprawls on the ground. He lifts himself up slightly and
looks back. He was hit by Dhnush. The dog is standing just close enough
to the cops to be visible to them all. Nothing is happening. Alonso
gets to his feet and runs away. Nobody follows and he ducks into a
covered walkway between two buildings to catch his breath. His head
filled by images of bruised dog.

He emerges at the far end of the walkway, and waits. Soon a tricycle
taxi pulls up. Alonso looks at the driver sitting beneath the vinyl
roof. He is expressionless, Alonso is merely another one of the
thousands he will carry in his life. Alonso stoops to get through the
narrow, doorless entrance and tells the driver his address. The
tricycle jerks into traffic in a cloud of two stroke exhaust. Alonso
briefly laments the passing of the bicycle rickshaw. His stomach
lurches.

The taxi drives into the tiny depot attached to the rear of the tower
block and used for deliveries.

He crosses the oily concrete to the lift. He feels a gun stuck in the
small of his back and a dull, standardised voice says. “halt.turn
around.” He turns and sees a man in the uniform of a private security
outfit. He recognises the moustache and jaw visible beneath the matt
black goggles. The mn beneath the peon can’t recognise him. ” Identify
yourself or I will shoot.” ” I can’t but you know who I am don’t you.”
The lips form a smile and a gloved hand reaches up to the goggles and
removes them. ” Of course. Fortunately these are in need of repair. Go
on Mr de freitas, and good luck. ” He lowers the goggles, turns and
walks away.

The battered service lift opens behind Alonso, and he gets in. It takes
a long time to ascend to the penthouse. Filmi songs play from a
speaker. The journey is uninterrupted.

He approaches the door to his apartment and sees it is open. He thinks
it is the wrong day for the maid, but he could be mistaken. He enters
and the door closes behind him and he can hear music. Transcendental
rock. He moves into the lounge and a familiar voice says ” I suppose
you want to come in.” ” Thanks. I’m surprised they haven’t sold this
place. ” ” The property market’s difficult right now with this
political stuff. You know yourself how easily the bubble can burst.” ”
Somebody always seems to want to burst it. You know I was set up don’t
you, Harry…your name’s Harry ?” The guy on the couch turns back the
black woollen lapel of his coat, there is a Deccan name tag there.

” Yeah, it’s here on my badge. But what’s in a name.”

” Who did this. You are involved in this business, tell me what you
know.” ” Alonso, did you do anything stupid today ?” ” I went to see
Singh. ”

” Pretty stupid. And ? ”

” He beat me up a little. ”

” Didn’t you think that it would help if he thought you were dead after
that little incident this afternoon ? Fire in the truck would take
everything to carbon. No remains whatsoever. That would have been an
edge. ”

” Why would he think I was in the truck. ”

” Somebody thought you were. Why else would they blow it up.”

” Maybe they wanted to kill you.”

” Ha ha ha. I’m not that important. ” ” It’s time we talked about your
part in all this. You can talk freely now Harry, you are dead. ”

“Do you know how a deer hunter works. I’ll tell you. He follows the
herd for a long time and does nothing. He watches, and lets the deer
work for him. Because every so often a deer gets sick or lame and he
gets thrown out. And then the hunter eats. It’s the same in this city.
Sometimes ordinary people get thrown out by accident, and sometimes
rich people get thrown out on purpose.”

” who does it, Harry ?”

” You know deccan. You know they run a big chunk of the world. Most
times when a muscle twitches purposefully it is Deccan that is guiding
it. The top guys there can do anything they want. ”

” I know them. But I don’t know who.”

” I’m surprised you are still alive. Delhi is a very dangerous place
for you. ” He takes a breath and attempts sincerity. “Alonso, we’re
friends now, and when you’re back in circulation you can remember I
helped you out. But i don’t make the rules,and i don’t go round zapping
people out of existence. Some other guy does that. I don’t know why
they get the people they get. You go and complain to them if you can
find them, but remember they can kill you, anyone can kill you, and I
haven’t. ”

” Harry, I think I got your dog killed today. ”

” You sure ? He’s pretty tough. And if he’s dead I’ll get another. “