The Return of Vaman - A Scientific Novel (13 page)

Having finished her shopping, Urmila was looking for a scooter rikshaw. This was her first outing for several days—Vaman had indeed succeeded in convincing Major Samant that his plan would work. She would normally have taken the jeep, but it was out of order. So eager was Urmila to venture out, that she insisted on using a hired three-wheeler. The Major had reluctantly agreed, but only on the condition that she would be shadowed by Jeevan in another three-wheeler. Not that the Major expected anything to happen today—for no one beyond the Science Centre could possibly know that she was venturing out after so many days. Tomorrow, of course, it could be another matter.

Certainly, today things had gone well so far.

Urmila ignored the first two free rikshaws, just in case. This had been Major Samant’s advice. As she got into the third one, Jeevan hopped into another just behind.

‘The subject on her way to Science Centre in rikshaw number …’ Jeevan radioed the information to the communications centre where Major Samant was personally listening in.

‘Follow at a distance of no more than fifty metres’, the Major’s crisp voice crackled into Jeevan’s ears.

‘Instructions received. Roger.’ As he signed off, Jeevan leaned back to relax. Today was essentially a rehearsal and things were proceeding normally. Of course, with a jeep it would be better since he could ride in the back.

Soon they moved out of the congested town centre and Jeevan could see the small lane branching to the right, off the main highway, the lane that led to the Science Centre.

‘Turn right here’ Urmila ordered as the rikshaw approached the turning. But the driver shot past the turning.

‘I say, turn back and go along that lane over there!’ Urmila shouted, but to no effect. The driver continued along the highway, accelerating his vehicle to full speed.

Jeevan sprang into action and spoke into his walkie-talkie. ‘Major Samant … the subject’s rikshaw went past the turning to the Science Centre and is rushing down the highway. I suspect a kidnap …’

‘Follow her … I will join you in the jeep.’ The Major rushed to the door where the jeep, now repaired, was standing ready.

‘Damn!’ he shouted a minute later. The rear left wheel showed a flat tyre. And the driver was nowhere in sight.

Major Samant was not one to heistate long. His own motor cycle was parked nearby. He hopped onto it and raced away, making sure, however, that his favourite revolver was in his pocket.

‘Pinnale Poi … Walatupakkam Tirumpa.’

‘Hinde Tiragi … Balagade Hogu.’

Urmila’s instructions in Tamil and Kannada fell on deaf ears and she finally realized that things had gone wrong. She leaned sideways and looked back. Another rikshaw was following. Probably Jeevan was in it. She abandoned the thought of jumping out of the vehicle as she saw the hard concrete on one side and a ditch on the other. In any case, the Major had told her in no uncertain terms not to attempt anything foolish.

Meanwhile, Jeevan found that his rikshaw was falling further and further behind. As he enjoined the driver to go faster, he replied, ‘Sir, that is impossible. I am going at full speed and can go no faster than this. The rikshaw in front has some kind of booster to increase its speed. Normally these vehicles don’t go that fast.’

Jeevan saw Urmila’s rikshaw overtake a truck. As he approached the truck he found that it was, in fact, stationary and had lost one wheel. When his rikshaw was about to shoot past it, another truck came from the other side and stopped beside the stationary truck. The two drivers appeared to have embarked on a long conversation in Kannada about the breakdown. Meanwhile, the road was totally blocked.

‘Move to the side, you fool!’ Jeevan shouted as his driver blew his horn continuously.

‘All in good time … let me find out what is wrong here first,’ the truck driver replied insolently.

‘All in good time—you will be in police custody if you don’t back up instantly,’ Jeevan displayed his ID card as he said this.

That sobered down the driver, who reversed his truck … but not as promptly as Jeevan would have liked. He noted the registration numbers of both trucks as his rikshaw once again sped on. But four precious minutes had been lost and Urmila was by now out of sight. Still, Jeevan continued along the highway until they reached an intersection. Which way had Urmila gone?

‘Turn left’, Jeevan ordered. He could make out some faint marks on the dirt border where, he guessed, Urmila’s rikshaw had made a sweep to the left.

Jeevan’s guess turned out to be correct, for he saw a rikshaw coming towards him. But the hopes he entertained were dashed as he saw the empty passenger seat. And the driver’s head was bleeding.

As Jeevan stopped the rikshaw, he was conscious of a motor cycle screeching to a halt behind him. Major Samant had arrived.

For good measure, Jeevan slapped the driver and asked, ‘Come on, tell us where you took the lady.’

‘What lady, sir? I am unable to think properly. I drank too much and kept driving until I bashed my head against a tree, sir!’

Don’t lie, you scoundrel! I can tell a drunk when I see one.’ To reassure himself, Jeevan smelled the driver’s breath and then slapped him again. ‘Come out with the truth, or you’ll get such a bashing at the police station …’

Major Samant interrupted the squabble in a calm and authoritative tone. Realizing that Jeevan was upset at losing sight of Urmila, he said ‘Kidnapping well get you a long jail sentence, driver. The least you could do to reduce it is to come clean now. Tell us quickly, where did you take the lady?’

The driver broke down and tearfully confessed: ‘Sir, this is the truth, I swear on my life. I took the lady about a kilometre from here to a waiting car. A white Ambassador, sir … Oh god … punish me for my greediness that I did this for a hundred rupees … I was told that it was a rehearsal for a film. Believe me, sir …’

But Major Samant was already on his way, having instructed Jeevan by a sign to take the driver into custody.

About three kilometres further on he saw a white Ambassador parked by the roadside. It was empty. There was a footpath leading from the spot to an empty field. As he looked towards it, Major Samant bitterly cursed to himself. A helicopter was rising into the sky, going due east.

He was brought back to reality by the arrival of his own jeep. The Major kept his voice under control as he asked the driver:

‘And what made you abandon the jeep?’

‘Why, your message, sir! You asked me to bring Navin Sahib to you’, the driver said, surprised.

‘I asked you? When and how?’ The Major was equally taken aback. The driver fumbled in his pocket and produced a piece of paper torn from his memo pad. The Major read the message on it:

The handwriting and the signature below were unmistakably his. And there was also his official stamp underneath.

The phone rang at eight in the night.

Although a call had been expected, the shrillness of the bell brought everybody to attention. It was Major Samant who lifted the receiver.

‘Major Samant speaking’, he said. He knew that the call was from the kidnapper. A handwritten note delivered late in the afternoon to the security guard at the Science Centre had warned them to expect a phone call at eight.

‘I want to talk to Dr Laxmanan’, the voice had a foreign accent. Samant motioned to Laxman, who picked up another receiver. The recordist tapping the conversation was already busy with his work.

‘Laxman speaking.’

‘This is to assure you, Dr Laxmanan, that your wife is safe in our custody …’ The voice at the other end betrayed no emotion.

‘Who are you? Where are you speaking from, you wretch?’ Laxman was beside himself.

‘Pacify yourself, Dr Laxmanan. You have to listen carefully to what I say next … your wife’s safety depends on it’, the voice continued.

Major Samant, who was listening in, patted Laxman on the back. Laxman nodded to indicate that he had regained his self-control. Both listened intently.

‘In exchange for the safe return of Urmila, I need the following information by two o’clock tonight.’ The voice continued, ‘I need the correct specifications of Guru’s CPU—I repeat, correct details … please don’t palm off false information any more. And I need Vaman delivered to me … How the exchange is to take place will be communicated to you at one o’clock … that is, at one hour past midnight. Be sure to take all this seriously … or else.’

‘Or else, what? Speak up, please!’ Laxman shouted. But the click at the other end told him that further shouting would be futile.

The recordist, who was listening carefully, played the tape once again before giving his opinion: ‘It is Karl Shulz all right.’

Samant issued instructions to locate the source of the call. But Laxman now broke down completely. He shook Samant by the shoulders and said through sobs, ‘So much for your security! The tiger has snapped the decoy … that is all you think about … but who is going to bring back Urmila? Tell me that … Will anybody here tell me that?’

There was silence in the communications room. Even Samant had nothing to say. But from near the door, a mechanical voice was soon heard distinctly.

‘I will tell you, Laxman. The responsibility is mine. Come, let us locate Urmila.’

As everyone looked towards the door they found the tiny figure of Vaman standing there.

The helicopter carrying Urmila descended on a field beside the national highway linking Bangalore and Hyderabad. Although it was dark, Urmila could make out something that looked like a farmhouse standing some distance away.

‘Be my guest tonight, Mrs Laxmanan.’ Shulz bowed as she stepped onto the ground. She had already recognized the other person in the helicopter as the notorious Balu.

‘Please follow me.’ Shulz led the way with a tiny torch, with Balu bringing up the rear. There was a narrow footpath amidst overgrown grass, and soon Urmila found herself at the farmhouse.

It was a dilapidated structure with no windows and two doors, both of which were closed. Balu opened the one away from the highway to reveal a room lit by a lantern. Urmila saw that something like a meal was laid out on a table, a rickety chair beside it.

Two rough characters suddenly materialized out of the dark. Balu’s men, she surmised. She was right, for Shulz spoke in his quiet but menacing tones: ‘Balu, you and these pals of yours had better guard the lady well. But no rough work with her, mind you … or I will skin you alive.’ Even those hardened criminals paled at that warning, Urmila noted. Then Shulz turned to her and said politely. ‘Madam, it now depends entirely on your husband. If he is prompt with what little I have asked for, your stay here need not be even until dawn … If he is foolish enough to try to cheat me, I’m afraid you will not see dawn.’ He pointed towards a corner of the hut.

Urmila looked and shivered. A rectangular pit two metres by one metre, and about half a metre deep had been dug there. When she turned round Shulz had disappeared.

Everyone followed Vaman to a computer terminal, to which a small gadget had been attached.

‘I made this little toy’, Vaman explained. ‘It will collect the signals and, with Guru’s help, process them to tell us where Urmila is.’ A map of India had appeared on the terminal.

‘Signals? From where?’ asked Navin. He was one of the crowd.

‘From the little transmitter I had fixed in Urmila’s molar … that was my secret weapon which only three people here know about’, Vaman said.

‘Well, I am not amongst the favoured three’ Navin retorted. Major Samant thought Navin looked a little uneasy. Why, Samant wondered? Or was it his imagination?

But he was distracted from his thoughts by what was happening on the terminal monitor. A green light, like a tiny dot, had appeared within the map of India. The dot was flashing with intensity.

‘That is where sister Urmila is’, Vaman pointed to the dot triumphantly. ‘I could not get it earlier because she was airborne, in a helicopter, and because my transmitter does not act very efficiently in mid-air. But now that she is on the ground, I can locate her. She is stationary now.’

‘But where exactly is she?’ Laxman asked with desperation.

‘We will soon find out by changing the scale of our map’, Vaman replied. He enlarged the scale so that first only the southern parts of India, then the border between Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, and then the national highway from Bangalore to Hyderabad appeared on the screen. The green dot continued to flash steadily.

‘Your maps of the region are not worked out in great detail, otherwise I could have told the location within the error of one centimetre. As it is, I can only tell you the approximate location with regard to the nearby villages and the national highway.’ Vaman pointed to two villages on the highway, and continued: ‘According to my calculation, sister Urmila is about a quarter of a kilometre away from the national highway and at a spot which lies ten point three five kilometres from the southern village.’

‘Good enough for me! I will now arrange a helicopter and a crack group of commandos who have been on standby ever since we decided to go ahead with this project’, Major Samant said with enthusiasm.

‘Then why don’t we get Umi out before one o’clock? Let Shulz shout himself hoarse after that.’ Laxman was also infected by the new optimism.

‘Take it easy, all of you!’ Vaman cautioned. ‘Your helicopter will be noisy and alert whoever is keeping guard on Urmila.’

The Major wiped his perspiring forehead. This tiny robot was now teaching him strategy. But the little figure was right. Aloud, the Major said, ‘We will drop the task force ten kilometres from the spot and let the rescuers cycle to the spot.’

‘That is well thought out, Major’, Vaman applauded. Then he added, ‘And I suggest that you mount the rescue operation after one o’clock.’

‘Why? Wouldn’t sooner be better?’ Laxman asked impatiently.

‘Vaman is right, Dr Laxmanan. It is now clear that Shulz is not where Urmila is. Figure it out youself. He will call us at one and we will have to deliver the goods to him within the hour. So he won’t be far from here. If we rescue your wife after one o’clock, he won’t know that his operation has misfired. We will then be able to catch him too, red-handed. If, on the other hand, we rescue Urmilaji much sooner, he will get suspicious and disappear altogether … Dr Laxmanan, you have already done so much for us; may we request you to allow us this extra time?’ Major Samant asked as softly as he could manage.

Somewhat reluctantly, Laxman nodded agreement. Arul whispered in his ear, ‘A brave decision, Laxman. All of us are beholden to you.’