Heroes R Us (24 page)

The two terrorists carrying rifles immediately brought their guns up to deal with him, but they had no idea what they were up against. Every movement seemed to hurt, but Arnab stilled his mind, blocking out the pain, blocking out the crowd's noise, and focused all his strength and all his concentration on his right hand as it shot out, straight and level as Khan had taught him, at the nearest terrorist's face. The man's head rocked back as if he had run at full tilt into a brick wall, his head hung loosely from his body and his neck snapped as he fell back. The terrorist was dead before his body hit the ground, but Arnab was now beyond caring how much he hurt his opponents. The other gunman dropped his gun in terror and would have run had Arnab not felled him with another blow that sent him crashing down several rows of seats into the crowd. What Arnab had started was finished by the angry group of spectators who tore into the wounded terrorist.

Before he could take on the third man, the terrorist had taken out a handgun and begun firing at Arnab, emptying the magazine into the hooded devil before him. Arnab managed to dodge one or two bullets but he was spun around like a rag doll as the third bullet tore into his body. The crowd's cheers stopped as suddenly as they had begun. Several people in the crowd began to sob and wail, as the terrorist entered the VIP box.

There were still more than twenty people in the box when the man came in. Jayantada tried to push Mishti behind himself, in an attempt to shield her from what was coming. A couple of people began pleading with the man, only to be shot on the spot. The man was enraged when he saw that the Prime Minister was no longer there, but he still had his larger mission to fulfil. He emptied his magazine, shooting one more person, and then reloaded in case he faced any more resistance. He then put his hand under his shirt and felt for the button on the switch, beginning to say the prayers that would herald his martyrdom.

Suddenly he felt himself being bodily lifted off the ground and flying forward, shattering the glass window and then out of the VIP box. Arnab had found a last reserve of strength and had tackled the man, sending both of them bouncing off an awning some ten feet below the VIP box and the on to the playing field a dozen feet below that. The terrorist broke a leg in the fall but retained enough of his senses to try and reach for the switch again. Arnab was lying just a foot away and reached out to grab the man's backpack, ripping it away and throwing it several feet away. The man roared in anger, realizing his mission was now almost certain to fail, but tried to reach the switch again, determined to, if nothing else, then to kill this demon who had thwarted their plans. Arnab was now too weak to hit the man but locked him in a bear hug, his only thought being that he wanted to get the man as far away as possible from the crowd and from the backpack that now lay just a few feet away, near the boundary rope.

As the man struggled against him, Arnab began pulling him towards the center of the ground. Arnab no longer had the strength to pull the man's hand away from the switch of his bomb vest, and was trying to pull the man to a place where he could cause the least harm. The man was using all his strength to wrap his fingers around the switch, a battle he was winning inch by painful inch. Arnab suddenly felt other arms reach out and try and grab the terrorist. Some men had jumped from the crowd onto the playing field and were trying to help their hero in this desperate struggle. Arnab wanted to tell them to go away, to not throw away their lives, but was too weak to say anything. It took everything he had to just keep dragging the terrorist away from the backpack and the crowd. The men who had jumped into the fray to help him were actually doing more harm than good, since they had no idea that the terrorist was reaching for a switch under his shirt and were focused on restraining his free left hand instead of helping Arnab pull his right hand away from the switch.

Suddenly all hell broke loose as shots rang out. The terrorist had managed to pull out his pistol with his free hand and had fired several shots into the group of men trying to help Arnab. Arnab heard some of them cry out in pain, but he was too focused on keeping the terrorist's hand away from the switch to notice how many of them had been hurt and how badly.

As the terrorist's fingers began to close around the switch, Arnab risked a glance back and smiled. They were almost at the middle of the ground and quite far from the backpack. He had to hope it was far enough. As he continued to struggle against the terrorist, he felt more and more of his strength fade away as he continued bleeding from his wounds. He felt a pang of regret at not having had the chance to live the life he had dreamt about. He would not get a chance to earn a good living by working in the bank. He would not marry and raise a family someday. He would not grow old and see his children follow their own dreams and paths in life. It felt like a life that had been wasted. Yet, because he had done what he did, many others would get a chance to live their lives the way they had dreamt. Mishti would marry a man who loved her and have a family of her own. Chintu would get a chance to grow up and experience all the joys and pains that brought. Jayantada would be able to see his favourite niece get married and continue to work in the library he loved till he retired.

When he thought of it that way, it wasn't a bad use of a life.

With that acceptance came release, and he felt his grip on the terrorist's hand slacken as his eyes closed for the last time.

Then the terrorist pushed down on the switch and the bomb exploded.

***

FOURTEEN

There was little else the country talked about in the weeks that followed other than the dramatic attack on the Woodpecker Cup game. The first reaction was one of shock and disbelief at how terrorists could have struck in the heart of the capital, and that too at a venue where the Prime Minister had been present. The real shocker came as details began filtering out about the real motives of the terrorists and the magnitude of the attack they had almost succeeded in carrying out. The backpacks had not contained nuclear weapons, as Arnab had feared when he saw their contents, but something almost as dangerous. Each backpack had been filled with several kilogrammes of highly radioactive material. If the suicide bombers had been able to carry out their plan, these 'dirty bombs' would have exposed more than a hundred thousand people present at the stadium to a high dose of radiation poisoning. Winds would have carried the radioactive dust further across the city, and according to some experts, the number of people affected over a year would have reached at least two hundred thousand, and perhaps as high as five hundred thousand. Unknown to anyone, the terrorists had come within a whisker of achieving the goal they had set out for the operation.

The final moments of the struggle between the hooded superhero and the terrorists had been viewed by more than ten million viewers on TV and as the footage was uploaded on the Internet, that number multiplied several times over. As more details of that evening materialized, especially from the two security guards who had seen the struggle in the parking lot, there was an unprecedented outpouring of support and grief for the fallen hero.

The final bomb blast had killed the Guardian Angel and the four men who had jumped into the fray to help him, in addition to the suicide bomber. There had been intense speculation about who the superhero had been, but in the aftermath of the bomb blast, it was impossible to identify which of the five men he had been. The identity of the five heroes made for a telling list. There was Umesh Phadke, a 37 year old garment trader from Baroda; Danish Rahman, a 29 year old sweeper who worked in the Municipal Department; Ankush Raisinghani, a 32 year old diamond merchant from Calcutta; Rahul Asthana, a 30 year old engineer from Delhi; and finally there was Arnab Bannerjee, a 25 year old librarian. What shocked people was the fact that all of them had never been considered anything remotely heroic by those who knew them. They were ordinary folks, leading ordinary lives. Men with families. Men like you or me. Men you would never notice if you walked past them in the street. Yet, they were all heroes who had saved thousands of lives, and one of them was the closest thing to a real life superhero that India had ever seen. The
Times of India
ran a special front page story titled, 'Who needs Superman when we have the Everyman?'

Woodpecker Industries was quick to capitalize on the immense popularity of its short-lived brand ambassador, and launched a new beer brand called Golden Ale, with the brand name encapsulated as the letters 'GA', much like the logo that had adorned the sweatshirt of the country's beloved hero. In the launch conference, Aggarwal broke down and cried in front of the cameras as he recounted how close he and the Guardian Angel had been, and how his company would try and carry on the values that its brand ambassador had stood for. GA Beer skyrocketed to become the bestselling beer brand in India within a year of launch, and Aggarwal was last seen on the covers of leading magazines cavorting with some B-grade Bollywood actresses on the deck of his private cruise ship. There are reports that he plans to enter the movie industry with his first production being an action magnum opus about India's first real-life superhero, and it is rumoured that he is planning to sign up Hrithik Roshan or some other top Bollywood star to play the leading role.

Balwant Singh and others in the government were initially not too keen on discussing the role of the Guardian Angel in thwarting the attack, but that changed when some members of the media began criticizing Balwant Singh and the police for not having ensured adequate security. A survivor to the core, Balwant was quick to seize on the opportunity and declared that the superhero had in fact been working with him, and had been at the match after Balwant had received intelligence of a possible terror threat. Like Aggarwal, Balwant Singh too capitalized on the surging popularity of the fallen hero by peppering every interview or speech with references to how well he had known him, and how he had been the mentor who had harnessed the special powers of the young man to help improve the law and order situation.

Like the Mumbai terror attacks of a couple of years ago, there was evidence galore, including confessions from the three terrorists who had been captured alive, that the attack had originated in Pakistan. There was the usual hue and cry for a few days, as the government issued repeated statements about how it would give a 'fitting reply' to the nation's enemies. However, the government never really did much, leaving cynics commenting that perhaps it would indeed take the nuclear obliteration of an Indian city to shake the government into any sort of action. One of the reasons for the government's inaction was the fact that the recent elections had produced a shaky coalition government, and as the year went by, another election seemed likely. Balwant Singh was last seen at his party's annual convention being projected as the Prime Ministerial candidate in the coming election. Balwant Singh indicated that while he had no hunger for power, he would humbly accept the nomination if his party believed that he could serve the nation in this capacity.

Upadhyay was projected as one of the heroes of the evening, and he had a broken leg and arm to show for his efforts. Obviously nobody would know that the broken leg had come courtesy of the hero whom he had shot in the back. He was awarded the Police Medal for Gallantry and enjoyed his moment in the spotlight. That newly acquired sheen was soon tarnished a bit when reports surfaced about how the terrorists had acquired real police uniforms and identification cards by buying them from a corrupt Inspector who was known to be very close to Upadhyay. The case was hushed up, but to be safe, Balwant had Upadhyay transferred to the remote North East border, where he could continue his ways without being under so much media scrutiny. A few months later, he was in the news when the Home Ministry began reporting how his bold initiatives against insurgents were yielding dramatic results, with more than 50 insurgents having been killed in police encounters. The Ministry also announced that it was forming a special task force to investigate the recent spate of killings of poor villagers by a suspected psychopath in the North-East. Upadhyay continues in his ways, comfortable in the fact that Balwant's continued patronage would ensure he does not get into any serious trouble, but he does regret the fact that his damaged arm and leg mean that he will never play Golf again.

Mishti did get married later that year, and is now pregnant with her first child. If it's a boy, she plans to name him Arnab. Jayantada did hire a new Assistant Librarian, but would never tire of speaking about the fine young man who had worked for him, and who had been one of the heroes who had jumped into the Cricket field that fateful evening to help the Guardian Angel. On his repeated pleading, the Principal agreed to rename the library as the Arnab Bannerjee Memorial Library.

Chintu never tires of telling his mother about the super powers Arnab had possessed. Mrs Duggal gently discourages this hero worship, and hopes her son grows out of this phase.

As for Khan, he cried his heart out for a long time after seeing what had happened to Arnab, but that grief was tempered by a fierce sense of pride, much like a father would feel towards a son. A couple of days after the attack, he finally opened the suitcase Arnab had left for him. The contents shocked him, but then an idea came to him, and the old man began plotting.

***

A year after the attack, something peculiar started happening. Young men, operating in groups of two or three, began materializing in Delhi's streets by night. They were all dressed in hooded sweatshirts, and initially people thought they were just fans of the Guardian Angel, trying to imitate their fallen hero. That changed when these men began to intervene in law and order situations. It began on a small scale, with these men chasing away robbers or petty thieves. But soon, larger groups of these men began to appear in the city's streets, patrolling neighbourhoods, and not shying away from open confrontation with criminals. A gang of carjackers was set upon by them and left beaten to a pulp. A sexual assault on a group of women was thwarted and the five would be rapists were thrashed by the four young men in hooded sweatshirts to the point where they spent more than a week in hospital before they were sent to jail.