Neel Dervin and the Dark Angel (18 page)

One day Neel had done his warming up routine, and was waiting to begin his exercises.
He bent to tie his shoelaces more tightly. One of the problems of his new found speed was
that the friction from his speed wore the soles off the shoes he wore very quickly. He was
regularly supplied with brand new and very expensive shoes, but wore through them just as
quickly.

“You‟ve done well so far.” Arjun was saying as Negiand Premi stood next to him. “But
now it‟s time you learn something a little more difficult.”

 

“Okay, I‟m ready.” Neel said, standing up and facing Arjun.

 

Arjun brought out his hand from behind his back. He was holding a gun.

 

“This is a Beretta 92 semi automatic pistol.” Arjun said quietly as Neel stared at the gun.
Negi and Premi were watching him intently. Neel looked up at from the gun to Arjun.

 

“So there are going to be alot of guns involved in this kind of business?”He said slowly,
even as he realized it was a silly question.

 

“Yes, quite a few.” Arjun said gravely. “But you can handle them, trust me. Close your
eyes.” Neel obeyed him. “Now accelerate your brain speedlike we practiced.”

Neel
took a deep breath and pushed his mind‟s attention inward. His heart beat
increased, and he focused his mind, slowly willing it to increase the speed of his thoughts
until they blurred past at a blinding speed. He opened his eyes, and now the world was
moving in slow motion around him.

Arjun raised the gun, and fired.

Neel jumped violently and then backed away rapidly, his heart hammering. The sound
of the bullet leaving the gun had been louder than anything he had heard before. It was like
an explosion inside his brain. Arjun stared at him while he tried to slow his brain down. It
was made considerably harder by the tingling of his nerves.

“The sound cannot hurt you
or your eardrums.” Arjun‟s voice came over the ringing in
his ears. “It can, however, give you excellent warning and ample time to dodge the bullet.
You will have to get used to thatsound. Again.”

Neel hesitated, staring at the gun. Arjun did not lower the weapon. Slowly, Neel stepped
forward again. He closed his eyes and again forced his mind to speed up.

 

Arjun waited for a moment. Neel nodded, gritting his teeth. Again, Arjun fired a shot.

The sound assaulted his ears again, but this time Neel did not turn away. He saw the
bullet leave the gun, and followed its progress until it buried itself in the wall in front of
them.

Neel closed his eyes briefly and slowed his brain down.

 

“You saw the bullet?” Arjun asked him.

 

Neel nodded. “It was still pretty fast.” he said. “But I saw it.”

“Which is why we will now start a new part of your training.” Arjun said. “
Until now,
you have been taught things a normal person is taught. You will now be taught techniques
that your enhanced mindwill find useful.” He brought Neel to the centre of the hall and stood
in front of him.

“There are certain things that you are now capabl
e of which an average human would
find impossible to do.” he said. “One of the biggest advantages you have now is that your
reflexes are much, much better than everyoneelse‟s. The speed with which a normal human
views a situation, recognizes the danger, decides how to handle it, and then acts accordingly
is considerably slower than yours. In dangerous situations, that gives you an amazing edge.”

Neel nodded. It was true that the speed of his reflexes was even faster than his running
speed. Those reflexes had already been of great use to him in learning the parkour techniques
Arjun was teaching him. Split second timing was essential in parkour for planning the next
move during a run, and that split second meant a great deal more time for Neel than it would
have for anyone else.

“A bullet
does not move in a completely straight line from the time it leaves the barrel of
the gun to the time it reaches its target.” Arjun was saying. “Rather, it rises after leaving the
barrel and then immediately begins to drop. A lot of factors affect its speed and direction. I
will teach you to understand that path so that you can dodge bullets effectively. Are you
ready?” Neel nodded.

“Then let‟s begin.” Arjun said as he raised the gun again.

 

* * *

Arjun had taken to driving him around the city for a while after picking him up in the
afternoon. The length of the drives depended on how well Neel remembered the places he
had memorized in the map. Apparently Arjun had already committed the entire city map to
his memory. He would drive them around the city, asking Neel where he thought they were,
and correcting him when he answered incorrectly. Arjun did not seemannoyed that Neel‟s
memory of the map wasn‟t perfect yet and did not yell at him, for which Neel was grateful.

His practice with guns was improving. At first, he had practiced with color pellets. They
left a bright, accusing spot on his clothes whenever he failed to dodge correctly.
Nevertheless, Neel quite enjoyed those sessions. As he continued practice, his speed and
movements improved, until he was able to dodge all the pellets easily.

That was when Arjun introduced the rubber bullets. These were much faster than the
color pellets, and much more dangerous. Rubber bullets can fracture ribs and break bones in
the normal human body. Neel‟s increased bone density meant he was not in danger of that,
yet the bullets were quite painful when they hit him.

It was then that Neel understood the importance of the technique that Arjun was
teaching him. While dodging the color pellets, he had concentrated on individual pellets and
dodged them one at a time, something his speed allowed him to do with ease. But this
technique did not work when he was up against the much faster rubber bullets fired at him
from multiple points.

Neel learned to follow the trajectory of the bullet to judge where it would hit before it
left the barrel. He learnt to follow the sweep of the barrel to see where it would trace a line
with the bullets, the velocity of a shotaccording to Neel‟s increased brain speed, their
parabolic path, and even the coriolis effect of the Earth‟s rotation on long range projectiles.
Arjun had an extraordinarily keen knowledge of the subject, and he carefully told Neel the
signs to look for, from the eyes of the shooter to the angle of the barrel. These skills came
slowly, and during the first few sessions, Neel was hit so many times that he lost count. But
as Arjun repeatedly pointed out, it would come to him eventually. It was simply a matter of
practice, practice and more practice.

“We don‟t expect you to grasp the whole thing right away.” Negi said after the first
session while Neel stood before them, wincing as he felt the sore spots all over his body.

“But I hope I learn it soon.” Neel said, feeling a bruise on his arm. Luckily, his
accelerated healing meant the bruise would be gone verysoon. “I don‟t really fancy going
through this every day.”

“It‟ll come to you.” Arjun said,
placing a hand on his shoulder, an uncharacteristically
personal gesture on his part. “But you already proved something much more important today.
More important than any skill or technique we could teach you here.”

“What‟s that?” Neel asked, looking up at him in surprise.

“
You proved you have courage.” Arjun said as he smiled at the young boy.“You didn‟t
give up. You kept getting hit and falling down, but then you also kept on getting up and
coming back for more.”

“And that is not a quality we see in
many people.” Premi added, while Negi nodded
vigorously. “I know a lot of men who would have collapsed after the first hit and been unable
to get up again. But you didn‟t. Anyone can be brave when they‟re winning, but it takes a
special type of courage to get hurt and continue fighting.”

“Yeah, well.” Neel shrugged, staringat the floor in embarrassment. “It just never
occurred to me that I should stop. I really wanted to learn the technique.”

 

“Well, keep thinking like that and you‟ll learn itin no time.” Arjun said, squeezing his
shoulder briefly. “Now go change, our time is almost up.”

 

* * *

One time, three months after the training had begun, Neel walked onto the exercise mat
for his daily sparring session. He closed his eyes and slowly opened them again. The world
slowed down around him, and Negi came towards him in slow motion. They sparred for a
few minutes, during which Negi could not land a single blow on him. Finally, Negi stopped,
panting. Neel stopped as well, grinning at him.

“Stop smirking at me, kid.
It‟s not nice to laugh at a poor old man.” Negi wheezed as he
put a hand to his chest. It was getting harder and harder to keep up with the fourteen year old
these days.

“You‟re not old.” Neel laughed. “And I‟m just glad I‟m improving, that‟s all.”

 

“That was very good.” Arjun said. “You‟ve certainly learnt to use your speed and
reflexes to your advantage in a fight.”

 

“Thanks.” Neel said, still grinning.

 

“So how about we try something new today?” Arjun suggested.

 

Neel nodded. “Like what?”

 

Premi stepped onto the mat as well. He came to stand next to Negi and assumed a
fighting stance.

 

Negi grinned at Neel, who now looked alarmed. “Scared, kid? When was the last time
you saw a fight in real life where the odds were one on one?”

 

“You need to learn to hold your own against multiple attackers.” Arjun said quietly. “It‟s
never going to be as simple as defeating one opponent at a time.”

 

Neel nodded slowly, his grin fading as he took his position again. He closed his eyes
briefly and opened them again. At a nod from Arjun, Negi and Premi came towards him.

Negi kicked out at Neel, and he blocked the kick easily, raising his other arm to block
his punches. His eyes were trained on Negi‟s hands, and he did not see Premi deliver a kick
to his leg. Neel crashed to the ground before he could plan a counter.

He recovered quickly, and again assumed the position. Premi met him this time. The two
grappled, and Neel was too distracted keeping an eye on Premi to notice that Negi had moved
behind him.

The next moment, his entire body was pulled back from the shoulders, and he was
thrown head over heels on the floor from behind by Negi.

 

The sparring continued along similar lines. Neel was generally able to block one, but the
other usually got through his defenses.

“It‟s a little different
from movies, isn‟t it?” Arjun asked when half the time was up, as
Negi and Premi stepped back panting. Neel got up from the mat looking depressed, after
having been thrown face first into the mat yet again.

Neel nodded. “I couldn‟t see themboth at the same time.” He said in a slightly defensive
voice.

 

“Nor can anyone else.” Premi said. “You, however, have other senses which more than
make up for that deficiency.”

 

“Close your eyes.” Arjun said. Neel complied. “But don‟t increase your speed this time.
Focus on your surroundings like we practiced.”

 

Neel stood motionless as he concentrated. They had done this often enough during
guided meditation.

“You can feel it, can‟t you?” Arjun voice had grown very quiet. “
The sound of footsteps.
Of our breathing. Listen closely enough, and you can even feel the wind whistle when we
move our hands and feet. Your ears can tell you just as much as your eyes did.”

Neel nodded slowly, frowning as he concentrated. He was beginning to get an idea of
what Arjun wanted him to do. He let his hearing take the place of his eyesight, and the
background sounds that he usually worked so hard to ignore came to the forefront of his
mind. He was aware of his surroundings in a way that would have been completely
impossible before his accident. He could hear the wind moving nears his ears, the scrape of
his feet on the mat as he shifted slightly on his soles, the birds chirping far away in the open
field. He could even hear the beating of the hearts of the three men around him.

Suddenly something stirred nearby. Neel glanced in the direction even as he kept his
eyes closed. The heart beat was growing louder as the person came up to him. Neel could
hear him breathing softly and evenly. He concentrated harder.

A hand moved, the air moving around it with a whistling sound, too low for anyone but
Neel to hear. He ducked, and the hand passed over his head. He backed away quickly, and
felt someone else breathing behind him. He heard the soft graze of a foot on the ground, and
knew a kick was coming. That was when his instincts took over.

Neel turned, and jumped. He landed clear of the second attacker, his eyes still closed. He
landed on his feet, and was standing erect and ready before his attacker could even turn. He
grabbed the person swiftly, his iron grip impossible to shake off. The next second, Neel had
shoved his second attacker into the first one.

Neel opened his eyes. Negi and Premi was lying in a heap on the floor, staring up at
him.

“Congratulation.” Arjun‟s voice
broke the silence in the hall. His smile was very wide.
“You learnt the first lesson without our teaching it to you.” His dark eyes bored into Neel‟s.
“And for the first time, you fought like an Alpha soldier.”

* * *

Roughly four months had passed since his training had begun. Neel was driving with
Premi on a trip around the city before heading home. The exercise had become a regular
feature of his training, and Neel now knew the city well. Which was a good thing, since
Premi did not seem to have as good a knowledge of the city as Arjun did.

“This is Guru Ravidas road,right?” Premi said, watching the buildings around them.

“
Don Bosco.” Neel corrected him. Hewasn‟t sure whether Premi really didn‟t know or
was just testing him. It was much later than usual, and he was thinking of some excuse to tell
his mother when he got home.

“I‟ll take your word for it.” Premi said. “So, how do you feel about the training? Any
complaints or the like?”