It was hard for Chaits to believe what Alisha said – he again was looking at a road with a dead end – all his hopes to reach Vicky shattered again…
“Hey! Chaits… what happened? Why do stare blankly like this?” asked Alisha
“Let’s eat our dinner first – I’m famished” a voice from her troupe complained.
They had their meals & then he accommodated her troupe in L6… It’s when they finally sat in L6, Chaits poured out the details of his adventures in the jungle… Alisha could feel the dejection at losing the chance to get to Vicky through Chunnu….
“Don’t worry, Chaits… Vicky & his friends are hiding in the jungle… we’ll find them… nobody can stop us now” Alisha said reassuring Chaits as Chaits thought, ‘The people who can get Vicky earlier & could kill him before I get to him one 1.Inspector Sharma… 2.Captain Mickey… have to beat them in this race…’
Alisha had managed to get a map of the jungle & the tribal settlement locations. Next day as they got ready to move, Chaits went over to a telephone booth near the cafeteria & called up Inspector Sharma… even he was getting ready with his men to scan the jungle for Vicky. “Take care of yourself son” with those words he hung up…
They boarded Alisha’s news van & travelled approximately 25 kilometres toward south into the road that led through the jungle to the Goa road…
Then they walked around 3 kilometres into the dense jungle when they finally reached a clearing the clearing contained a small settlement of Tribals that spread over 30-40 huts…
The news of some urban people spread in that settlement & soon they were surrounded by excited tribal women & children….
Chaits could understand what they spoke though their dialect made it difficult… he soon made them understand that he & his colleagues were from TV & wanted to shoot a documentary on their life-style – in a hope – perhaps the documentary would get them help from the government… he could see their excited faces as they fell for his story & looked expectantly at the person who carried the camera with him…
Chaits acted as a translator between the tribal & the TV crew & kept his eyes wide open for anything unusual…
After a few normal questions like how they live, what they do during day, if there were any schools nearby (which were not), he asked them where all men were – they were not to be seen…
“He’s gone with the rest of men two days ago” said one woman from the crowd…
“Where to?”
“They’ve gone in a truck to some shore far away – this is for loading & unloading cargo – but this type of work comes only in three months – but it gives as much relief as they get paid with grains with which we cook for our food”
“And how much grain do they get for this work?”
“Well – sometimes 2 gunny bag full for each house – sometimes only 1 gunny bag full of grains – but that lasts for almost 2 months making our life a bit easier…”
“Wow! That’s nice – do you know what cargo do they load-unload?”
“No – what would knowing that do for us? We only work so that we get the grains to eat…”
“Why only once in 3 months?”
“He’s the Son of God – he has to give work to every village – our turn comes only once in 3 months…”
“Who’s this Son of God?”
“We don’t know his name but he surely must be a Son of God because he provides us with food we have never seen him – we have only seen his men who come here to with the truck…”
“Do you have any picture of them? We can show it on the TV so that other people can also join them to help you…”
“No.”
Alisha suddenly got an idea & she fished out few photos of Vicky & his group & showed it to them – one by one – “Is he anyone from these?”
The tribal looked blankly as one by one photos got held – suddenly they seemed excited – Chaits looked at the photo & recognised ‘Munna’
“Is he the one who comes with grain for you?”
“Yes – he’s the one…”
“Ummm… so he’s expected after 3 months now – is it?”
“Yes”
“Where can we meet him before that?”
“Umm- you won’t meet him, but you can meet another friend of his next week?”
“Where?”
“In a similar village called Patherkhed – its long way from here – takes about a day to walk… it’s near the fort with ancient temple…”
Chaits’ face lit up as he knew where the fort was…
“Oh! Thank you we’ll want to meet him – can you tell me which day of next week?”
“It would normally be the Fridays…”
“Hmmm – ok – is this forest full of animals?”
“Yes – it is – but occasionally, we do see some people with sticks of fire around…. When the stick fires – there’s a loud noise & the animal at a distance falls dead…”
“Oh! That’s strange – do they trouble you?”
“Initially few women here were raped by them but after the men sent by the Son of God started coming here – they stopped troubling us but we’re always afraid they may return again…”
“Do you know where this person stays?” Chaits asked showing the photo of Munna.
“No – not exactly – but there’s an old house – a strong house made of stone halfway to Patherkhed where he visits some people like you – who stay there – it seems one of them is mad – people have heard screams in the middle of night from there – the Son of God always prays at the ancient temple on full moon’s day for getting the ghost out of that mad man…”
Chaits thought for a moment & concluded it must be Pakya who these people must be referring to as a mad man possessed by a ghost… There was now a ray of hope on the horizon… they were getting some valid info that’d get them near Vicky.
He thanked the tribal women for giving info & Alisha waved to the cameraman who went around the village shooting for the documentary while Chaits & Alisha went off for a walk in jungle – they wanted to hunt for any clue or evidence they could find… after strolling for about 2 hours on the perimeter of the settlement, they returned unable to find anything further – after which they all turned back to Jungle Homes…
“Vicky is intelligent” said Alisha, “he rightly found the way to win over these tribal people – he knows that hard cash is something these tribal people won’t fancy – I’m sure, he must be picking up the grain in quintals from the main supply depot & that’d cost him much lower & would be easier because if he starts picking up these quantities from a nearby warehouse – the officials around would be quick to notice the high turnover in such a small place…” she opened her notepad & made a note of this… they were tired & slept like logs & rose to the chirping of birds…
The entire week ahead, they had their routine set as they visited the tribal villages around… The more villages they visited, more information they got from the tribal people – but it was only information – they were unable to see any of Vicky’s friends…
The empire that Vicky had built was impressive… the routes his men used to transit were all through dense forests & safe from police. He also had won over the tribal people by providing them with food & the Tribals never even knew that the goods they loaded or unloaded or transported within the jungles… They contained smuggled arms, ammunition & drugs which were used by anti-social elements for ruining the society…
In fact, Chaits himself didn’t know what they did with the arms & where were they supplied. After about a week of snooping around in the jungle, they realised that the mission to hunt out Vicky & his friends was difficult & still they’d no dependable information about his whereabouts… The force led by Inspector Sharma had crossed through the entire jungle without an encounter…
Every step taken to fish Vicky out of the jungle had come to a naught…
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