RETURN OF THE SHADOW - Chapter 216

“About a few months before she was born,” replied Bharat calmly.

“What?” asked Bhagvat surprised. He wanted to rile up his brother, make him angry, infuriate him. He loved Vrita even before her marriage, but let it go. It was only Bharat was declared as the next commander, he had an affair with his brother’s wife. He wanted to see his brother who always had a calm and cool demeanour to jump at him in anger. He had expected the topic to rile up his brother, but Bharat’s reaction was the furthest from anything he had expected.

“You think that it was kept secret from me,” smiled Bharat. “It was never a secret. I had always known Parvati is not my daughter. Vrita she had the same face when she confessed to me about it and came to know that I had known of it.”

“No way. No way, you knew. Stop bullshitting me. I almost fell for it but bringing in Vrita. I knew that she would never confess to you. She promised me,” said Bhagvat.

“She also promised that she would be faithful and loyal to me when she married me,” replied Bharat. “You were her plaything or maybe she was yours. I never could understand, but I agree that I never thought Parvati would betray me. That really hurt. Guess that makes you happy?”

Bhagvat didn’t have anything to say. He was quiet and just sat down. He couldn’t understand his brother. Any man would be angered by something like this. No one would accept it easily. It felt like he was talking to an alien.

“You are confused, right?” continued Bharat. “Vrita was a friend since we were kids and truth be told, she never had much feelings for me, but she married me cause her father told her to. It was an arranged marriage. Neither of us had much feelings for the other till the end.”

“You shit. Then, why did you marry her?” yelled Bhagvat holding his gun at his brother’s head.

“I had other things on my mind than love, brother. It was war all around. I married as I was told to. If you loved her, you could have told me. I had no intention to marry only her. I only came to realize about it later, but by then, it was too late. So, I let the pair of you be,” answered Bharat.

“So, I guess you were a saint, huh,” yelled Bharat.

“I am no saint. But it was just a marriage, but I was her friend and she mine. Marriage did change a few things though. We lived together and, in a few years, she came to know a lot of things about me and my work. She began to distance you, then. After her brother died, she was lot to the both of us.”

“Stop your bull shit. You just stay quiet till they come to arrest me, else I will put a bullet through your head,” said Bhagvat.

“We both know that you won’t. You won’t fire a damn round, if you want to survive the raid,” said Bharat. “In spite of being a sentimental and emotional person, I know you wouldn’t truly put your life at risk. Do you know why I and dad stopped putting you on missions?” asked Bharat.

“We realized that you were meant to lead. You treat strategy like a game of chess. It is just a game to you. In real-life, you are not considered a winner if only the king survives. You think that the remaining fighters wouldn’t fight for their lives? We never fought wars in open. Our fights were in the dark and losing more than half the members for a temporary win was never worth it.”

“I don’t need to hear this shit from you,” said Bhagvat hitting Bharat’s head with a gun with the intention to knock him out. He heard the same reason from his father along with a bunch of other things even when he successfully completed missions. Then, later he had an accident, was considered dead legally and was told to not go for any missions any longer and work for his brother. It was clear to him that he was considered a failure by his father.

“You honestly think that would even register after my eye?” asked Bharat. “Screw that. Since, we are having a rare moment of honesty. Just tell me one thing. Why did you come back into operations and do all this when I you were give a peaceful way out?”

“I never wanted out. I wanted to be the head. I wanted to be you,” yelled Bhagvat.

“Why?” asked Bharat perplexed. “I am what you would call a cuckhold. Not much of an influence in these calm times. I am just another businessman working my ass off for a family name, just to keep a promise I made to dad when I was young and foolish.”

“Think about it. Do you want to really be me?” asked Bharat.

As he heard his brother’s words, Bhagvat looked at him. “I didn’t mean that. I don’t want to be you. I just wanted to be the head of the family. I don’t want to be the same as you. You are,” said Bhagvat. “I don’t know what you are.”

“That is what it means to be the head of the family, brother. If you won’t always choose the family, you would be replaced. You know the things I had to do for it. You think I liked the fact that you were involved with Vrita?” yelled Bharat. “No!”

“It is not a privilege. It is a pain,” yelled Bharat.

“It is power, you fool,” interrupted Bhagvat with a shout. “It is power. In spite of being a commander, you still don’t understand.”

“Of course, it is power, but with its limits. You think there are no one else. There are nine other commanders as you have realized by now. Now, that is technically speaking a freelance organization. Something, that the alliance government allows because it has its uses. The way you operate, the ones you operate with will bring war,” yelled Bharat trying to make his brother understand.

“The ones I work with?” asked Bhagvat hitting him in the stomach and lifting him. He threw Bharat against the wall. “What do you know?”

“I know what they want. I know that they have a habit of using people like you,” said Bharat with his face pressed against the wall. “It is the knights of the old republic, brother. They are using you to fuel a war. They had been supporting you for a long time, but did you know why they pushed you to attack suddenly and threatened that it was your last chance. I bet they even threatened to kill Parvati. It was because we were about to find out about one of them. We had them in a trap and when they entered, we could have caught them. The only way out was to take me out. I was even on guard against you, just didn’t expect you to recruit her. My daughter was my blind spot.”

“My daughter, not yours,” yelled Bhagvat. “NOT YOUR’S.”

“Yes, a fat lot of good your stupidity is doing to her,” replied Bharat. “She had everything before, enough money, family, friends. But in the past two years, you made her into a beast.”

Bhagvat turned him around and gave him a couple of punches in his gut. “Talk about her again. I swear that you won’t be talking for a while.”

“Ok. Let us talk about your friends. Where are they?” asked Bharat. “They contacted you since this happened. They have given you a way to contact them?”

Taking his brother’s silent breathing for agreement, Bharat continued, “No. They didn’t. They only call you. You don’t know their identity. You are just an investment. Do you even know if they have a plan to extract you or if they even plan to?”

Bhagvat had been thinking of these things himself for a long time. Despite his requests, he never received a way to contact them quickly. All he could do was to send a signal, to which they take a day or two respond. He had always felt a bit that he was just being used by them, but the person who responded always insisted that it was a test and he could only join them when he passed it and proved worthy and capable.

Even after he managed to replace his brother for the past two years, this did not change. He got their support and some of his most capable men and information that allowed him to replace his brother were provided by them. So, he didn’t take it seriously that they get him to perform a few favours, but their behaviour didn’t change even after he replaced his brother as a commander.

“What? Cat got your tongue?” mocked Bharat. As his brother was caught in his thoughts, Bharat butted his head at Bhagvat hitting him on his nose followed by a jump and knocking him to the ground.

“After this, don’t expect me to shelter you. You are no longer a part of the family. I promised father to not kill you and keep you safe, but I bet he would have told otherwise, if he knew the people whom you have befriended,” said Bharat. Though Bhagvat still had a gun, Bharat wasn’t afraid. He knew that his brother wouldn’t use it. Moreover, he could already hear the shouts of the enforcers coming up covering the various exits of the floor.

“Let me give a last piece of advice. Consider, it a parting gift due to fraternal bond that once was between us. If you ever end up meeting those guys again, make sure that they treat you as one of them rather than their pawn. I hope that today’s events have at least put that into perspective,” said Bharat as enforcers busted into the room waving their arms and shouting at the pair of them to sit down.

Both of them complied while glaring at each other. Bharat had his hands already tied behind his back while Bhagvat was forced to put his hands on his head and was tied up by the enforcers. They were both put up against the wall as they reported about the similar looking people to their superiors.

A couple of minutes later, the one in charge of the raid came in. It was a veteran enforcer of the planet. Jackson Broadback was from a third-generation law enforcer family and he himself had been an enforcer for close to 30 years. He was commissioner of the enforcer force of the entire city and had been one of the most well-respected enforcers of the planet.

He was about 7 feet tall with a thick waist, big hands and a round face sporting a handlebar moustache. He wore the blue uniform of a commissioner with his long coat covering his body up to his knees. He had an angry look on his face as inspected the place. It was clear to him that there had been a minor fight between the two captives.

He came to Bharat first and asked, “You seriously tried to fight him when you knew we were coming up to rescue you. Couldn’t you wait for a few more moments?”

“And you,” he turned towards Bhagvat. “My men already told me that you were simply waving the gun at him and put it down as soon as you saw them. Why did you even have to bring out a gun, if you had no intention to use it?”

“You know each other?” he asked the pair of them, but the just stared at him in response without saying anything.

“Ok. Mr. one-eyed zombie over there. Stop staring,” he added. “I have got the most bizarre pair of calls today one after the other. I was quite surprised to find that chief commander of the planet and director general of the enforcers asking me to raid this place as a valuable asset who is supposed to look like you is in danger and to take into custody any person who would look like you.”

“I hate such instances where I am just ordered to act. Usually these are kept in dark. Imagine my surprise that by the time, we started the press already had a video informing that Bharat Banerjee, whoever he among the pair of you had sent me of all people, a secret request to help,” he continued.

“Just arrest me and put me in jail as you were ordered to, blue coat,” said Bhagvat who wasn’t in a mood to talk with the commissioner. All he saw was a boot coming up to kick him on his chin as he sent sprawling on the floor.

“I don’t care who has your back, but you talk back to me or my men, I will kill you and mark you up as a casualty. You understand?” asked Jackson pulling up Bhagvat by his collar.

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