Free Immortals by Spartan Kaayn Page A

rationality.
    He did not have to wait for long.
    There was a thump and a rustle of leaves somewhere to his left. The first assailant had jumped the brick boundary wall and had landed in the heap of chopped cattle-feed stored there.
    And then and there, rationality lost to oddity and Jai started believing in his strange faculty.
    Other noises followed the first thud – one more where the first had landed and two more thuds a little to the right. There were four thuds altogether. Jai knew it would be a hell of a difficult task to take down all four of them alone.
    He looked around and saw the glint of kitchenware propped against the pillar for drying. He quickly found what he needed.
    Three of the assailants were creeping up towards the house and the fourth remained hidden in the bushes to Jai’s left. From his position behind the pillar, Jai could see all of them. The hidden assailant lay to his left in the bushes while the others crept up to the right of the pillar. Jai picked up the large, gleaming kitchen knife that was possibly used for chopping meat. He steadied himself by propping himself against the pillar and quietly turned around to face the assailant in the bushes. His own face was still hidden in the darkness around the pillar.
    He steadied the knife in his right hand holding it by the blade and the fingers of his non-throwing arm curled into a crack in the middle of the pillar, using it as a pivot. He needed to hurl the knife with speed and the pivot would help him get the desired speed in that hunched up sitting position.
    He took a last look at the other three assailants and threw the knife. It sailed the distance in silence and struck its mark, the target’s left half of chest. The intruder was hurled back and he howled in pain as he fell. Jai immediately picked up his revolver and turned to the others in front of him. All of them looked back towards the noise and two of them started for the bushes instinctively. The third one stood his ground and Jai knew he was the leader.
    He took aim from where he stood and fired.
    Jai was at an advantage as he was hiding in the dark and had a clear shot at the assailants. The bullet found the forehead of the third assailant and he fell dead to the floor. There was a loud report with the shot and Jai had given his position to the other two assailants with that shot. They started firing indiscriminately into the darkness around Jai. Jai scrunched up behind the pillar, waiting for the barrage to die down. The noise of the shots had awoken everyone in the village and lights flickered on inside Henna’s house too.
    The remaining two assailants could not risk exposure and decided to flee. Jai looked towards his left and saw one of the assailants climbing up the wall. He pulled his trigger and the bullet found its mark. The assailant was hit square on the back of his head and he slumped on the wall itself, half his body hanging on either side of it.
    The last assailant was nowhere to be seen.
    Henna and her mother were at their door, looking aghast at what had happened. Jai rushed to them.
    Henna gave him a quick brush over, searching for any bullet holes, and then burst out crying with concern and alarm.
    Jai held her in her arms.
    ‘Nothing has happened to me. I am alright. One of the bastards got away.’
    Henna looks up at him, tears running down her cheeks
    ‘Who were these people?’
    ‘ Bhai’s men, I guess. I didn’t think they would reach here.’ Jai said the words but he did not mean them. He had known that they would come after her family but he had not anticipated that it be would be so brutally quick.
    That these men found him and Henna here was perhaps a mere coincidence. They had come with the motive to wipe out Henna’s family, the price that her family had to pay for her betrayal.
    It was all about appearances in the underworld. A gang-leader cannot be perceived as weak and in this deadly display of retribution, the family often was the apt target. The