The escape

Just now I heard that the Prime Minister had resigned, and the Deputy PM  was declaring an emergency is that right, Snigdha said to her husband.

Where did you hear it from? From the party people or  from someone else?, Jatin asked. Snigdha had access to the party I control through her side of the family but she was also known to listen to street gossip and surface that up. On several occasions Snigdha had heard the news on the streets before hearing it from the family, but on some occasions there was massive disinformation on the news on the streets. The street, it seemed, was a lot more pessimistic about people's deaths and martial law than real life.

They were talking about it by the medical shop. They're saying the radio and tv stations have been warned to not even mention it before the official government source comes out. And that Army trucks are mobilizing in other big cities. Apparently the armed police in the valley thinks they don't need Army for this yet and they're not enough, so the Army chief and the police chief are having a meeting somewhere secret to figure out who's securing the valley, she said.

For something she had heard on the streets that was a shockingly detailed explanation of how things were conspiring. The thing was though, there was no real reason to declare emergency the party hard won its second term after completing its first full term, a first for the country in over a century, and things had been going quite well. There was still internal dissent within the party, but the serious dissenters were either given government jobs or thrown out of the party. Not that anything was impossible in this day and age in the country. The Prime Minister had just barely gathered an internal coalition for himself so giving up the post would have been shocking for him. Jatin scratched his head. Nothing made sense, but the ridiculousness of the rumor had to have something in it.

The door flung open, and Kasyap jumped in, his face red his hair a mess. He was breathing heavily and could barely string words together. Dai, bhauju, we have to leave, right now. I have got a car and driver ready, I can get us out safely until Thankot and I have arranged a few friends for multiple vehicles. We might have to hide in a truck between Chitwan and Raxaul, but we should be in Jogbani in,...he looked at his watch..six hours if we drive fast enough. We'll take the first train to Patna, we can't risk the bus, and the to Delhi. Let's figure out what's next there, he said in a single breath.

All sound had been sucked away from the room as if by a blackhole. Snigdha and Jatin stared at each other. Gather our dollar bag and passports, I'll get the important documents and devices, Jatin told Snigdha, she was already rummaging through the drawers for their passports. She stuffed several bundles of hundred-dollar bills in a fanny back, two bundles srapped to her body, and stuffed the passports in the pockets of her pants. Kasyap, go up and disconnect the gas line and the main electric breaker please, she said, as she rushed to make sure all the taps in the restrooms were shut tight. They were zooming towards Thankot in five minutes.

A convoy of heavy vehicles with heavily-armed men appeared on the scene twenty minutes later.