CHAPTER THIRTEEN – Innocence lost
Joshua leaned against the trunk of Van’s rental car, making sure Sheryl or Jermaine did not sneak back to video the barn. He checked the power level of his cell phone…..two bars…..then called Adele.
“We just got a bomb dropped on us. Did you know the Mehras were defecting from India, and that Namanda wants to stay here?”
“What? Joshua, I had no idea. Why didn’t they tell us that?”
“You left before they could tell you. Something worse happened. A television crew from Somerset came to interview me, but they also met the rest of us. Adele, I didn’t know about Namanda wanting to stay before I agreed to the interview. She blurted it out while the television crew was seated at the table. Namanda stated that she and her family were to be relocated to the Pakistan border so that she could become involved in espionage. Did you know about that?”
“Wait, how did the television people find you? And regarding Namanda, that seems a little extreme, don’t you think? A fourteen year old spy?”
“Autry’s name came up during feedback from the Kenyon story. They located Autry and he called me while they were in his office. I told him to bring them up here since it was only a local television station. I just didn’t know Namanda would drop her bombshell in their presence. As far as extreme, no, actually I don’t think it is. Tracy let it out that Namanda’s abilities are highly coveted by the Indian military. You and I both know the friction between Pakistan and India is at fever pitch, and both countries have nuclear warheads. It’s a very nervous area of the world. I believe she is of such value that she will be hunted down, and you know once the American military finds out about her that there will be a tug-of-war for her services.”
“What do you think we should do?”
“As far as I know, Namanda and Tracy can only be traced to Knoxville. And really, it’s Tracy that concerns me the most. She is returning to New Delhi, and of course she will be squeezed for information. It will be just a matter of time before the Indian intelligence pins Namanda down to here. And then there are the television people who have information that could hit the airwaves. Adele, I can’t take the risk of hiding her here.”
“You will need to speak with Namanda’s parents. Find out what their intentions are. And you will need to have a heart to heart chat with Tracy. Can you trust her?”
“I will call you back later after I talk with both Tracy and Namanda separately. If you have any thoughts, call me.”
“Roger that. I will tell Jack about this. He might be able to pressure the television folks to sit tight. Call me later.”
Joshua’s cell phone rang before he made his way back into the barn. It was Autry.
“How did it go with the TV folks? They still there?”
“They left.”
“That was quick. What did you tell them?”
“It went badly. Namanda said something in their presence and I had to call off the interview in a hurry.”
“Like what?”
“She said her family is defecting from India and will be making the States their home. That wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t in the presence of the media.”
Autry hesitated for a few moments, then, “So, if I’m hearing ya right, the brass in India won’t be all too happy about losing their little mind-reader. And the television folks provide a traceable source as to her whereabouts, right?”
“Exactly.”
“That’s a tough spot to be in, for you, and for them. I’m sorry to say I’m gonna make it tougher. That woman from Bowling Green, the nurse, she is coming here tomorrow. And she’s bringin’ her sister and nephew with her. I had sent out the free jar in the mail today, but when she called and I told her that, she said she wanted the five extras and wanted to pick ‘em up. Do you want me to bring her up there?”
“That won’t be a problem. I like the idea of a nurse having the product.”
“Supposedly the nephew has cancer. That’s why the rush.”
“Call me before you head up this way tomorrow.”
Joshua found his three guests still chopping beets in the workroom. “Namanda, let’s take a walk, please.” She happily accommodated the request. The two walked down the slope into the valley.
“Tell me more about why you and your parents are leaving India.”
“Ok. It’s a long story, really. It mainly started because of the Inter-Services Intelligence. That’s the Pakistani central intelligence agency similar to your CIA in America. Pakistan and India have long had skirmishes over who is the rightful owner of the lands in Kashmir and Jammu. Are you familiar with those two regions?”
“In name only,” Joshua replied.
“They are the north part of India. They stick out from the mainland like a raised thumb over a closed fist, and are situated between Pakistan to the west, the Tibetan Himalayas to the northeast, and China to the east. The ISI of Pakistan encourages insurgency in those Kashmir and Jammu regions against India. There have been many, many conflicts over the years between the mujahideen, some call them the Ultras, and the Indian military. As a result there are as many as 60,000 Indian soldiers stationed in those two disputed regions. There have been numerous atrocities, what is called extra-judicial activities, with thousands of the inhabitants dying at the hands of Indian soldiers. It would be like your army in this country marching through American towns and indiscriminately killing those who protested its presence. In the last twenty years it is estimated that as many as fifty thousand souls have been killed at the hand of their own countrymen.”
Joshua and Namanda sat on a raised mound in the valley. “Please continue,” Joshua asked.
“A friend of my father is a captain in the Border Security Force, a division of the Indian Central Armed Police. The friend knew of the BSF plans to use me as an operative in the area around Fazilka, which is in Punjab near the Pakistan border. That area is known to harbor terrorist cells backed and financed by the Pakistani ISI. There also are several cells of Al Qaeda in India, and Fazilka is believed to be one of their strongholds.
My father was warned that the intentions to use me were much too dangerous; that the India of my birth would not hesitate to kill me and my parents if something went wrong. The Punjab area hosts a pipeline of terrorists who infiltrate Kashmir and Jammu. God forbid if the terrorists should discover how the country planned to use me. He strongly urged us to immediately make plans to leave the country, discretely of course.
My father arranged to have our house furnishings moved to Mumbai, which I’m sure you know is the old Bombay. We moved in the middle of the night so as to not raise the curiosity of our neighbors. He cashed in his holdings in the Bombay Stock Exchange, emptied his bank accounts and converted the rupees to Euros. He arranged for a cargo ship to take us and our belongings from Mumbai to Dubai. We used fictitious names and identification, including passports, supplied by my father’s friend. That was a terribly hard two day trip through rough seas and nasty weather.”
Joshua noticed Namanda was rocking back and forth as she spoke; her arms wrapped around her tucked knees. “How did you get through security with false papers?”
“The ship’s captain was only too happy to sneak us aboard, thanks to my father’s generosity. It wasn’t a problem. In my part of the world, there is a lot of head-turning for the right price. The paperwork was expertly crafted anyway, so it was rather easy. We became the Singh family, and my first name was Rhea, a very common name. Namanda, by the way, is a Christian name and rather rare, so I became Rhea”
“So you sail, badly, to Dubai. Then?”
“We stowed away our household belongings in a storage facility in Dubai. From Dubai we flew to Frankfurt, Germany. It was a terribly nervous moment when we provided our passports to the Dubai authorities, but we made it through despite what seemed like an eternity of scrutiny. The nine hour flight provided a time for us to catch up on much needed sleep. We were exhausted, yet excited, since we were fugitives. Father arranged for a flight from Fr
ankfurt to Atlanta, Georgia, but we had to wait in Frankfurt for Tracy to join us there.”
“So Tracy was aware that you were defecting from India?”
“Not at all. We persuaded her to join us for a holiday all the way to Disney World in America. She, of course, was excited, especially since father paid her fare and expenses. During the flight to Atlanta we told her of our plans. She still thinks my parents are returning to New Delhi with her, but they are not. In truth, my parents are no longer at Disney, or Orlando.”
“Where are they?”
“I don’t know, really I don’t. They wouldn’t tell me where they were going; just that I would hear from them in a couple of days. By the way, we threw our real cell phones into the Gulf of Oman on the way to Dubai. They can’t be tracked at the bottom of the sea, I don’t think. And we are still using the fake papers, so I am still Rhea Singh, though Tracy doesn’t know that.”
“I am starting to wonder why you thought it necessary to involve Tracy. It seems your father had made adequate plans without requiring her assistance.”
“Tracy knew about you through her affiliation with some organization that Adele is involved with. She, meaning Tracy, was our lead to get to you and the NIL which we had heard wonderful things about. Besides that, my parents are not fluent in English, so Tracy was also brought along to help them with the language. And I wanted her to chum with instead of tagging along with my parents.”
“We will need to talk this out later this evening, but for now let’s get back to the others. I want to also talk with Tracy a little while. I think you may have put her in danger of being an accomplice to your defection. Let’s walk back.”
“I think Tracy could be talked into staying here. She is not an Indian, she is Belgian. She only works in New Delhi because of the wages and the mystique of India. But I can tell you she is not that fond of my compatriots, nor are they fond of the blonde immigrant who teaches their youth,” Namanda said as they scaled the slope toward the barn.
“Tracy, if you received a gift that you didn’t want, or couldn’t use, would you give it back to the person who gifted it?” Joshua asked as the two rested against the hood of Van’s car.
Tracy grabbed his arm with both hands and swung around to his left side. “Oh my God, there’s a bear over there by your house!”
“Yes, I see him. That’s Ben. He’s checking to see if I’m safe from you. I am safe, aren’t I?”
Tracy, despite keeping her eyes on the black bear, smiled widely. “I see a very handsome man despite the face full of hair, especially those blue eyes of yours. But, Joshua, the image you project, well, sacrilegious comes to mind. So, yes, you are safe, though Adele warned me my estrogen hormone would blast off like a moon-rocket. What are you asking me about the gift I might not want?”
“I don’t see that Namanda is autistic at all. From what I’ve seen she is perfectly normal other than having an extremely intelligent mind. So my question is this. She has a God-given gift that she appears to not want, but is it morally right for me to interfere with that? It has concerned me even before you both arrived.”
“You haven’t seen enough of her yet. I really do think the NIL has influenced her since the outburst of continuous sentences is something I’ve seldom heard from her. She has her times of struggle, and when she does, she shrinks away from contact. Then you can see the autistic traits. As far as your moral obligation, don’t ask me. Maybe Van is the better one to ask.”
“I will do that. Tracy, when are you and the Mehras returning to India?”
“In a week as of yesterday.”
“You are not teaching this summer?”
“No, two more months of freedom, then back to the grind.”
“You do know I can’t keep Namanda here, don’t you?”
“I understand. But if you could find an adult female to live with her in the house, at least for a while, until the Mehras return; that could work.”
“Would you consider being that person? I can arrange for you to have a car to use.”
Tracy looked away toward the eastern sky and said nothing. In a few moments she looked at Joshua. There was moisture in her eyes. “I want to get the hell out of India, but all my things are there. I don’t know what I want to do except leave that area of the world. I am such a stranger in an even stranger land there. The people there consider me to be a freak. You should see their turned up noses when I encounter them on the street. They are so horridly snobbish. And the constant, filthy smog sears my throat. I can’t take it anymore.”
“I know that feeling; about being snubbed. Think about staying here, at least for a while. You should know that this wilderness area of Kentucky is very rural and would offer you very little. Even more-so with Namanda. I need a little more background information regarding Namanda and her family.”
“What would you like to know?”
“If she stays in this country, do you think the Indian military would be concerned enough to hunt her down? After all, she is not even fifteen years old yet?”
“Joshua, India is a country of many sects, religions, languages, geographical divisions, and political unrest. It is far from being unified; with factions that consistently scuffle with one other. As a result, people are suspicious, and walk circumspectly, never fully trusting those outside of the family. The Mehras, being Christians, are considered to be ‘outsiders’ in a country rife with caste prejudices.
Last year Namanda wrote an article for the university newspaper, which was really a reprint of a paper she wrote for one of her classes. She indicated that infiltration of terrorism from the near west was inevitable, and she named names of a few LET operatives. LET stands for Lashtar-e-Taiba, one of the extremist groups inside Pakistan. She implicated former Pakistani President Musharraf as being complicit in providing financing to the LET, as well as some of the other Pakistani terrorist groups, all of them with ties to Al-Qaeda.
Two weeks after her paper was printed there was an insurrection in Amritsar, a city in Punjab not far from Lahore, Pakistan. Twelve Amritsar citizens were killed in a suicide truck bombing. LET was blamed for the murders. The Times of India, New Delhi’s largest newspaper, referenced Namanda’s warning in its coverage of the terrorist attack. As a result, NDTV, which is New Delhi Television, interviewed Namanda. She at the time was already a known commodity because of her publicized display of total recall from years before when she was just eight years old. But this time she is thirteen and a college student. During the broadcast she was asked about her supposed telepathic ability. In response she ‘read’ the interviewers thoughts by asking him to think of his children. She then named them by name correctly, all five of them.
The public response was initially one of astonishment, but soon transformed into rage. Namanda was labelled as having the western demon of Christianity, a spook, an enemy of the state. The suspicion, such an integral part of the mores of India, became apparent when she was ostracized by her fellow students.
Of course the military became interested in her talents. She and her parents were grilled for hours at the Sarai Rohilla police station by military personnel. It was then that the Mehras began to contemplate their futures, though I had no idea at the time it would eventually lead to this. To answer your question…….yes…….she will be hunted, if for no other reason than the fear that she will be nabbed by an adversary.”
“I understand more now, thank you. Poor girl, I feel for her. I have experienced some of what she is going through. Come, time for the second round of NIL. But first, do you trust me?”
“About what?” Tracy said with a sheepish grin.
“Follow me.” Joshua walked toward Ben, and when merely feet away, the bear raised up on its hind legs. Joshua strode into the bear hug and whispered into Ben’s ear.
“Do you want to pet him?”
“No, not on your life. Let’s go in, please?”
Joshua laughed. “Consider staying. I need your help.”
“What did
you whisper into that bear’s ear?”
“I told him to be nice to you.”