Chapter 19: The Race
The Bakery went silent. The only sound was the crackling of firewood in the massive brick ovens and the heavy, wet breathing of Billa.
Billa stood in the doorway, a rusted meat cleaver in his hand. Behind him, ten men from the Kitchen block fanned out, blocking the only exit. They held sharpened ladles, iron rods, and table legs.
Billa looked at Arjun and grinned. It was a grotesque sight—yellow teeth stained with tobacco, eyes dead and glassy.
"Bakery boy," Billa rumbled, his voice thick with phlegm. "Satya sends his regards. And the Big Man sends a ticket to hell for the driver."
Arjun didn't step back. He leaned casually against the flour-dusted table, twirling the heavy wooden rolling pin in his hand like a baton. He looked Billa up and down, wrinkling his nose in exaggerated disgust.
"Billa," Arjun said, his voice calm, almost bored. "You smell like rotten onions and bad life choices. Did you walk here, or did the smell carry you?"
Billa's grin vanished. His grip on the cleaver tightened.
"You have a sharp tongue," Billa spat. "I'll cut it out first."
"You brought ten men?" Arjun raised an eyebrow, counting them with the tip of his rolling pin. "Ten men to kill a baker and a driver? I'm hurt, Billa. I thought I was worth at least twenty. Is this a recession or are you just unpopular?"
"Kill them!" Billa roared, losing his patience. "Kill them all!"
The ten men charged.
"Shiva," Arjun said softly. "Take out the trash."
Shiva moved. He didn't run; he exploded. He met the first wave of attackers with a heavy iron baking tray.
CLANG.
The tray connected with the first goon's face, sending him flying back into the others. Shiva was a tank in a china shop. He grabbed a second man by the belt and threw him into a stack of empty crates.
But Billa ignored Shiva. He had eyes only for Arjun—and the trembling man behind him.
Billa charged at Arjun, swinging the heavy cleaver in a wide, deadly arc.
Arjun didn't block. You don't block a cleaver with a rolling pin; it would splinter. instead, he ducked.
The blade whooshed over his head, slicing the air.
Arjun stepped inside Billa's guard. He drove the end of the rolling pin hard into Billa's solar plexus.
Thud.
It was a solid hit, but Billa was covered in layers of fat and muscle. He grunted, stumbling back a step, but didn't drop. He swung again, a backhand slash.
Arjun side-stepped, dancing around the table.
"You're slow, Billa," Arjun mocked, circling him. "You move like a buffalo stuck in mud. Is that how you ran your kitchen? No wonder the dal was always cold."
"Stand still!" Billa screamed, swinging wildly. He chopped the corner of the wooden table, sending splinters flying.
"Why?" Arjun smirked, his eyes cold and focused. "So you can hit me? This is a fight, Billa, not a buffet line. You have to work for it."
In the corner, Ramu was cowering near the ovens, covering his head.
"Ramu! Get down!" Arjun shouted.
Two of Billa's men broke away from Shiva and lunged for Ramu.
Arjun grabbed a handful of white flour from a nearby sack and threw it into the air between him and Billa.
A white cloud exploded in the room.
Billa coughed, blinded for a split second.
Arjun didn't waste the moment. He vaulted over the table, launching himself at the two men attacking Ramu.
He landed on the first man, driving his knee into the guy's spine. Crunch. The man dropped screaming.
The second man turned, stabbing with a sharpened screwdriver. Arjun caught the man's wrist, twisted it until the joint snapped, and kicked him into the open door of the hot oven.
"AHHHH!" The man scrambled away from the heat, his shirt smoking.
Arjun stood over Ramu, breathing steadily. His white shirt was dusted with flour, his hair messy, but his composure was terrifyingly intact.
Billa emerged from the flour cloud, his face red with fury. He wiped the white dust from his eyes.
"You think this is a game?" Billa growled, stalking forward. "I chopped men bigger than you into pieces."
"And I'm sure they were very impressed," Arjun replied, spinning the rolling pin. "But I'm not meat, Billa. I'm the one holding the knife. Or in this case..."
Arjun kicked a heavy sack of sugar, sliding it across the floor. It slammed into Billa's shins.
Billa stumbled forward.
Arjun stepped in. He didn't use the rolling pin this time. He used his elbow. A vicious, Muay Thai-style strike to Billa's nose.
Blood sprayed across the white floor.
Billa roared in pain, swinging the cleaver blindly. The tip of the blade grazed Arjun's arm, tearing the sleeve and drawing a thin line of blood.
Arjun looked at the cut. Then he looked at Billa. The sarcasm dropped from his face. The predator surfaced.
"You ruined my shirt," Arjun whispered.
He dropped the rolling pin. He grabbed a heavy metal ladle from the rack.
Billa swung again. Arjun parried the cleaver with the ladle—metal screeching against metal—and drove a front kick into Billa's knee.
Billa's leg buckled. He dropped to one knee.
Arjun grabbed Billa's hair and smashed his face into the metal worktable. Once. Twice.
Billa slumped, dazed, blood pouring from his nose and mouth.
The room went quiet.
Shiva had finished his work. Six men were groaning on the floor. The other four were backing away, terrified.
Arjun stood over Billa, panting slightly. He looked at the cleaver on the floor.
"You came to cook, Billa?" Arjun asked, his voice low and dangerous. "But you forgot the first rule of the kitchen."
Arjun grabbed Billa's collar and dragged him halfway up.
"Don't play with fire if you melt easily."
Suddenly, Ramu screamed.
"ARJUN! BEHIND YOU!"
One of the men Shiva had thrown—a rat-faced goon who had been pretending to be unconscious—had crawled towards the ovens. He held a long, rusted iron skewer.
He wasn't aiming for Arjun. He knew he couldn't kill Arjun.
He lunged at Ramu.
Arjun spun around. "NO!"
He was fast, but the distance was too great.
The skewer plunged into Ramu's stomach.
Ramu gasped, his eyes going wide. The goon twisted the metal and ran for the door.
Shiva grabbed the fleeing man by the neck and slammed him into the wall with enough force to crack the bricks. The man went limp instantly.
But the damage was done.
Ramu collapsed onto the flour-covered floor, clutching his stomach, blood pooling dark and fast around him.
Arjun dropped Billa and ran to Ramu. He fell to his knees, pressing his hands over the wound.
"Ramu! Look at me!" Arjun shouted. "Don't you dare die! You owe me a name!"
Billa, battered and bleeding, laughed from the floor. It was a wet, gurgling sound.
"Job... done..." Billa wheezed, spitting a tooth. "The Big Man... sends his love."
Arjun turned his head slowly towards Billa. His eyes were not human anymore. They were voids.
"Shiva," Arjun said, his voice terrifyingly quiet.
"Yes, Bhai?"
"Put Billa in the oven."
Billa's eyes widened in horror. "No... No! You can't!"
"Not all the way," Arjun said, turning back to the dying driver. "Just his legs. Let him feel the heat until he wishes he was dead."
Shiva grabbed Billa by the ankles. Billa screamed as he was dragged toward the roaring fire.
Arjun ignored the screams. He focused on Ramu. The life was fading from the driver's eyes.
"Ramu," Arjun grabbed the dying man's shirt, pulling him close. "You have one minute. Who gave the order? Who is the Big Man?"
Ramu coughed, blood bubbling on his lips. He looked at Arjun with fading vision.
"The... The phone..." Ramu gasped. "Rao called... Delhi..."
"Who in Delhi?!" Arjun shook him. "Give me the name!"
Ramu's eyes rolled back, then focused one last time.
"Not... a politician..." Ramu whispered, his voice barely audible over the roar of the ovens. "Corporate... The symbol... The Golden... Sun..."
Ramu's breath rattled in his chest. His hand fell limp.
Arjun froze.
The Golden Sun.
Ramu was dead.
Arjun sat there in the blood and flour, the cryptic clue echoing in his mind.
Billa was screaming in the background as Shiva held him near the flames.
Arjun stood up slowly. He looked at the chaos. He looked at the dead link to his parents' murder.
He didn't scream. He didn't cry. He wiped the blood from his hands onto his white trousers.
He walked over to Billa.
"Shiva, pull him out," Arjun said.
Shiva dragged a sobbing, burned Billa away from the oven.
Arjun squatted down in front of Billa.
"You killed the only witness I had," Arjun said softly. "You took something from me, Billa. Now I'm going to take everything from you."
Arjun stood up and looked at the terrified survivors of Billa's gang.
"Get out," Arjun said. "Tell Satya that his delivery boy failed. And tell him..."
Arjun stepped over Ramu's body.
"...tell him the partnership just got cancelled."