Even though everyone in the Maung Dao fishing village carried on as usual, they had no idea that Debashish had been performing responsibilities outside this cycle. Every day before sunrise he began roaming around the Rohingya villages in Maung Dao. He was given a special type of telescope by the border guards. The telescope extended when pulled. This device helped to see in the dark at night. Debashish had also been given a torch light. With a torch in hand and the telescope in his pocket, Debashish woke up from sleep and left his hut to collect information about the clandestine activities of the Rohingyas. One night, he saw a few men like shadows in an open field. All the paths and surroundings were clearly visible in moonlight. Hence, he didn’t have to use the torchlight. Quickly Debashis hid himself in a bush beside the road and took out the telescope from his pocket, before putting it to proper use. He could see fifty men wearing black jackets and pants exercising. They also wore black headbands with something written in white letters. After five to ten minutes of physical exercise, they all took out weapons of different caliber from their hand bags. They started practicing how to crawl on the ground with those weapons. The drills went on like this for half an hour. Stealthily Debashish headed for his fishing village while the terrorists were busy going through their drills. When he was away from the scene, his body warmed up out of sheer thrill. His breathing had picked up. Before any of the dwellers in his hut woke up, he changed his clothes and went to sleep.
When his mother gave him a slight push, Debashish jumped up on the bed and began rubbing his eyes. His mother had been yelling at him for sleeping till twelve noon. His father and elder brother left their hut at dawn with all the tools for fishing in the river. It was almost time for them to return. When she saw him wearing a nice pair of pants and shirt after freshening up, she asked, “Where are you going at this odd hour?”
“Government officials have given assurance that they would provide new fishing nets and boats to the fishermen. Let me go and see if they have done it. Now give me some rice and vegetables, I will finish my breakfast.”
Spitefully she said, “ No breakfast at this odd hour. When you return, you’ll have your lunch.”
When Debashish was about to leave the hut, Ratna Devi began grumbling, “These days, you wake up late every day. Almost every day I’m rebuked by your dad for this. How long will you keep living like this?”
Debashish looked at his mother’s face and stayed quiet for a while. He had this tremendous urge in him to tell his mother the whole story. In the end, he didn’t utter a single word. Quietly, he left the hut for the paramilitary camp in Maung Dao. While treading through the fields, he felt the vibes of winter. The sun had lost most of its rage even at noon. He took a left turn after covering a mile along the river bank. In between the paddy fields, and over the isles, he kept heading north towards the horizon. The camp is almost two and a half kilometers from the Lambro River.
Debashish thought the camp commandant would be surprised to see him. To his surprise, Gautam expressed little interest. The camp was on a wooden structure, and for being under the shade of a lage tree, the interior was pretty dark. Two light bulbs had been trying their best to brighten up the atmosphere.
Gautam asked Debashish to sit in the chair before his desk. He took out a note pad from the drawer of the desk. Finally, he presented a smile to Debashis. Then he said, “We did not expect you. Obviously, you have some valuable information for us.”
Something inside Debashish sprang to life the moment Gautam had finished. Gautam noticed the heavy breathing in the young man, ready to serve. On his part, Gautam was ready to take advantage of the young man’s enthusiasm. Subsequently he took out his pen from his shirt pocket for preparing the report. When the report was completed, considering the thrill in Debashis, Gautam advised him to calm down and fulfill his responsibilities properly. He didn’t hesitate to express his satisfaction at Debashis for his contribution to the security and well-being of their country. He gave Debashish a cigarette, lit one for himself and comfortably sat in his chair. Mentally he reorganized once more what he was going to tell Debashish. He told Debashis that the following week, he would visit the spot with him on the same day and at the same time. He wanted to witness what Debashis had seen. Then he asked Debeshish if he was interested to join the Border Guards. Gautam said this to enhance the young man’s motivation. It was a bait. The bait was being presented as an incentive. He knew all too well that illiterate Debashish had absolutely no chance of getting into the paramilitary force. Nevertheless, this offer heightened the interest in him, at least a hundred folds. In a somber tone, he said, he would seriously think about this offer.
Upon getting the response he had expected, cleverly, Gautam put into use a few adjectives to praise the intelligence and physical fitness of his newfound disciple. Once he was gone, Gautam put the report in an envelope for sending it to the regional headquarters of Tatmadaw in Sittwe.
In Sittwe, Su went straight to her dad’s office instead of his residential compound. Su already had acquaintance with Lee’s adjutant. The moment he saw Su, Captain Ne Un left his chair, and with a smiling face, greeted her. After the usual exchange of greetings, very politely, Su refused the offer to have a cup of tea. She requested the adjutant to inform her father the news of her arrival as soon as possible. Then the Captain went inside to inform Lee about Su’s arrival.
Lee was in a meeting discussing with his subordinates the details of the preparation phase for organizing the forthcoming military exercise. Expressing his utter surprise, Lee held up his head with wide eyes when Captain Ne Un whispered the news of Su’s arrival to his ears. Su had not informed Lee that she was on her way to Sittwe. Not that he was unhappy, but to him the news of Su’s arrival was like rain without clouds. He handed over the meeting to one of the Colonels and left with Captain Ne Un.
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Upon entering the Adjutant’s room, Lee hugged his daughter, and kissed her on the forehead. From there, Lee took her to his office room. On the desk before her, he placed a cup of coffee which he had prepared. It was almost lunch time by then. Lee asked if she would like to have anything cooked by his chef or have lunch at a restaurant in Sittwe. To avoid the hassle of driving to a restaurant, she told him she would have whatever his chef was going to prepare.
During lunch, Su requested Lee to help out a person she knew. Carefully she described to her father how that person had helped her in the past. Then she drew a very humane picture of just how anxious his family, particularly his wife and kids were because of him being taken away, over a small issue. She kept reminding Lee of the hard times the incarcerated person’s family had been going through.
For being as witty as her mother, Su was quite aware of her father’s likes and dislikes or what the outcome would be if she said something. She presented to him the incident in such a way that to him Karim and Su appeared to be acquaintances. Karim being married and a father, it didn’t raise suspicion in Lee. Rafiq had already been informed that Su’s father must not be allowed to know that Su knew Rafiq. Furthermore, she told her father about her plan to make a documentary on the net on behalf of a government organization. The main theme of the documentary was to show how the government was working relentlessly to safeguard the rights of the minorities and maintain communal harmony.
Brigadier Lee thought, his assignment in the Rakhain state might adversely affect Myanmar’s relation with the international community. Hence, the government had already taken preventive measures so that the image of the country was not damaged. Lee viewed Su’s effort from this perspective. He was convinced, Su’s document would boost Myanmar’s image abroad. Hence, their lunch concluded with Lee’s assurance to his daughter of all kinds of co-operation in this regard.
In the meantime, Debashish eagerly waited at Maung Dao fishing village for the upcoming Sunday. Even though his father had been scolding him constantly for his lack of interest in his daily activities and works, it had no effect on Debashish. Half heartedly, finishing his part of responsibilities in the family, he would lie down in bed and think about something. He didn’t even have interest in having his food timely. His mother thought, perhaps her son was troubled by the matrimonial thoughts. Surreptitiously, she would observe her son, while holding her mouth to suppress the sound of her laughter. At times, she would stroke his head and softly tell him to have patience.
On Sunday, at four o’clock in the morning, Debashish was awaken from sleep by his cell phone alarm. He didn’t waste time, quickly wore the shirt and black jacket hung from a line over his bed and sneaked out. At the time a magical game of shadows and light was being played out in the moonlit environment outside the hut. At other times Debashish would think about it for at least once. Today he didn’t have the appetite for any magical game. He was being stalked by a strange mixture of thrill and anxiety. He trotted to the river as fast as he could with the torchlight in his left hand. He slipped his other hand into the right pocket of his trousers to feel the presence of the telescope. He reached the river bank within five minutes, and saw a man standing very close to the river. Behind him, the water shining under the moonlight, made him appear like a dark shadow. Debashis slowed down his pace and approached the man. After getting closer, Debashish could easily recognize Gautam in a yellow jacket. Debashish thought it would have been better if Gautam had worn a black jacket instead of yellow, but he said nothing. Gautam stood with his hands inside the pockets of his jacket. He had black boots and the cap worn by the border guards. Gautam’s round face, thinly shaped mustache and a thick pair of lips were clearly visible.
Debashish didn’t wait for any greetings. He asked Gautam to follow him. After walking a mile along the river, they took a turn and headed east away from the river. It took roughly ten minutes for them to come to a big open field. Then they took shelter in the same clump of bamboos Debashis had previously used as hiding spot for observing what was going on. They saw the group of men performing exercise like a single unit, on the eastern side of the field. They looked like shadows under the moonlight. Gautam lay down on his chest behind the bushes as standing in the clump was quite uncomfortable. He used the special telescope for observing the men in the field. Out of sheer thrill, hands of Debashis began shaking. Heavy breathing made him restless. On the contrary, there was hardly any sign of excitement in Gautam. Gautam asked Debashish to leave the spot after observing for ten-fifteen minutes, and returned to him his telescope. Gautam followed him back to the rendezvous point on the river bank. Both were about to head for their homes. Before parting, briefly, they discussed their next course of action.
On his way back home, Debashish placed his hand in his jacket pocket for his phone. Not being able to find it there, he slipped his hands through his pant pockets. He simply froze when he couldn’t find the mobile in any of those pockets. He stopped walking. He focused on retracing his steps back to the spot where they had been, only a few minutes ago. While lying down on the ground in the bush, he had brought out his phone. Instead of putting it back in his pocket, he left it on the grass beside him. At frenzied pace, he started walking back towards the field.
After retrieving his mobile phone from underneath the bush, curiosity arose in Debashish to check again with his telescope what was going on in the field. The terror suspects were still on the eastern side of the field. Suddenly he saw a man moving towards the group of armed men. The man in black boots and yellow jacket was none other than Gautam. He asked himself, “Why is he heading towards the terrorists?” This question kept swirling in his head. The terrorists looked very cheerful when they saw Gautam, indicating, they knew each other. They laughed at him about something. Debashish could not believe what he saw next. All of the men changed their black jackets for their para military uniforms. Debashish was completely shaken by the sheer implication of what he had just witnessed. Silently he returned to his hut, changed his clothes and lay down in the bed. He made strenuous efforts to fall asleep. The other nights, he fell into a slumber, the second his back had touched the bed. That night, sleep evaded him when he needed it the most. Once he thought, crying out loud might help him feel better. Gautam lured him into a very dangerous trap. How was he going to tell the residents of the fishing village about this? How would they react, once they had been informed?