Arul entered the house with a downcast expression on his face and sat on the soft chair in the living room. Ramya on seeing him went over to him and asked “What’s the matter babe?”
Arul replied while running his fingers through his hair, “The port authorities intend to terminate our contract for the accident we did the other day”
Kush did not intend to intervene thinking this would be an internal matter of the family but when he heard the context he looked up from his place towards the married. Arul realizing Kush was listening, waved his hands “Are are… you don’t need to concern yourself with this I will take care of this”
Kush nodded once and asked “Can you tell me the reason why they are going to terminate our contract? If it is for the accident, I am sure a royal contract can be challenged in the imperial courts”
Arul nodded and said “The Marwaris, the owners of this place are such good people that generally nobody request for an imperial contract”
“Are you guys not on payroll?”
“Nah… you are given the option to do so… contract work gives us a bit of flexibility and more money and like I said, the Marwari troupe are really trust worthy people so we are never unfairly treated”
There was a knock on the door, it was Mukesh and rest of their Arul’s gang members. Mukesh talked to Kush about everything.
Kush asked Mukesh “Fatigue is a given in your line of work, though there was blame on Arul for not informing, but that cant be grounds to fire you, especially with the fact that you guys agreed to take up more than your limits. Plus, there was no harm to anybody”
Mukesh replied “Yeah, but the port section head is trying to pin the blame of damaged jetty on us. He is trying to hide the fact that he screwed up by assigning us more than our quota of urgent deliveries. Turns out he was messing with the schedule for the day, for some reason, before the incident and was trying to cover up for it by pushing the blame on us. Now he is trying to sweep the entire incident below the rug”
Kush didn’t know what to say so he asked “Can’t you guys join other contracts with other people?”
“Not really these are competitively bid on contracts, nobody really hires any more than they need. Plus, that section head Setu would create problems for us if we join any team. He wants us out before the investigation team arrives so that we don’t give our statements”
Anna another one of the gang members chipped in saying “The worst things about this is, if we don’t work in the port we will be evicted from the settlement”
Kush looked at her in inquiry and Anna continued “This settlement is not a publicly owned place, the Marwaris own it and the mandate they have given is simple, only people who work and their direct families can stay in the settlement. The small businessmen and other professionals are members of our family itself”
Kush nodded in comprehension since it made sense, why would the owners allow other people to live in land owner by them.
Anna then continued, “It is all fault of the Tyrese family”
Kush asked “Who are they? And how are they involved?”
“By volume of trade they are currently the largest troupe, they have made some recent investment in the port and have some controlling interest, that Setu guy was an employee of the Tyrese family. There have been cover ups all over the place since these Tyrese family stepped in!!”
They continued talking for quite some time before they were distracted from their conversation by a shout from outside their “Hey you louts from 223 gang (referring to the jetty no. they work at), get the fuck out here, I am here kick your incompetent ass out of here”
When Mukesh heard him scream this from the middle of the streets, anger filled his eyes, his head snapped towards the gate of the house, he was going to murder Setu. He was a self-respecting hard working fellow and a team player. The only fault in the character was his short temper. Stomping his feet, he left the house with his fists closed, Setu was going to get it for insulting him publically like this, his gang members followed him out as well. When he reached the shopping street, where Setu was standing, he was ready to snap his neck like a twig. Arul, Anna and tried to grab Mukesh by his shoulders to stop him. Kush put on his cloak and simply followed behind maintaining a distance from them.
The crowd was gathering around Setu to witness the commotion. Mukesh parted the crowd as he made his way towards Setu sitting comfortably in a chair in the middle, just as he was 1 m from him, a huge pale skinned man came out from the crowd and grabbed him in a bear hug from behind him and lifted him up. Setu then said “Heeeeeeeeh… you think a mere rock from the footpath can touch even a hair on my person?”
Mukesh was pissed at him, as he struggled in the huge guy’s grasp like a kid, flailing his legs and screamed “Don’t think you will get out of this unscathed Setu. No one’s going to be able to save you if… no… when I catch you. You bastard!!”
Setu replied with a smirk “If I had a swarna for every time one of you” he said while pointing to the crowd of people “said this to me, I would have… even more money than I currently possess, huhu”
Mukesh screamed “Don’t forget you scumbag!!! I will bring my personal job records to the Marwaris and clear our name. You fuckers skimming commission over un recorded emergency requirements, it will… umph umph”
Setu gestured to the large white man to cover Mukesh’s mouth, the reason he wanted the gang and their families kicked out was because he was covering up these things, this was the reason he didn’t discuss any of it with his seniors and single handedly signed their termination and eviction papers, after which he would kill them in the desert where people wont even find their corpse. He would simply to proclaim it was an accident in the succeeding investigations. But now he had to cover it up somehow since a lot of people had heard it in the open.
He said “You are just an incompetent worker trying to blame the result of your accident on me. Who here doesn’t know the amount of damage we had to bear because you couldn’t handle your load!!”
Anna pitched in “You Motherfucker!! we were already done for the day; we took the entire batch just to save your ass. Mukesh thought you would owe us one, but you were a fucking back stabber…”
Before she could finish another muscular man came in from the crowd and punched her gut. So much was the force behind the punch that she was almost lifted off the ground a couple of inch. She dropped to the ground on her knees, puking her guts and a but a blood “cough… cough…”
By now Arul had had it, he rushed at Setu, but Setu didn’t even turn around to look at him as another person, lifted Arul off the ground using a lariat and tackled him to the ground and punched him in his face repeatedly. Arul’s wife came from the crowd to scream “NO!!” but the guy simply gave a back handed slap to her cheek and sent her on the ground. The rest of the gang came in help them, but more muscular people came in from the crowd to subdue these people. Since these were gang members all of them were Apprentices or above in Karmic cultivation levels, meaning the men who were subduing them so easily were definitely Docents who must have reached the extreme stage of the level of cultivation. No one dared to oppose them, when the situation seemed in his favour Setu got up from his chair and lazily starched his body, “Well, that’s one task done for the day”
He looked around in the crowd and saw the entire gang pinned on the ground with their mouths closed and started heading to Arul’s house “since all my men are having such a hard time subduing you guys, I will give them a hand and help them, throw your stuff out the gate”
Just as he put a step across Arul’s gate his son stood in front of Setu, his legs apart and his hands in the air above him, like he was defending in basketball. Setu on seeing this smirked and said “What is this? A kids’ TV show? You thought just cause you are a kid I will somehow show mercy”
Arul’s 4 and a half feet tall son replied “Mercy is a thing for intelligent beings, not for dumbasses like you!!” his eyes fierce but his legs quacking. Setu was pissed off on being dissed by a kid so pulled his leg back to kick him in the stomach. Mukesh freed his mouth from the muscular body guard’s hands and shouted, “Remember this day Setu, today will be the day when your actions were responsible for your death”
Arul squirming on the ground shouted “Navin!! Run!! Right now!! RU…” he stopped mid-sentence
Setu stood with his leg raised backwards and waited for them to complete and simply smirked at the threats. When he started to move his legs forward, he realized he couldn’t, then he realized there was a huge shadow falling on him, then he felt tremendous pain coursing from his ankles along his shins to his knees before hearing audible cracks from his legs. He could not understand what force could do this him, a Docent level cultivator. The pain was so immediate and surprising that Setu almost forgot to scream. But he later did “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!”
Like a kid he was bawling, he held on the rims of the gate and his fingers involuntarily gripped it till it started to develop cracks. He hopped on the one leg while trying to escape the vice like grip on his leg which was tightening with every second. Navin, Arul’s son, was surprised at the sudden change in Setu’s expression but on seeing the big brother standing behind Setu, he realised what was happening. He was about to call out his name, but Kush gestured him to keep mum. Kush then put a little more strength in his hand and flung Setu in the direction of the crowd.
His bodyguards got into action as 20 men rushed Kush in rapid successions. After having learned his lesson about revealing his identity, Kush didn’t immediately bring out Tanka in response to the bodyguard’s karmic powers. All the bodyguards with their powerful attacks from surrounded him from all direction, Kush had seen their power and realised from there ruby red glow that they were each at ‘Docent’ level in power. Kush jumped out of the formation of bodyguards and grabbed a hammer from the blacksmith’s workshop near the plaza, his cloak still covering his body and face. As the bodyguards rushed Kush, he side stepped their attacks and hit them in the head with the hammer. Since they were all docent level in power their characteristic powers were formidable as well, but a giant hammer striking their heads meant that, unless their characteristic powers were ‘Toughness’ they were going down after taking a couple or at maximum of 3 hits. By the time the rock handle on the hammer shattered, only three bodyguards were left standing up and it was easy to conclude all three were the worst type for close combat sans a weapon.
Kush for a moment entertained the thought of bringing out his axe the when Mukesh and Arul, each at docent level themselves, grabbed a bodyguard each and the remaining gang members pounced onto the two as well to help Mukesh and Arul. Leaving Kush to deal with the last remaining one. Kush wrestled him to the ground and punched till his face caved in. He then made short work of the other two guards as well. Setu, was seeing the whole thing with trepidation. When he saw Kush approaching him he went
“Senior, please try and understand, I am well with in powers to dismiss or evict these people for what they have done” Setu started talking rapidly. He was able to put together that this guy was the one who saved the people in the accident. Meaning he was immensely strong and Setu could never hope to even touch him let alone fight him in his current state. He dragged his limp body back using his hands as he continued saying
“Senior please try and understand, this is the rule of law and you cant use brute force here… hiiii”
‘Thump’ came the sound when Kush banged his feet on the ground scaring Setu mid-sentence.
He then placed his foot lightly on Setu’s other leg and said “I agree to the fact that me intervening in these matters is not the right thing to do, but what you were doing was something without formal investigation and notification. It looked to me a lot like sweeping something under the rug, now tell me am I wrong in assuming that?”
Setu realising this person was trying reason with him was relieved, he was not afraid of death since this person did not kill his guards, but the Tyrese family would strip him off his skin if he loses face for them. He then replied “You a third party has no right to comment how work is done in port premises, me being the person of authority can wield my power as I wish”
Kush smirked and said “By that logic, ‘you’ cant tell ‘me’ what to do either” saying so he raised his foot to stomp on Setu’s chest when he heard a command from a bit further away in the crowd “STOP”
