Mishra, thought Patnaik. That must be his surname. Or maybe it was a fake name. Maoist leaders had so many names, he knew. Mishra. He hadn’t heard of this one, but maybe his real name was something else.

‘What does he look like?’

‘Small, thin, short grey hair.’

‘How many of them have come?’

‘Four men.’

‘Just four?’

‘Yes. I checked. There are no other new faces in the village.’

Of course. They would hardly bring an army, would they? Maoists moved quietly and travelled in small groups outside the forests.

‘Are they armed?’

‘I don’t think so.’

Which also made sense, if the Maoists were travelling in Odisha. And a senior leader would not carry a gun around all the time, would he?

Patnaik wasn’t sure of this, but it made his task easier. Ghosh had warned him to catch the man alive.

He called his junior officers and told them to get ready immediately. How many men were they going to take to Deogan? As many as possible, Patnaik said. They were going to search the whole village, just to be safe.

Patnaik called for his driver. The constable came in and saluted.

‘Get my car ready. Now.’

The constable turned to go.

‘Wait. Have you seen my phone charger? The battery is very low.’

The constable usually charged Patnaik’s phone for him. Patnaik was too important to do these things himself.

‘Sir, I had charged it,’ the constable said.

‘Okay. Where is the charger?’

Patnaik searched his desk, but he had to go. They went out and got in his car. The charger wasn’t there either. Patnaik had a very expensive phone, and neither his junior officers nor his constables had the right charger.

‘Okay, we can’t wait. Let’s go,’ he said.

A convoy of police vehicles sped out of Balangir and raced to Deogan. They made the trip really quickly, because police cars can move very fast, but only when policemen want to.

Patnaik’s phone battery died halfway down the road, but his wireless set was still working, just in case someone wanted to talk to him. In any case, Deogan was now the most important village in Balangir. Everything else could wait.

They sped into the village. Patnaik’s junior officers led some of the men to the rest of the village, where they began checking all the houses, one by one.

Patnaik himself marched straight into the mahji’s house. He found a small group sitting in the backyard on some very old chairs. There was the mahji, and that useless teacher named Jadob, who was always visiting Balangir to complain about something or the other, and two other headmen who Patnaik thought looked familiar.