Capítulo 23: Fifteen years [1]

Fifteen years ago; a certain young man walked down the halls of MIB establishment in Thrissur. He just had his graduation ceremony that promoted him into a senior field agent; he could officially dawn a name now.

He entered into a room where his senior, who helped him throughout his time as a junior field agent, was waiting for him. "Hello, Lonappan! Wait, are you really okay with that name?" The senior asked.

"Well, you used to call by that name all the time. To change that would be weird for me right now." Lonappan replied.

"I see, that's fine then. Anyway, congrats on your promotion!" The senior hugged Lonappan tightly.

"Ah, congrats on your as well, Ponappan! Desk agent now. You gonna be fine with that?" Lonappan asked.

"Geez, thank you. I guess I'll manage. The field agent thing was tiring me anyway. What about you? You're gonna be all alone from now on until they assign someone over you. Are you gonna be okay?" Ponnappan asked.

"I don't know. Never tried doing it without you. I'm just gonna go with the flow; you know, go where it takes me and stuff." Lonappan answered.

"Hmm. Although, if you ask me, you should join in with me as a desk agent. You are quite skilled; you'd get in within two years or so; unlike me." Ponnappan laughed.

"I haven't given much thought to it. Well, I'd like to be a field agent as long as I can do that shit. I don't know, it gives me a sense of freedom; like I can do more and have something left in me. I guess I'm kinda afraid of what'll happen if those wings are taken away from me." Lonappan explained his emotions.

"Can't say I don't understand. I would've done the same thing, if not for my ailments. However, there would be a time you'd have to make a decision. I hope you make the right one then!" Ponnappan spoke.

"You bet!" Lonappan smiled. "Oh, by the way, what are your plans?" He asked.

"Well, now that I've become a desk agent for life, I intend to climb in the social hierarchy of our organisation. Who knows? Maybe in a few years time, I might even end up being the commanding officer of this sector!" Ponnappan accurately predicted the future even though he meant it as a joke.

"Taking commands from you would be fine, I guess! Unless, you turn into an unbearable asshole!" Lonappan predicted the future as well.

"Don't worry about that!" Ponnappan laughed it off. "By the way, the head called you. He might be assigning your first solo field job. Good luck! Now, hurry up." He pushed Lonappan out of the room.

"Yea, I should probably go." Lonappan walked back to the meeting room, before he stopped in his tracks. "Hey! Thanks for everything." He smiled.

"Don't thank me just yet. Your trials are just beginning!" Ponnappan patted him on the shoulders.

"I'm aware of that." Lonappan sighed.

"Are you nervous?" Ponnappan asked.

"Yup. I'm really nervous. All these days, I had you to guide me and now I'm all alone. That's a strange sensation." Lonappan told the truth.

"Meh, I trust you to do well. This is just the starting trouble. Besides, everyone has that." Ponnappan replied.

"Yea, I'll try to live to the trust that you placed on me." Lonappan spoke.

Ponnappan sighed. "Bullshit. If you're gonna do something, do it for yourself. Don't just live to please someone or overly rely on them. Just do what you wanna do without fucking with someone's life. Sure, do fuck them up if they try to mess with you." Ponnappan suggested.

"Hah, I'll do that." Lonappan chuckled before looking at his watch. "Shoot, I gotta go now! See ya around." He waved goodbye and ran away from his senior.

Later that day, in the heart of Thrissur, Thekkinkadu Maidan [1], stood Lonappan looking around for something. "Damn, where is this guy? I'm in the right place, right? Let's see. The report says that an alien is trying to sell their planet's drugs to some guy and they've used this convention of some political leader as the exchange point." Lonappan muttered as he recalled the mission report.

Meanwhile, a passerby stopped before him and stared at him hard. "What did you just say?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you." Lonappan apologized and walked away.

However, that passerby didn't give up. He caught hold of Lonappan's shoulder.

Lonappan didn't appreciate this. "Stop right there. You just said that Mr Vijay Das is a random political leader!" The passerby exclaimed.

Lonappan sighed. "Wait, that's it? You stopped me here for this shit?" He asked as the passerby continued pressing on his shoulder, which annoyed him to no bounds.

"Let me see. You came here on a WPP convention and badmouths our leader. Are you a traitorous bastard?" The passerby started to cause a commotion as more and more became aware of this argument.

"Think what you want to. I don't give a shit. Just leave me alone." Lonappan replied as he swatted off the passerby's hand from his shoulder and walked away yet again.

However, this time, two random people blocked his way and stood ground as he tried wriggling his way through. "You're neither gonna agree or deny, huh? Well, that means we have the choice to consider you whatever the hell we want. And you know what? I think you're a traitor. Moreover, you know what we do with traitorous little bitches?" The passerby asked as he cracked his knuckles.

"Oh, boy! You're gonna regret picking a fight with me, you know?" Lonappan tried to warn them. But, no one gave a shit about the warning.

"Well, let's see who regrets their decision then." The passerby and the other two slowly headed towards Lonappan. Lonappan wanted to back out of this, since this could be bad on his character assessment sheet. However, they kept pestering him and resorted to violence the first chance they got. There wasn't any way to have a civilized conversation from the beginning. Even if he had apologized back then, these idiots would have still picked a fight with him. Lonappan hated these kinds of people. So, now that he got no choice but to fight, he decided to thoroughly defeat them.

He was about to raise his fist and give out a straight punch to the passerby's face when someone jumped in between. "Wait! Tonychaaya [2], what are you doing here? I told you to wait back in the entrance, right?" The guy looked towards Lonappan and asked.

Lonappan looked at him with utter confusion. "What do you?"

Before he could finish his sentence, the other guy dragged him to his side and whispered. "Look, I'm trying to save you ass here! So act accordingly." Lonappan silently nodded his head.

"I thought you meant here. Sorry!" Lonappan acted along his part.

"Ah, don't worry. I'll forgive you for this rookie mistake. Come on now!" The person grabbed Lonappan's hand and walked forth.

However, he was also blocked by the trio. "So, who are you now? Another traitor?" The passerby asked.

"No. I'm Gopan of the fourteenth ward. I'm a WPPI member." Gopan smiled as he introduced himself.

"Of course, you're from WPPI. Is he one too? Well, that would explain his utter disrespect to our leader. You fucking maggots think you're holier than thou even when you have only one seat in Kerala. Fucking hypocrites!" The passerby scoffed.

"Hey, I adore Mr. Vijay Das! Therefore, why do we even need to have this fight since we're all people under the same umbrella of WPP?" He asked as he yet again started his stride.

The passerby giggled. "Of course, the maggot wants to escape now that he's afraid of our numbers. You know what? Fine! Take that fucking friend of yours and die in a ditch or something." The passerby shouted as he pushed around Gopan and Lonappan.

Lonappan was pissed off by this action. However, Gopan clasped on his hand tightly and rushed away from the scene.

"Whew, narrow escape!" Gopan sighed after reaching a considerable distance away from the trio.

"Why did you stop me?" Lonappan asked. He really wanted to break some of the teeth of those assholes, at the very least.

"Look, you should thank me for saving your ass instead of blaming me for saving you. And by the way, all Indians are supposed to be brothers and sisters [3], right?" Gopan asked, smiling.

"As if! Just spout the damn truth that you were afraid after all!" Lonappan spoke.

"Damn, this insult is what I get for saving your ass and not breaking your cover." Gopan shook his head in dismay.

"How did you?" Lonappan stopped himself from asking. "Wait. Is he from the MIB sent to monitor me? Should I ask him? But, what if he's not? Then my cover would be blown! Let's just rephrase it a bit." Lonappan coughed. "How did you know?"

"Oh, well. Since you didn't even know Vijay Das, there's now way you're a WPP member!" Gopan explained.

"Wait, that's it? That's the reason behind your hypothesis?" He asked, quite surprised about what he heard.

"Yup!" Gopan nodded.

Lonappan blamed himself for his far-fetched thought process. He sighed. "What if I was interested in your party and Vijay Das wanted to listen to his speech first before joining WPP?" He asked.

Gopan thought for a while. "Hmm, I didn't think of that! However, if that's the case, then welcome to WPP. I'm Gopan!" He extended his hand.

Lonappan shook on it. "I'm Lonappan."

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thekkinkadu_Maidan

[2] Substitute of chetta; used mostly by catholics in Kerala (Achayan)

[3] Gopan's referencing the wordings in India's pledge, "All Indians are my brothers and sisters."