The Script of Evil

28 The call

"What then happened on your way to the airport?"

"We packed our stuff hastily early in the morning and got a taxi. We didn't know the city but his route was not the same we followed after we had landed. I don't know whether you know how they drive in India and how dense the traffic is. For a foreigner it looks like a total, illegal chaos but over there it is ordinary.

"And just as I became worried, we took an open road along the riverside. A police vehicle passed us and behind us, another one closed in. I had the feeling we were being escorted. We then approached a temple complex on the river bank and the taxi driver took the road that led to it. I asked what was going on and he explained he would take us to the airport but as our flight would only be that evening, there was plenty of time. He wanted to show us the interesting temple.

"I asked him why the police were escorting us and insisted that he turned around and took us to the airport, but again he reminded me that I had said our flight was only that evening. I threatened him that I would phone the SA embassy because we were being kidnapped, but he said smartphones did not work at the temple and when I tried the phone was dead. I sat in front with the driver and Elizabeth, Johan and Tanya with Martie, were in the backseat. They had in the meantime become frightened and spoke to me in Afrikaans to share their fears.

"The driver realized we had become nervous and he would have to deal with that. He explained that we needn't be worried; the police escort us because we are VIPs and they would protect us on behalf of the guru of the temple. The guru would like to meet us quickly and he would personally take us into the temple and to the guru. He promised us that we were very privileged because everyone the guru had called was blessed afterwards. He then would take us to the airport. The taxi stopped in a parking space with the police vehicles opposite us and watching us. I evaluated our options quickly and decided I must talk to my family to see whether they agreed and would cooperate.

"I decided we would have to pretend we believed him and surprise him because the guru of the temple made everyone he met willing slaves of the occult and we had to get away with the taxi. That was the only option. I told him I wanted to put my family at ease and discuss his proposition to them in Afrikaans because I know he wouldn't understand it at all. I appeased them and told them of my fears and my plan and they agreed that it was the only way out of our predicament. I argued that it was highly improbable that the whole country's police force was in the service of this occult. The escort must have been false, corrupt police. If we could escape and put enough distance between them and us, it was highly possible that real police could save us somewhere on the road or at the airport.

We decided my family would wait in the backseat and I went and asked the driver to open the boot for me because Tanya wanted Martie's dummy and baby food. She wanted to have her quiet and satisfied. We did not want to enter the holy temple with a crying baby. When he opened the boot, as I hoped, he left the keys in the lock and stood back. I gestured to him that the policeman behind him indicated that he wanted to see him. Just when he turned his head and started walking to the policeman, I grabbed the keys, ran and jumped into the driver's seat and we locked the doors. I didn't even close the boot and by the time he tried to grab on my locked door, I had already started the taxi.

"The 'police motors' reacted swiftly, shot forward and blocked us, but I had planned the escape route beforehand. I raced forward over rocks and the garden lawn and connected with the road in which we had arrived and the chase began. I managed to push one of the police motors into a ditch, but the other one tried to cut us off and unluckily at high speed, in a sharp bend, we collided and both vehicles lost control and the cars rolled wildly down a steep hillside.

"When I regained consciousness, I saw the faces of the inhabitants of a nearby village looking down on me while a lady was trying to nurse me. I rose and saw with shock that both vehicles had burnt out completely and Martie was crying in the arms of a lady who tried to soothe her. I yelled and inquired if someone understood English and a man came out of the crowd and tried to calm me in broken English. His name was Arjuna and he was our saviour angel. He explained that Martie and I were the only survivors. The rest was trapped inside the vehicles that burnt out. He said I should wait for an ambulance and the police.