Sunset Limited

The office looked cheerful, if places could be said to have an expression - not what Hari was expecting at all. He expected a clinical looking place with serious or angry looking people. This one could have been a set for a painting ad on TV. As he was entering the door of the inner office - painted a bright orange - he saw the gorgeous long legged woman in a red dress step out from an office room nearby. She looked and walked like a model. If he could whistle, he would have done so that moment. She had her sun-glasses on, which would have seemed funny on a few vain women he knew, but seemed perfect on her. How he wished he could have seen the colour of her eyes! As he watched, she walked away without even barely glancing at him.

He was dragged out of his thoughts when the voice inside the room he was supposed to enter, said a little more loudly, "I said, please come in!",

"Please take your seat - Mr. Hari Subramanian?", said the pleasant looking lady inside, turning the statement into a question.

"Yes, thank you."

"I trust your journey was comfortable. I am sorry that you had to go through the trouble, but we are a secure facility. We need to take certain precautions. I trust you understand that!" she said, in a tone that meant she wasn't expecting an answer.

"Err.. yeah, I do. So, am I eligible? Did I pass the test?" said Hari.

"Eager, aren't we? I can understand that!" she said, gleefully. "I would have liked to make a more formal and sombre announcement, but what the heck! Yooohooo! You are in!!"

"Wow!! Thank you!! I can finally sleep tonight! Thank you so much!" said Hari, with his eyes glistening.

He had been waiting for these words for almost three months now. His friends had told him that it was not an easy process and that the rejection rates were high.

'Sunset Limited' took its business and clientele seriously. The background check done on prospective clients was more thorough than that of the world's topmost intelligence agency. The rates they charged were very high, but the results were guaranteed.

"You do realize that getting accepted as a client is only the first step? We may still reject your service request.", she said, trying to be gentle and failing.

"But why would you do such a thing? I mean, under what circumstances, would you reject a 'service request'?", asked Hari, sounding perplexed.

"Well, conflict of interest is often a reason. Also the risk-perception associated with the service request." said the woman, still looking composed.

"What risk perception are you talking about? You have already done a detailed background check on me. What more do you need?", said Hari, secretly wondering if he should have just done it himself or gone with that 'Feelings Gaja' - that guy one of his friends had mentioned.

"Sir, the background check helped us confirm if it was safe to deal with you and also to check your financial stability. We need to be paid in advance, as you are probably aware, irrespective of whether or not we accept your request. The service requests will be assessed by our team of experts that includes law-enforcement personnel and legal experts. You will be given a service request number for your request and will receive an SMS on the acceptance status on the day of service fulfillment".

"So you may reject my request, but still need the money in advance?" asked Hari.

"In the rare case of a rejection, you will receive a full refund minus operating expenses via bank transfer to an unnamed offshore account" said the lady. "One more thing, you will not speak of us or try to contact us once you leave the premises".

"Can I ask you one thing? How do you recruit your employees? How do I know I can trust you?" asked Hari.

"We have a vigorous screening process for our employees. We call them artists here. None of them are here for the money. Most of them would do it for free. We believe that when an employee enjoys what he or she does, the results are better. Our employees are carefully picked for their interest in this job. The clients need discretion and a clean way to deal with their problems, our artists need a safe outlet for their creativity. All we do is provide a solution for both of them", she said.

"And get paid a bomb", he said. "Oops!! My bad!"

"Yeah, it is a win-win-win, as they say these days", she said. "And about the question of trust, what choice do you have Mr. Subramaniam?"

Hari silently handed over the folder to the lady, who keyed in something on her MacBook.

After a minute, she turned to him and said, "Your service request number is S023. Memorize it, because you won't get a paper or electronic copy of anything. You will receive a text from an unknown number between the 12th and 20th of this month confirming the acceptance status of your request. If accepted, the request will be fulfilled the same day. No confirmation will be sent to you. If rejected, the balance, after operating expenses, will be refunded to you. We have a 99% success rate. No refund will be provided for failed services when the reason for failure is beyond our control or is an act of God. Partial refunds may be provided for failed services based on Sunset Limited's discretion".

"Whew!! Is that the speech version of the fine print on agreements? Impressive!", said Hari.

On his way out, once again, he was blindfolded and taken into an aircraft.

"How was your trip? Did your meeting with your board go well?", asked Priya, as soon as Hari entered his house.

"It was good! It was great!! Hey, let me take a shower. Let's go for a movie", he said.

"Why, what's special? My birthday is on 15th, not today", said Priya.

"Sorry dear. I have to be in Mumbai on 12th and will be back by 21st. The customer is coming down from the States", he said.

"But that is tomorrow! And you just came home! I had plans for us on 15th. Not fair!", she said in a hurt voice.

"I will make it up to you! I promise. Now, let me just take a shower. Let's have dinner and then a movie. Deal?", said Hari. He was whistling on his way to the bathroom. The meeting had gone better than he expected.

He couldn't stop grinning on the flight to Mumbai. It was finally going to happen!

"Goodbye Priya. It was nice knowing you!", he said to himself.

Any day now, he was going to get a confirmation from Sunset Limited. That message was going to be the first chapter of his new life - a life he intended to spend with Rachel, the love of his life. He had considered divorce first. But Priya's father and her brothers were policemen. "And in this country, if there is someone you fear as much or sometimes more than a thug, it is a policeman", reasoned Hari.

And thus started his search for a way out. Local contract killers weren't professional enough. Help finally came from the underground internet, which he had taken to frequent in the last few years.

"There are organizations, that help people such as you. It may cost you serious money. But these guys are very good. They are discreet. I heard from someone that they recruit only people who are genuinely interested in killing - those who think of it as an art. Their after-service is to die-for, pardon the pun. It is the best you can do for the ones you love to hate!", said one guy on an online forum.

It took Hari a few months to zero-in on Sunset Limited. It took them longer to accept him as a client. And then the interview happened, and here he was close to the D-day.

It was going to be on 15th - he could feel it in his gut. He had to act normal till then - go to work, meet with his clients, call Priya every day at 7 pm, to say good night. He had ceased all contact with Rachel ever since he got this idea. He could always pick up where he left off, after a year or two after Priya's untimely demise, he thought.

"For now, a drink at the bar. Who knows! I may get lucky tonight", he thought to himself. The only customer other than him was a lone woman who seemed vaguely familiar.

"Buy you a drink?", said Hari, as he slid into the bar-stool next to her.

"What's your room number?" she asked.

"Wow! That was direct!! Have we met before?" asked Hari, completely taken aback.

"Save the pickup lines for someone else. It is getting late. I have to be out of here early in the morning. Are you going to give me your room number?" she said, looking at him directly with her large eyes.

"Hmm.. 502.. Didn't I see you the other day at.." he stuttered.

"Let me change into something more comfortable. I will see you in 5?" she said as she slid out of her chair.

It was more like 10 minutes, when the knock on the door finally came.  Hari didn't want to seem too eager and got up from his seat trying to look cool and went towards the door.

"Hey, come on in! What do you have in that?" he said as he opened the door to find the gorgeous woman tugging a large suitcase behind her.

Lonely.. I am so lonely.. I have nobody... wailed the phone.

"One sec, I need to check this message", he said. "Service Request S023 rejected. Reason - Conflict of Interest".

"Hey honey! Priya says Hi!" said the gorgeous woman, as she stabbed him once with a fine knife that went through him like he was made of butter.

"What the..!! It's you.. you.. Your eyes are grayish blue!", he said as he fell.