You are reading the third chapter. Go to Atonement for chapterwise listing.
In the outskirts of Gurgaon, on the way to Sohna, there is a village named Damdama. This village is famous for a manmade lake managed by Haryana Tourism Corporation. In weekends lots of City dwellers come here to escape from the hustle bustle of the city and find some quiet alone time with the man made illusion of nature. Lots of resorts and holiday inns have been set up near this lake. These resorts pride their recreational activities. These resorts are spread across hundreds of acres. Some business tycoons have also made getaway farmhouses in the lush green surroundings of Damdama Lake.
In one such getaway farmhouse, this generation’s Grace Hopper, had taken sanctuary from the world. What she loved more than her unreal software products were her pet animals. She had an unnerving affection towards animals especially dogs. She took care of the whole farmhouse on her own. The girl had no servants and no help. She considered her privacy of utmost importance and no one could enter her property without her consent. She had hidden cameras surrounding the complete estate and CCTVs on the boundary walls. Once a thief tried to get in during the night. He couldn’t get past the lawn. Her two precious Rottweilers tore him apart limb from limb. She reported the incident the next day and no one dares to come near her house.
Her business partner took care of her software company while she lived here. She got monthly reports and she went to the city for surprise visits to see how everything was going. Every now and then she gets a brilliant software idea and she develops a prototype and sends it to the firm with further enhancements that she wants her team to handle. She gets a regular salary even if she doesn’t actually work and she has the controlling interest in her company.
One thing she cannot tolerate is animal cruelty and she has the best possible punishment for it. She has a basement of horrors. Whoever she finds misbehaving with animals, she gives them a taste of their own medicine in the basement of horrors. She just got back from the city and was taking a sunbath near her swimming pool when she heard a pup squealing right outside the boundary walls. She quickly got dressed and saw that two boys were kicking a helpless three legged pup and laughed when it tried to get away walking a little funnily by connecting her laptop to the camera feeds.
Grace took close up pictures of the boys and went out and scared them away. She brought the pup inside and attended to its wounds. The pup needed medical attention so she took it and her laptop back to the city. At the pet clinic while the doctors took care of the pup, she used her crazy hacking skills to find out who the two boys were and where they were staying. She paid the whole bill for the care of the dog and went back to her farmhouse.
The boys were staying at a nearby resort. She knew their whole schedule. They were going to the Lake for a bonfire party. That was her window to strike. She lured the two boys towards the thick forest disguised as a part mascot and abducted them. She then took them to the basement of horrors. There she asked them to speak into a video camera and confess to their crime. Once that was done she recorded beating them with a log and her own legs till the squealed like the pup did.
Once they were unconscious she thought that they were kids and had their whole life ahead of them. She decided that the punishment was over and drove their alive heavily beaten bodies to a hospital in the city and left them at the emergency door. Then she also took that three legged pup back home and cared for it. She had about 33 dogs of different breeds and colors and she loved them all. She slept in her bed peacefully thinking that she saved another deserving life and destroyed an undeserving one.
