melindabilecki

melindabilecki header image 4

Entries Tagged as 'India'

IFJM 30: Turning the Page

April 30th, 2010 · 1 Comment · IFJM, India, Ink, Watercolor

International Fake Journal Month

Text from today’s entry:

30 April 2010
Somewhere in India

Well, this is the end.  On to a new sketchbook and a new chapter in my life and travels.

L.S. has canceled his trip for now–life is busy when you’re a superstar, and he’s decided to keep working where he is for now.  He let me know this in a note that arrived with a gift, a small box containing the lovely statue of Ganesh I admired at his home in Bangalore.  I’m still smiling.

[Read more →]

Tags:····

IFJM 29: An End

April 29th, 2010 · No Comments · Faces, IFJM, India, Ink, Watercolor

International Fake Journal Month

Text from today’s entry:

29 April 2010

I guess I’ve know all along–as least since the moment I realized the Beast was in that car.  It didn’t really sink in until I heard it from his own lips though.  Terry dug up the details.

Dragan Nikolić, the Beast of Novi Sad, hid from our U.N., war-criminal-hunting team by literally becoming one of us.  It was quite a feat.  He remade himself into the man I knew as Obrad.   The real Obrad was killed early in the conflict, and the Beast seized the chance to cannibalize his life.  He knew the day would come when he would need to disappear, and he planned from the moment Obrad took his last breath to use him, to become him, to reinvent himself in the most unlikely way by taking on the life of this young soldier when the time came.  It’s a testament to his cunning that he actually rose so far and managed, ultimately, to place himself at the very heart of the investigation into the man we called the Beast.

I wonder now, was he laughing to himself the whole time?  Were there any close calls?  moments when he thought we might catch on?  Certainly there were in the end.  The car bomb scheme designed to kill Hal and me and fake “Obrad’s” death came about because he thought Hal and I were onto him.  I don’t know if it makes me feel better or worse that we weren’t.  Obviously, I wish we’d figured the whole thing out ourselves.  Hal might still be alive.  But it’s complicated.  In some ways, the man I knew as Obrad really was my friend.

That doesn’t stop me from being glad he’s gone, though.  Gone for good this time, stopped by his own hand.  The sorry end to the whole thing is that I found him.  He’d broken his collar bone in the accident, quite badly as it turned out.  And the hack he found to fix him up was more interested in Terry’s favors than Dragan Nikolić’s money.  When we came through the door,  Nikolić grabbed a scalpel–ready, finally, to end it.  He didn’t want to die without revealing himself, though.  It’s ironic that he kept thinking I knew, kept thinking he had to get rid of me to protect his cover, even after I’d left that part of my life behind.  If he’d just had faith in his plan, he’d still be out there somewhere.  And I’d still believe I once had a friend called Obrad.

[Read more →]

Tags:····

IFJM 28: What I Know

April 28th, 2010 · No Comments · IFJM, India, Ink, Watercolor

International Fake Journal Month

Text from today’s entry:

28 April 2010
2330 hrs
Mumbai

1. Obrad is dead.
2. The Beast is dead.
No bodies were ever recovered.

1. I saw the friend I called Obrad with my own eyes, following us.
2. We pulled the Beast’s fingerprints from the car that was following us.
The man I called Obrad was not my friend. He was the Beast.

1. The Beast is alive.
2. He tried to kill me–and did kill Hal–in Serbia.
3. He is after me now.
Why?

1. Thank goodness for the color of this flower near my room.

[Read more →]

Tags:···

IFJM 27: Making Sense of Nonsense

April 27th, 2010 · No Comments · Faces, IFJM, India, Ink, Watercolor

International Fake Journal Month

Text from today’s entry:

27 April 2010
1920 hrs
Mumbai

Određeni član Životinja nad Novosadski.  The Beast of Novi Sad.  He was in the car.  We processed the tail car, and the fingerprints came back to the Beast.  I saw Obrad get out of that car.  But the fingerprints belong to the Beast.  Obrad is the Beast?  No.  What’s going on?  How could Obrad be in a car with the Beast’s fingerprints??!

Who are you?

[Read more →]

Tags:····

IFJM 26: Obrad

April 26th, 2010 · No Comments · IFJM, India, Ink

International Fake Journal Month

Text from today’s entry:

26 April 2010
2200 hrs
Mumbai

Where do I start?  Terry was right.  She did see Obrad.  And I saw him too, in Goa when I thought I was hallucinating.  Terry met me at the airport in Mumbai this morning, and as we headed out, before Terry could even fill me in on what she’d learned, we realized we had a tail.  I HAD to know.  It was more important than staying safe.  WAS Obrad behind this?  We forced a confrontation — actually caused a traffic accident — and when the driver jumped from the tail car and started to run, my eyes met Obrad’s.  Obrad . . . alive . . . and running AWAY from me.  I’ve never felt such disorientation in my life.  My friend is alive — ELATION! — but he’s running AWAY. . . What?  We spent the rest of the day searching — me on the street, Terry on the computer and the phones.  Nothing.

[Read more →]

Tags:··

IFJM 25: Up Late

April 25th, 2010 · 2 Comments · IFJM, India, Ink

International Fake Journal Month

Text from today’s entry:

25 April 2010
Kolcata
2345 hrs
Got a call from Terry P. first thing this morning.  It was 0500, but I wasn’t doing much sleeping anyway.  That’s been over 12 hours ago, and I’m still trying to process what she told me.  She swears she saw Obrad.  If it were anyone but Terry, I’d dismiss the whole thing out of hand.  But Terry’s good – she doesn’t spook easily.  I passed the day going through the motions of interviewing the staff here at the Oberoi, but I’ve decided I need to break off the advance work and deal with this.  I’m meeting Terry first thing tomorrow morning in Mumbai.  Meanwhile . . . instead of sleeping . . . tonight I drink and draw.  And think.

[Read more →]

Tags:··

IFJM 24: In Kolcata

April 24th, 2010 · No Comments · IFJM, India, Ink

International Fake Journal Month

Text from today’s entry:

24 April 2010
2020 hrs
Kolcata

Drawing in a new city is usually a huge pleasure, but today all I could manage was this half-hearted sketch of the Victoria Memorial. Thinking about the past has got me down.

[Read more →]

Tags:··

IFJM 23: Back in Bangalore

April 23rd, 2010 · No Comments · Ganesh, IFJM, India, Ink

International Fake Journal Month

Text from today’s entry:

23 April 2010
1940 hrs
Bangalore

Finished up in Jaffna and headed back to Bangalore for the night.  Tomorrow I go to Calcutta to finish the last part of my advance work for L.S. Finally heard back on the feelers I put out, and nothing came of any of it.  There’s been no activity related to anyone involved in the cases our team worked at the U.N.  Hal and Obrad are still dead.  The fools who hit us to keep their buddy away from the Hague are still dead – very dead – thanks to some off-the-books justice.  And the only thing going on with the Hague Tribunal right now that has any connection to our work involves određeni član Životinja nad Novosadski, the Beast of Novi Sad.  He did as much dirty work for Karadzic as he did for  Milosevic.  But the current team prosecuting Karadzic is even less likely to mete out justice for the Beast than we were.  We just couldn’t FIND him.  They’d have to bring him back from the dead!

(Ganesh statue in L.S.’s residence)

[Read more →]

Tags:···

IFJM 22: Monsters

April 22nd, 2010 · No Comments · IFJM, India, Ink, Watercolor

International Fake Journal Month

Text from today’s entry:

22 April 2010
2030 hrs
Jaffna

So I’ve been going through the motions today.  Running times on various routes and checking out the local medical facilities.  Trying to prepare for L.S.’s visit.  My mind is elsewhere though.  I’m still waiting to hear back from my guys, but it’s clear to me that this other business has something to do with Serbia.  The Karadzic trial is underway, and I’m wondering if that is a coincidence.  After I left the U.N., I put Serbia behind me.  Our team had done a lot of good, but in the end I guess I felt beaten.  Hal and Obrad were dead.  I was pretty messed up.  Months of physical therapy lay ahead.  It was someone else’s turn to sort through the fallout of Serbia’s monsters.  Now I’m wondering, though.  Are they back to haunt me?

[Read more →]

Tags:···

IFJM 21: Jaffna

April 21st, 2010 · No Comments · IFJM, India, Ink, Watercolor

International Fake Journal Month

Text from today’s entry:

21 April 2010
1510 hrs
Jaffna

You never want to rule anything out, but let’s just say I seriously doubt that Mr. Eastern European Accent is interested in L.S.  I’m using the trip to Jaffna to give myself some distance from the crowds.  It’s hard to surveil someone in a tight-knit community where strangers stand out.  This also gives me time to hear back from my go-to guys who are gathering some information for me and following up on a few things.  And it gives me some space to think.  If Eastern Europe is involved, this has to be about the old days.  But how?  Why?

[Read more →]

Tags:···