Authors: Aditya Mewati
Pulau Sumba, 4 August 2015
TWO YEARS LATER
The helicopter thumped forward, skimming over the surface of the Indian ocean. It flew over many small lush green islands and was heading toward Pulau Sumba, a medium sized island to the north of Australia. Although, the passenger inside it had no idea about it.
It was blazing hot. The Helicopter's gray and maroon surface gleamed in the afternoon sunlight.
The helicopter raced forward and soon a lush green island rolled into view.
The helicopter circled the island, searching for a place to land. After a few minutes, the pilot decided to land on the beach.
The sand swirled into a small tornado, as the helicopter approached the beach. It bobbed over the sandy shore and righted itself.
The pilot sighed in relief when the landing skids touched the sandy surface. He killed the engine and the sand storm around it died out.
The helicopter door flung open, and a man wearing green military uniform jumped out from the helicopter. He pulled out a man wearing a red shirt and blue faded jeans, who had his head covered in black cloth; his hands were cuffed behind his back. Another man in military uniform jumped behind them and both the uniformed men steered the guy away from the helicopter and toward the forest.
An Asian guy in uniform was standing next to an open Jeep at the edge of the forest. He had a big scar running down on his face.
They steered him toward the Jeep. The Asian guy in the uniform motioned them to remove his mask. They pulled off the mask and revealed his face. He was a bald, old man, in his early sixties. He coughed and gasped. "
Cough
...
cough
... Next time, at least, make a hole in it... for me to...
cough
... breath."
The Asian guy in the uniform grinned. "Good afternoon, Dr. Alex Bill."
"Where am I?" Alex said and surveyed his surrounding.
"You are somewhere... safe... and will be safe until you'll follow the orders."
"You ordered them to bring me here?" Alex asked, scowling. He felt afraid. But yet decided not to show his fear to the men around him. He had understood that he was an important man for them. This was because of the way the soldiers had behaved with him throughout the journey. They had fulfilled his requests. They provided him the medicines for controlling his blood pressure. They untied him when asked to do so. They gave him the food, which was more healthy than his wife's cooking standards. The only thing they refused was not to cover his face before landing on the Island.
"No. My leader did... "
"Your leader...?" He had thought that the guy standing before him was the man in control.
"You will meet him soon. Anyway, I am The general Dong - sun. I'll be escorting you to the camp."
They made him sit on the back end of the open Jeep, his hands were still cuffed behind him. Dong-sun sat with him, and one uniformed man sat in the driver seat and another one on the shotgun seat.
The Jeep roared forward, bouncing on the snaking road that was carved in the forest. Alex Bill soon realized that his abductors were carrying pistols with them. He thought about tricking and disarming them. But somewhere in his mind, he knew that he didn't stand a chance against them.
The forest rolled by under the bright blue sky. He kept gazing at the passing trees, and spotted many human-size figures hanging on the trees, and soon realized that they actually were real dead bodies. He shuddered. And then he saw few Asian children playing soccer at the edge of the road, but they all were carrying Ak-47 with them. He also spotted small sheds with corrugated rooftops. The sight distraught him.
He glanced back at his abductors. They all were wearing military uniforms, but he knew that these guys did not belong to any military.
"You picked me up...in middle of my holidays," he said.
"I am sorry about that, Doctor," Dong-sun said and stared at him with the brooding eyes.
"You Abducted me from France and brought me here...in some Indonesian island...Why?" Alex asked indignantly. Now for the first time, he felt like crying.
Dong-sun looked pleased. "So you have realized that we have brought you in Indonesia. We had to do it quickly... Before the Interpol realize that you have actually been abducted. You know you are a very important man. All because of your research and notable works in biology."
"What do you mean?" Alex said.
"Genetic therapy," Dong-sun said, smiling.
"Genetic therapy? why do you need—"
"We don't need it. I mean we need it. But later..." Dong-sun said and again smiled.
Alex stared at him as if trying to read his mind. The Jeep bobbed over a stone.
Dong-sun cocked his head and whispered in Alex's ear. "We know that you were the part of the Outlander project."
His heart sank into his boots. "What do you want from me?" he gasped.
Sydney, 5 August 2015
Even before receiving the call from his client, Karthik Peri was having a bad day.
He had woken up late that morning, and being an early-riser, he hated the feeling of being late for work, which was in a law firm. But this was not necessarily the bad part.
The bad things started when in hurry, he crashed his new BMW into a garbage truck, which was parked at the edge of the road. He stepped out of the car, slammed the door shut and evaluated the damage.
"Oh... no," He muttered and scratched the back of his head. He had wrecked the right headlight of the car. He looked up at the sky and roared, "So this is how you want to play? Huh? Then bring it on!"
The garbage truck door swung open, and a man wearing a sleeveless shirt, showing his buffed arms, climbed off from the driver seat. He bellowed "Hey, you!"
Karthik glanced around and behind him. "Me?" He said, pointing himself.
"Yes, you!" The man stomped toward Karthik.
Karthik glared at the sky and grunted. "I was just kidding, man! Come on!"
The man stopped and gazed up and then back at Karthik. "Whom are you talking to?"
"God! Of course." Karthik said, throwing his arms in frustration.
The man scratched his hair, and glared at Karthik and said, "You are making fun of me! You are going to pay for this!" He dashed at Karthik and tugged his collar.
"Lis...ten...I'm rea...lly...Sorry," Karthik Stammered, "I ill—,"
"You will sue me? You're threatening me!" The man bellowed and he pelted his right fist into Karthik's stomach. Karthik crumpled on the floor, holding his stomach. "I meant...I'll pay you,” he muttered.
The man was about to kick Karthik right in his stomach but stopped when he spotted few college students walking down in their direction. He looked down at Karthik and said, "You have a Lucky day today."
Yes, if you consider getting punched in the tummy and wrecking your car is a sign of good-luck. Then it's a lucky day for me!
Karthik lay flat on the ground, staring at the man as he got into his truck. He started the engine and drove away.
Karthik sighed with relief when the truck was out of his sight (In fact, he was grateful that the man only hit him once in his stomach). He got up, brushed off his shirt and pants and glancing around, he slipped back in his car. He reversed and pulled the car back on the road.
As he drove, he glanced at the rear-view mirror. A guy with dark black hair, olive tanned skin and meticulously shaved cheeks stared back at him.
He was born in India and also studied most of his law in India. And when he was twenty-six, he moved to Sydney and has been practicing in Sydney for Six years. "Six years of suffering," he sometimes joked while thinking about his past experiences in Australia. Six years of loneliness and hard work. He was acclimated to work hard but loneliness was the thing he feared enduring.
He rounded a corner and entered the redwoods area. The road was now surrounded by beautiful houses that sat in the midst of the beautiful hedges.
He glanced at the house with blue color rooftop and spotted a silver color car parked in front of the gate.
After driving for another fifteen minutes, a glassy building rose into view. His office.
He parked his car in the parking lot and made his way toward the lift. His office was on the twenty-seventh floor. His assistant Jane greeted him when he entered the office "Mr. Ford has been calling you," she said.
Daniel Ford was the owner of a pharmaceutical company named "PharmaGen," mostly indulged in cancer research. Karthik had been working as his attorney for past three years.
Karthik lifted his eyebrow. The pain in his stomach had now faded. "Is it again the land problem?"
"No. Er-Why are your pants dirty?" She asked.
"It's nothing," Karthik said gingerly, "I'll talk with Mr. Ford. Can you bring me a cup of coffee?"
"Sure," Jane said and strolled to the door and before she went out of his sight, Karthik caught her glance at his pants and snicker.
He sighed and stared out the big glass Wall, at the long skyscrapers, and the row-houses below him. The scenery was quite intriguing. He has been seeing this for four years and still it felt so fresh.
The room was pretty big for an office with a huge desk in one side of the wall.
He went over to the telephone, wondering why didn’t Mr. Ford call on his cell phone. He picked up the telephone receiver and dialed Mr. Ford's number. And waited. Mr. Ford himself received the call, which was not a good sign.
"Hello—" Karthik said.
"Where the hell are you?" Mr. Ford roared.
Karthik pushed the receiver away from him and held it as if he was holding a snake. He could still hear Mr. Ford yelling over the phone. He took a deep breath and placed the receiver back to his ears.
"...I want you here now! In my house. Talk with these people. Tell them that I don't have anything to do with it!" Mr. Ford said.
"Talk with whom?" Karthik asked.
But Mr. Ford had already hung up the phone.
Karthik stared at the sky and muttered. "Great..."
Jane entered with a hot coffee. "Your coffee." She smiled. "Are you going somewhere?"
Karthik nodded. "Mr. Ford has summoned me to his house. I have to leave now."
"This Coffee?" she asked.
Karthik groaned at the searing coffee. "I'll drink it later," he said and trotted toward the door. But he had no idea that from this very moment his life was going to change completely.
The silver car stood silently before the gate, glinting in the sunlight. It stayed like that for few minutes—and the door beside the driver seat slowly opened and a man ducked out of the car. The man was sturdy in posture and had sharp features. He turned, looked back and nodded and moved toward the door. Carefully, he crossed the garden and reached to the main door. Squatted before the door and got to work.
Two more men were sitting in the car, and were keeping watch for the man, who was working on the door. He waved at them, which meant the door was now open. They both got out of the car and glancing around, went over to the door.
"Good job, Mark," One of them said.
"She is not home. We can't go back without her," Mark said.
"Let's first find the thing we are here for. We'll deal with her later," the guy close to the door said and went through the door. He lead them through the entryway and then onto the hall.
"Start the search," He said, "Look everywhere. Look at everything—if you have to break it—do it."
Three of them started searching the house. They pulled out the drawers, ruffled the clothes, broke the pots, smashed the photo frames. After one hour of their fruitless search, one of them groaned. "Man! It's useless. I don't think that she has kept it here in her house."
"Keep searching you idiot," Mark snapped and ascended the stairs. They kept searching. Slowly the anger and frustration rose over them and fogged their mind. They kept swearing. "Where the hell that bitch kept it?"
Mark went in the bedroom. Everything in the bedroom was disoriented. He had searched it five times—everywhere, frames, locker, pots, drawers and also in the bed. Feeling frustrated, Mark again searched the room and again, as he had thought, only failure greeted him. Slouching his shoulder, he moved away from the bed, and abruptly stopped. They had searched the bed. But not below it. He quickly lied on the floor and pushed his hand below the bed and groped the floor. His hand hit something metallic. He tugged but whatever that thing was didn't leave the floor. He quickly got up and started moving the bed.
The other two came in the bedroom. "What are you doing?" They asked in unison.
"Help me," he shouted. His face had completed turned red. Together, they moved the bed. Below it, hidden from the world was a trapdoor. It was locked. Mark unlocked it and pulled it open. He gazed and yelled out a triumphed laughter.