I Won't Let You Die Angel (11 page)

I braced myself for the
excruciating pain and the blackout, but it never came. Instead, I heard someone
else grunt. I opened my eyes and couldn’t think anything except to stare at the
man in front of my eyes. His black eyes, just like mine, full of care and concern,
and his left shoulder bleeding due to the bullet wound.

Just like me, the rest of
them were also stunned. Carl took advantage of that and he single-handily shot the
three accomplices in a blink of an eye. In retort, Sam took another shot, this time
straight into Carl’s heart.

“NO!! Oh, no, no, no…..”
I caught Carl before he could crumple down. His gun dropped out of his hand and
gravity was pulling him down. I gently placed him on the floor, his head on my lap.

He was breathing heavily
and his eyes were closing. “Carl!! Carl, stay with me. Don’t, don’t die on me. You
can’t.”

His face lit up with that
carefree smile he always had and gently touched my cheek, “Janet, stay safe. Promise
me, you’ll stay safe, that you’ll stay away from all this. My blessings will always
be with you.” 

I nodded, unable to form
words from my throat. His hand reached up and I bowed my head. He placed his shaking
hand on my head in a manner of blessing and…passed away.

“Finally!! True blood cells”,
mocked Sam.

Something snapped inside
me, something animalistic that had been lying way too dormant; but now it broke
free. That thin veil of goodness and compassion dropped. My mind filled with rage
and hostility and revulsion so strong that my senses ignored everything around me
and concentrated on one aim….. Sam.

I closed Carl’s eyes, quickly
chanted a prayer in Sanskrit and charged at Sam. He was freakishly caught off-guard.
I knee-kicked his weak point, bit his right wrist, and snatched the gun out of his
grip. As quickly as the gun fit in my palm, I shot both thighs. He yelped and smashed
onto the ground, face first.

I kicked him twice on the
same spot where the bullets pierced and twisted his arms 120 degrees. Another loud
groan escaped his mouth.

“Does it hurt
brother
?”
I rolled him over, shot his right shoulder and punched repeatedly. He cried in pain.

“It will hurt more.” I again
kicked his weak spot. “You will experience every trace of pain you gave to me, to
dad, to mom, and to Carl.”

He grabbed my ankle, but
I freed it easily. Some unusual strength had consumed me. Everything, every assault
that he had inflicted on me was now swirling before my eyes as in a slide show.
Dad’s sorrow, Mom’s dilemma, Carl’s last blessing; everything together infused such
a strong catalyst that it was affecting the end inference of the experiment.

Some tiny part of my brain
was screeching to think rationally, but majority wins. So I continued punching him,
kicking him, and swearing at him.

Strong arms subdued me before
I could deliver my 50
^th
punch. I turned to shoot the one who caused the
interruption, but stopped just before pulling the trigger.

Neil stood there, his hands
up in a manner of surrender, and he was looking at me with astonished eyes. He slowly
came closer and gently cupped my face. “
Angel,
calm down. He’s almost dead,
okay. Don’t you wanna extract useful information out of him? Huh?”

“No, he has to die. Death
is his conviction granted by me. You don’t know what he did? He murdered…”

“Ssh…” He soothed me. “I
know what he has done to you,
Angel
. But think rationally, to get you out
of all this mess, we need to know every bit of information he has.”

No, he didn’t know what
he had done. He couldn’t see Carl’s motionless body from where we were, but I could.
Neil’s touch induced an unusual feeling of warmth through me and calmed my infuriated
senses. I started thinking more rationally. I breathed out slowly. “Ok, fine, we’ll
interrogate him.”

He patted my arms and faced
Sam. Sam was coughing blood and holding his stomach. Neil grabbed Sam’s chin, “Tell
me, what is
Majestic
’s grand scheme is?”

“Go to hell”, spat Sam.

I shot another bullet in
his other shoulder. Neil flinched away from him. “Hell’s waiting for you Sam and
I will send you there definitely. So, you better answer us.”

“What do you want with my
pendant? Why did you give it to Mom in the first place? And what the hell does
Majestic
wants with me? Of what possible use would I be for her?”

Sam looked up gradually,
“I’ll die sister, and I’ll die in loyalty. The only thing you’ll get from me is
that your mother’s getting the punishment for the perfidy she had done to me by
giving away that pendant to you.”

Save it if you can! And
you all can go to…” The bullet struck precisely in his heart and the gun
dropped from my hand. “Shut up,
Storm
. Shut up. You won’t speak again. You’ll
go beyond hell.” I whispered slowly.

Neil wiped the tears that
burst from my eyes and hugged me. “I’m sorry,
Angel
, I’m so sorry you have
to go through all this. I’m sorry I left you alone. I did it for your own safety
and I failed. I failed you.”

I hugged him tightly and
took comfort in his embrace while I silently sobbed. “I’m a murderer, Neil. He would
have died anyway, but I killed him. I killed him in cold blood.”

He pulled back slightly
and kissed my forehead. “Ssh…. It’s okay. You are not a murderer, Janet. You are
just a sweet, simple, college girl who’s just been dragged into a battle of nothingness.”

“No, Neil, I’m bad. I wanted
to kill him; I wanted him to suffer for what he has done to Carl. He killed Carl.”

Neil’s whole body stiffened
beside me. He let go of me in a trance and staggered several paces back.

“Neil.”

He lifted one hand to stop
me. “Where? Carl?” he muttered and then turned around and spotted his friend’s body
a few yards away. He sprinted in that direction and almost skidded in a pool of
blood. He knelt beside Carl, stroked his chin, and bowed his head down.

All around us, about 16
armed commandos were slowly closing in. Oh God! We’re being ambushed. “Neil!!” But
Neil was not listening. I ran to him and shook him out of his reverie. “Neil, look
around. We’re trapped.” He picked up Carl’s gun and shoved it in my hand, and then
took out his.

My hand trembled while holding
the gun. I had blood on my hands, and bloodstains never wash away. They always haunt
you, as dead people haunt your dreams. Neil’s voice snapped me back to the parking
area.

“Huh?”

“They have state-issued
rifles on them. I doubt
Majestic
sent them. They are not even making any
attempt to kill us.”

As if to stamp on Neil’s
suspicion, a tall, black-haired handsome man stepped into view. His chocolate-brown
eyes emanated mischief even in this scenario. He looked the same as when we met
last time; same attire, same businessman-like hairdo, and same pretty well-chiseled
cheekbones, but a frown-line now decorated his forehead.

 “Chris??”

Saying I was shocked would
be the understatement of the year. I was totally used up, maybe I was hallucinating.
But Neil also looked bewildered. “Chris!! The federal agent??”

Everyone except Chris stopped
in their tracks. Chris sauntered towards us, and like several times before, all
three parts of my brain were infused with different ideas. I didn’t know what to
expect. Then it crossed my mind, why was I scared? All this while when I wanted
to return to my normal life, the FBI were here to rescue me obviously.

But, what about Neil? I
wouldn’t let anything happen to him because of me. I wouldn’t. And with recent developments,
I couldn’t just abduct from the situation. I had to face it.
The best way to
escape evil is to face it.

I gripped the gun tightly
in my fist. Something was up with Neil; the gun was wrongly aligned in his palm
and his eyes were red. He was devastated. If it came to a fight, we wouldn’t survive,
plus I almost ignored the rifles. Somehow, the reasoning was my only weapon left.

I steadied myself as Chris
grew closer, and opened my mouth to say something, anything. Neil braced himself
and pointed his gun towards Chris. Oh no! But Chris did not seem to notice; he walked
straight past us and stopped right above Carl’s body.

“What happened to him?”
He questioned in a diabolical tone.

I was confused. When nobody
answered, he marched towards me and clasped my arm, “I asked, what happened to him?”

“Storm killed him and I
killed Storm.” I replied, not so obliquely.

“Damn it!!” He swore.

“If you’re mad because Storm’s
dead and you didn’t get to interrogate him, then let me tell you, he won’t talk.”

“No!! I’m not mad because
you killed Storm, but because
Storm killed Carl
. He was supposed to wait
for us. This is a huge loss. God!!!” He sighed, exasperated.

“Look Chris, er, I mean
agent Gold. You need to listen to me. Some terrorist
Majestic
is planning
something big. We don’t know what? But she’s after me, and after Neil. Storm knew
everything but he was way too loyal to say. You gotta do something.” I was on a
train of speech, but something he said bothered me.

“Wait! Why does it matter
to you if Carl’s dead? You must be happy as both
Majestic’s hands
are gone.”

By now, Neil had also recovered
from the initial shock, but chose smartly enough to act like a silent spectator.

“That’s where you’re out
of the loop, Ms. Kanet. Carl was one of ours, FBI’s special undercover agent.”

“How could Carl be an undercover
agent? I have known him my entire life!” Exclaimed Neil ambivalently.

We were seated across
from Chris and two other agents at a round table in a dilapidated garage. Well,
you had to witness that scene: three federal agents staring warily at one underworld
prince and a pretty cute, beautiful, sweet and simple eighteen-year-old, currently
devastated girl. Okay, that was a little exaggeration on my part. But seriously,
if I hadn’t been so stressed about recent events, I’d have laughed at the irony
of our out-of-the-world round table conference. For now, I was just glad that they
didn’t apply a “shoot on sight” policy to Neil.

 “He was our best and only
hope in
Majestic
’s case. He had made a lot of effort to infiltrate
Majestic
’s
inner circle. Finally, we were getting some leads. But now….” Sighed Chris resignedly.

“Wait!! If you knew all
about Majestic’s super-duper insanity, you must have been aware of Neil kidnapping
me.”

 “No, Majestic could be
anything, but one thing’s for sure, she’s damn intelligent and dexterous. She asked
for Carl’s advice on an extremely important assignment, but didn’t elaborate on
the technicalities. Carl recommended Neil so that he could keep track of the developments.
But neither Carl nor any of us had any idea of your involvement”, replied the other
agent. What did he say his name was? Ritchie-rich or something! Yeah, Richard.

Chris straightened, “We
believe you just got dragged in as some collateral damage. The day when you were
kidnapped, we just wanted to interrogate you because of an escaped terrorist,
Jon Darker, being spotted in your neighborhood.”

Neil shook his head, “No,
I’m certain that Janet has some big role to play, or Majestic planned a big role
for her because I was strictly instructed to deliver her safely straight into Majestic’s
hand. At the last moment Storm took over, and one thing is crystal clear, they desperately
want her family pendant.”

My hand involuntarily reached
for my pendant. It felt as hollow as my throat. Why did everything have to be so
confusing, so messed up? Giving in to my habit of fiddling, I clutched my bracelet.

“Chris, do you have any
update on Nicole or Prof. Collins or Rusty?”

Chris looked glum. “Nicole
Collins is recovering better, but I’m afraid we have no trace of Lucy Collins or
her son.”

I sighed. Unintentionally
I’d become the center of putting everybody’s lives in jeopardy. The whole Collins
family was suffering just because they accepted me as family. Nicole was in the
hospital because of me, Prof. Collins was sulking somewhere because of me, my parents
– I don’t even know in what condition they were. Neil made an irrevocable enemy
and as for Carl…He died for me.

“Why did he do that?”

“Huh”, asked Neil.

“Why did he take that bullet
for me? Why?” Tears welled up in my eyes. He died in my place and did not regret
it even for a second. The weight of his smile and his blessings will continue to
crush me down forever.

Neil’s face mirrored the
depths of despair overwhelming him. And there was nothing I could say to ease it.
I slowly took his hand in mine. “Neil, I’m sorry. I know I must be detestable in
your site right now, but trust me I never…”

“Don’t say that! I could
never detest you,
Angel.
What Carl did for you shows how brave and chivalrous
he was. It was his choice, his decision, his destiny. I honor that. But that doesn’t
make the loss less painful, just bearable.”

“Then I bet you’d like to
avenge your buddy not much less than we do. We’ve no doubt regarding Janet’s intentions
and loyalty, but we want to be fully assured of you. It’s your call, Neil, as
to what it will be your obsolete crime-centered life supporting
Majestic
and all of her associates, or avenging Carl and your godparents, and starting afresh?”
cajoled Chris.

“How did Carl do that? Being
treacherous to his own parents?” Neil wondered loudly.

“He knew they were on the
wrong side. He never wanted that sort of life for himself, his sister, or you. But
unfortunately he was born into it, hence the perfect life of espionage”, proclaimed
Richard.

Chris now looked agitated,
“What’s your call, Neil?”

Neil ruffled his hair. “Do
I have a choice? I bet I’d land straight into detention if I deny it, although I
appreciate the kindness of the offer.”

Chris considered Neil carefully,
“No, you will not. Carl didn’t want you to know, but now that he’s gone…

Seven years ago when he
joined us, the only thing he wanted was “you” off the hook, no salary, no credits,
just a guarantee that “you” would never be detained by any American authority.”

My respect for Carl rocketed
to a whole new level. Neil was trying to blink back his tears.

“But why on earth did you
agree so easily to keep a desperado off your radar?”

“First, we needed Carl back
then. He was deeply rooted in the underworld. He was only eighteen, but had information
that we could never have intercepted otherwise. Majestic was in her initial phase
then. We didn’t even know that she was a ‘she’ at the time. Carl wanted to come
out of the dark hole even if that meant forsaking his parents. And he wanted the
same for you, Neil. His blind faith in you touched our mentor’s heart. He knew you
wouldn’t turn pure evil. And true to his words, you never directly got yourself
involved in any public indiscretion. Your ancestors never took any life that were
not already on the most-wanted list and never actually crossed our
Majestic
’s
path. In all, you kept a low profile in terms of heinous crimes until recently.”

I rose to my feet excitedly,
“You mean, if we indulge ourselves in this expedition, we’ll be clear of all of
charges and can return to our normal lives.”

Richard regarded me skeptically,
“Normal life for you and a new life for Neil. Your hands would have been all clear
of blood if not for the demise of four deputies in Disneyland. But the success of
this mission will certainly ensure your freedom.”

My head spun a full swing
like an agitated ammeter. Neil jolted out of whatever trance he was in and stiffened,
“What do mean deputies in Disneyland! They were Mckoy’s goons.”

Richard took out a cigarette
and relaxed. “Now, now folks. Let’s gear up for a story-ride. Long story short:
as soon as Carl suspected Neil’s involvement in my abduction, he did some digging
and got to know about the Disneyland venue. Several agents and deputies waited long
enough and when
Majestic
finally did not show up, they ventured to secure
us. But being bad-ass and exhilarated, we did not wait and retreated. Carl lastly
tracked Neil’s sources and followed us to Mckoy’s. We were looking forward to capturing
Storm in his own ranch house red-handed with you. But you two being warm-blooded
and emotional fools ruined our golden opportunity by running away.” Richard
paused.

I closed my eyes earnestly.
“You mean to say that we risked our dear lives -- I almost drowned -- for nothing
at all. Our lives were not even at stake in the first place, damn it!”

 Neil cleared his throat,
“Let bygones be bygones. Now, what’s the plan?”

The third agent, who was
all silent until now rose to his feet and marched outside. Neil and I exchanged
a dreaded glance.

Chris coughed slightly,
“Don’t mind Mr. Bornel. Being the commander of the mission, he’s the most devastated
by Carl’s loss and, um, the idea of you two tagging along.”

Richard patted Chris and
gestured something. “You have a moment to sort your heads out and then join us outside.”
With that the two of them imitated their commander.

As soon as they were out
of earshot, I scooted my chair closer to Neil and took his hand, “Neil! Are you
alright?”

His head hung so low that
I thought he was counting the tiles. “Yeah”, he murmured.

“Neil, look at me please”,
I caressed his hair.

“I…I don’t know what to
say. I don’t know what to think,
Angel
. Carl…he…I thought he loved his parents.”

“He loved
you,
Neil.

He was aware that his parents
wouldn’t redeem themselves; they had gone beyond redemption. But you were like his
baby brother, Neil. All he had done and hoped to achieve was to pull you out of
this endless black hole someday.”

Neil did not react, just
closed his eyes.

“Do you know how to swim
Neil?”

His eyes snapped open. “You
know I can.”

“If you’ll see someone drowning,
won’t you save him?”

“Janet, this is not the
time…”

“Just answer it.”

“Yes.”

I stroked his chin gently.
“Carl did the same for you, Neil.  I know what it’s like to be drowning. I know
that one hand, just one hand, is enough to pull you out of eternal darkness. For
me that one hand was my Dad, for you it was Carl.”

But some part of you is
withdrawing from that hand. Why?

You don’t know how to swim,
Neil. You don’t know.

You’re drowning.