by Sourav Deka
“What are you doing here?” I said.
“Do you know about the reanimation drink?” he asked.
I sighed. “Yes, Ambrose, he killed my parents.”
“What?” Tanner’s eyes widened. He saw the coffins behind me. “Oh my god! I am sorry.”
I rolled my eyes. “Come on! You don’t care. You have tried to kill us like a thousand times.”
“That was before, Ross. I wanted the seeds, I wanted to be immortal.” He took a deep breath. “I know I did horrible things, but I am not that bad as you think I am.”
I crossed my arms. “What do you want?”
“I want to help.”
“You can’t help. Michael is already trying with everything he has. What are you going to do?”
“I am a billionaire too.”
“That doesn’t mean you can find Ambrose.”
“I can’t find him, but I know someone who can take down his website.”
“What?” I raised my eyebrows. “Who?”
“A hacker, very talented, the one who made Ambrose’s website. He made it in such a way that no one can take it down, not even the government. Only banning the internet will take it down which the government won’t do as the public will go crazy.”
“But it will become a bigger problem. Government should have banned the internet.”
“No need. He can take it down as he made it,” he rubbed his nose. “But he has a price.”
“Price? Michael can give him as much money he wants.”
“He is not interested in money, Ross. He can get money,” Tanner snapped his finger. “Just like that. He is a talented hacker.”
“So he steals money.”
“Yeah, that’s his business, not ours.”
“Okay, so what does he want?”
“Your mother was from Aivor. A decade ago an old man named Greg was Aivor’s leader. He was fond of your mother. He gifted her a red color watch. The hacker wants that watch.”
“I don’t know about any watch,” I shrugged. “She never told me.”
“Well you have to find out.”
“How? She died, Tanner.”
“Maybe someone from Aivor knows about it. Ask them.”
“I don’t know any Aivors. I only knew two of them, Bristy and Sam. Michael has been searching for them. They interfered with our immortality drink launch. We tried to capture them but they managed to escape.”
Tanner nodded. “Yeah, I saw that. I will find them.”
“You can?”
“I will try my best.”
“If you can find them, why the hell did you come to me? Find them, get the watch and take down the website.”
“Just finding them won’t help, Ross,” he stepped closer towards me. “I will need you to find the watch,” he said.
“Even if you find them, they are not going to tell me anything. They hate me as I chose Savor. We have been enemies since then. There is no chance that they are going to help.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Don’t worry. Leave that to me. I will make them talk.”
If Tanner wants something it must be something valuable. If mom hid it, she must have had a good reason. I needed to know more about it. Why is an intelligent hacker after a watch? I made a mistake trusting Tanner before and I didn’t want to do it again. But this was bigger than any of us. The website needs to be taken down. If there is a chance that the hacker can take it down, I wanted to help.
“What is so special about that watch?” I asked.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. He just wants it, it’s important for him.”
“Okay. Come, when you find them.”
He nodded. “If you need some help…………..”
“We are fine, just get them. We have to stop the reanimation drink from selling as soon as we can. The population is going up like crazy.”
He nodded. “I will do my best,” he turned around and left. I closed the door.
I thought of telling Michael about this but I didn’t. I had to be sure that Tanner was telling the truth. So I decided to wait until he finds Bristy and Sam. Michael was trying to find them for days. I didn’t understand how Tanner is going to find them. If Michael and his people didn’t find them how is he going to find them? Is he working with Bristy and Sam? Is this some kind of Tanner’s master plan? I had doubts and didn’t want to trust him, but he wanted to prove that he changed.
Aaron woke up. “Who were you talking to?” he asked and yawned.
“It was Tanner,” I said. “We can take down Ambrose’s website.”
“Really?” his eyes widened. “How?”
“A hacker can take it down,” I sat on the couch. “It’s the same one who made Ambrose's website.”
He sighed. “Thank god! How much money does he want?”
“That’s the thing,” I bit my lower lip. “He doesn’t want money. He want some red color watch that mom had. Do you know anything about that?”
He shook his head. “Never heard of it. What’s he going to do with a watch?”
“I don’t know. It’s definitely not an ordinary watch I guess.”
He nodded and looked at the coffins. “Mom is dead, we will never know.”
“No, someone from Aivor’s group may know. Tanner said he is going to find Bristy and Sam. Let’s see if he finds them.”
“We can’t trust him, Ross.”
“I know, I know, but we had to take all the options. The website needs to be stopped no matter what.”
He nodded.
*********************************
Two days passed. It was a warm sunny day with some cool breeze. We arranged a funeral and called our friends and families. Martin, Dave, Contessa and Rowena came. Dave was healed by the seeds. After staying paralyzed for weeks, he recovered as soon as we made him drink the juice. Martin was working in one of the tech companies, he got a job three months ago and Rowena got work in a restaurant. We haven’t seen each other for months. After we got the seeds, they all went back to their lives. We stayed in touch, but never got together and now my parents’ death brought us all together.
“I am sorry about your parents, man,” Martin said.
“Did you see the news? There is some juice which can bring back people from death,” Dave said.
I nodded. “I know, it was Ambrose who made it. He is the one who killed them and made sure the juice doesn’t work on them,” I said.
Dave sighed. “Oh man!”
I gulped and looked at my parents’ graves. “Yeah, I can’t bring them back.”
The whole cemetery was empty. Martin looked at the empty graveyards. “People have dug their loved ones' bodies and brought them back to life. There will be a day when there won’t be any graveyard.”
“If this keeps going on, it’s going to get worse,” Dave said.
I jammed my hands in my pockets. “We all are trying to take down the website but failing. He prepared everything, even the government wasn't able to take it down.”
“Government should cut down the internet.”
“In some places they did. But people protested, even attacked the internet provider companies and made them turn it on.”
“Oh god, man!” Martin massaged his temples. “This has to stop.”
“I know, Michael is trying his best to find Ambrose,” I sighed. “Let’s hope his people find him before this gets out of control.”
“It has started going out of control,” Dave said. “We have to act fast. Where the hell is Ambrose hiding?”
I shrugged. “That’s the thing. He had planned this for a year. He prepared for this. But don’t worry, he can’t hide forever.”
As we were discussing about the population and Ambrose, Rowena showed up. She was wearing a beautiful black dress. Aaron was sad, but her presence made his face glow. She walked towards him and hugged him. “I am so sorry,” she said, trying to console him.
Aaron nodded. “How are you?”
“Fine,” she said. “I am a wa
itress now. Have to survive alone as Keith is no more.”
He gazed into her eyes. “We can help you.”
She lowered her head. “No, I am doing fine.”
It’s been a long time since we saw Rowena. I knew Aaron had a thing for her. The way he looks at her, the way he talks to her, he had a crush on her since those days in magical forest, but never said anything about it. I knew he missed her. At least her return would put a smile on his face, or I hoped so.
Uncle Bill showed up at the funeral. He has changed since the last time I saw him. He gained some weight and had dark circles beneath his eyes. After finding the seeds we went to visit him. He was still searching for us after we escaped from him. Later when we went to him with mom and dad, he felt relief and forgave us for leaving him. He even appreciated that we left, if we hadn’t left we never would have found the seeds.
“Hey Ross,” he hugged me.
“Where were you? I have been trying to contact you for days,” I said.
“I was busy,” he looked at the coffins. “How did it happen?”
I gulped. “Ambrose killed them.”
“Who?”
“When I was killing people to get their blood to unlock the seeds, his father was one of them. He wanted revenge.”
“Oh,” he sighed and took a pause. “I was dead too.”
My eyes widened. “What?”
He nodded lightly. “Yeah, some people from Aivor tortured me to tell them your location. I didn’t say anything, and at last they ended up killing me. But my girlfriend brought me back with some juice that’s been launched.”
“Oh god! I am sorry uncle, I didn’t know.”
It must be Ambrose’s juice. At least it helped to bring back Uncle Bill from death. It was good to see him after all those years.
“Why don’t you use it on them?” he asked, eyeing at their graves.
“Ambrose is the one who made the juice.”
His forehead creased. “What?”
“He made sure that my parents stayed dead. The juice won’t work on them.”
“Oh god!” he looked down and shook his head lightly.
“We are trying to find him,” I gave a half shrug. “But still no luck.”
He put his hand over my shoulder. “I am so sorry, Ross.”
I nodded. “Do you know about any red color watch?”
“Watch?”
“Yeah, my mother had one. Do you know anything about it?”
He shook his head. “I never heard of any watch. But your mother told me once that someone from Aivor gifted her a special thing.”
“Maybe that’s the watch. Where did she keep it?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Check your mother’s laptop, maybe you will find some information about it.”
“I already looked into it,” I pressed my lips. “I can’t even open the laptop, it's password protected.”
“Then I don’t know anything else, Ross, sorry. I wish I could help.”
“It’s okay. I will figure it out to unlock it.”
Michael showed up. He usually used to wear his white suit but as it was a funeral he showed up in a black suit. He wasn’t looking good. It looked like he hasn’t slept in days. His hair was messy and had dark circles under his eyes.
“Did you talk to the president?” I asked.
“Yes, he said the government has been trying to take it down,” he said.
“But failing?”
He pressed his lips. “Yeah.”
“We can take it down,” I said.
Michael narrowed his eyes. “Really?”
“Yeah, Tanner showed up at my place two days ago. He said he has a hacker, the same hacker who made Ambrose’s website. He can take it down.”
After I spelled Tanner’s name Michael’s face contorted. “We can’t trust him, Ross,” he said. “You know he is selfish.”
“I know, but we don’t have a choice, Michael. We need to take down the website. Look, my dead uncle showed up, look at the graveyards, they are empty. People are coming back from dead like crazy. This is going out of our hands. Did you watch the news? The population is increasing drastically, riots are happening all around the world. If this goes on for a month, we are all doomed.”
He nodded and bit his lower lip. “Okay, what Tanner wants in return?”
“He doesn’t want anything. The hacker wants something in return.”
“What?”
“A red color watch that my mom used to have.”
“What?” a line etched between his eyebrows. “A watch?”
“Yeah, I can’t open her laptop. Its password protected,” I gave a half shrug. “Maybe it has some information about the watch.”
“I will bring a hacker to your home, he will bypass it.”
“Thanks.”
Michael took out his cell phone and walked away. Contessa came towards me. “Ross, I know it’s not the right time to say this,” she said softly. “But you only showed up at school the first day. Come to school, it will take your mind off.”
“I know Contessa, mom and dad wanted that too. But……….”
“I know,” she put her hand over my shoulder. “I can’t even imagine what you are going through. But………… you should live your normal life. Make some new friends.”
“I know but………….it’s just that the problem never ends.”
“Life has been hard for you, but you finally went to school to graduate. Don’t leave it again like before. Your parents wouldn’t have wanted that.”
I pressed my lips. “I know, Contessa.”
I knew she was right. I didn’t go to school after my first day. All this happened and we didn’t think about it. We had to get back to our normal life. We can’t be depressed all the time.
“I talked to Aaron,” she said. “He doesn’t want to go to school after all this.”
“He is sad,” I looked at him, he was talking to Rowena. “I will talk to him.”
She nodded. “I hope I will see you in school. Take care.”
“You too.”
She turned around and left the cemetery. There was a riot going on outside. A group of people were fighting. They were beating each other up with baseball bats and sticks. Some were even burning houses and shops. We all gathered to see what’s going on. It was because of food. People were starting to run out of food. The shops have raised the price as there are so many customers. As the dead people were back, they also needed to feed. The food production wasn’t meeting the demand of the population, so people began to steal from others. The cops arrived to control the situation and shot some people, but there were too many of them. They couldn’t handle it and the people ended up killing them. The situation was going out of control. Some of the shopkeepers even ran away leaving their shops. They were scared. People stormed inside the shops and took whatever they could. Riots like those were happening all over the world. It was chaos.
“Ambrose should have seen this,” Aaron said, looking at the riot. “He doesn’t know what he had done.”
“God help us all,” I said.
CHAPTER 6
Michael brought his hacker to my home. He was a tall guy with curly hair who wore glasses. Michael claimed he was the most talented hacker in his organization. I took out mom’s laptop and put it on the table. The hacker bypassed the password after a couple of minutes. “It’s done,” he said.
“Thanks,” I said.
Michael looked at the hacker. “Go, your work is done. Focus on taking down Ambrose’s website.”
He nodded and left the house.
I searched the laptop, it had many files. We kept checking the files for hours, most of them were some recordings of her days in Aivor, it was like a video journal. At last we found a folder which was named Important. It was a digital journal on her laptop, I opened it. It had some more records of her days staying with Aivors. She mentioned about a gift which the leader gave her years ago. He asked her to hide it and protect it with her life.
“That’s it,” I said.
“But she didn’t mention where she hid it,” Michael said.
“Look,” I pointed my finger at the screen. “She mentioned that after he gave her the watch, she went to her house in Ohio.”
“So?”
“Maybe she hid it there.”
“But we are not sure,” Aaron said.
“We don’t have any leads. We should look for it there, maybe it’s there.”
Michael rubbed his chin and thought for a moment. “You two go, take my plane,” he said. “I have to stay here, see if my hackers can take down Ambrose’s website.”
I nodded. “Okay, let’s go.”
Aaron and I packed our bags and went to the airport. Michael’s pilot was waiting there for us. We boarded the plane and took off to Ohio. I never went to mom’s house, I never even knew about it as she was away from us for so many years. There were still so many secrets mom and dad had which I never knew. I guess all of it disappeared with them.
*****************************
We reached Ohio after a couple of hours, took a cab and went to the address. The house looked vacant. It was surrounded by huge oak trees. It’s courtyard was covered in leaves. We walked up to the door and Aaron tried to open it.
“Door is locked, we have to break it,” Aaron said.
We kicked the door and broke in. The living room was filled with spider webs and dust. A couple of mice and cockroaches were roaming here and there. No one has been in that house for years. It was so dusty that we couldn’t even breathe. We took out our handkerchief and wrapped it around our mouth to cover it. The house gave me a creepy feeling. It was dark. Sunlight barely gets inside through the windows and ventilations. I wonder how mom lived there for years alone.
“Look for the watch,” I said.
We kept searching the house, checked every room for hours, but there was no watch to be found.
I sat on the chair and wiped the sweat from my forehead. “Where did she hide it?” I kicked the floor in frustration.
“Wait! Do it again,” Aaron said.