by Sourav Deka
“She made the circle around the doll for a reason, Ross?”
“Okay, we will burn it from outside the circle then. Give me a lighter.”
Dave handed me his lighter. I lit the lighter and threw it on the doll. The doll didn’t burn, but the lighter was on fire.
I raised my eyebrows. “What the hell?”
“Forget it, let’s go outside and burn the whole house instead,” Dave said.
My eyes widened. “What? Are you crazy? We have to take out the doll from the circle. It is protecting it.”
“I know, but what if something bad happens? It may be a trap.”
I pressed my lips. “Do we have a choice now? The doll isn’t burning.”
He scratched his head and thought for a couple of seconds. “Okay, but I will take it out. We can’t risk you getting hurt. You are the one who needs to kill the descendants, you are the rare child. You have to be safe.”
“I will be safe. Don’t worry.”
I stepped forward to take the doll, but Dave pushed me back. “No, we can’t risk it,” he said and entered the circle. He took out the doll and the lighter from the circle and burnt it again. The doll started burning.
I inhaled deeply. “I told you, nothing is going to happen. She kept it under the circle so that no one can destroy it.”
“Yeah,” Dave smiled.
“Let’s go now,” I patted his back.
We went upstairs. Suddenly Dave fell on the ground. I helped him stand up, but he fell again.
“I can’t move my body. I am feeling weak,” Dave stammered, trying to balance himself.
“It’s the circle,” I said.
“I feel paralyzed. I can’t feel my body,” his lips trembled.
“Damn it!” I kicked on the wall.
“Run! Bristy will be here soon. Leave me,” he fell on the floor.
I leaned down towards him. “No, I am not leaving you here.”
“You have to.”
“No,” I grabbed Dave’s arm and dragged him outside. He was a big guy, it took a lot of energy but I didn’t give up. Dad, Michael and his men were fighting Aivor’s people outside, there were dozens of them. Tanner was smashing every Aivor he found. Somehow I dragged Dave to them.
“What took you so long?” Michael said.
“She did some magic around the doll,” I said. “It affected Dave, he is paralyzed.”
“Bristy is here, she is powerless now. She is just ordering her people sitting in the car.”
Tanner was throwing people in the sky and the Aivors were screaming and shooting at him like crazy. For the first time I saw the Aivors become helpless. Their guns, their magic wasn’t working and their leader was hiding in her car.
“Tanner is taking everyone out,” I said. “We can capture Bristy. This is our chance, Michael.”
He nodded. “You should take Dave to the car first.”
I placed my hand on his shoulder. “We can’t lose her today. We have to capture Bristy no matter what.”
“We will, Ross. We will.”
I took Dave to the car. Michael and Aivors were fighting, shooting at each other. Tanner was throwing every Aivor into the sky and finished them all after a couple of minutes. They were all lying dead here and there. Some landed in other houses and streets while some got stuck in trees. He picked up Bristy from her car and brought her to us. She was screaming and punching Tanner’s huge hands with every ounce of energy she had, but couldn’t do anything as she didn’t have her magic.
Michael walked up to her and reloaded his gun. “Finally, we have you sweetheart,” he said.
“Rot in hell,” Bristy spat on Michael’s face.
Michael took out his handkerchief and wiped his face. “Well, I will show you hell now, love,” he signaled his men to take Bristy.
We won, we finally got her. Now I was seeing hope, it’s going to make our journey easier. We went back to the hotel where Michael made us stay. I was hoping that we could make her fix Dave as her magic paralyzed him. Dad and I took Dave to his room and lay him on his bed.
“Don’t worry, Dave. We have Bristy now,” I said. “We will make her fix you.”
Dave blinked his eyes. As he was paralyzed he couldn’t even talk, just his eyes were working.
I went to talk to Michael. He was in his room talking on his cell phone when I knocked on the door.
“Who?” Michael said.
“Me, Ross,” I said.
“Come in.”
I opened the door and went inside.
“I will bring your doll sweetheart. We will go on a long vacation after your exam, I promise,” Michael murmured on his phone and took a pause. “Yeah sweetie, I will see you soon. Love you take care.” He hung up and put the cell phone in his pocket.
“Was that your daughter?” I asked.
“Yes, my little daughter, Gina,” He smiled. “I miss her a lot. I barely get a chance to see her.”
“Because of your work?”
He nodded. “Yes, but that’s not the only reason. Her mother doesn’t let me talk to her. We are divorced.”
“I am sorry. Why did it happen?”
“I never told her about my secret work, but when my daughter turned two, she found out one day,” he sighed. “She didn’t want any part of it and divorced me. Sometimes Gina calls me hiding from her mom and I go to see her at school from time to time.”
“You had a family,” I said softly. “You should have never got involved in this.”
He chuckled. “We can’t. Did you escape it? No one escapes it, Ross. Sooner or later it catches us. This has to end.”
“We have Bristy now,” I crossed my arms. “Aivor is finished.”
Michael took out a whisky bottle from his cabinet. “Do you really think that capturing Bristy ended Aivor? There are thousands of Aivors out there waiting to take her place if something happens to her,” he poured some whisky in a glass. “Sam didn’t show up at Bristy’s house, remember?”
“So, you are saying Sam took Bristy’s place?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, I am just guessing,” he took a sip from his whisky. “But one thing I know for sure, someone will take her place. The whole group doesn’t die like that easily.”
I nodded lightly. “Did Bristy say something?”
“My men are torturing her,” he clicked his tongue. “Till now she hasn’t said anything useful.”
“Let’s go, I will try.”
He raised an eyebrow. “What are you going to do?”
“Bring a gun, a scissor and some iron pins.”
“We need her alive, Ross.”
I chuckled. “Just do it. I want to try.”
Michael placed his whisky bottle on the table and opened his cupboard. He searched for scissors and some iron pins.
“Got it, but we only have a couple of iron pins,” Michael said.
“It will do, let’s go.”
We went to the room where Bristy was held captive. She was tied up to a reinforced steel chair. Her face was sweating in fear, but she tried not to show it and kept threatening us despite being helpless.
“Look who is it? The hero came to make me talk,” Bristy gave a devilish smile.
I took the scissor and iron pins from Michael. I stepped forward, leaned down to her and stabbed an iron pin on her hand. She screamed in pain.
I gazed at her eyes and clenched my jaw. “Fix Aaron and Dave, and this will stop.”
She gasped and groaned. “I can’t.”
I took out the scissor and showed it to her. “If you repeat that, you will lose your fingers,” I eyed at the scissors, “one by one.”
“You don’t understand. I have no power now,” she gulped. “Even if I wanted to fix them, I can’t. I am powerless. You destroyed my doll.”
I exhaled sharply. “Well, you will get your power when I start cutting your fingers.”
“You burnt the voodoo doll,” she screamed at my face. “I lost my powers for weeks. How can I use magic?
”
I cut off her little finger with the scissor. She screamed again and spat on my face. I took out my handkerchief and cleaned it.
“You want more, huh?” I gave a devilish smile.
I cut off her other finger. She screamed again. Her whole body was shivering in pain.
“I told you, I don’t have my magic now. I stored it in my doll,” she cried. Her eyes were red. It was too much for her, she was struggling to breathe.
I turned to Michael. “She is telling the truth,” I washed my hands covered with blood.
“We already knew that,” Michael said.
“Yeah, I know,” I shrugged. “I just wanted to see her suffer for the pain she caused to Aaron.”
Michael kept staring at me for a couple of seconds and then said, “You are changing, Ross.”
“I am, I have to become someone else.”
Michael half smiled. “Good, it will make your killings easy.”
“We have to find the seeds within two weeks. She will get her magic back,” I said. “We have very less time.”
“You know the seeds may cure Dave too.”
“I know,” I clenched my jaw. “Let’s kill the descendants.”
“Tomorrow we will leave for Spain.”
“Spain?”
“Mike Walls’s descendant Robert Walls lives there.”
I nodded. “Okay, I will let everyone know then,” I left the room.
CHAPTER 19
We left for Spain in Michael’s private plane. Contessa, Andrea and Rowena stayed in London to look after Aaron and Dave. The descendant lived in Costa Brava. He was a football coach. His wife divorced him six months ago, and since then he was living in his mom’s house. We landed in Spain after a three hour flight. Savors there were waiting for us in their cars. They took all of us to a hotel.
“You brought us to a hotel,” I said, looking outside through the car’s window.
“What?” Michael shrugged. “You all have to rest now, we had a journey.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to rest, Michael. Let’s kill the descendant and go for the next one. Don’t forget, we have only two weeks.”
Michael gave a quirky smile. “I know, but resting for some hours won’t delay anything.”
“No, I don’t want to rest. Sooner we finish this, sooner we will get closer to the seeds. Aaron and Dave are suffering.”
“Okay, okay, but what about others? They are tired.”
“I am fine, I will go,” Dad said. “I don’t need to rest.”
“Me too,” Martin said. “Sooner I get out of this mess, the better.”
“Then let’s go,” Michael smiled. “I don’t have any problem.”
Michael drove us to the location where Robert Walls lived.
“Wait! Let me check it out, if he is at home or somewhere else,” Michael left the car and rang the doorbell. An old lady in her sixties opened the door. “Hello, Is Robert home?” he asked.
“Who are you?” The old lady asked.
He smiled. “I am an old friend. We were together in school.”
“Oh, sorry son, he isn’t here right now. He teaches football at this time of the day.”
“Where is he now?” He pressed his lips. “You know I travelled from far away to meet him.”
“Go five miles towards the west, follow the road. There is a football ground, he teaches there.”
“Thank you ma’am.”
“You can come inside and wait for him if you want. You came from so far. He will be back within an hour.”
He shook his head. “No, it’s okay. I will meet him there.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, don’t worry. Thank you,” Michael grinned and came back to our car.
“He is on a football ground, follow the road,” Michael said to our driver.
“How will I kill him? There will be other people there, it’s a football ground,” I said.
“We will wait until he gets alone.”
“What if he never gets alone?”
“Then we will lure him out.”
I nodded. I wasn’t sure how he was going to do that, but I agreed. He must know what he is doing.
We reached the football ground. Robert was shouting at the players and blowing his whistle after every two minutes. He was a forty year old man with a big mustache wearing a yellow shirt and half pants. We waited in the car hoping that he would leave the field after some time for break, but an hour passed and he didn’t move. The game was over, but still he was writing something in his notebook.
“We should lure him here,” I said.
“How?” Michael asked.
I gave a quirky smile. “You are asking me? I thought you knew what you are going to do.”
“Okay, let’s see,” he stared at Robert. “What the hell is he writing in that notebook for so long?”
“Must be planning something.”
Michael opened the car’s door. “Okay, I will see what I can do.”
“Good luck,” I gave him a thumbs up.
“When I bring him with me, follow us. I will take him someplace quiet. When we reach a quiet place, kill him,” Michael left the car and walked towards Robert. He was busy writing in his notebook. Michael glanced at it to see what it was, it was his game plan for tomorrow’s football match. “Mr. Robert walls?” Michael pointed his finger towards him.
“Who’s asking?” Robert gave a smug smile and closed his notebook.
“I am Frank Miller from Central Intelligence Agency. We have to talk.”
His forehead creased. “From CIA? I left America many years ago. I didn’t do anything.”
“We are tracking a guy, a terrorist,” Michael clasped his hands. “We have seen him talking to you. You need to come with me.”
He scoffed. “A terrorist, I have never met a terrorist in my life.”
“We have seen you, sir.”
“No, I didn’t talk to any terrorist.”
Michael intensely stared into his eyes. “You have spoken to a terrorist, and we saw it. We were tracking him for years. It’s important. If you don’t cooperate with us then we will have to force you.”
“What the hell, man?” his forehead furrowed. “You just came from nowhere and accused me of working with a terrorist?”
“I didn’t say you are working with a terrorist. I am just saying you have spoken to one. We just have some questions. It won’t take a lot of time.”
He sighed. “Show me your id.”
Michael rubbed his nose. “We are working on this case secretly. We don’t carry our id everywhere. I am undercover.”
“Ha-ha, you’re lying,” he looked away and got back to his notebook. “Get the hell out of here, don’t waste my time.”
“I am warning you,” Michael said in a heavy voice. “You have to come or else we will need to force you,”
He glared at Michael. “Don’t be a pain in the ass, okay? Go away, man. I have to get my team ready for tomorrow’s match.”
“Okay, you didn’t give me a choice, I have to bring my officials here,” Michael came towards our car and knocked on the car’s window. I put down the car’s window. “Come with me,” he said.
“What happened?” I said.
Michael’s mouth twisted to one side with a crease on the cheek. “He doesn’t listen. The guy is mean. Bring your guns, pretend like you all are from CIA. We have to scare him and get him out of here.”
Dad, Martin and I stepped out of the car and went with Michael. He also signaled his men to come with him so that Robert believes Michael this time and does what he says.
“Come on! Come on man! What happened to your stamina, you morons?” Robert shouted at the football players in the field.
Dad and Martin took out their guns and started intimidating Robert.
“You again, now you brought your puppets,” Robert’s face turned red.
Suddenly one of Michael’s men was shot. We all ducked and looked around.
“W
ho was that?” terror overtook my face.
“No idea,” Michael said.
We heard continuous gunfire, and a couple of Michael’s men were shot. I saw Sam and some people in black suits firing towards us. All the people on the ground screamed and ran like hell. Couple of them even got killed in the crossfire.
“It’s Aivor, take cover,” I shouted.
We all ran and took cover. They kept firing at us, some of the savors died.
Michael hid behind a car. “Kill the descendant now,” he shouted at me. “If Sam or anyone kills him, everything will fail.”
I was hiding behind another car next to him. “But someone will see me killing him in the public,” I said.
“It doesn’t matter now, everyone is running. No one will focus on you. People will think he died in the ambush. Do it.”
I aimed at Robert. He was running in fear on the field. I pulled the trigger. The bullet hit his back and he fell on the ground.
“Good shot,” Michael said.
“How do we get out of here?” I looked around. “There are so many Aivors.”
“I will distract them. You all take a car and go to the airport. I will meet you there.”
“What about Robert’s blood? We will need it.”
“I will take care of it, you just go.”
“Oh god! I shouldn’t have come here,” Martin said, shaking in fear. He and dad were hiding behind a car near me.
“How will you distract them?” Dad asked.
“Trust me, I got this,” Michael said. “Just go to the airport. Don’t stop, no matter whatever happens.”
“At least tell us what you are going to do?” Martin said.
“Just trust me, okay,” Michael reloaded his gun. “Go, we don’t have much time.”
I nodded. “Just don’t do anything stupid.”
“We always do stupid things to survive in this world, Ross,” Michael smiled. “Just trust me on this. Go.”
Dad, Martin and I ran towards our car and Michael came out of his cover. “I surrender,” he shouted and raised his hands.
Sam didn’t care that he surrendered, he aimed his gun at Michael and shot him in the chest. He fell on the ground and his white suit got covered in blood. We saw it from our car.
“He is dead. The bastard lied,” I slammed the steering. “He sacrificed himself.”