by Sourav Deka
The door was locked from inside. Michael picked up the lock with his lock pick and we stepped inside. A man was watching TV with a cold drink in his hand. He was unaware of us. I recognized him. It was Ambrose’s father, Mr. Brandon.
I grabbed Michael’s elbow and dragged him outside. The TV was playing loud music, so Mr. Brandon had no idea that we entered his house.
“What happened?” Michael whispered.
I raised my chin and pressed my lips together. “It’s my friend’s father, Ambrose’s father. The one we met at the airport.”
“Oh god!” Michael looked down.
“I can’t kill him,” I hissed. “He is the only parent Ambrose has.”
“You are getting emotional. You are not thinking straight. This……………….”
I interrupted Michael. “This is for a great cause. Yeah I know that crap. But I can’t kill him. He is my friend’s father.”
Michael gazed into my eyes. “Look, I understand he is your friend’s father. The descendants you killed were also someone’s father, mother, brother, sister, friend or any other people who have affection for them,” he grabbed my arms. “You have to keep your emotions aside, at least for this time. You know we have to finish this fast. Your emotions are becoming a barrier to your goal again. Think clearly.”
“But I will feel guilty of this, my whole life,” I gulped.
Michael pressed my shoulders. “You have to pull yourself back, whenever you feel guilty,” he lowered his head. “We all have done some horrible things, Ross. We have to get over it and move on. If you do one evil thing, it doesn’t matter. It will help us find the seeds which will help billions of people. Think about that.”
“I can’t man,” I looked away. “He will become an orphan.”
“Look, I always told you to keep focus on our goal, and you did it. I know this is hard but you have to face it.”
I lowered my head. “But I don’t have the courage to do it.”
“Just think that he is like any other descendant you killed before, it will help,” he patted my shoulder. “Come on man! You can do this, you have to.”
I nodded and gulped. I was sweating, I didn’t want to do this but I couldn’t turn my back now. I had to finish what I started and had to control my emotions, Michael was right. My emotions were getting in my way. This was for a greater good. I can do this. I looked at my gun and reloaded it. I went inside and aimed the gun at the descendant. He was unaware of us as he was watching TV. We were standing behind him.
“Shut off your emotions. Tell your mind it’s the right thing to do,” Michael whispered in my ear.
I made my mind blank for a second and pulled the trigger. The bullet went through his head and blood spilled on the TV’s screen. He died instantly, didn’t make a single noise. The cold drink in his hand fell and rolled over the floor.
“You did well,” Michael patted my back and collected the blood in his empty cup from the dead body.
“What are you doing here?” I heard a familiar voice from behind.
I turned around. It was Ambrose standing with his uncle.
“Oh my god!” Ambrose and his uncle screamed and ran towards the dead body on the sofa.
“Dad, dad, Oh my god! Uncle, call the doctor,” Ambrose said, shivering in fear. “No, no, no, no, please dad you can’t leave me. This can’t happen, no, dad, no,” he broke in tears.
“They killed him,” Ambrose’s uncle shouted. “I am calling the police.”
Michael took out his gun and shot him in the head. He died instantly and fell on the ground next to Ambrose’s dad.
“What did you do?” I shouted. “We aren’t supposed to kill him.”
“He is a witness, your friend is too,” Michael aimed his gun at Ambrose.
I snatched the gun from him. “No, we do what is necessary, you said that,” I shook my head. “He doesn’t need to die, I killed the descendant. We are done.”
Michael’s jaw tightened. “He is a witness. We will be in jail.”
I exhaled sharply. “We will figure that out. Let him live, I am doing everything for the seeds,” I clenched my jaw. “Just listen to me on this one. Please, I beg you. We will figure something out later for the police situation.”
Michael shook his head. “You don’t understand, Ross. This whole plan will fail.”
“It won’t, I promise. Make the bodies disappear, leave no clues.”
“No, he is a witness, Ross,” Michael raised his voice. “Give me the gun.”
I shook my head and stepped backward. “No.”
“Give me the gun!” Michael yelled.
“Kill me,” Ambrose said tonelessly.
“See,” Michael gave a half shrug. “The kid wants to die, give me the gun,”
“Ambrose, run!” I said.
“No,” Ambrose came near us. His eyes were wet. I can feel the rage bottling up inside him. But he couldn’t do anything. He was just a helpless teenager whose father and uncle were murdered.
I looked at Ambrose. “I am sorry, Ambrose. It has to be done, I can’t make you understand.”
Ambrose stared at me, his face reddened. “Do me a favor, kill me or else someday I will find you and make your life a living hell,” he said.
“I understand that you are in pain,” I said softly. “I know what I have done. But it needed to be done.”
“Needed to be done?” he yelled. “It is because of that stupid diary, isn’t it?”
“Your father’s sacrifice would change the world.”
He punched me hard. My lips began to bleed.
Michael pushed Ambrose and he fell on the ground. “I told you we should kill him,” he shouted.
“No!!” I pushed Michael.
We heard the sirens. Cops were coming.
“Cops are coming, give me the gun. I have to finish him off,” Michael said.
“No.”
“He is a witness, Ross. Give me the damn gun. We don’t have much time.”
I looked at Ambrose. “I am sorry,” I turned around and ran out of the house.
Michael chased me. I got inside the car and the cops arrived.
“You have made a big mistake,” Michael said in a heavy voice putting his hands on the car’s window.
“Get in before the cops see us,” I said.
Michael rolled his eyes and opened the door. The driver started the engine and drove us away from there.
“Why are your eyes wet?” Dad asked.
“The descendant was my friend’s father. Thanks to me, now he is an orphan,” I looked outside the car’s window.
“Son…..”
I interrupted dad. “Save the lecture, I don’t want to hear it,” I lowered my head. “Let’s go to the airport.”
“At least we should take a day rest,” Dad said softly.
“No, I don’t want to. If I stay in this mess-up life for long, I will go crazy. It will be better for me and everyone if all this ends soon. I can’t just take this anymore.”
Ambrose’s face flashed in front of my eyes the whole time. I killed his father. I took the only parent he had and made him an orphan. I would never be able to forgive myself for this, but for the time being, I had to control my emotions. I had to keep my humanity aside. It was not easy, but it was necessary. Dad tried to talk to me, but I ignored him. I knew there was nothing to talk about. It’s done, I did a horrible thing. I can’t be forgiven and have to carry this guilt my whole life. I will never be the same, I am a murderer.
After an hour we reached the airport.
“Where to next?” I asked.
“Where do you want to go? Brazil or England?” Michael said.
“Let’s finish the Brazil descendant. Tanner must have left that area by now. He will go looking for us at the other descendant’s places.”
Michael nodded. “You know Ambrose has seen our faces. He will tell the cops everything.”
I looked away. “I know, that’s why the sooner we leave this country, the better.”
“Still, they will keep looking for us. We will always be in danger. Sooner or later, cops will find us.”
“You are a leader of a secret society which was hidden for centuries. Can’t you just take care of that?”
“I was trying to take care of that.”
“By killing Ambrose?” I raised my voice. “I killed his dad. You killed his uncle, wasn’t that enough?”
He pressed his lips together. “He was supposed to die. We don’t leave witnesses.”
“No,” I tightened my jaw. “He should live.”
“But we are screwed. The cops will search for us.”
“That’s why I am telling you, let’s leave this country now.”
Dad nodded. “Ross is right, let’s leave as soon as possible.”
We got out of the car and boarded the plane. Michael gave me the information about the descendant. She was a professor in a university, divorced and lived alone. We flew to Brazil and arrived at night.
“Good thing, it's night time,” I said, looking at the sky through the plane’s window. “She lives alone, it will be an easy kill.”
“We should be careful,” Martin said. “What if Tanner is still here?”
“We have to take the chance. Let’s just hope that he left.”
“I ordered my men in Brazil to look over the descendant. They would have known if Tanner arrived,” Michael said. “My men will meet us here. We will confirm it and plan according to it.”
We waited for a couple of minutes at the airport. Some men wearing white suits approached us.
“Tell me, what do you know?” Michael said.
“Roland Tanner was here,” one of the men said. “He was roaming around the descendant’s house.”
“What?” Michael’s eyes widened. “Did he hurt the descendent or anyone?”
“No, he is gone.”
Michael nodded. “Okay, he must have left. It’s our chance. Let’s go.”
“We have to take some precaution,” I said. “If somehow he shows up we are all dead.”
Michael widened his hands. “But what can we do? That guy is a big black hulk. Bullets won’t work on him.”
“Summon Jensen, can we summon him here?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. We used to call him in our auditorium so that he could speak to every Savor member at once. We never tried it outside.”
“So it can be done.”
“I don’t know. He only shows up when it’s important.”
“This is important, Michael. This is life and death. We can’t kill Tanner, not even we can hurt him. Maybe Jensen knows something. We need some answers. Call him.”
“Okay, we can try,” Michael closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Jensen Mills, I call on you.”
Nothing happened.
“Come on, try again,” I said.
“Jensen Mills, I call on you.”
There was no sign of him.
Michael sighed. “I told you, he shows up when it’s important. He isn’t going to help. We have to think of something else.”
I closed my eyes. “Jensen Mills, I call on you.”
“Yes, my child,” A voice echoed in my ears.
“What? Come on,” Michael rolled his eyes. “I called you, you didn’t show up,” he twisted his mouth. “Ross called just once and you showed up? I am Savor’s leader, man.”
“I only speak when I want,” Jensen replied. “Everything happens for a reason.”
“Do you know a way to stop Tanner?” I asked.
“No, but you can slow him down.”
“How?”
“Burn him.”
I raised my eyebrows. “What? He was shot with heavy guns, Jensen. Bombs also didn’t affect him and you are advising us to burn him?”
“His body is super strong now. The only way to weaken him is to burn him.”
“But bombs didn’t hurt him. How can that work? I don’t understand.”
“If you burn him continuously he will begin to burn slowly. More time you keep burning him, the more he becomes weak. It takes time. Keep burning him and he will faint at last.”
“How much time do we need to keep him burning?”
“About two minutes will do the trick.”
“Is there any other way apart from this? He is a beast,” I clenched my fists. “We can’t burn him for two minutes straight.”
“Plan something, Ross. Distract him.”
“Distract him? How?” Jensen didn’t answer. I raised my voice. “Tell me how to distract him?”
“He is gone, Ross,” Michael said.
I clenched my fists. “Aah! How will we distract a beast?”
“What about we use smoke?” Martin said. “He won’t be able to see us.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, and then he will run in every direction like a lunatic, which can kill us.”
Michael snapped his fingers. “We will use thermal goggles. We will be able to see him but he won’t see us.”
I looked at Michael. “You can get it?”
He nodded. “Yeah, I can. I know some people who can get it for us. But it will take time.”
“How much time?”
“Some hours,” Michael took out his cell phone to call his people.
I sighed. “Thank god, you didn’t say days.”
CHAPTER 22
Michael’s men drove us to a mall. There was a restaurant which Michael liked. We ate our dinner there, while he kept calling his people for the equipment. Two hours passed. Dad and Martin were checking the menu trying to decide what to order next. One meal wasn’t enough, they wanted another one. I was eating my dessert while they kept observing the list of food items on the menu. Just then I saw a woman staring at me. I wasn't able to recognize her clearly, as she was far away. I left my dessert and walked towards her to get a closer look. It looked like she was waiting for me. She was wearing a blue shirt and jeans and kept staring at me standing on the same spot. As I went close I recognized her face. I froze, my eyes became wet and I felt weak. It was my mother.
I didn’t know if I was in joy or getting hurt. All my childhood memories flashed in front of my eyes. I remembered how she left me and my little brother when we were just kids, how we used to spend time with her, how she used to read me bedtime stories. I wanted to blame her for leaving me, for making me look like an orphan. But not a single word came out of my mouth, I was stoned.
It seemed that the same thing was happening to her. She kept staring at me for a minute and tears shimmered in her eyes. At last she broke the silence. “How are you, Ross?”
“Do you care?” A tear ran down my cheek.
She hugged me. “Of course, I care. You are my son.”
“You shouldn’t have left us,” I fought back my tears. “You made me and Aaron feel like orphans.”
She touched my cheeks gently. “I thought I was keeping you safe. I didn’t want you to get involved in this.”
“See, I am already involved,” I lowered my head. “No one can change anyone’s destiny.”
“I am so sorry, son.”
“You should have showed me a path, the right path to lead a normal life.”
“We all make mistakes, Ross,” she gulped. “We try to do the right thing, but sometimes it doesn’t go the way we want.”
I wiped my tears. “Aaron, dad and I are your family. You should have stayed with us, family is the real strength and you left your family.”
“I did it to keep you and Aarons safe.”
“Safe?” My forehead creased. “We were never safe.”
She nodded and wiped her tears. “I know, that was a mistake. I can’t change what I did son. But don’t destroy your life. You shouldn’t have got involved in this. You became a killer.”
“You know?”
“Of course I know. I have been watching you for years.”
“And you never even tried once to meet us?”
“It was dangerous,” she sighed. “But no matter how hard I tried you got into thi
s mess anyway,” she grabbed my shoulders. “Get away from all this, you are young now. Start a new life far away from this.”
I pressed my lips together and shook my head. “I can’t. If I don’t do this, someone else will. Maybe not soon, maybe not in a century, but someone will. Till then many lives will be taken for the seeds. This has to end.”
Dad, Michael and Martin noticed me talking to my mom. They left their food menu and came towards us. Dad also froze like me. I guess he thought mom died.
“You are alive?” Dad said.
“Don’t look so surprised,” mom said. “I know you have already guessed that when I survived five years ago.”
I turned towards dad. “You knew mom was alive?”
Mom scoffed. “He knows everything. He just doesn’t say,” she crossed her arms and gave a disgust look. “So much obsessed with the seeds.”
I looked at dad. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“There is nothing important to tell, you would have lost focus,” Dad said.
“What?” I couldn’t believe what he just said. “She is my mother, what’s more important than her?” I raised my voice.
“I told you he is obsessed with the seeds, Ross,” mom said. “He failed his whole life hunting for it and when he saw you got close to the seeds, he didn’t try to stop you,” her face turned red. “He didn’t care if you killed people, he didn’t care if you tortured people,” she sighed. “He didn’t care if you get hurt along the way.”
I wiped my tears. “That’s why he didn’t try to stop me when I was murdering people,” I gulped. “The seeds are more important for him than his son.”
“No,” dad raised his voice. “You are important, son. You are doing the right thing. It is necessary. I know what you are doing is horrible. But sometimes we need to do bad things for greater good.”
Mom scoffed. “Greater good, that’s the speech he is giving you all the time. It made you a killer, Ross.”
Dad gazed into mom’s eyes. “Shut up! You are messing with his mind. Where were you when he needed you, huh? I was there, you aren’t,” he chuckled. “You just left.”
She clenched her jaw. “I left so that they can stay safe.”
“Safe???” Dad laughed. “They were never safe. You know Aivors and Savors were watching them for years.”