His mistake proved its worth as a transport truck, coming in the perpendicular direction, crashed into the relatively tiny sedan and threw it off the road into the sea.
When he woke up, his mind was in complete chaos. He was unable to make any sense of his surroundings. When the recollections of the last moments before the accident dawned upon him, he longed to find out the status of his wife and son. But all he found was people dressed in black suits, carrying firearms. When he mustered the energy to ask one of them about his family, the agent summoned another one to call their Head. Before he could meet the Head of the group, he looked around the room, where he found the Blachin Flag hanging from a wall. The flag had two rifles leaning against a central sword (in white) in a black background. Being a Lieutenant himself, he knew the Blachin Flag as good as Americans knew Columbus’s contribution. The Blachin Flag represents the Secret Affairs Force, which is a secret operation force that takes care of treason and traitors within the system. It has four divisions- East, West, North, South-each under the control of a Head, who is a senior undercover agent of JOF and a trained cadet of Armed Military Forces, with more than twenty years of experience under his ass. He has two Senior Field Agents under his command and some fresh cadets from Armed Military Forces serve under him. The identities of the members are maintained secret from other Military personnel, except to some senior officers and are stored in the central database. The SAF is a group of government-funded assassins.
Jeremy, being well aware of his guilt, broke into cold sweat as the idea of his rescue by the Secret Affairs Force played in his mind and added fear to his already persisting doubts. The man, whom he assumed to be the Head, arrived with the earlier agent, with a big grin on his face. The Head was about more than fifty with a wrinkled face, a sharp gaze and a shaved head and a heavy build, and walked with the confidence that said he was serious business and bad news. He sat in a chair beside Jeremy’s bed and studied him for a minute.
‘How do you feel, Lt. Miller?’ he asked.
‘I…I am fine,’ Jeremy said, feeling the tension in the room. ‘Where…’ he strained, but his dry mouth and tired body made him aphasic.
Jeremy searched the Head’s face for any kind of emotion. It was a stone-face. ‘Well, since you weren’t wearing any seatbelt, you were thrown out of the car and ended up in water. Your car crashed against the rocks and blew into shreds. But, luckily, you ended up with only a few bruises…’
The Head’s words mingled with a vacuum as pain, even more excruciating than his physical pain, agony, swallowed him. Tears and sweat combined to make a mess of his face. But it was not his concern. He was unable to picture a world without his wife and son, who were his only source of solace in his big damned life. The bruises on his face ached as his muscles strained due to his weeping.
When he got his roaming mind back into the room, the Head was saying, ‘you must be wondering what you are doing here, instead of being in a hospital room. Well, we have the answer.’ Immediately, he gestured to one of his agents, who left after taking some secret instructions in his ear. ‘Look Jeremy,’ he continued, ‘you were lucky that you did not suffer any major injuries and one of our agents is a doctor,’ he said, pointing a young agent to his right. ‘But, there are certain things I want to make sure before I can let you go.’
The Head’s words added fuel to the already blazing fire in his heart. He feared that the Head might have known about his conspiracies. The situation spoke for itself when the agent brought in a battered-looking and bleeding Alvin Boesky into the room. Jeremy’s heart raced as they neared him. He realized that life was fucking with him when he was fucked-up. The scenario proved it once again.
‘Do you recognize this person, Jeremy?’ the Head asked, with his face still emotionless.
Jeremy knew that he was done. He had heard about the kind of treatment Secret Affairs Force was famous for, but he had never dreamt of experiencing it. He avoided the stare of the Head and kept quiet. His attitude enraged the Head. He grabbed Jeremy’s hair and raised his head from the pillow.
‘I asked you if you recognize him,’ he yelled, with his spittle spraying Jeremy’s face.
Jeremy knew that there was no point in lying to the man. Yet, he decided to take his chances. He simply shook his head. The Head rose from his chair and asked for Alvin’s mobile. When his agent handed him his phone, he pressed its screen into his face. It showed his photo with his name under it and the word-Benefactor- beside it.
‘Isn’t it your fucking photo?’ the Head bellowed. ‘And, it was sent to this idiot from someone who discussed the recent attacks Mercupo Liberation Society launched on our nation. He calls you a “benefactor”. There were many references of your name, about how you leaked them info about our military’s arms’ transports, which were plundered by those bastards.’
Jeremy felt like his heart was going to stop beating any minute. ‘I…I agree with…what you…said. I am sorry for lying to you.’
The Head leaned forward. ‘There’s no use confessing that now. You either lie or say the truth I don’t care. Either way, you are fucked. There is a lot you must confess to us. And, I promise you, you are going to experience hell as close as you could.’
That was how they started with him. Jeremy was hanged upside down in one cell and Alvin was hanged upside down in the adjacent cell. The agents used brutal force to make him spill whatever wrong he did. When he answered, the torture was a punishment. But if he refused to speak up, he was shown hell. He had to admit that he started slipping info to the Mercupo Liberation Society in the beginning of 2014, when he came to know from one of the captured members of the group that Mercupo Liberation Society paid heavy bribes to those who slipped them any valuable information. An idea formed in his mind and that was when he got in contact with Francis, an active member of the group. He made a secret agreement with Francis to get paid with heavy bribes for slipping info about the military arms’ imports and exploit the opportunity to plunder them. His black money increased as he slipped info to them. He did not feel any shame about that and took it for granted. His current situation never crossed his mind and was unanticipated. It was as part of their deal that Jeremy agreed to meet with Alvin the night the accident occurred. Unfortunately, as he was told later, one of the members of the Secret Affairs Force happened to cross his path with Alvin and found him suspicious. When they ran his history, his guilt was as clear as the moon on a full moon night.
They were done with Jeremy within three days after he got back into consciousness. By the time they were done with him, he had a broken nose, two lost molars, swollen eyes, torn pectorals, two broken ribs, apart from the scars and bruises gifted by the accident.
The following day, they executed Alvin before his very eyes with a bullet through his head and he had to taste his blood, as it sprayed from his head. Jeremy collapsed to the ground vomiting what little food they fed him that morning.
‘You know why I didn’t kill you, Jeremy?’ the Head asked.
Jeremy was in no position to answer. The Head dragged him in the mixture of blood, vomit and brain fragments before he could get the chance.
‘Be-because my father is…the Prime Minister,’ Jeremy answered, with a lot of difficulty.
‘Who the fuck do you intend to frighten, asshole?’ the Head bellowed, kicking him in his ribs. ‘I don’t care who your father is. All I care about is that you are a traitorous bastard and you do not deserve to die such an easy death. You should feel the pain all those soldiers felt when they died in the attacks of Mercupo Liberation Society.’
That night, they dragged him into the execution room, where various tools awaited his arrival. He was neither cuffed nor tied. Both of his hands were pinned to the table by a beefy agent, while the Head made his choice of tools. However, fortune spared him, for someone opened fire somewhere near the place. They left him with only one agent, while the remaining agents left to control the situation. He sensed the balance of the situation. The Head had un
derestimated him. He was a trained military man and had more than ten years of experience under his ass. The agent stood few feet to his left, at the door, keeping an eye on him. Jeremy’s hands were free. He slowly slipped his hands under the light-weighted table and felt its weight. He mustered up what little energy he had, flipped it off the floor and smashed it over the agent’s head. The agent collapsed to the floor, while Jeremy made it to the tools’ table and picked up what came to his hand. He made no delay in lunging at the fallen agent and cutting his internal jugular vein open. Blood gutted out of the wound. Jeremy had a sense of euphoria, watching his hands bathe in the agent’s blood.
He pulled the handgun off the agent’s holster and stormed out of the room. He tried to stay away from the noise of the gunshots, to prevent any unnecessary confrontation, and prayed for a backdoor. From his three days in the place, he had a mental map printed in the back of his head, which helped him move through some familiar rooms. Once he ran out of familiar rooms, he carefully moved through the doors in anticipation of an escape door. When he reached a heavy metal door, he found one of the agents guarding it, which made him suspicious of the door’s significance. Jeremy pointed the gun at the agent’s head and shot him, from behind a large box. When Jeremy reached the door, he kicked the agent’s corpse and spit on his face, before budging the door open. The door gave way to a cave. The cave failed to surprise him, as he was aware of it from his eavesdropping. He thanked god and sprinted through the cave.
After he progressed forward for a few tiring minutes, he found a point of light at the far end of the cave. It escalated his hopes of an escape, which made him run for it.
Soon, you will face the consequences of my wrath, you bastard!
BACK FROM THE PAST
The recollection of his memories mitigated his anger and he withdrew himself away from Ethan. Ethan looked at him suspiciously for a moment.
‘Jeremy, I know that something happened during that time after the accident, when you disappeared. But you were reluctant to tell me about it. I think it would be better if you share anything with me, so that your heart can feel lighter,’ Ethan said.
Jeremy massaged his temples and shook his head. ‘I am fine. We better concentrate on finding out who received the Intel from Wilson, rather than going over unnecessary business.’
Ethan nodded his head and said, ‘Fine.’
THE ONE WITH GLIMPSES OF PAST
IN THE CAR- ELEVEN DAYS POST THE JUDGMENT DAY
AS THE CAR SPED away from the military-raided building, the silence irritated Daniel. He looked sideways at the woman in the passenger seat and found her looking intently at him.
‘I am not an alien, OK? I am Daniel Shelby,’ he said, stretching out his hand. Introducing himself with his name after his amnesia episode filled him with a sense of relief. Her presence made him comfortable enough to try some sarcasm, which he welcomed.
She looked at him for a split second and then, stretched her hand, ‘I’m Cynthia Sla Roberts.’
‘The first words I was expecting from your mouth were “Thank You”,’ he said, intent on preventing the silence from taking over.
She raised her eyebrows and smiled. ‘Then, who was the person you wanted to meet in the channel building?’
For a moment, Daniel stayed silent, trying to analyze a familiar feeling her smile and expression evoked. Reminding himself that he had no time for infatuating with a stranger, who somehow evoked familiar stimuli, he resorted to answer her. ‘Well, it was my girlfriend, Margaret Aniston.’
‘I see,’ she said, nodding her head. ‘You are going to marry her soon?’
The question sounded queer coming from a stranger like her. ‘I wanted to propose her to marry me. But, I don’t remember proposing even if I had,’ he said.
She threw him a suspicious look, which made him uncomfortable about letting out such confusing statements to a stranger. Moreover, he had no interest in speaking about his condition.
‘Can you stop here?’ she asked, pointing at a burger’s point.
Relieved that she herself diverted from the strange statement, Daniel complied and stopped the car at the burger’s point. He waited outside as she hurried in. Her request to stop the car amazed him at how easily she made a request to a complete stranger. She appeared minutes later with spots of mascara-stained spots on her face and he wondered if she had gone in to use the bathroom. She got in and Daniel got back on the road.
‘What did you mean by that statement?’ she asked. When Daniel displayed a blank face, she said, ‘I was asking about that “not-remembering-proposing” remark you made.’
He realized that she was not as easy-going as he had credited her to be. He debated the issue in his mind for a while before answering her. ‘I am suffering from retrograde amnesia and my memory card is empty as of the events that occurred during the past four years. Fate must be crazy to make me a victim of retrograde amnesia, while the anterograde amnesia is more common of the two. Am I clear?’
‘Yeah, I understand it perfectly well, being a doctor myself. So, do you at least remember her face and name properly?’
Doctor? Well, that must have been the source of the familiarity.
‘Yeah, I remember her face as clear as the bright sun on a sunny day,’ he bragged, not completely sure given his condition. ‘That’s what led me to the channel office because I saw her on live TV and ushered me to find her.’
‘So, as far as you remember, you love her, but, did not propose her. Right?’
‘Yep, and she would have, or must have, jumped all around if I proposed,’ he said, trying to imagine the moment.
‘Then, the both of you must have loved each other deeply,’ she said, raising her eyebrows. ‘I wasn’t so lucky, because I recently realized my boyfriend cheated on me. I feel like killing him,’ she said, forming fists with both of her hands and tears rolling in her eyes.
‘I am sorry to hear that,’ he said. ‘He must be a real “translocation-15-17” to lose you for another girl.’
‘What does it mean?’
Daniel enjoyed explaining his comment to her. ‘You are a doctor, right? You must be aware of chromosomal translocation between chromosomes 15 and 17, which is involved in-’
‘Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia. I know. Do you mean he is leukemic?’
‘No,’ Daniel said, enjoying this particular part of revelation. ‘He is the characteristic cell of that particular leukemia.’
She thought for a moment and reflexively yelled, ‘Faggot!’ She raised her eyebrows, guarded her mouth with her palm and started laughing. ‘So, who proposed first? You or her?’
‘You sound too curious for a person, who met me minutes ago,’ he said.
‘It’s your personal life. I am sorry for intruding,’ she said, raising her hands into air.
‘I was kidding. It feels good to recollect those good, old memories.’
THE MEMOiR
In the days that followed the resolution, even though I made up my mind not to concentrate on her, I thought of her more than I did before. When she was in my proximity, I would catch her from the corner of my eye. I would count the number of days I went without a single sight of her. It averaged to about three or four days. My class consisted of two hundred members, which made it easy to lose her. Yet, whenever her roll number was called, my mind would jump to alertness to find about her presence in the class. The avoidance task proved even difficult during the Anatomy dissection hours, when about fifty students were crammed around a cadaver. The girls and boys would stand on either side of the cadaver, which would lead to an inevitable face-off between us. When the uninterested students stood there chatting about food and other unrelated stuff, I would try my best to discuss the topic of the day with my friends and learn something practically, which would also help me avoid her.
As my first year neared the end, I was nearly over her, mainly because I was able to concentrate on securing a respectable grade in my first year examinations, leaving aside my d
eviations.
On the day of my final examination, which was a Biochemistry practical, an unexpected person came to me while I was standing by my bike, ready to leave. It was Margaret.
BACK FROM THE PAST
‘She was the first to tell me that she loves me,’ Daniel said, coming to the present.
‘Wow, you must be lucky to hear a girl tell you that she loves you,’ she said. ‘How and where did she say that?’
‘She said that on the last day of my first year at Kraminko Medical College. I was in the parking lot, when she approached me. Her sudden approach puzzled me. Even though I loved her, I never expressed my views to her. So, I thought she came to ask something…’
THE MEMOiR
She stood still without uttering a word. She had to raise her head slightly to compensate the gaze of a little less than six-foot person like me.
‘Hi Daniel,’ she said.
‘Hi…Margaret,’ I said.
‘Just a second,’ she said and began rummaging through the contents of her backpack. After a brief search, a pack of cigarettes emerged in her hand. She stretched her hand forward and gestured me to have it.
It was enough to freak me. I grinned a little and shook my head. ‘I don’t smoke.’
She looked disappointed and again began her search. My mind cluttered with many questions about the scenario. This time, her hand emerged with a beer can. I was embarrassed. Once again, I repeated the same protocol.
‘Daniel, you seem a bit shy. I don’t mind if you drink or smoke. You do not have to hide these from me. Feel free to have them,’ she said, gesturing to take them.
I wondered if she was playing a practical joke on me. ‘Margaret, is this any kind of a joke? I am unable to make out what you are getting at.’
The Memoir Page 5