“Do you see anything?” Lilly asked.
Karthik shook his head. “We’ll have to go inside.” He slowly opened the door and went into the darkness, Piper and Lilly behind him. The light at the far end started getting bigger and brighter.
The building was not a factory; it was a huge warehouse. They went through the dark passage and came into a huge room. It was damn wide and was three stories tall. The center of the warehouse was mostly empty. But there were people inside it; People with guns. But the queerest sight was two men with a yellow rubber suit and breathing mask, working on a complex looking machinery.
Karthik, Lilly, and Piper edged their way along the wall; sticking close to the darkness; to get the better look of the machinery. It was a big supper computer. It had a giant screen which showed the map of the Paris and there were twelve crosses marked on it. After few seconds, the men with the rubber suit talked with each other and then started climbing the stairs. Karthik raised his eyes and spotted another peculiar looking thing on the third floor. It was a huge complex looking cylinder with pointed, big tubes around it.
"What are those tubes?" Karthik whispered.
Lilly raised her binoculars and peered into it. She gasped and lowered the binoculars. "Those are not tubes," said she, aghast, "Those are goddamn missiles! They were never going to place bombs in the public area. They were going to drop missiles—missiles filled with cancer causing viruses. Oh, God!"
"You should inform the headquarters," Karthik said.
"Yes," Lilly said fishing out the radio from her pocket.
"Drop that thing!" A woman's voice ordered.
Karthik's heart leaped into his throat. He looked around and saw five armed men were surrounding them, and the woman was in between them. And to Karthik's horror, the woman was Sara Ford.
"Sara?" he said in a shaky voice, without realizing he started moving toward her.
"Drop that thing!" She ordered, "Guards fire!"
"Whoa! wait I'm dropping it," Lilly said and dropped the radio on the floor.
"Hands on your head!" One of the guards said. “and you stand where you are!” He said to Karthik.
"Tie them up. Luke will be happy to see you guys," Sara said. The men tied them up around a pillar and took away all their belongings.
"Sara, what are you doing here?" Karthik said. He still was not able understand what she was doing there. And why she was ordering the men.
Sara squatted before him and said, "Karthik, you are an A-hole."
"That's not the answer to my question."
"I love Luke," she said. "I'm here to support him."
"He is a madman. He killed your father."
She laughed. "He did not kill my father. I killed him."
Karthik's mouth dropped open.
"Y-you killed your father... B-but why?"
"He realized that I was dating Luke. And he also somehow found that I was secretly passing the information to Luke about Dr. Alex Bill's project. So, he was even thinking of throwing me out of his will. Still I didn’t want to kill. But when my father realized that I and Luke had something to do with Dr. Alex Bill’s abduction. I had no option left."
"Passing information?" Karthik asked.
She sighed solemnly. "One year ago Dr. Alex Bill came to my house with a mysterious container," She told them the complete incident.
Alex Bill sighed, "I want you to fund my research,"
Mr. Ford shook his head. "This is dangerous."
"No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his well-being, to risk his body, to risk his life for a great cause."
"But the Project Outlander Failed!"
"So what?" Alex Bill grumbled.
"You..." He stopped. His eyes spotted someone's shadow on the floor, at the doorway. Someone was eavesdropping on them.
"Come out! I can see you." He ordered.
The shadow did not move.
"Come-out-now!"
The shadow moved and Sara walked into the room.
"Sara, What are you doing here?" Daniel Ford asked.
"I was just curious," She shrugged.
"You heard everything?" Dr. Alex Bill asked her.
She nodded. "Don't worry. I'm not going to tell this anyone."
"And you told everything to Luke," Karthik said with a twinge of anger in his voice. Now anger had taken over the shock.
"Um-hum," Sara said.
"You knew Alex Muffin was there to kill your father?" Piper chimed in.
"Yes, that jerk thought that he was playing with me. But I played with him. But he failed to kill to my dad."
"So, You-killed him-yourself." Karthik stammered.
“But he fired at you?” Lilly said.
“What do you mean?” Sara asked.
“Alex Muffin. He tried to kill you?”
“Oh, yes he did. But he didn’t try to kill me. Luke had told him that after killing my dad, he should fire at me. But not harm me. It was like a fake attack. So, that I can look innocent.
“You are a wicked girl!” Karthik roared. “You killed your own dad!”
"Yes, That's right." She got up; now smiling at her triumph. "I cut down his oxygen supply—Luke will be pleased to see you, Karthik. You have been a big pain for us." She turned and started walking away from them.
"You know what was your dad's laptop password?" Karthik called.
She stopped and faced him. "No, I don't. And I don’t care." She turned and again started walking.
"His password was: I love Sara!" Karthik cried behind her.
50
"You should Kill them," Carl told Sara. They were standing on the second floor of the warehouse.
"No," She said, "let Luke take the decision. He'll be here in one hour."
"I heard that Katz is also in France," Carl said.
"Yes, he'll be here, too." Her radio vibrated. She picked it up listened, nodding.
"They will be here in two-hour," She said, "The security is very tight today."
"They are also bringing the new serum with them?"
"Yes, they are going to test it today." She shifted her gaze at the missiles. There were twelve of them. Each one destined to target the popular squares and other famous locations all around the city. Thousands of people will become history in a matter of minutes.
She dropped her gaze to the ground and stared at the pillar where Karthik, Lilly, and Piper were tied.
‘His password was I Love Sara,’ the line echoed in her mind, growing louder and louder. But I love Luke. And he loves me more than my dad.
One hour passed. And to Karthik, it felt like a minute. He wanted the time to slow down. But instead, the time was ticking faster than usual.
He squirmed to break free. The more he tried, the more deep the rope dug into his skin.
"Will you stop that?" Lilly grumbled. "You are hurting me."
"We need to do something," he said, "thousands of people will lose their lives!"
"Karthik, you need to stop moving like that. It's useless," Piper said.
"You too?" Karthik muttered.
"We need to find some other way," she said.
"They took away my plasma pen and also my Swiss-knife," Lilly grumbled, "If I had it..." she trailed off.
"So that means we are going to die like this?" Karthik asked.
"No, Just hope for the good," Lilly said.
One hour later the entrance door again opened. Men carrying guns walked in and were followed by Gun Katz, Luke Tesla, Tom king, Dr. Alex Bill and Dr. Sharif. Both the doctors were carrying briefcases with them.
"Luke!" Sara cried and ran toward him. They kissed each other. The sight made Karthik feel more terrible than ever.
Luke let go her and walked toward Karthik. He sat in front of him and laughed. "Look at you..." he grinned, "I'm feeling so sorry for you guys."
"I'm feeling sorry for your dad," Piper said.
Luke stopped laughing and stood up, staring at her. He then again smiled and said, "He wil
l be proud of me." He walked away from them and toward Carl.
"You did a got job, Carl," he said offering his hand.
"It is a pleasure working with you," Carl said, smiling.
"Ah—But unfortunately, my dad used to say to us that we should never trust cops."
Carl stopped smiling. And abruptly Tom King came forward, producing a handgun and fired at Carl. He dropped on the floor.
Gun Katz snickered. Sara looked horror-struck.
Luke Tesla smiled and turned toward her, "He also said to us that we should never trust women."
Sara's eyes widened. She quickly jerked her head toward Tom, who raised his gun, and aimed her head—
"Luke plea—"
Bang! her body fell on the floor.
What the hell! Karthik thought.
51
Gun Katz slapped Luke's back. "You made the right decision," he said.
Luke stared at Sara's body and nodded. "You guided me through it."
"Let's finish our mission," Gun Katz said.
Luke again nodded and shifted his eyes from Sara's body toward the group of missiles on the third-floor. "Prepare for the launch," He ordered.
"What about them?" Tom king said, pointing at Karthik, Lilly and Piper.
"Them," Luke smiled. He walked over to the pillar, where they were tied. "You guys have always tried to stop our mission. Thanks to you we lost our general, Don—"
"He killed himself," Lilly said, "that idiot ordered a bazooka launch in avalanche prone area."
"Maybe you are right. Maybe he died of his own foolishness—that's not the point. I'm fed up with of people. You always keep poking your fat nose in my business. But not today. You'll never be able to stop me today."
"So you are going to kill us?" Piper said glaring at him, "Like you killed her."
"Of course—” Luke pulled out a gun and aimed at Karthik’s head. He pressed the trigger. Karthik closed his eyes and heard a click. When he open his eyes, Luke was smiling at him.
“Maybe not now... I... want... you to witness the death of thousands of people,” Luke said, “I want you to witness the new serum. I want you to witness the failure. This will teach you something."
"We have already seen it. Your big guys—"
"No, It's not the same serum. The old serum’s effects wore out in a matter of hours. But this new serum's effect—Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Sharif—will stay for the lifetime. It will make us immortal."
He stood up and said, "Prepare for the launch. I want them to take off at the right time."
The two men wearing rubber suits moved toward the huge computer and started typing on it. The screen flashed and showed the time remaining for the launch: 36 minutes to go.
"Why are you doing it?" Karthik asked; his voice echoed in the warehouse.
"Launching the missiles during the solar eclipse? We want to send a message to the world. We want to show them that the sun is no longer a go—"
"Not that. Why are you even launching them?"
"Hmm, interesting question," Luke said, "Our Dad dreamed of a perfect world. A world free of disease, a world free of sorrow. After he died we decided to complete his mission.
"But we also wanted to make some money. The anticancer drug would sell easily in the market. But it will not be that quick. So, the other companies will have enough time to reverse-engineer our drug. They will realize that we are using a virus. We are doing this to avoid the competition."
"So you are saying that you will attack Paris with a cancer causing weapon. It will throw the world into chaos and terror. And because of that people will quickly buy your drugs?"
"Exactly! You're a smart man, Karthik. That’s why Ford liked you so much.”
"It's a ridiculous idea,” Karthik cried, “it's never going to work!"
Luke laughed. "Unfortunately, Karthik... it will work. It always does. Because there is no business as profitable as the business of selling fear."
“What are you planning to do with that enhancing serum?” Piper asked, although she knew the answer but she wanted to hear it from Luke’s mouth.
He smiled at her. “The money we will get from the drugs will be used to buy more powerful weapons. So that we can create a powerful army. That serum will be for our soldiers.”
“You’re planning to rule the world,” Lilly said indignantly.
He walked and squatted in front of her. “We are not planning to rule the world. We are planning to change it. And today is the beginning of that change.”
52
It happened very quickly.
Seven minutes were remaining for the launch. Luke was feeling tense. But he was not worried. He was very sure that no one will be able to stop the launch. He was happily whistling to himself when the guard standing on the second-floor fell on the ground. Then the guy next to him dropped dead. Bewildered, he looked around and then saw armed men approaching from the window, firing at them.
"Snipers! Open fire!" He cried.
Karthik also noticed that the man standing on the second floor dropped on the ground. But he was more quick to realize what was going on.
"You guys are okay?" A voice called. Karthik turned and saw Jack running toward them.
Jack produced a knife and sliced the rope. "How did you find us?" Piper cried delightfully.
More men were now bursting in the warehouse.
"Those rings I gave you before parting, they were trackers," Jack said. He handed Lilly an assault rifle.
"What took you so long to find us?" Karthik grumbled.
"I'm sor—" Everything around them started exploding. Jack ducked and plunged behind the pillar.
Karthik and Piper took cover behind a drum. "Karthik, take it." Jack threw a pistol toward Karthik. He caught it and his brow furrowed deeply.
"I need a bigger weapon," Karthik grumbled.
"That's the only thing I ha—" A man standing on the other side of the wall fire at him. He vanished behind the pillar.
"Piper you stay here," Karthik told her and edged his way along the drums.
But she did not want to left out, she looked around and saw a guard lying on the floor; a gun lay next to him.
"How many men do we have?" Lilly shouted. Everything was breaking around them.
"Fifteen!" Jack replied.
"Just fifteen?" She said and fired at the man who was running away toward the exit.
"More are coming!" Jack said, "Where is the bomb?"
"There is no bomb. They have twelve missiles. We only have four minutes to stop them." She pointed at the supercomputer. “That thing is controlling the launch.”
Jack nodded. "Cover me."
"Where are you going?"
"I'll try to stop the launch." Saying this Jack stood up and ran away from the safety of the pillar. Piper stood behind the pillar ready to fire on anyone, who would try to stop Jack from reaching to the computer.
While people were trying to kill each other, Dr. Sharif turned and ran toward the exit. He was just a few feet away from it when someone grabbed his hand. It was Luke Tesla. Luke smiled and then punched Dr. Sharif’s nose, knocking him unconscious. He grabbed the Briefcase and ran toward the exit. But he realized that he was missing something. Where was Gun Katz? He stopped, spun around, and ran for the stairs.
Jack reached to the supercomputer, unharmed. He quickly got to work. He was hoping that whoever build the system must have included a self-destruction system, but there was no self-destruction system. So, he decided to override the system that will either stop the missiles from launching or will blow them up. He started typing on the keyboard. He only had two minutes to do it.
Karthik saw Tom King hiding behind the barrels. He edged toward him and fired. But Tom King dodged in time, and fired back at Karthik.
Karthik dodged and fired back at Tom, but missed. Tom fired at him but only heard a click. Karthik realized that Tom’s gun was empty. He climbed to his feet and pressed the trigger but no bullet burst out of the nozzle, instead
he heard a click. Tom realized that Karthik had also run out of his bullets. He got up and dashed at Karthik.
They both fell to the ground. At first, Tom was over Karthik. Then in a matter of seconds, Karthik was over him. They kept rolling over on the floor. Karthik raised his fist and punched Tom right in his face. Tom king thrust his knee into Karthik’s stomach. Karthik moved back, and doubling over, he fell on the ground.
Tom got to his feet and jump on Karthik. But Karthik raised his foot in time and hit the groin, sending an explosion of pain raising up his insides. Tom grimaced and fell backward. This time, Karthik lashed on him and started punching him. He raised his fist and launched it into Tom’s face. “This one is for slapping Piper!”
Gun Katz stood on the third floor, showering bullets on the ground. He spotted a blond woman edging her way toward a gun. He took an aim on her and fired. But the bullet didn't hit her because a man had jumped between her and the bullet.
At first, Piper didn't understand what had happened. She was damn near to the gun when Karthik jumped in front of her. At first, she thought that Karthik was stopping her, then she realized he was stopping a bullet from reaching to her.
Before she could move, he fell on the ground.
53
Gun Katz never saw Piper rising from the ground with a pistol in her hand. His eyes were gazing Karthik, the man who had jumped between the woman and the bullet; the man who was now lying on the floor with his chest gleaming red with blood.
He never saw Piper raising her armed hand and aiming the gun at him. He never saw her pressing the trigger.
The only thing he registered was the pain in his neck and the feeling of admiration for Karthik's honesty and bravery. He fell on the floor and died.
"Karthik..." Piper dropped beside him. "Karthik?" She gasped.
"He is losing too much blood," Dr. Alex Bill said. Piper didn't realize how come Dr. Alex Bill was standing beside her.
"He is alive," Lilly said checking his pulses. "We need to stop the blood flow."
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