by Abhishek .
Heimdallr opened his eyes slowly and averted his gaze from a dead body lying in the corner. Out of fear, he turned and ran away from the alley as fast as he could. From the moment he had slept the previous night, painful and poignant thoughts came rushing back at him.
Heimdallr stopped running when he had reached the building where Nanna was waiting. He looked at the engraved name of the building. ASURIAN DEPARTMENT OF INTERNAL AND EXTRA-DIMENSIONAL SECURITY, it announced in big, bold letters. He noticed the guards, stationed at either side of the gates, crumpled up into, which were most probably, all the clothes they owned.
They never noticed Heimdallr walk past them and into the lobby of the building and nor were the aware of the head of the department waiting inside for Heimdallr. While their stomachs rumbled and their bodies ached of exhaustion, their hopes for the future drained away, and crisp and alert security services were the last thing they thought about.
If the energy problem is not solved quickly, Asr-Gawa will soon descend into anarchy, thought Heimdallr to himself as he hurried to meet the Head of Security.
Kapittel 51
Mathias’s story
Alexandria, Egypt
March 15, 2017, Wednesday, 0830 hours EET
As soon as we walked into the hotel, the receptionist looked up, terrified. He was sitting behind the desk with only his large eyes and the top of his head visible. The three of us walked over to him and the man stood up hesitantly. He had a plump face of brown complexion, a stubble around his jowls, a blunt nose and a colossal forehead. “We need two rooms,” I said, avoiding any small talk.
“You people not from here?” The man asked us, baffled to see tourists during such troubled times.
“No. We need to have two rooms, please. What’s the cost?”
“Yes, yes!” he replied, enthusiastic for money. “Is 200 pounds per night!”
“What! 200 pounds! Even during a civil war, you don’t offer discounts to your customers? Listen my man,” Vivek leaned closer to the portly receptionist. “Us staying here is only benefitting you. I don’t think you have had any customers lately. So, if you want money, bring it down to a 100 pounds.” Vivek spoke with a tone that could make anyone believe that he was holding a gun to his head.
“Oh... okay. 120 Pounds, please,” the man pleaded.
“Fine. But we don’t have Egyptian Pounds. Do you accept Turkish Liras?”
“No money exchange now. Pounds only.”
“I have a lot of British Pounds with me,” I whispered to Vivek but he gestured me to not worry.
“You know what?” Vivek ruffled through his messy wallet and plonked a few crumpled American dollars on the table. “That’s about 80 dollars. That should be enough, or rather more than what we agreed for but we couldn’t care less right now.”
The receptionist accepted the notes nervously and handed us our keys. A derelict looking bellboy helped us find our rooms. Since there were hardly any guests in the hotel, we got two of the best sea-facing rooms with spacious balconies. Vivek and I decided to share a room and give the second key to Lifana. Before Lifana could close her door, the bellboy extended out his arm. “Tip,” he muttered.
“We already gave extra money to your senior. Please leave us alone.” She was about to close the door on his face when the man uttered the same word and refused to go away.
Lifana, red in the face and on the verge of an angry outburst, glared at the man. After coming from Asr-Gawa and landing in one of the most turbulent places on Earth, it had been one thing after another. Lifana’s frustration was palpable.
“It’s fine. Here you go.” Vivek handed the man a dollar and he walked away happily.
“Why did you give him more money?”
“It’s normal to give a tip to someone who has been of service to you. Egyptian economy has made every little coin valuable to its people. Don’t worry. You are new to our customs, that’s all,” Vivek told Lifana who was getting very fidgety. Then turning to me he said, “First of all, Mathias, should we go to the site of the Lighthouse?”
I glanced at my wristwatch and then at the afternoon sun. “Well, it’s getting a little late. I don’t think it’ll be a good idea to linger around after sunset, especially not on ground zero Alexandria.”
“The site of the Lighthouse is just at the end of the Eastern Harbour. It isn’t very far away, Mathias.”
Our eyes were locked for a moment of consideration. “Alright. Let’s go.”
“Wait. Where are you going?” Lifana asked us.
Vivek and I told her about how we assumed the teleporter to be at the site of the famed Lighthouse of Alexandria. We showed her the verse and how we had decoded it.
“Bar the last doublet, you seem to have deciphered this verse correctly. What I feel is that the last two lines are referring to the old way, we Asurians had taught the northern Mandaas to prepare and cut hay. My father was the in Extra-dimensional Affairs Department and he had frequent visits to Mandagaar. During these visits, his team were responsible to teach new methods and techniques of administration and agriculture to the old Mandaas so that their civilisation developed better in the future.”
Vivek guffawed loudly. I couldn’t refrain a smile but Lifana stood puzzled. “What happened?”
“Our External Affairs departments struggle with foreign conflicts and these people have an ‘Extra-dimensional Affairs Department’ for planets in other dimensions. Either you Asurians are too nosy or not satisfied with your own place!”
A while later, Vivek had driven us to the sight of the Lighthouse. In its stead stood the Citadel of Qaitbay, a simple sandstone fort with narrow ramparts and a spacious courtyard. With nobody around, we felt isolated from the rest of the world. The only footsteps that were heard were ours and this made us even more nervous.
We walked up to the outer battlements when Vivek pointed at a harbour extension outside the boundary of the citadel, “The lighthouse used to be right there.”
* * *
Elsewhere
Alexandria, Egypt
March 15, 2017, Wednesday, 0912 hours EET
The boys would have been shocked had they been aware of the pair of binoculars aimed at them. The man behind these binoculars was hidden behind a window on the topmost floor of a nearby building. He kept the binoculars on the window sill and stroked his bald head. His French beard itched because of the African heat but his head felt comparatively cooler.
The spy fished out his satellite phone and called his commander.
“The kids are at the site. What should I do?”
“Take it easy Daniel. Save your skills for the climax. These kids have to be dealt with love and care.”
Kapittel 52
Asr-gawa
Learning House
March 15, 2017, Wednesday, 0710 hours Earth EET
“Select the option—Heroes of Asr-Gawa—and switch on your holograms,” the teacher instructed. Fo set Lach and his classmates followed her directions. When the option was selected, an old man’s image was projected in colour. The person was rather old but displayed a scholarly look that was common to all the Asurians before the pandemic.
“This is Bor-nu, the father of Odin-nu and the most important hero of all. When a young lad, Bor envisaged an Asr-Gawa where information can be transferred easily, where the city could flourish by harnessing the power of Makto (the element discovered by his father, Buri) and an Asr-Gawa with efficient governance in order that all the clan members may live in harmony. He was an influential character in Mandagaar and played a vital role in overthrowing the Jargantaan Supremacy, almost 56 revolutions ago.
“Most of everything that you see today, was devised and developed by him before the pandemic. He is the father of our coalition and the greatest Asurian.”
Fo set absorbed the digital representation of Bor. Every Asurian knew his contribution to Asr-Gawa and Fo set dreamed of following in his footsteps when he grew up.
“I can’t wait to learn about all the heroes! Their invention
s and discoveries are so inspiring,” Fo set’s friend whispered to him.
“I know but all of them are so old. Let’s wait for the newer...”
“Fo set!” The teacher’s voice rose rhythmically and almost mechanically. “Do you wish to spend the rest of the day outside the class?” She asked him courteously.
“No Läro. I will not speak again.”
The teacher nodded and resumed her discourse which resembled a recorded message.
She spoke about all the prominent Asurian figures who had contributed greatly to the society but something kept nudging at Fo set. He tried to wrap his mind around his conjecture and drove his hand through his sandy hair madly. He grew impatient and asked the teacher, “Läro, is this unit going to be only on the heroes of the past?”
“This unit is about all the heroes of Asurian history and you will be expected to read through each of their life descriptions.... Are you alright Fo set? Anything wrong? You look rather febrile.”
Fo set shook his head before Läro resumed.
Fo set looked outside the windows of the classroom, at the sprawling expanse of the Asr-Gawa mega city. He had grown up looking at the same view and nothing had changed. Fo set scratched his head when he realised, that everything in this city was more than 50 revolutions old. Why hadn’t there been any growth during the recent revolutions? He gazed at the rest of the campus of the Institute of Essential information and wondered whether the knowledge he gained from here would prove essential to him in the future. Fo set started sweating, horrified to find himself questioning the techniques of the education ministry.
“It’s all fine. Asr-Gawa is all fine,” he muttered to himself. A growing sense of fear started to envelope him; a fear that Asr-Gawa was crumbling from its golden ages.
Suddenly, he started at an electrical impulse in his head. Fo set wasn’t thinking correctly.
He regained his composure and pressed a button. The Läro recognised it and asked him to speak of his doubt.
“Every hero we are learning about, lived more than 50 revolutions ago. They are the ones who shaped our society but hasn’t there been any one in the past couple of revolutions who did something similar. Are we still stuck in a world, 50 revolutions ago?”
The Läros are trained to be able to answer every question their students ask. Their protocol takes advantage of the fact that the questions asked are very ordinary and follow a general pattern. The Läro found herself blinking, not knowing how to answer this one.
Kapittel 53
Ram’s story
Asr-Gawa
Safehouse
March 15, 2017, Wednesday, 0730 hours Earth EET
The warmth of the rising star swept through the cold fog that had settled on Asr-Gawa. Chandra Shanbhag leaned on the balcony, wishing that all the problems before him would be swept away in a similar way. He yearned the life that he led before Asr-Gawa and now that Ram had joined him, he felt even more motivated to find a solution—a way to make things right and return back to Earth—but the brain that had allowed him to discover the secrets of the multi-dimensional universe, failed to bend the problem at hand. Dr Shanbhag found himself in the middle of a fiendish dilemma. Ram’s intelligence would definitely surpass the average intelligence index of an Asurian. So undoubtedly, if the officials found him out, Ram would have to become a captive Asurian citizen and be imprisoned much the same way Dr Shanbhag was. The question lay in the way the officials discovered him.
If Dr Shanbhag approached the Court of the Council, he wasn’t sure whether he’d be able to see his son again. If he didn’t do anything and Ram was caught in hiding, then there was absolutely no doubt that he would never see him again.
Dr Shanbhag looked at the sleeping Ram and remembered the first time he had seen him sleeping in the hospital in Cambridge. While he largely resembled Dr Shanbhag, his eyes had the uncanny transparency of his mother’s, almost as if she had passed on her life into Ram before she closed her eyes and allowed Ram to open his.
Suddenly, there was a loud knock on the door. Shanbhag clenched the balustrade and wiped away a tear from his cheek. They know! But how did they find out so fast?
Ram woke up and Shanbhag gestured him to hide in the bathroom.
There was another louder knock on the door.
Shanbhag considered hacking into the programmable blocks of the bed to arrange them into a rope and climb it down from balcony to the street below... but he knew that it was too late. Shanbhag steeled himself and opened the door.
“Nanna! Heimdallr!”
These two people stood like sentinels at the doorway, with furled eyebrows that conveyed their suspicion. Nanna maintained her dignity and held her chip up high. She was the head of the Asurian security department and consequentially, one of the most powerful women in this world.
Heimdallr was the chief operator of the teleporter and the deputy head of the extra-dimensional security agency, a post below Nanna but of almost equal gravity.
Their prying eyes peeked into the room before Nanna spoke up. She was using a customary translator as others used while speaking to Shanbhag. Only this was a high grade one and fitted at her collar area and translated almost instantaneously from Asurian to English.
“Doctor, do you have any qualms with your personal residence or do you wish to join the hotel management industry now?” She asked him with a menacing stare, and an emotion developed by years of hatred and resentment.
“No, no. No problem at all. I... uh... had a late night meeting with a fellow scientist and decided to pass the night here in this inn.”
“You seem rather edgy Doctor. Any problem? Hiding something, aren’t you?” Heimdallr accused Shanbhag blatantly.
“How can you say...!”
“May we check the room, please?”
“Absolutely not! This is....”
Heimdallr didn’t wait. He shoved Shanbhag aside and walked forcefully into the room, determined to not leave any stone unturned.
Shanbhag advanced towards Heimdallr. “Are you not familiar with a concept called privacy? What do you think you’ll find here?” Shanbhag restrained himself from yelling.
“Doctor, we advise you to stay put and stop interfering with Heimdallr in his duties.” Nanna walked formally into the room and stood beside the bed. “We have had alerts of an unauthorised entry into Asr-Gawa, from another dimension. You seem to be inextricably linked to this situation as you are, always, with any problem.” Nanna had an icy sharpness in her voice. “The tracker chip in you showed us that you were present in the premises of the teleporter when the entry happened. You know what that leads to, don’t you?”
Shanbhag’s eyes widened. He turned his gaze to Heimdallr who was about to open the toilet door.
“Don’t go in there! Please!” Shanbhag grabbed his sinewy arms and begged helplessly. Heimdallr shrugged him off and burst into the bathroom. A moment later, Ram stumbled out of the door and fell near Nanna’s feet.
“Ah, the pest has been located!” She threw her hands out in triumph and looked at Ram who scrambled back up to his feet. When Nanna made eye-contact, her grin waned away.
“Where have you come from?” She asked him tonelessly.
Ram glanced at his father who nodded in assurance. “Eart... Midgard.”
“And how did you manage to get here?”
Ram couldn’t find the correct words and remained silent.
“How did you find a way to Asr-Gawa?” Nanna’s voice rose in a crescendo.
After another moment’s silence, she ordered Heimdallr to take Ram away to the interrogation chamber. Heimdallr grabbed Ram by his arm and dragged him towards the door.
“No! Please, no!” Chandra Shanbhag ran to the door and banged it shut. He stood facing them with his back pressed against the door. “You cannot take him anywhere.”
“Are you defying us, doctor?” Heimdallr asked, coldly.
“I said, you cannot take him!” Shanbhag yelled.
“Why?” Nanna shout
ed back.
“Because he is my son!”
The air in the room had a tense silence. Nanna slumped heavily on the bed and Heimdallr released his grip. Both of them stared at Ram with incredulous eyes. She had known. From the moment she had seen his eyes, she had known. Her eyes betrayed a complex set of emotions, hatred, wonder, amazement and surprisingly, also a hidden affection.
“Am I meant to run away from here... right now?” Ram whispered to his father who shook his head sideways.
Ram turned dauntingly towards Nanna and noted her similar green eyes.
She also stared at his green eyes and breathed heavily, “Those eyes of yours bring back old... and bitter memories, my nephew.”
Kapittel 54
Mathias’s story
Alexandria, Egypt
March 15, 2017, Wednesday, 0920 hours EET
Vivek, Lifana and I, completely oblivious to everything going on in Asr-Gawa, went on with their business of finding the lighthouse. They entered the premises of the citadel and climbed a flight of sandstone stairs to the top of the ramparts. From there they beheld the citadel in its entirety. The citadel was located on the left arm of the Eastern Harbour. Adjacent to it, extending into the ocean in a curve was the abandoned island from where the ancient lighthouse once beckoned trade ships. The citadel itself was a simple cuboidal building. Its stout appearance paired with the rustic look lent by the sandstone made the citadel look like a scaled-up model of the sand castles that children make on sea beaches.
The rest of the area enclosed by the citadel of Qaitbay was vast and open with a few small storage houses and crumbling boundary walls.
“What are the gaping holes and cracks meant for?” Lifana asked Vivek.
“Oh, they are windows. You know, to let the air in and feel the warmth of nature.”