by Abhishek .
“I am not as naïve as you expect me to be,” Lifana frowned at him petulantly. “I referred to the jagged holes beside the windows.”
“It’s a pity, Lifana, that you have to see this in such a shape. A civil war is going on over here and in war there is no mercy. As long as blood is not spilt, we can do anything we want, even destroy a dozen old relics, in order to get a bullet into our enemy’s head. Those holes are probably the result of a shootout or grenades that detonated in there.”
“What is a grenade?”
Vivek scratched his head and covered his face with his hands. I chuckled and walked away.
“Well, let’s just say that a grenade is a ball with a small little pin. You can play catch with it until you pull away the pin. Then whoever catches the ball cannot be seen ever again. That’s how a grenade works.”
“So it’s a kind of teleportation, you mean.”
“Precisely. A direct route that leads straight to the creator!” Vivek laughed while Lifana still seemed puzzled.
“Hey guys! There’s a path through the crenellations that leads down to the harbour area of the old lighthouse,” I called out to them and noticed that Vivek had taken a liking for our alien friend.
A moment later, the three of us stood on the empty island where the lighthouse once stood. The waves of the Mediterranean crashed against the rocks and broke away into rivulets of foam and spray. With almost no one around, the threesome had to constantly look over their shoulders. They were aware that they were in a war zone and had to tread carefully.
“Now where?”
“At this moment, we should be able to chance upon some queer Scandinavian symbol that will be able to show us the way,” I muttered purposefully and the three of us started searching every nook and cranny. Suddenly, I felt something searing my chest. I fished out my locket and found it to be glowing a dim red.
“Guys!” I motioned towards my amulet. “We are quite near!” “What is that?”
“You think? If we have to dive in there, we ought to be sure, Mathias,” Vivek reminded me once again.
I climbed the broken ledges and steps, back up to the ramparts and bent close to the ground.
“See! The fact the amulet is glowing here proves the fact that the chamber or whatever there is under the water’s surface, has to be sunken into the citadel. We have found the entrance of the teleporter!”
* * *
Twenty minutes later and a tough swim under the waterline of the ocean, we found ourselves walking gingerly in a dark stone corridor drilled into the rocky core of the island. Led by the red light of my amulet the dark stonewalls looked jagged and almost bloody. “I... cannot breath properly.” Vivek stopped and bent over on his knees. He inhaled deeply and his face looked puffy. “It’s my claustrophobia. I feel... pressed... in tight spaces.”
“It’s alright, Vivek.” I patted him on his back. “Take your time. Do you need my inhaler?”
“No, thanks. I am getting better.”
“Look! There’s light at the end of the tunnel.”
“Yeah. There always is, Lifana. That is life!” I smiled.
“No! There! At the end of this corridor!”
I looked at the direction she was pointing and saw white light coming from a hole at the far end of the corridor. We hurried along and I peeked through the hole.
“Good lord!” I exclaimed.
“What happened?”
I moved away from the hole. “See for yourselves.”
Through the hole, we could see a voluminous subterra
ean cavern that had been built into some sort of a Jargantaan facility. The chamber was at least eight storeys deep and as large as three football stadiums. Metal gangways extended across the vast gap from one portal to another, making a crisscross network suspended over a space that was teeming with pale Jargantaans.
Lifana paled at the sight of the Jargantaans and motioned us to flee.
“No problem Lifana,” I said. “We have met many of these and fought them off too.”
“No, no,” she was frantic. “These are very dangerous men. They have tried many times to take over Asr-Gawa. They are ruthless!”
“As are all of Baldr’s men,” I remarked.
“Baldr?” Lifana seemed surprised. “But he is part of the Council. What has he got to do wih the Jargantaans?”
“What do you mean, you don’t know? All these men are working for Baldr. It is with the help of these men that Baldr was following us and tried to capture us.”
Lifana still seemed doubtful but her fear did not go away. She wanted us to get away from there. Vivek and I concentrated and tried to figure out what these people were doing.
All of them were working synchronously and moving humungous crates that left behind a trail of sand. Whatever they had in the crates would weigh millions of tons and right now, all of them were being heaved towards a gigantic torus, a beefed-up teleporter.
“I wasn’t aware of such an operation going on over here in Mandagaar. Those crates have the emblem of Asr-Gawa on their lids!” Lifana remarked.
“So if these crates are headed for Asr-Gawa, what do they contain?” I asked Lifana.
“I don’t know. It might be sand because we are facing an energy crisis and Makto can only be extracted from silicon. But look at the teleporter,” she pointed and we were left gaping.
“This is huge! What are they planning to teleport?” I said.
“Something large! Maybe a lot of sand” Vivek said.
“It is obvious that we cannot enter now. We must wait for an opportune moment.”
“Let’s get back to the hotel and figure out how to,” Vivek looked worried.
The climb back to the top was tougher and took more than forty-five minutes and as we hauled ourselves up to the surface of the island, Lifana slipped and twisted her ankle.
The rest of the journey back was chaotic, with Lifana limping along with a sprained ankle and a constant fear of being chased by Jargantaans. We sat for a while on the harbour front.
“That corridor. It must’ve been an older entrance when the lighthouse used to exist. The Jargantaans have to be using another entrance here in the premises of the citadel,” I said, thinking aloud.
“Let’s go back to the hotel for now. We don’t want to be chickens for snipers over here. Tomorrow, we’ll come back and find out more,” Vivek said and helped Lifana stand.
Vivek drove us back to the hotel in complete silence. We were tired and yearned for the comfort of our beds.
We walked up the stairs and just before I could insert the key, I noticed a thin crack between the door and the wall. I pushed the door and to my horror, it was ajar. The three of us exchanged nervous glances and gulped before we pushed the door open fully. A shadow moved within the room and a familiar voice spoke out.
“Ah, boys and... girl! Good to meet you lads over here! Don’t worry, I haven’t come in search of the mirror that you stole from my Museum. I have enough Kofun period mirrors back home to adjust my hair and apply my facial cream. I am here for something that concerns... the entire world,” and we were left staring at the unlined old face of Hamasaki-san, sitting on the bed. A group of Japanese soldiers had silently appeared and surrounded us.
Kapittel 55
Ram’s story
Asr-Gawa
March 15, 2017, Wednesday, 0750 hours Earth EET
The star around which Asr-Gawa eked out its existence was very much like the Sun, but a much older version, and hence subdued in colour, possibly temperature also. The days were not very warm and the sky was a very different shade of purple. The star had now risen well over the horizon and made the inn appropriately warm for a heated conversation that was about to ensue in between Dr Shanbhag and Nanna. “Go to the balcony and close the noise-cancelling door,” Nanna’s eyes showed Ram the direction.
“No! He’ll stay here! He has to stay here. Ram deserves to know all that he was unaware of for such a long time.” Shanbhag extended his arm over
Ram’s shoulders, rooting him to his position.
“Why do you have to complicate everything?” Nanna’s voice seemed to show exhaustion and regret.
“Why not? Why do you want to keep his origins, his childhood in such obscurity?”
“Dr Shanbhag, do not forget that you are speaking to a senior chief of Asr-Gawa’s domestic departments.” Nanna stifled Shanbhag with an iron fist.
“Where’s my mother?” Ram barged in. For a moment, the room plunged into silence, as if everybody was calculating their next move. “She is still... alive?”
A tear rolled down Nanna’s cheek. She inhaled a strained breath and gulped down her emotions.
“Your mother is no more. She passed on her life into you once you emerged from her womb. She couldn’t stand the labour and bled internally,” her voice started shaking, “Your mother and I are siblings. We used to be so close, so close. Her death has changed my life; made it almost insipid.” Her eyes almost looked through Ram. “I can never forget what happened to her. Remember, you and your father were the cause of her death and no matter how many revolutions pass away, you’ll be a deep scar in my life and yet... I hope to see more of her in you, Ram.”
This was the first time she had called Ram by his name. It was almost as if her formal demeanour had melted down to something warm, something motherly.
“But why has all this been hidden from me all this while? Why is my father over here?” Ram quizzed her.
“Tell me, Ram. Did you get to see any Asurians on the streets?”
Ram nodded.
“Did they look like robust godly soldiers or did they resemble dried and hollow wooden sticks?”
“Um... the latter, I suppose.”
“This is all due to the Pandemic, a disgusting disease that is detrimental to the mental health of Asurians.” Nanna told Ram all about the Pandemic that he should know. “You father is here because he can help Asr-Gawa rise again. He must stay here because he has the potential to strengthen Asr-Gawa, nothing else.”
“Sure, by keeping me like an imprisoned lab rat,” Shanbhag muttered under his breath.
“You aren’t audible, doctor.”
“Don’t need to be. Carry on please.”
Nanna averted her eyes from Shanbhag. “You must stay here too. I am to take you to court immediately and you’ll be given all the services of an Asurian citizen.”
“Along with additional amenities like house-arrest? You are not going to take my boy anywhere! He is going to go back to Earth, to live a normal life!”
“You have the temerity to speak to me like that? After all you have done to my sister and my life, how dare you defy me? Heimdallr, take the boy with you.”
Shanbhag jumped in between Heimdallr and Ram and joined his hands. “Please! You brought me here when I was old but if you take him in now, you will destroy the wee years left in his childhood! Please! I request you to understand!”
“What do you intend on doing with your son if he doesn’t come with us? There is no other viable option.” Heimdallr shrugged his soldiers.
“There is, there is! We send him back to Earth! You want me then have me, but spare my son!” Shanbhag joined his hands and hung his head, crying profusely. “I am sorry, I am sorry...”
Ram embraced his father and Shanbhag held him to his bosom. For a moment, in his father’s warm arms, Ram felt he was home.
From the corner of his eye, Ram noticed Nanna hesitate. She rubbed away the tear stains from her cheeks and walked closer to the father and son, united after a lifetime of obscurity and pain.
“Doctor, try to understand what I am telling you. We cannot send Ram back to Earth....” Nanna caught her breath at the sight of Shanbhag’s bloodshot eyes looking straight through her. Despite his frail build, Shanbhag looked like a lion fiercely protecting his cub. “We cannot do that but... if you don’t let him approach the council, he will be identified pretty soon because he lacks a brain lattice. Ram will be considered an outlaw since he won’t be detectable,” Nanna stopped. She seemed to have been struck by a thought.
The air was still. Nobody moved. Ram wanted to ask about the brain lattice and wondered what it was. But he dared not speak.
“He will be safe only in the midst of people who are also like him.” Nanna looked at Shanbhag and Heimdallr and both of them understood what she meant. It was the only way to ensure that Ram will have some protection.
“I can’t believe my ears. Is this suggestion really coming from the Head of Asurian security? The person who is always on the hunt for them?” Shanbhag asked her sarcastically. “Are you suggesting handing Ram over to them?”
“What do you think? Tell me clearly. Do you want your son to be taken to the council or do you want him to stay undetected? Ram is my nephew. He... he reminds me of her, doctor, and I don’t really know what’s good for him at this moment.”
“But how will it happen? We don’t know where they are,” said Shanbhag.
“You need not worry about that,” Nanna shook her head mysteriously. “I’ll decrease surveillance activity in this sector for today. It should keep you safe for the time being. Tomorrow morning we’ll take you to them.”
“Who are ‘they’? Where do you plan on keeping me?” Ram couldn’t keep quiet any longer and asked the three of them who seemed to know something that Ram didn’t.
“We are going to take you to an organisation called Lov Vve,” Nanna said, almost regretting speaking the word.
Ram furled his eyebrows. The name seemed vaguely familiar to him.
“Lo..... what?” He held up his hand and told Nanna to say it again.
“Lov Vve,” she repeated.
“It sounds very similar to...., Ram found his father smiling sadly at him.
“Yes, Ram. It is pronounced Lovk-vee. Originally called Lov-Kke since it means Beyond the Law in Asurian, the Vve appeared in honour of its Founder and Leader. It is the underground resistance of Asr-Gawa who are the only opposition to the ruling councils’ oppression. On our Earth, the reference to this organisation is found in a mischievous fictitious character called Loki, a personification of an organisation in the legends!”
Kapittel 56
Mathias’s story
Alexandria, Egypt
March 15, 2017, Wednesday, 1105 hours EET
“Imagine the existence of a vicious killer,” Hamasaki squinted his eyes and emphasised on vicious with an icy voice. “This killer is one of the most lethal assassins on the planet. He does what he wishes, roams around places and creates a vast empire. Nobody can stand against him. Whoever opposes him is cut down mercilessly. This killer and his mafia manage to control a spacious area until the police catch them. He is sentenced to prison and hard labour, stripped off all his weaponry, strength, esteem and former bravado. Once, he is released, this killer of ours is a changed man, an ordinary pigeon in a world of pigeons. But do you think that our man can completely transform into something so simple? No. A little bit of viciousness, a little bit of the older self is still left in him. Yes, it is quite passive but one day or another, the old killer will come out, and when it does, there is no stopping him,” Hamasaki ended in a cold whisper and a thin smile on his lips. “Forgive me but I fail to grasp the relevance of your analogy. Which killer do you allude to?” Lifana craned her neck. Vivek and I opened our mouths to explain but Hamasaki-san beat us to it.
Hamasaki-san’s face became grim. “My alien friend. The object that is symbolised by the killer over here is my country, Japan.” He turned to Vivek. “I am sure we surprised you,” he motioned towards the dozen people who were in the room by now: an old man, a stout middle-aged man, a young boy barely a few years older than me and five men in military uniform.
“Well, yes, Hamasaki-san. Perhaps, you found out the mismatched dust pattern in the showcase?”
“‘It was quite apparent, you see. You had left me wondering about your sudden appearance and strange urge to visit the mirror gallery. So I checked the showcases myself.
After that I only had to have your trail followed through our numerous resources and piece it together. What surprised me was your apparent level of knowledge regarding the ancient times; without which your interest in the Kofun mirror could not be explained. We thought nobody else knew about....” Hamasaki-san stopped and stole a glance at the old man, who seemed listless but looked up suddenly.
“But first,” he continued, “since we are already into this together, you need to understand our purpose. We may find some common ground.” He paused, then continued, “Japan used to be an imperial power before losing World War II. We used to have one of the most advanced military with merciless soldiers, an unstoppable force. If it wasn’t for the infernal atomic bomb and the idiocy of the Nazis, we would have won the war and the colonies that we deserved. Japan, was building an empire in Asia and now, look at how meager an army we have. The influence that we used to have on the oriental world and the threat that we used to be considered by the Occidentals is all lost! Except that the former wish to be an indomitable entity hasn’t completely been wiped away.
“We belong to a Japanese organisation alienated from the government after World War II. Our fraternity works in total secrecy and nobody, not even the Japanese government, knows about our existence. But if everything goes according to plan, it won’t be long until our goal of Japanese world domination comes to fruition.” Hamasaki proudly curled his fist into a ball. His eyes had a sinister look in them. “However, before we do that, we plan on dominating another civilisation that both of us know about.”
“Do you mean...!” I almost choked.
“Exactly, Mathias! Asr-Gawa!”
Vivek and I exchanged surprised looks. When a student sticks up his hand in the air, marvelling at the fact that he and only he knows the answer to the question asked by the teacher, only to see another classmate raise his hand, the student is bound to feel dejected. And, at that moment, that’s exactly how I felt.