A shelter in the snow

At Himavant

The unknown effort, as well as the time lapse between their dive into the Ganges, and their arrival at Himavant had left both Shankara and Burak exhausted. The fruit of the skies invigorated them, and at the same time, made them drowsy as well. They had just rested their backs on the rock by the side of the blue Ganges, that they dozed off to the realms of sleep, to be woken-up only in the evening, by the distant tinkling of bells, as if from the small tinklets tied on the neck of the cows.

Cows? There would be no cows here; maybe just the yaks. They would use the Yaks as the cows, maybe.

The sun was setting over the mountains behind the Ganges. It was just these folds of the earth everywhere around them. Visible in layers over layers, towering over one another. Burak turned around to Shankara.

‘There must be some humans there as well.’

‘Yes, let us see. We need to move and find a shelter soon, or the night would kill us of its cold even if the wild animals don’t hunt us.’ Shankara answered.

Both got up and turned around to the sounds. The tinkling was not from the vicinity, but from a far off place. As they moved on, the sounds got a tad louder each moment. These were not the tinklets on the necks of the cows, but actually the bells. They kept moving to the direction of the sound, until, in the midway, the sound just stopped all of a sudden. Among the mountains, they weren’t even sure, from which direction the sound came, now they were left entirely clueless.

‘ Let us just walk straight. Let us hope we reach somewhere.’ Shankara said with a sigh.

They walked ahead on the snowy track as it started getting darker. It would be night in another hour. As they walked, they hit a summit and saw a valley down the peak. Burak turned around to look at the expanse around him. The sky was crisp and the air was fresh. A sight suddenly caught Burak’s eyes. A little down the peak, there was a wooden structure. He quickly turned to Shankara, who faced onto the other direction, and patted his back. As Shankara turned around, Burak pointed his finger towards the building. Shankara’s eyes widened for a moment, and then he spontaneously fell on his knees in prostration towards the structure. As Burak looked ahead, he saw a man appear on the way to the structure, and as Shankara went down in prostration, the man faced the building and went into a sajdah. Shankara, got up and pulled Burak’s arm to take him ahead, as Burak watched the man in green robes go down into sajdah again. By all means he was into the namaz, except that he faced opposite to the quiblah.

The Dawsons

3

Jalandhar, India

Deborah and Thomas had been on the run since they crash-landed in Sind. Even though, Deborah tried to hide her foreign origins, her language, and her body language revealed a lot. She colored her hair black, wore the traditional dress, and spoke very little. People often took her as depressed or otherwise, sick girl. They had escaped Multan through another truck. They reached Bikaner, from where they took a ride to Ludhiana, where they were given some money and food. Someone told them that they would get some help at Suraj Singh’s house in Jalandhar. Suraj Singh was a scion of an old business family of the city, and was known for his help and charity. Both found it to be their best bet in this unknown land. They took the next train to Jalandhar.

An apparently Euro-Indian lady caught Deborah’s accent as she talked to Thomas. She was passing by at the aisle. She suddenly stopped and looked at Deborah. She turned around and took the empty seat opposite them. Deborah and Thomas stopped talking.

Without a moment’s delay the lady suddenly announced. “Midlands? Right?”

Deborah pretended not to have listened.

“Oh! The typical British way of ignoring people. I know it well!” The lady giggled like a mad woman.

Thomas was offended by now. He turned to the lady and said, rather rudely. “You know a little too much about Britain in this foreign land, lady. Don’t you!

“A little too much, my boy!” The lady said, as the wrinkles on her face deepened. She continued in a hushed up voice. “They don’t like you if you know too much.” She giggled between the words, saying, “The Scotland Yard, I mean. They’re full of shit! But who cares, they can’t do a thing to me till I am here.”

“But why would they do something to you in the first place?” Thomas sounded disgusted by now.

“That is beyond your scope lad!” The lady answered loudly. “But I am a free bird here. They can’t get e even if they want.”

“And why do you think so?” Thomas asked.

The lady moved her head side to side as she laughed. “There’s no extradition treaty.” She said.

Thomas’ brow rose involuntarily as he heard this. He gave a subtle look at Deborah. She seemed relaxed for the first time. Before they could make sense of what they had just heard, the lady turned towards Deborah and snapped roughly at her, “Where in the Midlands are you from, girl?”

“Coventry.” The words escaped from Deborah’s mouth suddenly. She could just regret, what she had let out!

“Oh, Coventry, a shitty place that is.” The woman said loudly, as Deborah’s face turned red in anger. Before she could respond, the lady spoke up again in her shrill voice. “ My daughter was unhappily married there, till they killed her.”

The lady continued unabated. “ Those scoundrels used her for political mileage, and when she knew too much, they killed her. They continuously kept her on sedatives and psychotropic drugs..” She broke down into sobs.

Deborah’s heart melted. She held her hand and tried to comfort her. “Were they political people?” She asked.

The lady just nodded in response, between the sobs.

“I won’t ask you who they were, bur whatever they…” Before Deborah could finish, the lady gave her the most shocking answer that she could’ve ever expected to hear.

“The Dawsons.” 

The Beginnings. (1:1)

Chapter 1

THE BEGINNINGS

1

2430 CE

Bangalore, India.

Friday Sunset

Darkness had embraced the grounds. It was the beginning of the night, and their work had just begun. Every day was getting harder for them. It wasn’t like before anymore. There were days, when work was in abundance, and completing tasks was easy. But now, Vikas and all others like him were continuously on the run. The work had become tougher, and the eyes of the law had made the business a lot lesser than before. It was just the change of shifts that gave them some chance to sneak in, if at all they could.

Vikas was a team leader; one of the last ones of his science. He was powerful, and knowledgeable. However, there was a time when he used to go to the school, and like all the other kids, he had a dream.He dreamt to be an aircraft designer and make new designs for the aircrafts. But all that was past, and here he was tonight; with one of his usual duties. His target today was Bangalore – the busiest of the global conurbations, and ,unarguably, the most secured and controlled.

“Once we are there, just take care of Visual Information Boxes”, Vikas spoke in whispers as he turned back slowly in darkness towards the huge guy behind him. His voice was muffled, and had hoarseness, even in a whisper. He continued, “There are many VIBs around there. These are the spy boxes with stealth. You won’t be able to see them, but, they record your movements all the time. They transmit visual signals to their security masters even in the dark so that they know what is happening there”

“Yes, but how do we get in?” Rudra wore a frustrated look on his face. A tall man with long hair, bouncing in locks down his neck, and strewn across his chest, Rudra inspired awe at the very first look. A frightening aura surrounded him. As he moved, every inch of his ripped muscles shone with strength in the grey moonlight. He moved ahead with caution. Commotion meant confusion and a chance for the enemies to become alerted. He wanted to take them unawares.

Security Gates: Around the same time

Tara approached the guards in an exceedingly sumptuous dress. The alert security guard tried not to get carried off into the lures of her flesh, but she was too hard to resist. He approached her and asked what she was up to at this odd hour, and that too alone!

The scornful security officer and his assistant watched the VIB signals far away in central Bangalore. “He is a dog. He doesn’t know is that papa is watching. If he lays her, it’s going to be the last night of his job.” The security officer told his assistant. While both shared a laugh at the prospect of another entertaining night, Tara had already taken care of this.

Just as Tara started speaking to the guard, Trishna used a really easy process to ‘hack’ the VIBs signals through her frequency matcher and give a false transmission to the security officers. As the security officers saw the guard speak to Tara and shoo her away, in reality, something else was going on at the security gates.

Tara told the guard that she was thirsty. She said that she had lost her way and it was really lonely! She was alone and frightened! The guard calmed her and asked her to sit as he got some water for her. As he returned and approached her with water, Tara smiled. He looked in her eyes. There was a brilliant shine there – almost frightening. As he looked at her again, he froze……..

 

Meanwhile, Vikas pacified the agitated Rudra.  “Don’t worry about getting in Rudra. Tara and Trishna might have taken care of that. Both the sisters are the best the world has in their specializations - the first one at casting spells and the second one at illusions.” Vikas sounded like a triumphant king. “Your work is just to be aware of any changes that the enemy makes in their way of working and see that everything goes smoothly.”

By the time they reached the security gates Trishna and Tara had done their job. The illusion was made and stealth of their activities was complete and impermeable. The guards were taken care of.

As Vikas rose to the ground level with the last step, he could clearly see the illuminated board in front of him. His destination.

BANNERGHATTA CREMATORIUM

This project would get him 4.5 million rupees. It wasn’t a tough task, but the risk involved was a little high. The deal was always fixed on the need and urgency of the client. The higher the need, the higher the deal amount.

They had finished up all the preparations in the morning. It was marvelous work.

Symphony of the Emrald Lake

A story of five different souls with different lives, and different lifestyles. Destiny will push them together towards a common goal. As the board is laid, and the game begins, each move shall determine the future course of action. At the end of this game, the universe as we know it will change. But, there are somethings that shall never change..... Some players shall never lose! Keep reading this blog to find how it happened?