1 hour later
Mike and the female got into the lab.
It was deserted. The girl was flustered.
“It’s strange…Derek should be
here…unless…”
“Quick”
“Won’t you let me have a moment of
thought? I fear his safety”
“You are using your left hand” she was
almost shouting.
“I am the one who has spent every day
of my last few years here”
Thankfully, the bad guys had not gotten
there. The brain was there. So was the canister. He carefully disengaged the
complex electric connections. The canister was removed with consummate ease by
the girl. Mike was trying to take out as many papers as possible.
“Now, I really mean it when I say time
is not on our side”
The stern voice reminded him of Anne.
There was a sudden vision of his defeated proposal and it seemed to weaken him.
He then regained composure and grabbed
the bag full of papers.
“Good job”
They complimented each other and left
the lab. He resealed the lab, but with his right hand. He returned a smile when
the girl looked at him quizzically.
***
1¾
hours later
Emanuel finally seemed to have
understood the origin of the voices which had haunted him since childhood. It
must have been the residual memory of OMEGA, he rightly assumed.
The three men were back to the place
where Emanuel had tried to get rid of Wren. It was the same dimly lit room. Van
Guerin’s lifeless body was there along with De Laury’s corpse.
“We cannot carry the whole body. Take
the hand”
“Are you sure there is no retinal
scanner there?”
The chauffeur let out a cold high pitched crackle.
“Leave no stone unturned”
“Hang on…How do we go to your time?”
Emanuel was at a loss
“The vehicle I came in can go at any
speed from 0 to several hundred thousand miles per second. After a flight of 6
calendar years and 150 light-years to and fro, we’d reach our destination.”
Emanuel sounded pleased with that
explanation; he acknowledged his understanding with an enthusiastic reply.
“I don’t have a calculator. I accept
your estimate. I believe our fuel source is…Cobalt???”
Wren, however, was not too happy.
“Listen, I’ll take this man to the lab.
You bring the vessel to the lab.”
“Good idea. But the Lab is on the way.
I’ll drop you guys there. Then I’ll get our cutie and then, Bang”
“Fine... Let us take the Limousine.”
“No. I’ve a taxi parked round the
corner. We can avoid attracting attention with that.”
The men left to the lab in the cab with
a look of delight in their faces.
***
2 hours later
Mike and the girl were back at the bar.
It was a lot less crowded. The barman gave them an unfriendly stare as they
settled in a corner, far from the prying eyes of the others.
“What the hell do you think you did?”
“I sealed it with the wrong hand”
“So?” She did not understand.
“That is a security arrangement. They
need to get past the security. They have not got me. But they might have Van
Guerin which I presume to have happened. If he is alive and kicking, they would
get in unharmed. If he had been harmed by them, they will regret not letting
him live.”
“What would happen?”
“You will soon see”
***
2 ½ hours later
The three men reached the lab. Wren
Hall had the hand and the chauffeur
held the eyeball.
They saw the finger print detection
pad.
“Too bad we had to disfigure him.”
“Thank God, we took the right hand.”
They enjoyed the pun which evoked a
roar of laughter.
“Hang on, there are two pads”
Emanuel was happy to have the answer.
“Two guys work here. They surely come
to work at different hours”
Emanuel was right. They had gotten past
the barrier with the single hand.
“Good. All the best, mate… Get to the
top of this building with the equipment.”
The chauffeur drove the taxi towards the place where he had hidden his
shuttle which had been rendered invisible.
The door opened, the two men got in.
None of them noticed the small red
light which started flickering frantically over the security pad.
***
2 ¾ hours later
“Well done, Mike. Anne would be proud”
“When did I mention her name?”
“Oh, you kept muttering her name in
your sleep. I assumed she was...”
“Yeah… I get it. Too bad I cannot get
her take me serious. And you lied about apocalypse. Didn’t you?”
“Not entirely. Had he got escaped the
past, it would have been curtains for my world.”
“I guess we just saved the present and
the future”
He took a sip of the drink
“Hang on. You are from the future
right? Make a prediction”
She was exasperated. She recovered a
moment later.
“You follow football?”
“I love it”
“Right… This year, France will win the
Euro with a golden Goal-that after Italy takes the lead and a French equalizer
in virtually the last minute of normal time.”
“How can I be…?”
“Make an entry in your diary”
He noted it. But she still seemed
rather disconcerted.
“What do we do if they get inside
safely?” she was visibly worried.
If Mike had got it wrong, there would be work
to do though there won’t be as much damage as would have been had they got all
what they came for.
“They’ll have nothing. I’ll have these
two things deposited in a safe for the time being.”
“That means I might still have
unfinished business?”
“I cannot promise anything. But I guess
you would have issues to attend to”
“That is so typical of you…men”
“Who lied about Armageddon to save her time?”
“Nice one.”
“You won’t get the compliment you
seek…or a compliment even otherwise”
She opened her mouth to say something, but
decided against that.
She merely said:
“I’ll let you have the last say, at
least this time.”
He was about to start arguing. But at
that very moment there was a loud bang.
***
Same
time, nearby
He could
not believe it. It had barely been minutes. He had hardly gone 500m. The lab was destroyed. And with it, his friends too were lost. How would he face the oracle?
Then
it occurred to him. In all the
frenzy associated with the events of the day which he thought would culminate in the revival of OMEGA, he had completely forgotten about the
code. The cop, his ally was gone and
with him the activation code.
There
was no way he could go back. He was stuck in this world forever.
But he decided to wreck havoc. He would ponder over what he would do later that day. He had no money. He looked around. He had
the taxi. He would try to earn a few
dollars before deciding his future
in the past.
He
had to find something to eat for he
had gone hours without eating.
But
first, he decided, he must find someone to hire the taxi.
***
A little under 3 hours later
No one missed the explosion. The lab
was blown to smithereens. Mike and the girl came out of the bar to see the
flame.
“Mission accomplished” Mike smiled at
his accomplice.
Later, it was announced two men had
died in the explosion. Mike confirmed that he was alive after several people
called him.
She looked happy. That meant her job
was done. They walked together to a nearby park.
“Before we part ways, why don’t you
predict something else?”
“I don’t predict. I state facts.”
“Go on”
“Right... George Bush will win the
elections this year.”
“That will strengthen our country’s
security.
She gave a wry smile
“Never mind… I’ll drop you in your apartment
before bidding you good bye”
“You have a car?”
“No, I’ll hail a taxi”
Just then a taxi came across.
“I want you to take us to Mallory
Walk.”
“Hop in. But I am new to this town.
Give me the directions.”-the cabbie said.
A few minutes of silence passed before
they got to Mike’s place.
She decided to send the taxi off.
“Are you sure you do not want the taxi
to drop you at your place?”
“No. My place is not far from here.”
Mike turned towards the taxi driver.
“Here, thanks. By the way, where are
you from?” Mike always found taxi drivers fascinating though he could not see
this man’s face clearly.
“You won’t believe me if I said the
truth.”
The taxi moved away leaving Mike
slightly bemused. Mike checked his watch. It was over half past three.
“We should meet sometime later and I am
sure Anne would love to meet you. She won’t be home now. Later you could tell
her that it was indeed true…”
She turned to him and spoke in a
whisper
“She won’t need any explanations”
He eyed her suspiciously for a second,
the next moment his face lit up, as though he had understood a fact which had
eluded him for quite some time. But before he could react, she said rather
apologetically
“Now, I am really sorry about this”
“What?”-he thought he knew what was
coming next.
There was a bright flash.
“I am sorry Mike.”
The work was done, almost. She would
later contact the Colonel and then the news of her success would ensure relief
through the government ranks. The fundamentalists who were ready to follow
OMEGA’s lead would later learn of the failed mission and the end of their
iconic leader.
Then, there was another important issue
for her to attend to.
She had to prepare strawberry mousse
for the man she loved most.
***
A little over 3 hours later
They
would soon learn about him. The
whole world would.
He would unleash Panic and Confusion. At least
he would have a sense of
satisfaction.
He
adjusted his rear view mirror. The couple had still not moved in. He waited to see if they kissed, for,
the voyeur in him had woken up.
At
that very moment, he saw a blinding
flash in his rear view mirror.
Moments
later, he was staring blankly at the mirror. It said:
Objects
in the mirror are nearer than they appear
None
of those symbols there made any
sense to him.
In
three hours’ time, he would be arrested on account of the lifeless man in the
boot and later would be sent to a mental asylum. After realizing that the
patient’s problems were too complex and inexplicable, the puzzled psychiatrist
would bring Mike into the fray.
Mike
would study the amnesic man with little luck, without realizing he had been the
only one to have hired the cabbie’s taxi.
Neither
of them would ever know that it was the other who had made the 15th
of May-a day neither of them remembered- what it was.
The
murders would never be solved; the truths, never realized.
The
dusk, still, keeps many in the dark over a few furtive facts
***
