It was as promised. On either side of
the bell, two lamps were on- despite the hour- at the small cottage at the end of
the line. As he got close to the door, he could sense rays emanating nearby. He
was not sure what it exactly meant. The door was not locked and he got inside.
He was there as promised. There was a long hall with chairs scattered. There
was a look of incredulous fear etched in his face. Wren’s sight brought a sigh
of relief. Behind him was a large world map.
“Sorry for bringing you here. It is
important”
“It’s okay. Who is it you fear?”
“Landau”
***
2 minutes ago
De Laury was sure his boss had never
been completely honest with anyone. For a man with such instincts, he seemed
disoriented and confused today and the call from the supposedly deceased man
seemed to have eased him a little bit. He had spent the rest of the day alone
working on his system. De Laury felt that this could be his best chance to earn
that promotion he felt was long overdue. He had a loaded gun, just in case
things got nasty.
As he neared the rendezvous point, he
got off his car and slowly crept towards the house which housed the police car.
***
One minute ago
“Landau…? Norman Landau?”
“You think he is dead? He is not. He wants
me dead…”
The conversation progressed without
making any sense to the cop. At one point Wren Hall demanded an explanation.
At that very moment, the lights went
out.
“Nobody moves”
Wren recognized it as De Laury’s voice.
Then there was a muffled thud and a gut
wrenching yell.
***
One minute later
When
the lights came on, the assassin was staring at two men and a corpse. But his
target was still alive. Just as he was about to shoot through his target’s
skull, there was a loud bang. It was Wren Hall who had shot him.
He
could sense the pain of death, having failed to relish the joys life
provided. His mission would remain unfinished-
for the first time. Here he was about to die, in ignominy, not remembered as he wanted to be. He had died as his alter ego. A shame it was.
He had one last look at his target as he
breathed his last. His swift reflexes saved him earlier when an attempt was
made on his life. He had then killed Agnew to settle a personal score. He was
asked to run one last errand. He had failed those who trusted him. Most of all,
he had failed his own conscience. He was now certain fate had had the final
call in his life. He remembered the third of Fates. Morta... She was the one
who cut the thread of life.
However
it was his master’s words that were his last thoughts.
‘Poverty
wants some things, Luxury many things’
He saw
the truth in his teacher’s words. Luxury now wanted his life. Or was it Morta?
He
would never know.
***
Two minutes later
Wren and Emanuel were staring at the
lifeless body of the man who tried to kill them and the one who had died to
save them. The hood revealed the face of a young man who hardly looked liked
the hired killers Wren had encountered in the past. He did not recognize the
hazel eyes though it seemed familiar. His watch turned red and it caught
Emanuel’s eye.
“Oh, that’s nothing.”
There was a note in the assassin’s
pocket.
“Morton’s Clave... 9 Pm”
“We must go there”
Emanuel nodded reluctantly with an
indefinite eerie sensation creeping upon him which was augmented by the voice
which seemed excited at that proposition.
***
Elsewhere
The
president was not sure what had made his government complacent. With the amount
of fuel the convict had, he could reach his destination in no time at all.
Though there was little doubt regarding the place he headed to, there was the
issue of exactly calculating the time he would take and the time he would
reach. Without that, it would be near impossible to alert the men without
causing chaos transcending boundaries. In this case it was a female who was
given free reins. She was an able agent. The General told him and added that
she had proved it in more than one occasion.
He
knew what OMEGA-once a friend and mentor, was capable of. Everyone in did. Had
he not got that dastardly separatist idea, who knows what heights he might have
touched? He had served his Nation honorably in the First
Defense. He had been an assassin who almost singly handed the Federals
victory by destabilizing the East. Hailed a hero, he came to power amidst much
fanfare, before the World came to know of his sinister intentions.
His
horrific plans involved mass killing of those who raised the faintest of
opposition to his ideals. His racist attitude came to the fore when his
atrocious rulings and decisions made Adolf Hitler seem a fair and just ruler.
He rapidly gained momentum and defeated country after country before the
remaining nations forged the Alliance. It was believed that OMEGA was some kind
of acronym. It was not. He had wanted to strike fear in his enemies’ minds. He
wanted to instill the thought of End in their hearts to scare them. He had been
successful in that count. All said and done, it was indeed gallant that the
regimen he led-the 32nd Line which defended the East of Lake
Chiming, managed to destroy close to two hundred thousand soldiers of the
Alliance. A great achievement considering he had only thirty five thousand men
at his disposal. But the rumors that he had let the “Scourge” annihilate the
soldiers were not without takers. That seemed a plausible explanation given he
and his soldiers were immune to the mysterious illness causing organism his mad
scientists had managed to create.
But
then, it was only a matter of time before he was defeated. The Pre-War treaty
meant that the leaders of the defeated faction would not be killed and that was
how time travel came in as a way to get rid of OMEGA.
The
actual intention had been to send OMEGA’s mother before her marriage to Nigher
as that was the maximum length of time-travel possible. But as it turned out,
the scientists made an error which had an unprecedented implication. OMEGA’s
mother was pregnant when the agents went to get her. The President, who was
then in charge of the mission, asked them to get on with it not wanting the
first attempt to be a well publicized failure.
The
agents managed to preserve the new born kid in a state of suspended animation
before replacing the still born child of one Mrs. Emanuel (who along with his
mother had succumbed to infections) with OMEGA and his mother, the latter, with
her looks altered to resemble the deceased woman. That way, they believed he
would grow and die a normal human, but, in the past.
While
the general notion was that, just like other high profile criminals, OMEGA had
been rendered amnesic and had been sent to live the life of ‘a man in the
past’, in truth, OMEGA’s mom lived the life of Mrs. Emanuel. Thus, while the
first part of the plan had failed, the second part had worked as planned, only
that the original plan did not involve the supplanting the stillborn child.
As
expected, OMEGA lived a relatively normal life before the oracle and his band
of fanatics tried to bring him back with information from Wren Hall, who had
deflected to the other side, regarding the Artificial Brain.
That
was not the end of OMEGA in the New World. What many did not know was that it
was Scrod Nigher who had been immortalized in the rhyme the kids recited. Not
many realized that Doc Sherring was an anagram of Scrod Nigher.
Not that it had escaped the attention of the Leaders. But giving
it importance would arouse the curiosity of millions who would end up being
fascinated by the man who ‘did it all’. Indeed, only that they were all beyond
the realms of normal Evil. In all probabilities, the rhyme had been popularized
by one of the several fanatic fan clubs of the Eternal Strategist.
Now
one of the fans had escaped detention and his ally here had given all that was
needed to get to another ally who would help the resurrection of OMEGA. While
the mere arrival of OMEGA would not have a great impact, it would mobilize his
supporters giving him time to regain his full strength.
He
wondered how many men in his office still secretly worshipped the man. The very
thought of it gave him a queasy sensation.
***
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