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Chapter 22
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The hiding den where they had hidden the twins Merciles and Willy- the junkies and the ex-bosses of Amar and Victor- was a huge place.
Amar and Victor had stumbled upon this place in their combing operation for a suitable hidden place where they could keep at least fifty persons in captivity forever. They had earlier visited this place when they were students.
In one of their discussions Amar had told Victor, “We must find a place that should be preferably underground, not visible. No one should be able to locate it. It should be 100% impregnable by any living being.”
Victor had added a few more criteria. He had suggested, “It should be in a very difficult terrain, preferably in a mountainous area surrounded by dense flora and fauna. Only we should be in position to reach there by using our special vehicles of on demand configuration. It should be impossible for others even to travel to that place.”
After a great search they could hit the jackpot. Here was the place of such a description in the tallest mountain range of Desh. It was a huge cave at 21,500 feet height. It was deep down the surface and was formed due to hundreds of years of nature’s actions. In the cave were naturally formed cubicles. The underground den covered a good measure of rocky land. It must have been at least ten acres. Amar and Victor with the assistance of Adarsh and Shakti had converted the cave into a sophisticated jail. Amar and Victor designed and installed a foolproof security system in and around the cave. It was electronically controlled with very intelligent software apps. It was impossible even for the smallest creatures to be around and inside the cave without the permission granted by the system.
Being at a height of 21500 feet, thickly camouflaged by dense forest of thick tall trees and totally inaccessible by even the most sophisticated transport systems currently available, it was next to impossible to locate and reach this place. Only the wonderfully configured vehicles of Victor could scale those difficulties.
They constructed a conference hall in the middle of the cave to seat some fifty people around an oval shaped table naturally formed from a huge rock. A well-equipped kitchen and pantry were also commissioned to serve an ordinary food fit for human consumption to around fifty people at a time. Twenty multipurpose robots with the features of human beings were designed and assembled. They shared the responsibilities of cooking, attending the inmates, serving them food, and transporting. The cave didn’t house any human beings other than the jailbirds.
Amar, Victor, Adarsh, and Shakti designed its interior using the already formed cubicles in it. To start with they got ready some fifty living quarters equipped to provide reliefs in line with the human rights requirements. Amar and Victor customized these cubicles into proper living quarters using iron, wood, and mortar. Then they furnished each room with a bed and toilet.
In one of such cubicles Gushnell was lying on the bed like a zombie. A fortnight had passed after his widely publicized disappearance.
He opened his eyes when he heard a mild knocking sound at the door of his cubicle. He thought he was hallucinating because he saw Helen in front of his quarters. He ran to the door made of the iron rods. He could not open it as it was electronically locked but he could see Helen through the gaps between the rods.
He exclaimed, “Darling, I missed you. I don’t know where I am and how many days I’ve been living here. I don’t know who jailed me like this. How you knew I’m here?”
“Have patience. I’ll answer each one of your questions in due course of time. But seeing you like this gives me immense pleasure. I am delighted to watch you in this helpless condition,” said Helen, his wife.
“You’re not serious?”
“I am. I’m 100% serious. I’m very happy to see you in this miserable state because you deserved this and nothing else. And for your information I am the sole reason for you to be here.”
“I can’t believe a word you say. We had almost reconciled that I day, I remember clearly.”
“Reconciled? My foot! I always wanted to take revenge because of what you did to me. You humiliated me in front of the whole world by your stupid affair with that secretary of yours.”
“But I promised you to be loyal to you.”
“Stop that crap Gushnell. People like you don’t improve. Also living with you I realized that you are not the same person whom I loved and married. I married you because you possessed laudable morals. But after tasting the power you became worse than any brute. You started plotting wars all over the world, supplied weapons to all the warring nations, and enjoyed watching millions of people of you own country and other countries being killed. You became corrupt and started making untold money. You exploited whosoever was exploitable. Your policies supported indirect slavery. You sold your soul completely.”
“Stop it Helen. Don’t blame me. I got into a corrupting system. I was thrown into a whirlpool and I was sucked.”
“How could you become so spineless? Your rationale is no answer for becoming a lecher and a killer. You could have fought the system or got away from it in time. You were the president and you should have been bold enough to take sane decisions that would benefit humanity as a whole. The people of the entire planet would have been with you.”
“What you tell me happens only in movies or fiction. But now coming to the point, frankly tell me Helen who is at the root of all this? Who is that bastard? You cannot be the one. You can’t be so harsh; I know it. Who brought me wherever I’m now?”
“I told you I did it. Do you remember the evening party Lobhilal hosted in his so-called hut?”
“I remember. We had Hayan, that chief of armed forces of Lobhilal, Lobhilal himself, and his wife. You and me,” said Gushnell.
“That’s right. Looks like you still hold a clear memory despite taking in that miraculous potion in your drinks. The headwaiter Babu served all of us drinks. But I didn’t drink because I knew that Babu had mixed a medicinal liquid called “potion” into it. It has wonderful properties depending on how much of it you use and how you use it. All of you guys gulped two rounds of it. You became unconscious on taking your drinks. Lobhilal had ordered Babu to entertain his entire staff-in-attendance to serve drinks and dinner. So the entire staff also became unconscious. Then someone dumped you, Hayan, Lobhilal, and his chief in a vehicle and that vehicle brought you here. Now you are here for over a fortnight. As far as Lobhilal’s wife, she became unconscious soon after she took a few sips of the drink laced with the potion. She was sent home in a car. She doesn’t know a thing about what happened in the hut.”
“Helen, tell me who are the people behind all this? I will take them to task. Please inform the vice president to make immediate arrangements to free me from here. Now you know this place.”
“I know nothing of this place.”
“Why, you have already reached here. So you definitely know how to reach this place and get out of it.”
“I haven’t come here on my own. Someone I don’t know brought me here in a funny looking vehicle. Throughout my journey I was blindfolded. So I’m totally in the dark. I was told that I would receive the same treatment on my journey back home. I’m sorry I can’t help you and my guess is no one else also can help you. So, Gushnell, you are doomed now forever. Make this place your home for the rest of your life. This is the last time you are seeing me. Goodbye.” Helen didn’t wait or look back to hear Gushnell’s response.
……….
In one of the other cubicles Lobhilal was pacing up and down. He was terribly irritated because he had not been able to sleep well for the past two weeks or so. He was irritated also because he couldn’t eat the food that was being served to him in his living quarters. He was trying hard to recollect the events that might have taken place during and after the party in his hut a fortnight ago. But his memory failed him totally.
As he was walking in the room he saw a somewhat familiar face near the iron gate of his room. He was not in a position to place that man. He wrecked his brain to recognize the face but he could not.
He saw the man coming forward. The man spoke out, “Lobhilal, do not strain your empty brain. It has become too slow to remember anything. I know that you are trying to place me but knowing your lowly character I’m sure that you cannot recognize me. After all I’m a small fry in front of you. Your types of guys never remember their roots. You also didn’t recognize me when I came to you for employment?”
“Were you in my employment anytime?”
“Yes.”
“When?’
“Till recently. Right up to the day of the party in your hut fifteen days ago.”
“How come I don’t remember to have seen you?”
“Because your brain has become sluggish due to the drinks that you consumed that night.”
“But I never get adversely affected by any kind of drinks. I have a tremendous capacity to hold them without really getting drunk.”
“You are right. But that night I had mixed a special potion in your and your staff’s drinks. That special potion made all of you unconscious for a couple of days. Now do you remember me?”
“Aren’t you Babu? My headwaiter.” Lobhilal had to strain his mind to recognize Babu.
“Yes, I’m Babu, your headwaiter. Now you got it right.”
“But you mentioned a few seconds earlier that I didn’t recognize you even when you came to me for a job? What does that mean?”
“I have to repeat. Your type of man forgets his own roots. Recall your early days when you were young. You were my neighbor then. You didn’t even have a decent job and used to borrow from me. Do you remember?”
“Oh, you are that Babu. I recall now. And you had a daughter. How is she?”
At this point Babu got in to a severe rage and he wanted to hit Lobhilal. But the iron door between him and Lobhilal prevented him from making his attack.
“You insect! You brute!! Do you still have the nerve to inquire of my daughter? You killed her.”
“What rot are you talking? How can you make such an allegation?”
“You enticed my daughter, made her pregnant, and then deserted her. She told you that she was carrying your child and you should marry her. But you were so cruel that you ignored her totally. You even doubted her integrity by saying that she was carrying someone else’s child. On top of it you shamelessly married another girl with many disabilities just because her father was an influential man. He promised you to make you into a big man of repute. I have never seen a worst opportunist like you ever before.”
“I never did anything to your daughter.”
“And you are a blatant liar too. My daughter was upset that whole day. When I insisted what happened she told me everything. So I went searching for you but you were absconding. By the time I returned she hanged herself from the roof of the house. She committed suicide.”
“So what can you do now? Going to hang me? But Babu now I’m going to finish you. As soon as I’m back in my office, I will make sure that you are prosecuted for poisoning my staff and me. You will either be hanged to death or you will be in jail for the rest of your life.”
“Do not be under such an illusionary impression. You are marooned in a place that cannot be reached at all. Your entire governmental machinery has been searching you all over the planet for last fifteen days but all their efforts have failed. They seem to have given up. My revenge is complete now. You will rot here. You will slowly and painfully die of deprivation- lack of sleep and starvation.”
Then without giving a second look at Lobhilal, Babu walked away.
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