“What is it?”
“I was thinking of adopting Navya.”
“Really?!”
“Yeah. I’ll get the process started once I reach Bangalore.”
“That’s so cool! If you need any help just let me know.”
“You have bigger things to worry about. Like this third soul-transferor. You have to be careful of your own colleagues. You never know when they are being possessed. Follow my instructions for social distancing. That’s the only way you will be able to outsmart the new soul-transferor.”
Aditi smiled, “I told Cyrus about it. He wasn’t too happy. And I agree
- it’s too extreme! You want me to isolate myself and maintain a thirty-feet distance from everyone else… and that too for an indefinite period.”
“I know it sounds crazy but it’s the only way. Look, when someone like you enters the body of a normal person like me, we normal people have no memory of the time when you are inside us. I have told Cyrus as well to immediately inform you guys in case he ever has an experience of doing something and having no memory of it. That way you will know whether his memories have been leaked or not…. But what if the new guy enters you? You saw when Robin entered you, 260
you didn’t even know about it! Although he couldn’t control you, he could imbibe all your memories. That’s too big a risk.”
“But why just me? We don’t know if someone can enter the body Robin is possessing and scan his memories. Shouldn’t he be in isolation until we find out whether that’s possible?”
“It’s hard for anybody to track Robin since he keeps changing bodies.
You on the other hand are easy to locate. But yes, you should experiment with Robin and try to find out more about your abilities and limitations. That knowledge will help you for whatever is coming next. We don’t even know what the third soul-transferor’s motives are. Is he just after you? If yes, then why? Or, do his plans involve causing harm to other people? Until this is over we need to be prepared.”
“‘We’ need to be prepared?” Aditi smirked.
“Sorry. I meant you.” Nura replied. “If Cyrus has to sleep alone for a few nights, so be it. As it is, it isn’t like he was sharing the room with you a lot. When we were in Gurugram I could understand. But Panvel is only like an hour away from Mumbai and he still meets you just as infrequently as he did back then. What is his problem?”
“Yeah, he said his work in other cities has increased. So, he’s travelling a lot. But yeah, I get what you are saying…” said Aditi sighed.
“Hey…Is everything okay?”
“Hmmm… Oh, yeah” Aditi hesitated, “It’s just. I don’t know about Cyrus and me.”
“You think he isn’t serious?”
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“No, it’s the very opposite. I think I’m not, and it's just not Cyrus. In general, I’m feeling a bit… maybe, ‘numb’ is the right word. The other day when I killed those terrorists, I didn’t feel anything at all. It was strange. Before killing all of the Nine I had never taken a life before, so how did it feel easy? Shouldn’t I feel at least some sort of guilt?” Nura listened patiently, “And now with Cyrus, I’m not having the feelings I used to have. I don’t know.”
“Well, I have to admit you have changed a lot. You are no longer the old Aditi I could push around. In fact, I'm the one being bullied by you and Robin.” The girls giggled. “And how much do you read these days! When we aren’t on missions, I always find a book in your hand.
You spend more on books in a week than you used to spend on Netflix every month earlier. You have matured. Maybe that’s it, you have changed and so has your taste for men.”
“You are right. But I feel it's not just that. I think the more my skills improve the more emotionally detached I am becoming. In the last three months, each time I laughed, it was forced. Each time I felt sympathy, sorrow or happiness, it was forced. My emotions were becoming numb, and now I think I barely feel anything- not even sexual desire.”
“I don’t think that it’s because you are becoming better at the transferance that’s affecting your emotional state. Rather, it’s probably because you have scanned so many memories. Obviously, that’s going to affect your moods and decision-making abilities. You need to take a transferance- detox. Don’t do it for a month. You will feel better.
Remember how you had become before Robin joined us? Spacing out your missions worked didn’t it? Now you need to take it one step further.”
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“If that’s the case then Robin should be feeling much worse. He must have entered five times the number of bodies I have.”
“How do you know it isn’t affecting him?”
“Hummm, I guess you are right. I never met him before he started performing the transferance. It’s very much possible that he doesn’t feel emotions because-”
“He feels emotions.” Nura interjected defensively and then hid behind her cup of coffee as she took a huge sip.
“Okay…. I’ll take your word for it.” There was a pause when they both just sipped their coffee. “It must be nice to be him.” Aditi blurted out of nowhere.
Nura looked up at Aditi with an angry stare. But Aditi didn’t notice.
She wasn’t making eye-contact with her.
“I have been thinking a lot about Robin’s possible immortality. Also, I’ve been thinking about all the limitations on my abilities and the fact that my original body always has to be in proximity. Also, I have to maintain and preserve this body by sleeping and eating, which Robin doesn’t have to worry about. All these limitations can be resolved if my original body were to be destroyed while my soul was in another body. I could live for a thousand years just hopping from one body to another until one of the bodies I’m possessing faced a death so sudden then it would not have the time or presence of mind to shift to another one. Wouldn’t that be something?” When Aditi was done talking, she finally turned to Nura who had the worst scowl Aditi had ever seen.
Her face had become red with fury.
“H…. How dare… you?” Nura muttered through her clenched teeth.
“Do you think that it’s easy to live the life that Robin is living?”
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“That man is living in hell!” Nura fumed. Some of the patrons sitting at the nearby tables stared at the two women. “Despite his constant suffering, he continues to live, not for himself, but for the good of all mankind, and you have the audacity to envy him?”
“Nura, I was just saying that…”
“That poor man is under the mistaken belief that you are putting in genuine efforts to find a permanent body for him, but no! You don’t want to help him get out of his predicament. In contrast, you want to use his condition in your favour. Not only that, you want to join him.
Here I thought you had matured. But boy, was I mistaken!”
At this point, Aditi covered her face in both her hands and then held Nura’s hands in her own, “You are right, you are absolutely right. It was wrong of me to even think in that manner. You see, this is how I am becoming. I need to try your “transferance-detox” idea. You are right. Can we forget this conversation ever happened? Please, just forget I said anything.”
Nura exhaled and just stared at Aditi for a couple of seconds, before continuing to sip on her coffee. And just like that, the most intense conversation between the two best-friends was replaced by an awkward silence.
“And I promise. I will find a cure for Robin, I truly will.”
Nura checked her wrist-watch, “It’s time for me to check-in. Bye.”
Both of them stood up, and hugged each other. It was a cold and rushed hug, meant to be given only as a formality. Nura avoided eye-contact through-out and walked away dragging her trolley bag behind her.
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Aditi remembered the famous poem written in the 16th century by the Indian poet Abdul Rahim Khan-Khanan in which he says that one must never allow the thread of love to break. If it breaks once it cannot be restored to its previous form. You can reconnect them by tying the broken ends together but there will always be the knot in the middle.
‘Did our thread just break?’ Aditi thought.
She watched her continuously hoping she would turn back one last time to wave or just to check whether Aditi was still standing there.
But she did not.
***
The incident with Nura played over and over in Aditi’s mind as she rode back to Gupta Bhavan. As soon as she reached home, an old man with discoloured skin patches and a walking stick slowly answered the door.“It’s me. Pumpernickel.” said Robin. “Something has happened.”
“What now?”
“Look at this.” Robin handed her a newspaper. Aditi took it in her hands and read the headline ‘Six Killed in Explosion at the National Chemicals Laboratory’.
“You think this was an act of terrorism, but why attack a chemical laboratory? It’s probably just an accident.”
“No. The entire lab didn’t explode. Just a part of it. A part which was being used by a special division, in which I used to work.”
“A special division?”
“Yes. A division that worked on synthesizing a drug which could accelerate brain function exponentially. Once me and another 265
colleague of mine – Vijay Tripathi realized exactly what we were working on and the military applications it was intended for and we had a heated argument with our superiors. We wanted them to kill the project, but instead they fired us. Our contracts with NCL contained a NDA, so we could never go public with it. After my death, I went to the lab to check if they were the ones responsible for the collision that killed my family. They weren’t. But I learnt that they had synthesized a version of the drug that had a one-in-ten chance of working. The remaining nine-in-ten times where it caused death” Robin leaned forward and held Aditi’s shoulder, “NCL was too incompetent. But imagine if someone with resources and a better team got their hands on it…”
The gravity of the situation dawned on Aditi, “You are right, we need to stop it before it gets spread so wide that it's beyond our control.
What’s the name of the drug? I’ll tell Cyrus to check if anyone is trying to sell it on the dark web.”
“It’s called Fotura… Aditi?”
Aditi’s face had turned white. Her eyes had fallen on a tiny column at the corner of the page. The headline was a generic one which they used for all standard cases of suicide. But it was the name of a certain building which was mentioned in the article that had caught her attention. It was a three-sentence article which simply read as follows:
“A twenty-eight-year-old girl was found dead in her apartment in Shabbir Niwas, Gurugram. Neighbours complained of a strong stench coming from her apartment and discovered her hanging from the ceiling fan. Preliminary findings suggested that she had hung herself eight days before her body was found.”
“Aditi, all okay?”
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“Yeah… It’s just that a friend of mine lives in this building, Shabbir Niwas, which is mentioned in this article. I think Nura and I have spoken about her to you… Do you remember that office colleague of mine - Dhwani Mehta?”
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28. Their Encounter with Them
I climbed Mount Kailasa. When I reached the top, Lord Shiva and his consort the Goddess Parvathi appeared before me in their composite
half-male
and
half-female
form
called
“Ardhanareeswara”.
I recited hymns for them. They looked at me, and told me that they appreciated my work of giving the world a better understanding of the Universal Truth. They blessed me and presented me with five crystal Lingams (symbols of Lord Shiva) and instructed me to arrange for the worship of the Lingams for the sake of the welfare of the universe. They also gave me instructions on the mode of worship of these Lingams, called “Soundaryalahiri” which was written on a palm leaf and handed over to me.
I bowed and took their leave.
Ranveer Kapadia waited in the ante-chamber of Suketu Singh’s home-office at Pune. He wore a lavender coloured silk shirt with a sports jacket over it. He thought that it made him look like a legitimate businessman. But his face, which had a scar stretching from his right ear to his mouth, gave him away.
Accompanying Ranveer was his colleague, Kiran Sharma, a lanky person with short hair and a determined look, holding a black five-by-eight-inch case. Kiran wore a jacket over a V-neck sweater and a white shirt inside that.
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One of Suketu's attendant-cum-bodyguards emerged from his chamber. He was dressed like a typical body guard – black suit, black sunglasses and a white ear-piece.
“Good morning, my name is Rahul. Mr. Singh will see you now.”
Ranveer and Kiran both stood up.
The bodyguard stopped them, “Sorry. But only you can come in, Mr.
Kapadia. Ever since the recent cases of mysterious disappearances, we have been taking precautions.”
“Kiran goes where I go. As a fellow bodyguard I’m sure you know how it is. Also, we both were frisked at the entrance. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“I understand, sir. But these are the rules. He will have to –” It was at this point that Rahul got a better look at Kiran, and doubted whether he was right in referring to Kiran as ‘he’.
Kiran clarified, “My pronouns are ‘they’, ‘them’ and ‘their’.”
The guard did not understand what that statement meant.
Ranveer turned to Kiran, “It’s okay. Give me the case.”
Kiran handed over the case to him reluctantly.
Rahul opened the wooden door for Ranveer. They had now entered a twenty-feet long corridor with four security guards on either side, whose attire matched that of Rahul’s. Ranveer checked out their stoic faces as he followed Rahul to the end of the corridor. Rahul knocked on the door twice and, without waiting for a response, he swung it open and beckoned Ranveer to step in.
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Inside, Suketu Singh sat at a glass table, with his back facing the window. He was playing “Kwazy Kupcakes” on his phone. Upon seeing his visitor, he put the phone down. “Welcome, Ranveer!” he extended his hand forward as Rahul locked the door from the inside and stood at the back of the room. “How have you been? Sorry about all the frisking and other security measures. There isn’t any option than being too careful in these strange times. Influential people dying across the country and all.”
“Don’t worry about it, I totally get it. I recently hired a personal bodyguard myself.” He sat down in front of Suketu.
“Oh! Where is the chap? He must be something if the great Ranveer Kapadia picked him.”
“They are outside.”
“Sorry? They? You got more than one?”
“No.”
Suketu didn’t understand. Rahul shook his head at him indicating that the topic wasn’t worth probing any further.
“Okay. So, let’s get down to business. Did you bring the stuff?”
“Yes, I did!” he placed the black case on the table and opened it.
Suketu looked in awe at the two dozen tiny vials of blue liquid presented to him. Even Rahul tried to take a peek from the back of the room.”
“So, this is Fotura.” Suketu remarked, “This is the reason you broke into, and destroyed, the National Chemical Laboratory? That was quite an explosion. I heard it killed the entire team who knew anything about the drug.”
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Ranveer smiled, “Are you wearing a wire, Suketu?”
Suketu laughed. “Okay. I don’t care how you got it. But tell me how it works?”
“It’s simple. Each of these vials contains ten millilitres of Fotura. By drinking an entire vial your brain activity increases ten-fold within seconds. You can think and move faster. It will seem like the world around you is moving in slow motion. You’ll even be able to dodge bullets. It also strengthens your senses. You can hear a butterfly flapping its wings and see a dust particle from across a room.”
“By God! I don’t believe this. Sounds like something out of a movie.”
“You want a demonstration?”
“Yes, that would be lovely!”
“Kiran!” Ranveer shouted out loud, startling Suketu and Rahul. When nothing happened, they both looked at him, confounded.
Ranveer assured them, “Just wait for it.” They heard a huge thud coming from the corridor followed by some random sounds of things being beaten. When finally, a gunshot was heard, Rahul opened the door. Kiran entered the room leaving behind all the guards in the corridor who were lying motionless on the ground. “Don’t worry.”
Kiran said, “They aren’t dead. Only unconscious.”
Suketu applauded and cheered as Kiran showed him an empty vial.
“Whoa! This is something. Okay I want these. Transferring the money to your account right away. How long do the effects last?”
“About twenty minutes.” Ranveer replied.
“And any side effects? Does the user end up like your friend?”
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Ranveer was more offended by the question than Kiran was, but he remained calm. “Kiran’s gender has nothing to do with the drug. The drug has no side-effects.”
“Good to hear.” Suketu picked up his phone and after pressing a few buttons continued, “Done. I have transferred you the one crore that we discussed over the phone. It should be hitting your account now.”
Ranveer got a text alert. He checked it. The amount had been credited to his account. He nodded, “Pleasure doing business.”
“Wait a minute.”
“What is it?”
“How about some fun?”
Ranveer shrugged his shoulers. “What did you have in mind?”
“A small wager. Your bloodhound drank the Fotura. Let my Rahul drink one from my supply, and let’s have a sparring match between both of them. If your fighter wins I’ll pay you an extra crore. If mine wins you have to give me one more case of Fotura. What say?”
Ranveer considered it for a moment. “You are on.”
Suketu handed Rahul a vial of the blue liquid, which Rahul drank without any prompting. He was amazed by what Kiran just did.
Ranveer and Suketu stood at the side with their backs facing the window. The two fighters stood opposite each other in their respective fighting stances “Begin!” Suketu shouted out loud.
In two seconds, Kiran held Rahul’s head and snapped his neck.
Rahul’s body fell to the floor.
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“Rahul! No, how could this happen?!” Suketu checked if Rahul was still breathing, “Why didn’t the Fotura work for him the way it did for you?” he asked Kiran. But Kiran was busy retrieving a gun from one of the unconscious guards lying in the corridor.
Ranveer responded, “That’s because Kiran has never used Fotura their entire life. They are all-natural. Don’t worry, your man isn’t dead.”
Kiran handed over the gun to Ranveer, who quickly shot Rahul in the back. “But he is now.”
“No, that can’t be. If so, that means Fotura doesn’t work.”
“Of course, it does. One out of ten times…But what I gave you wasn’t really Fotura. Just water with blue dye…”
“Why, you basta-”
Rahul shot Suketu in the head, killing him instantly.
The two of them walked across the unconscious guards and left the room.
***
Team Transferance, which consisted of only four members now, reached Pune in Cyrus’ Mercedes. It had been a little over two weeks since Nura left Robin, Cyrus, Aditi and Dante to fend for themselves.They were managing without her, but their work wasn’t up to the mark. It was even harder since Aditi was undergoing her detox and was only entering other bodies in absolute emergencies. It was also because of the detox that Aditi’s emotions were resurfacing, which coupled with the news of Dhwani’s death, put her in a state of perpetual gloom. She blamed herself in part for not aiding Dhwani despite being fully aware of her depression. In guilt, she immersed 273
herself in researching on depressing and even read Steve Goldblum’s
‘The Little Book on Dealing with Depression and Anxiety’ cover-to-cover.
Through Cyrus’ research they were able to learn that a man named Ranveer Kapadia was travelling across cities claiming to be selling Fotura in the black market. They also tracked down his credit card usage and found out he was living at a hotel in Pune. Although they knew where he was, they had no plan in place. They decided to book a room on the same floor as his and play it by ear.
They checked into the room at about 12.30 p.m. Once inside the hotel room, Aditi entered the body of the bellhop who carried the bags to their room. She then gathered a tray and some coffee from the pantry and brought it up to Ranveer’s room. The door was opened by a man, or a woman, or neither – Aditi couldn’t tell for sure. There was a man in a bathrobe sitting on the bed, whom she recognized from photos Cyrus showed her as Ranveer “Did you order some coffee?”
“No. We did not.” Saying this they closed the door.
Aditi went back to the room where Robin, Cyrus and Dante were waiting for her. “How did it go?” Cyrus asked.
“Weird. Ranveer didn’t answer the door. It was someone else…
Seemed androgynous. But Ranveer was in the room.”
“Did the he-she look like this?” Cyrus asked, showing Aditi a photo on the screen.
“Yes, it was.”
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“Yeah, it’s Kiran Sharma…A hired assassin. During my research, I did hear whispers that he or she was working with Ranveer fas a full-time bodyguard. But I wasn’t sure. Kiran isn’t one to be trifled with.”
Aditi was impressed with Cyrus’ research skills.
“I guess it’s my turn now.” Robin said as he lay on the bed and closed his eyes. He focused in the direction of Ranveer Kapadia’s room.
Memories of Ranveer Kapadia hit him. He learnt that Ranveer had indeed been responsible for the destruction of NCL. Ranveer had stolen Fotura from there, but the quantity was too small – barely more than half a litre. He stole the data from the NCL computers and handed over both –the stolen drugs and the data to his own personal research team who tried to reverse engineer it in a lab at Bangalore.
Ranveer was smart. He actually sat with the research team and understood the progress and challenges in synthesizing the drug.
They had come really close but he needed funds to continue. That’s when he got an idea. Word was already spreading in the black market that he was in possession of Fotura. He decided to go around taking money under the pretext of selling the drug, and eliminating the buyers once the money was received in his account. He hired Kiran Sharma, an assassin with special skills. Kiran was the perfect candidate since they perpetually resembled someone who was already on Fotura.
Once the memories were over, Robin found himself sitting in a bathrobe on his hotel room bed. He could hear someone in the shower. He decided to take this opportunity to report back to the others. He rushed out in his robe, walked across the hallway, from which a confused bellhop had just exited, and knocked rapidly on Team Transferance’s room door. Aditi answered, “What happened?”
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“It’s bad.” He said as he stepped in. Dante got alert on seeing the new visitor, but went back to resting when he realized it was just Robin.
“Ranveer doesn’t have Fotura on him right now. But he has most of the data required to prepare it. He has a team in Bangalore trying to reverse engineer the formula. What do we do now?”
Cyrus shrugged his shoulders, “Obviously, we have to destroy the samples he has….”
“It’s not that simple. He also has a lot of the data about it which he stole from NCL’s database. Plus, he’s studied it. He and two of the chemists in his team know a lot about Fotura. Even if we manage to destroy all of their own research and the data that they stole from NCL, there’s a still a chance they can arrive at the formula and could synthesize Fotura in the future -”
“What if we get him and his team arrested on something?” Aditi asked.
“They can still leak the information they have, especially the two chemists. It’s too big a secret to keep and the information is too valuable to waste. They would definitely sell the info or pass it along somehow. I think that so long as they are alive, there is always the danger of Fotura being synthesized by private parties or governments.”
Aditi understood the ethical dilemma. Robin was indirectly asking her permission to kill Ranveer. Cyrus and Robin both waited for her answer.
“Let’s go to Bangalore and destroy all traces of Fotura first. We will erase all the hard disks, the equipment, everything, and we’ll take 276
Ranveer with us. If we don’t know what to do with him once your twenty-four hours in his body are done, then I will possess his body.”
“Ranveer Kapadia is a wanted criminal and it isn’t possible anymore for him to travel by flight – international or domestic. You guys go ahead by flight. I’ll catch up.”
Aditi waited for Cyrus to object to this idea and was mildly surprised when he didn’t. Therefore, she had to say, “No, Kiran will come looking for you. It isn’t safe. You better travel with us. Also, we’ll need Ranveer’s memories to draw up a plan on infiltrating the lab.”
***
In order to avoid bumping into Kiran Sharma, Robin – who was in Ranveer Kapadia’s body, escaped the hotel from the window. He met up with Aditi, Cyrus and Dante in Cyrus’ Mercedes.With all the restroom and food breaks the entire road trip took a little over twenty-two hours. Cyrus and Aditi took shifts driving. Robin never droves, he avoided it ever since the collision that killed his family. Cyrus made the motel bookings en route where they could set up base. They also devised a plan in which Aditi would take charge of Ranveer’s body from Robin and she would enter the lab and direct the chemists and their staff to destroy the equipment and erase the hard disks under the pretexts that they were about to be busted by law enforcement. Cyrus would wait for them in the motel room. Robin and Cyrus tried to bring up the issue of how to deal with Ranveer once they were done, but Aditi avoided the topic.
Unbeknownst to the others, she sent Nura a text which read as under: 277
‘Hi. We are coming to Bangalore and should be arriving by 11 a.m.
tomorrow. We’ll be staying at the Shiv Sagar Motel and our room is booked under the pseudonym Ashok Kumar. Do come to visit if you are free.’
There was no response to the message.
They reached the parking lot of Shiv Sagar motel, got out of Cyrus’
Mercedes and walked towards the lobby. The parking lot was an abandoned one, which was in accordance with the décor of the motel.
Aditi and Robin led the way while Cyrus pulled out the red suitcase for Aditi’s body from the trunk and followed them.
“So, we’ll spend some time in the room until Robin has an escaping-episode. Once I take over Ranveer’s body…” Dante had begun barking loudly out of nowhere. Aditi turned around to check what had happened. She stopped in her tracks, which caused Robin to stop as well. He followed Aditi’s line of sight and saw a stern Kiran Sharma standing upright. At Kiran’s feet was Cyrus lying motionless on the ground with the red suitcase lying next to him.
“Cyrus!” yelled Aditi but she hesitated to go to him. Kiran could take her out in a second.
Dante continued to bark at Kiran, until Kiran looked him in the eyes.
For some reason Dante became calm and quiet. Kiran then turned to the other two, “Don’t worry, he’s just unconscious.”
Robin quickly realized he had to get into character, “Kiran, what do you think you-”
“Don’t bother. I know you aren’t Ranveer. You are the one they call Kalki.”
‘There’s only one thing to do.’ Aditi thought as she was about to shut her eyes to enter Kiran’s body. Without any indication from her, Robin got 278
ready to defend Aditi while she prepared for the transferance and to catch her body when it fell to the ground.
“There’s no need for that.” Kiran yelled. Aditi opened her eyes. “I come in peace.”
She looked at Kiran from head to toe. “If you come in peace then let my friend look after Cyrus.”
Kiran nodded.
“Robin, put Cyrus in the red suitcase and check in. Go to the room and take care of him. Take Dante with you. I’ll join you upstairs, shortly.”
“Are you sure?” he asked without taking his eyes off Kiran.
“Yes, go now!”
“I’d rather speak to Kalki if that’s okay.” Looking at Ranveer.
“We both are Kalki.” Aditi replied immediately.
Kiran turned to her and nodded indicating that Aditi was worthy of having a conversation with them. “I had deduced from the news reports that there were two of you. It’s nice to know that my theory was correct.”
Meanwhile, Robin approached Cyrus’ body, unzipped the suitcase, placed Cyrus’ body inside and closed the suitcase, all the while maintaining eye contact with Kiran. He dragged the suitcase out of the parking lot, which was difficult since he was already wearing his backpack stuffed with his essential supplies. When he noticed Dante wasn’t following him, he beckoned for him and Dante dutifully obeyed.
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Kiran and Aditi stared at each other, maintaining a poker face. Kiran was the one who broke the silence.
“I don’t want to get in your way. I know what will happen if Fotura gets into the hands of the public. So many people with superhuman abilities. That would be chaos.”
“Then why follow us here?”
“I just wanted to make sure Ranveer was safe, and that he will continue to be safe. I want your word that he won’t be harmed. That’s it.”
“What is he to you?”
“Nothing. He just hired me. I am under a contract with him. Or at least I was… But I’m resigning now. Not just from his employment but from the entire protection scene.”
“What will you do?”
Kiran let out a soft chuckle which was the closest thing to an emotional response that Aditi was able to elicit from them. “I don’t know, I am thinking of taking a small break, might travel a bit. But let’s not digress, do I have your word that Ranveer will not be physically harmed?”
“If he’s just an employer, then why do you care?”
“He was different. The only one who didn’t look at me weirdly and who stood up for me, although I didn’t need anyone standing up for me.”
“My colleague Robin told me a bit about you.”
“He researched me?”
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“Didn’t have to. Once he entered Ranveer’s body he was able to see his memories. We know what your abilities are, but I don’t know anything about you. Who trained you? Are your abilities even natural? And why…”
“I think we both have a lot of questions about each other’s abilities…
But let’s talk about it some other time. I’m sure you and I will meet again someday. People like us can’t avoid each other.”
“People like us?”
“Do we have a deal or not? About Ranveer?”
Aditi wanted to probe further but Kiran didn’t seem in the mood to divulge. “I don’t kill people. No harm will come to Ranveer. You have my word.”
Kiran nodded. “You want a lift to the lab?”
“I have to wait for my colleagues.”
“You don’t need them. You don’t even need to use your abilities. You and I can do it together. Come on, we’ll take my car, go in and be out in about twenty minutes. Hey, don’t worry, I don’t kill either.”
For some reason Aditi could not say no to Kiran, although she was against the idea. This was perhaps because she was terrified of them.
She followed Kiran to the car. Kiran drove as she sat in the passenger seat. As soon as they started, she called Cyrus over the cell. When it was answered she heard Ranveer’s voice on the other side, “Hi Aditi, Robin here. All okay?”
“Yes Robin. Listen, Kiran and I are going ahead to the lab. Need you to take care of Cyrus.”
“You and Kiran?”
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“Yeah, it’s a bit hard to explain, I will tell you everything once I’m back. In case you have an escaping episode,”
“I’ll manage. I know the drill. I will tie myself or use anaesthetic.
Don’t worry, I’ll figure something out.”
“Okay. Take care.”
“You too.”
They both hung up. Robin looked at Cyrus who was lying on the bed.
He always felt a contempt for Cyrus, although he didn’t understand why. Hewas clear that it wasn’t jealousy. Robin admired Aditi, but like a mentor. There was no logical reason for his contempt.
As he pulled out the rope from his backpack and wondered what it was about Cyrus that he despised,] he felt a feeling of uneasiness.
Robin was having an episode. He quickly rummaged through his bag and pulled out his bottle containing his customized anaesthetic and a handkerchief. He soaked the handkerchief in the liquid and sniffed it.
He knew he only had a few seconds to perform the transferance and enter the body of someone in the neighbouring rooms, but he accidently injected too much. He began feeling dizzy and he fell on the bed, right next to Cyrus. Robin could hear Dante barking, but the sound of his barking began to deafen.
29. Their Guru
I was given a boon in the form of the five crystal Lingams and the Soundaryalahiri which was written on a palm leaf. However, no boon is without challenge. As I descended Mount Kailasa, Nandi, the sacred bull and guardian of Kailasa saw me with the Lingams and the Soundaryalahiri. He thought I was stealing them!
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He charged towards me. I managed to dodge, but a part of the palm leaf was caught in one of his horns and it tore half-way.
Nandi’s eyes fell on the torn palm leaf stuck on his horn and got so mesmerized with the fifty-one stanzas of Soundaryalahiri contained in it that he continued to run, forgetting about me entirely.
I left with the five crystal Lingams and the other forty-nine stanzas of the Soundaryalahiri. I was sad that I lost half of it.
Since I had not opened it, I had no idea what the missing stanzas were. I prayed in my sleep, where Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi came before me and recited the verses that I had lost. I woke up, content.
A fourteen-year-old Gangadhar was sitting with his legs folded in a huge stone hall facing his guru – Guru Parada. Guru Parada, known as “Guruji” by the people of the village including his son and nephew, sat on a stone slab one meter above ground level with his one leg folded and one leg dangling down the front side of the slab. On Gangadhar’s right was Vimal, another disciple who was also draped in orange robes. Their backs faced the door of the hall which opened to the village of Shankarpur in the kingdom of Gwalior. On either side behind Guruji, there were two doors which led to the inner-chamber of the temple, which housed a seven-feet tall idol of the goddess Durga.
The Temple was open to the public, but there were barely more than two or three worshippers there at a time, except during festivals when the place was packed. Guruji stayed at the temple most of the time and only occasionally visited the hut in which his wife lived along with his nephew – Gangadhar, and son – Vimal.
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On that particular day, Guruji was giving a sermon to the children on the limitless power that lied in every living being. He gave the children examples of fakirs who were buried for decades and unburied years later only to be found alive. He spoke of Sanyasas who had developed the skill of walking on water. Lastly, he gave a dozen examples of sages who meditated for years till the Gods themselves descended from heaven to grant them boons. This included the story of Sage Uttanga who was granted a boon by Lord Krishna that he would never be thirsty. Guruji narrated the tale of Bhasmasur for hours- who was granted the power to burn up and immediately turn into ashes anyone whose head he touched with his hand.
The boys listened to these stories with skepticism. Yes, they knew that their Guru was able to transfer his soul temporarily to another body.
But that was the only super-natural occurrence they observed in their lives. Gangadhar, in particular, knew that simply because one story was true, it did not mean that they all were. ‘ Why would anyone who was given a boon wish for anything except immortality? Wishing that you would never feel thirsty –what a joke!’ he thought.
Guruji had a deep, baritone voice and as he spoke his voice echoed throughout the ante-chamber. The resulting tranquility was enough to put anyone in a trance. Gangadhar could swear that even the eight stone pillars of the chamber vibrated in complete harmony with the sound waves bouncing off the stone walls. Guruji spoke in the language of the Gods – Sanskrit.
The sermon ended. However, the children were not given leave to disperse. Gangadhar did not know whether it was because of the exceptionally beautiful weather or the fact that Guruji had added extra ganja in his pipe that day – but for some reason Guruji decided to 284
show off some of his skills to the disciples. He asked the children if they wanted to see something special. The children nodded. Guruji then closed his eyes and began taking deep breaths. Gangadhar watched closely. He knew something very interesting was about to happen. At the same time, he was afraid. Whenever Guruji went into a meditative state there was a chance that he would enter someone else’s body. It had been a long time since Guruji ever entered Vimal or Gangadhar’s body, but he could choose to do so any time. Vimal and Gangadhar both assumed that he refrained from doing so out of respect for their privacy. Gangadhar did not want to risk it. He had done some things that were specifically against the rules set by Guruji and if Guruji were to read his thoughts and find them out, he would surely be punished. With Vimal’s help, he began developing a mental technique by which he would try and suppress certain memories. He was able to successfully suppress certain memories from Vimal but he wasn’t sure if the technique would work when Guruji took over his body. He had no other option but to try his luck. Whenever he would see Guruji meditating, he would prepare his mind to suppress the incriminating memories.
Suddenly, Gangadhar found himself standing in the open field outside the temple. He looked around in shock and bewilderment.
Had Guruji just taken over his body and led him outside? If so, what would be the novelty in that? He had seen Guruji take over people’s bodies countless times.
“Gangadhar!” came a voice from above. Gangadhar looked up, above the roof of the temple. It was Vimal. When they saw each other, they instantly realized what had just happened. Gangadhar rushed back inside the temple, and Vimal climbed down using the grooves in the 285
carvings on the beams for foot placement. Gangadhar climbed up the steps of the temple and Vimal climbed down the temple and they both reached the temple door at the same time. They saw Guruji still sitting in the same place, resuming to smoke his pipe, with a smug grin.
“Guruji, how did you do that?” Gangadhar asked enthusiastically
“You took over both our bodies at the same time!?”
With one hand Guruji beckoned both of them to sit and after taking a long drag, he began to explain, “I hope you children found that entertaining. There is a very thin line between a man who is worshipped and a man who is chased away by stones. If I were to tell the people the full extent of my power, no doubt there would be those who would try to finish me off in fear of me ever misusing them.”
The children hung onto every word.
“My younger brother, Pancha and I both studied ‘ parakayapravesavidya’
– the art of transferring one’s soul to the body of another. When our parents died, we both decided to leave our house and move into the forest. Within a short time, news had spread about two sages with the power to enter other people’s bodies. We drew the attention of Man Singh Tomar - the then ruler of Gwalior. He summoned us to his palace. We didn’t want to agitate the King so we duly complied. We thought he only wanted us to present our skills. But when we went to the palace, we weren’t permitted to meet the King, but rather were interviewed by his ministers. It’s then that we realized that the only reason we were called was so that they could ascertain whether we could use our powers for the good of the kingdom. It also struck me that the King had refused to see us in person because he was afraid of us.
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“My younger brother and I both told the council of ministers that we were ascetics and that we would never engage in politics or war, whether it be for the kingdom of Gwalior or against it. They were not happy but at the same time they were satisfied that we would not use our powers against the kingdom. They offered us a special status by giving us houses in this village which is part of Gwalior kingdom.
Obviously, it was so that we could remain under their supervision and to ensure that we never allied with any rival kingdom.
“We accepted the offer since we were both thinking of settling down anyway. At this village we both got married. Two years later Gangadhar was born to my brother and his wife. A year after that Vimal was born. As you know, in the same year Pancha and his wife both passed away. After that, I developed the ability to split my soul into multiple parts. I have experimented with the power and have been able to occupy more than one thousand three hundred people at a time. But until today I have never told anybody about the soul-splitting ability. You two are the first. Imagine controlling multiple bodies simultaneously. With self-training and practice I could take over tens of thousands of people and be my own army as well as my own subjects. I could control the population, the economy –
everything. That’s why I had to keep it a secret from the world. I just could not….”
Gangadhar, whose eyes had by now lit up like diyas16, interjected,
“Could you see the memories of all the people whose bodies you entered?”
16 Oil lamp made out of clay.
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“Yes” replied Guruji, “I could possess all subjects known to mankind.
Since I would not be limited to only one human brain, I would not have to worry about having an overload of knowledge and I would not have headaches.”
“And you could live forever, right? Even if your original body were destroyed?”
“Theoretically, yes. But you can do that even without soul-splitting. If your soul were possessing another body while your original body was destroyed, you could -”
“Yes, but if any of the body’s occupied by the soul had a sudden death, then the soul would die. If there were no time for you to transfer your soul to another body, and let’s say a huge boulder fell on you, or you were hit in the head by an adversary, then you would die.
Just like my father did. But with the soul splitting technique that won’t be a problem since thousands of people couldn’t die a sudden death simultaneously. It would be true immortality. Plus, you could take over every leader in the world and…”
“And if I were to take over everyone then that would be playing God.” Guruji interjected aggressively, “If the Gods wanted men to be puppets, then we would be controlled by him all the time. But God lets us live, only guiding and nudging us when required. Also-”
Guruji took another drag from his pipe “your father didn’t die because he didn’t have time to transfer to another body. Your father and I both never wanted to take over other people’s lives. And we both never wanted to live beyond our time. I know the soul spitting technique, but I refuse to use it to prolong my life. Our souls have to pass on to the other world so that the cosmic cycle can continue. None of us are above that.”
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“How does one do the soul splitting technique?” Gangadhar inquired, not wanting Guruji to proceed with another long-drawn sermon.
“It cannot be taught.” Guruji sighed with exasperation, “I will tell you more about it some other day.”
Vimal and Gangadhar were dismissed.
Guruji never discussed the soul slitting technique again. Gangadhar and Vimal occasionally tried to probe more into it, but he never disclosed anything.
***
“You are getting married too young.” Gangadhar told Vimal as they walked around the vast paddy fields at the outskirts of the village, after their archery lessons.“We are sixteen. All other men our age are already married” Vimal responded. “Also, Devika’s parents have been pushing for the marriage ever since our parents got us engaged four years ago.”
“Your carnal desires cloud your judgment.”
Vimal was offended “It is not a carnal desire for which I am getting married. Besides, Devika and you both know that engaging in such activities would mean dishonouring one of our precepts. ‘No sexual activity for seven years’. That’s what we promised Guruji. There are still two years remaining.”
Gangadhar let out an exasperated sigh.
“Who are you to taunt me about carnal desires anyway?” Vimal responded “You, who visit a brothel outside the kingdom every time you say you are going on a pilgrimage.”
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Vimal smirked. “I heard a rumour, but you just confirmed it.”
“Are you going to tell Guruji?”
“What makes you think I haven’t already?”
Gangadhar shot him a dirty look.
“I haven’t… Although if he were to ask me then as per the precepts, I would be compelled to tell him the truth. You are just lucky he hasn’t entered your body recently otherwise he would know each and every one of your misdeeds. Like how you took over the body of the kingdom’s treasurer and made him drink so much tree sap that he had diarrhea for two weeks.”
“The treasurer was a mother beater and a thief. All I did was pass justice on him. Something Guruji should be doing” Gangadhar stopped walking to take a deep breath and admire the beauty of the fields. “Vimal, don’t you think someone with Guruji’s powers should take steps to ensure that our society functions smoothly. I have time and again tried to convince him to use his powers or at least allow us to use ours’ to bring about a positive change. We deserve to be kings.
Especially with the soul splitting technique, we could rule the world without even spilling a drop of blood. We would simply have to take over anybody who opposed us. There would be no need for any conflict. Our world would be a utopia.”
“Not this again! What would be the point of that? It would be a temporary solution. We would just be a crutch for society. They would never be able to function properly without us.”
“Why would they have to function without us?”
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“Come on, we would have to die eventually.”
“I don’t see why we would have to.” remarked Gangadhar as he turned his back and continued to walk.
***
Months later, an epidemic broke out in Shankarpur village. Vimal and Devika were both infected. Gangadhar and his wife, Uttarika stayed with Vimal and Devika the entire time and tended to their needs. Each day their condition worsened. It was clear that they did not have too many days left. Guruji was kept apprised of their condition, but he never even once came to visit them. Gangadhar begged Vimal to use the soul-transfer technique to possess another body, so that he may continue to live even after his physical body succumbs to the disease.“What good would that do, Gangadhar?” Vimal asked “Devika cannot perform the soul-transfer technique, and I have no interest in living without her. I may have only been able to live with her for a few short months… but I definitely intend to die with her.”
Gangadhar never breached the subject again. Vimal and Devika both died on the same day. That very night Gangadhar rushed to the temple.
***
“You wretched scum!” Gangadhar shouted as he entered the temple.“What did you say?” Guruji bellowed. He had just sat on the ground to have his dinner, which was laid out on a banana leaf.
“You have become so detached from your family and society that you no longer feel anything. Despite knowing that your song and 291
daughter-in-law were close to death you couldn’t be bothered to take a twenty-minute walk to visit them.”
Guruji sighed. “My presence will make no difference. Only God can save them now.”
“God hasn’t saved them. They both died a half an hour ago.”
On hearing this news Guruji stopped in his tracks and closed his eyes.
He sat there as if his life had just left his body.
“What? Why don’t you speak now?” Gangadhar continued.
Guruji opened his now watery eyes. “Leave.”
“What?”
“I have lost one of my sons and you have done nothing but bring me shame. I know all about your misdeeds. Leave now! Leave this village and don’t you dare ever come back. And if I ever hear you misusing your powers then I will myself ensure the departure of your soul from this world.”
Gangadhar stormed off.
***
It had been days since Vimal’s death. Guruji grieved for a night then went about his daily routine. One day as Guruji was taking a bath at the banks of the Sindhu River, an arrow pierced the back of his shoulder. Before he could react another arrow flew towards him and pierced through his skull, killing him immediately.Gangadhar walked towards his lifeless body, and watched as the blood poured out from its body and mixed with the waters of the river. He touched the neck of the corpse to make sure he was dead. He 292
then threw Guruji’s body into the river along with his bow and remaining arrows and made his way to Guruji’s house.
***
Gangadhar hid in the bushes and watched Guruji’s wife, Uttarika, as she was going about her daily chores. Killing her would be a simple task for him. But there was something that had to be done first. He sat there meditating and in less than a minute he found himself in her mind. She had led a pretty ordinary life, and her days passed in doing chores. Gangadhar waited to find the information he was interested in, knowing fully well that there was a chance that she did not have it at all.In her memories he saw how Guruji and his younger brother, Pancha, both enjoyed a special status in Gwalior. Pancha got married immediately after the Guruji did, to a woman named Shamila. A year after Gangadhar was born Pancha got terribly sick and passed away.
After the funeral, Guruji came home late in the evening after attending his brother’s funeral. A one-year-old Gangadhar was wrapped in sheets and lying on the cot at the corner of their little hut. Guruji’s wife was eight-months pregnant at the time with Vimal, because of which she was unable to attend the funeral. Shamila was also three months pregnant, but she did not have the option of missing her late husband’s funeral. She left her first born child, Gangadhar, in Uttarika’s care.
“How was the funeral?” she inquired as she handed him a lota17 of water.
17 Polished brass water pot.
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“The worst has happened, Uttarika.”
“Something worse than what happened yesterday?”
“After I set fire to the funeral pyre, Shamila came to me and slapped me.”
“She slapped you?! How dare she?”
“Uttarika, there is something I have not told you.” Guruji took a deep breath, “I have told you about a technique in our family known as the soul splitting technique. Do you remember?”
“Yes, I remember.”
“I did not tell you how it is to be achieved. There are two ways, both of which require a huge sacrifice to be made. As you know, it is believed that our family are descendants of the children of King Amaruka, who were conceived during the month when his body was possessed by the great Sanyasa. This is why we have called ourselves
“Amarukas”. For centuries, our powers laid dormant until one of our ancestors discovered the soul-transfer technique. Since then, they have experimented and tried to push the boundaries of their powers. As a result of their experimentation the soul-splitting technique was discovered. Our mother had told Pancha and me that in order to achieve the power to split one’s soul, the soul of one person must be sacrificed and be absorbed by another. Then the one who has absorbed the soul of the other can split his soul and enter multiple bodies at the same time.”
Uttarika listened intently. She did not know where Guruji was going with the discussion, but she found it fascinating nonetheless.
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“Needless to say, both the soul-donor and the soul-donee must be Amarukas and they both must be proficient in the soul-transfer technique. The more proficient they both are, the more the number of bodies the merged soul can possess simultaneously. For the soul absorption, the soul-donor must voluntarily and willingly surrender his soul to the soul donee. Or at least so we thought…. On her deathbed our mother told us one more method by which the soul absorption could be done by taking another person’s soul - by force.
But that is not relevant for now.”
“What does this have to do with today’s funeral?”
“Yesterday, I was at Pancha’s house. He was breathing his last...”
“No!” shouted Uttarika in disbelief, she seemed to have drawn a conclusion already. “No, please tell me that you didn’t!”
“Do you think I could? No, I didn’t. Not by force. Pancha himself said that he wanted to merge with me. He thought that if he merged with my own soul, he could attain a state of tranquility and that both our souls could attain moksha together. I tried to talk him out of it, but deep down even I could not see myself being parted from him.
Finally, I acquiesced. I put my hands on his chest and let him transfer his soul to me. The merging was a success.
“Little did I know that Shamila had at some point walked into the room and was standing at the door, observing Pancha’s dead body. I don’t know how much she had seen. Without saying a word, she walked slowly towards his body. She then placed her head on his torso and cried profusely. I didn’t think she saw anything. But I felt guilty, so I rushed out of the house instead of staying there to pacify her.”
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Guruji took a sip from the lota and continued, “But today at the funeral her emotions were suddenly triggered. It was as if watching her husband’s funeral pyre brought her out of a coma. She told me that she had seen everything. She thought I had taken Pancha’s soul by force. She slapped me and ran away.”
“And you let her go?!” Uttarika bellowed.
“What else could I do?”
“You could have stopped her. What good are your powers if you do not use them at such times?”
“No, would I have been able to convince her? Maybe. But if I took over her body then surely, she would never trust me again. At least now there is a chance she may come back some day after she returns to her senses.”
“But still. For her to go out in that condition. How will she give birth and raise her second child all alone? And how could she leave her first child behind?”
Guruji shrugged his shoulders.
“I do not even blame her.” Uttarika continued, “How would she know that you did not take Pancha’s soul by force? If I were in her place, I too would have made the same assumption. That poor thing is too afraid to come back for Gangadhar.”
“It is not possible. I could not have taken Pancha’s soul by force. There are only four places where such a thing would be possible.”
“Where?”
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“At the four Mathas 18 founded by Shri Adi Shankar himself-Govardhanmaṭha Pīṭhaṃ in the East, Sringeri Śārada Pīṭhaṃ in the South, Dvāraka Śārada Pīṭhaṃ in the West and Jyotirmaṭha Pīṭhaṃ in the North. Our mother had told Pancha and me about it. Even she did not know what was so special about these places. But when Pancha and I visited one of the Mathas even we felt that there is a certain aura to the place. When we were there, we felt that our soul-transfer powers had been amplified. It was no stretch to believe that we could extract anybody’s soul from their body at such a place.”
“Anybody’s?”
“Yes, at any of the Mathas, an Amaruka can extract the soul of any other person, Amaruka or otherwise. Of course, he cannot absorb the soul of any other person. Soul merging is only possible when both souls belong to Amarukas. But the extraction can only be performed during the full-moon, when the moon is directly above that particular Matha.”
Gangadhar had seen all that he needed. He scanned her entire memories to make sure that there was nothing else important. When he was done, he picked up a nearby knife and stabbed the body he was possessing in the stomach. After he watched Uttarika’s bleeding body for a while, he returned back to his own body which was lying in the bushes outside the house. He stood up, dusted himself and walked away, while Uttarika screamed for help.
***
18 Hindu monastery.
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Gangadhar threw the jute sack on the ground and let the young man crawl out from inside it. They were in a dark room with stone walls that had Sanskrit scriptures on it. It was night and there was nobody else around.
“Who are you? What do you want?” the young man asked frantically.
Gangadhar did not answer. There was no point in talking to a simpleton like him. He placed his hands in front of him, facing his palms towards the man whom he had kidnapped and gathered his faculties. In just a few seconds the man froze and fell flat on the ground. A glowing bluish-white fluid-like substance began to leak from his torso and make itself towards Gangadhar’s palms. Once the entire substance was out of the man’s body, Gangadhar held it in his palms and examined it. He took the substance near his chest and tried to gather his faculties again, but was unsuccessful. He could not absorb it. After a long attempt to absorb the soul, he pushed it back towards the man. The man gasped and opened his eyes. Gangadhar watched as he struggled for breath and wriggled like a fish that had been taken out of the water. The man’s skin began to get back some of its colour.
Then Gangadhar had a change of mind. He once again lifted his hands and began extracting the soul. The man again became lifeless. This time, Gangadhar did not put it back or try to absorb it. He threw his hands upward and released the soul into the air. He watched as the fluid-like substance dispersed into the air. A soul that was created from apparently nothing went back into apparent nothingness.
***
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It had been a three months since Gangadhar had killed Guruji and his wife. He began doubting whether he could ever obtain the soul splitting abilities. There were two tasks he had to complete in order to achieve the feat. One was to have children and train them in the soul-transfer technique and absorb their soul someday. The other was to find his estranged brother and absorb her or his soul. The former was obviously the easier of the two. But he had to find a wife. He had slept with women in the brothel before and even had raped a woman once, but the women in the brothel knew how to keep themselves from having children and the woman he had raped had killed herself just a few days after the incident.
Using his Late Guru’s reference, he was able to fix a meeting with the Sarpanch of a village at Amravati. He had a young daughter who he wanted to marry off to someone from a reputed family. The news of Guruji’s murder at the Sindhu River had reached the sarpanch but nobody knew who the culprit was. The sarpanch had enormous respect for Guruji and would surely not turn down Gangadhar.
He carried supplies necessary for the trip and made his way from Chhatar to Amravati. The trip would take only a little over a fortnight, but was quite dangerous. To reach Amravati, Gangadhar had to pass by dense forests which were inhabited by wild animals and thieves.
Thieves weren’t really a problem for Gangadhar, since he could use the soul-transfer technique on them. But animals were a huge threat.
Guruji had told them a story that one of their ancestors had tried to enter the body of a crow once. The ancestor and the crow both died.
They say that when you worry about only one thing and nothing else, then that one thing will surely happen. The same happened to Gangadhar. One hot afternoon as he was walking in a forest, a wild 299
boar came out of nowhere and attacked him. The boar was digging into his abdomen when a nearby hunter heard Gangadhar’s screams and rushed to the scene. The hunter threw a stone at the boar, and the boar fled immediately. Gangadhar lay there bleeding, while the hunter tried to tend to his wounds. Gangadhar knew that he would soon bleed to death and he closed his eyes to concentrate. After entering the hunter’s body, Gangadhar took a minute to bid farewell to his own dead body, then he picked up his supplies and left.
It was moot marrying the Sarpanch’s daughter. If he had to conceive a child while in someone else’s body he might as well impregnate the hunter’s wife.
***
Gangadhar lived his life through several people in the centuries to follow. He possessed the bodies of Indian kings and wealthy businessmen. He tried to conceive several children, but none of those children were ever able to perform the soul-transfer technique. As per the legend, the children of King Amaruka who were conceived when his body was possessed by the great Sanyasa carried the soul-transfer ability. By that same logic any children that he had while possessing the body of another man or woman ought to also be able to perform the soul-transfer technique. But it was not so. After repeated failed attempts and after killing almost a dozen of his own children in failed experiments at the four Mathas, Gangadhar tried to seek whether other Amarukas really exist. He traveled to different villages and cities in the Indian subcontinent. He did not succeed there. He tried to study other yogis and religious leaders. But none of them turned out to be Amarukas.300
With the invention of the telephone and with a revolution in means of transport, Gangadhar took advantage of globalization and tried to put himself in positions where it is easier for him to find Amarukas, simultaneously while having fun. He went to Germany and took over the body of a dictator. Using his ability, he set up a special task force to research the occult. He travelled across the world occupying different world leaders, film stars and billionaires. In the 1990s, when he was briefly in the body of an ex-Prime Minister of India, a failed assignation attempt was made on his life. This was a wakeup call for him. He realized that chances of sudden death are exponentially more in world leaders, and he decided to only take over non-controversial persons. But he always made it a point to read the news. He looked out for news about people suddenly doing something uncharacteristic.
Particularly, people who subsequently made statements that they had no memory or recollection of doing the uncharacteristic act. Such news was supremely rare, but he analyzed those rare cases carefully.
In this manner Gangadhar managed to live for almost five centuries.
Finally, he found what he was waiting for. Multiple reports of people making confessions or acting weird and later claiming that they were not in their senses at the time. When the Vikram Munshi verdict was announced, he was there, casing the area for someone in proximity who was not conscious. Outside the courtroom he found a girl, supposedly sleeping on the shoulder of her friend. He immediately knew he had found what he was looking for. The girl had a strong aura and he felt a warmth emitting from her. But to make sure, he entered the body of the friend with brown eyes and sparkling amber hair and scanned her memories.
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He learnt that the female Amaruka was named Aditi and that she along with the girl named Nura whose body he possessed were using her powers for furthering social causes. In Nura’s memories he found the ideal candidate whom he could take over, in order to conveniently enter and exit Aditi’s life. The very same day he tracked down her childhood friend Cyrus, with whom she was in touch and entered his body. He contacted her immediately and flew over to Delhi to meet her.
They met at a gastropub named ‘137, Hauz Khas’. There, he spiked her drink and when she was dizzy, he took her home, undressed her and laid her down on the bed. When she was in a drugged state, he entered her body for five seconds and scanned her memories. He had to go back into Cyrus’ body immediately to prevent Cyrus from oddly reacting to a being in a bedroom with an undressed Aditi.
The next morning, he fed Aditi a concocted story of how she got drunk and displayed her powers to him.
There were many more startling memories such as planting a bomb at a café in Delhi and engaging a group of terrorists to take an entire school hostage. But Robin had seen enough…
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30. Their Reunion
I travelled to Assam, where I found several practitioners of black magic. I tried to teach them the Universal Truth. However, some of them were not willing to listen.
Those who opposed my beliefs gathered together in a large circle around a fire and performed a black-magic ritual to drain my life-force till I died. They arranged for a messenger to check on me and update them about my deteriorating health.
The ritual took days and each day the messenger reported back to them that there was no change in my health. On the other hand, all the practitioners got sick. Some of them stopped the ritual in order to tend to themselves. A few of the more determinant ones kept at it, until they died in front of the fire. For some reason, the ritual had backfired and they were unknowingly draining their own life-force.
After the memories of Gangadhar, Robin also scanned the memories of the original Cyrus. Robin wasn’t even sure how much time had passed since he inadvertently entered the body of Cyrus which was already possessed by some hundred-year-old man named Gangadhar.
‘I have to concentrate and leave this body to warn Aditi.’
Robin began to focus. Slowly, he felt lighter and then heavier again.
He had successfully switched bodies. He could feel a cold fabric against his cheek. He attempted to open his eyes, but was unable to. ‘I probably re-entered Ranveer’s body. He must still be under the influence of the anesthetic. Still, I have to keep trying’. After numerous attempts, 303
Robin was able to open his eyes. But he was still unable to move his head. Through the corner of his eyes, he could see Cyrus’s body lying on his right. But it was what was on his left that confounded him. On his left was an unconscious Ranveer, lying on the bed as well. ‘Then who am I inside right now? And how come I couldn’t scan the memories of the person I’m inside? And why can’t I move?’
Just as these questions popped up in Robin’s mind, he found the answer right in front of him. It was a paw with golden fur. ‘Oh my God! I’m inside Dante! No wonder I can’t move; I don’t know how to operate a dog’s body.’ Robin tried and tried but could barely even flinch. ‘At least I didn’t have to go through his memories.’ Robin thought.
As Robin struggled, Gangadhar, who was possessing Cyrus’ body, was regaining consciousness. He sat upright on the bed and cursorily examined the room. He was shocked to find Dante and Ranveer lying on the bed with him. He shook his head and slapped his cheeks to wake himself up completely. He continued to fixate on Ranveer, with a puzzled expression. He then pulled out his cellphone from his pocket and made a call.
“Hello, Aditi. Yeah, where are you? Yeah, I’m fine. What happened exactly?... Kiran? Okay. But are you fine? Where are you? With Kiran, why.... Okay. You know what, I’ll be there in half an hour. Don’t worry, I'm fine. By the way do you have any idea where Robin is?
Ranveer’s body is lying unconscious here, I’m not sure if Robin is in it or not... Yeah, you know what, we can’t take risks. I can’t carry the body out with me to the car without being seen. I’ll just tie it up and leave a note. If it is Robin, he’ll see it and wait for us to come back and if it isn’t then we’ll cross that bridge when we reach it.”
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Gangadhar cut the call, picked himself off the bed and grabbed the rope which Robin had pulled out from his backpack earlier. He then proceeded to tie up Ranveers hands and legs. After ensuring that Ranveer was securely tied to the chair, Gangadhar’ eyes fell on the bottle and handkerchief lying next to Dante. He picked it up and placed it in his jacket pocket. All this while, Robin was trying to get up so that he could attack the perpetrator possessing Cyrus’ body. But he was unable to do so. Gangadhar finger-combed his brunette hair, adjusted his clothes and left Robin with his invisible struggle.
***
For Robin, hours passed. But they were Dog hours. In “real” time it was just over a few minutes. He tried to use the transferance to enter someone else’s body, but the motel was empty since it was off-season, and there was no one in any of the nearby rooms. The only person in the vicinity was Ranveer and he was unconscious as well as tied up. It was better to be in a conscious Dante’s body than in Ranveer’s restrained unconscious one. So instead of trying the transferance he tried to move while still in Dante’s body. Robin was able to stand, but immediately fell when he was trying to walk.At that moment, Robin closed his eyes in defeat. When he opened them, he continued to see pitch darkness. But something was different. In the darkness, he could see that his body was emitting light. And he noticed he was no longer in Dante’s body. It was his original body. The one he was born in and which he thought he lost forever. His body, which was suspended in the middle of that void, was emitting light. He looked in all directions, but he couldn’t tell one direction from the other. There was only darkness all around. All of a sudden, a voice came from behind. He turned around and was 305
surprised to find a familiar looking old man just six feet away from him. The man had a white beard and was wearing a saffron robe. He sat in a lotus position. Robin wondered where he came from since he was certain he had turned 360 degrees at least twice but didn’t see him before. The old sage was not sitting on anything in particular. The place did not have a floor. He was suspended in space just like Robin, such that he was at Robin’s eye level. He wore an expression of serene content on his face, similar to the one most spiritual gurus’ wear.
“Welcome.” The man greeted him. Robin opened his mouth to say something, but the old man interrupted, “Obviously you want to know who I am. Your second question will be where you are right now, but do either of those questions matter? Do you want to dwell on the present or focus on the future?”
Robin was silenced. He was also frustrated. He began to loath the man’s eternal smile, “Who are you?”
The man sighed, “I had hoped you had evolved beyond such questions, but perhaps I expected too much. I understand the world has become a very superficial place. If I had as many distractions as you do today, I don’t think I would have been able to make it here.”
Robin tried to look at the man more carefully “I know you, wait, you are Guru Parada!”
The man laughed. “Pancha, Parada, Aditi, Robin… These are just names. I am all. I am the One, I am Everything and also, I am also Nothing. While I am also you. Do you understand?”
Robin wasn’t interested in ciphers. “What is this place?”
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“If you didn’t understand my last statement, you definitely won’t be able to understand what this place is. Let us move on to the third question.”
Robin thought for a while, “Why am I here?”
“Excellent! Now we are getting somewhere. You are here because this is the moment, I have chosen to present myself to you. Knowledge of the Universal Truth is a state of “Oneness”. It is because of that Oneness that I am able to communicate with my descendants, such as you, nearly half a millenium after our physical body has perished. But listen carefully, for this will be the only instance during your life-time when we meet…”
Robin didn’t understand much, but he did understand that the old man’s next words were going to be of grave significance.
“Everything in life exists for a distinct purpose. And although it may not always be apparent, every purpose is the same – to continue life.
Even those beings that take life, in the longer scheme of things, help in prolonging the existence of life itself. I am here to show you a glimpse of your distinct purpose.” The man lifted his left hand straight out as though indicated towards something. Robin turned to his right and froze. Lying a few feet away from them was a girl lying in a pool of blood. On more careful inspection, he realized it was none other than Aditi. “Aditi!” Robin ran towards her, but she disappeared.
“That was just a glimpse of what is about to come. There is nothing you can do now, or even later for that matter… to change it.” the man informed him.
“You mean Aditi is going to die? Is that what you are here to tell me?
How does it happen? How do I stop it?!”
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“I just told you – you cannot. I am not here to stop what you just saw.
It will happen. I am here to prepare you for it.”
“Wh – I don’t understand. You are here to tell me she is going to die and there is nothing I can do about it?”
“Of course, there is something you can do about it. Like I said, you can prepare yourself for it and you can choose what to do after it has happened.”
“No, I don’t accept that-”
“Why would you want to save her? You are the one who does that to her.”
Robin was confused. “No! That’s a lie!” he shouted in rage, “I could never do that to her.”
“Don’t worry. You are not alone. There is another being who will share the burden with you. Together, you both will end the girl’s life.”
“I don’t understand. Why? … Why do I have to do that?”
“Because that is your distinct purpose… The reason I am before you right now.”
Robin tried to gather his thoughts “What if I choose not to?”
The man sighed again, “You will not have the luxury to make that choice. When the time comes, that choice will be made for you.”
Saying so, the man disappeared. Everything disappeared. Robin opened his eyes. He was back on the floor of the Bangalore motel. In front of him were his hairy paws. ‘That was a weird dream.’ He thought to himself. ‘No. It wasn’t a dream. Or was it? Doesn’t matter right now, Aditi is in trouble and I’m the only one who can help her.’ Robin took a deep breath and used his training with Aditi to sense the presence of 308
someone nearby on whom he could perform the transferance. Still, there was no one. He tried to remember his training sessions with Aditi. ‘Focus, Robin. Focus. You may be a different person every day. You may be a dog. But that does not change things. You are still Robin Pinto.
Nothing can change that.’ Robin stood on his four legs, and walked towards the door without hesitation. He tried to jump and reach the knob, but it was the round one and with his paws he struggled to get a proper grip of it, especially since he wasn’t accustomed to Dante’s body yet. He examined the room and tried to think of other possible solutions.
His eyes fell on the phone. ‘Should I dial room service? Will they come if they hear a bark or don’t hear a voice at all?’ Then his eyes fell on the sofa at the corner of the room, he saw Cyrus’ laptop. ‘ Yes. That’s what I can do.’ He ran towards the sofa and carefully placed his front paws on the top. Then he summoned all his strength and with his front paws pushing down as his hind legs lifted himself up, he managed to lift his body onto the sofa. The laptop was now right in front of him. He used his paws to hold it down while he tried to open it with his nose. It wasn’t an easy task, but after a minute he managed to open it. The next part was relatively easy. He pressed on the power button to turn it on. The laptop took a long time to load. Once the ‘Welcome screen’
disappeared, he used his paw on the mouse pad to try and open the browser. This was again a difficult task.
When the browser opened, he made multiple attempts to type the name of the website in the address bar. Finally, it appeared in the autocomplete. He selected it and moved on to the login page. He was absolutely relieved to find that Cyrus’ email address and password 309
was saved. He hit ‘Enter’, and reached the inbox. He hit “Compose”
and began typing.
***
Gangadhar saw Aditi and Kiran at the side of the road, a little away from the lab. He stopped the car in front of them and pulled down the windows.“How did it go?” he asked them.
“Amazing! I didn’t have to use the transferance. Kiran just barged and in seconds incapacitated everyone. We destroyed everything connected to Fotura, and that too without killing anybody!”
“Sounds great.”
Aditi turned to Kiran, “Thank you so much, once again. You made me realize something important. That I shouldn’t rely on my abilities too much. I don’t want my powers to be my crutches.”
Kiran bowed slightly, accepting the gratitude, “I’ll be on my way now.” Saying this they turned and walked back to their car.
“Why don’t you join us?” Aditi shouted with glistening eyes. This time it was Kiran who stopped in her tracks. “You have seen our work in the news. You know what we do… Join us.”
Kiran didn’t look behind. “I’ll think about it, Ms. Mukherjee. Like I said before, I’m sure we’ll meet again.” they said and walked off.
Aditi sat in the passenger seat as she watched Kiran walk away.
“So, mission successful?” Gangadhar said as he started the car.
“Yup.” She said with pride. “Hope you don’t mind. I’m going to take a small nap. This mission was extremely stressful.”
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She handed over her phone to him. “In case Robin calls, just answer it.”
Gangadhar placed the phone on the dashboard and continued driving.
After a couple of minutes, Aditi’s mobile buzzed. Gangadhar ignored it. One minute later it buzzed again. He took one look at Aditi’s to ensure she was asleep. He sighed and then decided to check her phone. He picked it up and unlocked it, to find two email notifications. The emails were from Cyrus’ account and both did not have any subject.
Gangadhar opened the first one received. It read “SRAY AWAY
FROM CYRUUS”. Gangadhar’s heart skipped a beat. He quickly went back and opened the second email. “CPME HOME Iam dsnte”.
He stared at the email. ‘ I’ve been made, ’ he thought to himself. The phone in his hand buzzed again, but this time it wasn’t emails, but a video call. He threw the mobile phone into his pocket and from the same pocket he pulled out the bottle of Robin’s customized anesthetic.
***
Robin, who was still in Dante’s body, wasn’t sure whether Aditi read his mails. Ranveer made a muffled sound and turned over… ‘He’s waking up. Now’s my chance.’ Robin thought as he jumped on top of Ranveer’s body and chewed on the ropes tied around his limbs. It took some time, but once it was done, he bit down hard on his leg. Ranveer woke up screaming. Robin then closed his eyes and took deep breaths.When he opened his eyes, he was in Ranveer’s body. Dante was trying to comprehend what had just happened. He saw Ranveer growling, but only for a second. He immediately stopped when he realized it 311
was Robin. As Robin rushed to the laptop, Dante followed him and sniffed his feet.
Robin opened the video conference software and called Aditi. There was no answer. He tried a second time, but to no avail. When all seemed lost, the door-bell rang. Robin rushed to open it hoping that it was Aditi. He swung the door open and was surprised to find another familiar face in front of him.
“Nura?!” he exclaimed.
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31. Their Showdown
I had turned thirty-two years of age. I knew the end of my life in the material world was coming to a close. I was prepared for it.
After all, every end was also a beginning.
One of my greatest fears during my youth was that my texts would be lost in time, and with them, my teachings of the Universal Truth. In order to prevent the same, I set up four monasteries in the North, South, East and West of India.
The monasteries themselves were merely structures made of stone.
But they stood as institutions of the Advaita Vedanta school of Hinduism which I preached. Through them, my teachings of the Universal Truth would last for ages… or so I hoped.
“Nura?!” Robin exclaimed.
Nura stood at the door, with a meek expression on her face. She wore a white shirt and a black leather jacket over blue jeans. Her left sleeve was tied into a knot.
“Hi, Aditi?”
“No. It’s Robin…uhh… Pumpernickel.”
“Oh, Robin. Hi, can I come in?”
“Um… No. We have to go.”
“Go?”
“Aditi’s life is in danger. I’ll explain on the way.” Robin stepped out and closed the door behind him. Unbeknownst to him, Dante had also 313
stepped out along with him. The three of them ran down the stairs, with Robin taking the lead. “You got your car?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll drive. Once we are in the car, I need you to keep calling Aditi’s mobile.” Robin told her. “Also, can you use the ‘Find My Phone’ app to track her?”
“Yes.” Nura replied while wondering and Robin began driving. Ever since the night he lost his wife and child he had been terrified of getting behind a wheel.
“Then do it!”
***
Aditi was slapped across the face. She opened her eyes, to find Cyrus bending over her. He was wearing a serious expression on his face.She was lying on a cold hard ground made of stone. She was in a small room, which was of considerable height. She couldn’t tell how high the ceiling went, but there were few feeble sun rays coming from a window behind her. The beam hit the wall opposite her, because of which she was able to make out that even the walls of the room were made of stone. There was a closed wooden door on her left.
“Cyrus? What happened?” she asked weakly. She tried to sit up straight, but realized that her hands were tied behind her.
“Don’t worry, relax. It will all be over soon. But yes, you do have to be conscious. It won’t work if you aren’t.”
“What won’t work? Why are my hands tied? Can you please untie them?”
“No. I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.”
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Gangadhar, in Cyrus' body, refused to answer. Instead, he tried to look outside the window, as the sunlight got dimmer.
“Cyrus? Answer –” Aditi stopped short. She thought to herself ‘ Maybe this isn’t Cyrus. Someone has entered Cyrus' body.’ She closed her eyes and began to breathe.
“There isn’t any point.” the man in Cyrus' body said, “Everyone in proximity is already dead.”
Aditi discovered that he was right. She tried to enter Cyrus' body, but was unable to do so.
“Who are you?”
“Me? Don’t you know? I’m Cyrus.”
“I know you aren’t. There are two souls inside you. Cyrus and yours.
That’s the reason why I can’t enter your body. So just spit it out.” She yelled.
“Ah yes. So, you figured it out. You can’t enter a body which already has two souls. It gets over crowded, so you can never be let in. Robin can though. That too only if he has an escaping episode. His soul manages to force its way inside. I always suspected that he could. But today that theory was confirmed. It’s nice to know.”
“Robin? Is he still inside you?”
“Oh no, he is in Dante’s body. Or at least he was. Who knows which body he must be in now?”
‘Dante?’ Aditi thought to herself. “Enough games. Tell me who you really are!”
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“It’s the truth, I’m Cyrus. Well, I may not be the Cyrus you knew from school. But I am the Cyrus that you have been dating for almost a year. I was the one who met you at ‘137, Hauz Khas’. I am the one who has been helping you on all your little adventures. I am also the one who has been sleeping with you. So, tell me, doesn’t that make me more of a Cyrus to you then the original Cyrus?”
Aditi panicked, “No! It can’t be. You’re lying.”
“Unfortunately, I’m not. In the last one year, you never met the original Cyrus. It was always me.”
“It’s not possible. You can’t possess a body for so long!”
“Speak for yourself, darling. I very well can. I have spent even longer intervals in bodies over the last few centuries.”
Aditi didn’t know what to say. She felt violated, confused and angry at the same time. “You can call me Gangadhar.” The man in Cyrus'
body said.
“Gangadhar? Who are you? What do you want?”
“Excellent question.” he remarked as he leaned towards her. “I want you, I mean- I want your soul. I already had your body and your heart, the soul is the only thing remaining, and frankly, it’s the only thing I care about.” He stood up straight again. “But we still have a few minutes left. There is a very short window during which we can do this.” He looked out of the window, as if waiting for something.
***
“It should be somewhere here.” Nura said, as she checked her phone.She, Robin and Dante had gotten out of her car on a highway near Hassan which was between Bangalore and Mangalore. Nura’s Find 316
My Phone app showed that the phone was somewhere on the road.
Dante trailed off a bit ahead and began barking. Robin and Nura ran towards him and found him sniffing on Aditi’s mobile phone. Nura picked it up and showed it to Robin. “She dropped her phone.”
“No. Gangadhar threw it out the window when he realized that it was traceable.”
“Are you serious!” Nura yelled. “You mean he’s taken her hostage?”
“No doubt.” Robin answered softly. He looked at the horizon where the moon had just begun to rise. “It’s a full moon night. I know exactly where he has taken her.”
“Where?”
“It’s one hour from here.” Robin said pensively as he rushed back to the car.
“Where is that?” Nura shouted as she followed him.
“Sringeri Śārada Pīṭhaṃ.”
***
“It is time.” Gangadhar told Aditi, as he helped her sit up right.“Don’t worry, this will be painless.”
He placed both his palms a few inches in front of her torso. Aditi felt light. Her body began to vibrate uncontrollably, just as Robin’s would during an episode. Her soul was being forcibly removed from her body. She tried to resist, but it was of no use. Aditi looked down at her torso as a bright bluish-white fluid-like substance came out from her torso. Aditi’s skin began losing its colour. Her pupils retreated upward and had almost disappeared. Then there was a loud ‘thud’
sound. Aditi gasped as she regained consciousness. In front of her 317
were Nura and Robin who had just barged in the door and were standing over Gangadhar. Gangadhar, in Cyrus’ body, was wriggling on the floor as Nura sank her Taser into his neck.
“Time to go.” Robin told Aditi as he helped her stand up.
“Nura, stop!” Aditi yelled.
Nura obeyed. “You don’t understand! This isn’t really Cyrus.”
“I know that! But if you kill him then the real Cyrus dies too.”
Nura just stood there looking at an unconscious Gangadhar with utmost contempt. Clearly, she was in two minds.
“Let’s just get out of here.” Aditi instructed as Robin undid the knot tied around her hands.
“We can’t just leave him here.” Nura retorted.
“We have no choice.”
“Let’s at least tie him up.”
“No, He can enter our bodies. Tying him isn’t going to solve anything.
We have to get out of here. That’s the best option at the moment.”
Nura and Robin both contemplated the suggestion and then nodded in agreement. They helped a weakened Aditi by propping her up from either side and walked out. They exited the Matha, where Aditi saw a couple of dead guards lying on the ground.
“Did he -” Aditi muttered.
“Yes.” Robin replied before she could finish the question. “He killed all the guards and cut off the CCTV feed.”
Aditi bent her head in shame.
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A little away from the exit of the Matha was Nura’s car. And sitting next to the car, was the loyal Dante, wagging his tail at the sight of the trio. Aditi was equally pleased to see him.
“Hold it!” came a voice from behind. The three of them turned around. It was Gangadhar, still in Cyrus' body, standing with his legs slightly apart, as though ready for a showdown. “Aditi, the moon is almost above us. Surrender, and I let your friends live.”
Aditi threw him a look of disgust. “There are three of us and you clearly are alone. There’s no way you are coming out on top.”
“Don’t make me laugh.” He replied with a smirk, “One of you can’t even perform a soul-transfer. And you two are newbies. I have been performing it for centuries. You cannot win.”
Robin interjected, “What’s the point of all that experience? We both know you can’t enter my body. There are already two souls in here.
You forget that I have seen your memories. I can see what you can do, and I know what you cannot.”
The smirk on Gangadhar’s face did not fade. “Maybe I can’t enter your body, but even you can’t enter mine. At least not by choice.”
“Why are you doing this?” Aditi probed, “What is this all for?”
Gangadhar looked at the moon, “I suppose we have a few minutes” he took a deep breath, “Ever since my original body was destroyed, I have been moving from one body to another. Initially, I made sure I only took over the bodies of people that mattered. Renowned leaders, wealthy industrialists, celebrities and so on. I was content. I had abandoned the idea of merging a soul with another.”
“Merging your soul?” Aditi was confused.
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Robin explained “At the four primary Mathas a person with the ability to perform the transferance can absorb the soul of another person who has the ability to perform the transferance. Once they do that, they can split their souls and possess multiple people simultaneously.”
Aditi was stupefied.
“Exactly. Like I said, I had abandoned the idea. But a few decades ago, I was in the body of one of India’s Prime Ministers. There was a failed assassination attempt on the PM by a naval officer. Ever since then I have maintained a low profile. I have only possessed bodies of insignificant beings. That incident reawakened my resolve to be able to occupy multiple bodies at the same time. Even if one of the bodies I was occupying suffered a sudden death, I would live on. From that day I diligently followed the news, looking for anything that indicated the existence of another Amaruka.”
“Amaruka?” Aditi was again puzzled.
“Someone with the ability to perform the transferance.” Robin clarified. There was no time to go into the history of sages and kings.
“I came across a few leads, but they didn’t lead anywhere. Then I heard news about officers who issued warrants against Vikram Munshi, and later claimed that they had no memory of it. I knew I had found the next Amaruka. And as Robin already knows, I tracked you down. I noticed that you were just a novice in using your abilities. But the way soul merging works is that the more proficient you were at the “transferance” prior to the merging, the more the number of bodies I could possess simultaneously. Thus, I needed to make sure you were honing your skills. I needed to nudge you in the right direction and I also needed to keep an eye on you to make sure you 320
didn’t recklessly get yourself killed. I did some research and found out about Cyrus. He was the perfect candidate. Using him, I was able to enter and exit your life as per my convenience. I was also able to influence your decisions, but then something unexpected happened…”
Aditi had a realization, “That’s why your voice was different over the phone sometimes. You were in different bodies…”
“Exactly. My plan was proceeding smoothly but this cuckold came out of nowhere and presented me with a difficulty.” Gangadhar nodded towards Roin. “I had to maintain a distance. If he had an escaping episode while I was around, he could enter me and my plan would be interrupted. That’s why I had to get rid of him. I also thought it would be a good opportunity to get rid of Nura as well, so that I would be the only one who could influence your decisions. I planted the bombs at Caprisa Café and I made sure you, Aditi, were on a date with me when I hit the detonator, so that I could ensure you weren’t anywhere near the bomb and also so that I had a perfect alibi. But alas, the bomb was found by another patron, and Robin didn’t even make it there in time. I didn’t even manage to kill you, Nura.”
Aditi and Nura stood there in shock.
“You? It was you?!” Nura yelled.
“Yes, it was. And you must also have guessed by now that I was the terrorist who briefly claimed to be your father. The entire attack on St.
Augustus High School was orchestrated by me, to avoid you meeting Cyrus’ parents. An unexpected bonus was that it ended up driving Nura away.”
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“Wait a minute.” Aditi interjected, “You took an entire school hostage just to avoid me meeting Cyrus’ parents?”
“Yes. You see, I told Cyrus’ parents that he was in Delhi permanently.
Each time I told you I was going back to Mumbai, I lied. In reality I was just running my own errands. I couldn’t let his parents and you get talking and risk you finding out the inconsistencies in my statements. In fact, once I realized his mother and you were chatting on social media, I had resolved to get both his parents killed. But I never got the time to get around to it… Anyways, we are running out of time. You’ll learn everything else once our merger is complete.”
“You are sick!” Aditi yelled, “You’ve killed countless number of people just so that you could continue living forever!”
“Shut up, Aditi! You, hypocrite!” Gangadhar yelled back. “How is my killing people different from you doing it?”
“That’s different!” Nura said assertively, “Aditi didn’t have a choice but to kill the Nine, they were about to kill a little girl who -”
“Oh, but I’m not talking about the Nine. I’m talking about those thugs who used to loiter close your house in Gurugram…Yes, Aditi, I saw that!…” Aditi winced as Nura turned to her with an expression of utmost horror “…This world is flawed… I should know, I’m exactly four hundred and seventy-three years old! I have seen more of it than all of you collectively. The human race demands supervision. Why do you think we Amarukas exist? Why were we given these gifts? You know the reason as well as I do. It is so that we could govern. Isn’t that what you all have been doing? Controlling judges, parliament members and so many others… Killing people! You all have spent the last couple of years doing the exact same thing I have been doing for 322
centuries. Your only objection, Aditi, is that you don’t want to merge with me. If you could absorb my soul, you would do it without a seconds’ thought. It’s just primitive self-preservation…And that’s what disgusts me. The lies you tell yourselves. Among all the shortcomings you humans have, the only one I cannot tolerate is self-delusion.”
Robin retorted, “You are the one in self-delusion. Don’t pretend as if you are doing this for anyone but yourself. I have scanned your memories. I know your intentions. You are after self-preservation yourself…And it’s unfair to the person’s whose bodies you occupy for so long periods. Cyrus didn’t do anything wrong, yet you’ve stolen more than a year of his life!”
“Unfair?! You want to talk to me about unfair?! You saw what happened to Vimal. Was that fair? My uncle made him supress his powers, and he died because of it. Its time we Amarukas lived up to our full potential. And soul-merging is the next stage of our evolution.” Gangadhar turned to look at which was about to descend completely. On the opposite side a slight glow of light could be seen.
“It’s almost dawn. Time for us to get back, Aditi.”
Taking advantage of the fact that Gangadhar’s eyes were no longer on them, Robin ran towards him and landed a blow to his face. Robin hoped the punch would knock him unconscious. But his plan failed.
Cyrus’ body was bulky and fit, and Ranveer’s body couldn’t match.
Gangadhar punched him back and Robin fell to the ground instantly.
Dante leapt on Gangadhar and bit his hand. Gangadhar didn’t resist.
He simply closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He collapsed on the ground. Aditi and Robin both looked at each other to see whose body 323
he had entered. Nura pulled out a pair of pointed tip scissors from her purse and held it up against her neck.
“Make any false move and I stab her.” He said, which confirmed Robin and Aditi’s suspicions that Gangadhar had entered Nura’s body. Dante stopped biting on Cyrus hand.
“If you kill her, you’ll die too!” Robin yelled.
“No. If I stab her in the neck, I will have plenty of time to enter another body, before she bleeds to death, don’t worry about me.”
Robin bent his head and gave Aditi a non-verbal message of ‘ I’m sorry.
But there is no other choice.’ Aditi nodded. “Okay. Let’s go. I’ll do as you say.”
“Great. Follow me, but from a distance.”
Gangadhar, now in Nura’s body, walked back to the Matha, all the while holding the scissor up to Nura’s neck. He crossed over Cyrus’
body which was moving about feebly. Aditi followed him. Dante watched on and growled.
“Dante, no!” Robin yelled, before Dante would attack them. Dante obeyed the order but continued to growl. Robin and Dante both watched helplessly as Aditi and Gangadhar disappeared into the Matha.
Robin got a sickening feeling. But it was not caused by the events that just transpired. He was having an episode. ‘Not now’ he thought to himself. ‘I had entered Ranveer’s body before. That’s why it’s already built a resistance against my soul and I’m being pushed out so early. How many times can I possibly keep making these kinds of miscalculations! ’ At that very moment, Cyrus turned to him and asked, “Who are you?”
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‘This is the first time the real Cyrus has ever spoken to me’ Robin thought, but he didn’t have time to muse over it. “I’m sorry about this.” he told Cyrus as he crawled towards him and touched his hand. For the second time in the last twelve hours, Robin entered Cyrus’ body.
Before Ranveer could say anything, Robin pulled out the bottle and handkerchief from Cyrus’ jacket and quickly poured his anesthetic onto the handkerchief before pressing it against Ranveer’s mouth.
Ranveer fell to the ground.
‘What is going on?’ Dante thought to himself.
***
“Lie down.” Gangadhar instructed Aditi, as he continued to hold up the scissors against the side of Nura’s neck. Aditi complied and closed her eyes. She used her last moments to think of a small prayer in which she expressed gratitude for her parents and her friends. She thought about whether she had any regrets, but only two came to mind – one was that she was notable to help Robin to permanently get a body, and the other was that she was unable to recognize Dhwani’s depression and save her on time.Amidst those thoughts, Aditi wondered why it took Gangadhar so long to begin the process of absorbing her soul. She opened her eyes and saw an expression of confusion on his face. At that moment she realized that since Gangadhar was in Nura’s body, he only had one hand, which happened to be occupied in holding the scissors.
‘This is my chance’ Aditi thought. She sat up right and placed her hands facing his torso. She focused on trying to identify and absorb Gangadhar’s soul. He, in turn, threw down the scissors and began absorbing her soul. A small amount of bright fluid emitted out of both 325
of them. Each of them was unable to pull out the other person’s soul, since their own soul was also being pulled out, thereby weakening them. But the apparent stalemate lasted no more than a few seconds.
Centuries of experience had made Gangadhar more proficient in the transferance. Gangadhar managed to resist the soul absorption and the fluid emerging from his torso began to retract. An evil smile appeared on his face as the colour appeared back on his face for a moment. But only for a moment.
Gangadhar stopped absorbing Aditi’s soul to turn back, and saw Cyrus behind him absorbing his soul from behind. Aditi didn’t understand what was going on, but she took advantage of the opportunity and continued absorbing Gangadhar’s soul. He yelled uncontrollably as his soul was being absorbed from both sides. In a matter of seconds, Nura’s body collapsed on the floor and the other two each had orbs of the bright bluish-white plasma in their hands.
They panted heavily as their eyes met.
“Cyrus?” Aditi asked.
“No. It’s Robin. Pumpernickel.”
“Oh, of course.” They both went back to staring at the orbs in their hands. “One is Gangadhar’s and the other is Nura’s.”
“Which do you think is which?”
“The one you are holding is Nura’s and the one I’m holding is Gangadhar’s.”
“How do you know for sure?”
“Can’t you sense it?”
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Robin closed his eyes. He was able to sense the energy emitting from both souls. Both felt familiar. For reasons even he did not understand, he was able to identify the one in his hands as Nura’s and the one in Aditi’s hands as Gangadhar’s. “You are right.” He said as he opened his eyes. He lowered his hands and placed the orb of light on Nura’s body. The light was immediately absorbed and Nura gasped as she awoke. She looked around and saw Cyrus holding her by her shoulders while Aditi was holding an orb of light.
“What the – What’s going on?”
“It’s me- Robin. We won. Aditi extracted Gangadhar’s soul.”
Nura sighed in relief as she took in this information. Aditi’s eyes were fixated on the soul in her hands.
“You can let that go.” Robin informed her. “If you raise your hands up and let it go upwards, it will be released. I’ve seen him do it when I scanned his memories.”
Aditi didn’t respond. Nura called her name, “Adi?”
“What if I don’t let it go?” Aditi muttered softly as she continued to stare at the soul. “What if I absorb it? I could achieve the immortality Gangadhar spoke of.”
“You can’t.” Nura protested, “If you did that, how are you any different from him?”
“The difference would be that I didn’t kill anyone to achieve the soul splitting ability. Think of all the good I could do. We wouldn’t be confined to using the transferance to change things only in India. We could expand our operations to every corner of the world. I could fix problems in different places at the same time.”
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“Is it worth the price?” Nura questioned. “Robin told me that soul binding was permanent. Could you deface your own soul that way?”
“A small price to pay. Isn’t it worth compromising my soul for seeking eternal peace? To have a world with no war, where everyone receives justice. I could create a paradise, and do you want me to let that chance go?”
“This is about Dhwani, isn’t it?” Nura asked somberly, which mildly startled Aditi, “I saw your post on Facebook. It’s tragic, the way she died. But there’s nothing you could have done. You think that by being in different places at once, Dhwani’s predicament could have caught your attention and you could have spare time to help her. But no matter how many people’s bodies you are possessing, you could still neglect such a case.”
“You don’t know that!”
Nura didn’t respond. Aditi moved Gangadhar’s soul towards her, but froze mid-way. She hesitated. She noticed that Robin was wearing an expression of disappointment.
“You are unusually quiet about this.” Aditi noted.
Robin told her what was on his mind, “I see the logic in what you are saying. If I were in your place, maybe I would have decided the same.
But ask yourself, are you really doing this because of the amount of good you can do, or is it simply because you want to achieve immortality? Be true to yourself and everything will be okay.”
Aditi contemplated Robin’s words as her eyes turned from him to the orb of light in her hands. Her eyes watered as she shook her head. “If I let this chance go, that will be it. The opportunity will never come again.”
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Robin replied softly, “Don’t worry about that. I too am what Gangadhar referred to as an ‘Amaruka’. If you ever decide that you want to absorb a soul for the right reasons, I will gladly volunteer mine.”
Aditi’s head quickly turned to Robin. She took a deep breath and lifted her arms up. While Aditi and Robin looked each other in the eyes, Nura watched as the glowing orb raised up and went through the ceiling of the temple. Unbeknownst to any of them, a crow had flown across the Matha’s dome just as soon as Gangadhar’s soul penetrated through it.
“No.” Aditi told Robin, “I will get you into a body permanently. You will get to live a normal life and when the time comes you will die and join your family. I swear this to you.” They embraced each other.
When they let each other go, they both turned to Nura, who had a pair of scissors held tightly in her hand.
“Nura!?” Robin yelled.
Nura looked at them both frantically, “How do I know neither of you is Gangadhar?”
Robin and Aditi glanced at each other with the sudden realization that the other could be Gangadhar. When they weren’t certain, it was more than reasonable for Nura to think it. She was the one to lose the most because of Gangadhar.
Robin closed his eyes and took a deep breath, which alarmed Nura.
Robin sensed the warmth being emitted from Aditi. If the meditative state could be equated to the real world, he was lakeside in an ever-green forest filled with life. He opened his eyes and serenely asserted,
“It is Aditi. I can sense it.”
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Aditi nodded. She in turn tried to sense Robin’s presence with her eyes closed. When she opened them she remarked “And that is really Robin.”
Nura let out a long sigh, then dropped the scissors and made her way out. “Let’s go.” She told the other two, “I’m driving.”
The other two slowly followed behind her.
“Hey” Robin whispered to Aditi, “Could you really sense me?”
Aditi glanced ahead to make sure Nura wasn’t listening and whispered back, “To be honest, no. But I had to bluff to calm her down.”
Robin, who was still in Cyrus’ body, got into Nura’s car along with Nura, Aditi, Dante and drove away quickly, leaving Ranveer’s unconscious body on the grounds of the Matha. In all probability, he would be accused of killing the guards and would face jail time for it.
They couldn’t find Cyrus’ Mercedes anywhere around, or else they would have disposed of it so that it couldn’t be traced back to the real Cyrus.
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The astrologers had said that I would die at ages eight, sixteen or thirty-two. I was fortunate to have lived for thirty-two years.
When my end was coming near, I told my disciples that I desired to go for a walk alone. I bade them farewell and walked away behind the Kedarnath temple. Little did my disciples know the permanent nature of my farewell.
I sensed a pull coming from the north, and so I walked in that direction. I began feeling light in the head. A crow was cawing in the vicinity. There weren’t many crows in the region, especially during the winter.
Hours later, my disciples set out to look for me. But they could not find me. I had moved on. My existence did not end, but it had permanently changed its form.
“Ahh…” Robin placed his cup of coffee back on the table. Robin, still in Cyrus’ body, was with the others at a dhaba at the outskirts of Mumbai. They had been in Nura’s car for the last twelve hours, during which they only stopped twice to use a restroom, fill up the tank, and have a snack. They still had a two-hour drive ahead of them.
After they paid the bill, they went back to the car. Nura’s handicapped hand did not diminish her driving skills. Nura had driven most of the way. Since the car was an automatic, her driving skills were unaffected by her handicap. But it was now Robin’s turn to drive.
Nura decided she would fly back to Bangalore after ensuring that Aditi and Robin reached home safe and sound. She sat next to Robin.
Aditi sat with Dante in the back, giving her room to lie down after the 331
tiresome ordeal. It was a long drive but the group had plenty to talk about. Robin told Aditi everything that he had seen in Gangadhar’s memories. He also told her how he was able to enter Dante’s body, which surprised the others. Aditi confessed to Nura about what she had done to the rowdy biker gang and expressed her remorse over it.
She also enumerated reasons why she didn’t agree with the theory that they were descendants of King Amaruka, and just like before, they had an old-fashioned deliberation over the nature of a soul. After the first few hours of the trip, they were done with the serious discussions. After that, there was only awkward silence. They were an hour away from home when Robin decided to break the tension.
“You know Aditi, entering a dog’s body might sound fun, but you don’t want memories of drinking from the toilet.” Robin lied. He had never scanned Dante’s memories. But Aditi and Nura burst out laughing. They let out more laughs than the joke deserved. But they could not help themselves. But after the laughter was done, there was silence again. This time it was Aditi who broke it.
“I’m sorry, Nura,” she said in a serious tone. “What I said that day when I dropped you off at the airport. I don’t know what I was thinking. It was insensitive of me.”
“Don’t sweat it.” Nura half-turned back towards her right. She lifted her hand over the seat to hold Aditi’s. Aditi extended her own hand to hold Nura’s hand.
“I don’t want to ruin the moment.” Robin butted in, “But what was it that you said that caused such a big fight between you two?”
“Nothing!” Nura replied immediately. The two girls looked at each other’s reflection in the rear view mirror and gave each other a smile.
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Aditi sighed, “Guys, we need to address the elephant in the room.
What do we do with Cyrus? When he regains consciousness, how do we explain where the last eighteen months of his life have gone?”
“I was thinking about it.” Nura confessed, “Cyrus’ family already thinks he was dating you. So it’s not like we could tell Cyrus he was in a coma for the last year and a half. There are only two things that I can think of – First option is that we pretend as if nothing happened and when Cyrus wakes up we act as if he is having amnesia after being hit in the head. It is a far-fetched option and definitely one of the cruelest one’s.”
“No.” Aditi replied, “Not only is that cruel to him, but I can’t pretend that I was dating him any longer…” Aditi shivered as a chill went down her spine, “He may be a great guy in reality but the truth is I have absolutely no idea who he really is. Also, each time I see him I can only think of Gangadhar and how he used me physically and otherwise. No. Sorry, I can’t do that.”
“The second option,” Nura added quickly before Aditi could dwell any more on those dispiriting thoughts, “is that we tell him the truth.
About your abilities, about the last year and a half and even about Gangadhar.”
Robin and Nura waited for Aditi’s response. After a lot of thinking she finally decided, “That’s the way to go. Robin and you will tell him everything.”
“Robin and me? You won’t join us?”
“No. I’m not coming to the motel. I want you to drop me at your house at Sakina Manzil, Robin. Then you guys go ahead to the 333
Sunflower Motel and have the discussion with Cyrus over there, after freshening up of course. We’ve all had a long day.”
“Where will you go?” Robin inquired.
Aditi sighed, “After I take a shower and pack some essential supplies, I’ll go for a walk, for a few months… maybe even a bit longer.” Robin and Nura both half—turned back. Aditi continued “I was thinking about it for some time and recent events have confirmed that it’s something I need to do. I need to go on a pilgrimage. Visit a few spiritually significant places, be closer to nature and try to learn more about my abilities. For a long time, I’ve been feeling a pull coming from the north, as if something is summoning me. I don’t know what it is, but I want to follow it and find out. I need to dig deeper not only into my abilities but also myself. What’s the point of having these abilities if I couldn’t even help someone like Dhwani? I need to balance being a soul-transferor as well as a human being.”
“Okay,” Nura tried to take in the entire information, “But do you really need to walk from one place to another? We have enough funds in the offshore accounts. You can travel in a plane.”
“Do you have access to those accounts?” Robin was surprised, “I thought only Cyrus did.”
“Please!” Nura replied smugly, “So what say, Aditi? Convert your pilgrimage on foot to one by plane?”
Aditi looked out the window, “It won’t be the same.” she said simply as she patted Dante with one hand.
“Do you have to leave immediately? At least wait till we talk to Cyrus.” Robin tried to persuade her.
“I can’t.” Aditi asserted while still staring out the window.
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Seeing that her mind was made up, Robin and Nura decided not to try and talk her out of it. “Sure, will you survive without your books?”
Nura quipped.
“I’ll carry a Kindle with me.” Aditi smirked, “The Sanyasa’s didn’t carry any electronics with them on pilgrimages because they didn’t have any back then. But this is my pilgrimage. I’ll do it on my terms.”
Finally, they reached Sakina Manzil. All of them got out of the car.
Robin and Nura hugged Aditi and Aditi hugged Dante.
‘Should I tell her about my vision when I was in Dante’s body?’ Robin thought to himself, ‘No. It was just a dream. I do not want to add to her stress. I better forget about it myself.’
“I don’t want to shift back to Bangalore.” Nura revealed much to the surprise of the other two “If Robin is cool with it, I’d like to stay here and keep carrying on missions with him. I also want to bring Navya to Mumbai and take care of her as my ward.”
Robin beamed and nodded.
Aditi watched as Robin and Nura made googly eyes at each other. “I hope you both make it.” she teased, which caused both of them to blush. Nura glared at her while Robin gave a look of a deer in headlights.
“Wow. I’m sure you both can’t wait for me to leave. Okay, then…”
“I’ll miss you.” Nura said, “We both will. Come back as soon as you can.”
“Of course, I will. Your operation won’t last long without me.” Aditi quipped. “Start by solving the “Ash Disappearances” which has been coming in the news for the last week. It seems interesting. Multiple people disappearing and a pile of ash remaining at places they were 335
last seen. Sounds like something out of a fantasy fiction novel. I tried figuring it out, but couldn’t get any leads. But I think it could be right up your alley.”
“We’ll get on it.” Robin replied, “We’ll get on all of them.”
“And tell my parents I decided to take a year off. I’ll try to call them over the phone, whenever I get the chance.
“Will do.” Nura assured her.
Aditi waived as she turned to walk into the gate. Mishra greeted the owner of apartment C-201 of Sakina Manzil, as she went in. Robin and Nura got back into the car. This time Robin was the one who was in the driver’s seat. Nura extended her hand to reach Robin’s hand which was on the transmission. Robin turned to her and they both gave each other a gentle smile. Robin started the engine and they drove off to the Sunflower Motel.
THE END
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