“It is taking F too much time K”, U reminded him.
“Don’t worry. She’s guarding a treasure. She would have hidden the book somewhere with a lot of protection. It will take her time”, K said. “What? Are you tired of punching them already? They told me you were the bloody best boxer in the navy.”
U started hitting them again. Aarav kept looking at Rehann through the beating, who somehow sensed that Aarav had a plan in mind.
“What are you both looking at? You two in love? It is still illegal in our country you know that?” K smirked inside his golden bull mask.
“What has the evil master promised you? Has he promised you a piece of the treasure? He will kill you, you know; as soon as he gets what he wants, he will kill each and every one of you”, Aarav warned K as he spat blood from his mouth.
K again pulled Aarav by his hair and dragged him ahead. “You know what is going to happen once she brings me the book?”
“Oh let me guess. You kill us.”
K laughed. “Oh I’ll kill you all definitely. Not with a bullet though, it will be too fast. I like to be a bit creative when I feel like playing. I drugged Indira Chatterjee you know, she was easy. She kept asking for more and more of it until she choked on her own vomit. She wasn’t a good master I must say. Kept the Book of Arts in her library without no protection. Killing that Serbian on the other hand, was a struggle though.”
“Slovakian”, U corrected him.
“They are all the same to me. He turned out to be quite a fighter actually”, K continued. “Took down one of my men and blinded another. Never seen a fat man like him fight like that. He reminded me of that panda movie”, he laughed hard. “I carved him up real nice you know. I stabbed him so many times that I lost count. The man was bleeding fountains when we left with the Book of Weaponry.”
“And the guru?” Aarav asked him, trying to keep him busy. “A car accident doesn’t sound very creative.”
“Oh that was an outside job. I am not allowed to enter in America. So we… what do you people say? Outsourced it. They outsource us IT services and we outsource them hits. I’m all about improving cooperation between the two countries you see. But I wanted to fill the void of that hit. So I went for something big. We had information that Vashishtha would visit one of his steel plants so we bombed it. That sight was glorious. But sadly the old man postponed his visit. Then I took an aim at him but he evaded that too. Your father was a shrewd one girl. I think he had it all figured out. But that coward shot himself. That sucked.”
“I will kill you”, Aanya spoke to him clenching her teeth.
“Wipe your tears first honey”, K uttered amusingly while glancing at the Book of Alchemy in his hands. “So I have decided it now. I will cut the throat of this one first”, he pointed towards Rehann. “Then I will throw the treasure hunter from that window”, he laughed. “I will take both the pretty women with me though. I will give this one to my boys. Sorry honey, but there are a lot more of them waiting at home and unfortunately, they are hungry.”
Aanya got up and came ahead throwing a slap at him but U intervened before she could hit her target.
“Oh! Feisty. I will let them kill you any way they may want to. If you’re good, you can convince them to kill you swiftly. And I will take the banker for myself. Oh! I like smart women, especially smart women with a body like that. I can’t promise to be creative with her end though. I will probably choke her with my own hands or drown her in the bathtub.”
“Or maybe she’ll kick your ass”, Aarav spoke.
“What are you talking about?”
“I mean this.”
A loud bang suddenly went off in the room where Shayna had taken F. K and U were both startled and in the process of looking for the source of the sound, left their flanks open.
“To the mains”, Aarav yelled as he sprung up and brought his kick with full fervor to meet the groin of K. Rehann followed the command, turned back hurriedly and jammed his fist with all its might on U’s crotch. Both K and U flinched and went down instantly. Aarav stood up and kicked K hard in his face twice before thrusting at the gun in his hand, catapulting it away. Aanya ran ahead and started hitting U along with Rehann. Aarav bent a little and landed a punch straight at K’s chin, opening a gash, before grabbing the Book of Alchemy which he had kept inside his jacket. Aanya had disarmed U by that time and pointed his gun at him while Rehann continued smashing him.
“Give me the gun. Take the book and go up the fire exit”, Aarav yelled at Aanya who did as asked. “Rehann leave him and head up with Aanya, I will bring Shayna. Go.”
Rehann looked at both the fallen men and did what Aarav told him to. As soon as they left Shayna entered the room, carrying her book in her hands and pressing it against her chest. “Come on!” Aarav spoke as he dashed towards her.
K, who by that time managed to get back up on his feet, took out his second pistol and opened fire. Aarav and Shayna had reached close but weren’t able to make it to the fire exit and thus ducked behind a couch to save themselves from the shooting. U was still down, holding his hands helplessly over his abdomen and rolling madly on the floor.
“I will kill both of you”, K shrieked as he moved ahead while firing. “I will hang your corpses from the tallest floor of this bloody tower.”
Shayna looked at Aarav’s face with concern. He had a nasty cut on his left cheek, multiple bruises on his face and lips that were bleeding.
“Do you trust me?” Aarav asked her only to receive a nervous nod. “Then run for the fire escape when I say so.”
K continued trotting ahead and kept firing aimlessly at the couch. “Come out you buggers”, he yelled. “Show me your faces.”
“Let’s give the man what he asks”, Aarav said while holding Shayna’s hand. He waited for a moment as he heard and followed the footsteps of K. “Go”, he finally yelled.
Shayna got up and rushed for the fire exit blindly. K, himself startled, followed her movement and shot on his instincts. A bullet zoomed past her, managing to barely graze the skin of her neck. The distraction proved enough as Aarav stood up from behind the couch, held the gun steadily in both his hands and shot at K. The bullet hit its mark as K crumbled to the ground. Aarav ran hard ahead, following Shayna through the fire exit and out where they finally stopped for a moment and bolted the door.
“Did he get to you? Are you alright?” he asked as he placed his hand on the graze at her neck. Shayna finally let go as tears rolled down her eyes.
“Did you…? He…?” she choked, her cries making her unable to speak.
“It’s okay. It’s over. You are safe now”, Aarav went ahead and hugged her. She had her face dug on his neck as she wept from the trauma.
“I… I killed that man. In the room, I killed him as soon as I took out the book.”
“That is why I trusted you with the last bullet”, Aarav said tightening his grip around her and comforting her. “It is over Shayna. Let’s leave this place. Quickly.”
Shayna broke the hug and wiped her tears as she nodded in agreement. “You’re right. Let us go”, she spoke as she grabbed his hand and they both dashed upwards towards the helipad.
The rotors of Shayna’s helicopter were picking up pace as they made it. Aarav held her by her waist and lifted her a little. Rehann stretched out his hand from inside as they all boarded the helicopter.
“Are you alright?” Aanya asked Aarav, concerned at seeing his beaten face.
“Been better”, he replied with a little smile and looked at Rehann. “I knew you’d remember that command from primary school.”
“To the mains”, Rehann spoke with a little smile.
“To the mains”, Aarav replied closing his eyes and sinking back in his seat.
Chapter 5: The Trance
They all stayed at Shayna�
�s penthouse that night, didn’t speak much after the incident at her office and went into their respective rooms. The police came for questioning some time later but they weaved one story or another and avoided leading them to their secret. The two dead men who went by the aliases C and F were identified, both ex-army men with over five years of experience in the Border Security Force. The police also recovered Raksha’s body and further shared the news that the remaining assailants had started a fire in Shayna’s office before leaving. It didn’t do much damage since the water sprinklers were already on from when Shayna had pulled the fire alarm, but still burnt down considerable piece of furniture. The police left in half an hour after questioning.
Aanya was still too moved by the incident, being the first time in her life when she saw people being shot dead. She excused herself and retired to the bedroom without eating anything. Shayna had somehow composed herself. Even she didn’t speak much but was constantly engaged with her calls and went to her room after ensuring that Aarav and Rehann were served food and the same was sent to Aanya in her room. She acquainted them with her attendants and asked Aarav to take medical help from one after he was done with his dinner. Aarav nodded silently, his brain engaged at the episode at Renaissance Towers, trying to understand and factor in some new facts now that he had encountered the assassins himself. He sat with Rehann for dinner but didn’t speak at all, his mind kept racing with questions about the killers. He was only comforted by the fact that they weren’t able to get their hands on any of the secret books. But what worried him more was the revelation that they weren’t being chased by a single assassin, but by an entire group and that there were more of them. Rehann tried to start a conversation with him but was just met with his nods, so he gave up asking. Aarav got up in a few minutes, asked one of the attendants for a notepad, a first aid kit and a bottle of whisky before leaving for his room. He sat with his lights on for the next hour, abandoning the comfort of the luxurious bed, he sat down on the floor, scribbled a lot in pages, tore them again and again and started placing them on the ground, trying to figure something out. The more words he wrote, the more patterns he tried to frame, made him angrier and frustrated. His mind was ringing up more questions than he could find answers to, and this was driving him mad. He took a sip or two directly from the bottle in between as he continued scribbling notes. He had grown so focused and the liquor relaxed his senses to such extent that he only gazed at the clock once someone knocked on the door at one in the night.
The door opened slowly and Shayna walked into the room, almost being startled at seeing Aarav on the floor and hundreds of notes sprawling all around him. She closed the door behind her and gradually walked towards Aarav with a generous smile. She had washed her face and was devoid of any makeup, yet her flawless skin glowed in the sharp lights of the room. She had pulled her hair up and had carefully made a rolled up double knot. She had abandoned her business formals from before and had changed into an elegant navy blue night gown. She walked ahead slowly, skipping a step here and there so as to not mess up Aarav’s notes. His mouth on the other hand was again left open as he saw her walking into the room; her beauty seemed to have amplified a thousand times to his drunken brain. She stood close to him as he also picked himself up, looking around at the mess he had made with fresh eyes.
“I thought I was the only one who couldn’t sleep”, she spoke. “Didn’t realize that you were busy.”
“I’m just trying to find some answers”, Aarav replied.
“By drowning yourself in Macallan?” she teased him as she picked up his whisky.
“I’m sorry. Needed to calm my nerves after everything that we saw today.”
“It’s okay. I understand”, she spoke while trying to read his notes. “Is that an A or an S?” she teased him in her British accent about his handwriting.
“That’s actually an R”, he said, smiling.
Shayna suddenly darted her blue eyes on his face and felt bad as she saw his injuries. “Something told me that you wouldn’t mend your face”, she touched a cut on his cheek as she analyzed the damage.
“I was going to wrap myself up. Just got engrossed with these notes and forgot about it”, he defended himself. She raised her left eyebrow, questioning him without saying. “I brought the first aid kit too. Look”, Aarav continued as he pointed towards a table.
“Go and take a shower with warm water. My helpers would have placed your clothes in the washroom itself”, she spoke.
“Look. I’ll do this later. I have some answers to find.”
“And I might know a few of them”, she replied.
Aarav darted his dark brown eyes into her ocean blue ones suspiciously before surrendering and going for the washroom. Shayna looked at his notes in the meantime, analyzing and appreciating his thought process from whatever of his writing she was able to understand. He came out rubbing his hair in about ten minutes and went straight for the bottle before sitting next to Shayna on his bed.
“That’s a costly drink you know”, she spoke as she raised her hand and demanded the bottle from him.
“You are a billionaire. I think you wouldn’t mind”, he said as he passed her the bottle.
“Have you been following me?” she questioned, as she took it to her lips.
“Your net worth is almost five billion dollars according to your Wikipedia page.”
“That was three months ago. Renaissance Bank’s stocks have surged since then.”
“So what is it now? Six billion? Seven?”
“Why are you wearing formals at one in the night? Just because you are a guest at a billionaire’s house doesn’t mean that you have to appear so posh at all times.”
“I forgot to pack my regular clothes in a hurry today”, he said as he folded up the sleeves of his white shirt. “And what’s posh about this? Did you not see your own business suit this evening?”
“I did. It’s all spoiled from being under water sprays for such a long time.”
“I meant before it all happened.”
“I understood”, she smiled. She picked up the long Q-tips and immersed one of the cottoned sides in a liquid as she moved closer to Aarav and started gliding it on his forehead slowly. Aarav flinched as the medicine burnt on his wounds.
“Do you stay alone?” he finally spoke in some time as an awkward silence had started lingering, only to realize that his question had made it even more awkward.
“You are quite a curious man, aren’t you?” she dodged the question and turned the side of the cotton swab.
“No I didn’t mean to intrude your privacy or anything. I was just wondering.”
“Intrude my privacy? I’m impressed by your choice of words Mr. Kohrrathi.”
“I didn’t mean to. I mean I meant to ask you but I… never mind”, he gave up as she laughed out loud.
“It is okay. Don’t be nervous. I won’t bite you”, she said while continuing to mend him. “I get asked this a lot. You are not the first one.”
“Oh!”
“Yes. I stay alone. I run one of the biggest banks of the country and protect one of the greatest treasures in the history of mankind. I don’t have time for a husband or a family. So I come back home to Sherlock.”
“Sherlock? Your boyfriend?” he asked, trying to act cool and mask his concerns.
“Yes. Sherlock, my boyfriend. He is my personal trainer. We met at the gym around two years ago and hit it off instantly”, her face gleamed at seeing the disappointment on his face.
“That explains the British accent”, Aarav barely whispered as his shoulders dropped down.
“What did you say?” she lighted up.
“Nothing.”
“God! You are not that bright for a treasure hunter. Sherlock is not my boyfriend. It is the name of my dog. He is at the vet’s else I would have introduced him to you.”
>
“I’m sorry. I am drunk. I don’t know what I am speaking”, he blabbered, his face turning red.
“In my experience, people get wild when they get drunk. You were sweeping me off my feet and saving me from bullets this evening. And now you can barely speak when you are actually drunk.”
“I don’t know… I’m shy.”
“Yes. I can see the blush on your cheeks”, she said as she started treating the cut on his cheek.
“I have had some experience with men trying to kill me before”, he said after a while.
“Never realized how dangerous your job could be.”
“Well that’s a cross I have to bear”, he spoke barely being able to take his eyes off her.
“Let me ask you something? Have you taken training? I mean when I first saw you fire the gun today, it looked like you have fired a lot before.”
“Not a lot. But yes. I have always had the displeasure of people chasing me when I am on a treasure hunt. You have to learn to defend yourself with time or you end up being dead.”
“It was horrifying what we had to witness today. Those men and the firing and the torture”, she tried to forget her day.
“Raksha? Was she your secretary?”
“One of the secretaries. Yes. She had joined barely two months ago. But she was really good with her job. And she was always cheerful and distributing chocolates to everyone in the office. I mean…” Shayna tried to control her tears.
“Hey! It is alright”, Aarav put his hand on her shoulder to comfort her.
“It is not. If I would have listened to you and got the book, when you told me first. If I would have picked up her call and not declined it again and again, maybe she would have been alive right now. Maybe you wouldn’t have to face this much torture. Maybe we all could have flown out before they stomped into my office, Aarav. I… I would never be able to forgive myself.”
“Don’t cry Shayna. It’s not your fault. You could have never known that they were following us all this while. What happened to Raksha is unfortunate. But there is nothing you could have done to protect her.”
Secret of the Himalayan Treasure Page 7
