“I could have brought the book when he first asked me to.”
“And he would have killed us all after that.”
Shayna put the medicines away as tears started welling up in her eyes. “I shot a man Aarav. I killed a man today”, she choked.
Aarav held her and comforted her as she dug her head on his neck. “You killed a killer. To defend yourself. He would have done the same in the blink of an eye.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that I am a murderer.”
“You cannot look at it this way Shayna. You just can’t”, he pulled her away and placed his hands on her face while he wiped her tears with his thumbs. “You cannot blame yourself for anything that happened today. In fact, we were the ones who led the killers to your door.”
She darted her moist blue eyes into his comforting brown ones as she stopped crying. “I know about their masks”, she said.
“What about their masks?” Aarav grew excited as he came closer to her.
“It is probably a stuff of legends but my mentor, the one who passed on the Book of Finance to me, taught me about the history of the Ring of the Seven. It is believed that Emperor Ashoka originally created a Ring of nine men to protect the treasure.”
“The legend of the Nine Unknown Men of course”, he said.
“Yes”, she continued. “But soon after he died, two members of the Ring mutinied against the rest. They thought that it was a waste for the treasure to be kept hidden for hundreds of centuries when it had the power to eliminate poverty and sickness that had started reeking their kingdom after the fall of Ashoka. So they thought that if they could get to the treasure, which would make them the most powerful people in the kingdom, they could easily claim the throne and rule for the betterment of the people. They weren’t able to convince the other members of the Ring to follow their plan. So they mutinied. Their followers were called Broods of the Bulls, a band of assassins that served to the wishes of their masters. They actually wore dead bull’s heads as an attempt to scare their victims and create their own identity. They killed many, almost started a civil war, before the rest of the masters intervened and created the Ring of the Seven. They finally defeated the Broods and publically assassinated the two masters as a punishment for their crimes.”
“The Broods of the Bulls? Never heard their mention in history before”, he spoke understanding the significance of the bull masks worn by their assailants. “That is tremendously helpful of you”, he thanked her and pulled himself a little away from her as they both realized that they were sitting unusually close.
Shayna tossed her hand towards the table and grabbed the bottle of whisky. She took a long gulp and cringed after guzzling it down before passing it over to Aarav who repeated the suit.
“I have not been drunk like this since my college days”, she smiled.
“I can bet that you went to one of the finest colleges in the world”, Aarav spoke as he passed the bottle to her.
“You’d know it. You were stalking me on Wikipedia”, she called his bluff as she took the bottle to her lips.
“That’s true.”
“What about you”, she asked.
“I was in Mumbai itself. But I never completed my college and dropped out after my first treasure hunt.”
“I forgot how young you are”, she uttered while touching his shoulder.
“And I forgot to grab that bottle from you”, he spoke as he went closer to her and took the bottle from her hands.
“Can I ask you something? Aanya, is she your… girlfriend? You guys broke up? Is that why you’re not talking?”
“Aanya? Oh no? I am single. I only met her yesterday.”
“Oh! I thought you people went back.”
“No. She came to me for help and I just stuck along on the journey”, he said with a smile.
He looked at her, his drunkenness blurring his vision, but still clear enough for him to appreciate her gorgeous face. She stared into his eyes too, her drunkenness finally kicking in.
“You are so drunk right now”, she spoke with a beautiful smile.
“Not as much as me”, Aarav started fumbling in his speech. Shayna let out a heartfelt laugh as she took her right hand ahead and caressed her thumb over his lower lip. She looked up in his brown eyes and watched them come closer. Aarav’s lips locked with hers and it felt like time had stopped. Total silence enveloped around them as they stood kissing each other, their eyes closed, minds drunk and hearts galloping faster and faster. Aarav finally broke the kiss in what looked like an eternity and stared into her eyes again.
“I was just saying that there is a cut on your lip too that I missed”, Shayna managed to speak as she grabbed her breath. A faint smile appeared across Aarav’s face as he went ahead and kissed her again, both of them reciprocating equally this time. He grabbed her fuller lower lip between his teeth and pulled it a little before breaking the kiss, grabbing his breath and diving in to repeat it again. She started moving her body back on the bed and Aarav followed the path she created without breaking his kiss. He grabbed her by her waist, lifted her voluptuous body up and made her sit on his lap. He opened her hairpin, letting her long, silky dark brown hair fall down all over him before venturing his hands in other places. He briefly broke the kiss and started kissing her neck slowly as he went down. Shayna was digging her long nails into his back without even realizing that she was hurting him. She started opening the buttons of his shirt and was done with the first two before she paused. Their eyes met once again as they both stopped before pulling each other’s head simultaneously and kissing each other passionately. Aarav again grabbed her by her waist and threw her on the bed gently, before thrusting his body over hers and started to search for the strings to open her satin gown.
But that is when she stopped. She pushed him away and sat on the edge of the bed. “We can’t. What are we doing?” she said as she started correcting her gown.
Aarav just stared at the white ceiling wall above him and brought both his hands over his face.
“I have to go. I have a conference call to Luxembourg early in the morning. I have to grab proper sleep before that”, she spoke.
“Yes… yes…” Aarav uttered awkwardly. “Even I have to go and… probably hang myself.”
“We had a rough day Aarav.”
“Yes, with the killings and the bullets…”
“… and the whisky”, she got up and pulled her hair over her head. “Have a good night, Aarav Kohrrathi”, she muttered as she swiftly headed for the door without even looking back at him.
He still kept staring at the wall over his head long after she had left. “What did I do?” he spoke to himself. “Why did I do it? She was just tending to the wound on my lips. Why did I have to kiss her?”
He turned his gaze a little and his eyes saw the bottle of Macallan placed on the table neatly before slowly shifting his focus back on the ceiling. “What. The. Fu…” he managed to utter before passing out.
Aarav woke up at around two in the afternoon and decided to head to the washroom. But as soon as he sat up on the bed, the aching from the previous evening’s beating surfaced with all its might. The pain sensors triggered inside his head all of a sudden as everything from his chest to his head started hurting badly. It took him some time to let the pain subdue before he was finally able to get up. He got out of his room after a few minutes and headed for the dining hall down the stairs, his walk abrupt. Rehann and Aanya were already seated next to each other and were browsing through something on his iPad. Four attendants were busy putting plates on the table, preparing for the meal. But there was no sign of Shayna. Aarav slowly waddled down a flight of stairs towards them, still hungover from the previous night.
“Mornin’ sunshine. Glad that you can finally join us”, Rehann spoke as he got up with a smile and walked ahead to help Aarav
down the stairs. “Somebody got drunk last night.” He walked him up to the table where Aarav finally settled opposite to Aanya and held his head.
“Are you okay?” Aanya asked him with concern.
Aarav nodded his head. “You?” he asked.
“Better”, she replied.
Aarav stopped speaking and gazed all around the hall.
“Shayna’s outside. On a call”, Rehann said pointing towards the balcony.
“What? Oh! I was just looking for… water”, Aarav defended himself.
“Right before you buddy”, Rehann replied with a smile. “Glass container. Green cap. We call it a bottle.”
“Thank you for your insight”, Aarav snubbed as he reached for the bottle of water.
“Would you fine gentleman like the lunch to be served in ten minutes?” an attendant came ahead and asked them.
“Yes. That would be great of you”, Aanya replied back with a smile. The three didn’t utter another word for a few minutes when Aarav finally looked at Aanya and decided to let go.
“I’m sorry Aanya.”
She was taken by surprise.
“That day at the library. My behavior was childish. I crossed a line and I said some things that I shouldn’t have. I know that this is already a tumultuous time for you and if I inflicted on you any more pain, I regret it from the bottom of my heart.”
“It’s okay Aarav”, she accepted his apology. “What is done is done. Let’s forget it.”
He nodded his head and finally looked to his left from where the glass door of the balcony slid open and Shayna walked into the hall. Her eyes met his and she stopped in her tracks for a moment, before continuing further and walking up towards the three of them. She had pulled on another business suit, a black one and had put her make up on. Her nails were painted scarlet which Aarav remembered wasn’t the previous day and her face carried an abnormal glow that afternoon.
“Ma’am should we serve the lunch?” an attendant came ahead and asked her.
“Yes. Of course”, she said as she nervously hovered near the table, and since Aanya and Rehann were sitting next to each other, she had to settle on the empty chair towards Aarav’s right. Aarav sat attentively, careful not to let his hands accidently touch Shayna’s, who he was certain was thinking the same. They were soon served with a delicious meal. Aanya had turned vegan recently and was careful enough to avoid any animal products. Aarav looked puzzled as he just saw salads and greenery in her plate and a cucumber juice serving as a cherry on top. His eyes soon wandered off to Shayna’s plate and he got confused even more.
“It’s a Riviera salad with summer garden vegetables in the bowl”, the chef who stood and watched them being served food looked at Aarav’s curious face and decided to walk him through every item on Shayna’s plate, to his embarrassment. “This is Cavatelli Pasta, made in sugar snap, spring peas and fava beans, the herb pistou and Ricotta Salata serving as a cherry on top. You can further see the Heirloom Tomatoes Appetizer, made with creamy Burrata cheese, green onion, Taggiasche olives, basil and sea salt. And that dish close to your hand is Panisses Nicoises.”
“I shouldn’t even ask for the meaning of the last one, should I?” Aarav was stumped.
“It’s French for Chickpea Fritters”, the chef added with a smile. “Ma’am likes to eat French on Fridays.”
Shayna had a very visible blush on her face and stole a glance towards Aarav as the chef urged him to try some. The Cavatelli Pasta soon shared space alongside chicken wings on Aarav’s plate, while the chef stood next to him with pride.
“Shall we?” Rehann finally asked before grabbing a hefty bite from his chicken wings and closing his eyes to admire the taste of perfection. Aarav went for the chicken too as he followed Rehann. He had absolutely no sense when it came to dining manners, he had always felt that the strange dining customs of the fancy people made a meal more awkward. But Aarav loved the taste of the chicken in his hands. He was still famished from his struggles of the previous day and hungover from the whisky of the night. His head was throbbing and the lower left ribs aching. Yet the deliciousness of the chicken took him to another land. The chef still stood near him and cleared his throat twice.
“Umm… he won’t leave, till you tell him the taste of the Cavatelli”, Shayna spoke to him slowly.
“Oh! Umm…” Aarav picked his fork and went for the pasta. “Fantastic. Your food is stuffed with magic. Delicieux.”
“Bienvenue”, the chef thanked him in French and left.
“You speak French?” Aanya asked Aarav, surprised.
“Oh no! I know enough to make people think that I actually know it”, he smiled.
“So. Did you both sleep well last night?” Rehann asked Aarav and Shayna.
“What?” they uttered simultaneously.
“I know that he did. He is still hungover. How about you Ms. Shayna? Hope you didn’t have any trouble sleeping after a horrid day?”
“Oh!” they muttered together again.
“No. I… I slept fine”, she managed to speak before taking a sip from her orange juice. “About yesterday. We need to forget about it. All of us need to forget what happened.”
“No. We don’t”, Aarav spoke as he went for another piece of chicken.
“Yes. We do need to forget… about everything”, she spoke with firmness in her voice.
“What? I’m not talking about…” he stopped as the visions from his previous night with Shayna made his heart skip a beat. “I’m saying that all of us have barely spoken about the incident with each other. There are still a lot of unanswered questions that we need to address. Before we were rushing out through the fire exit, I shot at the man who called himself K. So the police should have found three bodies at the place. Yet they only managed to find two bodies of the assassins F and C, other than Raksha’s. So then what happened to K? Is he alive? Is he dead? Did the other man, U, take trouble to drag his injured body out of the place? Why wasn’t there a body?” he continued speaking.
“Maybe you missed your shot?” Rehann questioned him.
“Oh I got him. If I would have missed that shot, you’d both have been attending our funerals right now.”
“If you think people would attend your funeral, your ghost is in for a big surprise”, Rehann mocked him.
Aarav widened his nostrils and stared at Rehann with the intensity of a shark. “Then we have the other facts. When Shayna took F to the other room, K spoke a little about his past. You remember Rehann? He said that he used to wrestle in his village before he joined the military. Then some time later, he said that U was supposed to be the best boxer in the navy.”
“The condition of our faces are a proof of his abilities”, Rehann interrupted.
“And the police identified the two assailants as ex-army men belonging to Border Security Forces”, Shayna joined in.
“Exactly”, Aarav uttered as he reached for some lemonade. “The entire group has a close relation with the army. It can be assumed that they were all recruited from the military after quite some experience. And then there was a symbol.”
“A bull?” Aanya asked.
“Yes. You saw it too?”
“Yes. The man who was holding me in the beginning, U, I think. He had a tattoo of a bull engraved on his wrist.”
“Correct”, Aarav continued. “K had it tattooed towards the left side of his neck. And it wasn’t just a bull. The bull was holding some sort of a rod in his mouth.”
“Even their masks resembled the faces of bulls”, Rehann pointed out.
“Yes”, Aarav matched his opinion. “That symbol must be some sort of a personal brand of their organization. The Broods of the Bulls, indeed.”
“Sorry? The Broods of the Bulls? What is that now?” Rehann asked.
“It was this secret organizat
ion of assassins that…”, both Aarav and Shayna started speaking together.
“I’m sorry. You continue”, Aarav asked her, failing to match his gaze with hers.
“Oh no. You were explaining everything perfectly. You continue. Please”, Shayna said with an unusual blush on her face.
“No. You told me about the Broods yourself. Without your input I wouldn’t have had any idea about their existence.”
“But it is fine. You can say it”, she urged him.
“No. I forgot most of it. I was drunk”, Aarav dug the final nail in the coffin. Rehann had narrowed down his eyelids and stared suspiciously at both Aarav and Shayna.
“Fine”, Shayna spoke as she went on to narrate whatever she knew about the history and purpose of the Broods. Aarav slowly took the support of the chair he was sitting on and relaxed his back which was aching badly, while he turned his gaze towards Shayna’s face and admired her beauty. Her long hair were flowing along with the mild breeze entering the room from the balcony door. He focused on her perfect nose, her melodious voice reverberating over his ears; her accent, her actions, her emphasis on particular words making her speech elegant and the movement of her hands amplifying the power in the way she conveyed her thoughts. She was a brilliant woman and something about her was driving Aarav mad. He kept gazing at her from the corner of his eyes as he analyzed what was happening to him. Even though his shyness had prevented him from approaching girls for the better part of his life, he had never been this attracted to a woman before. He has had the pleasure of working with beautiful girls and royals previously, but never had anyone captured his imagination the way Shayna did. For him, the hunt he was on was paramount and everything else became secondary. He always believed that involving himself in a romantic relationship with someone he was on a hunt with would steal his focus from his end goal and make him lose the right path. Aarav had always managed to attract other women. Even during his school and college days, girls found his shyness mysterious and his brilliance charming. Aarav looked very handsome himself, but he was an extremely poor judge of human emotions and his arrogance drifted any potential partner away. Maybe that was the reason as he wasn’t able to understand the emotions he was going through when he stared at Shayna as she narrated the legend of the Broods of the Bulls to Rehann and Aanya.
Secret of the Himalayan Treasure Page 8
