Border of the sun

by Aditya Mewati

  "You have to see this," He said in what looked like a trembling and tired voice.

  "What do you mean—"

  Before she could complete her words, he pushed the door and stomped into the room, heading toward the old TV sitting on a small table.

  "Mr. Walker, what are you doing?" Karthik demanded, staring uncertainly at the old man. Mr. Walker said nothing. He turned on the TV and started scrolling through the channels.

  For the first time after their fight, Piper and Karthik glanced at each other and then at Lilly.

  "HERE," Mr. Walker announced, moving away from the TV.

  It was and international news channel and the headline of the news said: "Famous Australian Philanthropist and entrepreneur, Daniel Ford have lost the battle against death."

  Karthik gazed at the TV, aghast, and his legs trembling, refusing to support his weight. He lost his balance and had almost dropped on the floor, but Piper and Mr. Walker caught him and heaved him onto the bed.

  Daniel Ford Dead? No! That's not possible. How can he die? How!

  Mr. Ford had played a very important role in his life. He was the man behind Karthik's successful law career. There was a time when Karthik had lost all his hopes and had decided to return back to his country, and this was the time when he had met Daniel Ford, who not only liked Karthik but also supported him, trusted him. He hired Karthik, gave him a job, good money, a house to live in, and love which Karthik failed to get from his dad. Mr. Ford was more than a client, in fact, he was more than a father, and now he is no more. He was gone.

  Karthik's lips trembled, his eyes watery. Piper was curled around him and was patting his shoulder. He could hear her ragged breaths, she was also crying.

  "...and there is more to this news." The newswoman was saying. This brought Karthik out of his thoughts. He stared at the TV with great determination.

  "The man, who was believed to Kill Daniel Ford, was found dead in Sydney Harbor this morning. Although we still don't know the reason of his death. His body has been sent for the postmortem."

  The news changed.

  "Now moving on to our next news..."

  Mr. Walker turned off the TV, and silence fell over the room.

  Lilly broke the silence, but Karthik was not hearing anything. His mind had now dived into a deep sea of thoughts and self-talks, shutting down all the outside world.

  He had no reasons to be here but to support Piper. Piper wanted her file, her life's work back. Lilly and Jack were on the mission and Mr. Walker... Leaving him and Karthik everybody else had their reasons... and now Karthik also has his own reason: revenging the Daniel Ford's death. I'm going to find the person who is behind it, and I'm going to... they or he or anybody who is behind this... will pay... for sure. Now his mind was only focused on one thing—

  "Karthik, are you alright?" asked Piper, gently shaking his shoulder.

  He vaguely nodded. "I'm fine."

  Piper gave him an appraising look and turned to the TV. "Who could have Killed Alex Muffin?" she asked in particular to nobody.

  "It's but obvious," Lilly said, crossing her arms in front of the chest, "The guy who hired him."

  "But why?" Piper asked Lilly.

  "He must have been threatening to leak some kind of information," Lilly said shrugging.

  They talk about the death of Alex muffin for more fifteen minutes after which Mr. Walker departed. Karthik also got off from the bed, but Piper seized his shoulder and pushed him down. "You are not going anywhere," she said.

  They sat in silence for another half an hour, mulling. There was a knock on the door. Piper got up from the chair, crossed the room and opened the door. It was Jack, who was rather looking little nervous and was carrying a big, black messenger bag. Piper moved aside, allowing him to enter the room.

  "What's inside that bag?" Lilly asked Jack.

  "Weapons," Jack shrugged, slinging the bag off his shoulder. He dropped the bag on the floor with a loud thud. The bag was definitely heavy.

  He gazed around him, from one face to another. "You guys are looking awful. What's wrong..."

  Piper told him everything. He spent his next five minutes of pondering on what piper had said.

  "It actually makes sense," He finally said.

  "Yeah, it does," Lilly admitted.

  There was again a knock on the door, much louder than ever.

  A bit irritated, and expecting to see Mr. Walker standing outside, Piper opened the door. But she did not find Mr. Walker instead there was a boy standing outside the door. He was skinny and had dark short hair. He was wearing a white shirt and white pants.

  "Who are you?" she asked him, rather rudely.

  "I'm here to see Robert Kelly," The boy replied coldly.

  "That's me!" Jack called, hurrying toward them. "You!" he growled at the boy.

  "You know him?" Piper asked him.

  "Yes," Jack replied, still glaring at the boy. "He is the guy who knows the hideout of Dr. Sharif."

  26

  Jack stared at the boy for a few more seconds and finally said, "Do you really know where Dr. Sharif is?"

  The boy nodded. Jack gave him another appraising look and turned to face the others. "You guys are coming with me?"

  They all said yes, they will. Jack returned his gazed back to the boy and said, "Let's get going then."

  They all filed out of the room and hustled behind the boy. He led them through the wooden floored corridor and down the creaking stairs. Karthik walked with his shoulder slumped, aghast, still unable to absorb the news of Mr. Ford's death. The star-streaked sky peered down at them through the central opening in the roof.

  Instead of turning left at the foot of the stairs, and heading out of the hotel, the boy turned right. Lilly noticed it, and said, "I thought we were going outside?"

  The boy said nothing, he kept walking, and they kept following. Soon the path ended in front of the double-doors that lead to the basement.

  "Why are we going in the basement?" Piper asked while the boy pushed open the doors; before the boy could reply Jack said, "Because this the place where Dr. Sharif is." he said this in a matter-of-factly tone.

  The boy opened the doors and switched on the first light, its weak glow revealed a rickety wooden staircase dwindling away into darkness. The boy turned around and said, "Follow." He ventured down the steps.

  They all followed him. At the foot of the staircase, he groped for the next light bulb's hanging chain, but it seemed to have disappeared. He cursed something and without turning on the lights he kept walking.

  As they walked the darkness of the basement seemed to thicken. The stone walls exhaled cool, damp breath that tickled the back of Karthik's sweaty neck.

  Soon their eyes adjusted the darkness. Karthik could now see a small door at the far end of basement. The boy knocked at the door, but no one replied.

  The boy said, "I want a lemon."

  Karthik could hear the shuffling of footsteps, growing louder and with a click the door opened slightly. A lanky old man with a thick beard and a circular glasses cocked his head out of the ajar door. His eye's sweeping from one face to another, his hands fishing out something from his pocket, which was a pocket-watch(at least Karthik thought it was a pocket-watch). He glanced at it and slid it back in his pocket. "Come in, quickly," he said, moving away and pulling the door with him, allowing them in.

  "I want a lemon? That's a ridiculous password." Jack commented while crossing the threshold.

  Karthik's head was still slumped, as he walked in the room. Piper walking behind him muttered, "Whoa," which made him jerk his head up. The room around him was much bigger than he had expected. More than dozen of CRT monitors were cluttered on the metal desk. Different types of flasks and test tubes were piled on the shelves. A centrifuge with Timer and Speed Control was placed on the desk, and many wires and cables were snaking along the floor.

  When they all had settled in the room, Dr. Sharif cleared his throat and said, "Okay, what do you people
want from me? And... who are you guys?"

  Lilly and Jack exchanged looks. Lilly stiffened and began, "We are the members of a secret organization—The United Knights..."

  "All of you?" That boy asked curiously.

  "No, not all of us," Lilly scowled, giving him a cold look "... But that's not the point..."

  "You are not safe here," Jack chimed in.

  Lilly shot him a cold look, which clearly said, Don't you dare to interrupt me again. She smiled at Dr. Sharif and said, "Yes, you are not safe here... we are here to take you out of this place and move—"

  "I'm not going anywhere," Dr. Sharif said, his voice echoed in the room.

  "Sorry?" Lilly asked.

  "You have heard me. I'm not going anywhere."

  "But sir..."

  Dr. Sharif raised his hand and she stopped at once. "If that's what you wanted, then I'm sorry..."

  Someone's cell phone rang. The boy pulled out his phone, "Sorry uncle." He muttered, "I really have to take this," and saying this he walked out of the room.

  "Uncle?" Lilly asked, scowling.

  Dr. Sharif nodded, "He is my nephew. This is my cousin's hotel. It's a nice place, isn't it?"

  "Yes," Jack said, "But you have to come with us."

  "No, I can't," Dr. Sharif said, shaking his head, "You want something else?"

  "Yes," Piper said. Lilly had forgotten that Piper and Karthik were also there with them. "...We want to know what Project Outlander is?" Piper said.

  Dr. Sharif stared at her, his eyes calculating, his wrist again in his pocket. He pulled out the pocket watch and Karthik realized that it was not a pocket-watch, but some kind of touchscreen remote control. Dr. Sharif clicked it and a screen slid down from the ceiling. "You must be Piper Watson?"

  "H-How do you know?" Piper asked, clearly dumbstruck.

  "Bill used to talk a lot about you... he told me that you are a very talented scientist," Dr. Sharif said.

  Piper blushed. "But how did you recognize me?"

  "He showed me his team photo," Dr. Sharif said shrugging. "Now," he touched the screen on the remote and the screen hanging from the ceiling glowed.

  "Two years ago," Dr. Sharif said, pointing at the screen. "The team of ice diggers found a frozen rock buried deep under the ice in Antarctica.

  "One week after the discovery; two members from the party were found dead. Something inside that rock killed them."

  "How did they die?" Piper asked.

  "Cancer..." Dr. Sharif said solemnly.

  "What?" Lilly winced.

  "That's so stupid," Piper said, "What were they doing in Antarctica when they had cancer?"

  "That's a very nice question," Dr. Sharif said, walking toward the screen, which showed the photo of four men in yellow, air-sealed, rubber suit, carrying two dead bodies wrapped in yellow, rubber cloth. "Miss Piper, they were not suffering from cancer..."

  "But you just said the died from cancer," Piper grumbled.

  "That's true... That thing gave them cancer," he pointed at the frozen rock in the screen.

  "How can a rock cause cancer?"

  Dr. Sharif smirked. "It's not the rock that caused the cancer. It's the alien virus living inside it."

  Everyone stared at him. Each one with different expressions. Karthik's expression clearly said this old man has clearly lost his marbles.

  "I still don't get it," Piper said.

  "You know that we humans recently discovered a group of bacteria in Arctic seabed with the hibernation period of 100 million years?"

  "Yes..."

  "Well... these guys broke the record," he again pointed at the rock, "That meteorite has been stayed buried in the ice for nearly 200 million years."

  27

  Karthik wished that he was dreaming. Everything that had happened to him from that stupid day when he had woken up late to the day when they decided to go to Egypt—was just a dream. Dr. Alex Bill was not missing. Piper was never kidnapped by a bunch of criminals—Mr. Ford was still alive and this weird old man standing in front of him and talking about the strain of alien viruses did not exist. Everything is just a big stupid dream. He pinched himself hoping that he will wake up in his bed: Back into to the safety of his room. But nothing like that happened. He was still sitting in the basement, which looks more like a private lab. Everything that had happened to him was true. A feeling of dread swept over him and engulfed him like an ugly dark tornado. You have to be strong, Karthik, he said to himself.

  "You mean to say that we have made our first ever contact with an alien life form?" Piper asked. There was a twinge of skepticism in her voice. Karthik himself didn't believe it. He would have preferred again sleeping on that concrete-bed than believing on cancer-causing alien viruses.

  "Yes," Dr. Sharif nodded enthusiastically. "Many scientists had already predicted that our first contact with an alien life will be... mostly at the micro level. They predicted that one day we will find some alien bacteria dwelling in the red soil of Mars or swimming in the oceans of Europa. But we found an alien life. Not in any another planet but here on earth. "

  "I know that," Piper said, "but how can you tell those bacteria—"

  "Viruses," Dr. Sharif said correcting her.

  "Whatever... are not from earth?" she said firmly.

  Dr. Sharif smiled at her. His smiling face reminded Karthik of a cartoon character. "We found them in a meteorite, and how many viruses on earth causes cancer to their hosts that to in a matter of seconds?"

  Piper didn't have any answer for that. But jack did, "Zero," he said. "That means the virus really has an extraterrestrial origin." His stomach felt queasy as he said those words.

  "But aren't viruses nonliving?" Piper said.

  "Not completely," Dr. Sharif said, "It's true that they cannot reproduce without the help of the host. And these viruses are different from earth's."

  "But how can a virus cause cancer? Aren't cancer is a genetic disease?" Lilly said.

  "Only genetic?" Dr. Sharif asked her, smiling. "Okay, tell me what does a virus do? I mean, how does it cause us harm?" He looked at everyone, but Lilly for an answer.

  "Uh... maybe they eat our cells?" Karthik suggested.

  Dr. Sharif chuckled. "You can talk?"

  Karthik grunted but also nodded.

  "Good. But you are wrong—the virus attaches itself to a host cell and infuses the cell with its nucleic acid (DNA). This DNA takes the host cell hostage and the virus begins to multiply with DNA and its protein coat thus developing into new viruses. The host cell is eventually overcome with the new viruses and just like a balloon does when it has too much air, it bursts. The newly formed viruses then carry on with their Lytic cycle by searching for new host cells to invade."

  "You mean that they use our cells to reproduce or replicate their DNA?" Karthik asked. “They use us to reproduce?”

  "Yes, That's right. The X-virus works in the same way," Dr. Sharif said, "But there is something—not only they replicate inside our cells, but also change the structure of our DNA—and they multiply very quickly. They can easily kill a human in a matter of thirty seconds."

  "What was the project Outlander?" Lilly asked, “What were you people planning to do with that virus?”

  "We thought the X-virus can be a great vector—we decided to use it to create a new kind of drug."

  "You decided to use a cancer-causing virus to treat cancer?" Lilly asked, amused.

  "It's like," Piper muttered, "It's like using venom to create an anti-venom. It is like fighting fire with fire."

  "Exactly. We genetically modified X-virus to treat cancer-causing cells, and—"

  "Oh god!" Piper squealed.

  "What is it?" Karthik asked.

  She stood up, and started walking to and fro. She grabbed her fist full of hairs and tugged hard. "How could I have been so stupid?" she stopped walking and stared at everyone. "This was the vector Dr. Alex Bill was talking about!"

  "What?" Dr. Sharif asked, "What do you mean by that?"


  "For years, PharmaGen has tried to develop a new medicine. A stuff that can cure cancer even at its third stage.They never succeeded in doing so...not until last year. Dr. Alex Bill said that he had found a vector suitable for our project. I guess that's why they needed my file," Piper said. She stopped walking and jerked her head in the direction of Dr. Sharif. "Why did you shut down Project Outlander?"

  Dr. Sharif stared at her, considering something, and finally said, "We got afraid. The serum we created did more than protecting cells from cancer..."

  "What does that mean?" Jack asked. “You mean it killed people.?”

  Dr. Sharif glared at him, his eyes gaped. "It enhanced our test subjects. Gave them superpowers beyond our imagination. Those viruses give your body extreme regenerative power. We decided that humans are not ready for it... except Dr. Alex Bill. He was in favor of the drug."

  “Extreme regenerative power. You mean like Wolverine?”Jack asked.

  “Yes, something like that,” Dr. Sharif said nodding.

  The old man has definitely lost his marbles, Karthik decided.

  There was a bang and the door to his left flung open. More than dozen of armed men hustled into the room. Pointing their weapons at Karthik and others. He stared in horror as two men strangled him onto the floor.

  A man, who was holding Dr. Sharif's nephew with his gun pointed at the boy's head. "Time's up, Doctor," He growled, "Now you are going to work for us."

  28

  Luke Tesla looked pleased. The news he had just received from Egypt had really cheered him up. He was happy. Not that happy to start running around the streets while throwing his hard earned money in the air... But he was pleased, very pleased...

  He was standing in his office, which was in the twenty-third floored, right behind his desk, facing the window. The scene outside was fascinating. The skyline was fading as the dawn was close. The enormous city of Sydney stretched in front of him. Soon, this all will be mine, he thought.

  His dream, which actually belonged to someone else, someone really close to him was about to come true. He had to wait ten years for this, and now it looked like he will have to wait for a few more days. His path was now cleared.