Vikrant picked up the diary and opened it. It was story written on those pages. Story writing, one of Aryan’s hobbies. The diary read:
“Aryan was climbing down the stairs of the new DRHR (Division of Remote handling and Robotics) building, in BARC Mumbai, when he met the guy. The guy, wearing a blue shirt with white and yellow stripes grazing over it.
'Hi' greeted Aryan.
'Hi', the guy replied, a smile embossed on his face.
'First day!?' asked Aryan, smiling back at him.
The guy nodded and replied, 'Second day. You?'
'Same here! Mine too, second day.'
'Who is your guide for the project?'
'Some person named Sahu' replied Aryan, then suddenly changed his expression and continued, 'Damn! Yesterday, I was searching for him since an hour and when I finally tracked his sitting place, I was told by some other teacher that he had gone for a meeting and would be returning back only after an hour or two.'
The guy laughed, 'My guide is S. Panda.'
'Panda!?' frowned Aryan. 'You mean that black and white bear that...'
As he was going to wrap up his sentence, the guy interrupted him. 'He is a human Panda. Not the Panda of your dreams and imagination. I mean, not the black and white Panda what you are thinking.'
The both guffawed loudly.
'Anyways, shall we meet later? Actually, I got some work', the guy asked.
'Yeah, sure. I will also be going to the library. And wait there for my guide, 'coz he has gone today also' said Aryan wiping off a sliding drop of sweat from his forehead.
They shook hands and when they stepped to leave, Aryan called out the guy and said, 'By the way, I am Aryan and you are?'
The guy replied, 'I am Ashwin.'
They both smiled at each other and left along their ways.
Aryan climbed up the stairs and reached the library on the third floor.
The library was void of any human form. The only thing that filled the small library room were two computers few racks of book and sunlight penetrating through the windows.
He entered the empty space and rested his butts on an empty rotating chair and sighed. With the gush of air being expelled from his mouth, the library door opened again and two girls entered the room. They saw him and ignored. The girls pulled two chairs near the computers and placed themselves on it comfortably.Being girls, they started their in-born habit of non stop gossiping. Meanwhile, something else had started wandering in Aryan's mind.
GIRLS! WOW! Beauty, they are! Damn, I am so lucky! I can stay here for an eternity! God, please, let this moment freeze.
But, god and luck were not on his side. Soon two boys entered the room pushing open the wooden door.
I knew it. I can never be too lucky. Damn me!
The two boys sat on the white benches and started talking to the girls, sharing laughs, while Aryan was feeling like a foreign element in the room. Even though, he knew one of the guys, he chose to keep silence.
But the boy he knew noticed this and spoke to him. 'Hi man. Sorry, didn't actually notice you.'
'Hi, Vatsal' replied Aryan, with a wide smile.
And with this small conversation, he again became the foreign element in the room. Vatsal had again turned back to the girls.
The hands of the clock turned through the degrees and slowly Aryan too was swept into the headless conversation. The headless conversation with the girls! And with it, he was friend-zoned by the two girls. The vicious and inescapable circle created by the never understood girls.
But, at the least, he got something. He got friendship. Something is better than nothing. Anyways, if there is friendship, I will always stand by with this friends. Aryan smiled with a dutiful sense in his mind.
The guys and girls were introduced to Aryan By Vatsal. The other boy was Vikrant. And the girls, Shruti and Madhavi.
Vikrant, Vatsal, Shruti, Madhavi and Aryan climbed down the stairs where they saw Ashwin. Only Aryan could recognize him as nobody else knew him. But, now they had met him and he too was now part of the group after being introduced by Aryan. And now, the group was complete. And the beginning of the story was finally initiated.
The days passed by and the group was now bonded even stronger than the bond of fevicol.
Half of the month had passed by when the thing happened. The thing, the incident that would test the friendship and would reveal some hidden secrets.
They were returning from the canteen walking side by side. While Vatsal was at one end with Shruti, followed by Ashwin and Madhavi followed by Vikrant and Kajori, Aryan was walking alone at the other end.
Vatsal, that day had proposed Shruti in the canteen by gifting her the day's lunch with her favourite sweet, jalebis. Shruti, at the same moment accepted the proposal by gobbling up the juicy jalebis.
Aryan had seen something in Madhavi's eyes when she saw Ashwin the first time. Also the same thing was seen in Ashwin's eyes. They had fallen for each other but were still keeping their hearts silent. They were a couple with a never proposed proposal.
Vikrant and Kajori were a couple even before the internship but there love story was still unknown to others.
And the foreign element, Aryan was... Not alone. His thoughts were with him. His brain was having an afternoon walk with his thoughts. He looked up at the sky and moved his head here and there curiously. And then, he smiled. After a second, a department bus drove at a high speed and he was hit by it. The body of Aryan was carried forward by the bus to a distance, when the bus driver realized what he had done and pressed on the brakes.
The tri-couple, the group minus Aryan were too terrified, too shocked to react to the moment. They stood at their places for a few seconds. The bus driver was sweating profoundly. He knew what he had done. But he wanted an escape. He reversed the bus and again tore it forward through the road, cutting through the wind blowing against it.
They saw the dead body lying there. Blood was oozing out from the body as if the earth was thirsty for blood and it quenched it thirst by sucking it out of Aryan's body.
They just looked. They came near and again looked at the body. They could just look. And the very next second, every man around there circled around the dead body. There was something awkward. He was still smiling.
The body had been removed and kept in an isolated room. No one was allowed to visit the room. The BARC personnel were busy finding the documents Aryan had submitted before starting the internship so that they could inform Aryan’s family members about his death. They had dug the corners of the room but couldn’t find any documents relating to him. How did they miss it? It had never happened earlier. Something fishy was going on.
The three couples were sitting in the DRHR library. Their faces didn’t have any smile. Their mouths were sealed. They were lost in the grief of their lost friend. The friend who was always smiling, always helpful to others, always loved by others.
Shruti stood up and switched on the A.C. The air from the A.C forced a piece of paper from inside it and flew it into the room. Vikrant noticed it and jumped up and caught it. There was something written on it with blue ink. Others surrounded Vikrant and peeped into the piece of paper.
Friends, you are living here for so many days. Yet, the deserving is kept away from what he deserves. If you think you should get what you deserve, come to the gate of the Indira point. This is for you tricouple. You will get to know A…
All of them were confused. They didn’t what the piece of paper was trying to say to them and who had written those confusing words. The third thing that they were confused about why Indira point was mentioned. And the final thing, why the last sentence was incomplete.
They scratched their heads but couldn’t figure out the meaning of the text.
Finally, Ashwin spoke up. ‘Check the net for the Indira Point.’
Madhavi immediately turned her rotating chair to the computer and googled Indira Point. The list of sites flashed into the LCD monitor. As they skimmed through the list of websites, they found out something that attracted them. Indira Point is the southernmost point of India.
They understood what the letter was trying to say. The letter was calling them to the south gate of BARC. But why? And who?
‘So, it’s the South gate where we the letter calls us? But who and why? And should we really go? It might be some kind of prank. We can’t believe everything. And why is the final line incomplete. It just says, “You will get to know A…”’said a confused Kajori.
‘I also think the same Kajo. But, I don’t understand why I think that we should at least go there and check out. My heart says we should go’ replied Vikrant.
Everyone nodded.
‘So when shall we go?’ asked Ashwin, smiling.
While others were talking, Shruti kept quiet and continuously thought. And now she spoke. ‘Let’s go there in the night. Till then, we need to hide somewhere. We can stay in the library till eight o’ clock and then we can start walking to the south gate.’
The sun was down and the moon was floating up in the sky. The darkness was lit up everywhere with white dots unevenly spread in the night sky.
Aryan’s friends came out of the library and walked towards the south to the south gate. Dodging from the sight of the patrolling security officials, they reached their destination, the south gate of BARC. Three security personnel were present at the gate but were in a deep sleep. All three of them. They tiptoed to near the gate and opened it. The gate made an ugly creaking sound but the officials didn’t care to wake up and look.
As they opened the gate, they could see a huge expanse of sea. The scene was so beautiful that they stood there astounded. They didn’t know what to do next. They just stood and enjoyed the beauty in the dark.
Meanwhile, behind them, a foot crunched a dried brown leaf. Madhavi heard the sound and as she was going to turn around, she, along with others were pushed into the sea.
They screamed till they reached down, till they tore into the surface of the water of the sea. But to their amazement, they didn’t get wet. They could see the water but couldn’t feel it. They floated at a single point and they could easily inhale oxygen. What were they into? Was it really water?
Slowly the buoyant force reduced and slowly and softly they landed on the bed of the artificial sea.
Now, they were sure that they were not under the sea. This was something else. And, suddenly the floor below them opened and the scream started again. They were falling into a hole. After five seconds, they landed on an air cushion. And then they saw an amazing sight.
They could see a large lab loaded with the equipment they had never seen, never imagined. But, their eyes were stuck at one point when they saw a huge man lying down on the floor covered in dried blood.
What was happening out there? Why was all this happening to them?
They heard someone coming from one of the doors. It sounded as if a machine was walking towards them. The three love birds turned towards the source of the sound. They were again shocked. It was now enough for them. They were in mood of digesting no surprises that day. It was Aryan. Aryan, wearing a machine, which almost resembled an exosuit.
Aryan came closer to them. ‘Welcome, tricouple!’
Vatsal, Shruti, Ashwin, Madhavi, Vikrant, Kajori were looking at Aryan with their wide opened eyes.
‘Amazed to see me!?’ asked Aryan, raising his eyebrow.
They still looked at him with wide opened mouth.
Aryan glanced at the dead man lying there and again looked back at the tricouple. ‘Wondering, how he died? I will tell you. I will tell you everything. This is the secret research center which is operating here since a thousand years. Our ancestors had built this center to keep alive the true power of science. They knew that with the passage of time, the knowledge will degrade. Dr. Homi Bhabha knew about this secret center and built BARC at the same place because he needed help from the scientists of this secret research center. As the time elapsed, one of the scientists turned greedy due to the immense power of technology. He persuaded others to use this power of technology and gain money and power. When others agreed to him, one of the workers stood up against this. One night, he killed all the scientists and downloaded all the data and information into his brain. With his immense talent and the newly found power of science he advanced the technology to a great level which the other scientists also couldn’t. But, the same thing happened to him. He too turned greedy for power. The greedy man is now lying here covered in blood. And guess who killed him? Me. I killed him because he was like a nappy which became dirty. Now, I am the clean one. I have the power of the world. I have got everything which could capture the whole of this world. You know what; I am going to conquer this whole world.’
‘What!?’ everyone said in a single voice.
‘And for that, I needed the help of you all. Because, I can’t rule this whole world alone. I need your help, guys. Are you with me?’ asked Aryan, extending his robotic hand towards them.
‘No, Aryan! We won’t support you. We won’t serve you!’ said Vikrant. ‘I advise you to leave this place, this power and come back to normal happy life that we were living in.’
‘I have come too far, Vikrant. There’s no turning back now’ replied Aryan. ‘And, if you all don’t support me, then I will force you to support me.’
‘Try anything and everything you want, Aryan but we are not going to stand beside you’ roared Kajori.
Aryan smiled and nodded. ‘Girls! They always speak too much. I just hate them. So, keeping in mind this hatred, let’s start with the girls’ said Aryan. He punched a button on the exosuit and some force started pulling Shruti, Madhavi and Kajori into a large empty circular glass chamber. As soon as they were in it, a robotic arm descended down and pierced a minute chip at the upper tip of their spines. The programming of the chip had been initiated in the super computer.
The three couldn’t handle the loss of their loves. They immediately charged towards Aryan but they were no match for the human turned machine Aryan. They were thrown away in just a single punch.
Each time they got up and charged again at Aryan but all the time their effort came to a full stop giving no results. The three guys had now started bleeding. They understood that it was impossible to defeat Aryan. But, not if they came together and used their brains to fight him.
Vikrant ran towards Aryan and stopped at a place. While Ashwin distracted Aryan, Vatsal ran to Vikrant and placed his legs on Vikrant’s hands which he had locked in front of his abdomen and jumped up. Vikrant further forced Vatsal higher. He landed on Aryan and held him by his neck. Vatsal immediately found different colored wires at the back of the neck. He slid his hand under the wires and pulled them forcefully that they broke giving out sparks. But, Aryan still didn’t remain completely calm. Before the suit could completely stop the function, he pulled Vatsal and threw him onto the floor. He raised his machine arms in the air to force it down on Vatsal’s fat body but before that, Ashwin removed the rod from the dead body’s chest and aimed at Aryan. The pointed rod pierced through Aryan’s neck. Aryan’s wound and his mouth spat a lot of blood. He fell down on the floor and from one of the compartments of the exosuit, fell a diary.
While Ashwin had freed all the girls and removed the chips from their nape, Vikrant picked up the diary and opened it. It was story written on those pages…”
Vikrant turned to the last page of diary. The text written was not the part of the story.
It read, Sorry for the trouble guys! But, this had to happen. I didn’t want the world. But to bring you here, I had to turn into a villain. I wanted to test your friendship, your love for each other, your courage, your bravery, your loyalty, your honesty. I wanted to assign you all this job of handling this secret research center so that it doesn’t go in the wrong hands of evil. I knew, I would have to sacrifice my life, but it was my duty. The duty which was assigned to me by my ancestors. I fulfilled my duty and now it’s your turn to take care of this research center and taking science to very high levels. This center will teach you everything and will demand only its advancement.
It was all. Vikrant closed the diary. They all looked at each other.
They all said, ‘We will!’
