I Won't Let You Die Angel (13 page)

“Are you sure??”

We were all huddled in small
groups around the hem of the same forest from which we had escaped with so much
difficulty two days ago. Chris pinched his nose skeptically, “This is not going
to work if you keep asking the same trivial question every five damn minutes like
some recorded cassette.”

Neil intervened before the
conversation could bend towards a different angle. “She’s just nervous as I am!”

“Oh, Neil, and nervous,
that’s got to be in the headline of the hour”, I crooned whistling.

“Oh, shut up for a second,
you two”, Richard entered into picture.

“What’s he doing here???”
I wagged a reproving finger at “fatty the interrogating officer with a death glare”.
He shot me angry glares worthy of his reputation. Somehow, he had gained a belly
in less than a week. Ugh, why am I even bothering myself with petty fatty?

Richard stood between us,
confused, “Did I miss something?”

“Miss Kanet, he’s the investigating
officer on the Collins case, so he deserved to be informed. You just focus on your
job here”, warned Chris.

I shot fatty my best “later”
look and turned towards the ranch house nervously. Neil took my hand, and I felt
like I could have even climbed Mt. Everest beside him.

We – Richard and fatty along
with me and Neil – dawdled towards the house, treading through the rose garden surreptitiously.
Plan A was to attract the fewest devil eyes and sneak inside the house unnoticed.
Once inside, we had to analyze the numbers and strength of our fighting comrades
and report back to Chris. Somehow, he was certain of the warhead being here,
and we had to apparently search for it, too. All in all, the success of the mission
relied on us.

If plan A failed to be executed
properly, we would have plan B and C and D. Mind you, federal agents never fail
in their planning. The prime purpose of sending Neil and me first was to create
artificial mayhem in case we got caught and Neil would get to flaunt his acting
skills by playing “redemption” boy in front of Majestic.

The first phase of Plan
A went smoothly without any hurdles. We succeeded in skulking around the boundary
and sneaking inside. Contradictory to our evaluation, there were quite a few guards
here and there; but we had no disruption in our sweep.

We crept inside the big
hall and instantly images of Storm invaded my mind. I brushed them away. There were
three doors leading to different corridors and sections of the house.

“Now where to?” asked Richard.

I eyed the doors eerily,
“My bet’s on the leftmost one or we can just toss a coin.”

“Duh,
Angel
, there
are only two faces on a coin! What kind of science student does not use her common
sense”, mocked Neil. I grimaced. Thus far, no guards appeared.

“There’s something not right!”
voiced Neil.

How come none of the men-in-black
junior or senior version have noticed us? Are they oblivious of the dawn of the
new technology called CCTV?

“There’s something not right!”
Repeated Neil.

I rolled my eyes, “Yeah,
you said that already!”

“It’s worth repeating.”

As if resolving our doubts,
we were rewarded with bullet fare. I had to duck under a table with Richard. Neil
and fatty vanished through the middle door. Some goons chased them. I uncapped my
gun -- I mean figuratively. Richard readied himself.

“You go to the door, I’ll
cover you”, he ordered. I nodded. “And wait, don’t go to the middle one. Divided
we can save time.” I didn’t like the idea, but still nodded in agreement.

I ran for the third door
and arrived without difficulty. It looked like they just wanted to stop us from
going through first and second. Something was definitely fishy. A moment ago I thought
I saw Nicole, but that’s crazy right? Richard soon joined me. Abandoning my dwelling
on obvious facts, I chose to resume the search.

We ran past several rooms,
but so far no luck. I suddenly stopped in my tracks. A low whimpering noise was
emanating from somewhere nearby. I sprinted in the direction of the noise and found
a woman all chained up and goons beating her. Richard took aim, “Left one’s mine,
right one’s yours.”

“Gladly.”

We ran for the woman to
help. She was in such a disheveled state that I couldn’t even recognize her at first
glance. We freed her and she hugged me instantly. “Shh, it’s okay. You’ll be fine.”
She was sobbing uncontrollably.

“I knew you’d come. I knew
that you’ll never leave me to die.”

“Yes, Professor, I’ve come
to rescue you.”

We helped her stand up.
“Can you walk by yourself?” asked Richard.

She nodded. “Janet, there’s
someone else they have held captive, another woman.”

“Mom!!! Professor, do you
know where she is?”

She faltered for a second,
“I guess so, come, this way.”

We followed her. “I’m updating
Neil!” Informed Richard hastily. We zigzagged in the labyrinth and Prof. Collins
halted in front of a room resembling penthouse. I wondered how she knew where mom
was being kept. But my suspicions soon evaporated when I saw the scene inside.

A lady was seated in a recliner,
hands and legs chained just like Prof. Collins had been, a piece of cloth over her
mouth. And so, after so many years, I saw my mother--bound, helpless, and entirely
terrified. I quickly sprinted in her direction and knelt beside her.

“Mom?”

She opened her hazel eyes,
which after much difficulty focused on me. Tears caressed her flawless cheekbones.
I hugged her tightly unable to restrain myself. She sobbed on my shoulder, and suddenly
her body stiffened like toasted bread. I broke away and noticed her staring past
me.

I cupped her face, “Mom,
mom, it’s all right, they are with me. She was also kept here, just like you. Remember
Prof Collins?”

She shook her head violently,
totally dread-stricken. God! What had Majestic done to my universally cheerful mom?
I quickly untied her and yanked the piece of cloth out of her mouth. She shrieked,
“Janet!!!”

A gunshot behind me made
me swirl around. Richard was shot dead by Prof. Collins. I was dumbstruck, my mind
refused to process the recent happenings using any sort of logic. Mom shot up on
her legs and pushed me behind her. At that exact moment Neil and fatty decided to
barge in.

“What’s happening? I thought
I heard gunfire…”

Before Neil could finish
the sentence and analyze the arena, fatty kicked the guns from Neil’s grasp and
struck his own on Neil’s head hard. Neil collapsed onto his knees, clutching his
head.

My legs refused to respond
to the orders my nervous system was desperately sending to them, and my voice decided
to take refuge somewhere far away from my throat. Neil looked up dizzily, his expression
transformed from confusion to rage to surprise to absolute terror. He could
speak only one word and that one word dislodged the ground beneath my legs and
swallowed me whole.

“Majestic!!!”

Imagine yourself an
astronaut residing on the International Space Station, repairing an instrument
outside the spaceship, attached to it by just a cord, and then someone snaps
that cord and you start floating in the endless abyss. Yeah, remembered gravity?

Or imagine a never-stopping
roller coaster ride where you keep screaming and screaming, but nobody listens to
your pleadings.

These would just be 30%
of what I was experiencing right at that moment. Prof. Collins sauntered towards
us like a lioness taming her prey. I opened my mouth to say something, anything,
but my tongue refused to listen as well.

“Oh!!! My dearest protégée
has had the shock of her life??” She asked several times, “Did you really think
you were the only ones with spies here?”

“Stay away from my daughter!”
There was more than a thinly-veiled warning in the way mom spoke each word.

Prof. Collins-turned-Majestic
looked bored. “Daughter?? Who?? Oh her! By the way, did you know your so called
daughter killed your son.”

How the hell did
she
know that?

Of course! We were such
fools to think even for a moment that we had the upper hand. As Richard had said,
Majestic was anything but stupid. I had this sudden urge to pierce a bullet into
fatty’s dimwit brain.

“He was not my son. I have
only one child and she is standing right by my side.” I almost sobbed, but decided
that would be unwise in front of such lethal enemies.

Majestic executed a fake
crying show, “How touching! But I guess I don’t even need to burst that bubble.
You already know, right, that she’s not actually your child?”

God!!! Now how the hell
did she know
this
?

“Enough of the word games,
Professor. Get to the point, what in hell do you want from us? And how the hell
did, you succeeded in fooling everyone?”

She watched me curiously,
“Oh! You’re out of your initial shock already? My hearty wish was to watch a zombie
Janet for at least fifteen minutes. You disappoint me, child.”

“What do you want?”

“How about we chitchat about
your brother first?” She continued as if I hadn’t spoken a word.

“What do you want, Majestic?”
I asked again, this time louder and with menace.

“Your pendant! I want your
turquoise pendant. Now I don’t see it around your neck. Where have you hidden it?
I’m warning you, I don’t tolerate betrayals.”

“Betrayals……
you’re
the one to talk. You betrayed everyone you ever called family and friends; my dad,
me, your husband, the entire university, and last but not in this freaking world
the least, your own daughter. How could any mother jeopardize her own children?
Or wait! Are they even your children?”

My words had not even
an infinitesimal impact on her. She chuckled deeply, “About time I introduced my
children.”

I decided that she had gone
beyond crazy. Well, obviously no sane woman would qualify to be a terrorist mastermind.
You’ve got to have a few essential traits to be crowned this position, namely craziness,
madness, the despicable urge to destroy the whole world, etc., etc.

The windows on either side
of the room cracked open and two teenagers hopped in: Rusty and…Nicole!!!! What
the…Rusty smirked at me and Nicole showed no recognition at all. She was blonde,
and if you observed closely, her features were quite different: her chin was pointed
rather than curved and her eyes were a totally different color. But all in all,
if you had not known her as well as I had, you’d totally fail to recognize her
as Nicole.

“Nicole’s in the hospital!”
I said, the only thing I could think of.

“Wasn’t it a perfect cover
story? Professor Lucy Collins abducted and indefinitely missing, her husband in
a war, her son had run away scared, her “daughter” hospitalized. No one could ever
doubt all this.” She beamed at her own intelligence.

“But, Nicole is in the hospital!!!!!”

“Oh dear, don’t stress your
already roasted mind. Let me spill the beans. This…” she gestured towards the girl,
“is my daughter Nicole. That girl was an alias.”

What!!! Oh, mother earth,
swallow me whole right now. My best,
almost
best friend who now was my best
friend, was not actually my best friend.

What was I saying?? This
was insane; this was not real. This was one of my twisted extended nightmares. Oh
lord! Richard was dead; we were being betrayed; and Chris and Co. had no idea what
was happening here. We would have to somehow warn them. If this was a well-planned
ambush, not from our side mind you, but Majestic’s, we were all doomed. Okay, God,
for the last time..HELP.

I thought: Come on, Janet,
think….. It’s 3 against 4, but we’re weaponless and mom’s in no condition to even
activate her defense mode. That leaves 2 against 4. But prior to anything, we need
to rescue one thing that is most valuable, but almost a forgotten topic right now,
and that is--the warheads. Okay Prof., you wanna play, then let’s play.

“What is it exactly you
want from us? It’s not like we could be of any use to you. Just finish this and
get it over with.”

“Janet!” Mom spoke, astonished.

Majestic herself was mildly
surprised. She beckoned me over to touch my cheek. “Don’t touch me!” I jumped backward.

“Oh dear, don’t you understand.
I don’t want to harm you. You’re a precious gem. Join me and I’ll even spare Monika
and Neil for you. They can stay and cooperate.”

“Are you out of your goddamned
mind? No amount of alcohol could dull my senses enough to agree.”

“Why so pesky, my child?
Your parents would love to see you redeem yourself.”

“Redeem!!!” I scoffed. “No
amount of illegal drugs would encourage my parents to wonder such a drastic thought.”

“Where’s the arsenal, Majestic?”
Neil questioned ardently.

Between all this mayhem,
I completely forgot about him. Majestic made a U-turn and blasted him with annoyance
in her words, “Neil, Neil, the most wanted traitor in the underworld. Your godparents
are searching for some secluded corner in which to hide their blackened faces, all
because of you. Don’t you have a little bit of regret?”

So she
actually
didn’t
know about Carl. That was a score in our basket.

“Where are the warheads?”
I questioned with emphasis.

She stared at us amusingly,
“How touching. Now you complete each other’s questions, too. Are your so-called
parents aware of your romantic escapades, Janet?”

I sighed, “Stop dodging.
It’s not working. Where are the warheads?”

She shrugged, “What makes
you think I’d tell you.” She grimaced at all of us.

“Because you enjoy playing
petty games.”

“Not here, sorry. You’ll
lose your lives for nothing at all.”

“Where are they?” Asked
Neil.

“Oh, you already know, Neil.
They were there when I first hired you and they are still there. What will you do
about it? Tell me.” She crooned triumphantly and then stretched out her palm
before me.

 “What? The beggar’s association
is your part-time job now?” I mocked coldly.

She was now losing her temper
like a third degree differential equation. “Now, Janet, hand over the key.”

“What key??”

She slapped me hard on my
cheek. Lights swirled in front of my eyes. I watched her with so much fire in them
that a normal person would have blinked away. But she…

“Your pendant, Janet. Stop
your futile efforts to improvise. Give it to me like right NOW.”

“My pendant??”

Her anger receded gradually,
but mine didn’t. “Oh, Janet! So intelligent, but so dumb sometimes. Your pendant
is the key that activates the warheads, sweetie.”

Okay, no shocker. It just
dropped on my head like a nuclear bomb. “But how could it be my pendant?? It’s got
to be some code or program.”

She smiled mysteriously,
“Intelligent Janet resurfaces again. Of course, it’s a code. Your pendant is what
triggers the code.” She dragged me across the room to the front of a computer.
Now I finally fit the missing piece in the puzzle.

“Janet??” Neil asked skeptically.

Okay, it was time to drop
the bomb. “The assembly code that activates and launches the warheads has been
installed via a very special operating system in this computer only. The computer
won’t boot up to 100% until it scans the password, which in this case is a uniquely
unusual turquoise stone.” Majestic was beaming. “I wished my star student, that
stupid scientist, had brains as well. He very inconveniently set this stone as the
password ditching regular finger prints and retina scan technology, which has
become a huge pain in the ass.”

“Wasn’t that scientist your
accomplice?”

“I wish. Wasn’t Kevin your
boyfriend?”

“He – what??” I entwined
my fingers in my hair, my bracelet jangling on my wrist. This was getting crazier
and crazier. Then I got it.

“Oh lord!!! You hypnotized
him.” I stared in disbelief. Unbelievable! I mean not what she had done, but to
what extent people would stoop in order to accomplish what they craved. They would
even snatch one’s free will.

“You know what? You’re turning
more petulant each passing minute. Your parents would be proud of you.”

“Oh, don’t worry, they already
are.”

She shrugged, “Not these
trivial parents of yours. Your real parents.”

My hands felt cold. “You…you
know my birth parents? You know I’m adopted?”

She smirked crookedly, “You,
yourself, admitted that I hypnotized you before taking you in. Your parents are
dear friends of mine.”

I didn’t like the sound
of “friends” and I definitely didn’t like the fact that she had hypnotized out of
me the names of my birth-parents. I didn’t know what was more bizarre; that she
knew the one secret that I had confided to only one person, Neil, or that she had
tricked it out of me. It’s bad when your friends discover your secrets and it’s
dreadful when your foes do. I searched Neil for a little assurance, but he wouldn’t
look me in the face and was fidgeting excessively.

“Neil would be pleased to
know about your little secret. Why pleased? He’d love it.” But then she noticed
Neil’s behavior…“Oh, he already knows and didn’t tell you. What an interesting turn
of events.”

“Neil,” I inquired softly.
“Neil, what is she talking about?” No answer.

“Neil, look at me!” He locked
his eyes with mine and those ocean blue orbs screamed only one thing: guilty.

Majestic was enjoying this
immensely, “Okay, I love to do this--kill the surprise.”

“Leave her alone! Can’t
you see that she doesn’t want to hear it!” shrieked mom. Nicole, er, whoever she
was grabbed her.

Majestic smiled crookedly,
“But she does want to know. Right, Janet? She would love to discover that Neil’s
godparents are actually her parents.”