Arith : The Undiscovered Planet
CHAPTER 19

Eric heard noises in the background and boom! The call wentdead. He had told his dad to leave the hospital immediately. He hadn’t told hisdad the reason for the urgent call, for fear that the enemy would see hisreaction and strike. Their enemy had always been with them . It not reallypossible to hide from your enemy, he thought.

There was just no way he would tell his dad that the person whohad betrayed him and his mum was the same person who pretended tolie in the hospital , breathing with the aid of ventilators, looking like apatched up doll, as his dad had said.

What had they ever done to Tessy, to deserve this? All thesethoughts ran through him, as he drove as fast as he could to Tessy’s home. Heknew going to the hospital was futile as Tessy already had his dad and couldkill him if he wasted time. Eric needed to get a clue to where Tessy would take his dad. He looked back and sawJesse. She was frantic like Eric and wanted going with him. But he stopped herand said:

“Please baby, I don’t want you to be involved in this . Iwould never forgive myself if something were to happen to you. Please baby, Ido not want you mixed up in this. Please”.

Jesse already figured it would be futile to argue with himand also, wasting time arguing, would endanger Derek’s life. So she justcomplied… well, pretended to. She had her own plans; to go with Eric, whereverhe went. Jesse cried, hugged Eric and pretended to stay back.

"It's okay love,

Eric was glad she had obeyed him. He dived into his car anddrove off recklessly. He wasn’t thinking straight. Tessy, the woman he hadtaken as his second mum, did this to them?

“GOD please keep my dad” he prayed silently.

Eric had no clue of his dad’s whereabouts with theiradversary. In his frantic thoughts, a scene came to him. The scene in which theword 'woods' had played in his presence. He remembered removing a flowerpetals from her sweater the time he had goneto her house , two hours before the agreed time of meeting. He recalled seeinga flash of the bracelet with initials 'M O' when she had stepped out of hercar.

She had smelled of the woods. Olivia’s words in her journal:'She loved the woods' , came into play. Eric recalled seeing the look of dismayon Tessy, when she had stepped out if her car. It now made sense. She hadkilled a technician there. A technician had been reported missing, but he paidno attention. That was exactly where she was taking his dad, to the woods. Ohthe Loreen woods! Where Lincoln had wanted meeting his dad, right?

The very place , Eric thought. He knew the murderer would bewith telescope to watch incoming movements, and cars, he decided to park hiscar somewhere that wasn’t in the territory of the woods. The woods is a bigplace , where would she keep my dad? He thought.

That was when he remembered the flower petals , he hadremoved from her sweater, a red flower. A rose flower, Eric thought. The loreen woods had a little section for red roseflowers. He definitely knew here it was .

“Dad, I’m coming for you” he said silently but withconviction. Hence, he moved silently towards the place, he moved between treesto limited his detection.

**********

Jesse did as Eric had done; parked her car, she did it sosubtlety that Eric didn’t know someone was following him. Jesse was very goodat spying. She had been the one to help her dad out when their states had hadissues at Arith. She always knew how to blend into an environment.

“This is when my gift is highly needed” said silently as shemoved behind Eric as silent as possible.

“I will not sit and watch you go through this alone”. Shesaid again.

Jesse had taken a gun in order to deal with the murderer.

************

Kelvin, Bryan, Malik, Declan and the rest of the troopsarrived safely through the secret route of Kennedy’s armoury. Then all of asudden, fire opened. Kennedy’s men shot at Kelvin and his team , who didlikewise. Kennedy and his people had always been prepared for them. Declan decidedto go with two of his most trusted men. Mike and Toby; a heavy weight lifter.In search of Kennedy as the two groups shot at each other.

Declan signaled them, and they exited the war zone intoKennedy’s room. But the man was nowhere to be found. Declan already knew this.How would the coward still be here with the sounds of gun shots? He always lethis puppets do his dirty job, Declan mused. One thing he knew , Kennedy was inthe house. Well , first of, he would take as many arms as he could carry fromthe armoury.

When they got to the armoury, it was filled with assortedweapons , grenades and the likes of them. As they took the weapons, Mikepointed out a switch that was behind the weapons. Declan already knew about this,switches like this, were keys to underground rooms. He pressed the switch and alittle portion of the armoury opened into a dark passage that had stairs whichwent underground.

Declan gave some signal to Mike and Toby . Together, they walked silently down the stairs but quickly. Theygot to a room outline and without warning, lights came on. Everywhere was sobright that the men were blinded temporarily by the harsh beam. Declan lookedat something that was standing before him. He , being a master of control,managed to hide his shock. But this wasn’t possible , so in order to trulyconfirm what he’d seen , he turned to Toby and saw that he was calmly staringat the spectacle before him. The praised Toby for that.

Yes! This was real. Mike stood before them with an evilsmile pointing a gun a them. He had been the one who had switched on the light.Declan and Toby just looked at Mike.

“You are a bloody coward!” Declan spat at Mike.

Mike laughed loudly at this, still pointing the gun at themand said:

“What did you think? That I was working with you? No damnway. I only work for Kennedy”.

“But you saved me from the fire” Declan declared , trying tostall for time.

“You think I did? Then you’re a fool! That was the plan; tomake you trust me , to make you think I had your back. I’ve always been withKennedy. I always gave him information on the situations in C.S.R. Kennedy isthe only one that has my loyalty”. Mike said sneering at them.

“You nearly had me there” said Declan looking for a way todistract the fool. “But you know what, you weren’t really a good actor. I couldsee through your lies”.

Toby who was listening to Declan, knew what he was trying todo and expertly took out a silencer from beneath his long sleeve shirt ,discreetly. Declan kept trying todistract him and Mike was falling for it slowly .

“I doubt that Declan, you trust me, you made me third incommand, you’re just spewing nonsense” Mike said , his anger flaring up.

But Declan just smiled calmly and said:

“Trust ne , I know and that was why I called on the fourthman to back us up”. For the record, the person is behind you and Derek gave a‘look’ as if something was behind Mike.

This distracted Mike for a second as he turned immediatelyto see the backup. But it was a death move. Toby who had been waiting for this distraction,struck. He shot Mike and he fell . Declan looked at Toby with pride as he tucked in his gun. Heacted as if nothing had happened. Theywent over to check and saw that Mike was dead. They nodded at each other and went off in search for Kennedy.

***************

Eric came to a stand still when he saw his dad tied to a tree.Before he could go any further, a voice halted him.

“Any step closer, and your dad dies, believed me Eric , Iwas a sniper before I became an astronaut” Tessy said.

Eric couldn’t detect the source of this voice and triedlooking around. Tessy could change her voice source. Since he couldn’t knowwhere she was, he had to ask the reason for this hate on him and his dad.

“Why did you do all these to us, we trusted you”.

“ Uh-huh, You sound miserable, You were bent on exposing meand my group”.

“Yes, you killed my mum!”

“Yeah.. she was so stubborn. I had warned her about doingthat but she wouldn’t listen. Olivia , did same thing you did and she met similar fate”

“What? You killed her too? She died from heart failure” Ericsaid trying to prolong the bad occurrence that might come.

“I injected her, and it caused the heart failure. Now enoughof your questions!”

Eric wanted knowing everything so he sad:

“You failed woefully, I’m alive” he sneered.

“I know what you’re trying to do, provoke me into making mistakes. I laugh at your weak attempt”.

“How did you meet Kennedy”?

“When your mum and I parted ways, I took to street fighting. It was on one ofmy fights that I met him. He promised to change my life, as everyone left me…”there was a change in Tessy’s voice. “Enough!” she said “No further questions…”

Two gunshots rang and a shout as Tessy fell from wherever shewas. She was dead when she landed on the ground. Eric, on seeing the death of his enemy,quickly ran to untie his dad. Who had saved him from his enemy?

After loosening theropes with which he dad was tied, they squeezed each other in a bear hug.

“I thought I’d lost you dad”.

“You have me son”. They hugged tighter.

“Our saviour is coming towards us” Derek said teasingly.

Eric turned to look at their saviour. It was Jesse.

Jesse went to Eric meekly. Maybe thinking Eric would reproveher. But Eric didn’t remember his earlier talk with her and gave her the mostloving kiss, he could muster. Their lives were now without foes! Eric rested his on her's.

**************

As Declan and Toby moved from the underground room, theydiscovered there were no more gunshots. What had happened? Hope his men wereokay.

As they came out ,Declan met his troops , some of them were wounded, and they lost two people. Declan was very sad at this. He felt they died for him. He'd make sure the families of the deceased were taken care of. There was really no way to mourn them, but he'd try his best.

As he talked with his troops, Ella came with a spring in hersteps.

“The police have apprehended , Josh and the doctor who had been with Tessy, while theyattempted to escape with their jet. Kennedy was gunned down when he attempted to shoot at a cop. Mike was the foe amongst us, so he wasasked to stop you and Toby from following Kennedy, and seeing you now, he obviously failed".

“ Sure, he did. Theyfailed! I have forgotten what shameless man he is. Puppets doing as he wished.So he really wanted escaping”?

“Yes, but we, I mean … the police caught up with him”.

“We caught him. It’s definitely time for celebration. Imust commend all your efforts”. Toby and Ella nodded.

“We will celebrate”! Ella said happily.

She was glad to have the man who had dealt with her boss!

Ella and Derek shared a smile and turned back to their crew.