Arith : The Undiscovered Planet
CHAPTER 19

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

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

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

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

Jesse already figured it would be futile to argue with him and also, wasting time arguing, would endanger Derek’s life. So she just complied… well, pretended to. She had her own plans; to go with Eric, wherever he 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 and drove off recklessly. He wasn’t thinking straight. Tessy, the woman he had taken 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 their adversary. In his frantic thoughts, a scene came to him. The scene in which the word 'woods' had played in his presence. He remembered removing a flower petals from her sweater the time he had gone to her house , two hours before the agreed time of meeting. He recalled seeing a flash of the bracelet with initials 'M O' when she had stepped out of her car.

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 dismay on Tessy, when she had stepped out if her car. It now made sense. She had killed a technician there. A technician had been reported missing, but he paid no attention. That was exactly where she was taking his dad, to the woods. Oh the Loreen woods! Where Lincoln had wanted meeting his dad, right?

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

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

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

**********

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

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

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

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

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

Kelvin, Bryan, Malik, Declan and the rest of the troops arrived safely through the secret route of Kennedy’s armoury. Then all of a sudden, fire opened. Kennedy’s men shot at Kelvin and his team , who did likewise. Kennedy and his people had always been prepared for them. Declan decided to 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 into Kennedy’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 let his puppets do his dirty job, Declan mused. One thing he knew , Kennedy was in the house. Well , first of, he would take as many arms as he could carry from the armoury.

When they got to the armoury, it was filled with assorted weapons , grenades and the likes of them. As they took the weapons, Mike pointed 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 a little portion of the armoury opened into a dark passage that had stairs which went underground.

Declan gave some signal to Mike and Toby . Together, they walked silently down the stairs but quickly. They got to a room outline and without warning, lights came on. Everywhere was so bright that the men were blinded temporarily by the harsh beam. Declan looked at 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 truly confirm what he’d seen , he turned to Toby and saw that he was calmly staring at the spectacle before him. The praised Toby for that.

Yes! This was real. Mike stood before them with an evil smile 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 them and said:

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

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

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

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

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

“I doubt that Declan, you trust me, you made me third in command, 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 fourth man 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 immediately to 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. He acted as if nothing had happened. They went 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 , I was a sniper before I became an astronaut” Tessy said.

Eric couldn’t detect the source of this voice and tried looking around. Tessy could change her voice source. Since he couldn’t know where 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 me and my group”.

“Yes, you killed my mum!”

“Yeah.. she was so stubborn. I had warned her about doing that 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” Eric said trying to prolong the bad occurrence that might come.

“I injected her, and it caused the heart failure. Now enough of 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 of my 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 she was. 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 the ropes 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 reprove her. But Eric didn’t remember his earlier talk with her and gave her the most loving 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, they discovered there were no more gunshots. What had happened? Hope his men were okay.

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 her steps.

“The police have apprehended , Josh and the doctor who had been with Tessy, while they attempted 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 was asked to stop you and Toby from following Kennedy, and seeing you now, he obviously failed".

“ Sure, he did. They failed! 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. I must 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.

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