The Cursed Shell

14

"She denied the call," Dhawan shook his head. "I'm going to try again."

"Yes, do that", Brute said. He was most worried about Krystene.

Dhawan pressed the cell–phone to his ear. A few seconds later, a voice beeped through the phone. "The number you've dialed is currently switched off, please try later."

"Switched off?" Brute exclaimed. "She never keeps her phone switched off."

"It's possible that the battery went dead", Dhawan told him.

Dhawan sent a WhatsApp message to Krystene:-

KRYSTENE, IT'S BRUTE COYLE. YOU ARE NOT PICKING MY CALL. CALL ME BACK WHEN YOU ARE FREE. AND YES, IF SOMEONE COMES TO ADOPT YOU, BE CAREFUL AND CALL ME WITHOUT LETTING THE PERSON GET AWARE OF THAT.

"The guy was correct," Josh crossed his eye–brows while focusing on the laptop's screen on his study–table. "I'm not able to trace his phone, in fact, that phone doesn't exist anymore."

"Why doesn't anyone from you go to India for that girl," Mr Todd Lamb said. "Josh, you go to India."

"But dad, how can I leave you in this condition?" Josh argued.

"I'm okay, my son. Agent Dhawan, his cat, and Brute are here for my safety," Lamb said. "You must leave for India right now. That's your father's order."

Josh stood up. He couldn't deny his father. He hugged his father tightly. His father kissed on his forehead.

"I'll do whatever you say until death", Josh said.

Dhawan rolled his eyes. 'He's being over-dramatic', he thought. 

"I know my son," his father said. "Just keep yourself safe."

"Don't worry dad. I'll have the best police forces with me."

After bidding each other a long goodbye, Josh walked out of the bungalow.

"Mr Lamb," Dhawan said, "can we have more information about the cursed shell?"

Lamb nodded and started walking towards a yellow painted room. Dhawan and Brute followed him. Brute couldn't focus his mind away from Krystene even for a moment.

The room where Lamb took them was painted yellow with religious symbols tattooed all over the walls. The symbols were the swastika (卐), the Christian cross, the symbol of Om in Hinduism (ॐ), the Star and Crescent sign of Muslims (☪) and various other symbols. The room was decorated with paintings depicting major scenes from the Bible, Mahabharata, Ramayana, and other ancient texts. On the ceiling, there was the painting of Lord Vishnu lying on the bed of Sheshnag, a giant multi-headed snake who is the leader of all the snakes.

"Guru Bhaskar chanted in front of this painting every day," Lamb told them, pointing towards the painting, "he prayed Lord Vishnu to take the curse back from the conch–shell."

Brute thought, 'How can any God take his or her curse back from the cursed object? Is it possible?'

"Guru Bhaskar didn't only give the stones to his students," Lamb continued, "He also gave us a few pages of the ancient manuscript which stated about the cursed shell. The pages were divided equally among each one of us. I have only one hundred twenty–six pages of the manuscript."

"It means there are one thousand eight pages in that manuscript", Brute calculated immediately.

Lamb looked impressed. "I've heard that you're very good in Sanskrit. Why don't you try reading the manuscript?"

Brute's eyes glowed widely as he smiled. "Can I do that?"

Lamb nodded in affirmation.

"Mr Lamb," Dhawan crossed his eye–brows, "you know Sanskrit, then why didn't you read the manuscript before?"

"Who said that I didn't read it?"

"Then why didn't you make someone aware of whatever is written in the manuscript?" Dhawan asked.

"It was Guru Bhaskar's wish that no one gets aware of the shell and the manuscript," Lamb told him. "And I don't have the complete manuscript. As I've said, the manuscript is divided among eight of us."

'That's a big point. I'll have to find whether the killer is after the shell or the manuscript,' Dhawan thought.

Mr Lamb kept the part of manuscript on a table.

"Umm...." Brute stepped ahead, pointing towards the manuscript, "can I give it a try?"

"Yeah, sure", Mr Lamb welcomed Brute beside him.

It was 10:54 pm in England. The massive brown bearded assassin Stephenson Mal was seated inside his plane now. He was only eight hours away from India.

'India's time is five hours ahead of England's time,' he thought. 'My target must be sleeping. Let her sleep. It would be her last sleep in life.'

He gave a short chuckle and closed his eyes to have a short nap.

Unaware of the coming danger, Krystene was sleeping on her orphanage's bed. She had forgotten her cell–phone at the charging point. An important message by an unknown number was yet to be seen by her.

Joshua Lamb was now seated in the plane going from New York to India. The plane was yet to be departed and the flight was fourteen hours long. He was thinking if he could reach on time before the killer reaches the teen girl.