The Cursed Shell

16

Professor Luna Cluster had just seen a message from her old pal Todd Lamb, which was similar to another message by an unknown number.

'Weird,' she thought. 'He's contacting me after ten years!'

Luna Cluster was a weak sixty-four year old woman. She had freckles above her nose and cheeks. She was once on a date with Todd Lamb which didn't last long. They met for the last time when their Sanskrit teacher died and gave them eight marble stones with a few pages of a massive manuscript, ten years ago. Luna was a linguist. She had an equal interest in all the languages she learnt. She wasn't mad for Sanskrit like some of her other pals which included Todd Lamb. She had received two messages from Lamb. She read them silently.

MRS CLUSTER, OUR OTHER 6 PALS ARE MURDERED. ONLY WE ARE LEFT. STAY SAFE AND IF YOU HAVE PLANNED TO GO ABROAD, CANCEL IT NOW. DOUBLE YOUR SECURITY

'Who told him that our other pals are murdered?' she thought as if he were mad. The message she read was texted almost three hours ago. She gazed down at the second message by Lamb which had just come.

YOU TOLD ME THAT YOU'VE CREATED A PDF OF THE PART OF THE MANUSCRIPT GIVEN TO YOU BY GURU BHASKAR. PLEASE SEND THAT TO ME. IT'S URGENT.

She forwarded the PDF of her part of the manuscript to Lamb.

Now when she had seen the message, she seemed uneasy. She too understood the pattern of deaths. Only her Sanskrit pals had died. Each death had a difference of one day. Each person who died had a marble piece of a conch–shell. Each person who died also had a part of that manuscript owned by Guru Bhaskar before his death. She couldn't believe what she just realised. She quickly texted a message to Lamb.

Mr Lamb knew that Mrs Cluster had another part of the manuscript. They needed to know more about it. Therefore, it was necessary to get other parts of the manuscript too.

Soon, Lamb received two messages from Mrs Cluster. Lamb looked at the first message and smiled. "Boys, now we've another part of the manuscript," he declared.

Then he gazed down at the second message. He widened his eyes in surprise and almost jumped off his seat. "Why?"

"What happened?" Dhawan asked.

"Mrs Cluster is in India right now!" Lamb told him.

Dhawan's eyes went wide too. "The Killer is going to India too."

"What should we do now?" Brute asked.

A long silence.

"She is aware of the murders, right?" Dhawan asked.

"Yes", Lamb replied in affirmation.

"She must have increased the security around her then," Dhawan said, being hopeful. "We should focus on the manuscript for now."

Lamb frowned but he knew that translating the manuscript was more important. He opened the PDF sent by Professor Cluster.

He started reading. "Manushyasya-"

"Speak after dubbing it in English. I can't understand Sanskrit", Dhawan said.

Brute rolled his eyes. 'Yeah, why not? He can understand the language of a cat, but can't understand Sanskrit!' he thought.

"The writer is saying that he has never heard a human speaking truth," Brute translated after reading and then crossed his eye–brows. "This line has no relation with the cursed shell. It's the first page of the PDF, right?"

"Yeah", Lamb replied in a confused tone.

"This part of manuscript isn't continuing the last one", Dhawan declared.

"It's possible that there's written about the cursed shell in further pages", Lamb said.

Brute and Lamb kept on reading and translating the further pages of the manuscript. Dhawan was listening to them carefully. Crunchy was asleep on the floor–carpet.

The further pages of that part of the manuscript mostly contained lines from Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagvad Gita, and other holy texts. The manuscript explained how Lord Rama killed Ravana; how Duryodhana was killed by Bhīma; what Lord Krishna told his friend and devotee Arjuna before the war of Mahabharata started; why Goddess Sita went deep inside Earth forever; what happened to the Pandavas after the war of Mahabharata; how did Lord Krishna die; how did Parikshit, the son of Abhimanyu and the grandson of Arjuna die, and several other facts stated in ancient texts. Many of the facts weren't even known by Brute before reading them.

It took more than four hours for reading and translating the manuscript. Still they couldn't find the information they wanted.

"This part of the manuscript isn't detailing about the cursed shell at all", Dhawan declared.

"Yes," Brute nodded. "What to do now?"

There was a long silence.

"I'd ask Mrs Cluster if she's made the PDF of other parts of the manuscript too", Lamb said and fished his cell–phone out of his pocket. It was possible that Mrs Cluster made a PDF of other parts too. It was her hobby to know more. He messaged Professor Cluster.

MRS CLUSTER, HAVE YOU CREATED THE PDF OF ANY OTHER PART OF THE MANUSCRIPT?

Mrs Cluster replied after a few minutes.

YEAH, I'VE CREATED A PDF OF EACH PART OF THE MANUSCRIPT. WHICH ONE DO YOU WANT?

Lamb informed Dhawan and Brute about the message and exhaled hopefully. He texted back to her.

I WANT THE ONE WHICH EXPLAINS ABOUT DEVAANT THE CURSED SHELL

They waited for a few seconds. Then Mrs Cluster messaged back.

OH, THAT ONE? LET ME CHECK

"What has she messaged?" Dhawan tried to lean over the screen of Lamb's cell–phone.

"She's checking", Lamb replied.

Soon a message came from Mrs Cluster.

YEAH, GOT IT. I AM SENDING THE PDF

She sent a PDF file to Lamb.

"We got it", Lamb exclaimed.

"Read it", Dhawan stepped towards him.

Lamb opened the PDF file and smiled. "Here it is!"