The Cursed Shell

46

"Well," Dhawan said after hugging Brute, "besides all this happiness for the success of this mission, we will now have to think about the way out of here."

"Oh," Dunkirk raised his eye-brows, "that is really a matter to think about."

"There must be a way we came from," Krystene said, "I think it won't take more than a few hours to find the way out."

"Oh, just amend your statement," Dhawan said, while he took Josh's phone from Duke. "We have this. It means we have the access to the CCTV cameras connected with this phone. So now, the cameras would show us the way out, within minutes!"

"Well, I want to ask you something", Dhawan asked Brute while they were on a speedboat and were boating away from the undersea tower.

"Okay, what is it?" Brute asked, who was sitting beside him in the boat. The boat wasn't too big, so everyone had to adjust in a small space.

"Do you agree with Josh's ideology?" Dhawan asked.

"Obviously not," Brute said, "why do you ask?"

"No, nothing," Dhawan said, and continued after a few seconds. "I am just afraid if Josh was right. His words had a deep and valid point which forced me to think so. By the way, do you know anything about a TV show called Vishnupuran?"

"Oh, yeah, I do," Brute replied in affirmation. "I have seen all of its episodes."

"Oh," Dhawan said, "were Josh's thoughts, which evolved after watching this show, valid according to you?"

"Yes, and not," Brute said. "He was partially correct, but mostly, he was wrong."

"Can you explain that?" Dhawan asked.

"Ah, yes," Brute said, "what Josh used to think was that the Asuras were discriminated against. So here, I won't say that he was completely wrong. Since their existence, the Asuras are known for their wrong doings and evil ideologies, and that too for many reasons. Killing and harming humans and other beings - this is the best known activities of the demons. And along with this, they even wanted to kill the Gods and become the Trilokadhipati, which means the ruler of the three worlds - the Earth, the Heaven, and the Hell. But among the evil demons, a few were born with kindness and good deeds. Prahlad is the biggest example of such demons, and others are Virochan, Bali, Vibhishan, etcetera. There is even a quote spoken by Goddess Laxmi in the show Vishnupuran in which she states Prahlad as a God among the demons, and Indira as a demon among the Gods."

"So you mean that Josh was right?" Dhawan asked. He was listening Brute with complete attention.

"Partially," Brute said, "but he was wrong when he said that all the Gods are evil. Just take Lord Vishnu and Goddess Laxmi as an example, they loved Prahlad as their own son. Vishnu even took an avatar on Earth to save him from his evil father."

"Oh," Dhawan nodded as he understood. "I would have liked to say that Josh wasn't completely a bad guy, but that won't be true. His thoughts changed because his childhood wasn't kind to him. Just see, even he didn't want the politicians to die. That is why he had set a password and even a hint of the password was displayed in case the button was pressed. I still am not able to understand that man properly."

Then he turned towards the manuscript which started it all kept beside him. He picked it up and looked all around it after dusting it. 'It is no secret that the room in which this book was kept was coated in dust', he thought.

"What are you going to do to with this, now?" Brute asked.

Dhawan just smiled for a moment and threw it towards the open sea, where he saw it drowning slowly into the deep blue.

"Why did you do this?" Brute asked. The other three had their gazes stuck towards the drowning manuscript.

"This deadly chase has finally come to an end," Dhawan said, "and I don't want it to start again."

"A clever choice," Dunkirk smiled, "finally you made."

Krystene said after a second. "Then you would want to throw this away too," she forwarded the cursed shell which was again joined in one piece, "it was hard to join it again, I did it with the sticky paste in Joshua Lamb's room."

"Thank you", Dhawan took it from her hand and threw it into the sea too. No mercy to the shell either.

Then he turned towards Brute who seemed to be not at all pleased from what Dhawan did right now.

"By the way, the manuscript was even informative in many ways", Brute said.

"How? It was fake, right?" Dhawan asked.

"Not the entire manuscript was fake," Brute said, "didn't you listen what I said inside the tower."

"Your accent is not Indian and you speak very fast," Dhawan said, "so most of your words just phase through my head."

"Okay, I will try to speak slow," Brute said, "so I was saying that the entire manuscript was not fake. It had many true facts too, like events from ancient religious texts. But I am sure that you even don't consider them to be true."

"Exactly," Dhawan smiled, "I am again an atheist. And that turtle-shaped crater? That could be the fossil of an extinct giant turtle."

"Did you know about the Kalki avatar of Lord Vishnu?" Brute asked.

"What avatar?" Dhawan asked.

"The Kalki avatar," Brute said, "this is going to be his overall twenty fourth avatar and the tenth main avatar which would born in Kali Yuga, which means in this era only. It is a prophecy. Even ancient texts like Mahabharata have a little description about Kalki. He would born to kill the demon Kali. And you know where the Kali lives?"

"No", Dhawan shook his head.

"Head", Brute smiled and pointed towards his head.

"Head?" Dhawan exclaimed in confusion.

"Yes, head," Brute said, "you were shocked, were you not?"

"Yes, I was, but how?" Dhawan asked. He was curious to know that.

"The demon Kali first took place in Parikshit's head. Parikshit was Arjuna's grandson and Abhimanyu's son. Kali took the control over Parikshit and forced him to throw a dead snake on a saint. Which resulted by the son of that saint cursing Parikshit by saying that a cobra would be the reason of Parikshit's death after seven days. So did happen. And now, in today's time, the demon Kali lives in the brain of every being. That is why the people living in today's era, which means the Kali Yuga, are so lazy, cold-blooded and mean. Well, I already knew about this, but that manuscript told me more on this topic."

"And what was I doing when you were reading this topic in the manuscript?" Dhawan asked.

"You and your brother cat were sleeping at the moment", Brute chuckled. Then he wondered for a second. "Yes, what about Crunchy? How would we get him? Your phone was the only way to trace him, but that is with me right now."

"Don't worry," Dhawan said, taking his phone from Brute's hand, "as he is my partner, RAW had put a tracker in him too, and that can be traced by CoFFe. I know it is still not completely clear to you what a CoFFe is and what stuffs can it do. And I don't even want it to be cleared."

"Yeah", Brute smiled.

"And don't worry," Dhawan smiled, "the family will reunite. The father, the son, and his uncle Crunchy will be together again!"