"Mr. Mullick," she asked, softly, as if nothing had happened. Mullick nodded. She pressed a button on the desk, and the alarm stopped. "Calcutta Tech-e sbagatama."
"Um, sorry, I don't know any Hindi or Punjabi or --"
"Ui ma," she exclaimed. "Bengali, sir. I'm in-charge of the Sample 24 Project."
Mullick observed her badge, which read, 'Prateeti, Sr. Memory Analyst.'
"Dr. Mishra has already sent me a dossier on you. So, what do you want?"
"Just to finish what I've started."
"Good, good," she said, looking at her communicator, constantly typing something, while she muttered, "Full name - Mustafa Mullick; born 31st March, 1991 - wow, just one day off from becoming the fool - where are you from again?"
"London, United Kingdom."
"That explains a lot," she said as she entered. After a few more seconds, she showed him her communicator.
"Please check all the details, and then just place your thumb at the bottom."
"I can sign, you know," Mullick remarked, feeling awkward.
"That's how it works."
He completed his registration, and at that moment, received a welcome message on his communicator. He heard Prateeti continue, "I'll tell you about the Helix server later, first off - the Animus Omega. You'll be working in your typical run-of-the-mill office; the workstation looks just like a computer - I'm sure as an accountant you've worked on one. Come."
She led the way through the door to 'offices,' along another corridor.
"Let me debrief you on where we stand as of this moment. We've skipped forward from your last trip into the past. Sultan Altamash is back, having quelled the rebellion in Multan, as is Salim. We do not know about his side of the story; however, we do know that during this time span we've been able to skip, there was some sort of trouble from within. Nothing is clear, but sources hint at the involvement of the Queen, Shah Turkan. Yaqut - when not a victim of the Queen - has by now unearthed suggestive hints about what our project concerns - one of those pieces of technology; We call them Pieces of Eden. Their trail is yet to be picked up by Razia for a while, but we cannot fast forward any further for the moment."
"So I have a long job ahead of me," Mullick said.
"That may very well be it," she remarked, turning a corner into a small office.
The walls had on them wallpapers depicting various scenes - one showed a conflict on a massive scale, with cavalry and spearmen clashing, behind them lined archers; another showed a city, and Mullick immediately recognised from the central fort that this was Delhi. He was not exactly sure who the people depicted in the third one were. He looked at the central desk - the Animus Omega was just like any ordinary computer he'd seen.
"This office will be for your exclusive use; it's the least we could do for the generous DNA sample donor."
Prateeti took out a small card.
"You have a progress report due after every memory sequence. Your Animus system will notify you when a sequence is completed. If you want to discuss anything with me, you should schedule an appointment with me or, for technical issues, Sir Davis, through one of my secretaries."
Mullick took the card and read it -online IDs as well as phone numbers of three secretaries. But one name drew his attention.
"Out of sheer curiosity, was one of your secretaries ever a tier reporter?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Just curious," Mullick covered up.
"One isn't simply 'just curious,' Mr. Mullick."
After a moment's pause, he said it - "Sara Q. - this name sounds familiar."
"I'm telling you this with the hope that you'll not disclose it. She's worked as an independent reporter before a rather controversial story got her on top of hit-lists, but we accepted her. She's extremely resourceful in her own way, even as a secretary."
Mullick repeated, "So she's that Pakistani reporter."
"I can't think of what you find odd," Prateeti replied. "Maybe it'll enlighten a foreigner to just say that irrespective of what our leaders may say and do, for us, the commoners, such a border does not exist."
Mullick stared blankly. Prateeti said then, "You may begin your work."Writer's note: This is a short scene in the middle of our most recent project; it gives some idea of how the present day storyline is structured, as well as hints about the historical story, and what it has in store. The final version would have vernaculars inscript, instead of Romanizations (unless, of course, the language is normally written in the Roman script!).
YOU ARE READING
Drafts and Scriptitation
AcakContinuing the tradition started by my friend, co-author and boss (odd combination, eh?) @srshercule , here's my draft book. P.S. Nothing here is guaranteed to make it to my works in final shape. This just serves to preserve creativity.