Kanyaka [Sequel to Durga] | ✓

26. The Reason Behind the Centuries Old Revenge

"You want me to believe that the secret is somewhere in the temple?" Abhilash looked at his team, surprisingly. The previous day's search in the palace proved futile. The trio didn't breathe a word about the conversations of the previous day. Abhilash's seniors had come to a unanimous decision of finding the secret, if any, today otherwise they will close this case.

Going per his team's decision, the search had started in the temple. Durga was pretending to search in the place where the book was hidden. Rudra was searching outside the sanctum sanctorum to avoid suspicion. Akhil had not come with them citing some personal reasons.

After two hours of acting, Durga left that spot and walked towards the temple gates. Abhilash decided to check all the spots as this day was his last hope to find it. Soon, he was at the place where the fake book was present. He jumped in joy and screamed, "I found the book."

Outside, Rudra gave a smirk to Durga. She was finding it hard to conceal her smile. Abhilash told the team to wind up as soon as possible and meet him in the temporary quarters provided by ASI. Durga and Rudra followed him and surprisingly, he was not bothered about their presence.

When they were nearing the city, Rudra received a call from Akhil stating that he was at the temporary quarters with Raghavendra. Within an hour, they reached the quarters and the glee on Abhilash's face revealed everything. Raghavendra gave a nodding smile which was noticed by Rudra. But Raghavendra was irritated about the fact that the husband and wife had accompanied his father. He needed to get rid of them.

His annoyance was noticed by everyone, but they were waiting for his excuse to get rid of them. Surely, he said, "Appa, we should let this couple along with others do the translation of this text."

Abhilash understood his son's sugar-coated words. "Yes, of course, that's so thoughtful of you. I need to discuss this with my team and seniors. I will surely let you know everything by evening."

Durga protested. "But in the contract, you said that we will help you too. You can't- "

She stopped as Akhil signalled her to stay quiet. Rudra covered it. "Let him decide by evening. If not, we will file legal action against them. Come, let's go home."

Rudra had to pull an angry Durga out of the house and made her sit in their car. He sat on the driver seat and ignited the engine. Akhil followed them on his bike to their house. Yellamma was surprised to see a new face with the couple but she didn't object. She would usually not interfere with Rudra's professional work.

Durga looked at them irritated. "What happened? Why did you both stop me from threatening them?"

"Your company is under their vigilance," stated Akhil.

"What!" Rudra screamed.

"How is that even possible?"

"Rudra, this is very insignificant for you but try thinking about the software technician you had called when your system had crashed?"

"It was two months ago, I guess so," replied Rudra in an uncertain tone.

"A bug was introduced in a few systems due to which systems crashed. A technician was called who tapped the CCTV cameras in your office. I guess there was an important meeting where all the employees were present in the board room?"

Durga nodded. "It was a party for celebrating ten years of running our company."

"Since there was no one in the office, he tampered, so that Raghavendra gets a copy of the video that you are watching. Yet we are not sure what he did. He forgot to delete a clip in one of the CCTV cameras that was installed. But he couldn't tamper the one in the board room, so I presume Abhilash would have thought of some alternative."

Durga looked at him with wide eyes and asked, "Will he be monitoring our company as we speak?"

Akhil nodded and smiled. "Don't worry, we played the same trick on him. We will be able to hear to their talks from here."

"Did you-"

"Yes Rudra, I have attached a tiny device in their quarters that transmits every sound to this software I have installed here. We can hear what they are talking. Let us go in to a room to hear it properly."

That's when Rudra realised they were in the living room, talking loudly. He led Akhil to his room and closed the door. Akhil quickly unlocked his phone and opened an app. No sooner did he pressed the button, they could hear the father and son talking.

"Finally, these texts are with us. Our ancestors have faced the humiliation for many hundred centuries but not anymore. They will be recognized for what they are," Abhilash said.

"Yes, my son, they were the one of the disciples of the rishis who have contributed in preserving these texts. Out of the blue moon, Agastya comes and informs them that there is threat to these astra creation procedure. All of them were told to return. When our ancestors came to their kingdom, Sahasyabhumi, they were stoned by the people as they were sons of devadasis. One of them was saved by the group of aghoris who practised tantrism."

"He returned as a tantric. Nobody knew that he had survived and made the king believe that his daughter was not fit to be a queen. But later she ran away with his son and this enraged him. When his son lost all his powers, he decided to make her a devadasi. Later he came to know that she was the one who had instigated the mob."

"He wanted to strip her honour like the way she had done. For next two centuries, this continued until. . ."

They heard someone banging a hard surface. "Until that Kanyaka became the Queen. She hid this somewhere and it took us five hundred years to find this."

They heard Abhilash laughing. "The toughest part was keeping the curse alive. Every woman in the family had to be killed in an accidental way; to avoid any doubts, we had to sacrifice a few male members like Rudra's father. . ."

Rudra closed his fist tightly and clenched his jaw. His body shook with rage. Durga stood next to him, holding his right closed fist, tightly. Slowly opening his fist, he held Durga's palm as if he was trying to draw strength from her. The accident was planned. It was intended to kill my mother, but I lost my father too.

Abhilash continued, "I thought we did a mistake by killing Akshad but her daughter did everything right. How dare he rejected my proposal to marry her to you?"

"I had to test the drug because it was a path breaking invention. That lady. . . that stupid woman had courage to reject my invention. The drug I have discovered is a mind-influencing drug that allows one to remember absurd thoughts. Its effects last up to three months."

"When we threatened hat medical officer she thought she could tell your truth to everybody? Puny Vaishali Agnihotri thought she would expose you? We removed her from our path. We gave her the taste of her own medicine, I mean, we tested the drug, on her. She said her husband was a police officer, he would make mincemeat out of us. But where was he? At her funeral, he was crying like a woman."

"Akshad was removed and then the health minister was given a huge bribe to set up your own research centre. But this country has many Vaishalis, Sachin was successful in closing it up before we could set up our centre. But this time we set it up, illegally."

"We have come a long way, indeed. We need to access it so that our forefathers rest in peace, their souls will finally rest in peace."

The call ended, triggering the chain of thoughts.