The Master of Deception

Chapter Four

We planned to go there at night. I am still weak but there is no way I'm going to admit it. I dress in casuals with dark colours and an overhaul hoodie. I carry my spy pen with me. Since I am studying to become a journalist, such things capture my interest. I decided to take it with me just in case. Druv meets me outside our gate since I can't drive yet, due to my wrists. I have to rely on others to take me. At first, Druv took this as an excuse to not take me as I knew he would. When I told him that I'd still come somehow and I didn't care if I crashed or made others crash, he reluctantly agreed to pick me. He wore jeans and a tee. "at least you had the sense to wear dark colours" he told me with a sneer. Where is the Druv I met the other day? I decide to ignore him. After all, it is me who is putting my nose in his work and making it more difficult for him.

Barren house is not a house but a mansion. It is near the coastal area and is deserted- true to its name. The doors creak as we enter. Druv turns on the lights and motions for me to stay close. The place is designed old fashioned. As I'm taking everything in, suddenly the overhead lights turn off. The bedlamps remain on but begin to flicker. Even though I know it is all a hoax, I am slightly terrified. Druv leaves my side and goes back to the door where he turns over the doormat. There are a series of complex wiring underneath which have to have some connection with the strange lights.  After a little work, the lights come back on and everything turns normal. I hear something move behind me. I turn and see a shadow sweep past me. Startled I take a step back leaning on an old hookah stick. I feel it move by my weight, lose balance and fall into the abyss below. My fall is brought to a stop by a jerk and I find myself dangling. Druv had caught hold of me by my upper hand and not my wrists which was lucky or else I'd have died with the pain anyway. He helps me up. We look down into the chasm below. It is dark and we can see nothing.  Strangely I don't remember there being any such void in the room.

"Where did this come from?"I question Druv who shrugs in reply and looks around.

"Did you touch or move anything?" he asks.

"The hookah" I answer.

As he goes over and slides the hookah back into place, the void closes.

"Never found this before," he says." I'm going downstairs to take a look. There must be something to take people down"

We begin searching and I find a rope ladder behind the huge grandfather clock that occupies one end of the living room.

After opening the void again, he lets down the ladder and begins his journey downwards.

"I'm coming too!"

 "Wait here until I reach down. I'm not sure if the ladder can hold both our weights".   I nod

The ladder is very long so I guess it must go a pretty long way.

"I'm down," he says, his voice sounding hollow and distant. "you can come now"

I begin my descent. It is painful. I now think myself foolish to have cut my wrist. I am much more help alive. I could've killed myself later if I wanted too. Now, I can't even climb down a ladder thanks to my bleeding hands.

Finally, I reach the bottom. I am panting so hard that at first, I don't notice that we have reached a completely lit room. The room is huge and filled with all sorts of crates and boxes of various sizes.

"I'll look around." Druv tells me " Go and see if you can find an exit in case we are interrupted. Two of us won't be enough to fight the whole gang."

I set off while he starts looking in the crates. I find an exit at the very end. The door opens easily enough. I can hear the noise of the waves. Somehow we had reached close enough to the beach. I head back and tell him of my discovery.

"Hmmm.  Might be trouble on that side too. Woah! Look at this!" he exclaims with a low whistle. "These must cost a fortune." In front of us were varieties of ammunition and other articles of great value. I begin looking through the drawers and find various newspaper clippings of the prime minister and others who I remember seeing on the t.v. with him. There is a photo of him too. His face is crossed out with a black marker.

Whoever these people were, they sure didn't like the prime minister and if they are planning on assassinating him, as is evident seeing the stuff present here, this must be a huge and dangerous gang. We must get help before they-whoever they are- come back from wherever they went.

I show him what I found. He understands the implications immediately. "Let's go!" he says. And we make for the exit.

"Wait!" I say and run back. He follows me. I take out my pen camera and record everything we found there and keep all the things back in their place. "No need warning them that we know beforehand. Let's try and keep things quiet for now" I tell Druv enjoying myself thoroughly as If I'm the inspector here and not him.

"Smart!" He admits grudgingly indicating the camera. I smile in acknowledgement. It is a wry smile, not fully reaching my eyes. I now understand why Allister was killed. I realize we will be killed too if we aren't quick enough about it. Druv, apparently was thinking along the same lines.

 "Come on, let's get out of here." He says. We decide to take the rope ladder since we don't know where the other door leads. Just as we were about too, however, we hear voices from above.

"Someone is here! The door is opened!"

A calm voice answers, "Are you sure you didn't leave it open, the last time we came here?"

We don't wait to hear anymore and head to the other exit. It is a tunnel. Druv jams the door on our side so that no one can follow us but if necessary we can leave through the same door.

It is so low at certain places that we have to double up to move. The sound of the waves is much closer now. I notice a metal ladder leading to a vault above us.

"It's above us?"I ask surprised.

"I guess so" Druv replies. "The tide is high. Maybe we can get out once it is low." We settle to a long wait, both of us in different corners, me thinking of Allister and he thinking of whatever he is thinking about. I take the photo that I always carried with me. It is of me and Al in the garden. How happy we were! I feel a wave of surging anger against Allister. How dare he get mixed up with such people? How dare he leave me alone? Tears make their way out of my eyes yet again. The perfect poem strikes my head. Allister had written it for me once when I pranked him about leaving him for a petty fight. The meaning somehow suited my situation totally.

 Today I'm alone once again

All the promises you made were in vain

In the end, your way you went

Leaving me behind tired and spent

When my hand holding you should be

What so important came that you forgot me?

I wonder if things could be as they were

You and me together

You as alive as ever              

And if I ever had a chance to choose a time I would re-live

 It'd be the time I spent with you!!!"

I am disturbed from my thoughts by Druv who is too close for comfort. His head is cocked to one side in a questioning look and only then do I realise I had said all that aloud. I look away.

"The tide has receded. We need to leave" he says. I observe that the noise has reduced. The air has grown stuffy and it is getting difficult to breathe. He is right. I follow him. He tells me to stay down because the remaining water might flow in as he opens the vault and I might not be able to keep myself upright due to the force on my hands.

He is right again, a lot of water came rushing in and he is completely drenched. He climbs up. The fresh air is reviving and I can't wait to get out. I wait for him to call me and when he doesn't, I figure that this isn't a rope ladder that he'd have to inform me when he'd reached. Besides I could see, that he had reached. 

"I coming up" I call out. As I put my head through the opening, I see that there are many men in black around and one of them has their gun trained on me.