the immortals

CHAPTER - 3 : VETRI

July 7 , Monday :
Vetri was in the bathroom facing the mirror, he was uncertain with his situation. He was nervous. He splashed water on his face as fast as he could, at the same time carefully without spoiling his uniform. After wiping his face he stood erect with hands in his hip gained confidence and walked out . Wore his cap, took over the mega phone and faced a crowd of nearly 50 protesters.
Vetri was a newly promoted inspector, he had his own magnificent dreams of solving cases, arresting criminals, but he ended up in commissioner's office as an assistant to him. All he had to do is to prepare for press meetings on behalf of commissioner, do negotiations with protesters representing commissioner, escorting foreign or other state officials, supervise cyber crime and so on . he hated every bit of work he was assigned with, especially working in cyber crime was taking the hell out of him, sitting in front of computer and caching pervert men releasing morphed photos were the worst part . He tried his best to escape for his position, but it seemed that commissioner had personally appointed him based on his profile.
Commissioner's jeep was entering his office, with Commissioner Adithya Sharma in the back seat. By the time chaos was under control, front gate of commissioner office was cleared without any public, guarded by few armed policemen. Few torn slippers, broken bottles, traces of blood on road remained as evidence for the intense of the protest which happened. Inspector in-charge Vetri came forward to explain the situation as soon as Adithya got down of his jeep,
"Situation is under control Sir", said Vetri
"I can see that, but it was out of control a few hours ago ,right? ", said Adithya,
"Yes sir, I brought that under control", said Vetri in reply to what he thought was an appreciation,
"You shouldn't have left it that far. ", said Adithya and continued after a few minutes gap, " but still, what's the case?",
"It's a missing case sir, two victims, one is Karthi, a cameraman, and the other is Giri, a reporter, both work for zen TV channel. Their relatives, friends and colleagues were protesting against the channel. They claim that both the victims are kidnapped by the channel for their credibility",
"From when they are missing?" interrupted Adithya ,
"From yesterday night Sir, around 12:30, the channel claim that they both are dead, and they have the video footage of both committing suicide", said Vetri.
"Don't confuse, Explain clearly, incident by incident. ", shouted Adithya.
"sir, both the victims went to an local villa, near Santhom. It is said that the villa is haunted. They both are part of a T.V show named "Residence of Fear", both the victims were the main part in that show. Yesterday night, they were shooting at Santhom. The shoot was going as per schedule, but suddenly the cameras went out of focus and when they regained the focus both the victims were hanging",
"Do you mean they committed suicide?" questioned Adithya.
"No sir, we don't have any evidence saying they are dead, except for the video.the rest of the crew were afraid to enter the villa. So they called local Santhom Police station for help, in response two P.C's along with few channel members went into villa searching them. According to the footage they died at 10:50P.M., but their family members said that both the victims reached home by 11:30 P.M",
"What!?" questioned Adithya in reply,
"Yes sir, they both reached their respective home by 11:30. Around 12 the channel in-charge called them to inform about the victim's death. Their families were shocked, nearly 12:30 they sent the victims to their office along with few relatives to enquire about this. But both Karthi and Giri went missing from then. Their families claim that the channel has kidnapped the victims", meanwhile they both reached commissioner's room.
"what about that missing dead body case ?", questioned Adithya while he entered the room.
When they entered, there was a lady nearly 35 along with two of her assistants in his room. A constable from inside received Adithya and said, "Sir they are the people from U.N. They came here half an hour ago, I made them wait",
"The protest?" murmured Adithya,
"No sir, they don't know anything", replied the constable.
"Good morning, mam ", said Adithya,
"Good morning sir, I'm Maanvi", replied the lady from U.N.
Vetri was told to wait outside till the meeting got over. He was recalling all the information he had about the case. It was clear that the channel had its hand one way or the other, the footage might be leaked and miss understood, there is no way they are dead, they must be kidnapped by the channel or by other competitive channels. After while he felt the reality that their no change he would get the case , instead of wasting time in solving the case he shifted his path , what if they are really dead and came back to their home without knowing they were dead . He laughed out for himself appreciating his creative ability. He also felt how much he had degraded as a policeman in handling a case. Before his conversation with himself could complete he was called in.
"Yeah... Vetri, this is Maanvi from United Nations", said Adithya introducing her. He had the same old fake smile in his face which he would wear in escort duties. His could feel his career being demolished by escort duties.
"mam, this is inspector Vetri ". said Adithya to Maanvi and continued looking at Vetri , " Vetri , You take charge ,register this missing case under your name, Sub-inspector Ravindhran will guide you , he will explain about the procedure in detail and about your assistant for this case . I think your assistant will be at Loyola College now you have to pick him up, go ahead."
Vetri saluted him and came out .The moment he heard the words 'register ' and 'under your name ' in the same sentence he was literally in cloud nine. Nothing was there to stop him from that moment, he had the full confidence to solve this case. Above all he also gets to have assistance in this case. This was huge for him. After registering he directly went to meet sub-inspector Ravindran.
He was on top of the world when he signed the case register; this was his first official case. Sub-inspector Ravindran joined him with a formal salute and started signing the case register.
"commissioner told us to pick up some one from Loyola College, I think he in on duty there. he will be our assistant in this case", said Vetri.
"I know sir, that's the reason commissioner included my name in this case. Actually, he is not your assistant, you are his assistant ". Vetri smiled at him but Ravindran continued without minding that, "And he is not on duty , he is studying there", Vetri's laughter increased.
"What else do you have?" asked Vetri sarcastically,
"Believing it is up to you sir, but this is the truth, or else why should they register this case under an inexperienced cop like you. The registration is just a formal act. He is the one who will handle this case ".
Their jeep was yet to reach the college, but still Vetri couldn't understand why or how could be a college student involve in police investigation, and why should he be assisted by him.
"Sir the truth is, he is not a human like us", said Ravindran.
"What! He is not a human?" questioned Vetri strangely.
"He is a machine sir, A Robot, looks and behaves exactly like human". This was more shocking for Vetri than when he heard about him working under a college student, before Vetri could reply any Ravindran continued.
"His father is Chief Head of Science department. Six years ago, Amaran met with an accident and was in coma. His father couldn't bear his son's death. So he took some dead bodies illegally and did some scientific experiments, added electronic stuffs inside him. His experiments succeeded. He then converted his son into a robot. It took him two entire years to convert him completely. No one knew about this, not even his servants, assistants, who helped him in buying raw materials. He performed those experiments in an isolated lab without anyone involving in it. To satisfy the energy demand, he planned to use a nuclear crystal in his body. He would place the crystal inside his body which would provide him energy. It seems our body needed that much of power to function. But he was caught by customs department while smuggling those crystals. That's when the government knew what he was about to. His work was almost complete when he was arrested. He spent money, used his influence but nothing worked, the government was totally against it. They were afraid that, if they allow this to happen, who so ever knew this will try to convert themself into robots and live their life without death. After a long discussion and confusions, the government came with an agreement that they will allow Amar to exist but the truth that he is an robot should be maintained secretly, if the public knew about him he will be abolished forever, he will be dismantled. Above all, his existence will only be till his father's death. They also included that he should help police department in solving critical cases, in disaster managements and so on. They created fake hospital bills and statement, they made the public believe that he recovered from coma after these many years and then he joined college. We have used him for many cases. He is easy to handle, I can manage him you don't have to worry about anything . Above all never let this secret out, is that clear?"
Their jeep reached the entrance of the college. While Vetri was waiting outside Ravindhran went to the college office to enquire about Amar. Vetri went to toilet nearby. He was in a complete chaos of emotion. He was surprise , amazed , astonished, at the same time worried that the first case which he registered under his name will not be investigated by him, he is just a dummy. Quickly he examined his own situation where the case he got is been snatched, that too by some robot whom he no idea about and which he still didn't believe in. His emotions became stable and landed in a single emotion called anger. He thought that Amar who meet an accident took a kind of rebirth only to replace him from this case. This thought made him feel low about Amar, without any justification Vetri thought Amar was unfit. He was clear that Amar could never solve this case and had a desire that if he solves the case before Amar, he could prove himself worthy before everyone, the name which he would get in solving this case would be much more than solving many cases.
He was standing in front of mirror near the washbasin; he splashed water on his face. Suddenly, he heard some cheer sounds from inside the bathroom, which was towards his right, still inside blocked by a wall. He moved towards his right where he saw a gang of students surrounding two guys who were fighting. No one there noticed him. They were busily involved in watching and cheering the fight. He too was curiously watching that fight. One guy was on the bathroom floor with his opponent over him. The guy on top stretched his hands far above the other, within few seconds his hands punched exactly on the other ones nose, he didn't even block it. Blood oozed out of his nose, before he could recover from that punch the second and third banged on the same place which increased his bleeding, blood flow was enormous. Vetri who realized the seriousness of the situation shouted from behind, the moment all noticed a cop standing behind them, they ran out within seconds except for the guy on the floor with blood. His face was full of blood strains. Vetri helped him to stand up and made him to wash his face. Vetri snatched his ID card. He was shocked when he saw the name Amaran on the ID card.