Neel Dervin and the Dark Angel (39 page)

Neel went up to the roof of his house. Priyanka was sitting on the wall between their
houses, staring into space.

 

“Hi.” Neel said, coming to stand beside her.

 

“Hey.” Priyanka said briefly, still looking distracted.

“Priyanka, I‟m really sorry.” Neel
began quietly. “I know I‟ve been acting like an idiot
these last few days. I‟ve already talked to Aryan about it. I‟m fine now. I‟m sorry I fought
with you on your birthday and said those things.”

“It‟s all right.” Priyanka assured him, with a
forgiving but somewhat absent minded
smile. „I‟m just glad that you‟re feeling better.” Then she relapsed again into thoughtful
silence.

“What‟s the matter?” Neel asked, although he had a good idea what the matter was.

 

Priyanka said nothing for a few seconds, still staring into space. Finally, she looked up at
him. “Did you see the news about last night?”

He nodded casually, not looking at her. “The one about the bank robbery, right?” he said.
“It‟s all everyone at school talked about. There are so many weird talks about the guy in the
black suit. What do you think that whole dealwas?” he paused, waiting carefully for her
reply as he watched her intently.

“Do you know what happened that night on Diwali, when I was outside?” she asked
without looking at him.

 

“You found the kitten,right?” Neel said. “I know that.”

Priyanka looked up at Neel slowly.
“I didn‟t find it right away.” she said. “The kitten
went into a side alley in one of the darker areas.” She hesitated, than continued, “There were
a bunch of drunken men there. They were pretty scary, but before they did anything, a guy
came up behind them. He knocked them out. Then he stopped a cracker bomb with his hand.
Then he carried me back to Aryan‟s house.”

“Carried you?” Neelsaid, his eyebrows raised. “How?”

“I‟m not sure.” Priyanka admitted. “I had my eyes closed the wh
ole time. Before, I
thought he was flying. I kept feeling lighter and then heavier. Sonow I‟m thinking, what if he
was jumping? Really high! Like the person on the news?”

Neel was silent as he stared at Priyanka. He was relieved to know for sure she had not
recognized him that night. But he needed some answers.

 

“Why didn‟t you tell us about this that night?” he asked.

“I wasn‟t sure about what had happened myself. It was so dark, I could barely see
anything. And I had my eyes closed most of the time. What was I supposed to say? That I had
met a flying man who beat up half a dozen men on his own, and who wasn‟t hurt by fire?
Can‟t you imagine what Aryan would have said?”

“Yeah, he probably would‟ve thought you were exaggerating.” Neelconceded. “Did you
tell your parents?”

Priyanka shook her head guiltily. “I didn‟t tell them that we had gone out that night, just
that we found the kitten under Aryan‟s bed. If I‟d told them I‟d gone to that area, they would
never let me leave the house again.”

She fell silent again. Neel was thankful he had not told the people at swan labs about that
night, except Divya, who had kept his secret. It seemed there were no ill effects of helping
Priyanka that night, and nowthey didn‟t have to know at all.

Priyanka gazedat him, puzzled. “You don‟t seem very surprised.” she said, watching
him sunk in thought.

“What? Of course I‟m surprised.”
Neel said hastily, trying to arrange his expression to
show astonishment and confusion. “I was just thinking. Who is that guy? And was he the
same as the guy at the bank last night?”

“I don‟t know.” Priyanka said, s
tarting to pace restlessly. “The guy I met only spoke to
me once. His voice was so low I could barely hear him. So if he wore a mask like the guy on
TV, the low voice would make sense right?”

Neel shrugged cautiously, not trusting himself to speak.

“And when
he was beating up those men in front of me, I think I saw his clothes
blowing in the wind.” Priyanka continued. “It looked like a jacket, like the one guy on the
news was wearing.”

“Maybe it was.” Neel said, mentally kicking himself for not zipping up his jacket. “So
what are you going to do now?”

“What can I do?” Priyanka said
helplessly. “I didn‟t really see anything definite that
night. No one might believe me. I just felt like I needed to tell someone about this.” She
sighed. “Even if you don‟t believe me, either.”

“I really don‟t know what to think about this whole business.”
Neel said carefully. He
hesitated, then added,“And I don‟t see what you can do about it. He helped you that night,
and he helped the people atthe bank last night. He‟s obviously one of the good guys,
whoever he is, so it‟s not like you need to worry about anything.”

“You‟re right.” Priyanka said. “I guess I‟ll just never know for sure. I need to go help
mom with dinner. Good night Neel.”

“Goodnight.” He watched her leave
. Then he sat alone on the rooftop watching the sun
go down. The light was fading, and the darkness was growing. Yet he felt hopeful. The
events that had taken place since becoming the Alpha soldier seemed to play out before him.
Everything he had done right. Everything he had done wrong. And all the decisions that had
brought him to this point. Tonight would be a culmination of sorts. He no longer saw himself
as invincible, but knew his own strengths a little better now.

It was going to be an interesting night.
* * *

Night time.
Phlicer complex was alive with activity. Watchful guards with automatic rifles, night
vision goggles and guard dogs swarmed around the buildings. There orders were clear: shoot
on sight, and keep shooting till the target drops. But despite the heightened security no one
saw the shadowy figure till it was inside the building, when the guards were finally alerted by
the barking of the dogs.

Neel kicked open the door of the main storage area, two blocks away from the target
building. All the buildings in the outer area had already been cleared out. Only the main
building had the lights turned on. Somewhere inside that building wasMehta‟s most private
and closely guarded laboratory, and inside it was definitive proof of whatever Mehta was
involved in.

Neel ran through the giant hall, the shouting of the guards growing louder in his ears. It
was highly possible that Mehta would use the sound machine on him as he had done the first
time, and so he carried with him a small pair of noise cancelling earphones. But they would
not protect him completely, and the best bet was to get inside the main building and out
before Mehta could employ any tricks on him.

He paused at the exit door of the hall. To the left was a two storey building, and behind
it the main building which housed the underground laboratory. The shouting guards were
drawing nearer.

Neel closed his eyes. The world around him slowed down to a crawl. His senses were
fully alive as two guards ran towards him from the front, while three more ran at him from
behind. Every minute sound from the surrounding area was magnified. Two of the guards
were in excellent shape and ran swiftly. One was slightly overweight, his breath coming in
short gasps as he ran. The other two were much slower than the others, and were not
particularly coordinated. The three men behind him had raised their weapons and all five
were attempting to form a circle around him, three feet apart from each other, roughly eight
steps away.

Powering his legs, he bent down slightly and aimed for the nearest guard.

 

* * *

Neel blew past the guards in the main office building, heading for the elevator shaft.
More guards appeared at regular intervals. None could stop him, and those who remained
standing were the few lucky ones. Neel was more focused at that moment than he had ever
been in his life. He refused to allow himself pride at a neatly landed punch, or worry if a
guard remained standing.

His only thought was to get to the lab. He tore apart the steel doors of the elevator at the
end of the office room. Jumping in, he climbed rapidly up and out of the hatch at the top of
the elevator. From the small free space at the back he jumped down. The drop was sixteen
stories long, and he held briefly onto the ridges fixed around the walls of the vertical tunnel
as he made his way down. At the last floor, he once again tore apart the two metal doors at
the front.

And finally he was there.
Phlicer laboratory. The reason behind all the training, all the horror and all the pain.

 

Neel punched through the door, and then he was inside. He strode into the room, seeing
shocked scientists staring at him, open mouthed. There was no sign of Mehta.

“You all have five minutes to g
et out, or else.” Neel shouted at the scientists. He did not
finish the threat, mainly because he had no idea what he would do if they did not obey. It
seemed distinctly unsporting to hit regular scientists who just seemed to be going about their
jobs.

Fortunately, the fact that he had broken down the steel door with his bare hands seemed
to have made an impression on them. They scrambled towards the exit staircase. Neel seized
a heavy storage cupboard and rammed it into the entryway, sealing the entrance. The guards
who been guarding the outer area of the laboratory were alerted too late to his presence in the
inner chamber. The shouts outside the chamber grew louder as Neel stared around the vast
space filled with a puzzling mix of machines, from thermal cyclers and PCR machines to
computers constructing Feynman diagrams.

“I‟m in.” Neel spoke into the receiver in his mask as he walked towards the centre of the
room.

 

“Good” DoctorFahim said, his voice growing urgent. “Look for a storage area, where
something human sized could be stored. You‟ll have to break in and -”

 

“I won‟t have to.” Neel said, his voice growing quiet. “I‟ve found it.”

 

He stared at the strange object in the middle of the room, and walked over to it.

“It looks like a… a coffin.” He said. But it was also very different. For one thing it was
extremely large in size. The object was cuboidal in shape, with rounded edges. It was about
six foot thick and four foot tall. It was also at least ten feet long. It lay in the center of the lab,
surrounded on all sides by raised platforms with computer boards.

Neel took out his cell phone and selected video. Aiming the lens at the coffin, he started
recording the coffin and its surroundings. The video had a direct feed to the computer at
Swan Labs.

Neel was beginning to feel uneasy.

“You know, this room is a little creepy but it doesn‟t look like Mehta‟s doing anything
illegal.” he said, praying he hadn‟t wasted all that effort on a false alarm. “Maybe he‟s
thinking of a new way of making beds or…” he stopped abruptly.

He had walked up close to the coffin, and he could see the top now. The upper portion of
the front had a type of window with see through glass in it. The window was about four by
four feet wide. The inside was filled with a kind of fog, making it difficult to look within. But
it was just possible to make out the general shape of what was inside.

“It‟s… it looks like a…” Divya‟s voice sounded stunned over the microphone.
“It‟s a man.” Neel said, his voice coming out strangely.

The body inside looked human, but it was huge. Bigger than anyone Neel had seen
before, bigger than he had thought it was possible to be. Its skin was of a dark hue, but its
features were hidden behind the fog.

“Mehta‟s doing experiments on human beings. And look at this guy. This is definitely
illegal. What do I do now?” Neel asked into the microphone.

 

In the control room, Doctor Fahim seemed to be having difficulty speaking as well, his
gaze concentrated on the figure in the container. General Bakshi took over.

“We have t
he video and the police are on its way.” he said. “Start looking for anything
which might tell you what this experiment is all about. Check the computers, get the
information and get out of there ASAP.”

Neel switched off his mobile and turned to the computers. Most of them were still on.
The one kept closest to the container was showing the heart rate and various brain activities
of the subject inside the container. He followed the cable from behind the computer to the
main control node. From there he followed the trail of wires to the central database. Among
the documents taken from Malik Saket‟s laptop had been mention of the fact that the lab
employed grid computing techniques, where multiple computers were used to carry out
different parts of the same experiment. A number of hard disk drives were stacked together in
cabinets. He made his way swiftly through them. All had different numbering labels on top.
Only one had writing on it.

He reached in and pulled out the disk drive attached to the cable. Stepping back, he held
up the drive and read the label.

 

PROJECT KUMBHKARAN

Neel stared at the words. He finally seemed to have found Project K. He stowed the hard
drive in his pant pocket. It was the most important piece of evidence. Everything else could
be handled by the police.

He sighed, feeling the responsibility roll off his shoulders. His work was over. He
turned to take one last look at the coffin, glinting in the fluorescent light like a crystal. Then
he jumped off the platform and punched his way out of the lab walls, in the direction opposite
to the one the guards were trying to come through.

By the time the police arrived, he was gone.

 

CHAPTER 17: The break in the chain

Neel stepped inside the main building of swan labs after school the next day. The police
had captured Mehta yesterday in his office. He had surrendered without a word and was now
in lockup, with Phlicer complex under police supervision. The container with the human
inside it had been transported to a safe place yesterday. Of course, the media had immediately
gathered around Phlicer, trying to find out what was going on. But the police had not yet
issued a statement.

Neel now went to the control room, where he found Divya poring over several
documents on the computer.