'The Memorial'

"What cause?", He asked; his face again in the peculiar curiosity.

"You know well after that incident, I never contacted anyone other than you and Niloy in these two years.", I took a breath; gesturing him to come close and continued-"...I have got somethin' I need help from you. I think it's related to what you are workin' on nowadays."

"What?"

"Victoria Memorial.", I gave him the book Niloy had brought to me earlier in the afternoon. He raised his eyebrows as he got the sight of the book.

"Where did you get this stuff?", He said; examining the book's front and bottom.

"That is what I don't know. Two days earlier, someone sent this to my boss, trying to sell it. But, as we were examining the book, a group of ruffians attacked us, nearly killin' me.", I said; taking a look at his changing facial expressions. Suddenly, He stopped- and looked straight towards me.

"Are you thinking the same, what I am thinkin'?"

"Yup, I suspect this book is from that basement.", I nodded.

"Well, I guess you are right; but not right."- He remarked with a smile- "This book is from that basement, but it's not that basement you are thinkin' of."

"What?"- I got confused about my opinion.

"I found another dry basement yesterday night- the one you are talking about is already water-logged and unaccessible."- He replied.

"Oh...Seems you forgot to put it into your journal."- I said, checking his journal on my Pda.

"You are still stalking eh-", He complained. "Alright! It was night, I forgot to do that.", He continued with a laugh- "Am I fortunate now?"

"Heh...You are- You are...", I laughed at his remark- "You were like this from the beginning. You haven't changed anyways."

He smiled and took out a small notepad from his jacket's pocket. It was something he had a habit on already, from when I first met him. Even in this era when having a paper is considered a rarity, I think he is one of having such a rarity.

"You still use these?", I couldn't stop myself commenting on his peculiar habit.

He nodded, smiling. "See..", He gave me the notepad; opening a specific page covered with some scriptures written on them.

"What are these?", I asked; as I wasn't able to recognise any of them.

"𝑃𝑎𝑙𝑦𝑎 𝐺𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑎*; I found these signs on that basement's ceiling, seemin'ly these are from the 𝘖𝘭𝘥 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘥𝘦 language used by those 𝐴𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠."- He remarked.

I took a look at the scriptures, all seemingly like being at sixes and sevens. I did recognise the word 'Kolkata'; but my efforts to recognize more of them was seeming like a wild goose chase. At last, I decided to leave this herculean task aside- and chose the Royal Road to get an understanding.

"What's written on it?", I asked; a bit of hiding my failure to understand it.

"Heh, I knew you don't understand anything. It's written that it is a facility constructed on the orders of the first Farworlder Governor of Kolkata- General Druk. Other characters written there can be interpreted as the cost of building and praises to the 10th Governate's** glory. Though, A part of them- I still can't interpret due to lack of knowledge; I don't think it has something more than praises or glorifications.", He remarked. I, who was listening all this while remained silent for another moment, thinkin' of the possibilities-"Well, Let these scriptures aside for a while. Can you tell me what you saw in there?"

"Usual, same as the one we bogged down with water; just that, this one was empty."- He answered.

"Empty?", I sighed-"That's weird."

We had seen the other one two years earlier. As far as I can remember- It was big enough to accommodate about forty to fifty people, adding up enough machinery and cargo. It had many empty shelves on the walls, a hall with many workstations; fixed like a hub. Going through the workstations, an office-like room was there, with a transparent vault on one of its walls, covered with boxes and stuff same like that I had encountered two days ago. Inside that Office-like cabin or whatever it was, a big ebonite desk was there; having some wrecked displays and paper pages over it. Before evacuation, we found that the pages were part of a single book. But, before we could have got our hands on something, the water level started increasing rapidly- Though the basement was underground, it wasn't made to go 'underwater'; as it went when the Tsunamis struck hard on the South Kolkata, bogging down the place we were; causing us to retreat.

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"So, Other than the empty basement and those friggy scriptures, you found anything more?", I said.

"To an extent, if said.", He said; acting weirdly.

"Call a spade a spade. Say somethin' that I understand properly.", I said; annoyed at his beside the mark, answers.

"While everythin' seems dead and gone in the basement, it's so clean that even the floor doesn't have any particle of dust on it.", He replied.

"Really? That seems Interesting.", I continued; taking out a cigarette from its packet kept on the side table.

"More to that, I saw some scratches on the floor instead, with some indications that they appeared very recently.", He answered; taking out his lighter from his jacket.

"Thank you.", I thanked him; as I burrowed his lighter to light the cigarette.

"I think I will need to go and see it myself.", I decided; taking a look on the burning edge of the cigarette.

"You? Like this?", He answered in distrust of my condition.

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*Clip- Clop*

I saw Lisa coming from the doorway.

"Shh... don't tell that girl about all this, hide your notes."- I said; hurriedly taking and hiding the book under my pillows.

Ishan nodded and took in his stuff.

"Who is she?", He asked me slowly; smirking.

"A female homo sapien. Can't you see her?", I answered; jokin'.

"Heh...Boss! You never told me about her.", He smirked.

But, before I could answer him; I saw Lisa entering the room; making me gesture to Ishan to be alert at his words.

"She is an Enforcer Inspector.", I gestured to him; moving my lips.

"You should have told me earlier.", He said; almost in a normal voice.

.

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"What are you guys talking about?"- Lisa said; stroking her hair off her eyes.