Chapter 34

The next moment they were staring at each other in the house of a man who was playing hide and seek with them.

"I knew someone was following me but i was not expecting you two." He said as if he had known them for quite some time.

"Who were you expecting then?" David locked his eyes on his face sternly.

He sighed exhaustedly. "Have you ever seen a man in a broken ship that is drowning slowly..."

"...but drowning is not the only dangerous thing happening to him..."

"There is a big hungry shark out there ready to devour him."

"I am that man. My life is a ship sinking in the waves of Ben's merciless desires."

Amelia and David looked at each other. "Who is Ben?" she asked quietly.

He smiled with a sarcastic smirk on his face. "Really?"

"you telling me that you don't know him would make me believe you." He laughed out loudly.

They puckered their eyebrows looking at him.

The woman sitting next to him was uncomfortable and terrified. She was a beautiful woman in her late twenties. Amelia turned her eyes to her who was silent for a while. "Who are you?" she rubbed her hands with confusion and fear.

"This is my wife?" before she could say anything the man replied. They both chuckled to hear that. "Your wife?" they asked in unison.

"Why are you keeping her here?"

"What's your problem? Why did you follow me?" he became irritated by their questions. David pouted unsure how to answer.

"Look we were not expecting things would turn out like this. We were not seeking your help. We just thought tracking you down could give us a clue about the patients that healed from the disease." Amelia said without any delay.

"But sounds like you too are looking for them." She shrugged her shoulders. He fell silent . "If i knew where they were I would have rescued my siblings who are still with him."

"Why were you threatening us if you have the same mission as us?" she asked curiously. "Excuse me! I am not on any mission. I am just here to save my brother and sister." He shouted.

"Ben has given me a task to kill everyone who jeopardize his plans. I don't know what his plans are but they are hell of a deadly ones."

"He didn't order me to follow you but I had found out about your project through one of my people. I thought maybe disclosing about your project to Ben could win me his trust." He sighed tiredly.

"But I think he is not impressed. I am under his surveillance. He sends his men to see my whereabouts. You shouldn't have come here." He exhaled concernedly.

"Ben?" they looked at each other again but didn't ask him.

By the look on their faces the man understood that they truly did not recognize him.

"I am talking about Benjamin Louise." He revealed in a repulsive manner as if even his name was enough to make him angry.

"Benjamin Louise that businessman?" They asked incredulously.

"Yeahh... Seems like you've busted the mystery." He smiled.

"But he is a socialist. I don't believe he could be involved in something so brutal." David said with astonishment.

"Sometimes pretending to be good is a great distraction."

"The greed for money and power can throw you down into the depths of horrendous crimes."

"His dignity is just a face he uses for the public.

"Believe me! He is no less than a venomous snake." His voice raised with repulsion.

"I did not want to harm you. I just wanted to save the people I love."

"Then why did you not help us if you too were looking for revenge?" Amelia asked with desperation remembering her first encounter with him. "You have threatened me so many times dragging my father into it" tears rolled up in her eyes.

"I don't know anything about your father. I just said what i heard."

"You are his biggest fish in the pond. That's what I realized and used it for my own advantage." He shrugged his shoulders.

"How could you be so cruel to innocent people. Being a complicit make you equally responsible."

"What innocent people?" he screamed angrily.

"My wife is a survivor in that fucking area. We had to go through enormous risks to save her from there. She managed to get away from there in the nick of time. Can you imagine what i am going through thinking about my younger brother and sister."

They couldn't be more surprised than this. "Are you a survivor?" Amelia asked with her eyes wide open.

"Yeah" she said lowering her eyes.

"Can you please tell us what happened to in detail?"

"ohwu wait wait wait... "

"You can't just come here and harass my wife with your pathetic questions."

"We are not going to harass her. We wznt tk help. Your siblings and all the other people suffering there."

"it is something which is eventually going to reach us too."

"Please I request you not just to help others but your family too." Amelia pleaded by clasping her hand in front of him.

"Please have faith in us." David added.

After too much pleadings and implorations he finally agreed. "Okay but don't stress her out."

"We promise it would be good." She beamed

"Sorry to bother you..."

Amelia looked at the woman. "What's your name?"

"Hanna! Her name is Hanna" the man replied raising his eyebrows. Amelia was pissed by his interference. "You can call me Cole." He tried to appease her annoyance by telling her his name as he looked away through the mud stained window.

"Cole can you please give me some space to talk to her?" Amelia requested with frustration.

"Sure!" He said again looking away.

"Okay Hanna you got me."

"What were the first symptoms you had when the virus broke out?" Amelia asked.

She looked at Cole and then began telling in her gently lilting voice infused with fear and confusion.

"I had a severe pain in my stomach. I often felt nauseous. And sometimes I had fainted due to weakness. My eyes began to show the signs of jaundice."

"Then what happened?"

"Nothing." She said without revealing further.

"look you have to be open about the things you saw and bore." We can't help you unless you co operate." Amelia insisted.

"I was taken to the hospital. I was treated. I saw that there were a lot if other patients with the same disease. They had these yellowed eyes and some were unconscious probably because of weakness."

And had anyone died?"

"Maybe not. Maybe yes. I don't know." She shrugged her shoulders with uncertainty.

"Then? How did things go... worse... for you...?"

"One night I was sleeping in the hospital room when I heard sharp thuds that woke me up."

"It was unusually alarming for someone in hospital. I pulled the door gently to see what was making that noise."

"There were men in regular masks trying to pull the unconscious patients in stretchers as if they were being taken to emergency.."

"That was a time when i realized something was off. Or maybe i wouldn't have realized if i did not see Ben."

"Ben?" David knitted his eyebrows.

"Yes, he was there telling the men to be quick and cautious."

"And where was the hospital staff?"

"The doctors and the nurses were nowhere to be seen. Maybe they were sleeping. I don't remember. That's when I realized something was terribly wrong."

"He was doing something but it gave a feeling that the patients were going with their own choice."

"I immediately changed my clothes to avoid being mistaken as a patient. I knew they were taking the patients only."

"Before I could hide and tried to escape i went to see my family. And that's when I realized Cole's brother and sister were taken." The tears trickled down her face as the agony hit her.

"So till then the patients were fine?" she asked. There was no sign of the deadly disease.

"No, not till then" she said convincingly.

"So it means. It began somewhere after their disappearance."

"probably." She nodded her head.

"So are you satisfied?"cole asked.

"Not until we find what we are looking for" David said biting his lips.