Arith : The Undiscovered Planet
CHAPTER 18

Lincoln felt his bodyprotesting as he attempted to move his body a little. He hadn’t opened his eyesjust yet. Well it felt a strenuous job , when he tried to. If moving his bodyseemed impossible, he would at least shake his fingers, right? So he did justthat. And you know what? He succeeded this time. I’m making progress, hethought. He could perceive the antiseptic odour that was perculiar tohospitals. That was when he realized, this was a hospital bed he was lying on.

Flashes came to him. He could remember calling on Derek togive him video clips of his adversaries. When he remembered the gun shots, hebecame furious and this made him forget his earlier attempts to open his eyes. Ifanyone had told Lincoln that he would be opening his eyes soon, it would havebeen passed as a joke. But he did it out of rage. Rage at his shortcomings.

When he eventually opened his eyes, a slight headache stillpersisted, but Lincoln had non of it and managed to call on Derek.

“Derek! Derek!” he managed to call out.

There was no answer. He breathed in because, calling onDerek had cost him some of his strength.

“I will eventually get my strength back” he said quietly.

Derek was supposed tobe here on the look out, for him. But he wasn’t here. Why was he left hereunprotected? Thoughts ran through Lincoln. He looked around wondering and thensaw a figure dozing beside him.

“Who could this be”?

Lincoln didn’t know where the energy came from, as he rousedwhoever it was, from sleep.

Just a touch fromLincoln and the man sprang up. He wasn’t familiar.

The man was very surprised , staring at him that Lincoln deduced,happiness in the man’s stare.

“You’re finally awake” the man said in awe, he was a nursein the hospital. Dante had asked him to look after Lincoln, when he was so busywith the patients. Lincoln just watched as the nurse tapped figures in hisphone and called someone. He hoped it was Derek.

“Doctor, he’s awake!” the man exclaimed delightedly.

Oh , It’s not Derek, when is he coming? Lincoln thought to himself. He wanted to bedischarged as fast as possible.

“I feel very okay” he said to the nurse.

The nurse didn’t appear to hear him, was waiting for thedoctor’s arrival.

Hence, Lincoln had towait for the doctor too.

***********

Eric , Derek and Jesse had gone over to Derek’s house. Sincetheir enemy already knew about them, there was no point of hiding. Eric being atechnician, swept the whole house , with indicators searching for ‘bugs’ . Hefound three of them and this was surprising. How had they been in here to plantthese bugs. This really baffled Eric.

Kelvin and Bryan had gone with Malik to his hideout , todiscuss . They had left the hotel as someone there, was an informant. They feltthe informant could be anyone, from Ella to … anyone. They were no longer sure.But all the same, they waited for updates from Declan

When the bugs had been terminated, they ate some food thathad been bought in the hotel. As they ate, Derek observed his son and hisdaughter in-law. He already knew, they were getting married to each other. Eric, his son was the type of guy, who didn’t believe in messing around. His sonwas serious about this Lovely lady, and it was already accepted by Derek. Thiswas the kind of love between two people, that everyone admired and wished for.

As Derek ate, he thought about Tessy. How could he hadforgotten about her? Lots of things came up. Fine, since he just thought abouther, he would definitely see her, once he was done with eating. He made thisknown to his young couple.

“I have to see Tessy, sorry I won’t be with you guys for thetime being. You can celebrate without me”.

Jesse felt they were supposed to go with Derek to see howaunt Tessy was faring. But Derek didn’t agree with her.

“No love, you just came back, we’re always here. You can seeher at anytime. I don’t want to drag you to the hospital just yet” Derek said ,hoping she would understand.

“Dad, dad” Eric said.

“Son, I want you to relax, you just got here. I do not thinkyou know what I passed through , alone”.

“Okay dad” Eric said.

Jesse reluctantly accepted, because left with her, it wassame thing to see Tessy. But since, she didn’t want to oppose her father in-law,she went with what he said.

Thus, Derek left them alone.

Eric’s phone rang, it was Zach.

Eric picked up.

“Hi bro” Zach greeted.

“Hi bro” Eric replied.

“Are you home right now”?

“Yes, I am”.

“I just got hold of my mum’s journal, I won’t be able tofully disclose how I got hold of it. But I believe you would be able tounderstand why I want you particularly, to read it. Because, its about yourmum. I believe it will lead us to yourmum’s kller”.

Eric, on hearing that, couldn’t wait to see Eric.

“Sure bro, I’m waiting for you. I’m right here”.

“On my way”.

***********

When Zach got to Eric and Jesse, he handed the journal toEric and left. Zach didn’t really know what the journal was about but he had a strong conviction, thatEric would deduce something extraordinary. So he left to allow Eric read inpeace.

In the journal, as Eric read, he felt this was a completewaste of time. There was nothing revealing about anything. But when he got tothe part that ran: 'we loved meeting in the woods'. He paused. This was veryfamiliar to him. All along Jesse was with him , patting his shoulders. Sheunderstood the situation.

This particular part made Eric recall the smell of flowershe had perceived, before. Woods! He thought. What was it about this word that made him pause. Well he didn’t recall, so he moved on to thenext sentence that ran: 'our bracelets and her necklace…’

That was when he remembered… yeah he remembered , who hadbeen wearing the bracelet. The very one he saw in space ,when he was exploringsiredanium. The bracelet which held many secrets. The very bracelet that hadbelonged to Olivia, Zach’s mum!

Jesse, looking at Eric , saw when it dawned on Eric, theevil perpetrator. Eric knew his main enemy was this person. It all made sensenow! Everything came as a flash! How could he be so blind? He decided to act …yes … but first of, to tell his dad about his discovery.

That’s exactly what he did!

***********

Kelvin, Bryan and Malik were conversing on how they wouldattack Kennedy and his team.

“Zach is on his way here” Malik informed them.

Kelvin and Bryan nodded and waited for Zach. There were lotsof things they wanted asking Zach. But since, he was on his way, they waited.

“There’s a secret tunnel to Kennedy’s armory . His room isjust to the left of it” Malik said, showing them the map.

“This map is not an easy one to study” Kelvin said .

“Its not” Bryan agreed.

“Yes, but that’s the only option, there’s no other way. Weare waiting for Declan and his crew, remember we are in this. Kennedy must bebrought down”.

“Okay boss” Kelvin said shrugging.

When Zach came in, questions were thrown at him. So Zach toldthem the story.

***********

“I started noticing Eric’s strange behaviour towards me.Even when he tried to act that we were friendly, I still knew something was offabout him. Sometimes, I pretended not to notice him , giving me looks that said 'suspicion' . I ignored it. It wasn’t just from him, but alsohis dad and aunt. What’s wrong? I kept asking myself, but nothing came up”.

“That was until, my best friend went for exploration and didn’tcome back, just like his mum. Eric already told me about her discovery of the theftthat occurred in space. I felt it wasn’t accidental. So Eric disappeared. What baffled me was that Kennedy wasn’tas sad as he should have been, knowing he lost his best student. So I did avery reckless thing that would have cost me, my life. I followed his son, Joshwherever he went. That was how I got to know of their dealings”.

“I could only eavesdrop on them twice. The second time,Malik saved me when I mistakenly stepped on a switch, with which they used todetect spys. That was the first time I met Malik, we had similar interests andgoals. Hence we became a team and stopped eavesdropping on them. I contacted MrDeclan because I felt he was the only one who would help Malik and I bring downour adversary”.

“Please , do not ask me how I knew that he and Kennedy had a‘history’. So after I contacted Declan and shared the message, we agreed tosee. I think had some business to dealwith first ; their space exploration. Malik and I were delighted to get thatfar … well that was until a hit was called on Malik. Since then, we paused allour activities”.

“There’s a spy in C.S.R. This person always updates Kennedyon the events on ground” The others nodded at this, they’d already seen whatthis person could do.

“So guys that’s my story”.

“How did you get Declan’s number”? Bryan asked Zach.

“Mere looking at me you wouldn’t know. But whatever I need,I get it. So I got his number because, I could”. Zach answered confidently.

Declan chose this moment to call Malik and they discussedbriefly. After their talk, Malik looked at the others, who were staring at himapprehensively . He smiled to reassure them. And shared what was discussed withDeclan.

They were ready to fight their adversaries!

**********

Derek who had been with Tessy , felt the place lookeddifferent, it had been five days, he had last seen her. When he came earlier,her bandages we’re changed. He felt Tessy looked so small as compared to howlarge she’d always looked before the incident. Now , Eric is back to my lifeand she is still like this? Derek thought.

The doctor had said that she would be transferred to anotherhospital if her condition didn’t get better. Had the doctor given up hopealready? Derek remembered that it was this same man who had told him, she woulddefinitely be fine and discharged soon. So what was this saying now? Derek feltused. He knew all these along and decided to fool him? All thanks to Tessy’srich account. There was just no way he would have paid for ventilators forclose to three months. All the expenses were on Tessy. After all these, theevil doctor was telling him what at this time?

Derek had given him a piece of his mind, to whip the doctorhad stared hard at him and just left Tessy’s room. He just noticed the doctor’sdemeanor towards him had changed. What was wrong? Well, he would really watchthe doctor. Derek just sat by Tessy , caressing her hand. It was always warm.Just then, he had a call. It was Eric when he checked.

Derek smirked to himself. I thought I left him and hisfiancee , guess he really wanted me with them. So he answered.

“Hi, sweet son”

“Where are you now dad”? Eric’s voice sounded different,even though he tried to be nice control. What had happened to his son?

Derek told him and what his son said next; that he shouldleave the hospital quickly, had him feeling nauseous. Eric had not sounded likethat in a long time. A noise made him glance at the door and saw the doctorcoming. Everything happened so fast. At one point, the doctor was giving him astrange look and then he saw it! A hand threw away his phone so, it smashed anda heavy blow was delivered to his temple . Another followed. As he went unconscious, hislast thought was , he had been fooled!