Chapter 10

After 40 minutes of drive, the car took an exit from the Highway and entered a posh suburb area. The car took a few quick turns and entered a bungalow. It was a thirty-year-old two-storey building surrounded by tall trees. The car stopped in the parking slot.

Chandrika turned to Sabari and said, “Get down”

Sabari got out of the car and looked around. The surroundings and the area was pretty new to him. The calmness took him by surprise.

Chandrika observed him and said, “Sabari!! We are not in a picnic… Let us get in” and pushed Sabari gently with the pistol mouth. Sabari walked towards the entrance followed by Chandrika.  With too many questions running in his mind, he walked through the door.

A large hall welcomed him. The hall was well illuminated and with couches in the center of the hall.  Chandrika walked in front and said, “Follow me”

Chandrika walked across the hall and to the right, there was a passage. They walked through the passage and there was a room to the left. She pushed the door of the room and that led to a wide room. Unlike the building, the room looked pretty new and modern. There was a huge table at the center of the room and there were a couple of Apple Mac’s lying on the table. On the wall, there was a huge LED TV.

The room was empty and as they entered in, a door on the right opened and someone came out of the room. He was a typical Asian and was around 5’8” tall. He looked at Chandrika and Sabary and threw a smile.

“Hey Chandrika.. Thanks for getting Sabari here… Did you talk about anything yet? “

“Not yet Chang”

“Do you want to talk about it now or shall I?”

“You can do better.. So please go ahead”

“Ok”

Chang Lee walked to Sabari and put his hand on his shoulder. He began to speak in his own mandarin slang.

“Sabari!!! It is us, who can decide how our day has to end. It can be either a very good, productive and pleasure day or a bad day once for all. When I said ‘Bad’, it is seriously bad that it could be our last day on this planet.”

A slight panic peeked inside Sabari after Chang’s statement. Sabari turned to Chang and asked, “What do you want from me?”

Chang Lee giggled and said, “Good!!! You are straight into the topic. If you cooperate with us, you can live a happy life with your newlywed wife Ananya. ”

“You haven’t answered my question yet… “

“Oh ya.. Chandrika will answer your question.. “

Chang Lee turned to Chandrika and said, “Over to you”

Sabari turned to Chandrika and she said, “’We like to know some details from you”

“Details of what?”

“Details of your ‘Bionic’ Research“

“What is that?”

Chandrika smiled and looked at Chang.

“What is your wife’s name?”

Sabari stood silent and in the meantime, Chandrika took her pistol and held it straight onto his forehead. She said, “I don’t like to ask any question twice”

“Ananya”

“The first question of mine is as simple as the second… We know about your contribution to the ‘Bionic’ Research project. The project is your baby.”

Sabari was astonished as they got to know some background about him.

Sabari replied, “My boss Mr. Prathap is the one who started this project and not me”

“That is ok… Are you part of this project? Have you contributed to it?”

“Yes I have”

“Good then.. At this moment, what is the success rate of the project?”

“60 percent”

“But we heard it the other way… As per the information we received, the success rate, as of today is close to 90 percent”

“Who gave this false information to you?”

“We have spies in the same organization where you are employed as Research Scholar. There are intelligent greedy employees everywhere who have the hunger for money. We just fed one of them.”

“If so, you could have extracted all the information from your spy and you wouldn’t have me here.”

“Point… But the spy couldn’t get all the information that we needed. Instead, he pointed that you are the go-to-person in the company about the project. And that is why you are here”

“You could have kidnapped Mr. Prathap instead”

“Come on Sabari… You can’t keep repeating the same and it won’t work here. Here is the chronology of the events. YOU are the brain of this research. After the success with rats and rabbits, you experimented your work with chimps. That was when you tasted your first failure. The cops happened to seize the van that carried the chimps. And it was because of the goof up of workers James and Ramesh. Your MD Mr. Sidharth had finally executed both of those folks suspecting more trouble because of them in the future. Did we say that right?”

Sabari froze after hearing the statements from Chandrika.

“Again… What do you expect from me?”

“I know that you don’t have any soft copy of the details of the project fearing cyber threat. We need the hardcopy of it and we return it back to you in a week”

“Why do you need the hard copy?”

“The purpose is the same as yours. We will read through it and will return it back”

“I don’t own the hard copy”

“Then who?”

“It is with Prathap. You can get it from him”

“You can’t stick with the same lie forever. It does not work that way Sabari.”

Chang Lee turned to Sabari and asked, “Are you sure?”

Sabari hesitantly said, “Ya.. Yes”

“Ok.. Relax for a minute… We will display something for you”

Chandrika looked at Chang. Chang understood her signal. He instantaneously opened one of the Apple Mac, opened a video file and streamed it on the large LED television on the wall.

The video displayed a lab where three chimps were on the table. Sabari wore a surgical white uniform and stood near the table. He had a surgical knife in his hands.