#A_CRAZY_LOVE_2
©Sir Zach
EPISODE 104
“And why were you zoned out then?” Victor asked, feeling immense pleasure from Nicole’s cute illogical replies.
“I was zoned out because.. because..” Nicole said and paused, trying hard to find some excuse.
“Because?” Victor asked again.
“Because I was worried about grandpa’s decision! So I didn’t hear you well.” Nicole said, glad that she was able to come up with something.
“So?” Victor asked, seriously driving Nicole crazy.
“What’s your d@mn problem Victor!! First you intimidated and backed me up against that wall. Then you were like an entirely different person. You said those things that I never believed would happen. Talked about turning my lie into reality and falling for you. And then you act like you don’t know anything!! Why are you doing this to me???” Nicole exclaimed, truly irritated by Victor’s teasing.
“Okay okay calm down.” Victor said, surprised at Nicole’s sudden outburst.
“How am I supposed to calm down this way?” Nicole questioned him back.
“Fine, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have behaved that way, but there is something in you, something different. I am not someone who teases people, but with you I just wanted to do it. Anyways, I guess you have heard the options quite correctly. So I need not repeat that.” Victor said.
“I will.. I will take my leave now.” Nicole said, shyly leaving his room.
‘Get back to your senses Victor! She is not the same girl. Your overly close behaviour would only scare her away.’ Victor thought to himself while shutting the bedroom door.
The members rested till evening before gathering in the hall, where Markus had asked them to meet.
Kizy, Markus, BLACK COMMAND, Joel, Nicole, Andrew, Jack and Alex were present for this discussion.
Once everyone had settled down, Markus spoke.
“So as you all know, I had been to The Imperial Nation.” Markus said and paused, looking at Kizy.
But Kizy gave him an all too familiar look, which meant she had already guessed it right.
“I only had one thing in my mind – find their weakness!” Markus said.
“I started from base, mingling between the low level workers, doing their chores everyday. And I’ll be honest, it was hard. They all have been trained to simply shut their mouths and do the jobs designated to them.
But that place is one complete hell. Those workers are kidnapped from various other countries and brought to the Imperial Nation. They are devoid of food for three days and only given water at the end of the second day.
They are given food only after they start working on the third day. If they still refuse, they are beaten black and blue. This way they eventually give up by the end of the fourth to fifth day or maximum a week and eventually start working.
Do you know why the Imperial nation is the richest of all three?” Markus asked.
All others shaked their heads while Jason opened his mouth.
“I have heard that they are involved in some illegal exports but I am not sure what it is.” Jason replied.
“Illegal weapons maybe.” Harry answered.
“All the three black markets sell weapons illegally. But there must be something hidden from the rest of the world which makes the Imperial Nation richest in the black market.” Victor replied calmly.
“Yes, that’s right. They sell drugs illegally!” Markus answered.
“Ohh my goodness! I never thought it was drugs!!” Nicole exclaimed while Rose nodded at her.
“The workers are trained for several days with a minimum amount of food and water. They are trained to intake as many drug packets as they can. And then devoid of food to see how long they can survive that way.
Sometimes the drug packets are difficult to extract back through their mouth. At such times, they directly cut open the stomach of that person and take them out, not paying attention to the person.” Markus explained while Nicole’s face had turned pale just from listening to this revelation.
All of them were truly in shock, not believing that such things actually happened in the same world they were living in. Yes they all were used to ki||ing others when necessary but they still had humanity left in them. But guess the professor was already poles apart from the word humanity.
“The workers are given fifteen day training before they are sent on trial missions and if failed, they are ki||ed on the spot.
If they succeed, then they are sent on their first actual mission where they are used as means to transport these drugs to various parts of the world without being caught by securities at borders.
These workers or carriers are heavily guarded to ensure they won’t run away. And once a carrier is made to swallow the drug, he or she can not drink even a single drop of water till they reach their destinations and deliver the drugs properly.” Markus continued.
“This is so inhuman!!” Jack said from the side.
“They of course receive some money and better food after succeeding their missions though. Many of the carriers who worked excessively well are then promoted to the post of bodyguards or some other reliable post.” Markus replied, describing the dark side of the Imperial Nation without even batting an eyelid.
“Never knew the professor would fall down to such levels!” Harry said with hatred, feeling sad for those poor workers.
“What about you?” Kizy asked, turning their attention back to Markus.
“I was made to do the same. I had a mask on all the time, hence no one could recognize me. I acted to go against them for five days before eventually giving up-” Markus was still speaking when Kizy spoke up.
“Did they hit you?” She asked, her voice turning ice cold.
“That was a part of the act. If I had accepted my fate that easily, then the guards would have doubted me later on. So I had to get beaten.” Markus said in a gentle voice, knowing Kizy must be feeling guilty about it.
“None of them is gonna live long.” Kizy said, or more like promised herself, sure to avenge her husband.
“Of course not. Anyways, I acted as if I barely passed my trial mission. Hence they had allotted more than necessary men for my first mission. And that was exactly what I wanted. I successfully completed my mission so that out of so many men, at least someone would inform the higher-ups.
In fact after that, I was quick to take mission after mission, while befriending many poor workers in between.
That’s when I came to know that this professor has secretly grown himself a land on which he cultivates these drugs as well as poisonous plants.
And out of the many poor workers that are brought here, a lot of them die under his hand as a part of his poisonous experiments.
The worst part is yet to come though..” Markus said, making all of their heartbeats race.
“What can be worse than this?” Rose asked.
“Those men are buried in those secret grounds and their dead bodies are used as fertilizers for those poisons.” Markus said and paused, letting all of them digest the cruelty this world had to present.
“I never imagined that he was such a psycho through and through!” Harry exclaimed while Jason and Victor were just silently listening to this information, taking in everything.
They could imagine the amount of blood and gore that was happening behind the curtains in the Imperial Nation. And though they had already predicated how inhuman the Professor was, Markus’s first hand experience had truly shocked them to the core.
“It took me seventeen days to catch a glimpse of that psycho for the first time since I arrived there.
He was out on a round to keep a check on workers. That day I decided to lay low and not catch his attention this soon.
But on the twenty-first day, a body guard came to me, ordering me to go and meet a man who was waiting at the gates.
And true to my expectation, he was the head of bodyguards, ready with a good proposal for me.” Markus paused.
“That means you finally managed to catch their attention.” Nicole said.
“Yeah. He told me that I was supposed to leave the place I was staying the very next morning and shift to the place where bodyguards stayed.
I just nodded and left when he told me too. I continued to work a little that day and ultimately went back to the hall where we stayed, thirty people in one single room.
As usual I did my normal routine, cleaned myself up and went to my spot. I started packing my bag, though it wasn’t much to begin with. I was busy with my chores when suddenly a man approached me. But I wasn’t expecting him to say the next part…” Markus paused, surprising others with the information he was about to share.
*IMPERIAL NATION, 21st DAY*
“You are not one of us, right?” The man suddenly said after approaching Markus, or Sid more appropriately.
Markus had been wearing a face mask all time while he had told his name as Sid.
Markus instantly turned to look at the person, who turned out to be an old man.
“What do you mean?” Markus asked, becoming a little alert without any change of expressions.
“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. But I know you are here for some purpose.” The old man said.
“You have got the wrong person.” Markus said before resuming work.
“No, I have got the right person. Please help me.” The man said before kneeling down, not caring how pathetic he was looking.
“Please get up. Don’t do this.” Markus said before helping the old man back on his feet.
“I beg you! Please help me out. I can not carry on like this anymore.” The man said, and there was a pain hidden beneath his voice which Markus could not ignore.
He told the old man to wait till others were asleep so that they could discuss things privately. And though Markus was finding this whole idea idiotic, he still found himself being convinced by the old man’s sincerity and helplesness.
Thus they ended up meeting near a tree beside their hall to talk further.
“Only five minutes.” Markus said, knowing the kind of risk they were taking right now.
“He is a murderer. No one can be as cruel as he is. You have to eliminate him!” The man said, on the verge of crying.
Markus just kept quiet, listening to wh@ťěver deal or proposal this man had to present.
The man took deep breaths to calm himself down before he resumed again, much more composed than earlier.
“My entire family was brought here. My son, daughter in law and grandson as well. He ki||ed my.. my son during one of the drug dealings. My daughter in law was sent for the same mission along with him. When I came to know about his death, I was broken. But when I asked about my daughter in law, nobody answered me. It took me a lot of patience and good ski||s to dig out that my daughter in law.. she was.. R@P£D.” The man said, as if uttering the last word was no less than a burden.
Markus felt his blood boil at the very statement that the old man had said. One thing he h@ťěd the most was weaklings who used R@P£ as a mean to show their power. He wasn’t a saint who respected every woman, but at least he never insulted them as well.
But R@P£ – this single word was enough for him to let go of any humanity left within him and ki|| the culprits brutally. Yet the worst part was still remaining.
“They.. they R@P£D her for seven consecutive days before she… she died underneath their torture. But nobody felt the need to explain her death because who was she? A measly poor insect for them to satisfy their needs. Huhh. My grandson was taken away as well. And he was made to water the soil where his parents… were buried. Can he be any more of a demon?? I have been waiting for three years, three years for an opportunity to ki|| that bastard and you came as my saviour.” The man said and kneeled down, the way someone would kneel down in front of their god.
“Get up. Please.” Markus said, but this time the old man didn’t budge.
“I have been collecting every little information on that monster for the past three years and I will spill everything to you. But please ki|| him at any cost. He has to die.” The man said, his last statement full of willpower.
“Do you have some information on him?” Markus asked, catching up on the main point.
“Yeah. But promise me that you will ki|| him. I will assist you in every way possible and if needed, I don’t think twice before sacrificing my life for you. But we will need more men, like sort of an army to fight.” The old man replied.
“I promise. And about the army, don’t worry, I will manage that.” Markus said, his voice low but firm.
“Nobody knows this, but the actual ruler of the Imperial Nation is not a professor but his grandpa. Usually, the throne is passed onto the heir of the royal family. But there is an exception which is known by only a few.
If someone manages to ki|| the ruler, then he is to be declared the next ruler. This rule was made to ensure that the throne isn’t passed onto some useless child just because he is the successor.
The entire royal family accepted this rule and had no say over it. This carried on-” The old man said and paused after Markus signalled him.
Markus could lightly hear some footsteps in the distance and he instantly pushed the old man inside their room while quickly following behind him.
Before anyone could see, both of them were already on their beds, acting to be fast asleep.
“This is strange. I could hear some whispers a moment ago.” A sleepy bodyguard said and scratched his head before waiting for another minute or two and ultimately leaving.
Markus only opened his eyes when he was sure that the man had left. Thankfully he lived with a group of people who were made to work day and night, resulting in them falling sound asleep.
He tiptoed to the old man, signalling him to follow him outside.
From the old man’s conversation, he could deduce that the man truly knew a lot and he could be of great help to conquer the professor and this cruel kingdom.
Once outside, he took no risk and directly helped the man climb up the tree before repeating the same himself. Once they were on top, he said.
“We don’t have much time. They will be here to fetch me within four hours. And there will be a change of bodyguards every hour. We need to wrap this up before some alert bodyguard replaces this one.” Markus said.
“This carried on for a lot of generations until a major event happened.” The old man started again.
“Grandpa’s son, who is the professor’s father, was ki||ed by some unknown person. Thus according to the previous rules, the man was supposed to be the next ruler.
But grandpa, afraid to loose control over the entire Imperial Nation secretly murdered that man.
Afraid to lose their lives under grandpa’s cruelty, nobody spoke another word against the dirty trick played by grandpa.
Soon it was declared that since the professor was young, grandpa would be making decisions for the Imperial Nation and once he died, the throne would be passed onto the Professor.” The man said.
“There is more to it, right? I mean what can I do about this?” Markus said.
“Yeah. What you have to do is simple, ki|| the grandpa and leave this Imperial Nation quickly.” The man said.
“My aim is to ki|| the professor, not some useless old grandpa.” Markus said.
“The professor only has his grandpa right now. If he were to lose him, the entire Imperial Nation would be in chaos. In fact, the reason behind this illogical and inhuman behaviour of the Professor is his grandpa. His useless pampering encouraged the professor to do wh@ťěver he wanted, even if it included ki||ing.” The old man explained.
“ki||ing grandpa won’t be an easy task. And I find no logic in this. I mean let’s say that I manage to ki|| his grandpa. Then what? You want me to leave this place. Tell me do you think I have any reasons to do this? ki|| grandpa and run away. For what?” Markus asked.
“That’s what I am telling you. Once you ki|| grandpa, the entire Imperial Nation will be in chaos. That’s your cue. You have to leave this hell immediately and bring your men inside during that period.
Although the professor seems intelligent, he has always asked his grandpa to confirm his plans. But if he loses his guide, he is sure to end up with a terrible plan, that too after your sudden attack.
Your main goal right now is to find the number of people working under professor to make preparations before you attack.” The man finished.
Markus thought the entire thing through and knew the plan that the old man had described had a lot of loopholes and risks within it. But it was better than nothing. And who knew what new information he would grasp once he was inside the walls, working as a bodyguard.
“Okay. But from your statements, grandpa holds a lot of power within the Imperial Nation. Which means a lot of people to protect them as well. How am I supposed to ki|| him and yet escape?” Markus asked the main point.