Angels of death

           

Prologue:

Angel‘s Paradise: 10:30 pm:

The area is quite dark and the smell is so beautiful. Geeta could not help but ask, “Which flowers have you grown in the garden?”

He looked at her and replied, “Special yellow flowers ... please come inside”.

She went into a huge hall with many people around and seemed to be in a party. She was helping herself with lovely drinks &food. The beautiful Disco lights beaming in a semi darkroom made her feel ecstatic. She started dancing … moving and grooving to the music. When the music stopped she looked around and a chill ran down her spine.

4 hours back at Geeta’s house:

Doorbell rang and almost shocked Geeta. She got up from the sleep and rushed to open the door. The postman gave her a letter with a parcel. She took the parcel & signed in a piece of paper and closed the door.

“Who is it?”, asked Sunita

Geeta came inside the room and started opening the parcel. It contained a box with a letter. She opened the letter first,

“Dear Geeta,

Friends are like wine, the older they grow their bonds become stronger. This is a gift from my mother to my aunt Jannat Walia.Geeta, you have to travel to her place and give it to her tonight itself otherwise tomorrow she shall be leaving for London and will not return in 2 years. I could not come here myself due to work related issues. Please…Geeta, I heard that you often help people via your NGO in Goa so I thought I would ask for help. Hope you will keep my request. 

Regards,

Chetan”

Chetan was a school friend but Geeta often gets many such requests. It is a part of her social service work to help people reach out to their loved ones by any means. The letter did not have a specific address however Geeta had heard Mrs.Jannat Walia’s name before and called up a neighbour to get her address.

“I will be late so don’t wait for me”, said Geeta.

“Don’t take the way through the forest”, said Sunita.

Geeta didn’t answer since she had no choice but to cross the forest in order to reach her destination.

Highway petrol pump: 7:30 pm:

It had started raining heavily and the pounding sound of the raindrops in the absolutely deserted highway gave a strange feeling. She turned on the radio since music could be a good company in such a situation.

“Waqt ne kiya kya haseen sitam

Tum rahein na tum .. hum rahein na hum”

The song was exceptionally good and Geeta was also humming to the tune when she suddenly heard a knock at the window. She looked back and saw a man standing there. She opened the window and said, “Petrol.. Rs.1000” and closed it. She looked at the silent streets which seemed so eerie…. it would be a night to remember.

In a police station in Goa, 2 days after Geeta’s disappearance:

Sattaki sat in the small chair of the old police station. The silence in the room with a woman weeping and a child’s frozen look at his devastrated mother filled his heart with sorrow.

“Sorry, had to keep you waiting for so long”, said police inspector Christopher Decoster

“Who is she?” said Sattaki

“Well, Mrs.Sunita Sharma is too worried about her missing sister Geeta. It seems she went into the nearby forest by car and didn’t return back home since 2 days.”

“Any clues where she could probably be?”

“In last six months there is absolutely no trace of 10 people who have disappeared from forest highway. It is not possible that they have evaporated in thin air. However, it is has been tracked that the last phone call made by all these people was near an open ground surrounded by the forest. They are all random people and none of them are connected to each other or have anything else in common except one thing. He took out a packet and kept it in front of Sattaki.

“This seems to be a bottle of perfume”.

Sattaki opened the bottle and sprayed some on him.

“It smells really nice!”

“This was found in the area from the place where people disappeared.”

Sattaki took a piece of crumbled paper from him, opened and started reading,

“They looked at the beautiful thing

Loved its aromatic rim

When they were invited in

They wanted a sip to drink

I gave them a cup full

They drank and were thankful

The feeling was unexplainable

Terrifying rather than pleasurable”

Sattaki kept staring at the note for a few seconds and then looked up.

“Hmm… the kidnapper is probably giving some clues.”

“Please help me to find out the meaning of both the evidence found”

Sattaki looked at Christopher and then thought for a while. His eyes again fell on Sunita sitting in the corner of the room looking at him with a ray of hope to find her sister.

“Ok”, he got up and left.

The next day:

The doors of the huge laboratory loomed open as Sattaki entered it. He was a chemist with a passion for investigation of crimes involving poisons. World is a small place and every thing happens for a reason. However, he was jammed by the note in his hand. Since the last six months he has been reading the news of missing 10 people from the forest highway. However, the question was: Where did these people go? Who is the kidnapper? What does he want? Why is he leaving similar clues every time?

Sattaki understood that this case was quite complicated and person behind all this is planning something really big. Many lives are in danger. He had to find out a solution quickly.

Two days later at the Police station - 5:30pm:

Sattaki entered the police station and looked for Christopher. He was having tea and offered a cup to him too.

“We really don’t have time. Many lives are in grave danger. I need to visit the place today since I received an invitation too. This parcel was delivered to me with a letter inside. Please arrange for a back up force since I shall be going to visit Mrs. Jannat Walia tonight.”

“Wait…… what? I mean, please explain”.

“When I went searching for people who went missing I noticed they had the following in common:

Ø All of them were travelling in the evening between 7-8 pm

Ø All were invited with a bottle of perfume and a letter

Ø This letter’s content was the same, however the name of sender was different every time.

For example: Geeta received it from Chetan…. school friend who wanted her to deliver it to his aunt Mrs. Jannat Walia.

Ø The most common factor connecting all the letters was Mrs. Jannat Walia

Ø They all lost their cell phone network near the open ground which seems to be a deserted and isolated place

Ø This perfume belongs to a company whose owner is Mr. Sujit Walia who has absolutely no idea who is using his company’s perfume to kidnap people

Ø In fact Mrs. Jannat Walia too is totally denying the fact that she has not received or asked anyone to give the perfume to her.

Ø All these people and their disappearance are connected to Angel’ trumpets.

“Angel’s trumpets?”, asked Christopher

“Yes, Brugmansia species of plants are shrubs with fragmented pendulous flowers also known as Angels trumpets. All the parts of this plant are poisonous and the flowers have a very hallucinogenic fragrance. The effects of ingestion of any parts of these plants can cause paralysis of smooth muscles, confusion, tachycardia, visual and auditory hallucinations and even death. The kidnapper is mixing this plant’s extract in some liquid food and then they are taking the victims away to their required destination even before they can actually understand what is happening with them. I have visited the place where the last network was found and saw the remnants of some food fallen on the ground. When I took it to the lab and tested it contained extracts from the plant in it. The person mixes it with some soup ….may be which tastes quite good as per the poem “They drank and were thankful”, followed by this in the last lines he also mentioned, “The feeling was unexplainable ……… terrifying rather than pleasurable”. The last line has been taken from an article by Hayman J in the Journal Pathology related to Datura poisoning – Angel’s trumpet.”

“Hmmm….. This is crazy! Why are they doing this?”

“I did some research on Mr. Sunil Walia and found out that 10 years back he had sacked one of his workers on ground of theft related issue. It seems that man committed suicide within another one month after that incident. This was followed by a huge chaos and lock down of the business completely due to some legal issues.”

“Here is the picture of that man which he showed me and told me that his name was Karim Ahmed.”

“Is it possible that some relation of Karim, maybe, his son/daughter is taking revenge by using the perfume which was banned 10 years before?”

“I have tried to get more information about Karim when I found out that his entire family left Goa in the same year that Karim died. No one clearly remembers them or could talk about their present address. In fact, I am quite surprised at the invitation to a party at Mrs. Walia’s place tonight. Someone intentionally did this since they want me to find out something. There is a huge plan in action and we have no idea about it at all.”

10:30 pm in a locked room with the kidnapped people:

Sattaki slowly opened his eyes and looked around. He could hear light moans around him when his eyes fell on a girl whose picture he had seen few days back at the police station. Geeta was looking at him with tearful eyes and signaled him to look on the either sides. The place seemed to be a small glass room with a locked door which could probably be the only exit. All around them were some huge plants with giant teethed flowers. They seemed to be slowly coming closer to the room. Sattaki tried to speak but his mouth was gagged by a cloth tied around it and his hands and feet were also tied to the chair.

   He  recollected that last night when he visited the forest highway his car broke down near place from where people have disappeared. As he walked ahead to reach the spot where the last network was traced he was shocked. He saw that in the so called desolate place where there seemed to be nothing in the morning there was a huge open air restaurant. The places seemed to have few people sitting in two or three tables and were drinking something like soup. He went inside the place and sat on a chair when a man from the corner of the room had come forward greeted him and given him the same bowl of soup that others were drinking.

Sattaki’s chain of thoughts broke by a voice, “Welcome to my den ………….great chemist Sattaki Ghosh. It will be fun to make you a part of my experiment”.

Sattaki saw a man or to be more precise the hologram of a man who seemed to be tall with grey hair and dark eyes. His gaze was so cold that it ran a shiver down his spine. He looked at him and calmly smiled.

“I know Mr. Sattaki , there are lot of questions on your mind ,its time to clear all your doubts. My name is  Arshad , the owner of this beautiful garden and the small forest restaurant for some snacks and beverages in between travel at night for my beloved guests. This garden contains one of the deadliest plants that history will ever encounter.”

The man came forward and removed the mouth gag from Sattaki’s mouth. He then looked into his eyes and said, “Any questions?” and started a roaring laugh.

“Are you related to Mr. Karim Ahmed?”

“Yes! Oh great chemist, I totally forgot that you work for the police. However, before I disclose my reasons to call you here let me show you something.”

Soon another holographic image came in front of them showing a plant’s picture.

“This is the Brugmansia flowering plant which is known for its beautiful flowers which are also scented. A scent that will drive you into a world of hallucinations. When I came to know about them for the first time I was too young. It was on a rainy night that father and I were crossing this part of the forest when we had to take shelter behind a huge tree. When I looked around I saw these beautiful flowers and started hallucinating because of their scent. My father and I were so much affected by the scent that we slept off under the banyan tree. When we woke up, we realized that it were these flowers that had caused us to hallucinate and fall asleep. That was the first time I decided to study about these plants and do something with them when I grow up. Life took a heavy toll of me and my family and before I could even become a teenager my father died. We had to leave our house since a thief’s child is always looked down in disgrace by all. My father was punished because he came to know about the toxic effect of this scent since that one night we spent in the forest. A strong hallucinogen like this could not be used as a scent so he had told Mr. Walia that instead of Brugmansia some other plant or product could replace this perfume brand. Mr. Walia had invested a lot of money behind this so he falsely trapped my father and accused him of theft sacking him from the company. He tried to protest against this, did everything possible to prove his innocence, all in vain. Ultimately, in his suicide note he mentioned all the side effects of this perfume and how it is manufactured and the cause for his death which eventually lead to investigations and company was shut down.

 My father died, cleared his name, the company was doomed, but what about us? In an attempt to do justice he left me and my sister with my mother in pain and disgrace. We had to sell our house and leave Goa forever.

Anyway, long story has to be cut short. I think my father could have used the idea like me then he would have lived happily ever after with his family. The forests with these beautiful flowers were always on my mind so I decided to grow, nurture and utilize their special qualities for business purpose. I did a lot of research about them and started cross breeding them with the Venus fly trap, teethed carnivorous plants. While continuing the research, my restaurant at night for travelers was a good source of work for me to earn beside the research work. Every traveler was compelled to come to my restaurant and sit and have some special soup with powdered  flowers in it giving them a beautiful hallucinogenic feel. The next day before they would wake up my people would put them in their cars, repair their intentionally punctured tyres and send them home. Then one day, one of my customers fell sick after drinking the soup, we were too worried how to save them. He started bleeding from his mouth and accidentally some blood fell on the soil on which the cross breeds were growing. The man was taken inside and slept off without any further symptoms of acute illness so next day we send him back.

Everything was the same, but those few drops of blood changed the destiny of these plants forever.”

“What happened?”, Sattaki and Geeta were trying not to look worried

“The cross breeds which were not flowering even after days and nights of hard work had grown their first teethed Angel’s trumpet flower. The first Angel of death was born.”

Sattaki felt a chill down his spine, “Angels of death?”

“What is your experiment?”, asked Geeta

“I have been growing these flowers on blood containing scopolamine drawn from the people drinking the soup containing its extracts. These flowers require regular supply of blood containing the extracts and can reach huge size of 7-8 feet which is larger than an average human height. It is purely carnivorous and feeds on animals till now. My experiment is to see whether it feeds on humans too. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa………………….haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…………..haaaaaaaaaaaaaa…………..haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa “.

Sattaki and Geeta were looking at each other understanding his point since he wanted to be the creater of the man eating cross hybrid Angels of death ( as he had named them).

“Please calm down Arshad, we need to talk. It is true that you have kidnapped all these people from the families of those who were responsible for your father’s death. However, they were not directly involved in causing any harm to your father. So, please stop all these madness and confess your crime to the police. These carnivorous plants will become extremely dangerous for the citizens if they feed on humans. Your experiment may be successful and revenge too but killing so many people will only make you a criminal and no one would praise you for that.”

“ Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…………………….haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa……………. no dear, no one will ever find out what happened to all of you since this place is completely unknown to the outside world. These people along with you know about the experiment and even if you escape you cannot prove your words. No records can find information about a dead man, a holographic image of a man who died 3 years back. Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa……………………haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa……………haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”.

“Oh! I love the expression of surprise and fear in your faces. These people have been kidnapped for the various crimes that they escaped from being punished. In a normal person’s eyes they seem to be insignificant or undeserving of death penalty, however collateral damage is also damage though not considered by anyone. Crimes like blaming someone else for their own mistakes, harassing due to jealousy, stealing something to harm another person and other minor things which can cause major problems to others along with the person who is suffering is not worth forgiving too. “

As soon as he said this, Sattaki felt like his hands and feet were untied and the floor slid open and he fell through a tunnel into a huge room. He tried to stand up and saw a man standing in front of him. 

“Why did you come here? I never wanted you to be a part of all this. Don’t worry I will send you safely back home and you will not remember anything you have seen here or heard.”

He looked forward and saw in a semi dark room a man was standing a little away from him. His face was not clear but as he stepped forward and the light fell on him Sattaki could not believe his eyes.

“Christopher.................. it’s you!”, Sattaki stepped back

“Sorry”, he came out of the room and slammed the door.

6 hours later in a nearby hospital:

Sattaki slowly opened his eyes and looked around, his head was reeling and he could see very faintly some faces staring at him.

“Where am I?”, he asked Geeta who was sitting in front of him.

“Don’t worry sir you are absolutely fine. Let me explain, I am Geeta Sharma, I work for the police department and was on a secret mission to find out who was behind the disappearance of these people. We received some information that these people who were disappearing had a connection to Karim’s death and had visited the police station some time or the other due to some reason. Christopher had been working with us for a very long time and we never expected him to be involved in something like this. When we checked on his family background we found out that his real name was Arshad Ahmed and he was Karim Ahmed’s son. We were too astonished since we knew him from a long time, so we did a DNA test and found out that it was matching with that of Arshad who was supposed to have been killed by fire 3 years back. Arshad faked his own death by killing Christopher and changed his face via plastic surgery to look like him and work in his place like a policeman. We wanted to catch him red handed so made up a plan. 

When the holographic image disappeared and you slipped into the room below I had to act fast otherwise he would have tried to make all the kidnapped people prey for his plants. I had a tracker chip fitted under my tongue in my mouth which I wanted to activate as soon as I would know his plans and get his confession. When he started telling about himself I slowly touched it by my teeth and crushed it which automatically sent signal to my team regarding my location. So, as soon as you went underground police broke into his den and rescued all of us from that place.

 Sattaki looked at Geeta and smiled, “Hmmm…………. Human behavior is hard to describe”.

“All’s well that ends well Sattaki ……… those plants have also been destroyed. Anyway they could not survive without blood containing scopolamine”.

 

Author’s note:

The above story is purely creative and any resemblance to anyone living or dead is purely coincidental