XYZ ~ THE KILLER OF KILLERS (PART 2)

PART 2

George came out from his garage. His face was expressionless and lank. But anyone could grasp what was he thinking using his eyes. His eyes told others that George saw something which should not be seen. He also seemed to grow older in a space of a few minutes. After all, he had killed his best friend.

First, the 23-year-old George took the body and took it to the hospital. He asked the doctor to make a report on the victim’s brain. When the doctor protested, George showed him his card, not caring if there are any cameras in the room. All he wanted was to hunt the four clones.

After that, he surrendered the body to a morgue and asked the officials to preserve the body.

The next day, George went to his office, armed with the CCTV footage of his house and the report. His face was still expressionless. In short, he was a little better than an owl. He walked through the hall. 

At the same time, Craig came in. His face turned pale. But remembering that he is superior to a George, he asked ‘George! What are you doing? You were susp-‘ and stopped right in the middle of the sentence, mainly because he was in the air.

George held the cuff of Craig high and hissed ‘Not a word.’

‘When Tony sees-‘

‘He won’t.’

‘Huh?’

George threw the traitor away. He crashed a pile of books. But George could not stop his tears from slipping from his eyes.

His best friend

Dead

By his own hands.

George wiped his tears and ran towards Tony’s superior office before the guards could catch him.

He opened the door without a knock and spoke directly to Edwards, who was Tony’s superior.

‘Arrange a meeting with the board meeting.’

‘Huh?’ said the shocked man. ‘You were sus-‘ and stopped when George opened his phone and showed a photo of his late best friend. With a hole of his forehead.

Edward took a moment to make what the picture was trying to depict and jumped onto a telephone beside him.

Then the security burst in and tried to carry George away.

‘Sorry sir, he came-‘

‘George stays here.’ Edward commanded.

‘But sir-‘ stammered the security.

‘Those are my orders.’ said Edward and dialed a number on his telephone and started to speak.

‘Ma’am, we have another problem. May I ask you to come urgently?’

After listening to the response, Edwards kept his telephone down and whispered ‘God, save us.’

After 14 minutes, the board meeting was arranged. 

Jade was the first person to talk ‘What happened Edwards? Why did you call us so urgently and allow a suspended officer here?’ pointing George.

‘I called you to tell grave news. But Mr. Turner here has worse news for us. Let me tell you the first news. Our receptionist was murdered yesterday. He was doing a night shift-‘

‘What?’ said the tall official. Then glaring at George, he said ‘You took your anger on that poor man?’

George remained silent, bidding his time.

Edwards jumped in ‘Even though Mr. Turner’s fingerprints were found on a wall, the wall was several feet away from the receptionist’s dead spot. We had no idea about the case until Mr. Turner came along. Actually, he is not the killer. Someone interesting is.’

The last words indicated George to take up.

George got up. Craig's face turned white instantly. He opened his collar button and pulled out a secret camera.

‘I take that you all know that what is this.’

‘Yes. It is a secret camera which can be hidden in any button. It has a microphone attached. But why you are showing us that?’ asked Jade.

‘The previous night events were recorded in here.’ said George and plugged it in.

Instantly, the screen was filled with the face of the receptionist, partially covered with a man, covered in black. Then everyone gasped when they saw the man slicing the receptionist’s throat. All the mouths did not close until XYZ complete his story and gave George his two options. George deleted the part where he killed XYZ because he did not want all to know that he killed XYZ yet.

Silence.

It was broken by Craig. 

‘Sir, do you seriously believe this video? What if it was all fake?’

George felt for the reports and threw them at the desk of the board.

‘The report issued by Dr. Anderson, a respected doctor. If you have further doubt, you can yourself examine the body. I have surrendered the body to a morgue.’

All the eyes popped out when the board saw the report and stared at George.

‘Did you bring the doctor here?’ asked another official, thinking that he was in a dream.

‘Yes.’ George said and motioned the doctor to get up.

‘Good morning.’ said the doctor, scared to his wits.

There was a law not to accept a foreign doctor into the organization but this was an exceptional case.

‘What did you observe? Did he threaten you to tell all this? Tell us, don’t worry.’ said the tall official, who seemed to take an oath not to believe George.

‘No sir. Mr. Turner said everything right. Mr. Diamond was suffering from a disease called as ‘split personality. One side was Mr. Diamond and another side was.... the man in black.’ said the doctor. He wasn’t informed who was XYZ. It was too confidential.

George felt the gilt when the doctor expressed Tony is past tense. But he did not utter a word.

‘Okay. Sit’ said the tall official, clearly disappointed.

Then Jade suddenly said to George ‘By the way, who killed XYZ? You must have seen that too.’

George had no option but to tell her.

‘I did it.’

‘What?!’

‘It was me.’

‘What the hell! Did you really kill Tony? I-‘

‘Please ma’am. I was in an impossible situation. If I left him, it would have been impossible to catch him. It was the first and only chance to kill him. The main reason why I killed him was that XYZ cloned himself four times. Dr. Anderson made me clear that when you clone a split-personality, both the personality get duplicated. So I believe that Tony is embedded in the four clones of XYZ.’ said George, almost at the edge of tears but not quite showing it.

‘About the clones, when are you planning to hunt them?’ asked the tall official.

‘I will when you will issue an order for me to take up the XYZ case.’ said George.

‘That is not possible!’ Craig exclaimed before the board could utter a word.

‘Are you taking this as an opportunity to take up the case? Do you remember that you are suspended?’ thundered the tall official.

‘Ah yes! I did want to speak about that.’ said George, seeing Craig. Craig looked as if he was going to be sick.

‘Please read this. I found this letter when I reached my house.’ George, handing his phone to them. The picture of the letter blazed on the phone. When George read the third line, he had quickly taken a picture of the letter before the letter was reduced to ashes.

‘What?!’ said Jade, glaring at Craig.

Craig turned to an interesting shade of green.

The tall official read the letter twice and asked George ‘If you received the letter after the meeting, why did you not show it then and there? You could have messaged us.’

‘No.’ said George. ‘I wanted to crack it case before I showed you the letter.’

‘I am sorry!’ screamed Craig, falling on George’s feet. ‘I did a mistake. My greed got better of me. Forgive me.’

George did not say a word.

Two minutes of whispering followed among the board.

Jade said ‘According to the 23rd law in our law book, We are willing to dismiss Mr. James only if Mr. Turner says so. So, the decision is not in our hands but in yours, George.’

Craig turned white and started to cry.

George took less than a minute to make his decision.

‘I am willing to forgive my fellow colleague for the crime he did. After all, he is my friend-‘

‘Thank you!’ Craig screamed. ‘You are god. A god to me.’

‘I am just your friend.’ said George kindly to him. ‘Giving you another chance.’

‘You won’t regret it.’ said Craig, sobbing.

‘I know I won’t.’

The board smiled at George’s kind heart.

And frowned when they remembered the clones.

‘So what shall we do?’ asked Jade to George.

‘You have to assign me the case.’ said George.

‘Well, That is Okay. I can say that Edwards would give the case. Am I right Edwards?’ said Jade.

Edwards nodded.

‘Okay.’ said George.

‘Next?’ asked Jade.

‘I want you to keep Craig as my assistant and my partner for any field agent.’ said George.

Craig meet George’s eyes and pulled the most grateful face he could.

‘That all can be arranged. Just tell us your plan for defeating the clones.’ said the tall official.

‘I did not think about it yet.’ George said.

‘So let’s think about it.’ said the tall official.

George thought that Edwards glared at the tall official, but he soon ignored. After all, he was dealing with something much important.

‘XYZ said that there are 4 clones of his. I don’t know if that is true. After all, he is a killer and we should not believe all he says. Also he mentioned the reason why created the clones. This might be true. The last 4 HawksEye officials. We have to find those four officials, who were involved in the seizure of the land. Then we keep them as bait and hunt the clones.’ said George.

Jade went paled as if she remembered something bad, but quickly recovered. ‘But the officials you mentioned, those are civilians! You can’t keep them as bait!’ she ejaculated.

‘Ma’am, I think you are forgetting something. We are talking about HawsEye, the most deadly organization. They are everything except civilians because they earn their bread and butter by killing other innocent civilians! Ma’am just thinks how many times they have used us as bait. Hundreds, I say. Can’t we pull 4 HawsEye officials as bait, that too for a good cause?’ George asked.

Jade shook her head, clearly disappointed. Then she said ‘At least, give the work of finding the four officials to MI5. It can reduce your burden.’

‘Thank you.’ said George, thinking how odd was it to listen to someone like Jade to support HawsEye officials.

Then the meeting got dispersed.

‘Thank you. I want to say more but I can’t.’ said Craig to George.

‘I said to you, didn’t I? I believe in giving people a second chance.’ said George.

Far away in the second lift, Jade was talking to someone on phone.

‘They seem to target me!’ she said.

‘Did they discuss how to capture Percy’s clones?’ a response came, using XYZ’s true name.

‘Yes. They planned to keep four of us as bait.’ Jade complained.

‘No HawsEye official must complain. Exceptionally a secret agent of HawsEye. Sabotage the data and tell those creeps four names which I will message you. Bye for now.’

HawksEye’s secret agent, known as Jade to her CBI ‘friends’ cut the phone.

The day of the funeral.

All were there. All relatives, colleagues, and even Tony’s bullying cousin was standing there, sobbing. Tears ran through cheeks of all, even from the stern tall official. The tall man tried his best but the tears escaped from his eyes. Edwards Ghantom was the worst of all. It was as if he had adjusted a sprinkler behind his eyes. Tears seemed to come forever. Only people who did not cry were Jade and George himself. He did not want others to about his friendship with Tony and how much it hurt him. When he glanced at the crowd, he saw Jade actually glaring at the coffin but when she caught George’s eye, she pulled a pitiful face.

Something was up with Jade, George decided.

Soon two days passed.

But the only thing which ran was Craig’s nose. He had a very bad cold but he refused to go him even when George used his stern tone.

‘Go home Craig!’

‘No, I won’t!’

This routine continued till the door opened and Edwards burst into the office.

‘Did you get the names?’ Edwards asked without any word of greeting.

‘No.’ said George, partially annoyed. He was only asking the MI5 about it all through the day and having Edwards asking the same thing over did not help. But at the same time, he felt sorry as Edwards was really connected to Tony even when he had joined the office 3 weeks before. He had seen them playing golf together. George knew that catching those clones would mean to pay a tribute to Tony. 

And getting Tony back.

‘But We have to catch those creations!’ Edwards exclaimed.

‘Creations?’ George became puzzled.

‘Clones! I don’t like that word.’ Edwards said with a huff.

Then an email popped.

‘Hey it has the names!’ George exclaimed the email, which was heavily secured, of course.

‘Really?!’ asked Edwards and strained his head to the computer screen.

‘Yes!’ George said as he saw Jade talking through her phone with someone. As if she does not want anyone to hear what she was saying.

‘Coming in a minute.’ said George and he started to shadow Jade.

Then she stopped.

And looked around.

But, fortunately, George hid behind the walls.

‘What happened?’ the voice from the phone snaked to George.

‘Nothing. Thought someone was following me.’

‘Okay. So I have given you the names of those who are the fierce enemy who needs to be buried under the Earth. So, CBI would kill them thinking that they are Percy’s clones. Stupid creatures.’ The voice cursed.

Different names? Who is she speaking to? thought George in amazement.

‘And HawsEye would have two mangoes in one stone.’ Jade said gleefully.

HawsEye agent? Jade was a HawsEye agent? George was stunned.

‘The names of the clones are Tim Drakes, Edwards Ghantom, David Jackson and Henry John.’ said the voice.

This time George almost fainted.

Edwards Ghantom? Tony’s superior? And David Jackson? The strict tall official?

Maybe they know that he is shadowing him and trying to confuse him.

But Jade was shocked all the same.

‘Edwards Ghantom and David Jackson? Are you serious? They are working here, in CBI!’

‘Oh well! That was what amazed me. I did not know how Percy got to know all about us when we did not utter a word about all our officials. Now it is very much clear. He set his clones in CBI and extracted information from CBI using them. Ah well. Certainly, Percy is a lot more clever than we thought.’ The voice hissed.

Jade did not give George time to think.

‘Maybe you got the wrong information. It is not possible!’

‘Well then. I got this information from my men. They followed all four of them four days ago and they have sent a video to me where all the four were talking to Percy. You are telling me not to believe my own men when they have got a solid proof?’ The voice said. The voice had become icy-cold as if warning Jade that she is very much close to her death.

‘Okay. I got it. Will call you later.’ Jade said and walked away.

George remained there, stunned. HawsEye have been themselves hunting XYZ. And who was this Percy? Maybe it was the true name of XYZ. Jade was a HawsEye secret agent. Edward and David were XYZ’s clones. So they were crying for XYZ, not for Tony at the funeral day.

Anger, fear and tension gripped George all at once.

He could jail the two this very minute.

But he needed to prove.

And the remaining two clones.

Then an idea formed.

George went to his office.

Instructing Craig to leave the office with his eyes, he said to Edwards ‘I think that the names of the HawsEye officials are something else.’

‘What do you mean?’ Edwards ripped his eyes off the screen. 

‘These names are not the true names. I have searched the names for myself and got one of them.’ George said, handing him a single paper.

Where a single word was written.

Jade

Edwards saw George with grave eyes ‘Are you serious? You really mean that Jade is a HawsEye official?’

‘Yup. Just now Jade was speaking to some HawsEye official.’ said George.

Edwards almost fainted but suddenly recovered.

‘So, you are going to keep Jade as bait?’

‘No. Just CCTV cameras. We will first discover how the clones are killing her.’ said George carefully, measuring every word before it left his mouth.

‘Okay. Whatever you say.’ said Edwards and left.

Craig came in.

‘Hey What happened? I saw Edwards leaving angrily.’ he said and immediately sneezed, making all the papers jump.

‘I told you to leave.’ said George, sensing anger surging into his body.

‘No I won’t.’

‘Then I have something interesting for you.’

After few minutes, Craig was sitting on a chair with his mouth opened.

‘Are you serious?!’

‘Yes.’

‘If you said this before, I would have been ready to leave.’

‘Oh shut up nosy boy.’ George said as Craig sneezed again. ‘I know you fear nothing.’

‘For your case, I hope so.’

‘Yup. Let’s go.’

‘Now?’

‘After 45 minutes.’ said George, glancing his watch.

‘How do you know that?’

‘Between two killings of XYZ, there is always a gap of 13 minutes. Last kill which XYZ or Percy made was at 5:30 pm. So we would leave at 5:15 pm and follow Edwards.’

‘When did you find that?’ Craig said amazed,

‘Yesterday.’

‘13. Maybe it is by purpose.’

‘Why is that?’ George got confused.

‘Unlucky.’

George got it. ‘Very bad joke.’

‘Authored by Percy.’

George nodded.

After 43 minutes, George and Craig looked as if they were future soldiers. Black suit coated with melamine, a bulletproof vest underneath and two laser guns with 3 CBI’s favourite Glock 19 pistols. Still, the two thought that they were lightly protected. After all, they are hunting 4 strongest and dangerous men in the world.

‘Does Edwards know about it?’ Craig asked. It is almost impossible to say who was who underneath that gear.

‘No. I said that I won’t keep men there. But remember. They are clones of XYZ. They don’t believe anyone easily.’ George said as they jumped into the Alfa Spider.

They waited for few minutes.

‘There he is.’ Craig whispered, pointing a black car.

‘Right.’ George said and pushed the Alfa Spider’s accelerator. The car gunned forward.

Then the chase began.

‘Hey Craig!’ George said, concentrating on the wheel. ‘Note that car number plate and see if it is valid.’ 

Craig went for his mini-computer and started tapping.

‘It is.’ Craig said. ‘But issued in Bahamas.’

‘Bahamas?’ George’s voice was almost inaudible over the Alfa Spider engine’s noise.

‘Yup.’

‘So Edwards is not using fake number plate but took the number plate of other car. Aren’t these clones clever?’

‘They are.’ Craig added, unnecessary.

George grunted and passed Craig a device which looked like the seed of a custard apple.

‘You want me to plant it?’ Craig said.

‘Yes! On Edward’s car!’ 

‘Right.’

Craig leant over the window and threw the device with all his might. The magnet attached to the device did the rest. The device got fixed firmly on Edward’s car.

‘Good job!’ George said, trying his best to level his voice over the noise.

‘Thank you.’

‘Now go to Tracker 2.0 app on the computer.’

Craig turned to George. ‘When did you install that?’

‘Will tell you afterward! Now do it!’

Craig opened it and saw two markers. Red for Edward and Blue for them.

‘He is going to the Grape Alley!’

‘That is nice. I knew about that place very well.’ George said.

Suddenly only cars on the road were of George’s and Edward’s.

George turned right.

‘Hey he is going towards left!’ Craig said.

‘With only our car there, Edwards would start suspecting us. Keep a close watch on the screen. I know another way to the Alley.’

‘Amazing.’ Craig said, trying not to be surprised.

‘Hold tight.’ George warned and took a sharp turn.

‘Woah! Was that necessary? I was about to fall off the car!’

‘I warned you.’

‘As if you gave me a lot of time to act, huh?’ 

George smirked and took a left turn again.

Edward’s car filled their vision.

‘Nice.’ Craig said.

‘Yup. Good timing. Now when I tell you, press the red button on the left side.’

Craig looked around the screen. At the top left was a red button.

‘Okay.’

Edward’s car slowed down.

George took a right turn.

‘Another shortcut?’

‘No.’ George said and pushed the brakes. The Alfa Spider retarded in a matter of seconds.

‘Now what?’ Craig asked.

‘We will get out of the car.’

‘Ok.’ 

Craig and George got out of the car.

‘Then?’

‘Follow Edwards.’

‘Ok.’ 

George went towards the wall and peeped out.

The coast was clear.

After signalling Craig to follow him, George went towards Edward’s car and slipped the device into his pocket and moved forwards.

Together, they followed the soft footsteps of Edwards. Then George stopped.

‘What happened?’ Craig whispered.

‘Edwards has stopped walking. I think he has reached his destination.’

‘This does not make sense! Jade lives in Banana Bend. We are in Grape Alley!’ Craig said.

‘She lives in Banana Bend?’ George did not know that.

‘Yup. I thought you knew about it.’ Craig said.

George was stunned for a moment and came back to his senses.

‘Quick. Go to the car!’ George said, this time with a loud whisper, and crouched.

‘Why? What happened?’ Craig said in amazement.

‘Get down!’ George said but he was too late.

A single gunshot.

‘Craig!’ George said. But he knew it was a clean shot.

Craig fell heavily.

Quickly as he could, he took off Craig’s shirt and tore it into strips. Then he tied the wound tightly. Bullets were spraying from the corner but George did not pay attention to it.

‘You are going to live.’ George promised and took the custard apple seed-shaped device from his pocket.

Then he threw it where the bullets were coming from.

‘George!’ Edwards said ‘I knew that you were following me since you left the office. Did not you care to switch the number plate at least? Do you think I am that foolish not to notice that?’

‘Yup. And I still think you are!’ George spat and pressed the red button on the computer as he put on his mask and helped Craig with his.

Then it was released.

‘What the-‘ Edwards started but stopped. His vision got blurred and he got sleepy. The floor slid behind and it hit him with all the force it could muster. He tried to open his eyes but it became too heavy. Too heavy to hold.

And everything went black.

              

***

At last, he came.

George sprang out of his chair and went to the doctor.

‘Doctor-‘

‘How are you and Craig related?’ Doctor interrupted.

‘We are colleagues and he is my best friend.’ George said. Gilt peeped at him when he said that. After all, he called Tony his best friend.

‘See, Craig has moved a tiny fraction before the bullet pierced him. Because of this tiny movement, the bullet missed his vital parts by half an inch.’

‘Thank god!’ George said, feeling as if he has shed all his worries.

‘Worst news for you is that even though it missed the vital parts, Craig’s arteries and nervous system as been damaged.‘ The Doctor said.

‘What does that mean Doctor?’ George choked.

‘For the time being, we cannot tell. We can only tell after 3 hours.’ The doctor said.

‘Please bring some good news.’ George said.

‘I think I will.’

After meeting the doctor, George thought of paying a visit to one of Percy and Tony’s clones.

‘Showdown time.’ George thought gravely. He phoned the office to provide him with a car. Then he left.

After a few minutes, a car pulled in. A man came out at and said ‘I hope I came early Mr. Turner?!’

‘Yes.’ George said, his voice lank. He went and sat in the back seat.

‘Great!’ The driver said and switched the engine on.

After travelling for few minutes, the driver asked ‘How is Mr. James sir?’

‘He will pull through.’ George said wearily.

And then a thought struck his mind faster than a moving bullet.

‘How did he know?’ George thought. ‘No one knew about it expect for me and Craig.’

‘How did you know that?’ George’s senses alert.

Driver did not reply for a minute.

Then he asked ‘What sir?’

‘How did you know that Craig is in hospital?’ George shouted, silently drawing a stick from his pocket. The stick was made of normal wood but it’s edges were made up of titanium and diamond respectively.

The driver suddenly took the car into a bridge with an impossible speed.

George hit the driver with the edge of the stick which had titanium. But the driver somehow caught the stick and threw it off the window.

‘We won’t rest until you die George!’ The driver screamed and took a sharp turn. George understood what he was trying to do. Breakthrough the safety barriers and sink both of them in the water.

The driver locked his lips and pushed the accelerator even further. 

But the car stopped.

The driver started the car and tried to accelerate.

But still, it did not respond.

When he went for the keys, they were not there.

Then a plastic wire passed the neck of the fake driver.

And George pulled it hard.

The driver went for his hands but he was quick. One single blow on his arm and it fractured.

‘Ow!’ The driver cried but soon recovered.

He tried to pull back the wire with his other hand but till then it was too late.

After a few minutes, the driver’s brain was dead.

He pulled himself out of the car, fingering the car keys. He had slipped the wire into the hole of the keys and pulled it out. The key gave in almost immediately and stopped the car.

He went to examine the man who almost succeeded in killing him.

Then he got to know that the man was wearing a latex coating over his face.

He pulled it out.

And gasped.

It was a clone of Percy.

It took him a moment to digest.

Did really kill the clone?

George checked his pulse rate. Nothing.

George did not know what to think. Should he be happy that he killed the clone or be sad that he killed the clone?

In the end, he did nothing. He looked at the clone the same way a headmaster sees a naughty boy. 

Then he went to the main road and flagged a taxi.

***

‘George?’ a voice came behind George. He was walking briskly and turned to look at the source of the sound.

It was the stern tall official. He was clearly shocked to see George but recovered quickly.

‘What happened?’ He said.

George looked innocently at the official and replied ‘Nothing, why?’

‘Just asking.’ David said and quickly went.

George glared at his back and went to the interrogative room.

‘Welcome Edwards! Just where you belong to!’

Edwards and two policemen jumped to their skins.

‘Well, I know you were very eager to see me.’ George smiled.

Edwards smirked at him and spitted at him.

‘You are gonna regret it. The other three remain. They will make you think why you were born!’

‘Oh come on! I am coming after killing one of your fellow mates.’

Then the phone rang.

Then the phone rang.

‘Hello?’ George said.

‘Yes, Mr. Turner. I am Mr. James’s Doctor.’ The voice said.

‘Yes Doctor!’ George asked. ‘Will Craig pull through?’

‘Actually, I am afraid that I have some bad news for you.’ The doctor said gravely.

‘What? But you said he is almost certainly be going to be all right!’ George whispered. His worries about Craig got tangled and he did not think straight.

‘What happened Doctor?’ George asked, his voice barely audible.

‘Actually, the situation was difficult for me. You see Mr. Turner, I am not a human. I was not born. But I was created.’

‘What do you mean doctor?!’ George screamed, not getting what was the doctor trying to say.

‘Release number 2 from your custody. The person you call as Edwards. Or else, your dear friend has taken 1 ml of ricin. Small but enough to kill. I will start the operation when number 2 comes to the reception of this hospital ALONE. Don’t try to fool me, George. I think you are a wise man. Take a decision after thinking for some time. After all, no important decision is taken after thinking twice.’ said the doctor, in a matter-of-fact sort of voice.

‘Who are you, Doctor?’ George said, barely breathing.

‘Did not you guess that before? I am the third clone of my master XYZ.’

The phone slipped from George’s slippery hands. ‘I don’t believe it.’

TO BE CONTINUED.....