Back in the conference room where the meeting was still on despite Gazen's abrupt but not unwelcome exit, the atmosphere was a bit more relaxed as their talks came to a head.
"Tara?" Ranit's eyes met the silver haired girl who fidgeted a while to make her decision on whether or not to help in the investigation.
"I'll wait on what Ahlad decides and then go forward."
Ahlad stood up slowly and smoothened his shirt, "sorry sir, but you kinda lost me here too. I don't really find you guys trustworthy anymore. But that doesn't mean I won't investigate. I just am choosing to keep you out of the loop a while to figure where I stand."
"That's tough to hear but understandable." Ranit paused thinking hard before finally deciding on it.
"You got anything to add, Kala? Besides the doomsday theory?"
Kala stopped fiddling with the bottle and looked up, "I do have an interest in the entire realm traveling thingy. Upper realms have been a tricky part to navigate for Asuras as a species since some time so yeah, I'll bite. I do things my way though."
"I'm sure you two..." he turned to Tara for confirmation to add her and when she nodded he continued, "you three will work well with each other. Find what you can, we'll do things on our side."
He leaned back and Arman placed a file in front of him which Ranit opened up, "you guys can leave. I have to talk to the suits."
Before they could step out, Ahlad tapped Tara, "can you handle the press outside?"
Tara nodded, "not a problem. But I need to speak with you after."
"Done." He then turned to Kala who had already sprouted his wings out and was outside of the building hovering and waiting for him to join.
Ahlad thanked Arman for keeping the glass door open and floated out, his kinetic abilites transforming easily to allow flight. Something he had developed over the years spent fighting.
The heavy morning air of the city hit him in the face and he squinted, "I thought you demons couldn't come out in the sun?"
"Not at all. We can, we just choose not to. We get stronger at night that's all."
They flew around the building and landed at the backside when Ahlad asked, "you mind waiting? I need to speak with Tara before we leave."
"Sure."
Ahlad walked towards the entrance of the building which was now open. A stream of reporters flowed out, followed by flashing lights and shouts while Tara covered her face. He paused a little distance away watching.
"Ok people, really?" Tara rolled her eyes at the swarm of reporters.
"It was just a regular briefing that we all powered folks do every now and then with the 3A. Nothing special, now if there's nothing more..."
"Tara! Tara!" Reporters clamored for her attention and she even posed a little before pushing them away and frantically searching around till she saw Ahlad and ran towards him.
"Enjoyed the attention?" He smirked as they fell into step.
"I'm used to it at this point," she was panting a little and straightened up.
"So what I wanted to discuss was if you have openings in your faction?"
Ahlad stopped walking, "what?"
"Oh you heard me, don't make me repeat it."
"I mean sure. We don't have a system but we don't mind taking in new people but why the sudden change? What happened to running your own team?"
"It's complicated." Tara bit her lower lip and looked around, "I have been told I'm not experienced enough and that just sickens me as a leader."
Ahlad studied her for a moment before resting his hands on his hips and sighing heavily.
"Fine no problem. You know where we hang?"
Tara almost jumped excitedly as she nodded.
"Yami told me about it. I was planning to visit you guys someday." She paused for a moment before asking, "how is she doing by the way?"
Yami, short for Yamika, was Ahlad's girlfriend and an Awakener who had a disdain for politics. Something she wished he shared too.
Ahlad broke into a smile, "not too bad. She is gonna want to lecture me about this government stuff later on," he looked away deep in thought about her for a while, "but yeah she's doing fine otherwise."
"Glad to know. She's a cutie," Tara began to walk away, "I'll be visiting you guys soon so be prepared."
He watched Tara get into the car waiting for her and drive away before turning to Kala who was walking slowly towards him, whistling low.
"That," he pointed to the departing car, "is a good looking girl right there."
"Says the demon." Ahlad smirked.
"Hey we appreciate beauty too. In a more traditional way. Shall we move?"
They walked in step thinking about the others words.
"You heard where the old man was before here?" Ahlad began, referring to the head of 3A.
Kala nodded, "I'm assuming it was the Bengal front."
"Currently the worst of them all on our soil." Ahlad paused a little and added, "though technically on no man's land it still feels close to home."
When the Rakshasas came through the weakening barriers between realms, it took a humongous effort to push them back. And over the years the eastern part of the entire subcontinent had been run over by them making it the second most militarized region.
Long kilometers of trenches and blockades were kept along to establish fronts after having successfully pushed back several hordes of the monsters but it came at a costly price. For the ones on the other side of the front. In this case the people of Bangladesh.
When Inborns and Awakeners arrived as reinforcements, it led to a longer than anticipated battle front against the Rakshasa which till date still holds the fragile balance from mass extermination. But this also means pouring heavy resources into just maintaining the status quo let alone meeting the cost of battle damages over the years.
Today many view it as a training ground for up and coming Awakeners who can prove or test themselves on the bloody fields.
While there were still random emergence of Rakshasas way inside the established fronts, the local Awakeners or inborns were more than capable to handle them. It was a numbers game after all. The vast numbers lay out there, trying to breach the well laid out artificial walls that held them back from civilization.
"Where do you wanna start with this realm travel machine?" Kala asked.
"I'm working on it." Ahlad replied deep in thought.
"Get your smart friend involved too."
That made Ahlad chuckle "That goes without saying, although I'm surprised you even remember him. What are you going to do?"
Kala bit the end of his shirt and tilted his sunglasses up his nose, "I could try reaching out to some of the weird minds that inhabit my realm. Find out what I can."
"Try not to do something diabolical while you're at it," Ahlad said with a sly smile.
Kala chuckled, folding his arms as his bat like wings folded out of his back and he hovered a little above ground, "that's just my nature pal. See ya."
'That guy gets on my nerves,' Ahlad tilted his head back to stare at Kala's flying figure.
"Hey, you up?" A voice spoke into his mind telepathically.
Ahlad immediately stiffened, "yeah I am. What is it?"
"Might not be important," the voice hesitated a bit, "but you can visit if you like."
Ahlad buttoned up his coat and bent his knees before shoving himself against the curb to fly up and away.
The voice in his head was his eccentric but brilliant friend Karan. He had this charming, cheery personality that put everyone at ease, until he began to talk about technology.
The most charming nerd he had ever had the pleasure to be acquainted with, was the general description Ahlad had of him.
"Is this another anomaly?"
Karan's voice was a bit faint due to the rushing wind from Ahlad's flight, "not entirely sure but I picked up some interesting chatter online."
"Spill it," Ahlad cruised through the newly constructed sea bridge with huge Awakener advertisements hanging through its cables in a shameless display.
Courtesy of the 3A.
Karan huffed, "wouldn't you rather hear it from me directly? You're on your way anyway."
Ahlad grit his teeth, "don't test me saale, I'm not in the bloody mood."
His friend's voice came up with a low smirk, "man it's pretty easy to rile you up, all of social media has got you so wrong. You ain't so stoic and all that."
"You gonna keep doing this?"
"Jeez relax," Karan snorted and remained quiet for a while.
"Alright here's the gist. A group of Awakeners were reportedly ambushed by greedy mercs and would have been slaughtered if not for the interference of another person, who possibly eh–saved their lives I guess?"
Ahlad couldn't think of a big reason as to why this was even remotely interesting, "so? If this is your way of getting me to tone down my cynical view of today's world, then brother do I have a lot to say to you."
"Well the interesting fact is that this person or this 'great' guy was an inborn."
That made Ahlad's thoughts fire on all points, "seriously? I'm assuming this inborn is dead then, given that you used the past tense."
"It's the most logical conclusion right? But a lot doesn't add up. Like the 3A has taken an awful lot of effort to bury the story as a simple robbery cum terror incident."
Ahlad scoffed, "yeah my trust with regards to them isn't that great especially after today."
"I'm here," Ahlad announced to himself as he hovered over a remote area, in the outskirts of the city.
It was a farmhouse where Karan's grandparents lived and owned upto a few years ago. The nerd had made it his own base of operations.
He descended in front of the tool shed, ignoring the house and pushed past the old doors.
Then a few meters ahead bang in the middle was a few stacks of hay when cleared revealed a set of doors on the ground which he opened.
A steep flight of stairs led further to a short corridor dimly lit by bulbs and an ominous presence of a smart sensor placed above metal doors.
More than doors to Ahlad they always reminded him of large vault doors guarded by an intelligence far superior to his own.
And as usual they stayed shut while the red light on the sensor blazed at him in defiance.
"Come on," he said louder this time not telepathically, "we're still doing this? It's me SASI."
SASI referred to the artificial intelligence that Karan had helped tweak from a former mysterious creator and even named it so.
Karan could go on and on about it, and even referring to it as a 'her' which Ahlad thought was an effort to humanize it as his interactions with living humans were lesser in comparison.
KUNG...CRACKLE
The speaker on the top corner of the wall came to life and a laugh emanated from it, "be a good sport yaar, she's a learner after all."
Just then the AI spoke up in it's robotic and feminine voice, "identify yourself please."
Ahlad sighed, his hands on his hips before saying, "Ahlad." He waited and shook his head despite a sly smile forming as he added his last name, "Ravi."
The AI let its sensor turn green and opened up the metal doors inwards, "please enter."
Ahlad walked in, unbuttoning his coat and letting it hang on his arm, as he folded up his sleeves and walked to the gaming chair on the far end of the room.
The space behind the metal doors was massive. It was actually the end of a huge tunnel that was preceeded by a long passage underground which was 50 meters tall and almost 30 meters wide. An abandoned passageway for a nearby dam which had acquired additional land elsewhere to finish up.
Leaving this large space underneath a veritable goldmine for enthusiasts like seclusionist thinkers and innovators. Like Karan and his predecessors.
The space Ahlad was in now and one which Karan called home was the end of this passage which Karan had retrofitted to fit his needs.
A bed, suitable lighting though usually dimming, dull paint, monitors and screens galore, a battery powered refrigerator was the many belongings of his friend.
But Karan himself was not in the chair. Nor was he in any comprehensive physical condition to walk about.
His body in fact was lying on the bed, covered by nets that hovered over him. His eyes close, hands by his sides and utterly motionless.
Little pieces of paper stuck to his forehead and shaved head that ran lines of wires to his systems that was running code continuously, fired up by the various nerves that the human brain was famous for.
Going through numerous computational data across the vast streams of the ever expansive internet, it was a shuddering sight and a more somber atmosphere for Ahlad everytime he visited him.
A reminder of what his friend had chosen to become.
"You don't have to feel guilty if you are going there. I've told you that many times."
Karan's voice came from the monitors now, the screens pausing a little like a blink to assure Ahlad of his friend's still present consciousness.
Ahlad walked away from the beeping noises of the bed to the chair and the desk, where the screens were put up in a curve.
He leant forward on the spine of the chair and nodded, "I know—but it's quite a harrowing sight."
"I'm still here, I truly am." The screens blinked again and it almost felt like it was Karan's eyes now.
Ahlad studied the monitor that was the core part of Karan's evolving conscious state, "how far have you come to what you were seeking?"
"I'm halfway there. By next fall I think I'll be where I envisioned this to go. Thanks to you, I don't think I could have ever come as far without your help."
It had started out as an idea that Ahlad had put in as a mild obsession Karan had for the realm barrier and super intelligence.
But when he had put forth the idea of dissociating his consciousness from his mortal self to another and when a curious Ahlad had helped him go through it, it had become too real and a process that had now become irreversible.
As of now Karan's body was slowly degrading with the loss while Karan was injecting or infusing his consciousness with his beloved AI.
A gamble that had paid off nonetheless but would've everlasting consequences. Now there was nothing else to be done but wait.
In many ways Karan's intelligence had influenced Ahlad in the formation of his faction and numerous other cases, so while Ahlad was certainly happy to have him on his side it was still a bittersweet experience for a close friendship like theirs.
Ahlad gathered himself for a moment and then shook himself, "alright," he sat down on the chair and leaned heavily on it, "let's talk."
"The 3A has been on the lookout for this lone guy who escaped that warehouse explosion since last week."
"And?"
"Nothing so far. His family or what's left of it has no clue as he ran away to attend university. His friends haven't seen him since. So kind of a dead end. At least for the 3A."
Ahlad got up stretching himself as he went for the refrigerator and opened it up, "well that's not the end for you is it? I'm pretty sure you know this guy's identity already."
The monitor seemed to look on at Ahlad in silence, before Karan's voice came forth, "and what do you plan to do with this person once you find him?"
Ahlad thought about it for a second, "I don't know. The usual perhaps?"
"I see." Karan's voice slowed to a stop.
Unbeknownst to Ahlad, the computer ran a hidden program to delete several files regarding anomalous incidents including a collapsed building and a profile sketch of the individual called Sanit.
Ahlad came back with a cold can and popped it with a much more cheerful face, "well throw it away to me pal."
"I'm sorry, I've got nothing really." The machine's voice lied effortlessly through Karan.
Ahlad chugged the fizzy drink and made a satisfied face, "bummer, well keep trying and lemme know. I'm gonna rest a little."
"Will do," Karan responded half-heartedly. His machine consciousness a bit sad at what he was doing but ultimately hoping for a better future.