StarGaze

Love Is But A Poison

"So their plan worked and the fuckers somehow managed to catch the target. But he possessed the same time freezing technology like us. So this was gonna be a tricky one." Thomas said and continued.

“So Mr. Farhan, we have at least five hours before your men come storming inside out place. But even then we will win because we don’t believe in the stupid ‘no guns’ rule. We will take up a machine gun as soon as we feel like it.” Olivia said, grabbing the commander’s collar and lifting him.

She pushed him on the bed while his lover watched in horror. Farhan was calm now because he had absorbed the heaviness of the situation. In fact, he even dared to look at Olivia and smile on her face.

“You have no idea what you are dealing with, have you?” he said threateningly.

Both Gabriel and Olivia knew something was up, and Gabriel didn’t waste time. He locked the door and broke the key with his bare hands. Farhan seemed a little distressed by it, but the glee was still dominant on his face.

“These games are not going to work, same as you are not going anywhere…” Olivia was saying but her face went pale.

He wasn’t there. The man had just vanished into thin air, and everyone in the room was equally shocked. In fact, Fatima was so distressed by the rapidly changing events that her mind thought it would be better to shut down, so she fainted.

The agents knew exactly what this meant. They looked around to see where he went. The gate was still locked, so he didn’t go that way. The window glass was broken, so they immediately ran to it.

“The grass is in its natural state, so he clearly didn’t jump. It means he is in this room, probably in the closet.” Gabriel whispered.

“You are right. Don’t look directly at the closet. Pretend that we think he jumped down and we will go after him. And when he gets out of the room to escape with his girlfriend, we will knock him out.

It is crucial that he doesn't spot us, or he will stop time again. We cannot take that risk again.” Olivia whispered back, pretending to search for Farhan on the open road.

“His car is still here, so he must not have gone far. Let’s go get him before he brings the whole cavalry in here!” Gabriel shouted and ran towards the locked door.

Olivia followed him, taking a very quick sneak peek at the closet. It was made of slanted wood pieces so that the person inside could see what was going outside, but not vice versa.

So as soon as Farhan was sure that the agents were no longer around him, he slowly opened the closet. The door creaked, and his heart thumped to the ceiling. But he finally breathed freely as he heard Olivia yelling outside.

He walked up to the window and looked at the woman disappear in the alley, searching for someone who wasn’t even there. This irony put a smile on Farhan’s lips. He slipped out of the door but stopped suddenly. He went in again and lifted Fatima on his shoulders.

“Don’t worry my love, no one will hurt you as long as I live,” Farhan said as he slowly stepped down the stairs.

As soon as he was on the lower floor and had his eyes locked on the exit, he didn’t care how many dead or alive people were around him. He ran, assuming that the devil was just behind him every step of the way.

He swooshed out of the large wooden gate and pounced on his car. He opened the door in a hurry, placed his girlfriend inside the car, and jumped into the driving seat. He started the engine, put the gear into its place, and just as he was about to put his foot on the gas, he felt a sting on the back of his neck.

He felt it and took out something which appeared to be a dart. His vision fainted and his body felt heavier as he looked at the alien stinger.

“Well, I like to give them as much hope as they can produce before snatching it all away. You almost got away with it, didn’t you?” A man said from behind.

Farhan tried to loosen his seatbelt as he was having difficulty breathing, but his fingers seemed to have gone rogue. He hardly moved his neck to see the man who tranquilized him, and it was none other than our Gabriel.

“You son of a….” Farhan was saying but his words slowed down, and he ultimately passed out.

“Yeah, try stopping time now, you f*****g prick,” Gabriel said as he pulled the man out of the car, looking at the surroundings to see if someone was watching them.

Olivia followed him with Fatima on her shoulders. They laid down the couple on the bed and tied them both up to separate chairs afterward. Fatima had done nothing wrong, but she loved the man in question here. And he could easily manipulate her into freeing him, thus blowing the plan up to kingdom come.

“Are you sure he is secure? This is our only chance.” Gabriel said as he took out a dose of an anti-tranquilizer.

“Yes yes, I am pretty sure I know how to tie a knot. Just wake the asshole up.” Olivia said, exhausted from all the running in vain.

Gabriel took out a calculated amount of liquid from the glass bottle and injecting it in a swift motion, right into Farhan’s neck. After two seconds, Farhan woke up high a huge gasp, as he had just been brought back from the dead.

“What the f**k?” he said, still gasping for as much air as his mouth could find.

“Welcome back, Mr. Indiana Jones. I noticed that you are using our technology to fool us.” Olivia said, taking over from Gabriel.

“Oh, I see the resemblance now. You have that same arrogance and egos, thinking you are better than the rest of us. Well, that was what got your friends stuck under my shoes, and I am pretty sure you will be there too in no time.” Farhan said and laughed.

“Well, you will tell me where they are and how I can get them out, or your face will be under my shoe,” Olivia said, matching her eye level with that of Farhan.

Their faces were so close that Farhan could feel the soft and warm breath of Olivia. But any attempt at intimidating him was useless; the man was a psychopath but an honorable one. So now Olivia decided to use her last and most effective weapon.

“Okay, now I will give you twenty seconds. If you don’t decide to help us in those twenty seconds, there will be an ear on the ground.” Olivia said, signaling Gabriel, who took out his knife at a moment’s notice.

“Aw come on, you really think I would give them up if you cut off my ear? I wouldn’t give them up even if my life was on the line. They are the most vital assets of our military, and my honor prevents me from f*****g it up. So f**k you, torture me all you can.” Farhan said and closed his eyes, ready for the coming punishment.

“Well, that was an impressive speech. But I never said I was going to cut YOUR ear off. I was talking about the sleeping beauty here.” Olivia said.

Gabriel walked up and stood behind Fatima as Farhan watched in horror. The words in Farhan’s mouth were stuck. He was finally able, to sum up, courage and make a decision just before Gabriel slashed the meat with his razor-sharp blade.

“Okay okay! I will help you, just don’t hurt her. She is pregnant with my child.” Farhan said and broke down in tears.

He sobbed on as love overruled the sense of duty. The knocked-out woman didn’t even realize how close she had come to losing an ear in her sleep.

“Tell me everything, from the very start. I REALLY want to know how you came across that technology.” Gabriel asked and kneeled in front of Farhan.

“I don’t know, the Russian scientists from the headquarters just sent them to us and told us to test them out in a secluded environment. They told us to use civilians as something they called ‘lab rats’.

At first, we laughed at them when they strictly instructed us to test it in closed rooms or open desert with no weapons on us. Do you know why? Because they were actually afraid that they would run away!” Farhan said and laugh out loud.

“Go on, what happened then?” Gabriel asked with curious eyes.

“The results surprised us! First, we took them to the desert just to screw with them and torture them in the heat. It was all fun and games until we actually made them wear the belts around their waists.

I wasn’t present there for the operation myself, because I was busy right here with Fatima. And so when they called in and said that the test subject, a bald old man with no energy in him, killed three of our men with a gun he snatched from one of them, I was not confused, I was f*****g angry!

Do you know how much this would harm the reputation of the Khalq? An old man taking away the gun and killing three soldiers was disgusting. But something wasn’t adding up. So we took the scientists’ advice and locked the other test subjects in a room.

And what we witnessed from the cameras was breathtaking. One of our officers almost fainted, and we were all scratching our heads. One moment, the child was wearing a belt and pressed the button. But the next moment, he was in a different part of the room altogether.

As normal human beings, we thought it was just a glitch in the camera. So we went in, placed a clock in the room, and replaced the test subject with a fresh one. We recorded again, the woman pressed the button like the kid before her, and we were left bamboozled.

The woman was in a different part of the room altogether, just like the one before her. And our doubt was removed when we zoomed in on the watch. It showed the same time, not one second apart.” Farhan said and stopped abruptly.

Gabriel knew this was to be followed by an unpleasant part. So he waited for Farhan to make up his mind, which took a few long seconds.

“Then, uh, then it seemed like she had noticed the power that lied within her. She was stunned and was looking around in amazement. But remember, she was in a closed room. So she had no proof that she had stopped time except for the fact that the watch had stopped. She just assumed that it was faulty and thumped on the door, urging us to let her out. It looked like she had done a lot of work in less than a second.

She was all sweaty and nervous. So we decided to give her another run, despite the repeated warnings that the scientists gave us before handing over the pieces of equipment. We were told NOT to use the gear again before at least an hour had passed.” Farhan said and sighed.

“But you did, didn’t you? The curiosity was just too much to handle. You couldn’t handle the frustration of not knowing, not even for sixty short minutes. And so you went for it again, not caring about the consequences.” Gabriel said, coming close to Farhan’s sweating face.

“Ye…yes we did,” Farhan said, looking away to avoid confrontation.

“And what happened then?” Gabriel asked.

“She just…disappeared,” Farhan replied slowly.

“She just what? How could someone vanish in thin air just like that?!” Gabriel asked with a confused look stuck on his face. Farhan looked at him with a face that said ‘really? That surprises you?’.

“Oh yes, I see it now. But how could she escape? You locked her inside of the room, right?” Gabriel asked.

“Yes, that is what we couldn’t understand. There was no sign of the woman, like nothing! The gear was gone too, and each piece was said to be made by weeks of excessive work. So we were in deep trouble.” Farhan said.

“Right, so that is the truth?” Gabriel asked, getting up.

“Yes, that is the truth! Now please let both of us go.” Farhan said, looking straight into Gabriel’s eyes with firm determination.

Gabriel nodded his head and shrugged his chin, like a person who had a doubt. As Farhan started relaxing knowing that they would let him go, Gabriel jumped up and crashed his fist with full force on Farhan’s face.

Farhan was disoriented from the shock, and his jaw was seeing the consequences of the collision right away. His mouth bled, and he spits out a tooth covered in red. Gabriel took a hold of his mouth and made him see into Gabriel’s eyes.

“That was an elaborate story, it really was. But I don’t have much time to listen to your bullshit, so tell me the facts now. Or this time, she loses her tongue. And I won’t warn you, I will just do it. So think carefully before opening your broken mouth.” Gabriel said, squeezing the broken jaw to maximize the pain.

“What are you doing? You can NOT beat him up like that or his people will know someone happened here. Do you want them barging in here?” Olivia said, forcefully taking Gabriel’s hand off Farhan’s mouth.

“Do your f*****g job, don’t interfere in mine!” Gabriel said, looking at Olivia with fire in his eyes.

“I AM doing my job. Now you will give me the charge of this interrogation, and if I am unable to get the information out of him, you can use whatever method you prefer on him.” Olivia said, looking back at Gabriel with the same determination.

“Okay, you can have a shot. What could go wrong, right?” Gabriel said and finally gave in.

In a second, Olivia was calmer than she ever was. She took out a case, opened it, and filled an injection with a black liquid. Farhan shivered as she stepped towards him, but he was surprised when she just passed right by him.

She went to Fatima and injected her neck. Then she took out a mini laptop and faced the screen towards Farhan.

“What the f**k did you do? She is already on sedatives!” Farhan said and moved violently to break out of his ties, but that wasn’t happening anytime soon.

“Relax, you will see,” Olivia said and went to fetch a chair.

“I won’t touch you. And I won’t touch her, but you will tell me everything you know.” Olivia said while sitting down in front of him.

“And why would I do that?” Farhan said and smiled, but everyone in the room knew this was a smile of nervousness and terror (well everyone except the sleeping beauty).

“Because…this camera right here on the laptop screen is connected to a lie detector. It will watch every little movement of your face and eyes. So you can’t waste any more of our time by your fancy stories.” Olivia said and smiled.

“We will see,” Farhan said, getting comfortable.

“Oh no, we will not see. If you try to test out this machine, you will regret it for the rest of your life. You see, this program is not only supposed to detect your lies, but it is also set to carry out punishments if you are found to be lying.” Olivia said and turned the camera on.

“What kind of punishment?!” Farhan said, looking at Fatima. He knew the injection was somehow connected to the chaos.

“Ah yes, you guessed it right. The injection I gave her had tiny little robots called nanites. Different units of nanites have established themselves in every critical organ in her body.

If you are found to be lying, the machine will send a signal and the nanites will eat up a random part of her body. It could be the kidney, or it could be the heart! So think carefully before speaking, because every word coming out of your mouth decides whether your girlfriend and child survive or not.”Olivia said, showing him the program on the screen.

It was the whole body hologram of Fatima, with the black nanites denoted as black spots around various parts of her body. Farhan was shocked, and he felt like someone was pressing his ears from both sides, numbing his head. He felt the cold sweat cover his brows and drip down as the pressure increased and increased.

“You have to decide fast. Because if you don’t speak, she dies anyway. You have fifteen seconds. And remember, don’t lie just because time is low.” Olivia said, leaning back. She knew she had all the cards in hand here. And Gabriel was pleasantly surprised at her cunning sense. For a while there, he had forgotten that Olivia was a spy and this type of work was her specialty.

“Okay, what do you want to ask me?” Farhan finally said.

“Tell me everything about the agents you have in your hold,” Olivia said, leaning forward to see Farhan’s face better.

“They were sent to us by the senator. His daughter was involved with one of them, and he told her that they were time travelers from another world. She saw them doing strange things in front of her, so she was convinced.

She loved the guy, but she was also loyal to her cause. So she went to her father straight away and told him all about it. And together they set up a trap for the clowns to walk into.

All the other clowns were not in favor of going into the warehouse to save Jamaila’s supposed child, but love makes the cleverest of men blind. So when the leader went in, the others had no choice but to follow. And as soon as they were inside, they were trapped. The gates closed and nerve gas was injected inside, rendering them unconscious in a matter of seconds.

We knew they would try to contact the CIA, so we made sure that the warehouse was signal proof, and it worked perfectly. The senator secured them and transported them to us.

Each agent was given to one of the associates. We move them constantly to avoid their escape. They are more important to us than the oil and gold reserves. The CIA used that technology to try to take us down, but now we will give them a taste of their own medicine.” Farhan said, speaking slowly as to not speak something untrue with the flow.

“And how do you plan to do that?” Olivia asked.

“We have made teams of elite commandoes, who wear watches which can stop time for at most five seconds. Five seconds is enough for a trained agent to kill at least five enemies. And it is even better if he can infiltrate them.

The possibilities are limitless, my friend. And right now we are focusing on figuring out the mechanism of making weapons from thin air. It will be complicated, but once completed, we will be invincible on the battlefield!” Farhan said. His eyes were shining as he talked about his dream, which was of course to rule the world, now that the senator was dead.

“The war here seems to have escalated. Local militias are revolting against you now, aren’t they?” Olivia asked.

“No one in this city is brave enough to stand up to me. It’s that motherfucker Osama, he is trying to f**k me over and sit on the senator’s throne!” Farhan said and thumped his fist on the chair handle.

“Careful there, commander. Don’t say anything that might ruin your life. Let’s stay on point.

So your former associate is waging war on you?” Olivia asked, knowing that they had stepped on a gold mine searching for coal.

“Not associate, associates. All of them are vultures, f*****g vultures. They had me control a city where people only know how to use knives. I can’t even arm the fuckers. I’m telling you, as soon as I start taking over this war, Osama will bomb the whole place. The man has no honor!” Farhan said and his face grew red.

Olivia looked at Gabriel and smiled. This was absolutely golden for them, as they had made the Khalq crumble down just by taking out the king sitting at the top. He had left four successors, and the only way to prove yourself worthy of the throne was to be the last one alive among the other three.

Farhan was at a clear loss in this situation. And it doesn't take a genius to know why, so I will spare you the explanation.

“We can help you even the field,” Olivia said, taking a deep breath.

Farhan looked at her with surprise. And then, he started laughing.

“You have predators inside of my pregnant girlfriend, you have tied me up to the chair and broken my jaw, and now you are telling me that you will help me take over the command of the Khalq? That is f*****g rich. Forgive me, but I don’t believe you.” Farhan said and looked away.

Olivia knew that no words could convince the man sitting in front of her. So she decided to take on a more practical approach. She moved the laptop so that it faced her, then she made sure she was in front of the camera.

“I will make sure that all your enemies are taken out, provided that you give me the manpower I need.” She said, looking into the camera.

“What are you doing, you crazy b***h!” Farhan yelled.

“If I was lying, your girlfriend would be yelling in immense pain. But there she is, alive and well. So tell me, do you want to rule the world or not?” Olivia said and smiled.

Now Farhan was in a tough spot. All three of them knew what the answer was, but Farhan still had to pretend to think to, you know, be diplomatic. So he looked around and towards the ceiling, pretending he was considering the offer, whereas, in reality, he was thinking about the butterfly he caught last summer. It was so beautiful and vibrant, and so delicate. She was just like Fatima and his child would be.

“Okay, I will do it,” Farhan said and nodded.

“Good choice, commander. Now make sure the men you give us are properly trained in firearms, we don’t want to bring a knife to a gunfight.” Olivia said and got up. This was a huge strategic victory, and the only one for them yet.

“So can you free me from these shackles now?” Farhan asked and scoffed.

“Of course, but remember that I have programmed the nanites to go active if wither Gabriel or I die in a firefight. So you wouldn’t want to run or try to get us once you are free.” Olivia said, setting the commander free.

“And why would I kill my strongest allies? I have honor, you know.” Farhan said and got up with open arms.

“Yeah yeah, we are cool now. You don’t have to hug me to prove that.” Olivia said, checking up on Fatima, who was starting to wake up.

“Well, honor and mutual respect require you to….” Farhan was rambling on behind Olivia but he suddenly stopped. Olivia thought it was just because that he had realized that there was no point in being cheeky.

But then Olivia heard a thud, and she turned around as quickly as she could. And there he was, with a golden arrow in the back of his head, emerging from the eye. His body was as lifeless as Fatima was all this time.

“Baby, why are lying like the…oh no!” Fatima screamed from behind as she saw that the father of her child was bowing down with an arrow in his head.

Olivia was sadder than anybody else. The only good thing that had happened to her was lying in a pool of blood, and there was nothing she could do. As has been said before, nanites can’t repair blown-off brains.

Speaking of nanites, Fatima had no idea what was going on. She just wanted this bad dream to end and Farhan to wake up.

“Come on up, Farhan. It was just a small scratch; you are going to be all right.” She said with tears flowing endlessly from her eyes.

But she didn’t realize that she had just made a grave mistake. Olivia heard a repeated beeping, and when she realized what it was, her mouth went dry and she felt difficulty in breathing.

She looked at the laptop screen, which was flashing red, showing that the person in front of it i.e. Fatima was dying. Fatima had no idea what was going on and what the beeping was all about, but she understood as soon as she heard the insane amount of pain in her chest.

“They are eating up her lungs!” Olivia yelled and rushed to the woman.

But it was too late. Fatima was gasping for air while Olivia held her in her arms. As soon as the nanites finished their work, there were no lungs left for Fatima to pump air into. So she died the most terrible death you can imagine. I am simply unable to describe that sight; I leave it up to you to imagine it.

While all this was happening, Gabriel was standing at the window, staring at the man in golden, who was standing a few rooftops away from here. He had managed to pull off a headshot on a man who just got up, and that too from so far away. And now he had the nerve to just stand there and stare into the eyes of the agents.

The agents had become overconfident, and this killed their most vital asset. Enough of the running away, it was time to catch the golden goose before it laid any more poisonous eggs!

"Bruh, that is insane," Raghav said and laughed.

"Right?! What comes next is even more insane." Thomas said as Raghav listened closely.