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Agent Morgan swiftly wielded his AK-47 two sixty degrees as he entered the room cautiously. Agent Bradley Stevens could not see the sign of the hitman in the room. He moved quickly but carefully to check the bathroom with his short gun. No sign of the sniper around. He had escaped! Mary Greenwood could not believe her eyes. She got lost into her mind as to how the hitman had disappeared. Questions unanswered flushed through her as she moved from the bathroom to the bedroom. She swore to find out how people vanish from the hotel. Agent Bradley returned to the bedroom and saw her looking closely at a picture in her hand. The picture was that of a young black man probably in his late twenties. A red cross was drawn across the picture.

"It's him!" Agent Bradley said the moment he saw the picture.

"How did you know?"

"That cross drawn across the picture of the young man".

"For real?"

"That's Rito Birdman's signature".

"What happened to him here?"

"They say he can move with the air".

"Stop fooling around!"

"How else can you explain it?"

"I swear, I'll see the end of this!" Mary Greenwood said through clenched teeth with hands fisted.

Agent Bradley Stevens phone went off, the FBI management needed him and agent Morgan Howard for another operation. Mary Greenwood followed them outside the room.The elevator lowered them to the first floor and agent Bradley and Morgan left for a crime scene nearby as Mary Greenwood walked to where Rito Birdman had parked his car, the Bugatti Veron was gone. She walked back to the reception to see the receptionist.
"Did you see the man that checked into room 13 on the 21st floor come out with the elevator?" Mary Greenwood asked with astonishment.

"No ma'am, he could still be in the building".

"He's not; he has left with his car".

She turned around to go to the office of the Managing Director of the Heathrow Bing Tower. She had been there before to see the CCTV feeds of the four men that had entered and exited room 23 on the 31st floor, where Prisca Bender had disappeared from. She needed to know who the young man in the picture was and why Rito Birdman was with it. She considered him to be the next target of the hitman. Her headache was how she would prove it. She walked through to the office of the Managing Director with the picture in her hand, deep in thought. She had been a regular visitor since Prisca Bender got missing. She pushed the office door wide open and walked in.

"How can I help you this time?" The Managing Director of the Heathrow Bing Tower asked loudly.

"I need to see the CCTV feeds in and around the 21st floor".

"But Prisca Bender only appeared on the 31st floor".

"Yeah, I know".

"What period do you like to see?"

"The last thirty minutes, and I want to see all the angles".

"It's this also connected to Prisca Bender?"

"It's classified".

"Come into the control room, agent", the Managing Director said looking uncomfortable with her.

"By the way, can you recognize the young man in this picture?" She asked, showing Adaz Obot's photo.

"I've never seen him".

Mary Greenwood began to watch the footage with magnetic concentration. She had only seen a few seconds when her cellphone began buzzing. She picked it up while her eyes were still glued to the CCTV. It was Michael Bending, the multi-talented FBI agent.

"Hello", she answered said with little interest.

"My analysis reveals that Prisca Bender never left the Heathrow Bing Tower alive.

"I'll zero in on that Mike".

"Very well".

"I've directed the Houston Department of Police to conduct a comprehensive autopsy on her".

"I don't have that update".

"She's been found buried in a shallow grave with her hands sticking out, along the Houston Texas-Mexico border".

"How's the forensic coming in the hotel?"

"I'm on it".

"Prisca Bender was killed in the hotel and her dead body was moved".

"Thank you again Mike for the analysis, I'd key in", Mary Greenwood said and asked that the CCTV feed be replayed.

She took in every detail but could not see anything tangible. She felt strongly that the hitman's disappearance would connect to how Prisca Bender's dead body was removed from the hotel. She suspected the hotel's management might have some sort of connivance with the crime perpetuators, otherwise, nothing would make sense to her. She decided to go back to room 13 on the 21st floor.

She got to the room and slipped her hands into two hand gloves and dropped the photograph of the young man in a bag. She went into the bathroom and examined the walls closely. She came out to rub her hands all over the walls of the bedroom. She finished and switched over to the other side, and froze! She raised the curtains covering the wall and saw three large holes bored into the wall through to the outside, but the holes were not big enough for Rito Birdman to have escaped through. This was not even the first floor; he would not have survived. She concluded that the holes were meant for a different thing. She would start unraveling the mystery between the red cross on the picture of the young man and the triangle of holes.

Rod Jimmy had not slept well for days. He was increasingly losing his place in Netfluz since the miracle of the first floor. The programmers that used to hold him to a high esteem, no longer showed him regard. The company's executives now considered him a nuisance due to his coldness toward Adaz Obot. He desperately wanted to be the "god" of Netfluz again. He had practically created the soul of the company from its foundation with his hands. He needed to retain his status and explore the loopholes he had created to siphon funds. He picked up his phone and decided to contact Osca Averes again as he paced about in the balcony of his house.

"Hello", Oscar Averes answered sharply.

"I'm in for it", Rod Jimmy said with a strong voice.

"Good boy!"

"When is it going to happen Averes?"
"Not so fast, I need you to take an oath that you will become a spy for Al Ja'amah after delivering the hit".

"You have my words".

"I don't need your words, you would need you to swear on record, to release the sniper for the operation".

"Alright, let's go".

"Ready"

"I swear this day, that I will serve Al Ja'amah as a spy, when the sniper has finished my job and I seal this deal with my life".

"Not bad".

"So, what's next?"

"First of, what's the name of the target?"

"It's Adaz Obot".

I would need you to send his pictures and his residential address".

"I can supply the information right now".
"Hold it, you would also describe his lifestyle, you can send them to the mail address you would get now!"

"Sure!"

"You can toast to it", Oscar Averes said and laughed dryly before he disconnected the line.

The Chief Programmer lived in Netfluz guest quarter as Adaz Obot, and had come to know that Adaz Obot would usually leave his house in the middle of the night; when the city had gone to sleep, to study at the balcony of his house. He gleaned other information about the young man and sent them to his friend in Mexico. Oscar Averes studied the information and decided where the target could be hit from before he forwarded the details to Rito Birdman.

In a clear blue sky, the executive killer, Rito Birdman, flew his private jet into Washington DC, and checked into the hotel room with a wall opposite Adaz Obot's balcony. As the time for the hit was drawing close, he took the elevator down from the 21st floor and hopped into a Bugatti Veron and cruised away into the city. He drove round Netfluz guest quarter as he studied the pictures sent to him. He expertly pulled up in between some vehicles in a car park and stepped out to get his tools from his jet. He brought out a long black bag that contained his MAD-666L riffle and zipped it open. The night was closing in very fast and he removed his sunglasses to wear a black face cap. He began to decouple the rifle in the bag. Darkness had fully covered the city by the time he stepped down from the jet with the bag hanging on his hand. He slipped into the driver's seat of the Bugatti Veron and disappeared into the night.

He drew up at the five star hotel's parking lot and got out with the bag. He was a rounded professional, as he searched for hit points for his target, he also planned his escape route and mode. He had carefully planned for this hit, knowing that the FBI was hot on his heels, over his crimes in the US, particularly for his most recent,, when he took out Ted Flemming, the founder of Fairbrain in Alaska. Had Dr. Omar Bin Lahmir not thrown his weight behind this gig, he would not have accepted to strike out the target. He was now inside the elevator about to push the button to the 21st floor, when a smartly dressed woman in her early forties stopped the elevator from closing and hurried inside.

"What floor are you going to Sir?" She asked smiling at him.

"You may lift to your floor ma'am", Rito Birdman sounded so gentlemanly.

She punched 31 on the buttons and they flew up. As the elevator door opened, she pushed a button on her suit as she walked out. The elevator door closed and Rito Birdman went to 21st floor. As soon as he pinned down the door to his hotel room, he looked at his wristwatch; the time for the hit was four hours away. He put down his bag and zipped it open. He took his drilling tool and went to work. He drilled three holes in a triangular shape on the wall facing Adaz Obot's balcony. He peered through each hole with one eye closed, to view the balcony with the aid of binoculars. The young engineer had already heaped some books on his reading desk. Rito Birdman licked his teeth with his tongue and began to couple his riffle.

He lifted the MAD-666L rifle and tried to pass the muzzle through each of the three holes to determine the best snipping position. He chose the hole on the left base of the triangle and dropped the rifle. He picked the drilling tool to drill another hole for the rifle lens. He looked at the time again, it was fifteen minutes away, time like a tide, and he let out a wicked grin. He looked around the room for awhile and decided to view again, Adaz Obot had come out and was now studying. He made a sign of cross on his chest and picked up the rifle. As he raised the machine, he heard a knock on his door, followed by a female voice, this must be a mistake, he had not ordered for anything. He dropped the riffle in the bag and tiptoed to the door and looked through the key hole. He saw a young lady, flanked by two uniformed men, with FBI bagdes.

Mary Greenwood had come to the hotel to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Prisca Bender. She was about to get the key to room 23 on the 31st floor, when she had looked outside and seen through the transparent window of the reception office, how Rito Birdman had used his left hand to steer his Bugatti Vernon to an abrupt stop, sending dust particles into the air, before switching off the headlights. She had immediately marked him worthy of note. She had followed him with her eyes into the elevator and joined him. When she was leaving the elevator at the 31st floor, she had captured the face of the hitman with a hidden camera at the back of her suit collar. She had quickly powered up the computer on the center of her table and sent his photo to be run through the FBI suspect data, in the Central Intelligence Unit.

She was one of the most brilliant minds in the FBI. She had unlocked quite a number of mysterious cases in the United States, using her sharp intuition. Her dedication to duties and her sharp senses had earned a promotion to the rank of Assistant Special agent in-charge and she was in love with her job.

The FBI search had matched the face of the most wanted man in the United States, and she had placed a call through to the Supervisory Special Agent that she needed two back up field agents at the first floor of the Heathrow Bing Tower. She had gone to the bathroom for a quick shower while waiting for the agents. She had slipped into a well fitting combat outfit and secured her short gun on her waist belt as she got out of her hotel room. The two FBI agents had come into the first floor of the hotel just as the elevator had exposed her. She had waved them to come around as she hurried towards the reception office where she had extracted the floor and room number of the hitman.
She signaled to agent Bradley Stevens to break in as Rito Birdman was taking his time to open the door. Bradley took five steps backwards and dashed forward to march the door open. It didn't open in the first attempt. He took five steps backwards again, and the hitman said, "I'm coming!" It sounded like he was far away. She signed to agent Bradley to hold on for a minute but he ignored her signal. He moved backwards and marched the door open in the second attempt.

Prisca Bender stepped out of the elevator to the 31st floor of the Heathrow Bing Tower in Washington DC in a red flowing gown, radiating class and elegance, as she walked to room 23 where Bob Newman had been expecting her. She rang the bell and the door was thrown open.

"You're late", Bob Newman said as he looked away from a plasma screen.

"I almost didn't make it, I was in the middle of a meeting when you called me'.

'I see".

'Why am I here?"

"Not so fast Prisca?"

"I have a plane to catch, straight to the point Bob, please!"

"It's okay, if that's how you want it".

"Oh please!"

"It's been weeks since the take off date, of the signed contract between Strobotics and Fairbrain rolled by".

"Yeah, I know Bob".

"What's stalling?"

Prisca Bender rehashed her well rehearsed lines, "The management is pruning some branches for a smooth roll out of the project at our end".

"I' was thinking it's struck out", Bob Newman said before he dialed the bar and spoke sharply into the phone, "Bring a bottle of Ruchidra wine to room 23 on the 31st floor".

"I'm in a hurry Bob, I've said that".

"I insist that you drink, even if it's just a sip".

"You're funny", Prisca Bender said as she stood up.

"Fairbrain has already packed the first batch of the neural chips, and we're expecting you to honor your end of the deal", Bob Newman said as Prisca Bender took a step to come out of the room.

"You would hear from Stronotics", she replied with no conviction in her voice.

The bar man announced himself outside as Prisca Bender drew close to the door. Bob Newman pushed the door open to usher the bar man in and blocked her way. A man in his late thirties, wearing a white hand gloves and a black jacket on a white shirt, came in with a tray, raised to his shoulder level. The tray contained two empty fancy wine glasses and a bottle of wine. He placed the tray on the table and adjusted his black french tie.

Bob Newman gestured to him to remove the cover and the wine cork. He professionally discharged the cork and poured the wine into the two glasses, each half filled. Bob Newman picked one of the glasses and emptied the content in one gulp.
Prisca Bender wanted to decline to drink, but at the same time, did not want to make it obvious that the contract was not going to fly. She picked the glass of wine for a taste.

"It's a good wine!" Bob Newman urged her on to drink all. "The best breed of wine from Israel!!"

She raised the glass again to take another sip and felt a tingling in her body, followed by a seizure. She dropped the wine glass as she felt dizzy with a spinning sensation at the same time..

"It's working fast!" Bob Newman said as he turned to look at her face.

He left the room and signaled to the bar man outside to finish the job. The man oame in and saw Prisca Bender writhing on the floor. She had fallen almost unconscious. He got very close and traced every curve on her body with his eyes. He felt pity for her and wondered what would make anyone to want to take the life of an angel. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

He crouched near her and touched her soft skin, Prisca Bender managed to look at him. Her skin was smooth like a glass surface. Lust seized his eyes all of a sudden, and he felt a burning sensation around his groin. The gentleman in the bar man vanished at once, giving way to the beast in the ruthless Oscar Averes to be unbriddled. He pulled down the zip on his trousers with frenzy and overturned Prisca Bender on her stomach, with a brute force. He yanked up her gown and flung her legs asunder. He tore her underwear to shreds and began to rape her.

He finished with her and plucked away the diamond chain on her neck, and opened a black body bag.There was still some life in her. He lifted her on a chair and used a short rope to go round her neck and pulled the ends of the rope with a sudden force. He lifted the dead body and shoved it into the open body bag and zipped it up. He punched some buttons on his mobile phone and made a call as he walked to a wall. He pulled a cover from the wall and a fresh wind from the outside blew in. He took a hard long rope from the floor and tied the body bag with one end of the rope that had been formed into a noose. Suddenly, the door burst open and the bodyguards of Bob Newman moved in.

The two men raised the body bag and passed it through the hole on the wall to the outside. They began lowering the bag to the ground down the side of Heathrow Bing Tower with poor lighting. As soon as the body hit the ground, one of the bodyguards left to take the elevator down. Oscar Averes filled the hole and replaced the wall cover neatly. He brought a paint to spray the marks on the wall and Prisca Bender disappeared with the hole!







No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any means, including photocopying, recording or other electronic or mechanical methods, or without the legal consent or prior written permission of the publisher, except for academic purposes in accordance to copyright law.

Copyright © 2023 by Dublyn G. Horris. All rights Reserved.



Follow the author https://twitter.com/DublynGhorris








One







Rod Jimmy, the Chief of Programming in Netfluz, looked ruffled, seething in anger as he marched across the first floor to where all the programmers surrounded Adaz Obot.. He had heard an explosive sound that sent spiral shock wave through the building. He cut through the gathering to see the Principal Engineer, Reek Powel, receiving instructions from Adaz Obot on how to revive other plants.
"What's going on here?" Rod Jimmy asked suppressing his anger.

"The giant dead plant at the ground floor just came alive", Reek Powell replied him.

"Who authorized this session?" The Chief Programmer asked with a blazing temper.

"The Director of Programming is aware".

"How could this happen without my knowledge?"

"Look Rod! I expect you to ask how the systems came ON", Reek Powell said with emphasis.

"At the expense of order?"

"What order Rod?"

'Who's in charge on this floor Powell?"

"I guess the management can answer your question, but what's order when things aren't working the way they should?"

Shocked by Reek Powell's response, Rod Jimmy turned around and quietly walked away. He had been the ''god'' of programming in Netfluz. He could feel his influence in the scheme of things, dwindling fast. He was officially responsible for all recruitment into the programming floor, but the company's hierarchy had maneuvered Adaz Obot into Netfluz. That move alone had caused him anguish. He felt he would be sidelined and kicked out if things continued this way. He must do something to restore his authority and relevance. He remembered Oscar Averes, who had a strong link to Dr. Omar Bin Lahmir.

Oscar Averes was born to his Mexican father by a Saudi Arabian mother. He was taken to Saudi Arabia after the marriage of his parents had crashed. He grew up in Saudi Arabia, where he was islamized and radicalized into Al Ja'amah, and his name was changed to Mutalab Azeez. Rod Jimmy had helped him to smuggle drugs into the United States through the Mexican-US border and had also helped him to smuggle materials for the production of weapons of mass destructions (WMDs), out of the US, to Iraq, where Dr. Omar Bin Lahmir had established the operational base of Al Jama'ah. Dr. Omar Bin Lahmir had sent him to Mexico, not to actually advance his drug business, but to make an incursion into the United States, to unshackle terror.

Dr. Omar Bin Lahmir narrowly escaped the Syria and ISIS war, where he had lost most of his jihadists. ISIS had fallen back on Al Ja'amah to supply jihadists to advance its course both in Yemen and Syria.

His heart was wrenched away when the news got to him, that his wife, three of his children, his brother and his bosom friend, Jaheed Sahid, had died in the American airstrikes in Yemen. He had vowed to shake the foundation of the world, the way the first nuclear bomb had destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War to revenge the death of his loved ones. He desperately needed an American citizen that would spy on the White House.

Oscar Averes was in a gym in Mexico when his mobile phone went off. He moved to a quiet corner and pulled it out, thinking it was Dr. Omar Bin Lahmir that usually called at the hour for updates, he was wrong, it was Rod Jimmy of Netfluz.

"Hello Jimmy! What's good?"

"I need your help".

"Here in Mexico?"

"Nope, here in DC".

"I make plans before crawling out, you know".

"You won't spend time on it".

"How do you need it?"

"I want a boy out of my way in Netfluz.

"You haven't said anything".

"I want a hit and I want it now!"

"I just carried out an operation on a business executive, for a drug lord in Heathrow Bing Tower, a few miles away from Netfluz".

"What's your point Averes?"

"I don't strike close".

"Is there no way you can make this happen?" Rod Jimmy asked like a baby about to cry.

"Of course", Oscar Averes said as the need of Dr. Omar Bin Lahmir and Al Ja'amah flashed in his mind.

"When should I expect you?"

"I'm going to hire for you the world greatest sniper. He could sniff out life from a moving train miles away".

"What will it cost?"

"Not a thing, but a condition is attached".

"Spell it!"

"You will have to become a spy for Al Ja'amah".

"What and where is Al Ja'amah?"

"It's an organization based in Iraq".

"But I'm not quitting Netfluz".

"You don't have to, it doesn't need you to. You can call it a freelance spy operation and you get paid really good".

"I'm going to consider it and get back".
"It's your best bet Jimmy", Oscar Averes said and the link went down.

Book Description


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!


When Prisca Bender, a business executive, mysteriously disappears in a five-star hotel in Washington DC, special agent Mary Greenwood of the FBI, inadvertently cuts open the links of terrorists and criminals on the investigation track, connecting Rod Jimmy to Adaz Obot.

She gets into murky waters as she grinds the tough path to pin down the 'Big Fish" behind the missing of the business executive, and she hits a brick wall. She is hunted down.

Reynold Westley, the CIA finest, and Michael Bending, the FBI mult-talented agent, join force to advance the investigation following a special call from the United States President.

It's not long afterwards that the duo get slammed with a great historic shocker on the crime tracking lane, to Zurich, Switzerland, at a venue in Dietikon.

World Leaders that have gathered in Dietikon for a world summit are on the brink of implosion from the world most deadly biochemical "virus" ever known; as Bob Newman unleashes the greatest hitman in the world on the heels of the bioengineer that holds the key to reverse the situation of the Heads of Staten in Zurich, to shield the FBI and the CIA from coming through, thereby helping the course of the terror lord - Dr. Omar Bin Lahmir - in Iraq.

The FBI and the CIA must breakthrough the rings of the die-hard criminals and terrorists and open a clear way, for the US Army, US Airforce, US Navy and allied forces to go to war, while they watch the actions on the edges of their seats in the Central Intelligence Unit.

Strong disclaimer: NAIRALAND is completely disconnected from any misrepresentation that may arise from this book. The book is the author's imagination or creation wholly meant to entertain or educate.

An Epic End-to-End Thriller, a movie in a book.

Could




Allison Marva and Lumera Sormin switched their gaze to Zodiaz, as a truck pulled up in the school not far from where Ali Garabed lay on the ground. Osman Leon alighted from the truck and raised a deafening alarm, as soon as he could see the lifeless body of Ali Garabed. The tourist officials drew near and offered consoling words into his ears, as he wept bitterly.

The tourist officials quickly arranged for the lifeless bodies of Ellinaz Ivanovo and Ali Garabed to be deposited in the local morgue, iusing the truck that had brought Osman Leon, the anchor man of the business tycoon. His heart had been seared and pounded. Ali Garabed had intended to load the stones in the Lost Ship, in the truck.

Lumera Sormin itched to ask the tourists some questions, but neither Udi Daniel, nor Osman Leon, was mentally fit to provide answers. He stared at the area of the shore, where Zodiaz had pushed the ship into the ocean longingly. He took steps to walk down, and madness struck him all of a sudden, as he got nearer and nearer.

He was faced with pieces of shining stones, scattered around on the beach. The fear of Zodiaz still lurked around, as he skipped about, picking the stones into a heap on the shore. He briskly returned to Allison Marva tell him about the treasure on the island.

"What were you doing down there?" Allison Marva asked as his colleague who was all teeth came around,

"You wouldn't believe!'

"Believe what?"

"That heap over there!", Lumera Sormin said as he pointed his index finger, "They're diamonds and other pieces of expensive stones".

Are you kidding me? Allison Marva uttered in strong disbelief.

"Get near and see with your eyes; can't you see the diamonds reflecting light in the sun?" Lumera Sormin asked as he dashed away to pull out his SUV.

Udi Daniel and Osman Leon, in their state of heavy mourning, watched on, as Lumera Sormin drove his SUV recklessly through the school compound,
sending the students and teachers flying from the way. He swerved the SUV sharply, causing high rising sand particles, as he sped through the shore. He pulled up abruptly near the heap of stones. In the heat of the lure of diamonds, he flew out and opened the boot to transfer the stones.

Osman Leon continued to be dumb with fright. He could not muster the strength to ask Udi Daniel, where and why things had gone wrong so fast. The scientist still looked disoriented and disconnected to time. He would not answer to Allison Marva, who kept asking him what had made his robot to turn against him. He took it well, knowing that the scientist was heartbroken.

Allison Marva picked Udi Daniel's binoculars from the ground, and he balanced the tool before his eyes,, to watch Lumera Sormin, as he loaded the pieces of stones into his DUV. He had no idea how much they would cost, but he could tell from the craze, that was operating in his partner. that he had struck riches.

Lumera Sormin finished packing and brought the SUV alive. He drove straight to the other end to see Allison Marva, with a needles speed. He slammed the breaks with style, sending dust and sands flying in the air. As if the arrival of Lumera Sormin had pushed a button in Osman Leon, he snapped out of his dumbness.

"Where's the fourth creature?" Osman Leon asked no one in particular.

"It had changed into a monster and sent the lady tourist, to the roof of the school building, before it escaped into the ocean", Lumera Sormin answered, pointing to the lifeless body of Ellinaz Ivanovo on the ground.

Cont'd





The possessed machine showed up with a storm atong the main way, to the school ground, just as Udi Daniel released the last key on his computer, that concluded programming the fresh task, to set the three exhumarines to break Zodiaz down, and set free Ellinaz Ivanovo, who had lost her voice to making only howls and grunts. He got up from the obscured corner where he had been working, and withdrew like a flashing light, to lie on the floor, between benches. Zodiaz had come very near. He could see Ellinaz Ivanovo from the corner of his right ear, and a part of his body got sliced off.

Ellinaz Ivanovo was still very conscious, but filled up with regrets. Her situation made her want to believe that there could be God. She could not pray, she could only wish that God grant her a second chance, to life.

Zodiaz turned a corner and moved towards the Lost Ship, as Udi Daniel sneaked out of his cover to the control system setup, and pushed a button that activated all the exhumarines at the same time.

Zodiaz was about four feet away from the Lost Ship, and Udi Daniel released Rogi, Godia and Illiax. The exhumarines flashed off and gripped the tail of the machine, like men in a tug of war. Zodiaz felt its tail coming apart in the center, and it stopped to react to the. action of the exhumarines. It began to lower and uncoil the end of its tail, that held Ellinaz Ivanovo, to the greatest relief of the scientist, but horror instantly followed!

The mad machine slung Ellinaz Ivanovo to the roof of the school building, and now had enough span of the tail, to whip the exhumarines to the ground. Udi Daniel flew to the point, where Ellinaz Ivanovo was inclined to catch her, before she would hit the ground. He arrived half a second late.

Ellinaz Ivanovo smashed her head on a stone. Udi Daniel lifted her up with frenetic energy, to lay her in a better position, to avoid bleeding internally. He used his hand to feel her pulse and he let out a loud cry. He looked behind and saw Allison Marva and Lumera Sormin, racing down.

"Somebody call 911!" Udi Daniel cried.

He felt her pulse again, this time with his left ear, while holding her wrist. Time got lost! Udi Daniel flung himself to the ground and he caught the convulsion that killed love. Ellinaz Ivanovo got cold like ice, all of a sudden. Udi Daniel laid sprawled on on her dead body as if he was going to share his spirit with her. A pall of sadness hung over them in the air. Ali Garabed showed no feeling from where he watched Zodiaz moving around the Lost Ship.

The eyes of the business mogul shot out, when he saw Zodiaz pushing the Lost Ship on the shore, towards the Indian Ocean. The monster sent the Lost Ship into the deep area of the ocean in one swift push. Ali Garabed could not handle it, he fell to his knees and went flat on the ground. He suffered another heart attack. He breathed his last oxygen.

Contd







"Hush"! "Hush"!! "Hush"!!! Udi Daniel said as the four men watched Zodiaz, raising Ellinaz Ivanovo into the air with its tail, to about ten meters from the ground. The horror struck them cold and dumb!

Ali Garabed concentrated his vision on the sparkling precious stones, blistering in the hot sun, as Udi Daniel searched through his head for what he could do to save Ellinaz Ivanovo. He knew from the experience he had with Adiam, back in Australia, that shooting at the machine, meant automatic death for Ellinaz Ivanovo. He could not think through the fogs in his mind. He looked bereft of what to do as Ellinaz Ivanovo dangled from the tail of Zodiaz, now about eighteen feet from the ground.

"Couldn't the other machines fight the giant robot, that has gone mad?" Allison Marva asked as his eyes popped out of their socket.

The scientist picked a line from what Allison Marva had said and he dashed away to the control system setup. Right away, he drew up a design that would get Rogi, Godiam and Illiax, to go offensive, and pull Ellinaz Ivanovo from the wrap of Zodiaz.

The crazy machine floated in the air onto the wooden ship, as Udi Daniel laid on the ground and connected his laptop to the mind programs of the sane exhumarines, and hastily got working.
He began to hit keys with alarming speed, and pin-point accuracy, as Zodiaz seemed to be taking stock of the number of boxes on the surface of the ship.

At once, the mad machine hopped to the beach sand with Ellinaz Ivanovo. It walked on its hind limbs towards the school premises, and it heard an incontrollable outburst of the students that could see it. Udi Daniel was lucky as Zodiaz did not come through the direction where he nestled his back against a wall.


Students and teachers scampered for their lives, as Zodiaz got to the open. Ali Garabed had since fixated his glance on the precious stones, even as the world was coming to the end. Allison Marva and Lumera Sormin followed Zodiaz to where the school flags danced to the wind. In a twinkle of an eye, Zodiaz was seen standing tall on the middle of the very busy Abbey Road.

Vehicles collided around the machine, as time stood stil. It trapped two vehicles and used each of its hands to grab the necks of the drivers and pulled them out.

"Where's Udi Daniel?" Zodiaz asked with earth-shaken tone.

"We don't know...I don't know", the drivers chorused.

"Tell him to stop coming for the precious stones, within my reign".

Zodiaz slapped the drivers to the concrete road with the ferocity of a dragon and disappeared. The drivers still had a flicker of life in them, even as grey matters from their heads poured out the gashes in their heads, but the road was too deserted for help. All vehicles had been left with no passengers, as people scurried for existence. Shops had been closed up and Nias Island in no time, had become a ghost town.

Hello beloved readers, I'm sorry that the flow of my updates hasn't been as I would love it. I'm experiencing recurring challenges, that take my attention offline, but I'm committed to roll the story, no matter what. Thanks for understanding and patience.


Contd






Ellinaz Ivanovo turned around and saw the Lost Ship on the shore, dripping water, along the cracks. The wooden covers of the boxes, had flown out, when the ship had landed, thereby exposing the precious stones, glittering in the midday blazing sun. The treasures, had finally come out of the pages of history, to starkest reality.

Ellinaz Ivanovo stood for a second, before she ran the race of her life to closely see the Lost Ship. Udi Daniel threw away his laptop and chased her down. He intercepted her before she could get close enough to the Lost Ship. He held her firmly with a vise-like grip, Ellinaz Ivanovo shot a wicked glance at him. He gained more strength to restrict her as she attempted to free herself. She could only kick and shove.

"What's wrong with you Daniel?" Ellinaz Ivanovo sparked like an electric bridge.

"Don't ever get close to the ship for now!" The scientist bellowed between breaths.

"What's this about? Ellinaz Ivanovo spat out.

Udi Daniel looked straight into her eyes and said, "Zodiaz hasn't returned from the operation".

"And so?"

"It may portend danger".

"This is not Australia", Ellinaz Ivanovo said and made one audacious move, that resulted in both of them falling to the ground.

"Let's wait and watch the return of Zodiaz from a distance", Udi Daniel said as they stood from the sands of the beach.

"Is that all, that you wanted?" Ellinaz Ivanovo asked as she weakened her resolve.

Udi Daniel relaxed his restraint on her as she looked forward to talk with Ali Garabed. All of a sudden, she pushed the scientist to the ground with a beast-like energy, and took off.

Ali Garabed and the two government officials had heard the loud sound, when the Lost Ship had hit the shore, and they looked in the direction of the guide/control systems, for any sign of explosion. They could not see the Lost Ship from their position. The local authority men stayed back, as Ali Garabed walked a few steps into the school and saw Udi Daniel racing Ellinaz Ivanovo for the second time, limping on his left leg.

Ali Garabed doubled his strides and his vision range expanded. He could now see the full shoreline. He saw the dingy body of the worn out Lost Ship, on the shore, with cracks, and he shifted his gaze to the direction where Ellinaz Ivanovo was losing Udi Daniel.

The Lebanese was propelled to run through a shot distance to cross the path of Ellinaz Ivanovo. He caught up with her, but she wriggled away from his hands.

"That's the Lost Ship", Udi Daniel said, as he pointed it to Ali Garabed.

"I've seen it, why do you bar Ellinaz from getting near the Lost Ship?" The Lebanese asked with his eyes roving around.

"One of the machines hasn't returned from the operation, and it doesn't look good", the scientist responded thoughtfully.

Ali Garabed gaped at him as he tried to make head or tail of what Udi Daniel had just said. "How exactly do you mean?”

The scientist read the mind of Ali Garabed and responded, "Take it from me. I'm the creator of these machines, and I know certain things, beyond your understanding", Udi Daniel said it forcefully.

The words were still in the mouth of the scientist, when Zodiaz burst out of the Indan Ocean and leaped on the Lost Ship, as Ellinaz Ivanovo was caressing the precious stones, sparkling in the sun.
The creature had become a giant frog, with a longer tail than that of Adiam in Brisbane, coiled behind. The reflectivity of the glistering stones, became more intense, as the radiation of the hot sun, put the Lost Ship and Zodiaz, in the spotlight.

The machine appeared on the ground like a breeze, close to Ellinaz Ivanovo and she froze up. She could not move a muscle as dread rooted her feet to the ground. She tried to turn and look towards Udi Daniel for help, but her neck had become too stiff to turn. She noticed that Zodiaz was looking away and she summoned all the courage in the world, to flee!

Udi Daniel withdrew to a corner with Ali Garabed and watched Zodiaz from a distance."What's going on?" Ali Garabed asked in his mind. He had been thinking about what Udi Daniel had said earlier, "One of the machines hasn't returned from the operation, and it doesn't look good".

As if Udi Daniel knew what was going through his head, he opened up some more. 'The mind of the machine has been altered".

Ali Garabed was going to ask him to explain, when they saw Ellinaz Ivanovo running towards them. Zodiaz moved like a flash behind her and stretched its tail, to coil around her. The machine wrapped and squeezed her with its tail, and raised her up in the air. Ellinaz Ivanovo screamed, at the same time slapping and kicking the air, to regain her freedom.

The two government officials heard the unmistakable voice of a woman as Ellinaz Ivanovo shrieked. They ran down through the school compound to see the full shoreline. They changed direction as they came into the open and rushed to where Ali Garabed and Udi Daniel were watching in a crouching position.

"Isn't that one of the artificially intelligent amphibious robots, that you're test-running?" Lumera Sormin asked huskily and fearfully as he pointed to Zodiaz.

Neither Ali Garabed not Udi Daniel responded.
Allison Marva whispered rhetorically, "Could it be that the experiment went out of control?

Chapter Seventeen




Zodiaz struck an object that structurally compared to the precious stones in the Lost Ship, deep into the last ringed floor of the Indian Ocean, just before hitting the bottomless zone of the ocean in Indonesia. It followed the direction of the descriptive radio echo, and found out that the object was sandwiched between two underwater mountains.
It climbed over the mountain and sent a radio message to the other creatures. The reflecting point was cemented with hard sediment. Godia, Rogi, and Illiax arrived and found Zodiaz chopping off the matter on the surface of the object that reflected the radio signal.

All the exhumarines switched function to operare like artificial ants. In ten minutes, the machines exposed flags, poles, ropes and the rudder of the Lost Ship. They stopped digging into the Lost Ship when their fangs split open boxes, with wooden covers.

The four creatures switched function again to humarines and floated inside the Lost Ship. They turned to excavants when they got out and began to dig around the ship's bottom with precision. It had taken them fifteen minutes to clear the clay, that had buried the ship. They became humarines, and began exacting force to push the ship from its position. The vessel moved after the humarines had reached the force level, enough to raise the ship up, against ocean pressure. The ship jerked and hit the mountain wall with a great impact, as It bounced off the wall, resulting to cracks on the body of the ship and the boxes of precious stones.

The creatures changed positions and lifted the ship out of the water valley. They followed the guide signal from the control systems, from the depth of about ninety thousand feet. Steadily, the machines pushed the Lost Ship up, towards the shore of the Nias Island.

Ali Garabed and Ellinaz Ivanovo impatiently waited for the return of the exhumarines with great expectation. They came around Udi Daniel, who was pulling up and pulling down applications that track radio signals, to and fro the machines. The scientist had remained expressionless all the while, but his face suddenly lit up when he noticed changes in the returning intensity of the radio waves, registered on a measuring meter. Ellinaz Ivanovo who was looking over his shoulder, could see him as he fought hard, to conceal his excitement.

"What's popping?” Ellinaz Ivanovo asked as she focused her eyes more on the screen.

"The systems have just picked returning signals from the machines", Udi Daniel said.
"Great news!" Ellinaz Ivanovo vibrated.

"What's news?" Ali Garabed walked close and asked Ellinaz Ivanovo as she bent over Udi Daniel to get as much close view.

"The machines are on their way out of the ocean", Ellinaz Ivanovo replied sharply.

'This is going down as the greatest experience of my life", Ali Garabed said as he came around.
"It's premature to say anything now about the result of the mission", Udi Daniel said to put their common interest in check.

The scientist could show the skeletal movement of the creatures, as they coast home. He knew Ellinaz Ivanovo would go mad if she saw the shape of the Lost Ship being pushed to the beach, from the deep of the Indian Ocean, and he decided to keep it to himself.

Ali Garabed turned around and saw that the students had gone into their classrooms following a bell. He looked farther and saw the two government officials that had interrogated him, not too far away, having a lively chat. He felt very uncomfortable seeing them around and he walked down to talk them out of their position.

As he walked down, he beckoned on Osman Leon and said to him as he came close, "I need you to go get a truck, we'd need it in a matter of few minutes, from now ".

"It's alright sir", Osman Leon said.

Udi Daniel could see that the exhumarines had come close enough and he could not hold it anymore. He opened an application in the guide system as he said, "The creatures have the Lost Ship, and they're a few minutes away".

Ellinaz Ivanovo jumped on him and kissed him as she fought hard to stop screaming. She could not pull herself together to see the skeletal image of the exhumarines and the Lost Ship, that Udi Daniel displayed. He disconnected his laptop computer and walked away, holding the left hand of Ellinaz Ivanovo very tight, as Ali Garabed talked with the two men from the Gunungsitoli local government, tourism officials.

Suddenly, Ellinaz Ivanovo set herself free from Udi Daniel's grasp, and dashed away to update Ali Garabed of the latest. She had not gone far away, when the exhumarines sent the Lost Ship to the shore of the Nias Island, with a thunderous thud! The wooden vessel sprayed water in all directions from the cracks of over four centuries old-ship in history.

Contd




Ellinaz Ivanovo walked back to where the guide systems were mounted and saw the exhumarines go down into the ocean on the screen. The trail of the creatures gradually wiped out on the screen as the exhumarines reached a certain depth. Ellinaz Ivanovo turned around to look at the scientist.

"Could the creatures be monitored from a different console?" Ellinaz Ivanovo asked, as the last track signal disappeared from the screen.

"No other", Udi Daniel replied, but he knew he had lied to himself.

The exhumarines spread in the Indian Ocean to their positions, depending on what had been configured in the "Search Coordinate" of their minds. They swam targentially downwards, to the floor of the ocean, with a lightening speed and soon reached almost a state of perfectly synchronized, search.

The exhumarines began to sweep the first floor, of what looked like a circus, sending radio waves around and into the clay bed. The search did not return any radio echo and the machines switched to the next four. The search lasted hours on second floor and yielded nothing.

Ali Garabed came around the guide/control systems, to see Udi Daniel was pointing to on the screen. "The creatures are sending updates to the control systems", Udi Daniel said to Ellinaz Ivanovo, who was literally penetrating into the screen with her eyes.

"How do you know that?

Udi Daniel responded by opening a soft server in the system and showed her a live transmission. Ellinaz Ivanovo could see the data coming in and she knew for a fact, that Udi Daniel could display the creatures in the Indian Ocean, if he wanted to. She would never understand what he was afraid of. Here was not Australia, where he claimed a demon had possessed one of his machines.

Unknown to Ellinaz Ivanovo and Udi Daniel, the spider that had escaped in the trap in Brisbane, after Adiam had caused an earthquake, was crossing the Pacific to the Indian Ocean, in the shape of an octopus. It headed to North Sumatra and was crossing into the Indian Ocean, from Australia through the Torres Strait.

It cruised through Lake Toba and changed course to move to Sulawase Sea. The quality of the sea water had changed and it moved out deep into the Indian Ocean, to cross to South Sumatra. It picked a familiar radio frequency and it increased its speed, cutting through every living and non living thing on its path, into the waters along the South Sumatra water lines of the Islands.

I'm here now Young Bruzzy, I had to conquer a little challenges.

Contd





They broke through the barrier and went wild with excitement, to get full view of the action. The government officials for tourism, returned to the school premises following the roar. Udi Daniel activated Godia, the last machine, and he straightened up.

Osman Leon was thrilled and moved as the scientist controlled the exhumarines to the edge of the Indian Ocean. Ellinaz Ivanovo closely watched the scientist as he set values and variables with the handheld device.

He stopped the exhumarines on the shoreline, and scrolled down to select the specific task, to be loaded into the mind the machines. He began to configure values for the radio transceivers and for the system guide. He was going to hit a button, when he got startled by Ellinaz Ivanovo.

"Could you look at the configurable parameters, and the command line interface, again?" Ellinaz Ivanovo asked as she read the LED output, across the chest of the creatures.

"What do you know about it" Udi Daniel asked as he turned around to look at her.

'I know where you churned out these figures for each of the machines, it's in the book: "The Great Loss".

'So, now what?"

"I expect you to do the right thing?' Ellinaz Ivanovo said a little louder as Ali Garabed came around.
"What's the right thing?" Udi Daniel asked as he looked away from the computer.
The scientist turned his head over his shoulder, to have a view of what Ellinaz Ivanovo was pointing to, in the book.

"The exchange angles, and the tracks sequencing numbers in the book, are way off with wide variance than the values you inputed", Ellinaz Ivanovo said as she stared intently into the face of the scientist.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I made some adjustments to broaden the search in specific areas, and I narrowed the probability in certain places".

"You refused to refresh yourself before embarking on the operation, the hangover is telling mentally on you".

'There's no leftover or hangover with me, I'm alert", Udi Daniel said, "I just told you that I made some changes".

"If this operation goes south, you're a suspect. You chose to use the values you manufactured in your head, rather than the ones you calculated", Ellinaz Ivanovo made sure Ali Garabed heard her.

Udi Daniel momentarily lost his line of thought, and for a moment. He stopped working and looked at her, eye ball to eye ball. "Your eyes are heavy and dull. I think you need to rest. Let me take over the configuration, and you be my guide", Ellinaz Ivanovo forcefully said. Ali Garabed nodded at her last sentence, in good spirit, but he was not sure if she had the training.

Udi Daniell gave up in trying to maneuver the operation. He rose up from his crouching position on a rug, as Ellinaz Ivanovo took over the configuration. She undid all the wrong values and configured the correct figures for Zodiaz and moved on to Godia, to Rogi and Illiax.

Her understanding of how the stuffs would worin, in the mind of the creatures, got the scientist dumbstruck. Udi Daniel knew Ellinaz Ivanovo was as sharp as the edge of a razor, but he could not place his finger on where she gained her mastery of the setup.

She breezed through the configurations as if she was the one, who created the minds of the creatures. He resisted the temptation to ask if she had been secretly studying his works. He almost dropped to his knees, when Ellinaz Ivanovo uploaded the correct task into the minds of each exhumarines. He had hoped she would mix things up, in picking the correct task.

Everything appeared to be falling into the right places for her, and Udi Daniel could only watch helplessly.

The mind programs processed the configurations and returned a flashing green button on the computer screen. Ellinaz Ivanovo looked at the screen blinking, "READY FOR MISSION", and she smiled

Contd





The SUV coming behind the van, followed it into the school premises. Two men got out and walked down to the new beach. They had received messages from community leaders, to check the mission of the visitors to the island.

Osman Leon discharged the exhumarines and all the equipment of the scientist Ali Garabed could see them and he decided to meet the two men half way.

"Good day", one of the men greeted and introduced himself as Allison Marva.

"I'm Ali Garabed,' the Lebanese said as he stretched his right hand for handshake.

"I'm Lumera Sormin", the other man introduced himself as he shook hands with Ali Garabed.

"We're government officials from North Sumatra", Allison Marva said.

"We supervise tourists activities in the district of
Gunungsitoli", Lumera Sorminl supplied.

Ali Garabed knew where this was going and he quickly thought up something to say.
"We're tourists from the United States and England, and we have been cleared by the government", Ali Garabed said it in a way that would not sound suspicious..

"Can I see the government license?" Allison Marva asked with no serious interest.

''I didn't bring it along, it's in my hotel room", Ali Garabed replied as he looked back at the operation base of NextTech'.

"You made a grievous mistake'', Allison Marva reacted, 'How could you go to the farm and leave your cutlass at home".

"I can go get it for you after we are done here", Ali Garabed said it with a coat of trustrustworthiness.

"It's not our practice to allow it", Allison Marva said, and he could see Ali Garabed almost coming to tears".

'Is this your first time in Nias Island", Lumera Sormin asked with no pity.

"That's correct", Ali Garabed responded with a piece of hope.

'We will wait for you to finish up, and we would join you to your hotel", Allison Marva said with a note of finality.

Lumera Sormin looked over his shoulder, and saw some creatures being inspected by a man in a lab coat. The look on the face of Lumera Sormin, was enough to tell Ali Garabed that the tourist needed to do explanations.

"What are those things?" Lumera Sormin asked Ali Garabed, as he pointed tothe exhumarines".

They're artificially intelligent amphibious machines?"

"What are doing with them?"

"We're subjecting them to a test in the Indian Ocean, to see if they would meet up a given standard".

The explanation seemed cool for Allison Marva, but Lumera Sormin had some reservation.

Allison Marva said as he stretched a card to Al Garabed, "If you run into any trouble, you can reach us with it".

"I'm super grateful'.

Allison Marva and Lumera Sormin turned to leave as students rushed out of their classrooms and switched their gaze to where the exhumarines were positioned for activation.The students surged to see more angle view, and were barred by teachers.

Ellinaz Ivanovo drew very close to Udi Daniel and looked over his shoulder to see the screen of the handheld device that activated the machines.
Udi Daniel tapped Zodiaz on the screen, and the creature lit up with eyes glowing red. The machine waved around and the students shot ten fingers in the air with screams, and commotion.

Contd





She walked around the van to meet Udi Daniel eye ball to eye ball and said, "You know how much I have wanted to witness the operation live! I came all the way from the US for this reason". Ali Garabed could see nothing wrong with her seeing the operation.

"It's alright, Elliinaz, we can go together in the taxi", Ali Garabed said before Udi Daniel could say anything more.

The taxicab pulled outside to give way for the van to drive out. The three other men from Dynabiz stayed behind and looked on, as Ellinaz Ivanovo joined Ali Garabed. She opened the book: "The Great Loss" on her lap inside the taxicab.

Osman Leon turned to look at Ellinaz Ivanovo, as she flicked the pages to the page that contained the maps of the Nias Island. Udi Daniel had clearly marked strategic places on the island, that would point to where he had chosen to be the base of the search operation.

"Wouldn't the scientist need it?' Ali Garabed asked as he pointed to the book.

"If he needs it, he would ask for it".

The van pulled into the road, and Ellinaz Ivanovo nstructed the taxi driver to start moving. Udi Daniel could see the taxi pulling away, and he wondered how the driver knew where he was heading. He expected the driver to wait and follow the van from behind. He stopped processing the thought, as the taxicab branched off to Abbey Road.

The van followed the taxi to a broadway, off Abbey Road, as the taxi turned to face the road, that connected the island to the West. It dawned on Udi Daniel, that Ellinaz Ivanovo was reading the direction-sketch on the book.

Udi Daniels plan B, had been punctured. He had intended to begin the search from a different area on the island, to increase the chances of the search, returning nothing. He presumed Ali Garabed had seen the sketch as well already, and nothing he could do about changing the base.

He berated himself in no small measure, for having to sketch the direction of the right base, for the operation in the book. A fresh idea came up and he warmed up to it. He was still in control and in charge The van continued to trail the taxi as the taxi driver veered into an unpaved road. Ali Garabed looked behind and saw that the van was being followed by an SUV into the unpaved road.

Udi Daniel did not notice the SUV; he was busy thinking as the taxi driver drove through a school compound, and headed towards a new area with beach sands. Ellinaz Ivanovo instructed the taxi driver to stop when the van had stopped behind on the white sand. Udi Daniel alighted from the van with his bags and called on Osman Leon to open the rear door of the van.

The location of the harbour on the Nias Island, over four hundred years ago, was now a school. The government of Sumatra had continued to reclaim land from the Indian Ocean, and had dredged the water to fill the old harbour area with sands, that would cover centuries of history.

Chapter Sixteen





Ellinaz Ivanovo stood on the first step of the stairway, to the rooms assigned to NextTech, in the Hotel Amigos, and she replayed the unprovoked action of the scientist in her head. She could easily connect it to his experience in Australia, but now was not the time to retard the process by recalling arguments that had been over-flogged and swept away.

She certainly did not feel under any influence, she well knew that it was only a lifeless body, that would not run mad, knowing that half-a-ship load, of all kinds of precious stones, was in the offing, few hours away- the share of NextTech.

She would not react in the way he expected her to, to find a reason to abort the operation. While she basked in the feverish state of euphoria, Ali Garabed was perfecting his plan to ditch and school her, in the skill of business negotiation. First cut, was not the deepest. She stepped on the floor and turned around to see Ali Garabed.

"Could the operation begin today, as planned?”, the Lebanese asked with a clear suppression of impatience as he climbed up.

"The scientist would say the last about it. It'was a long wearing flight. He might want to refresh himself", Ellinaz Ivanovo said and Ali Garabed's face got wrinkled, all of a sudden.

The Lebanese businessman stumbled into Osman Leon coming out of Udi Daniel's room, as soon as he joined Ellinaz Ivanovo in the corridor. Ali Garabed discussed a few more things with her, and he followed Osman Leon out, together.

He had noticed that the scientist wore an angry look as he got out of the taxi that had brought him from the Binaka Airstrip. He could see that the scientist had been stone cold since he arrived the island.

"Did anybody get the scientist angry on the way, from the airstrip? Ali Garabed asked Osman Leon, with his face looking down.

"They had a squabble over the pictures of some stones", Osman Leon replied.

"I'm sure they'll sort it out".

Ellinaz Ivanovo sneaked into Udi Daniel's room, and found him pulling out some systems from his bag. She knew the scientist was aware of her presence. Udi Daniel could hear the sound of a millipede, creeping on the floor, few meters away.

Ellinaz Ivanovo bent her head over him and said, "I'm deeply sorry for what I said, and the way I said it".

"You did nothing to be sorry about ".

"Dan, I know you're playing on my emotional intelligence. You feel bad, I could see it, I could feel it and I could almost touch it".

"What do you want from me?"

"Tell me you have forgiven me for talking to you disrespectfully".

"Ellinaz, I've said you did nothing, but if it makes you feel better, I've forgotten you", Udi Daniel said as he drew a chair to sit on.

"Thank you my god ", Ellinaz Ivanovo said and made her hands run down his chest, as she stood directly behind.

"It's Ok".

"I've just got off a talk with Ali Garabed. He wants to know something".

"Get straight Ellinaz ".

"He wants to if the operation could take place today?"
"How did you respond?"
"I told him you have the last say".

"We're here already, and it could be now or later, depending on my mood ".

"I think you need some rest, you did not have one second of sleep throughout, from Washington DC, down here".

"I have to get this done and disconnect myself internally from anything ".

"I didn't quite get you, but you need a little slumber, at least, to sharpen alertness, it's very important ".

"What else could be more important than your stones in the Indian Ocean?"

"You're obviously throwing jabs right now".

Each time she had woken up when they were flying through the night, from Washington, Udi Daniel was either drawing or reading in the jet She feared for him. Udi Daniel suddenly sprang up from the chair and made to leave the room, and Ellinaz Ivanovo blocked his way.

"What do you think you're doing?" Udi Daniel asked her.

"You need rest, rest Ogidi Udi Daniel".

"I don't need it".

"Where're you going?"

"I want to see Garabed".

"You can talk to him later", Ellinaz Ivanovo stood her ground.

He pushed her out of his way and she nearly hit a wooden table. Ellinaz Ivanovo sobbed in the room as the scientist flung the door open with gusto, and headed out through the corridor, to the staircase. She tagged from behind but stopped moving any further, when she found that he was discussing with Ali Garabed in the open.

Ali Garabed waved to Osman Leon who was near, to come over as Udi Daniel turned around to go back to his hotel room.

"Get the van ready to take the machines and all the equipment to the waterfront” Ali Garabed said with all his strength.

Ellinaz Ivanovo swiftly turned around when she saw Udi Daniel heading back to the hotel room. As he entered the room, Ellinaz Ivanovo stood up and walked out with her face covered with the book: "The Great Loss".

Udi Daniel took a laptop computer from one of his bags and powered it on. He opened up some applications and placed it on his bed. He heard the sound of a shower running from the opposite room which Ellinaz Ivanovo had entered. He continued to test the applications to a hardware interface of the computer. He plugged a handheld device to the interface and browsed through the things he wanted to see.

Satisfied, he disconnected the device and shut down the computer system just as he heard the sound of a van warming up. He scurried out of the room with his bags.

Hurriedly, he ran down the staircase and was about getting into the van, when he realized that he was not with the book. He had penciled down every calculations, deductions, estimations, parameters, coordinates, and the directions, that he would need for the operation. He could not return there without the risk of Ellinaz Ivanovo, finding out of his secret move. He could do without the book, and it even fitted well in his latest plan.

He hopped into the van and said to the driver, "You can start moving now!

At the same time, Ali Garabed directed a taxi inside as the van moved from the hotel through the main gate. From nowhere, Ellinaz Ivanovo appeared with a surprise look outlining her face.

"What's going on here?" She asked nobody in particular.

"We're leaving for the operation, you'll get the report when we return", Udi Daniel replied from the van.

I'm humbled, God bless you.

Contd






"Look at that body of water over there!"

Ellinaz Ivanovo bent slightly backward and followed his gaze to where he was pointing.

"It looked distinct, with separate colours", Ellinaz Ivanovo noted.

"That's where the Pacific Ocean meets the Indian Ocean', Udi Daniel said looking at the phenomenon.
"How do you know this?"

"I didn't expect you to ask me that question".
"I'm sorry Dan, I almost forgot that you're the god of science".

"The two bodies of water would never mix due to difference in their densities".

Ellinaz Ivanovo excitedly observed something else and said, "Look at the network of islands!" as the chopper flew across Sumatra. "This spectacularly beautiful Dan".

"They're scientifically refered to as Archipelagos", the scientist said as he could not take his eyes off the vast array of Islands, like Ellinaz Ivanovo.

"This is nature's wonders!" She would not stop savouring the beauty.

"The Indian Ocean has the greatest number of islands in the world", Udi Daniel said.

"Aren't this splendid? Ellinaz Ivanovo asked rhetorically as Udi Daniel mentioned the countries that the Indian Ocean had presence; Islands, Peninsulas, Gulfs, Straits, Seas, Lakes, Rivers and Tributaries.

Thirty minutes more, the helicopter drifted towards the Binaka Airstrip , where Ali Garabed was waiting. He made a phone call to Osman Leon as the flying machine hovered above a landing space.

Ellinaz Ivanovo stepped fom the chopper with the book in her left hand. She took Ali Garabed's outstretched hand and stepped on the field.

"You're welcome to the dream island", Ali Garabed said as he waved at Osman Leon to come over.
He was going to ask Ellinaz Ivanovo why the scientist was not coming out, when she opened up the book to the page that contained the map and said, "The scientist wants to go round the Nias Island, to locate the position of the harbour, that the Lost Ship had anchored on, on the island over the centuries".

"That's fine", Ali Garabed responded, 'Osman Lean has come to take you and the scientist to the hotel. He would be on standby here until he has done it".

Ali Garabed turned around to leave as Ellinaz Ivanovo climbed the chopper to join Udi Daniel.
The flying machine gained enough momentum and it got off the field. The pilot headed to the edge of the waterfront, at the southern end of the island as Ali Garabed was driven out of the airport.

Ellinaz Ivanovo's aesthetic sense came to live again as the chopper flew above and around the beautiful island. It amazed her to see that as remote as the Nias Island, the road network was well planned and cut. Flowering plants, tall curvy coconut trees, greeneries and the white sands of the water edge of Nias. in the Indian Ocean, painted an impression of paradise. She got enthralled to nature and she could almost kiss it from the sky.

Udi Daniel however, was completely detached to the beautiful surrounding. He was consumed by the calculation that was going on in his head. The sounds made by different groups of birds of staggering diversity on the top of a tall coconut tree, could not distract him, until a murmuration of birds, flying and singing above the Indian Ocean, rushed 'past the helicopter very close.. It made him to reminiscence a similar pattern of group flight of birds, above the Pacific Ocean in Kairuru Island.

The scientist zipped open one of his bags and brought out a Global Positioning System and placed it on the dashboard. He asked the pilot to reduce the speed and altitude of the chopper, as it went round the island. The inhabitants of the island watched the chopper moving in cycles around the Nias Island, with questioning looks.

They had seen that the Binaka Airstrip had received an usual amount of inbound flights, mostly private jets, in the last two days, and now, a helicopter was tracing the perimeter of the island.The local authority went underground to know what was happening. Fishermen who were casting their nets around the Island, froze as the chopper went round above their heads in the ocean.

Udi Daniel asked the pilot to fly westward at a higher altitude into the Indian Ocean, after he had located the position of the harbour, on the island. He continued to draw and calculate on the map page of the book. The chopper reached the distance of half a mile, and he instructed the pilot to turn around and head back to the Binaka Airstrip.

Ali Garabed could see the chopper going back to the airstrip through the window of his room, in the Hotel Amigos. He came out of the hotel and walked outside through a narrow gate, and stood between two pillars of a building, facing the street road.
He could see an airport taxicab coming to his direction and he knew the scientist was coming now. Osman Leon had waited for him and Ellinaz Ivanovo at the airstrip. Ali Garabed walked back to his hotel room awaiting them. His anxiety returned and he struggled to calm himself down. It ooked as if he had lost control of his mind, all of a sudden.

Ellinaz Ivanovo felt the same fever. She had fought really hard to hide her excitement over the prospect of touching and possessing. She brought out the four pieces of paper that contained the shining images of the stones. She looked at the papers as if her life was tied to the stones.

She literally bore holes through the image of the stones with her misty eyes. Udi Daniel could see her from the corner of his left eye, she was glowing with ecstasy and excitement.

The scientist got very busy in his mind, thinking through likely obstacles on how to get her far away from harm, if the operation went south. He had some technique in his head but no one could be certain of specific results, when dealing with uncertainties. Udi Daniel held Ellinaz Ivanovo by cheek, and pushed up her face to prevent her eyes, from burrowing holes on the papers.

"Ellinaz, are you sure that your obsession with the stones is normal?"

"I dont get you?" Ellinaz Ivanovo responded.
Youve been drooling over a load of treasures that hasn't been found!"

"I know you will find them, as you did the diamond block in Australia. You're the best!"

"Don't count on it ".

Ellinaz Ivanovo brought the papers near her lips and began to kiss them, and it angered Udi Daniel.
"You're clearly in trouble Ellinaz, you have been jinxed.".

"By who?"

"The invisible forces that dictate life for you now".

"It's not happening, I'm not you, I don't dream dreams ".

Udi Daniel was stabbed in his heart by her words, and he changed into a strange man. He violently snatched the pictures of the stones from her and squeezed them into a ball. He threw the ball out through the window of the taxicab before the driver pulled up by the gate of the Hotel Amigos.

Contd






Soap foams were not completely wiped out, before he bolted out of the bathroom, leaving the shower running. He slipped into a pair of trouser and pulled a caftan on. He flung the door ajar and ran down the staircase with his briefcase in his left hand. He doubled his strides as he came out of the hotel and flagged down a taxicab that was heading away from the airport. The taxi driver stopped for him and he hopped inside. The driver turned the car around and sped in the direction of the airport.

He alighted hurriedly and made his way to the arrival hall of the airport, and the taxi driver angrily called out to him to pay for the service. He dipped his hand into the breast pocket of his caftan and threw the money on the ground. The taxi driver began to haul insult at him as he disappeared through the gate.

Ellinaz Ivanovo could see from where she was seated, as Ali Garabed breezed into the hall, as if he was trying to catch the last flight to heaven. His face looked heavy as he scanned the faces before him. Ellinaz Ivanovo stood up and waved her hand to him but he did not see her. She decided to walk along the aisle to meet him. He was facing away from the hall and was looking in the direction of passengers that had newly arrived. He was pulling out his cellphone, when Ellinaz Ivanovo tapped him from behind. "Ali Garabed!" He spun around on his left heel and began grinning from ear to ear.

"Oh, Dear Allah! Welcome to Indonesia. I'm sure you had a nice trip", he said it with an Arabic drawl.

'Sure did"

"Good".

"You sent me tonnes of messages while I was still in Washington. Was all that really necessary, after I had given you a verbal and written agreement, that NextTech would be in South Sumatra for the operation, as signed ?”

The Lebanese scratched his head with his left hand and replied, "Don't be so offended, I guess I just want it off my list so bad".

"You don't have to be so disconnected ".

"I said my apologies already ma'am, where's the scientist?"

Ellinaz Ivanovo pointed to Udi Daniel who was sitting not far away, to Ali Garabed, as she said,. "He wants a helicopter to fly him to the Nias Island from the airport".

"We have made provisions for the extra private jet you asked for ", Ali Garabed said as he looked the way of Udi Daniel.

"I don't know why he changed his mind. I would join him in the helicopter to find out", Ellinaz Ivanovo said as Ali Garabed and Udi Daniel waved at each other.

"That's not a problem, I can fix it".

"One more thing Garabed".

"Ok".

"The scientist's equipment, are in the private jet next to mine, you will transfer them to the island".

"No problems!"

Ali Garabed led the way outside the hall, as Ellinaz Ivanovo walked beside him to a building that shared boundary with the airport. He walked inside an office and Ellinaz Ivanovo took a chair in the reception. He made arrangement with a helicopter service provider and came out.

"I''ve made plans", Ali Garabed said as he settled on a chair beside Ellinaz Ivanovo.

"So he fly to the island in it?" Ellinaz asked as Ali Garabed opened his briefcase.

Ali Garabed nodded at her and passed a piece of paper, "NextTech is lodging here on the island. Everything has been paid for".

They headed back to the airport to meet the scientist. Udi Daniel caught sight of Ali Garabed and Ellinaz Ivanovo coming into the hall, and he rose up to meet them with his bags in both hands.

"Garabed had arranged for the helicopter, that would fly you to the Nias Island".

"And an accommodation too", Ali Garabed added.

Udi Daniel walked behind as Ellinaz Ivanovo and Ali Garabed turned to the helicopter service building. Ali Garabed led the way into an airfield, that had a good number of different models of flying machines. A pilot emerged from a cubicle attached to the building, and he pointed at the helicopter that would take Udi Daniel to the island.

"I'd be travelling ahead to receive you in Binaka, Gunungsitoli", Ali Garabed said as Udi Daniel climbed.

"Where's that?" Ellinaz Ivanovo asked as she stepped after the scientist.

"It's on the island, the pilot is landing there".

Udi Daniel reopened the book: The Great Loss", as Ali Garabed continued to wave at them. He turned to the page before the last, as the chopper rose and eached a stable altitude in the air. He changed course and headed towards Sumatra.The opened page of the book, showed the aerial view of the Indian Ocean to the left, and the chains of islands that lined the Indonesian territory of the Indian Ocean. He turned the book to view the page horizontally.

Ellinaz Ivanovo could see the scientist scribbling on the book as the machine flew across a thick forest. Udi Daniel ooked through the windows on both sides and marked spots on the book. Ellinaz Ivanovo did not ask him what he was doing. She was engrossed by the outline of the Indian Ocean that was coming to view, from her position.

A private jet flew by and Ellinaz Ivanovo readily concluded, that Ali Garabed had gone ahead of them. Udi Daniel spoke for the first time in the chopper.

YoungBruzzy😎, you're welcome back from holiday,,,,,,,shout out to EvidenceOfGrace, Calenikan, Silverlinen and all the invisible readers 😅



Contd






She fell asleep after they had traveled for two hours. Udi Daniel continued to read a particular page of the book over and over. The ship that had carried the stones was not the only ship that had taken shelter from the monsoon, on the island in the Indian Ocean. It was specifically built to traverse the Indian Ocean in any condition, and Udi Daniel would not stop trying to connect the lines in his head. The ship had gone down into the Indian Ocean for no apparent cause, after the monsoon had done its job.

The scientist superimposed the perplexity on the foreboding, and the Lost Ship revealed the "fingerprint" that was on the Mystery Diamond he had recovered from the Coral Sea in Australia.
These things would only make sense to him, Ellinaz Ivanovo would never reason inductively on his diagnosis of uncertainties. She woke up few minutes before the jet would cut off a part of the airspace of Papua New Guinea, towards Malaysia. For the first time since they boarded the plane, Udi Daniel related with her on a personal level.

"Did you take any sleeping pill? Throughout the night, to this afternoon, your eyes were shut", He asked as the plane flew into the air zone that had the Pacific Ocean to the right, and the Indian Ocean to the left.

Ellinaz Ivanovo replied, "What do you expect, when you refused to keep me company".
"Ellie?"

"Yeah".

"You see, the two lines I've been trying to cross, have not only eventually intersected, but they coiled.into one another".

"Does it change anything?"

"No, it doesn't, but my mind is made stronger on what I could expect ".

"Dan please! Don't dull my mood with one of those your extemporaneous lectures", Ellinaz Ivanovo said with the wave of her left hand, 'You've said you would never talk about it".

"I wasn't going to say anything relating, but it's fine, I've withdrawn it".

"If it makes you feel better ".

Udi Daniel looked through the windows of the jet on both sides absentmindedly, as the plane floated in the hot steamy air to Jakarta, from Malaysia, with Thailand to the right. Four hours later, the nose of the jet pointed down towards the Sokoekarno-Hatta International Airport.



Chapter Fifteen






Ali Garabed got worried over the fact that Ellinaz Ivanovo had stopped replying to his messages. He could barely think straight. The assuarance oy NextTech was not enough now. He needed a minute by minute tracking even as they come in the air. He knew he was becoming a weirdo. He could not
explain the reason behind his erratic behavior.

He tiredly rose from the bed in his hotel room, and staggered away into the shower to refresh himself. He was in the bathroom when a message fell into his cellphone. He came out naked with soap foams covering his body, and he spied the screen from the corner of his left eye.

Ali Garabed tossed the phone into the bed and hurriedly returned to the bathroom to open up the shower beyond limit!

Contd





Ali Garabed got overly excited when he received the mail from Ellinaz Ivanovo, that the exhumarines were already in the air, coming to Indonesia. He had flown his private jet to the Nias Island in South Sumatra, and had booked hotel rooms for his men and for NextTech operators.

He relaxed on a chair beside the fanciful swimming pool in Maxima Hotels, in Jarkata. He kept raising his left hand to his face to steal a glance at his wristwatch. He knew the average time that it would take the machines to arrive the Sokoekarno-Hatta International Airport.

A short message dropped in his cellphone as soon as two jets landed in the airport and he knew. He moved to the airport and took a seat in the arrival hall of the airport. When Osman Leon, one of his men that had flown in with the exhumarines came through, Ali Garabed counted it as the first real step that was made. He stood up to meet Osman Leon who was walking towards him. They shook hands vigorously, smiling as if a map to hidden treasures, had been given them.

"Welcome to Indonesia!" Ali Garabed said while grinding..

"Thank you, Thank you".

"I hope the flight was good".

"Very well Sir".

"But you're late by fifteen minutes, I was beginning to think something was amiss”.

"I actually made the call to you that we were leaving the United States, before we loaded", Osman Leon corrected his timing.

"I see!"

"So, how do we go from here?"

"You're heading to Sumatra from here, then to Nias Island".

"Alright".

"I've made arrangement for the jets to land in the Binaka Airstrip on the island".

"Ok".

'I'll be flying in with NextTech tomorrow".

Ali Garabed unrolled a piece of paper that had the name of a hotel and gave it to Osman Leon. The number one trusted employee of Dynabiz turned around and went out through the same way he had come in.The jets refilled their gas and rerouted to Nias Island.

Ali Garabed came out and watched the planes flying away. His mood brightened, as the bid to recover the stones, was taking real shape. The operation was now only a day away, but the anxiety that had left him since he had signed the contract for the recovery operation, returned, with a different intensity.

Hardly had he settled in his hotel room, than he pulled up his laptop and fired and email to NextTech, to speed up action time. Ellinaz Ivanovo clicked the email open and reassured him he could sleep on it, NextTech was committed to the operation, the stakes were equal between Dynabiz and NextTech.

Early in the evening, Ellinaz Ivanovo and Udi Daniel were driven out of their mansion, with a van behind. She turned on the mobile network on her phone and got a barrage of messages from Ali Garabed, acknowledging that the exhumarines had been received in Indonesia. She had read the message the previous day, and could not get it why he had decided to resend them.

They arrived Washington/Baltimore International Airport and Ellinaz Ivanovo received rains of messages from the Lebanese again. She turned off coverage as she got out and waved the van that transported the equipment of Udi Daniel, to a private jet. She assisted in loading them and returned to meet her god. Together they boarded her private jet.

She could not hide her excitement over the operation. Udi Daniel had decided to never discuss his feelings about the operation with her. His face had no expression as he held tightly to two bags. Ellinaz Ivanovo offered to help him to thrust the bags away in a drawer, as he took his favorite position in the jet.

Udi Daniel flipped open the book: "The Great Loss", and began studying it with magnetic concentration as the jet rolled out onto the take off way. Ellinaz Ivanovo tried to get his attention by asking conversation-starting questions, but he would only answer curtly to her. She stopped bothering him and withdrew into herself.

Udi Daniel and Ellinaz Ivanovo walked outside the AIU together, towards the parking area, where they caused a little drama. Udi Daniel insisted on driving home in his Mercedes Beatle, but Ellinaz Ivanovo would not allow it. The scientist submitted to her wish, after she had shown him a video clip, as he drove into NextTech. She pulled him into her Bugatti V5 Segrada, and took charge of the wheels.


Chapter Fourteen






At home, Udi Daniel opened the book: "The Great Loss" and again read through the area of the Indian Ocean, where the Lost Ship had anchored, before the great monsoon had blown across. He shut his eyes and tried to make a mental video of the incidence that happened over four hundred years ago, as he tried to prove something in his head, and Ellinaz Ivanovo burst into his study.

He adjusted himself in his sitting position as Ellinaz Ivanovo walked in from a corner. She was to leave for her office but she decided to check on Udi Daniel.

"You look like hell, didn't you sleep a wink last night? Ellinaz Ivanovo asked.

"I've been trying to get two lines to meet in my mind".

"And you did that, all through the night?"

"Haif of it".

'What's it about? The lines?"

"Of course, on the mission to Indonesia".

"I strongly recommend a bed rest for you after this is over", Ellinaz Ivanovo said as she looked him up.

"Thanks Ellinaz, but I'm not feeling tired in the sense that you think", Udi Daniel said,, "It's just that, I don't feel well about this operation; something like a premonition stares into my eyes all the time, as I try to bend the lines to touch?"

"It's just a feeling, you would come off it".

"Can't we call it off?"

"You and I know we have crossed the rubicon ", Ellinaz Ivanovo whispered into his ear and turned to leave.

Udi Daniel was not sure anymore of the technique he had thought he could use to thwart any invisible invisible interplay of forces. At once, he sprang up and braced himself up for any consequence. He followed Ellinaz Ivanovo into the living room. He caught up with her before she could enter the elevator, to get out of the mansion.

"Ellinaz!" Udi Daniel called her out loud even as they stood very close, "This is the last time that I would talk about this to you".

"It's fine Dan. Ali Grabbed's team has flown from England to Washington".

"OK".

"Dynabiz has made available two jet planes for his men and the creatures", Ellinaz Ivanovo said trying to avoid eye contact. "Garabed has gone ahead of us to Jarkata, in his private jet".

"When are you packing up the creatures in the AIU?” Udi Daniel asked with no enthusiasm.

"I'm going to meet Dynabiz personnel right now, they're waiting in my office. They will fly with the machines to Jarkata, and wait for NextTech to join up tomorrow".

Udi Daniel turned around and went back his study and Ellinaz Ivanovo hurriedly got into the elevator. She drove out of the mansion straight to her office where she met the four men Dynabiz had sent. She took them to the ground floor, to the AIU and the men transferred the machines from the Digital Laboratory to the show room, as she opened a drawer. She pulled out the materials to pack the exhumarines.

Dynabiz's men brought the creatures outside and loaded them into a van and drove out from NextTech. Ellinaz Ivanovo followed them behind as the van headed to the Washington International Airrport where two jet planes waited.

As the jets flew off, Ellinaz Ivanovo started her car, and took a different way from the airport. She sent an email update to Ali Garabed communicating the time that NextTech would arrive Jarkata. She did not do anything else in her office before driving home, to prepare for the operation.

Contd





"One of the creatures isn't swimming as fast as the others".

Udi Daniel responded, "it's just a test environment and the exhumarines know that".

'Do the machines carry their minds in a simulation?"

"Yes, they could feel the environment ever in a test".

"They have feelings?" Ellinaz Ivanovo asked and smiled.

"You wouldn't believe it until I make them males and females", Udi Daniel said with a wicked grin.

The tension that had built up between them for the last few days gradually gave way for the usual casual connection as Ellinaz Ivanovo asked, "You're dreaming in your imaginations again".

"Seriously, it could work if biological coding, such as cell fusion and division, could be emulated and implemented at the levels of DNAs and RNAs in the nucleus of an agile Natural Neuron Network".

"You're a crazy scientist!" Ellinaz Ivanovo screamed and slapped him on his back as she asked, "Why didn't you then create them males and females?”

Udi Daniel replied, "I'd be knowingly causing them to fight to death, to have the females".

"Crazy!" Ellinaz Ivanovo continued to say. "I'm going to report you to the American Society of Science, that you have the potential to become a dangerous scientist. I'm no longer comfortable with you ".

"I mean this; in the near future, I see NextTech being able to develop creatures that can reproduce".

"That's after you have made them husband and wife ", Ellinaz Ivanovo responded with sarcasm.

"I still have work undone Ellie, please let me concentrate".

"I'm not holding your hands".

"It's you that set me on fire, let me keep burning while the spirit is high".

"Alright, just this last one", Ellinaz Ivanovo said as she pointed to the hybrids, "The machines have been going down down, not able to get to the floor

"They're moving deep into the ocean towards the center, that's why they're not hitting any bed".

"Why is that?"

"The Indian Ocean is bottomless down the middle, there's no chance of recovering anything from there, if you don't have the wisdom of the creator ".

"Creator?"

"Nature alone, bears witness, that there must be some supreme designing force in the universe. Even though the concept of God remained vague to science".

"You're sounding like those bunch of believers in the net of charismatism".

"I'm only telling you naked facts".

"Sounds like the Lost Ship could be lost forever if it landed in the center".

"I've fortified the machines to bring results".

"What's bottomless?"

"As applied to the Indian Ocean, it means you can pass through it to space".

"Have you traveled through it to space?"

"Not really".

"So how do you know?"

"When you have come out of the earth into space, through the sky, you would be able to see the bottom end of the Indian Ocean, like a bluish-green water, simmering in a plain glass ".

"I'd like to see that some day".

Ellinaz Ivanovo steered the conversation to something else as Udi Daniel immersed himself in programming the task that the exhumarines would be carrying out for the next three hours in the simulated Indian Ocean. Their conversation naturally ceased as he showed less interest and he soon hit his peak of work flow, but it was not long, Ellinaz Ivanovo's cell phone went off, Ali Garabed was at the far end.

"Hello!"Ellinaz Ivanovo said into the phone and Udi Daniel stopped for a moment to look at her.

"I haven't received your email", Ali Garabed said with a strong tone.

"It's stated clearly in the document after we settled for 4 to 14 days for the execution".

"Yeah, that's why I called".

"But it's barely even the 4th day", Ellinaz Ivanovo said with a note of annoyance.

"Well, it's the 4th day here rolling over to the 5th, in my time zone. I needed to remind you".

"It's too early Garabed".

"It's not Ellinaz".

Ellinaz Ivanovo replied, "Be informed, NextTech is still working on it expect my mail anytime from now".

Ali Garabed breathed impatiently into the phone from the other end, and Udi Daniel could hear it. He wondered what was eating him up as well, over the recovery of the stones. Ellinaz Ivanovo was about to end the call when Udi Daniel spoke up.

"Tell him that NextTech is ready now!" Udi Daniel said with the stress of finality.

"What! Seriously!!" Ellinaz Ivanovo shot him as if he joking.

"I said tell him that!" The scientist reiterated.

"Hey, Garabed", she said. "I've just been informed that the machines are now ready, the ball is now on your court".

The Lebanese could not contain his excitement at the other end. Udi Daniel could feel it.

"That's good of you", Ali Garabed boomed with a heavy Arabic accent and added, "You will hear from me in a moment".

The conversation ended and Ellinaz Ivanovo walked to the corner where Udi Daniel was inserting some neural chips, hot from a 'Neural Trainer', into the limbs of the exhumarines.

"You're damn fast", Ellinaz Ivanovo said behind him before she touched his shoulder.

"It's the way you want it", the scientist responded.

"I don't know what's driving the Lebanese".

"Both of you are in the same boat, headed for an unknown destination ".

"I take exception to that Dan, I know my way ".

Contd





"How could you know my past and future, and claimed you don't have supernatural powers?"

"I didnt mean it in the sense that you think".

"What sense, Ellinaz?"

"I did't mean to be literal, i was only playing with words around you".

"Really?"

"You're born a great man, and I don't need a supernatuural influence to know that, it's all over you. Everybody sees it!"

"I don't believe you".

"When I said you were the greatest scientist throughout history that has ever lived, you didn't have a problem with it".

"Is that why you have said I came into this world to summarize science?"

"Not exactly Dan".

"Ellie, I put it to you, that a source had spoken through you, and I need you to be careful".

"If I have a byte of memory in my head, there wasn't a ventriloquist around us, at the time I spoke these words."

"What are you drawing out?"

"Dan, I think you're over-stretching it".

"Do you have dreams at all?"

"At times, especially when I get disappointed really bad, and I take it to bed wiith me".

"Do you know what?"

"No Dan".

"I'm going to watch you more, as NextTech and Dynabiz finilize", Udi Daniel said and looked away from the computer svreen directly into the eyes of the young woman that had occupied all the space in his life.

"Why would you want to do that?"

"Let's just say, I'm watching over what's mine".

"Are you done with all the connections?" Ellinaz Ivanovo asked as she touched the tip of his nose with her right hand index finger.

"It's almost done".

"I see some new machines", she said pointing to the exhumarines.

"They're getting set for the mission into the Indian Ocean".

"You're unbelievable!" Ellinaz Ivanovo said as she walked away to closely look at the hybrids.

She went round the machines, running her hands on their bodies, in amazement. She could not stop being stunned by Udi Danie'l's response and creation speed. She turned around and saw the scientist clearing off the computer screen, and she walked back to him.

"We're going to celebrate this!" Ellinaz Ivanovo said behind Udi Daniel as she got near.

"I'm not in a celebration mood, I just want to finish this and clear it off".

Ellinaz Ivanovo forcefully turned his his head and planted a kiss on his lips as she said, "I'm going to get you in celebration mood".

"This can't happen in my lab', Udi Daniel said as he pulled away, "Moreover, we don't have any reason for merriment, not now".

"I think you may be right, Dan, the stones haven't been recovered yet".

She adjusted herself and drew another chair to sit as watched Udi Daniel hitting keys with speed in a programming environment. She stretched her hand and tapped the key of a computer that had slept off, and the image of an exhumarine displayed on the screen.

The image of the hybrid rotated on every two seconds. She zoomed it out and studied the attached forelimbs of the creature, about the size of an average human being. She was going to ask Udi Daniel about the mechanism of the dorsal-attached system, but she dropped it as the scientist was so absorbed in his programming work.

She hit the slide key and another image appeared and was completely taken aback, by what she saw. Udi Daniel had completely simulated the Indian Ocean and designed getty ocean floor. She tapped the key again and another image appeared. It was a test environment.

She hit another button and the four exhumarines appeared on the environment. She tapped the same button and the creatures plunged into the Indian Ocean.

Contd





As he grabbed a glass of juice to wash down his throat, Ellinaz Ivanovo opened her hand bag and removed a comb. She stood behind Udi Daniel before he could his neck to the computer screen. She held his head with her left hand and pulled it to her chest and used her other hand to comb his hair. He did not resist it. Her feel, and the touch of her hand on his hair, sent chilling waves, that seemed to relax the tension in his head.

Ellinaz Ivanovo could feel his muscles coming to rest. Udi Daniel sharply remembered something that he had forgotten to connect and he turned his head leftwards, but Ellinaz Ivanovo held his head still.

"Ellinaz, I must do something now!"

"Take a break!" She said with a strong voice and began to rub his ears with her fingers.

"I don't want it to skip me again", Udi Daniel said, "I really need to do this".

"I barely recognized you, when I got very close".

"What do you expect?'

"Slow it down now, I've come back to you".

"No! Let's get it out of the way, and lead our normal lives".

"It's ok, you said just a connection", Ellinaz Ivanovo reminded the scientist as she freed his head from her grip.

She looked intently at the computer screen as Udi Daniel pulled out a program from each of the minds, of each exhumarines and linked them to the simulated Indian Ocean, inside his computer. Ellinaz Ivanovo looked around the lab and found a new set of machines at the right corner of the lab, and she knew that when the scientist had said her project would be ready in two days, he had actually meant it. She had not expected this speed of progress.

She felt a surge of guilt as Udi Daniel was connecting the last machine. She knew what she had aimed to achieve from the beginning, and the poor scientist was never going to figure out her moves. She would never ever resign from NextTech, come any debacle. She had used her strength and the weakness of the scientist, to have her way. Though, from the deepest point of her heart, she loved him to death, but the the singular thought of owning a portion of the precious stones in the Indian Ocean, was worth risking everything for, including life and love.

"Dan?" Ellinaz Ivanovo called him affectionately.

"Yeah".

"Do you think we can actually exist apart?"

"It's difficult to answer, I'm not in your mind".

"I don't know what you're thinking, but I want you to know, that wherever and whenever you live, I'd live, samething for death".

"Ellinaz, don't scare me again".

"Have I scared you before?"

"When you said you could see through me, into my past and future, and that I came into this world to summarize science, where did you get all that from?'

"What scared you in my utterance?"

"You're not capable of saying all that, something is likely moving you".

"I don't know what you're saying, Dan".

Contd





The following day, the two technicians transferred the hybrids to the Digital Laboratory, for Udi Daniel to perform some tests on the arms and joints of the new machines.

He keenly watched as the technicians hinged each of the hybrids on well spaced hangers, in the far right of the lab. He liked the finishing and the shaping of the body of the machines. Without thinking, he named them - EXHUMARINES. But he called them individually by the names of the humarines. He gave thumbs up sign to the men and they climbed down.

The scientist moved to the computer with the big screen and opened the soft-machines representing each of the exhumarines in the computer. He began to conduct all the tests on the hybrids. The way he laughed and smiled as he looked up to where the machines responded to keys on his computer, already told the technicians, that they had done a good job. Finally, he asked them to bring down the hybrids and packed them at a corner in the lab. He waved them goodbye as he pulled out the simulated Indian Ocean in his computer.

No sooner had the technicians had gotte, than the scientist heard a soft familiar footstep, coming through the backdoor of the lab. He already knew it was her. She walked all the way, intentionally stamping her feet on the floor for attention. Udi Daniel did not look back even as she drew near. She stood right behind him with a flask in her hand for about ten minutes, before the scientist made a comment, with his face rivetted to the computer screen.

"Am I safe here, Ellinaz?" Udi Daniel said from the corner of his mouth.

"I didn't come with a gun", she replied him as she tried to figure out what he was doing.

"Have you cleared the logs?"

"Yes my lord".

"Ellinaz, when did you start calling me your lord?'

"My god, or my lord, which one is easier to say, Dan?"

"I don't know, I didn't just like that title".

"I'd stop calling you that, my lord".

"Ellie, you know what you're doing. I don't need any distraction here".

"I didn't distract you, you that started the conversation".

She watched the computer screen as Udi Daniel hit the keys with the force and speed she considered unnecessary. She could feel that the scientist was smouldering in anger. She knew she had really pushed him almost beyond breaking point. She used her eyes to trace his body down to his feet, and she could see that he had dropped tons of weight. He appeared very burntout as well and she felt genuine pity for the man that made her to dream of impossible things. She did not know how to win his heart back, and make him not to feel, that the only reason he mattered in her life, was him recovering the precious stones from the Indian Ocean. She looked at her right hand side and saw empty packets of all kinds of biscuits on the floor. Her mouth opened and she said the words she did not want to say.

"Why did you stop taking care of yourself?" Ellinaz Ivanovo covered her mouth as the words came out.

'What did you just say?" Udi Daniel asked and looked away from the computer screen for the first time.

"It's a slip, Dan, I actually wanted to say I brought food for you".

"Thank you Ellinaz".

She was relieved by his reaction and her spirit warmed up, knowing she was the reason the scientist had sacrificed so much. It was the third running and Udi Daniel could see had made tremendous progress.

Ellinaz Ivanovo walked to a corner and lifted a plastic table near the scientist and opened the flask she brought to the lab. She dipped her hand and took three plates and placed them on the table. She began filling the plates.

Udi Daniel needed to settle the mini soldiers complaining in his stomach. The aroma from the food was bringing so much distraction and he turned his head to the table and began to attack the food. She had prepared his favorite and she smiled down at him as he took down everything..

Contd





He woke up very late in the morning of the next day, and he bemoaned the reckless way he had squandered productive time. It was few hours to mid day. He would never realize that he could not cheat nature, and leave without cost, whenever he was on a time-bound project. Straightaway, he pushed the power buttons of the computers in the LAN, as the blazing sun announced its presence in the sky. He rolled on the chair to the computer with the big screen, and initialized his brain.

He recollected where he had paused the process last midnight and logged into the computer leftmost to him and pulled up a loading executable file for MMS, machine mind systems and he updated all the four humarines and four of the digger ants. He performed a local test on each and all of the machines, and nodded his head in satisfaction. He switched his head to the next task, the last thing to be implemented on the hybrid machines he was creating.

He could feel the climax of the project coming in the air as he cleared a workspace on the computer screen, in high spirit, to design and implement "Switching Functions" of the hybrids, and connect it to the 'Decision-Making Systems" of the machines, but he got stuck.

He cracked his head open tiil he made progress past the point, only to get stuck again. He had foreseen this roadblock before he had begun the process. He was not sure now if building the hybrid from scratch, would have taken so long a time. He checked his wristwatch and he made a decision. He could end up spending the whole day only trying to get past training switching functions, in the hybrids.

He clicked open the email sent to him by the metal material engineers and he forwarded the content to the technicians to rework the frontal arms of the new machines. He needed to get the hybrids ready to be able to raise the Lost Ship against the pressure in the Indian Ocean. He directed the technicians to his bungalow to bring the humarines and ants to the AIU warehouse, to implement the modified aspect of the machines.

He returned to fix the interchange of systems functions of the hybrids, and this time, all the knots losen up easily and linked seamlessly. The scientist was learning new things about the way his brain could crack soft and hard nuts. He was going to send the first training signal to the functions interchange switch, between a humarine and an artificial ant, when a new email dropped. The technicians were already effecting the hardware changes on the machines.

He got up in the early evening, and was going to his bungalow when his mobile phone went off. He looked at the screen and found Ellinaz Ivanovo at the other end. He had wanted to ignore her picked up on a second thought.

"Hello Dan", Ellinaz Ivanovo said with a worried voice.

"Where're you now?"

"I'm back at your palace".

"Your project would be done in two days time".

"I'm so sorry Dan".

"You didn't offend me".

"Please come home".

"I can't now, I need to do this".

"I've been lonely".

"It's how you wanted it Ellinaz, I have to go now".

She was going to say something when Udi Daniel cut the call. As he resumed his motion towards the bungalow, he reflected again on some of the statements Ellinaz Ivanovo had made about him, and he felt he had enough of her already, to know that she was not purely acting on her own impulse. He placed the piece of thought on hold, as he undressed himself to enter the bathroom.

He would never think of letting her go, to permanently disconnect from the powerful forces he could never conquer. He was condemned to death by love, but he had escape plans.

Beloved readers, you're all welcome to another year in the making, as our planet is a few hours away from completing a revolution, having us as passengers!

Contd






The scientist woke up in the morning of the next day in the lab, as he heard the first cockcrow. He glanced at the wall clock as he got up and strolled to towards the backdoor. He used the code lock security system, mounted on the door, to gain access to the corridor that connected to the bungalow he used to live in, before Ellinaz Ivanovo had acquired the mansion for him.

He replayed in his head, the problem he was trying to fix the previous day in the lab, and vague ideas took shape in his head.

He got very close to the bungalow and could see lights in the rooms. He wondered who was now living there without his permission. He knew only Ellinaz Ivanovo was capable of pulling strings, without his knowledge. As he walked around to take the staircase, the solution to implement on the humarines, to be able to recover the Lost Ship in the Indian Ocean, flashed across his eyes.

He ran up the stairs and pushed open the door to the most spacious room, that opened to the outside. He found Rogi, Godia, Zodiaz and Illiax and four digger ants inside. He had come to the bungalow only to have his bath and go back to his Digital Laboratory, to rack his brain, and spinout the quickest and less stressful solution. He knew for sure that it had to be Ellinax Ivanovo that had
authorized that the machines be transferred here
.
The machines were supposed to be in the NextTech gallery or showroom or better still, in the AIU warehouse. Udi Daniel tried to interpret the intention behind this move of Ellinaz Ivanovo. What was she going to do with the machines? He did not want to draw any conclusion in his head at the moment, but he felt Ellinaz Ivanovo had moved out of his mansion with the machines.

He hurriedly walked into one of the rooms near the bathroom and undressed himself. His demeanor brightened as the shower rained over his. He had been so used to.cracking up brain rupturing challenges, that problems, he would considered kindergarten, were becoming hurdles. He came out of the bathroom and slipped into his trousers and shirt. As he was about to thrust his feet, a message dropped in mobile phone. It was Ellinaz Ivanovo telling him she had returned to her post in NextTech.

The scientist ran down the staircase and typed a message to two of his favorite technicians and metal material engineers, in the NextTech factory, in DC. He thought about Ellinaz Ivanovo as he walked into the Digital Laboratory. He resolved he would not confront her over the machines he had stumbled into in his bungalow. He could not wait to get the machines reworked, to meet the standard for the mission into the Indian Ocean, and cure her madness.

He pushed the power buttons of four computers, set up in a local area network, and strengthened up to open a packet of crackers biscuit. He rolled on his chair to the computer with the biggest screen, as he stuffed biscuits into his mouth. He remained still for five minutes staring at the ceiling, and before he logged into a computer in the local network. He pulled out the flow chart of the "Decision-Making System" of his MMT, machine mind technology. He broke out a flow and designed a new function and reconnected it to the main flow.

He modified certain files in the other systems and merged them. He then transferred the aggregated file to the mind program of Rogi. He executed a function in Rogi and could see that the humarine was responding perfectly to the training, as modified. He carried out the same modification procedure on a digger ant, and the outcome was flawless.

He had been so deep into the recreation of his machines, that he completely disconnected from time. By the time he managed to look away from his computer screen, the day was almost spent. The scientist could not believe his eyes. He felt the atmosphere was playing a fast one on him. He was poised to finish all the mind-related softwares of the changes, he needed to build into the machines. He would have loved to go all-night to seal up the modifications, but he could feel his body protesting, he needed to rest.

Contd






He felt so much better after he had eaten the junk food. He tried to compare his latest experience to what had happened to him, in the Landmarks Hotels in Brisbane, when he could not raise either of his hands to tap the Enter key, to grind the monster.

He could not believe that the strange forces, that had caught him and made the Big Bird, to crash into the Pacific Ocean, were still manipulating him in the United States, and he took it to be most likely a medical condition, but Ellinaz Ivanovo must not know.

He moved to a computer with a very big screen, and pushed the power button, before he drew a chair. For the first time, he tried to switch his brain to connect with the Indian Ocean, but the links in his imaginary lines, were not aligning. He persistently put his head under strain, but nothing was forming. He was not going to see it as one bad day in the office. He got up and made straight to remove a detailed geographical map on the wall, and returned to the computer that was now up and running.

He traced all bodies of waters to as far as tributaries of the Indian Ocean, around the Nias Island and he opened the book, "The Great Loss". He opened to a particular page in the book that briefly discussed the area of the Indian Ocean, where the ship had belted before the monsoon had kicked in, and the anchor chain had snapped.

He translated the geography of the map on the Nias Island, and found out that the book was incredibly correct, about the Lost Ship's, likely position in the ocean, given the direction the monsoon had blown towards, at the historical time. He needed to establish that.

He took another approach to piece together his imaginary links, to travel into the Indian Ocean. He counted seven to zero and he shut his eyes very tight. It worked! He could see all sorts of unnatural
and unnamed creatures, towards the center of the ocean. He moved down perpendicularly at some point, as he hoped to reach the floor of the ocean, but there was no sign that the ocean had a bed.

Suddenly, he returned to NextTech, gasping for breath, as if his nostrils had been deprived of oxygen. He sucked in the air around him greedily to inflate his lungs and balance atmospheric pressure.

He weakly but surely came back to life. He punched two keys at once and the computer displayed a simulation software. He drew his seat closer as he hit a button to clear the work space on the screen. He opened the book to the last page that contained certain estimated parameters of the Indian Ocean, around the Nias Island, and he began to create the ocean.

He wrapped off the simulation and opened a 3-D design application, to make a sketch of the type of machines, that could withstand the roughness and depth of the Indian Ocean. He thought of modifying the humarines, but it would involve a lot of changes. He looked at his wristwatch as his eyes were getting very heavy, time was approaching midnight. He shut everything down and rested his head on a table and dozed off.

Contd





Udi Daniel was woken up by the hourly alarm, of a grandfather's wall clock. His mental state appeared sharpened as he grabbed the hand of a chair, and pulled himself up from the floor. It did not take him long to reconnect to the challenge at hand.

A fresh dimension to the impasse that he had been having with Ellinaz Ivanovo, popped into his head without thinking. He realized that the situation could have been handled smoothly without breaking a sweat. He must have been thinking too much, to win a day's old, baby's game. He was Ogidi Udi Daniel! He cheered up as the solution in his head ripened. He walked back to the sofa and reread Ellinaz Ivanovo's resignation letter, and he stretched his hand to pick his phone. He sat upright and began to type a message to her.

"I've seen and read your resignation letter, and it's not accepted. You're the very embodiment of what NextTech is, there's no other place for you to run to. I'm your god, the god of science, and you're my existence. I've stopped "breathing" since I saw your letter, if you don't hurry up and attend to the issues right now in your office, I'm not sure of life".

. "You asked me to prove my love to you, by searching for some stones that had been under the Indian Ocean for over four hundred years ago, which I imagined must have been burried by layers of sediments, if that's what love is, it calls for redefinition.

"I wouldn't comment on your understanding of risk taking and pitching of business opportunities. All I can say now, is that, I've finally given in, to the time frame in Ali Garabed's contract. I'm heading to NextTech's Artificial Intelligence Unit, of my Digital Laboratory, to brainstorm, and I'm going to take the risk for you, to prove my love. If you have any respect for me, you should be at your duty post right now!"

Udi Daniel drove an old Mercedes Beatle that had since gone out of production, zig-zagi, nto NextTech and did the unusual. He walked straight from the parking lot towards the AIU, without signing in. It was considered a very serious offence in the company. The employees on the ground floor could only assume, that he was under the influence of alcohol or something.

The scientist/inventor broke his own rules. They watched him as he struggled to fish his keys from his pocket to open the door to the unit. He got the right key and he grappled again to slot it into the keyhole. His hands remained unsteady as he positioned the key. At this point, he recalled that the access code lock, could still be used. He raised his head and managed tap the right combination.

The door made a grumbling sound and split open.
He had driven out of his mansion with a calm spirit, in the revelation that handling Ellinaz Ivanovo's excesses would no longer be a difficult thing. The Mercedes Beatle, was only about fifty meters away from NextTech, when he had begun to feel his hands and legs jerking. Ellinaz Ivanovo'might be right about him, to undergo another medical investigation. He hated the thought of it. It would afford her the correctness, to rub everything in, should the doctors discover anything.

He settled nicely in his Digital Laboratory, but he was not about to go digging out anything yet. He could feel himself relaxing, his hands and legs were gradually becoming steady and he opened a packet of biscuit and solid milk.

Contd






A part of the letter read thus; "It's true Dan, that we can never meet at a common point. I'm a very ambitious person and I'm not afraid of taking risk, that's why I could prevail on you to establish NextTech, even when you did not believe in your potentials".

'Dan, it's so sad that the only man I have fallen in love with, whom I worship, is a gulf away from me, in terms of visionary demonstration of spotting opportunities. I'm going to continue to see you as the greatest scientist that has ever lived. Working with you since the fledgling days of NextTech, made me know that imagiinations are close to realities, if you passed through Ogidi Udi Daniel".

"By the time you're reading this letter, I'm back home. I've officially resigned from every involvement. I'm going to spend a few days with myself alone, and I would know where my passion leads. Thank you for all the breathtaking experience".

Udi Daniel's hands shook as he read the last page of the letter. He suddenly looked like a balloon that had been deflated. He knew she was not bluffing, anything she set her mind to, she doggedly finished it. He rushed to her room and found everything that belonged to her missing, except some of her documents strewn on the floor. Udi Daniel returned to the living room, he felt loneliness flushing through him in the last floor of the palatial mansion.

He remembered Ellinaz Ivanovo saying he did not love her one bit and he had known that she was only playing antics A voice within him, kept ringing in his mind, "Prove your love to her and she would light up your dejection". He felt life disappearing from him as he thought of risking the mission. He recalled he had told her, that the only way he would consider the Lost Ship project, must be his way.

The scientist was bombarded with calls and emails towards the evening from NextTech, most of the emails and phone calls, were from Managing Directors and Project Directors, that needed approval from Ellinaz Ivanovo. He tapped the emails open and found that half of the emails had come from NextTech factories around the world. He could not handle it, he could never run NextTech, nobody could operate NextTech like Ellinaz Ivanovo.

Udi Daniel floundered towards the glass table and took a chair. He felt his brain shifting in his skull, as he searched his head on how to beat the imbroglio. He got lost in his mind, by the time, he got out, he was mentally stressed and torn apart. He relived being trapped between the deep blue sea and the demon, from Papua New Guinea to Australia, and he caught cold.

Confused, not knowing what to do, he picked up his mobile phone and dialed Ellinaz Ivanovo. She did not pick up. He tried again, nine times, but she would not answer. The scientist fell to his knees and collapsed to the floor, and slept off.

Contd





"Dan, you're not doing this only for Ali Garabed, you're doing it for me, for NextTech, for us".

"That's why I have said Dynabiz must look elsewhere, I need to make sure there won't be any fallout after the operation".

"What fallout?"

"Have you forgotten the hell that broke loose in Brisbane?"

"This operation is happening in Indonesia, not Australia, Dan".

"I'm afraid we would never have a meeting point on this one, it's my way or no other".

"Why do you like a sloshing liquid? One minute you are here, and the next minute you're there?"

"Ellinaz! I never promised you anything. I cannot smell doom, and encourage the only thing that makes me happy in the world, to gamble with uncertainty".

"And what's that?"

"You of course, you're the only source of light in my life, if you go off for one second, I would die".

"Dan, nothing will happen to you, forget what happened in Australia, move on!'

"I can never move on, the experience is permanently engraved in my conscienceless"..

"Ali Garabed has signed the contract, and it's now binding on NextTech. We could be sued".

"It's you that hurried it, you didn't consult me before you signed the execution timeline".

"I'm going to say this one time, if Ali Garabed eventually recovered the treasures in the Indian Ocean, through another means,..."

Udi Daniel stood up and pulled Ellinaz Ivanovo up, and said, "The sky would not turn red!".

"You don't love me one bit", Ellinaz Ivanovo said as she turned around to leave the Neuron Lab.

"Is this really just about the stones?" Udi Daniel asked as she stormed away.

Udi Daniel tried to stop her to reason with her, but she would not turn back. She was the face of NextTech. The scientist could not place his hand on what was pushing her. NextTech was not going bankrupt and needed to desperately to stay afloat.
The sales of the excavants brought billions of dollars annually, and so he continued to wonder why Ellinaz Ivanovo wanted the operation to take place within the shortest possible time. He could not get why she had been so wired up about the whole thing.

He lost concentration in his laboratory and stopped working, to think of how to walk around the fragile fluid situation. He had dragged on the time, for the angel to show up in his dreams but she was not coming. He got up and began clearing his workbench to go home. He recalled how they met, and the sacrifices that she had made for him to get this far.

Udi Daniel got home and saw Ellinaz Ivanovo packing some of her belonguing into a large rolling box. He spoke to her and she nodded her head in response. He walked into his bathroom to freshen up. He returned to the living room, and fell deep asleep on a sofa, into the night.

He woke up early in the morning to a shocker, Ellinaz Ivanovo had dropped her resignarion letter beside him.

I can't call Ellinaz greedy for being so smart, it's business.
Lawyers do the worst when they know that their clients have a good case, but can't afford legal bills.

They get you to sign 50/50 deal or more, if the case is finally decided in your favor. The world of smart people.