Chapter-3
“WELCOME TO MY MAZE HAMILTON” “who’s this, hello?” “YOU'LL MEET ME SOON”, the call got terminated. This shuddering and scandalous voice appalled Neil to remain impasse excogitating his past. Within a couple of minutes, his phone rang again which bought his heart to completely sane state. “Tara……….”
“Neil…..where are you?”
“Erwin’s flat”
“Is everything okay?”
“No…can you come here now”
“Now! What happened Neil?”
“Erwin‘s got kidnapped “
“WHAT?! I will be there within minutes”
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"What is it? Is it a code? Code for what?"
'Is he torturing Emma? Why did he kidnap this poor girl...what does he want from me...? What’s this code about...? How should I decipher this code?' copious thoughts were flooding in her mind accelerating her heart beat. At this instant, a name flashed in her brain "DANIEL". She rushed towards the main door with the envelope in her hand and strode towards her car. With a hope to resolve the code, she drove to Daniel’s house with fatigue and emotional tension. “Daniel where are you?” ”At home” ”Be there, I will be there within few minutes” terminating the call, Mehek was lost in her thoughts excogitating the code. Daniel stood eagerly waiting for Mehek to come as it was her special day. He couldn’t wait to tell her the plans he had for the very next day which was their anniversary.
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Tara is a junior reporter at Fox News. It was 3 years ago, my life turned into a sweet one, changing the definitions of my goals.
I was waiting for Erwin to complete his lecture on “materials research in archaeology and ethnology” representing Massachusetts institute of Technology at mining and metallurgy conference, San Francisco. It was a tedious and draggy evening with restrained people around. Suddenly, she came and sat beside me, she spoke a lot of malarkey in a mellifluous tone about the conference to someone on the phone. Despite not hearing any of that, I kept staring at her. Her dusky skin and shining eyes made me come out of that irksome evening, forgetting about Erwin. “Neil, Did I make you wait for a long time?” fatigued Erwin came out of the lecture Hall. Neil didn’t respond being lost in his thoughts staring at Tara. ”Neil, Shall we leave?” ”Yes sure”.
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The instant Mehek got out of the car, Daniel discerned her aberrant behaviour.” Mehek, what happened?” Daniel rushing towards Mehek “Are you okay?” ”Someone kidnapped Emma, there are blood stains throughout the garden, I got this envelope.” Mehek hardly breathing, “This is the symbol which was there in the garden. He left me this code. Please decipher this code Daniel” .Daniel took Mehek into his house “Stay calm, breathe and Drink water”. Mehek stood inattentively, looking at the envelope “What should I do now? Why did he kidnap Emma?”. “Give me the envelope” taking the envelope, Daniel started scrutinizing it before light. Daniel continued “There are 2 inverted triangles coalesced with other alphabets. Give me one minute.” Daniel clutched this envelope and strode confidently towards his reading table. Within few minutes, He hollered out “ALAMO!!!”
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Tara knocked at the door,
“Come in, it’s not locked”
“What happened?”
“Erwin and I went to baseball practise, it is where he got kidnapped.” Neil continued “This is the clue the kidnapper left”. “Three hours ago, a guy was caught engraving this kind of symbol at the ALAMO, San Antonio “.Neil was dismayed and confounded on listening to her. “Erwin got kidnapped three hours ago, the Alamo is approximately 1500 miles away from Pasadena. How can it happen at same time? ….Who is he?” Neil continued “What else did he engrave? “
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”What?!”
“Considering the inverted triangle in 3 dimensional view, the pivotal details are mentioned in the central area. So, if we light it up. It’s the alphabet A. If we scrutinize this code properly, we can see that the letters are arranged in a dual reflected manner. By reflecting these symbols in a horizontal plane followed by a vertical one, we get the word ‘ALAMO’, a historical monument near San Antonio “
As Daniel confined her by deciphering the code, she ran into his arms. “Everything will be alright” stroking her hair, Daniel whispered “Emma will be fine.”
“We will go to san Antonio in the early morning flight.”
”I will go, you continue with your work here.”
“No, I can’t leave you alone on our anniversary.”
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“Few obscure writings” Tara befuddled by the situation, “What shall we do now?”
“Let’s go to the ALAMO”
“At this instant…It is arduous to book an early morning flight from California. Let me check” Tara frowned at the online booking site “There’s a flight tomorrow evening at 6:00pm”.Tara flinched ”It will be a day late, Will he hurt or kill Erwin ?”, Neil holding Tara’s hand “Don’t get intimidated by the situation, he is just making us play his game. He will not kill Erwin until he meets me, once he meets me, he will regret starting the game” Neil, slightly squinting at the symbol, “MEET YOU SOON ERWIN.”
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To be continued...........
