Chapter 41: Confessions
"I don't know who your sources are, but they have not done a good job of keeping you informed. I am certainly not SSP Brahmanand Jhaakar's favorite son and if you are banking on luring him out with me as bait, you might as well start our funeral pyres, because no one is coming." Gaurav finally spoke up, voicing what she had thought earlier. Her father-in-law clearly preferred his younger son and hid that from no one. How was it that this voice that knew everything else would miss something so obvious? Unless…
"Leave them." She heard over the speakers and saw the men standing around the room file out and close the door behind them, leaving them both alone with the voice.
"Let me tell you a little secret, Perseus. Actually, it's sort of a big one. A doozy in fact." The voice stopped there on a dramatic pause.
"Do you know your Greek mythology, Perseus?"
She saw Gaurav look at her briefly before looking up and shaking his head to say, "Not with any depth."
"Ah… well, then. I will have to explain. Once, long long ago, there lived a king named Acrisius. He had a beautiful daughter, Danae. However, Acrisius kept her in captivity because he was told by the Oracle of Delphi that the child Danae bore would one day kill him. So, Acrisius built a bronze chamber with no entrance aside from the one opening to the sky so that no man would ever touch Danae. But you know these Greek Gods, they are even naughtier than our own Hindu ones… and thus, Zeus, dazzled by Danae's beuty, came down from the heavens into her chamber. Needless to say, some joyful times followed… and voila!… Perseus was born." There was another pause, as she wondered what this tale had to do with her husband. And then the voice continued, answering her question.
"Now, let's think of your mother as Danae. At some point, a Zeus did steal into her chamber to give her a Perseus. Until recently, I was convinced that it's you."
"What exactly are you saying?" She heard Gaurav ask in a voice that seemed strangely devoid of any emotion, but then she saw him swallow hard. He always did that when he was trying to push down something that was trying to take over. Her own chest was feeling tight now, as the warm stone and the cool stream of water flowing down its surface served as strange counterparts of sensation.
The voice continued as if it hadn't heard Gaurav's question.
"It was easy to believe that you were Perseus. Your father seems to hate you and your mother adores you above everything and everyone else in the world. Clearly, if she bore a secret child to a lover, it would be you rather than your brother. But there was something about it that still nagged me... The one advantage we have over the ancient Greeks is something called DNA testing. It's incredibly easy to get people's blood these days, don't you both agree with me?"
She found that a scary thought and thus said nothing.
"Imagine my bloody surprise when the tests came back and I found that you are indeed 100% the son of SSP Brahmanand Jhaakar! You - who couldn't be any more different from him if you tried - are actually his own flesh and blood. A cosmic joke of epic proportions!"
"My brother?" Gaurav asked again, now in a voice that sounded more vulnerable.
"Your half-brother, you mean. The actual Perseus. The identity of Zeus remains a mystery. Your mother is very, very good at hiding secrets. Even from me… and as you can tell, I am very good at ferreting out secrets. So much for the Maryada of Devyani Jhaakar!"
She jerked her head back to Gaurav to see his reaction to the last statement, but he didn't take the bait. Instead, all he said as he hung his head was, "Aditya."
"Exactly. Aditya will always be Aditya. No matter the circumstances of his birth. You, on the other hand, Perseus…."
"I am NOT Perseus! Stop calling me that!" He finally yelled out, cutting off the voice mid-sentence.
"Au contraire, You are the true Perseus. You will slay Medusa… You will fight Poseidon's Cetus… and You will rescue the maiden. Who else would have his own five-man army to protect the city from the clutches of the evils that rule it?"
She didn't understand what that was in reference to, but she now saw Gaurav's face jerk up in shock.
A short burst of laughter came through the speakers now, as the voice said, "Oh come now! Don't look so shocked. If I knew your mother's secret, then how could I not know yours?"
When Gaurav did not respond, the voice continued,
"You and your ever-faithful OP. I think the name fits him well. Optimus Prime. Men never do outgrow their fascinations with superheroes, do they?"
Ah, so this was a woman at the other end. She had been suspicious of it for some time now, even though the voice itself sounded like a man.
Rather than probing this line of conversation further to find out if the voice would give away more information, Gaurav suddenly said.
"There is more to this story than what you have told us. If you know for sure that I am my father's son and my brother is not, then why have you captured us?"
"Aha… and that's the real question. You are learning, Perseus…." There was a pause again and this time when the voice spoke, all humor was gone.
"I want to know if your father knows your mother's secret. I have told him that your brother is also kidnapped and kept in a cell some ways away from here. He can only rescue one of you. If he finds you before your eight hours are over, then you know that he knows. If he doesn't, then all the preference that he so obviously gives to your brother is not feigned and is in fact true."
"Where is Aditya?" Gaurav asked suddenly, tugging on his wrists again.
"Oh come on, Perseus. Don't go all brotherly on me now. Aditya can handle himself, even if he is a bit foolhardy at times."
"And if my father doesn't come?" He asked one last time.
"Aditya will be safe. You both will be dead. Now, I find that I am fatigued. Even a villain needs his sleep. Your eight hours started 20 minutes ago. I will see you back here in 7 hours and 40 minutes."
There was an overhead click and the tone that had been a steady drum in the background, thus not bearing their notice, now went off, signaling that the speakers had been shut off as well.
For all intents and purposes, discounting the minuscule video camera taping them from one corner, they were now alone with each other, shackled to opposite walls, one bleeding and one drenched….
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