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Chapter 26: Chapter 26

The Treasure

The next day dawned as usual but for the three friends...All

the three were not particularly money minded but at the

same time, if they were not excited to see a trillion dollar

worth treasure, then they would not be human....

Richard was the first one to knock at Frank’s room and

Frank was already ready and it was only ten minutes past

six... Redim entered within five minutes and asked if she

made them wait...

Both the men gave her an endearing smile and wisely did

not say anything...

Frank connected with Re and Re came on immediately... he

told them to come to the first cave that was to the eastern

side of the house.

When Frank told the location, Richard was taken aback...

Such a vast treasure had been so close... The old man never

knew where he was taken .They had gone there several

times and, he always had a peculiar fascination to anything

old...

Redim was glad that the cave that she had missed would be

seen...

They set off to the cave and last time they had cleared the

vegetation a little but to their surprise once again the

vegetation was thick and they had to find the way once

again.

But Richard walked fast clearing the way for others to

follow. Once they had entered the thick, dark and silent

wood, Richard stopped and could see Zo sitting on the

same branch where they had seen the first time... Zo flew

down and perched on his shoulder and now they could see

few more strange birds flying. Redim called one beautiful

rainbow coloured bird and it perched on her stretched

hand...

Frank was thinking to shoot them in his cell phone and

then thought better of it... He would not be able to give an

explanation to these strange birds...The eagle flew near him

and said, ‘Frank, the first time when you came we closed

the underground entrance ...You come to the cave I will

wait for you there’ he flew away.

Another red bird sat on his shoulder, ‘follow Richard ...It

is very close now’

Frank was looking for the rock which had a mark like

lightening...The devil’s house as he called it was here

behind the curtain of vegetation. Then he saw the fallen

rock that was resting on the mountain wall. Before they

could move the rock, the rock was moved to one side to

reveal the dark hole... Redim was surprised to see the small

opening and said so...

Frank smiled, ‘the woman with little faith..! Wait and

The birds, many in numbers now flew in ahead of

them...Richard and frank crawled through the small

opening until they reached the high ceilinged cave and then

stood up...

Richard remembered the weird experience and now

understood he was deliberately made to sleep during the

previous visit. Redim came behind them and slowly got

up... She had heard about this cave in detail from Frank,

even then she was astonished to see the size of cave...It was

dark but suddenly the maglev lights flared up ,lighting the

entire cave . She went near the wall to have a closer look to

see the drawings... She immediately recognised the round

objects to be the round gold blocks that she had seen in

Frank’s room.

Richard thought that the same person who had drawn on

the stone tablets must have done this work... or perhaps

someone like him. The style of the drawings was similar.

When he saw the floating round objects, he knew them to

be the gold wedge. Re’s voice could be heard..., ‘Move to

the right side of the cave ‘

Frank reached there first and looked down searching for

some holes but he was called from above. He could see a

narrow passage going up. There were steps carved roughly

on either side and it was lit brightly. He looked behind to

see Redim and Richard who were eagerly waiting with

anticipation and behind them the cave entrance was

closed...

As Redim and Richard couldn’t see as they were not able to

accommodate the corner area he told them, ‘The passage is

going up...Very narrow passage but steps are there on either

side... Not sure how far the passage goes up... But prepare

to climb up...now I am going....’

Redim, ‘Let me go first, if I fall both can catch me... if it is

not dark, I have no problem....’

Frank laughed and moved away so that she could climb

first... Redim climbed effortlessly as the steps were

strategically placed... but it was suffocating and she

couldn’t see where the passage ended... They were

climbing for some time and Re’s voice reached them,

‘Redim, you can see another passage branching off from

the main passage to your right ... just few feet only .crawl

through the passage now’

She could see another passage but she felt confident as the

passage was lit brightly. She bent into the opening, pulled

herself into it and crawled slowly and then the passage

opened into an enormous cave...

She would never forget the sight. It was so bright and the

beauty of the sight was enhanced by the light... There were

many small and big rocks like tables and every table had

gold blocks!! .innumerable gold blocks arranged neatly in

all the available space on the rock tables... Each table had

hundreds of gold blocks in various sizes and there were

thousands of tables all around...She remained speechless

and behind her Frank asked her to move.

Redim slowly as if she was in a trance moved around the

entire cave. The size of the cave was almost as big as a

football field and very narrow space was left between the

rows of rock tables. She bent down to check whether the

tables were natural or not... But they were carved roughly

as low elevation from the rock bed...

Frank and Richard looked at each other... Re said clearly,

‘we have clearly kept our bargain, now it is up to you to

maintain the secret until we depart from this beautiful

globe... This is our present to these people who had put up

with us. We had killed to keep this secret...we had toiled all

around the world to collect this yellow metal... We wanted

to keep it as our freedom price but now it is not a price... It

is a beautiful gift to our dear friends, all my dear people

here will vouch for it.’ All the birds in all different shades

flew around them to show their approval...

The three humans were moved, Redim had tears and she

caught the nearby bird and kissed it... An eagle flew near

her and gave a small pouch to her and said, ‘your gift’

She took it and opened the pouch to see glittering diamonds

in different colours...She didn’t know what to do and

looked at Frank, he nodded his head. She thanked Re but

the eagle said, ‘I am Ro but you deserve it....’

Frank was given another bigger pouch and it contained

only white diamonds each one was as big as small eggs!

Richard was given another pouch which had chunks of

platinum and assortment of priceless gems...He smiled and

thanked them...

Re told them to go back and plan...has some contingency

plan too! Tonight is our last night here if everything goes

according to your plan... See you all tomorrow morning’

Once again they looked at the vast wealth that was there...

such a wealth so close to the house...Perhaps it remained

undetected because it was a private property. The gold

blocks were shining in the weird lighting... The big and

small round gold blocks were there as far as they could

see...The dull shine was more attractive than anything that

they have seen!

Redim gave a last look and asked permission to Re to take

a photograph of this site...

Re, ‘There is no need to ask, you will not harm us in

anyway... we may harm you but you three are incapable of

harming us. After being with you, we have changed the

opinion of the humans. The old man acted so selflessly but

he was branded as abnormal. But in your case, we fail to

understand your purity of thoughts to help others without

expecting anything....’

Ro, ‘we have come to trust you…so go ahead and take as

many shots as you want... Moreover Frank needs them to

convince his father... So make it look impressive’

Frank was amused, ‘Quick thinking Ro... Nothing on earth

will be more impressive than this! But thank you....’

Redim was already clicking away from every angle using

her cell phone and she asked one of the birds to take a shot

from the bird’s eye view...The bird was a female Ka and it

was too happy to take shots.

Frank was amazed at Redim’s ability to adapt and accept

any situation...

Frank checked once again the time of departure. Richard

was listening intently and asked Re, ‘Your spacecraft, by

the way what do you call your spacecraft?’

Zo replied, ‘the sound is similar to your Ave ...But Frank’s

name the shark is perfect as it resembles the aquatic

animal... But Richard, what is that you wanted to know?

‘Your Ave is inside the cavern ...Are you planning to

bring it out and take off? Do you need any runway for

Ave to take off?

Frank was very impressed as he was about to ask the

same...and he smiled at Richard in appreciation... But

Richard looked really worried!

Zo replied, ‘ We don’t need a runway , as we fly for few

seconds using maglev then we switch over to what you

call as atomic power..We use superluminal particles to

power Ave. It automatically changes the power after a

predetermined time... Normally ,we give just 5 minutes

for the maglev to check if all are in life supply and the last

person who checks needs 2 minutes to go in to partial

consciousness and connect himself to life support’

Re said, ‘Richard, we slowly bring it out to the entry point

using maglev. You will be there to see all these’

Frank, ‘very useful information though... now let us go

back .Need to invite the media here and make it biggest

news ever seen ’

Redim turned back and went through the way she came

and others followed her...

They came out and waited for the birds to come and once

they came out, they closed the rocky opening and the

covered it with the vegetation as before.

Frank assured them, ‘I will inform you today about the

finalised plan as soon as possible. Are you ready to take

off? It is not so easy after thousand years to relocate...

Ro replied confidently, we have been preparing ourselves

for this eventuality... we have collected the seeds, and

collected enough oocytes and somatic cells so that few

animals can be cloned..’

Redim was so excited, ‘My God you people are really

superior beings ... We thought you may have to take few

animals! Brilliant idea... ‘

Her excitement was felt by all the birds and they all flew

around her and flew in different directions. Finally Re, Zo

and Ro left...

Richard was very pensive and Frank told him not to

worry everything would be alright...

When they came back to the house Francis was

surrounded by his subordinates who had come to discuss

about his empire.

Frank tried to get his dad’s attention but he was busy

looking at some files. He was standing there and thinking

what to do... he had never disturbed his father when he

was with his key people. But Redim had no inhibitions, so

she went near him and sat beside him, He looked up and

she said, ‘Good morning uncle’. ‘Good morning Redim...’

He saw his son standing there near the doorway and their

eyes met... He excused himself and asked all the officers

to wait and have some refreshments.

Francis followed his son to his suite and the other two

followed him inside. Frank closed the door behind them.

‘Dad, I need your help. Are you still interested in

becoming world famous?

Francis was puzzled, ‘Son are you going to reveal the

world about the aliens? I thought they trusted you!’

Redim was so happy to hear, ‘Uncle you are great ... You

see this,’ she showed him the photos of the treasure...

He went on looking at each photo keenly and finally

looked up without any change of expression, ‘Gold’

Frank admired his father’s expressionless face but he

knew his father was too excited as his face was flushed

and his fingers were drumming on the desk... ‘Dad gold

.. piles of gold blocks... each blocks weighing one kg to

five kg…It is more gold than all the reserve that we have

in our country!’

Francis couldn’t believe anything, ‘is it the price for

silence!’

Frank smiled, ‘No dad, this is the camouflage to be used

and also farewell gift. If you make this news as biggest

breaking news we will see that the aliens depart from here

without getting noticed ’

Richard was worried...he thought Frank’s father was not

happy, ‘Sir, we must protect them please.’

Francis, ‘Richard, I don’t like the plan. Recently, Frank

was the centre of attention and his absence will be

noticed, the treasure is too big for the local officials to

handle. I must call either the President or the Prime

minister because military will take over the disposal of

the treasure to the safe place.’

Frank, ‘They have programmed their time of departure to

noon tomorrow. Tell me what should be done then?’

Francis drew himself to his full height, ‘I will call both

the president and Prime minister and see that the

international media arrive here in the afternoon. You

people go there and see them then depart quietly but you

should be here when the media arrives as you three had

discovered the treasure. So questions will be directed at

you and keep some feasible explanation ready’’

Redim looked very pleased and she looked at Frank and

Richard. Frank agreed and said, ‘Dad now it is your show

.. Because it will not be over in one day... So prepare

yourself for a week of entertainment’

Francis laughed and to his surprise an eagle came and sat

on his desk in front of him. He was taken aback... Even

though Frank had told him about the colonists’ ability to

transform he had not expected them to trust him.

It spoke to him in a clear metallic voice

‘

I am Re of the colony. We have been using your land for

the past thousand years without your family’s knowledge.

But I must say your family had been here longer than us.

You do not know how much you had helped us by

keeping your land as it is. You give so much importance

to the environment and we have learnt it from you...

Wherever we go we will follow this...I came to thank you

and your plan is the best. So tomorrow by noon we will

be off...Please accept this’

Zo flew in with the pouch and gave to him...Francis

accepted it. Re told him to open it and the pouch had the

diamond chunks, each one bigger than eggs. Francis took

one out and it glittered in the artificial light and threw

rainbow colours around the room.

Francis asked cautiously, ‘if they are stolen from

elsewhere, it will not be correct to keep it...diamonds are

easily identified!’

Frank did not think of it!

Re said, ‘you are not given gold as gift because we took

them from many countries... even from reserves. That is

why we melted and made them into the round blocks...

But the gems were dug by our people as we have the

technology to find the hardest substance on earth. So all

these are the fruit of out hard work ‘

Francis was impressed and he knew the value of these

would place him within the richest hundred. He thanked

him and Frank brought out his gift and the others too kept

it on the table. Francis was speechless for once!

Re and Zo said good bye to everyone and reminded about

the next day’s timing and left…just disappeared.

Francis immediately took charge..., ‘Keep these entire

valuable in the locker...These are too precious that it

would tempt even a saint. Richard, you must keep them in

a bank’s locker ‘

Richard laughed, ‘Frank will keep it for me ... sir you

must call the President.’

They all laughed... Francis said, ‘the highlight of my life I

will call him son and I will make it the most sensational

news ever Now let me do my work ... Frank take all these

valuables and keep them safe . Redim pass one of the best

shot of the treasure to me...it will be easy to convince

with some visuals’

Frank took her cell and immediately sent to his dad’s

number.

Redim and Frank placed all the gems in the three pouches

and gave Richard’s to him. He told them to keep it along

with other pouches...

Taking the cue, they left from there. They secured the gems

in Frank’s suite...

*****

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