NewStats: 3,263,617 , 8,180,770 topics. Date: Friday, 06 June 2025 at 08:23 PM 2k6e2x

Maria Ovi was on the island when the helicopters hovered above a playground and landed. She had come from the fishing port to prepare a meal for Udi Daniel. He had recovered to the extent that he could now stand upright on his feet without any help. He desired to reach Ellinaz Ivanovo through a phone call by all means, but Maria Ovi as usual would shut him down consistently. She continued to insist that he would have to recover more of himself to come to the Island to make s. He had had another dream involving Adiam that made his return to Australia not negotiable. He stood up from the wooden chair inside the hut and made some steps forward and backward and around inside the hut. He hoped to impress on Maria Ovi, that he had recovered enough to move from the fishing port. Each time he broached up the subject of leaving the port and she shut him down, It angered him, but he tried to maintain his cool. She had been a great nurse and he would not like to give her the impression that he was unappreciative. He felt renewed and strong from the inside. Maria Ovi got ready with the food and moved to the waterfront to go back to the fishing port. She got into her canoe and began to paddle towards the fishing port, and when she had pulled close to the port, a boat sped past her, she could see strangers inside, heading towards where the Big Bird had come down in the Pacific Ocean. Udi Daniel walked steadily on strong feet out of the mud house to look around. He was iring the coastlines and the waterlines of sea vessels criss-crossing from view to view, when he caught sight of Maria Ovi not too far away. He waved at her and she smiled broadly at him. He somehow envied the simple lifestyle of the girl. She finally came on the fishing port through a jetty to see him feeling the fishing nets spread out in the sun around the hut. She was truly happy for him, and she poked a fun at him from behind.

"Are you considering a fishing career here in Kairuru?

She said it with a serious face and Udi Daniel could not help it, he nearly tripped with laughter. "I'll gladly make the fishing materials available", she added.

He was attuned to the lovely and lively young woman, her sense of humor was infectious. He loosened up to her like never before as the boat that ferried Tom Harry pulled close to the fishing port. She made light of the whole situation in her naivety and Udi Daniel found her charming. He knew she was a unique girl. He owed her and her father for the hospitality shown to him, for the rest of his life. She spotted the speed boat of the search team at the jetty and drew Udi Daniel's attention to it. She could identify only the rider of the boat; the other men were not fishermen.

"It seems like they have come for you", Maria Ovi said as she entered the hut to drop her load.

Udi Daniel fixed his eyes on the men as they climbed into the jetty. The last person that stepped from the boat looked familiar to him. As they got closer, he stretched and recognized Tom Harry. The Minister could not recognize him until he came close enough. Udi Daniel looked emaciated and unkempt in his appearance. He had not changed his clothes since the crash nor had he taken his bath. The two men locked themselves up in an affectionate embrace, as soon as Tom Harry recognized him. Maria Ovi came out of the hut to see the two men shed tears on each other's shoulder. She caught the fever too and tears began streaming down her cheek. When they finally freed themselves, Tom Harry gently held him and took him to a corner of the hut, where they had a brief conversation. Maria Ovi heard all that they had talked about. Udi Daniel came into the hut to tell her that he would be leaving with Tom Harry. He touched her for the first time as tears would not stop driipping from her eyes.

"Aren't you going to wait for my father to return from fishing?" She asked through her tears".

"But I've not said that I'm leaving", Udi Daniel said as he took her hands.

"I've heard it with my ears", Maria Ovi said like a whimpering child, ""And I can see it in your eyes".

He tried to dab her eyes with his bare hand as he said, "Please stop the tears Maria. I can't express my gratitude to you and your father enough. I must go now to keep things under control and relax the nerves of my loved ones, who are in limbo over my existence. I'll see you again, I promise!"

Maria Ovi freed herself from his grasp and hugged him as if the world was leaving the two of them behind. The voice of Tom Harry cut the connection between them and they reluctantly pulled away. She made him to take the food that she had prepared before leaving the fishing port. As he was leaving the hut, she said, " your promise, I'll be waiting for you". Tom Harry and the other men waited for Udi Daniel outside the hut. They were struck with surprise to see the shape he was in, just two days after surviving a plane crash that killed nearly everyone onboard. Two men helped him down from the jetty into the boat. He turned around and saw Maria Ovi waving at him as the boat's engine came on. It baffled him how she could connect to a total stranger like that. He did not think she was only expressing her feelings over his survival. In some ways she appeared like the angel that had invited him to the Pacific Ocean. He did not think his meeting with her was a mere coincidence and ordinary, something could be more to it. He shook off the thought of becoming amorously ed to her in the future. When she had hugged him tightly in the hut, strange feelings had flushed through him, and he tried to force them back, but he ended up returning her strength. Ellinaz Ivanovo was waiting for him in the US but he had got to reclaim his life by locking up the demon in Adiam, to be free from the manipulating influence. When he had promised Maria Ovi that he would see her again back in the hut, he did not exactly know how he would do so. He had said it to ease his exit. The speed boat finally got to the shore of the Kairuru Island and he was assisted to disembark.

They walked to the hall that housed the items recovered from the wreck and waited for all the men in the search team to congregate. Tom Harry decided to send an email to Ellinaz Ivanovo in the hall before the other of the team arrived from the Pacific Ocean. He introduced Udi Daniel as the sole survivor of the tragedy and urged to leave the island to seek medical attention for him. They could not believe that he indeed had escaped from the disaster. Tom Harry concluded his discussion with other government officials and left the hall with Udi Daniel. As they walked away to the playground where the helicopters waited, Udi Daniel turned to face him.

"I know why you're so bothered about getting a medical personnel to examine me", he said, "But first, take a look at me, am I not fit and strong?"

"You're not Daniel".

"I need no medical examination Harry, I'm fine".

"You don't want me to listen to you", Tom Harry said and looked away from him, "You have no idea what you've been through".

He laughed wryly and said, "Tom, be honest to yourself, do I look like someone who's had a deadly plane crash?"

"It remains a marvel, but I can't replace an expert opinion".

"I'm alive for a reason!" Udi Daniel said behind the Minister, "I have a mission to pursue in Australia".

"What mission?'

"To save Australia"

"I said it, your mental health is affected", Tom Harry said and stopped to scan him all over with his eyes.

"You wouldn't understand now!" Udi Daniel retorted.

"Until a thorough professional medical investigation is done on you, I wouldn't take you seriously".

"I must regain my freedom now!" Udi Daniel said aloud as they got to the playground.

Chapter Eight







Hopes would not dim in Ellinaz Ivanovo, as she waited out the arrival time of the flight of Udi Daniel in Washington DC. She remained in the airport well into the night hoping on hope. She finally decided to leave with a heavy heart but she would not despair. She looked at her wristwatch every ing minute as she drove out of the Baltimore/Washington International Airport, wondering what could have gone wrong. She got home and connected to the Airline in Australia and discovered that the plane had gone off radar and out of touch with all ground radio and satellites stations, since the fourth hour after it had taken off from Canberra. She could not sleep a wink throughout the night. She could not entertain the thought that something untoward had happened to the plane. She decided to Tom Harry on the phone very early in the morning. She pulled the call as she laid on her back in her bed, with her mind racing to and fro Australia.

"Hello Ellinaz", Tom Harry said with a deep voice, "I was expecting your call".

"Really? What's happening Harry?"

"Everyone is afraid, have you checked with the airline?"

"The plane has gone missing since yesterday!!"

"The Australian government is aware of the situation and investigation is on".

"This can't happen, not now, not ever", Ellinaz Ivanovo cried, "I pushed him into this! I killed him!!"

"Pull yourself together Ellinaz, the plane is just missing, Dan hasn't been found dead", Tom Harry said with a reassuring tone, "Say some prayers for him instead".

"This is not real".

"A search is ongoing, I'd keep updated Ellinaz, I need to go now and I'd talk you again".

"Thank you Tom", she said with heavy eyes and terminated the call.

She did not believe in God but she prayed for the first time in her life anyway, to no particular God. She hoped that nothing awry had happened to the plane. She had taken NextTech to a whole new level in every front, siting branches of the company in major capital cities across the world. She suddenly felt a huge vacuum in herself and life looked bleak all at once. Her business astuteness had been next to nothing, and she ever hungered for opportunities and success. The demand for the excav-ants had skyrocketed and she had plans already to incorporate the production of the humarines in mass scale. She had watched the live coverage of the display of the humarines and had penciled down other tasks that the machines could be needed to perform. The dollars were rolling into billions and great ideas would not cease coming. But nothing made sense to her now, not even her life. "Nothing must happen to Udi Daniel", a voice kept saying out of the deepest part of her soul. She realized she had given the business aspect of her life a higher priority than anything else, but right now, all the achievement so far would count to nothing for her, if Udi Daniel did not return. He was the only thing that had been missing that would her perfect. Her interest in life dropped at the thought of losing him and she realized her little a time they had spent together. She would not let the scientist out of her sight again, if he made it to the United States. He was her god and science was her religion.

The Australian Civil Aviation worked tirelessly with the Airline officials to search thoroughly for the missing plane. The search was still on, when the Australian Department of Information received a mail from Port Moresby, in Papua New Guinea, about the location of a crashed plane. The team and some government officials quickly come together and set out for East Sepik in Papua New Guinea, to confirm the crash in the Island. Tom Harry was among the officials that were sent by the Australian government to Kairuru Island. He prayed and hoped that the plane was not the one that had lifted engers including Udi Daniel from Canberra, heading to the United States. One of the men that worked for the Airline had flashed a ray of hope at the Minister when he said their planes did not fly over the airspace of Papua New Guinea to the United States. They flew into the island with six helicopters.

He woke up with the dream fresh in his mind, and tried to make head or tail of the dream in connection to his encounter with the angel. The blazing sun shone through the thatched roof into the room as he laid on the mat. His neck was stiff from the crash and bandaged with a locally made tincture. His consciousness soared into full gauge, as the heat from the sun warmed his skin. His memory was on reset as he tried to connect his dreams to reality. The healer, in his early seventies, returned to the hut to find that he had opened his eyes. The old man knelt down close to the mat and offered some incantation in a language gibberish to him. The old man signed to him telling him that he would be alright. He brought out some leaves and crushed them on a stone and collected the herbs in a neat white material, and squeezed out the liquid in the herbs into his eyes. He used some other leaves to dab his body while he chanted in the strange language. The healer rose up and gestured to him that he would be back soon and he left. He paddled his canoe to the Kairuru Island where he lived with his family and got one of his daughters, Maria Ovi, to prepare some food for the survivor of the crash. As she prepared the food, he began to tell his daughter about the miracle that his god had done with the leaves of his ancestors. When Udi Daniel was brought into his hut on the fishing port the day before, his heart could barely beat. The fishermen that brought him to the port had declared him dead on arrival. Maria Ovi got the food ready and changed into her best dress. She followed her father to see the only survivor of the plane crash. As soon as they entered the room, Udi Daniel made effort to talk. His face twitched and his mouth uttered the question, "Where am I?"

She replied Udi Daniel in English. "You're in a fishing port in Kairuru Island, in Papua New Guinea".

He tapped his left hand weakly on his bed and asked, "Am I alive?"

"Of course, you're alive", Maria Ovi said with sad emotions, "Do you know what happened to your plane?"

"It crashed", Udi Daniel replied feebly with a finger pointing down

"But you survived", Maria Ovi said as she drew closer to him, "I brought some food for you".

She unwrapped the parcel that contained the food and crouched near him on the mat. She began to feed him with a locally made spoon. He gulped down whatever the girl put in his mouth. He was obviously very hungry. The healer believed the food would give him the strength to move his muscles. He looked into a bag and brought out a concoction inside a calabash, and instructed his daughter to give it to him after she had fed him . The old man left the two of them in the hut to care for his fishing nets. Udi Daniel fell asleep almost at once after Maria Ovi had given him the concoction. The dreams returned again and this time there was no angel, but Adiam. He was standing by the seashore of the Coral Sea and weeping over the death of Paul Gardner, and suddenly, Adiam reappeared on the platform. He spun around and began sprinting away to his car. The machine sprang behind him to slap him down, but it missed him by the whiskers. He flew into his car and drove off with a blistering speed, as the crazy machine chased him into the city center in Brisbane. The monster caught up with him on the road and coiled the car with his long tail and flung it out to a playground, where children had gathered. The kids scattered as the car landed on the ground and exploded into flames. He managed to limp off to take cover as he pulled off his shirt that had caught fire. Adiam followed the car into the playground and could not find him, but could see children scurrying in different directions. The monster furiously skipped about and trapped a woman who was running with two of her children, one on her right and the other on her left hand. She was shocked to her spirit as her kids shrieked in dread. She could not move a muscle. Adiam thundered a question!

"Where's Udi Daniel?

She got too frightful to utter a word, but shook her head from side to side to say, "I don't know". Adiam was visibly incensed and it began to wrap its tail around the woman, and pulled her up close to his face. Suddenly, it yanked her head off and it howled aloud. The gory experience smacked Udi Daniel from the dream to wakefulness with screams. Maria Ovi sprang up from where she was sitting outside the hut, to check on him. She found him him making effort to shift on the mat as she rushed into the hut.

"Where am I?" Udi Daniel asked again in confusion.

You were rescued from a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean, and you're in a hut on the Kairuru Island in Papua New Guinea", Maria Ovi said with a touching voice, "What made you scream?"

"I had a bad dream", Udi Daniel replied as he tried to change position on the mat.
Maria Ovi could see that he was speedily regaining his strength and health. His voice was strong and he had begun to move his hands and legs slowly. He made an effort to prop his head on a fold of clothings used as a pillow and she rose to help him. She smiled broadly at the lucky man and at the same time, felt pity for him with misty eyes. The scientist warmed up to her as their eyes found themselves..

"What's your name?"

"I'm Maria Ovi!"

"Beautiful name", Udi Daniel said softly and thoughtfully.

"Thank you sir".

"Where are the other engers onboard the plane taken?"

"You're the only survivor, I've told you about that before. Their bodies are in a morgue on the island".

Tears welled up in the eyes his all of a sudden and he wept bitterly. Maria Ovi continued to empathize with him. She fell to her knees on the mat and rubbed his forehead with another concoction, as she whispered consoling words into his ears. His memories came to him in a rush and he connected everything together. Now he knew the dreams and the trances he had had in the airplane were real messages. A demon in Adiam was seeking him for recovering the Mystery Diamond in one hand, and other higher forces had killed everybody onboard the plane to send him back to Australia, to stop the rampaging monster and lock the demon of diamond up, in exchange for freedom to life and peace.

"For how long have I been here?" Udi Daniel asked Maria Ovi in a hurried sentence.

"The crash happened yesterday and your recovery has been miraculous!!" Maria Ovi said, "You have to consider your health above whatever you might have lost. Stop worrying about the crash and relax your mind, it would stop the dreams".

He shook his head and said, "You won't understand, I"m set for a mission, and I'm ready! I need to reclaim my life".

"What are you saying? You're not ready for anything!"

"I'm leaving the island!!"

"You're not going nowhere! Not now", Maria Ovi said sternly, "What's pushing you? You can't even stand upright".

"I must go back to Australia to find the monster and separate the demon", he said absentmindedly to her.

"What're you saying? You're not communicating normally!"

"You would never understand Maria".

"You need help, the crash had clearly done some damage to your head", Maria Ovi said and stood up from the mat.

."You have no idea of what's happening in my head".

"It's so obvious, you still suffer from the shock", she said with conviction.

Udi Daniel saved himself from listening to her sermon as he ed Ellinaz Ivanovo in the United States and all the expectations. At once he experienced a rush of energy into him and he suddenly pulled up his knees to sit upright on a wooden chair. Maria Ovi dashed forward to him as he insisted on sitting. She made him to rest his back against the wall with his legs outstretched..

"Take it easy with yourself", she said as she scanned him in the face.
"I'm doing fine Maria".

"I can see that, you're coming physically fine, but take it easy", she said and looked directly into his eyes, "But you're not mentally there yet, stop pushing yourself hard".

"I created Adiam and I can fix its mess", Udi Daniel blurted out without thinking.

"What are you talking about? Who's Adiam?"

"You wouldn't get it".

"Try to make me understand".

"It's better not mentioned to keep your sanity", Udi Daniel said with a clear and strong voice.

"What do you mean? Is it only an insane mind that can understand you?" She asked, "You need more attention to your head".

"Yes, you're correct, my head is stuffed with things, I'm insane!"

"It's the shock from the crash, you'd do fine with time and with good mental attention".

"No Maria, I don't need anymore attention, I'm perfectly alright, I'm fighting what you couldn't see with the naked eyes".

"Is that why you screamed from your sleep?"

"That's correct Maria!!"

"You're behaving strange!!" she said and walked away few meters in the hut, "But, I must say you're a miracle!"

"I know that!!"

"Where was your plane flying to?"

"Australia to the United States".

"Are you an American?"

"I guess so!"

"You're a funny man", she said as she drew near him again, "The provincial government would get a word out there for the US government to come for you".

"No, I can get out of the island with a phone call, and I'm going back to Australia".

"Fine, in that case I'll arrange that for you when you're strong enough".

"I'm strong enough already to leave", Udi Daniel said as he made frantic effort to stand on his feet.

"No you're not!!" Maria Ovi said firmly.

A knock on the outside of the hut, paused the conversation between them. It was the healer, he had heard lively voices inside the hut and quickly came in and found Udi Daniel sitting upright on a wooden chair with his back against the mud wall in deep talks with his daughter. His face glowed with joy and he knelt down again to say things that had no meaning to him. Maria Ovi laughed when she saw the expression on the face of the scientist.

"My father is thanking God for you, for sending you from the land of the dead, back to the land of the living!"

Chapter Seven







Time appeared frozen up in Ellinaz Ivanovo'd NextTech office in DC. She had been counting down the hours in minutes to the time it would take Udi Daniel's plane to land in Washington. She strenuously waited for time to clock another hour. She rose from her chair heavioand left for home. It was very unusual of her to leave NextTech at the hour, but her feelings were swinging her between extremities. There was nothing she could not do for him right now. She had planned to do dirty things to him in her head, but she would never know that her god was about thirty nine feet below the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

The inhabitants of Kairuru Island had watched the Big Bird as it divided and went down into the Pacific Ocean, and the incidence had stirred up paralyzing fear. A group of men and teenagers braved up and ran towards the area of the ocean where the plane was gidown. The area was close to a fishing port and fshermen came out of their huts as they had heard a loud hissing noise, followed by the outbursts of noise from the island. They hurriedly got into their boats, on catching sight of the tail of the plane, going down in the water, and raced along others to salvage whatever remained. The men found their way inside the plane and began to bring out bodies of the engers into their boats, to be taken to the island. Other men arrived with bigger boats and ed in the evacuation. Loud cries and wailing filled the air.

One of the engers onboard the plane coughed out water, as his body was being stretched into a boat. A fisherman noticed it and singled him out to be rushed to a healing home on the fishing port as the rest continued to transfer the bodies. Under ten minutes, the dying man was ferried near the port. The healer also a fisherman, could see from where he was watching, that someone was being taken to his hut and he breezed out to help to lift the body of the young man into his hut. He immediately settled down to resuscitate him. He finished applying some herbal liquor on his body and quickly left the apparently to get something. The enger was a man in his late thirties and he looked unconscious with water dripping from his nostrils. The rescue team finally pulled away from the Pacific Ocean and all the dead bodies recovered were deposited in a mogue on the island. Their belongings were gathered and kept in the care of a local chief, that had gone away to inform the Authority of the Province about the crash.

In the mid morning of the next day, Udi Daniel opened his eyes slowly while lying on a mat inside the mud hut. His eyes opened heavily with pains as he tried to figure out where he was in, in his half conscious state. He knew that this was reality and he struggled in his mind as to how he ended up motionless. He stared at the ceiling made with old cane mats, that covered the thatched roof of the chilly mud house and he reminisced. He rolled his eyes around but could not find anyone. His mouth opened to call, but no sound would come out. He strained his ears to listen to a voice outside the hut, but could not pick anything distinct. He was rapidly connecting to time and his consciousness was steadily becoming established. He had been drifting from one horrific meaningless short dreams to another, in his unconscious state. He felt an excruciating headache as he forced his mind to get his brain to replay recent events in his head. He recalled he was in a plane traveling. His eyes were forced shut and he was soon asleep again. It was not long before he got lost into a meaningful vivid dream. The angel that had appeared to him in the plane, reappeared to him and he began to tongue-lash her for killing everybody onboard the plane. She moved very close to him and began to shed tears as she wrapped him in her arms. She pointed to the monster as he glided on the surface of the Pacific Ocean with ardor, and said with a strong voice, "Pull yourself together now! I'm not responsible for the crash, I'm only here to deliver a message to you. You've tresed against powerful forces in another world and they want you to clean up your mess!! You must go back to Australia!!" She continued, "The demon you set free, bonds strongly with the diamond that you forcefully recovered in the Coral Sea". He was dumbstruck by the revelations of the angel. She took his head in her hands and looked directly into his eyes and said, "You're the chosen one, you will go back to Australia, to bind the demon and stop the monster!!!" He was going to ask her how he could do all that, and she disappeared in the dream with a whisper..

Chapter Six







The tension in Udi Daniel relaxed as he waited to board in the airport, and he flashed back to the incidences surrounding the diamond. He tried to fuse everything together and relate it to the conclusion that Tom Harry had reached on the diamond, and things got foggy in his head. He forced the thoughts out of his mind as nothing was making sense, in the center of it all. His spirit got rekindled as his thought by default swung to Washington DC. He replayed and savored the moment he had had with Ellinaz Ivanovo in the display hall in NextTech, before he had left the US capital. He could not wait to be cuddled in her comforting long arms. It was one sure outlet to banish away the craziness of the happenings of his missions to Australia. She missed him like he had gone forever. When she had got the message that he was in the Canberra airport about to board; she had excitedly made the ground filled with surprises, to welcome him like the god he had become in her heart and head. She relished the times.

The Airbus roared on the runway in the airport and steadily lifted into the air, and Udi Daniel felt the lips of Ellinaz Ivanovo on his. He would never let her go away again whenever she kissed him. Erotic feelings seemed to have blocked away every other emotions and he liked it. She had come to rescue him away from the monster and he felt peace in his mind. But It did not last, it was not long in the air that he felt his mind losing control. Spikes of thousands of thoughts poured into his consciousness and he lost himself. The image of Ellinaz Ivanovo rapidly faded away in his imagination, against his will. The thoughts of the diamond and the monster that he had forced out, returned with more intensity. He hated to it it to himself that something really mysterious was about everything. He grappled to corelate the cargo plane, freighting the stone and bursting into flames in air, in Brisbane, to the appearance of the monster just a little while after recovering the diamond from the Coral Sea, and he recognized the ring of an extraordinary manipulation. All the arguments he had had with Tom Harry since the first time he had stated and made case for the diamond in his office in the DC, wiped out everything he had known and believed in a second. But he could never think that a spiritual force could operate, in a none living thing and possessed Adiam. A portion of his brain however biased, would not take it. But of course, his machines were not none living things! They had feelings and could take decisions almost naturally. He continued to roll up and roll out his thoughts in the air, in the middle of the battle going on in his mind. Two hundred and eighty eight engers were on board the airplane, including twelve crew and he occupied a seat in the business class by the window side. The Big Bird cut through the expanse with almost the same speed the thoughts spiked in his head. He lost consciousness of the time, as he turned to see the Pacific Ocean, through the windows. A vision of the monster was vivid in his head and it stuck hard even as he tried to shake it off. The monster was rising from the water to pull down the plane. He closed his eyes and mentally calculated the time that it would take the plane to leave the Pacific Ocean behind. His head was not clearing off. The plane maintained a level flight for one hour and ten minutes before he opened his eyes. To his disappointment, it looked as if the plane would never pull away from the Pacific Ocean. He mustered courage to steal a glance through the window, and again, he saw the same geographical spread. He shut his eyes again. The waters appeared to be beckoning to him to come over with a strong force. Each time he opened his eyes in the plane, he fought the temptation of looking through the window. He opened his eyes and tried to read a book, but the image of the monster popped up in his head. He felt closing his eyes forever, was the only sure way to kick out the image of the monster. He was not alone in the displacement observation outside the airplane. The plane was cruising out of control at an altitude just below the Absolute Ceiling in a clear blue sky, above and around the Pacific. The first officer observed an unusual sequence in the flight data readings and he drew the attention of the pilot to it. The flight instruments had measured eight thousand miles from Australia, but it was not showing in the instrument's Linear Displacement screen.

Gradually, it became obvious that the aircraft was not moving away from around the Pacific Ocean. The first officer carefully inspected the gyroscopes for any malfunctioning while the pilot re-checked the Rate of Turn and Heading Instruments. They established that the aeroplane had been cycle-navigating for the last three and a half hour. Thousands of feet below, a young boy in a fishing canoe, in Papua New Guinea, could see the Big Bird moving in cycles and he drew the attention of his father to it. Farmers in some parts of New Zealand and fishermen in parts of Singapore, watched the plane as it orbited and began spiraling downwards. Udi Daniel fell into a trance as the plane continued to revolve. A soft but confident voice whispered to him after calling his full name, "Ogidi Udi Daniel". He turned around to see a ravishingly beautiful tall lady, with the appearance of an angel. Her long hair was waving in the gentle wind of the Pacific. She spread her arms wide to receive him in an embrace with a broad reassuring smile. She urged the scientist on, to fall into her opened arms. Udi Daniel took steps towards her. She stood tall on the Coral beach with an alluring posture. The curvy coconut palm trees behind her swayed to the rhythm of the gentle breeze, painting a background of an irresistible seduction. Her light blue flowing gown blended well with the clear blue sky. Her eyes were burning him up with tenderness and love. Udi Daniel got caught in her magnetic web and he increased his pace to fall into her arms. As he stretched to take her hands, she disappeared with a voice, and said, You know where to find me, come to the Pacific, I'll be waiting!" Suddenly, he snapped out into reality in the plane. Everything seemed the same with the exception of the flight attendants pacing up and down. The flight officers tried to send radio signals from the plane but nothing was working in the communication systems. The engers onboard were beginning to feel that something awry was happening. Udi Daniel was the only enger onboard that knew the true state of things in the plane. The plane had revolved fifty seven cycles and the Rate of Turn Instruments were frozen. The officers could not keep it to themselves anymore.

"We have a situation!" The first flight officer announced, "The plane has been locked in cycles since the last three hours", the reaction from the engers made him to add quickly, "We're working it out and I'm hoping we'd get back control".

Everyone got restless and called on different gods to save them from the situation. Udi Daniel remained calm and thoughtful. His experience with the angel that appeared in his trance was still fresh in his mind. He picked a book and opened and again, the image of the monster would not go away. The monster grabbed Ellinaz Ivanovo by the throat in the book, and it raised her up, it slapped her to the ground and Udi Daniel exploded inside the plane with a terrifying cry. The air engers could not take their eyes off him as he behaved weirdly. A number of them identified him as the man they had seen on TV, conducting the humarines operation to recover the blue diamond, the Mystery Diamond - from the Coral Sea. The scientist felt his life spinning out of control. The demon in Adiam was not coming for him alone. Ellinaz Ivanovo had showed up in the picture, and he would not take ir. He felt regret for creating the humarines. Nothing mattered to him now except his life and the love of his world. He was ready to let go of everything he had achieved just to get home in one piece and meet the woman that breathed life into him. The voice of a trembling announcer in the plane knocked him out from his reverie.

"Pull yourselves together everybody. The flight officers are doing everything possible to get the plane to function again. Don't panic, be rest assured that we would touch down in Washington in one piece".

Udi Daniel suppressed a chuckle in the midst of despair. He knew the announcer was preparing them to accept their fate. He looked through the window again and saw the same layout of the Pacific Ocean, but this time with more clarity. The plane had spent more than three hours orbiting and had come down to an altitude of about hundred feet. Udi Daniel shut his eyes before the plane would crash, but he was soon caught in another episode of trance, more vivid than the former. The angel reappeared to him again saying,

"Jump from the plane and save every other person on board!!!"

"Why should I die alone?"

"You have unleashed horror on men, and you must fix your mess".

"I didn't hurt anybody".

"You set free the demon of diamond in the Coral Sea! You would never know peace unless you lock it up back!'

"It's that why these people on the plane are going to die?"

"You're human, you would never understand", she said and faded with the wind.

"Who are you?"

Udi Daniel was smashed to reality as the plane split into two, before it crashed into the Pacific Ocean, around the Kairuru Island in Papua New Guinea.

Tom Harry and Udi Daniel were shocked to their pants, they turned around and bolted away for their lives and never looked back. Adiam got super charged as it got no response from the occupants of the bus. They were frightened to death as the machine got frenetic and began to push the bus out of the bridge towards the river. The clattering and clanging noise as it pushed through abandoned vehicles, was deafening! It drowned the wild shrieks and wailing of the engers inside the bus. The street lights were fully on, and people watched the horror helplessly from a distance, in full glare. The Brisbane police helicopters headed for the Walter/Taylor Bridge. One of the snipers used his binoculars to view the bridge from far away as the helicopter flew into the Brisbane communities along the riverside. He pointed his riffle and pulled the trigger as the monster was about to push the enger bus into the river. Three military attack helicopters showed up from the other side of the bridge and began to fire at it. Adiam escaped like light into the river before using its long tail to complete the damage. It sent the bus into the river! The Minister and Udi Daniel heard a loud confusion from behind but they would never look back. They ran down the full stretch of the Indooroopilly Road and were about to change direction at a junction, when the Chief of Police spotted the two men with headlights as one of the police vehicles negotiated towards the Indooroopilly Road. They were heading to the train station, to travel by rail to Canberra. The Chief of Police stopped the Tom Harry and arranged for him to travel to the federal capital in one of the police helicopters.The Brisbane river came to view again as the police helicopter lifted Tom Harry and Udi Daniel into the air. They could see that heavy machineries were being driven down the bridge to lift the bus with the engers out of the river. Their vision slowly faded away as a crane lowered four hooks into the river, followed by the plunging of divers. The helicopter changed direction towards Canberra and Udi Daniel breathed relief. He had been so close to being in the net of the mad machine. He had come to realize that a negative intelligent force was operating in the machine that had features that related to that of the humarines. How this could happen beat his human understanding, he could not think that it was Adiam that had been transformed.Tom Harry feared for the life of the scientistl and he decided he would facilitate his travel back to the United States. It remained a dazzling puzzle to him, that the monster had sought the whereabout of the scientist. Spikes of questions kept shooting in his mind but he could not pull himself together to think now. His thoughts switched to the Mystery Diamond in the Brisbane museum.

The Australian government was overwhelmed by the influx of tourists applying to see the blue stone in Brisbane, and the news of the monster being peddled around was very unsettling to Bobby Roberts. He had ordered that the protection around the Brisbane museum be reinforced after the news had filtered through that a monster had come out of the Coral Sea, and was seeking the diamond. He declared a curfew in the whole of Brisbane even when he could not believe the story of the monster. He made stringent moves to stop the media from spreading the news of the monster around. Media organizations heavily stood the risk of being barred. Bobby Roberts Looked cautiously very worried in his office in the capital, he decided to dial the phone of the Minister of Defence for more information.

"What's the update on the monster?" Bobby Roberts asked straight up as the Minister picked up.

"It has just been sighted on the Walter/Taylor bridge by the military".

"If this is real", Bobby Roberts said, "While I'm yet to believe the story, do everything needed, and unneeded to close the case!!!"

"It's hunted right now, and believe it, it's true, we have captures of the monster from different positions".

"It's shocking and outlandish!

"I can't agree more", the Defence Minister said almost in a whisper, "We've casualties already""

"What!! Give me counts!"

"We're not certain of the numbers, but I can confirm it to you that the monster had sent an SUV into the Brisbane river, before it had pushed a bus full of engers inside".

"I hardly take the veracity of the , I call for a crucial security meeting this minute. Spread it around the Security Heads".

"It's done sir".

"Have you any idea where this might be coming from?"

"Tom Harry has says that the monster had come from nowhere and asked for the recovered diamond from Paul Gardner on the Coral beach, before it killed him".

"This is a ridiculous folktale of tortoises!! Let's meet and put things right in the studio office, and finish the monster once and for all!!!" Bobby Roberts said with a force.

"We'd be there!"

The embargo the Prime Minister had placed on the media did little or nothing in the propagation of the appearance of the monster in Brisbane. But what Bobby Roberts had thought could be bad for business, turned out to be invigorating to tourists to want to see more of the Mystery Diamond. He made calls to Tom Harry on his mobile, as he smartly left his istrative office for his studio for the crucial meeting with his security heads. The helicopter flying Tom Harry and Udi Danie descended into Canberra thirty minutes later, as the helicopter lowered into the government house, the security meeting was in full swing. Tom Harry grabbed Udi Daniel by the hand as soon as they disembodied and took time to the block of the government house, to fast-forward the conclusion of the transaction between the Australian government and NextTech, and he rushed out to the venue of the security meeting. He arrived as the meeting was about rounding off, but he was able to paint a short vivid of his experience. He could not stress the slipperiness of the monster enough.

The darkness of the night appeared denser in the capital, as lights from military attack helicopters, killer drones and bomber jets headed to Brisbane as Tom Harry returned to meet the scientist. They looked like fastly disappearing stars in the sky. The Minister had a quick talk with him and Udi Daniel got set to leave the capital the next day. He was going to travel to the United States without the humarines. Tom Harry would arrang for the machines to be brought from the Beach Side Hotel and be transported to Washington DC. Udi Daniel was driven to the Canberra International Airport in the company of the Minister in the morning and he opted to a commercial flight to the US. He was scared to fly as the only enger in a private jet. He still had cold feet from the near encounter with the monster.

Right in the Coral Sea, Adiam was firmly gripped by the invisible hand that had pulled it into the black hole and its mind was undergoing re-configuration. Suddenly, the hand sprang up out to the floor of the sea, holding tight to the machine, and it vanished slowly inside it. The humarine began to change in form and size. It had all the external features of the frogs with the exception of a strong long tail, with razor-cutting edges, that that continued to grow. The new Adiam swung its tail around, and sent sea animals and fishes scampering. It moved under the sea like a flash!. The machine picked a radio signal from the platform where Paul Gardner was waiting for it to return, and like a lightening, it appeared on the platform to see Paul Gardner about to shut down the systems and leave the beach. He fell on the platform in shock as Adiam manifested from nowhere and shinning like chrysolite. He tried to deactivate the mind of the humanrine with the device, as the machine walked towards him slowly on two legs, but the machine would not respond to command. He could see and hear its long tail making a metal sound on the iron grids of the platform. He see that the machine had increased in size and now looked like a giant frog. Fear paralyzed him and he could not scream or made to flee. Adiam swiped his tail to send him writhing on the sea shore. The loud painful expression from him, as he landed with a thud, caused Tom Harry and Udi Daniel to switch their eyes on the platform, Paul Gardner was not there. They saw a black giant frog three times the size of an average human being, with a long tail, stepping from the platform onto the beach.Tom Harry frantically pulled a call to Paul Gardner, the phone kept ringing in his pocket but he was too weak with pains to move a muscle, his back bone terribly ached where Adiam had whipped him. The machine moved majestically on the sea shore and flung its tail again to send him into the open, where Udi Daniel and Tom Harry could now see him fully. Paul Gardner coughed out blood on the beach as he made a feeble effort to stand on his feet. They watched in horror, stricken with the fright that disabled their reactive senses.Tom Harry got himself as electric bulbs in the beach came ON, and he screamed the name of Paul Gardner. He shivered as he fished out his mobile phone and pulled a panic call to the Chief of Police of the Queensland Police Division.

"How can I help you?" The Chief spoke sharply at the far end.

"We have a situation here in the Coral beach!!"

"Who're you please?"

"This is Tom Harry, the Minister for Mines and Petroleum!"

"Straight on, what's this about? And be specific".

"A monster has just emerged from the Coral Sea, and it's attacking one official in my Ministry".

"It's not heard of, a monster from the sea?
Are you sure about this?"

"Hurry up and come to the beach!!!"

"We'd be there!"

The striking resemblance of the monster to the frogs, barring the long tail and its immense size, threw Udi Daniel into deep thoughts. He restrained from thinking that Adiam had taken another form, he was sure of his training and programming of the machines and he knew the minds of the humarines had not the capabilities to transform into another creature. While he was still thinking, Adiam held Paul Gardner by his neck and raised him from the ground. The monster looked into the eyes of Paul Gardner and asked in a monotone voice, very loudly.

"Where's the diamond?"

"They took it to the city", Paul Gardner stuttered his words.

The monster slammed him to the ground and disappeared as policemen drew up at the beach to fire at it. Paul Gardener died on the spot. The police had watched from a distance and had clearly heard the monster when it had demanded to know where the diamond was taken. One of the police officers, a trained sniper was aiming at Adiam with his riffle, when it vanished. Tom Harry and Udi Daniel hurriedly left the hotel's post and rushed to the parking lot as police officers moved and spread around the beach. Tom Harry drove recklessly out of the Beach Side Hotel to access the back gate, and saw hoteliers and guests scurrying to safety from the monster. He stepped hard on the breaks and swerved the car to go out through the front gate. Adiam followed the signal of one of the monitoring systems that was not shut down in Udi Daniel's hotel room, into the hotel. The machine saw the picture of the diamond block in the room and it hopped, flinging everything upside down. It saw the port photograph of Udi Daniel on the floor and it recognized him as the one who had trained it to forcefully remove the diamond from the gate of the black hole, on the sea floor. The demon in the machine was sure if anyone would know where the diamond block was taken, it had to be Udi Daniel. It decided to wait for the scientist to return to his hotel room.

Wild screams followed the building stampede, and the rowdy escape from the hotel, through the gates. The confusion alerted the police to move down to the hotel from the beach. The officers soon got the room that the monster was in and they filed into the hotel with their riffles in Y-shape, to trap the monster. A sniper caught the tail of Adiam resting on the window's frame of the room and impatiently waited for the monster to show more of itself. They spread out to a distance apart where their bullets could fire unhindered through the window and Adiam stretched its neck through the window, as it tried to figure out a face in a car, moving towards the Indooroopilly Road, and bullets were simultaneously fired. It withdrew like light. The bullets rained into the room continuously through the and the monster could not disappear. Some policemen stepped on the corridor that connected the room on the eleventh floor, and shot through the door. The monster pulled down the door as it got more intense and escaped through the bullets to the window of the opposite room , and it was gone with the wind.
Udi Daniel and the Minister heard blasts of gun shots in the car as Tom Harry hit the Indooroopilly Road towards Walter/Taylor suspension bridge. The plan was to fly from the Brisbane Airport to Canberra, to report the situation to the Minister of Defence and Bobby Roberts. As the car drew close to the nose of the bridge, vehicular traffic began to build up from the other end. A commotion was set off, followed by an explosive hue and cry. The monster had come through the Brisbane river to sit on the bridge. Its long tail reached down through the bridge trusses and cables and it whipped an SUV into the river. The noise peaked! Vehicle owners abandoned their cars on the bridge and ed the flock of engers running down the bridge backwards in both directions. Tom Harry and Udi Daniel alighted from the their vehicle to see what was happening on the bridge. The rowdiness unsettled the demon in Adiam. Confused, it flew from the top of the bridge down to the road, angrily and trapped some engers that were stampeded as they pushed to come out of a long bus. Udi Daniel and Tom Harry could clearly see the monster now, and could hear it charging at the engers. The Minister put a nervy call through to the Chief of Police again.

"The monster is on the Walter/Taylor suspension bridge right now!"

"We're moving in!!!"

"It's on rampage!" Tom Harry added as his eyes caught a sight.

The machine continued to charge at the bus engers and was overturning the bus. It caused them to scream with feverish pitch.

"Where is Udi Daniel?" Adiam bellowed at them with an earthshaking tone.

The frogs held tightly to the diamond as they reached the surface of the sea, Trojan automatically took the lead as Adiam was not communicating. They advanced towards the platform with the huge stone sparkling in the evening sunshine. Udi Daniel still had on his binoculars and was roving his view on the sea surface. He saw what looked like a mirror far away and he intuitively turned his head to scan his monitor, and could see that the tracks of the humarines had been reestablished. He carried out a quick analysis in the system and exclaimed all of a sudden. Paul Gardner and Tom Harry and everyone around were shocked by the behavior of the scientist. Udi Daniel raised his right hand and pointed to a direction on the sea as they were expecting him to say something. Paul Gardner raised the binoculars to sweep the sea surface and it was his turn to scream.

"The machines are coming to shore!!!! He said, "I see something like a boat!"

Are they with the diamond?" Tom Harry asked almost breathless.

"I don't know", he replie quickly.

"You're the one holding the viewing aid!" Tom Harry said and stretched his left hand to Paul Gardner, "Let me see!"

"It's there!!!" Paul Gardner screamed as he handed the binoculars to the Minister.

"What's there?" He asked with high spirit as he balanced the binoculars on his eyes, "The diamond!!!"

The reaction of the Minister got the press to push closer to the platform. Udi Daniel remained thoughtful on the platform. He had seen that one of the frogs was not transmitting its track as he could see clearly in his systems. As the machines got to a range from the seashore, he figured out that the lead humarine, was not in the party. He was puzzled but was not worried, at least not for now. The emergence of the blue diamond within sight distance on the sea, sent Australians that were watching the recovery live, into a feverish jubilation. The humarines finally pushed to shore and raised the diamond block on the platform as journalists jostled for space around the platform to get a clear shot of the stone. The frogs hopped on the platform with their webbed feet and hands as crowds cheered them for the operation. The media tried to get Udi Daniel to comment on the machines but he was deeply absorbed in his thought as he examined the humarines. No inch of excitement appeared on his face.
"Youre not looking happy Daniel", Tom Harry observed as he excitedly jumped around,

"You should be high and proud of yourself and your machines! This is stunning! Unbelievable!!!"

"One of the creatures didn't make it here".

"What's the name of the machine that's yet to return?" Paul Gardner asked, "I see names etched on their back.

"It's Adiam!" Udi Daniel replied him.

"It might return later. I'd stay on the platform and wait for the machine", Paul Gardner assured him.

"I'll leave the systems ON to guide it home if it's still out there. "Thank you Gardner”.

Not even one of the people noticed that Adiam had not returned from the operation with the exception of, of course, Udi Daniel, Tom Harry and Paul Gardner. They were all in a euphoric mood and cared less about everything else. Udi Daniel did not leave the platform immediately. He stayed behind for the minutes that it took the Australian government's security forces to arrive the shore, hoping that Adiam would have found the pathway home. His countenance drastically changed and his thoughts wandered to Ellinaz Ivanovo in Washington DC. She had personally driven him to the airport in DC, and supervised the loading of the machines into the plane. She had grown a strange attachment to the machines, and he wondered the kind of defense he would put forward before her this time around if he left Brisbane for the United States. He watched in somber manner as the blue stone was transferred from the platform into an Army truck. The Airforce guarded the truck with military helicopters out of the beach, as everyone else cheered.

"Thank you Dan! NextTech has done it again!!" Tom Harry said as he shook hands with him in enthusiasm.

"The pleasure is mine", Udi Daniel said with no emotion.

"I can see that you're still down over your machine", the Minister said, "The government would take full responsibility for loss, forget it!

"You wouldn't understand Harry, it's not about the fund, it's the effort and time it took to create the machine".

"Cut it out please! You can do better than that, l need to run along now, the Prime Minister is in Brisbane".

"Alright".

"I'd see you in your hotel to complete the process with you", Tom Harry said and walked briskly away into the crowd.

The crowd gradually disappeared leaving Udi Daniel and a few of the officials on the platform. He deactivated the minds of the humarines and they were loaded into the vans that brought them and was driven to the Beach Side Hotel. His hope that Adiam would ever return from the sea, thinned up as the platform diminished in size inside the vehicle pulling speedily away. Paul Gardner true to his word, waited behind on the platform if the machine would show up from the sea.
The blue rock appeared in the Brisbane Museum on National TV as Udi Daniel and his machines reached his hotel. The protests across Australia reduced to only one demand, the diamond must stay permanently in the museum and never be transferred. The economic team of the government held an emergency meeting with Bobby Roberts in Brisbane over the diamond and advised his government to keep the stone. The diamond had marketed itself to the world, and Sargon Barron strongly believed the story of the diamond was going to get tourists from all over the world pouring in, to see it. The live coverage of the recovery of the diamon had done even more marketing about the uniqueness of the diamond to the world. Bobby Roberts for the first time, listened to the voice of opposition. They resolved to refund the seven hundred billion dollars Ali Garabed had paid down for the stone, with tourists dollars. The government strengthened the security around the museum and peace returned to Australia.





Chapter Five







The blue diamond story continued to cause tongues to waggle, as theories would not ceasing coming to explain its nature. Bobby Roberts felt he had done the best for the people of Australia. He made sure the documents carrying the new position the government had taken on the diamond block, was transmitted to Ali Garabed while he was still in the government annex in Queensland. The Lebanese business titan, was recovering well from the heart attack he had suffered, when the cargo plane had gone down into the Coral Sea with the diamond. He had been discharged to his hotel from the hospital where he accepted the new of the government on the recovered diamond. He signed the documents with a sense of loss. He however thanked the stars for bringing him to Brisbane to witness the recovery of the diamond block, with the machines of NextTech, live on TV. In many ways, he was convinced that it was providence that had led him from Sumatra in Indonesia to Australia, where he had already obtained the tourist license to see an area of the Nias Island. He knew about the history of a medium-size wooden ship, loaded with all kinds of diamonds and other precious stones, that got lost centuries ago inside the Indian Ocean in Indonesia, around the Nias Island. The story of the lost treasure was first told to him by his grandfather who was a gold merchant, before he had read it in an history book that did not provide pin-pont details. He could not wait to meet Udi Daniel, to get him involved in the recovery of the stones. He decided right there in his hotel, to do go digging up on the story in Australia. He knew more would be needed than mere stories to engage the scientist. He aimed to collect hard facts that would point to the area of the Indian Ocean, where a part of ancient civilization had washed into the floor of the Indian Ocean.

Udi Daniel continued to search his head for where things could have gone wrong for Adiam in the Coral Sea but could not find nothing. He lost every hope on the frog as night was approaching. He was sitting on a chair outside the Beach Side Hotel, on an elevated extension. He could see the platform where he had activated the humarines, from his position. Paul Gardner still stood on the platform with the device he had been given to deactivate the mind of Adiam if it ever showed up. His eyes moved about over the Coral Sea as his mind was thinking up things. He looked away from the sea as he heard the sound of a vehicle pulling up, it was the Minister.Tom Harry climbed the post with some documents for him to sign. The night was closing in on the Coral Sea very fast and Udi Daniel believed it was over for Adiam.

"Call Paul Gardner to leave the platform, it's getting dark. I'm not sure the machine would make it back", Udi Daniel said with finality to the Minister.

"It could come home anytime, let him be!" Tom Harry said as he handed the documents.
"I'd signed them later", Udi Daniel said and gazed on the platform again.

"Ok", Tom Harry said, "NextTech will receive the last transfer latest tomorrow, I've spoken with Ellinaz about it already".

"That''s alright Harry".

"The Prime Minister is particularly impressed with NextTech's technology, and he wants it introduced into the school system here in Australia".

"Artificial intelligence for machines is the big thing", Udi Daniel said from the corner of his mouth, "That's insightful".

"Assuming I'm your student", Tom Harry said, "What would you recommend for me to study about the machines?"

"But you're not a student", he said as he switched his eyes on the sea again.

Both men chatted lively well into time, the Minister would not stop to know the little he could about the creation process of the machines. Neither of them had the faintest inkling, that the machine mind systems of NextTech, was transcending the scope of human knowledge and existence, and crossing boundaries into a different realm, and brewing trouble!

Chapter Four







The flight to Australia seemed unusually long for Udi Daniel. He frequently looked out through the windows of the private jet that he was flying in. He had dozed off a number of times into dreams, and for each time, he was together with Ellinaz Ivanovo lying on a mat and sharing kisses on a beach. He glanced at his wristwatch and he had the feeling that it was working backwards, he could not wait to be done in Australia and return to the United States. He rubbed his eyes with his left hand and adjusted himself in the jet. He remained sober and reflected on the mission to recover the diamond from the Coral Sea for the next five hours. He was shaken from his deep thoughts when the pilot announced their arrival in Australia. He disembarked from the plane to see flashes of camera lights on his face at the Queensland International Airport in Brisbane. It took him some time to realize that journalists had surrounded the plane. He wondered why the Australian government had given so much publicity to his coming. He was naturally a shy guy but he had to force a smile when a lady journalist nudged him to smile before the camera. Officials from the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum loaded the humarines into a van as the journalists covered the scene. They tried to get a word out of Udi Daniel but he kept mute all the time. He was escorted from the airport in a convoy like that of a super rock star, and driven to the Beach Side Hotel near the Coral Sea. He recognized Tom Harry, the Minister for Mines and Petroleum and Paul Gardner, an official in the Ministry, when he arrived at the Beach Side Hotel. The officials helped him to settle quickly at the hotel and he took hours to rest for action.
The Prime Minister was highly relieved the moment the news got to him in the capital that NextTech's machines, had landed in Queensland. Newspaper media and TV stations transmitted the footages of the humarines and Udi Daniel. The scientist's mind was more in Washington DC than in Australia. He urged Tom Harry to show him the way to the Coral Sea even as the Minister was telling him certain things he needed to know. Tom Harry led him towards the evening in an entourage of government officials to the platform that Riskshore had used for its operation. Udi Daniel could see that the event was being transmitted live on TV.

"Why's the live coverage?" Udi Daniel asked beside the Minister.

"A crazy agitation has been going on in Australia", Tom Harry said and looked away from a camera, "It's obvious you've not been watching your TV".

"What's it about?"

"It's believed widely that the government has perhaps recovered the diamond and sold it without the knowledge of Australians, and some think that the diamond wasn't even in the cargo plane that went down, in the first place", the Minister said and shook his head side to side, "Politicians are behind the unrest!"

"I see!"

"The government has chosen to put this operation live, to quell the violent protests building from different parts of the country".

"We'll see where it ends", Udi Daniel said and looked over his shoulder to see the vans conveying the humarines.

"There's something else you need to know".

"Ok".

"I told you about Riskshore, an underwater recovery firm employed by the government".

"Very well Harry", Udi Daniel said, "You said the firm lost with its vessels in the sea".

"Well, nearly all the vessels have been found damaged, and only one vessel with a diver made it home".

"It's shocking!" Udi Daniel said with raised eyebrows, "Could the vessels have been attacked by wild sea animals?"

"The only surviving Riskshore diver, had played the video of the search operation for few officials in my Ministry".

"Have you seen the video?"

"Of course! A sea monster with a long tail, like that of a Spinasaurous, was watching over the blue stone in the sea!!".

"Incredible!!"

"I'm going to get the video for you to watch Dan".

"There's no point Harry, I only need the coordinates of the diamond in the sea, it will facilitate the operation".

"I'm afraid", Tom Harry said as he handed over a piece of paper to the scientist, "I'm relieved that machines are going for this operation".

"Sea creatures abound and some of them are well known to attack humans, sharks are prowling in the Pacific Ocean, what happened to the deep sea divers and the vessels was undeniably external attacks".

"There could be more to this", Tom Harry said and turned to face Udi Daniel, "The professional divers that were lost in the sea had operated in the Coral Sea for a long time without a scratch".

"Incidences happen to us at no expected time, that's why they're accidents!!"

"I don't completely agree with you Dan, I know the number of lives we lost on the minefield, before your artificial ants came to the rescue, that wasn't an accident, was it?'"

"it was a situation".

"Could a cargo plane bursting in the air for no apparent reason, be an accident?"

"You know my stance Harry, extraordinary forces can't manipulating inanimate things. I well know what you have always posited about the diamond", Udi Daniel said to derail the direction of the conversation, "I just want to finish here and return to DC".

"Opinions are diverse as speculations among Australians, many have dubbed the stone as 'Mystery Diamond'".

"We're here to put the speculations in perspective", Udi Daniel said as they arrived at the beach of the Coral Sea.

The media was awashed within minutes after Udi Daniel was seen strolling on the beach with his binoculars hanging from his neck. TV channels, both local and international were transmitting live and showing the government officials unloading the artificially intelligent amphibious machines on the shoreline of the Coral Sea. The internet was not left out, hot streaming of the events was going on, on many platforms.This move by the government worked like a magic. Protesters hurriedly left the streets of Australia to see the action on TV and on the internet. Calm returned as they got glued to their TV set and computers. A live search was about to unfold. The eight humarines were activated by Udi Daniel and they opened their eyes to see cameras flashing lights. The machines walked on two limbs past where the control and monitoring systems unit for the operation, had been set up on the platform. Udi Daniel drew out a window in the minds of each of the machines and resized their tasks in a mini computer, and keyed in the search coordinates in Adiam. The feet and hands of the humarines became webbed when he tapped a button on the device. The frogs jumped to the edge of the platform and he hit a different button. The frogs leaped into the Coral Sea. Each of the machines recorded its own track and sent it to a system on the platform.

The frogs conducted the search methodically and maintained communication, with Adiam taking the lead as the coordinator of the operation. The machines got to a point and spread apart and began to send radio waves in every direction. They received a leading signal from Adiam after ten minutes and moved on the floor of the Coral Sea in lanes, and advanced gradually towards the Pacific Ocean. Big fishes maintained their distance as they got close to the Pacific Ocean. The machines could see compressed underwater vessels on the sea floor, with skeletons of men inside. A huge sea creature was resting upon an object. The sea monster turned and charged at them and swung its massive as the frogs moved around the object. Adiam sent a signal and all the humarines turned on the electric field on their chests, and swam forward towards the sea animal in a dash, the monster cleared off, and the block of blue diamond was fully exposed. The monster continued to whine from a distance and suddenly disappeared. Adiam floated to touch the diamond block, and Jebraz, Frogam reached it before Trojan, Zodiaz, Godia, Illiax, Frogam, Roggi and Jebraz. They ed force in pushing the diamond from its position, but it remained rooted to the floor. Udi Daniel lost tracks of the machines in the monitoring system on the platform but did not panic, his frogs had in-built standby global positioning system redundancy, to navigate their way back from anywhere. He raised his binoculars to sweep the surface of the sea towards the ocean, and could see faintly a spot on the sea surface, where water bubbles appeared to burst in a circle. He concentrated on the area for few minutes and switched his view. Down below the bubbles on the surface of the sea, the machines continued to exert energy to shift the diamond block from position. Fine fire jets of steaming gases were shooting out from orifices in their anus. A hypersonic force resulted from their efforts and it sent the diamond block from the floor. The force shot the stone upwards from the floor like a launched rocket, leaving a deep black hole behind on the sea floor. All the humarines followed the diamond up except Adiam. A strange force had grabbed and pulled it into the black hole just before the diamond was uprooted from the sea bed.

The political climate in Australia continued to be charged over the missing diamond from the Brisbane Museum and the Prime Minister had succumbed to the demands of the Australian people to get yet another recovery firm to fish the stone from the Coral Sea. The people could not wait for NextTech to handle the operation as Tom Harry had revealed in a well publicized press conference, he decided to cease to function as a Minister and he dropped his resignation. Bobby Roberts received his resignation letter and changed his mind about getting another recovery firm. He rejected the resignation and threw his weight behind the Minister, the people must wait for NextTech. He shut his ears to speculations and suggestions in the media. He was greatly relieved when Tom Harry forwarded an email from Ellinaz Ivanovo, making him realize how much little a time, the Australian government would have to wait. Udi Daniel had been working practically round the clock, and living in his laboratory. Ellinaz Ivanovo had taken the responsibility to provide his meals and run short errands for him within the laboratory, as he worked closely with Mishulab remotely in China. Within two months, the body of the machines with complete neural connections, were shipped from Beijing to Washington DC into NextTech, and Udi Daniel took a few weeks to load the "minds" of the machines. He rolled out eight highly sensitive amphibious creatures and named them; 'Roggi', 'Illiax', 'Adiam', 'Zodiaz', 'Frogam', 'Jebraz', 'Trojan' and 'Godia'.They were all of average size of a human being, with very similar external features of frogs. He decided to move the machines out of his digital laboratory to the display hall, to get them ready for the operation in Australia. He had simulated the Coral Sea in a computer to test-run some features of the frogs. He drew out an interface in the computer, and was connecting it to Adiam, when he heard farmiliar footsteps. Ellinaz Ivanovo looked radiant in a skyblue short gown that accentuated her figure, as she stood right behind him. The project had brought them closer and Udi Daniel remained astonished by the way she had taken it upon herself to care for him for the duration the project lasted. She had drawn a line between them and he was not going to cross over.

"You beat the time by twenty five days", she said as she moved to touch each of the machines, "Can I tell you something Dan?"

"Since when do you need permission to speak to me Ellinaz", Udi Daniel said with a mischievous note, "'I hope you're not going to ask me to work on something else".

"I think you're not from this planet", she said and turned around to face him, "What's the generic names of these machines?"

"They're HUMARINES".

"Like humans and marine, right?" She said with a charming smile.

"How did you gess it?" Udi Daniel asked and looked directly into the eyes he had always avoided.

"It's simple!"

"Seriously, I'd to pick yourr brain in this laboratory in my next project!! I'm not kidding".

"I'll burn all your computers, Dan", Ellinaz Ivanovo said and stepped away from him as he looked at her strangely.

"You'd have to burn me as well!"

"That's not funny!" Ellinaz Ivanovo said as she returned to stand near him.

"Who wants to be funny? I'm all-work, working for you. I'm at your beck and call".

'Dan?" She called and searched his eyes to make eye .

"Yeah Ellie".

"You're not all-work and I'm not using you".
"Really?".

"I'm planning to go to vacation by the time you return from Australia".

"Ok, why are you telling me this?"

"I think you need it as well. Let's take some time off, me and you'".

"You know it's not possible for me".

"I'm forcing it on you, NextTech is growing leaps and bounds and we need to live to enjoy it", she said and moved nearer to him.

"It's strange that this is coming from a workaholic", Udi Daniel said as he shut down a computer system, "I'm warming to the idea, it'd be nice".

"I'm doing this basically for you, you know".

"For me, are you for real?" Udi Daniel asked and looked shock.

"I care for you deeply, and I can no longer pretend", Ellinaz Ivanovo said and moved to hold his hands.

"I must be dreaming!" Udi Daniel said and touched her and pinched himself.

"You're not Dan, stop the drama", she said and dabbed his eyes, "I know you need me too".

"Ellie, but..."

"All the time you have knocked at the door of my heart and it didn't open, it's because there was no door handle on the outside. I've been scared, but I know what I want now, and I've decided to open the door from within!"

"My ears are aching to hear more of this song", Udi Daniel said excitingly.

"I'm open to you right now", Ellinaz Ivanovo whispered and released his hands.

"You're killing and waking me from death at the same time!!"

"I love you, Dan".

"You love me? Truly and really?"

"I've no pride for you, I've only been acting up, If you must know, I've been worshing you secretly!"

"You're kidding me right now Ellie".

"I mean every letter", Ellinaz Ivanovo said and touched his face.

"But I'm not God".

"Do you believe in God?"

"I don't know".

"Is there anything that you can't create, you're my god, Dan, the one I can see and can touch!"

"And you are my World!!!""

Their exchange ignited the flames of ion instantly around them and it flung Ellinaz Ivanovo to cling to him . She seized his lips his with her's and wrapped her hands around his neck tightly and kissed him wild. She suddenly pulled away when she felt she was suffocating him. She turned around shamefully covering her face and left the hall. She hoped Udi Daniel would forgive her for losing control. She did not regret her action, it was what she had wanted to do for quite sometime now. If the opportunity came along again, she would do it and even more to the scientist. She could no longer bottle up her feelings.

Udi Daniel had just experienced his first kiss of life. He hurriedly rounded off the training of the machines in the test environment and soon got all frogs ready. He left for home to prepare for his return mission to Australia. He could not wait to Ellinaz Ivanovo for vacation.

Chapter Three







NextTech was thrown into shock when Udi Daniel had arrived in Washington DC with the artificial ants badly bruised. Ellinaz Ivanovo could hardly believe the loss of the creatures and the shape of the machines that survived the operation, were in. She mourned the death of the ants like the loss of human beings. She however brightened up as Udi Daniel made her believe in her office, that the machines had actually sacrificed themselves and taught him the next level he needed to take his Machine Mind Technology. Her whole being craved science and she literally venerated inventions of super intelligent machines. Udi Daniel had found out that new neural networks, were developing in the minds of the machines, without his input, this development continued to leave him with awesome feelings - his machines were undergoing evolution. She had not seen him in this mood for a long time. She watched him in a strange way as he rose in her office and walked away. He was full of life and cheerful. She had only maintained official friendship with him and had been determined to keep it so, but she felt differently about him now, something within her yearned to pull him close and hug him tight. Udi Daniel got to his space and settled quickly in his digital neural laboratory and began improving an aspect of his mind systems. He had not done much when an email flashed into his palmtop computer. He was shocked by the content of the email and he stopped working and was going to reply to the email, when Ellinaz Ivanovo walked hurriedly into the laboratory, with a mobile phone pressed to her left ear. He stood up at once to receive her. She hardly came around him during official hours. She was the only executive partner that had access to him anywhere in NextTech. She used to be averred to people of color, but ever since her path had crossed into his in a library in George Washington University, where she had studied for her master's degree in geology, her position was changing fast. She was falling head over heels into the scientist, particularly since the past few weeks, that she had experienced a whole new perspective of his hidden personality and potentiality. She stretched the phone in her hand to him after putting it on a speaker.

"Tom Harry wants to speak with you", Ellinaz Ivanovo said, ."He says it's urgent and crucial!!"

"Hello Tom" Udi Daniel spoke into the phone.

"The Australian government has sent you an email Daniel", Tom Harry said with a low spirit.

"I just read it".

"The Prime Minister is exasperated, I just got off a highly powered meeting over the incidence!"

"How did it happen?" Udi Daniel asked unbelievably, "What have you discovered?"

"I don't know, the black box recovered revealed there's no reason for the plane to have gone down".

"It can't be!"

"Its data has been examined and analyzed by the manufacturer of the airplane, and other authorities', they couldn't possibly all miss it".
"Nothing would happen to the stone, it can be recovered from the sea".

"I'm actually calling for this reason, the Prime Minister has again pushed me to the edge over this".

"You need s of recovery firms?"

"You're not listening to me," Tom Harry said a little loud, "It's for this reason I have decided to reach NextTech".

"But we don't do underwater operations".

"There's more to this Daniel".

"How do you mean?"

"We need a firm that can operate with no risk to lives".

"There are hundreds out there, Harry".

"You wouldn't understand".

"Really?"

"I have learnt my lessons from the operations of the various mining firms the government had employed to dig out the diamond before the government had settled for NextTech".

"What's the point?"

'Lost lives continued to hunt me, the government would rather pay for the loss of machines'.

"You've become spiritual", Udi Daniel said and laughed dryly, "They're just incidences".

"There's another shocker", Tom Harry said and raised his voice, "Over twenty professional divers have been lost in the sea over the diamond!".

"You should have employed known rescue firms, a number of things could have happened in the sea, predators and anything".

"As we speak, Riskshore, a reputable a recovery firm known for high safety standards in underwater operations, have lost touch with their vessels in the sea".

"What do you want me to do about this, Harry?" Udi Daniel asked him impatiently, "I already told you NextTech's position".

"The Australian government can't afford anymore loss of human lives, we need machines to recover the diamond block".

"Common Harry!" I told you already, NextTech doesn't do recovery in the water".

"Look Daniel, the Prime Minister is heavily on this one, he's listening in the background. The government is going to give you a blank cheque for this. A lot is happening here in Australia as a result of the loss of the stone".

"NextTech currently doesn't have what it takes to undertake the project, not in financial ".

"If you want to do this, you would do it".

"I'll get back to you Harry", Udi Daniel said as he read the signs Ellinaz Ivanovo was making with her hands frantically.

"We can do it!!" She said showing her snow-white set of teeth.

"NextTech doesn't have the capacity to roll out the kind of solution the Australian government demands".

"What capacity?" Ellinaz Ivanovo asked sarcastically and walked closer to him.

"First of, we don't have the technology", he replied looking away from her.

"Then create it, aren't you the creator?"

"These things take time you know, and the Australian government wants it in the shortest possible time".

"We can beat it!" Ellinaz Ivanovo said and moved behind him, "Communicate the time frame you expect the project to last, and I would take it from there".

"You really want this?"

Ellinaz Ivanovo rested her soft hands on his shoulder and whispered into his right ear, "We're cool with it".

Udi Daniel felt pulses moving down his spine as he said with weak resistance, "It's not going to be easy".

"I understand Dan, NextTech can outsource. You can develop the core of the project and send the connections to Mishulab".

"You've not considered the cost, Mishulab isn't cheap".

"Didn't you hear Tom, the Australian government is willing to offer a blank cheque. I will prepare a pre-contract agreement and insert the cost and mobilization, to deploy the technology", She said and applied more pressure on his shoulder with her hands and moved to stand face to face with him, "I need the time frame from you now!"

"Slow down, Ellie, we'd be grinding down ongoing projects".

"We're only suspending them Dan".

"SpaetriX is constantly on my neck to complete the probe system they're sending to space", Udi Daniel said and avoided her eyes.

"Haven't you done anything on it?" She asked smiling.

"I've managed to draw up an omni-direction propagation algorithm, to train the core of the neural networks, it's going to be very complex and time consuming".

"I bet the technology the Australian government wants isn't going to take so much time".

"You wouldn't know Ellie".

"You would if you get started Dan".

"It doesn't always work that way".

"Go start it and let's see!" She said and pushed him playfully.

"I'm not promising you anything".

"Do this one for me, Dan!"

"Really? Is this about you?"

"I strongly feel this project would sell NextTech even more to the world".

"I don't know why you're persisting, NextTech is already widely celebrated across the world, but if this is important to you, I'm going to look at it".

"Thank you Dan", Ellinaz Ivanovo said and winked at him, "It would be special to me".

Udi Daniel still felt her where she had placed her hands on him as he walked back to take his seat in the laboratory. She had never come so close around him, how much more lifting a finger and placing it on him. She owned the.majority of the shares of NextTech and had weirded her influence to sway decisions, and curry favor.He could only figure her move, as one geared to warm him to accept the new challenge, and he knew she had no idea what she had done to him with her hands. He had taken a shot at her not long after they had come together to set up NextTech, and she had shut it down firmly. He could only ire her from a distance and would not cross over the wide gulf in class and taste. She was a blond-haired well-shaped tall pretty young woman in her early thirties. He avoided her eyes whenever she looked at him to beg for favor as they had killing effect on him. He struggled to return his focus on developing an aspect of a new decision controller for his machine mind systems. He could hardly concentrate going further. He stood up and walked out of the laboratory into a NextTech's draft room, and fresh thoughts pushed through him and he at once was awake to the project proposal from the Australian government. He ed the Malaysian Airliner 370 that disappeared into the Indian Ocean, with over two hundred engers onboard and nine crew , en route Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, in March 8, 2014, that was never found and it occurred to him that the technology would meet important needs. He switched his thought to how he could create a set of highly intelligent amphibious machines, that could live in any body of water and take on a wide range of tasks. He pulled up drawing tools from a computer system and made a sketch of what had come to his mind. He got lost in his head as he crazily moved the cursor. In a short while, he designed a hyper-sensitive machine mind. Still caught in the frenzy of creation, he rushed back to his digital neural laboratory and started developing the decision-making systems of the new machines. He finished and began the coaching of the neural circuits for interface coding. A message dropped in his phone and he straightened up and tapped it open. It was from Ellinaz Ivanovo.

"Are you home now?"

The simple message turned him on, she had never checked on him at home. Everything ended in the office. He replied her message promptly, "I'm ing the night in the laboratory, and I'll send you the project costing and time frame for the technology the Australian government needs, to recover the blue stone from the sea tomorrow".

He could not see how his message made her feel. He returned his eyes to his computer and clicked open an email application. He decided to send a mail to Lee Wang, the Director of Technical of Mishulab in Beijing, China. He looked at the screen of the computer, where he had the prototype of the neural network circuitry, of the amphibious machines, and began to test all circuit functions to interfaces. Satisfied that the decision making system of his prototype neural network, was at hyper speed, he hit a button to duplicate it. His computer beeped and he found out that Lee Wang had replied to his email. He breezed through the mail and responded by sending eight copies of the amphibious machines' designs to Mishulab. He began to draw machine tasks for the next ten hours. He stood up with heavy eyes in the early morning of the next day and staggered home.

Beginning of Chapter Two refixed here






TWO







The thick gloom that had been hanging over Tom Harry and his Ministry, for the period the diamond had been in the ground, vanished with no trace in the office of Bobby Roberts in Canberra.The Prime Minister had practically hinged his sack, on failing to get NextTech to dislodge the stone in Brisbane with the machines. Australians continued to revere the diamond and pulled up various appellations, to describe its rareness and the manner in which it was extracted and everything that had happened in-between. It was widely considered as a Mystery Diamond by the soft and print media, and many other folks could not think differently across the country. For Bobby Roberts, the stone was only a little strange object that had sent thousands to their graves, and he rued the ugly history. He had made a decision on the diamond even when it was still in the ground. He sent a notification to Parliament that the diamond would be put on sale, citing reasons that were cogent to him alone. This sparked a frenzied discord in the House instantly, spilling over to the public. of the opposition in Parliament championed the prevailing position on the huge piece of blue rock, and it gained solid traction into public opinion polls. The Mystery Diamond in their , must be planted in the Brisbane Museum, where Tom Harry had taken it, and be made to generate tourists dollars for eternity. It was a historical object that must be preserved for generations - a symbol of the new Australia.

The issues around the stone continued to be hotly debated, and Bobby Roberts could see from the appearance of things that he would not have it smooth, but he cared not. His mind limped between two opinions and he settled for neither. He remained poised to get rid of the stone. He decided to replay the video of the diamond procession into Brisbane city from the minefield, in his office. His eyes were literally screwed to the screen. He followed the truck with his eyes as it transported the stone to the Brisbane Museum. Hundreds of Australians were cheering as the blue diamond block reflected abundant sun rays in the opened military truck. The exhilaration melted away in his heart as the thousands of lives that were lost over the stone, crept up in his mind subconsciously, and he stopped watching. He tried to shake the thought away, but his mind would not align. He turned left and pulled a drawer with a table phone and decided to dial Sargon Barron. He immediately responded to the Prime Minister.

"Hello Mr. P.M", Sargon Barron said calmly through the line.

"I need you to begin talks with Ali Garabed over the diamond, right away!" Bobby Roberts said into the phone with a strong voice, "And its bidding should be over, in the shortest possible time".

"I'd be on it!"

Ali Garabed was a Lebanese business mogul that owned Dynabiz, the company controlled the world market for diamonds, and also collected precious stones and artefacts from around the world. It was headquartered in England. Bobby Roberts had got Sargon Barron to dig up facts about Ali Garabed and his company and other dealers, while the diamond was still in ground causing death. He hoped the Lebanese would prove to be the top brass in the business, as profiled. He stood up from an executive chair and came outside of his office and headed to a game spot in the government house, to stretch himself, and his mobile phone went off in his hand. Tom Harry hardly called his mobile, Bobby Roberts flipped the phone and the Minister's voice boomed at the far end.

"Hello Bob!" Tom Harry said with a hurried and worried voice, "The stone has barely settled in the museum, and the celebration is still on, what don't I know about the diamond?"

"Where're you headed with this Harry?"

"I just got off the phone with Sargon Barron", Tom Harry said with a suppressed astonishment, "I think it's too sudden to send the stone out".

"Is that all?"

"Your proposal in Parliament has thrown many into shock and the Ministry is doing its best to douse the building tensions", Tom Harry replied with a little loud tone, "I've got barrages of threats!"

"For the records, I didn't send a proposal to the House, I only informed it of my intensions, if it was so a proposal that needed signatures, I would veto", Bobby Roberts said and switched into a pensive mood, "Don't be swayed by public sentiments, in governance, we keep it real and make decisions that might appear brutal to the man in the street".

"I got you, but it's not so simple out here. It scares me".

"Then add to your security details, and call a press conference! It's not you that's pulling the strings!!! it's Bobby Roberts!!!"

"It's alright Bobby".

"I've been watching the video you sent and I'd like you to come to Canberra".

"When and where would you need me?"

"In my studio office in the capital, today, for an emergency meeting".

"I'd be late if it's an emergency, I need to close a deadline transaction with some merchants in Queensland in my Ministry".

"You must know this; the government has reached an agreement to transfer the stone, and it can't be talked out of it".

"But, why the hurry?"

"You'd find out in the meeting".

"You could give me a hint, Bob".

"I'm defraying incurred debts of past governments, and recouping everything that had gone down to root out the diamond block in Brisbane".

"But, it's rushed! A number of people are trooping in daily just to catch a glimpse of the diamond block, they call it the Mystery Diamond".

"That's the idea, I don't wish the diamond to remain for long in the museum, to reduce the fuss by the time the stone would be taken".

"It's your call Bobby! I'd fall in line", Tom Harry said with a low tone, "Sargon Barron mentioned Dynabiz. I don't know nothing about the company".

"It's big Harry, it's based in England and owned by a Lebanese called Ali Garabed, get more from Sargon".

"I'll work with the team".

"See you in the capital", Bobby Roberts said and the link went down.

Tom Harry could not make sense of the reasons the Prime Minister had given, to let go of the diamond so brashly and he did not think his invitation to Canberra was going to be of any effect, Bobby Roberts had made up his mind, and his position was irreversible. A fresh thought slowly came to him as he tried to turn his mind to other issues, and he steadily awakened to the ideas of Bobby Roberts to put the stone in the market. The stone had caused so much in attention, so much responsibility, since its discovery to its extraction, and even now inside the museum. He knew no rest and he could not afford to think what may be next for the diamond in the museum if it was left there permanently. Selling it off, made some sense to him all of a sudden, lots of sense. He was ready to cut all connections with the diamond, and be free and breathe in fresh air. He patiently waited for Sargon Baron to reach him again as he had promised after he would have rounded off his business talk with Ali Garabed.

. The Lebanese business heavyweight was in Sumatra in Indonesia, to obtain a tourist license to see an area of the Indian Ocean in Nias Island, when he received a call from Sargon Barron on behalf of the Australian government. He listened to him with magnetic attention, in disbelief. He changed his plans and immediately redirected his private jet to fly to Australia. The short video of the gigantic stone dropped in his phone and it struck an unbelievable chord. He was eager to see the biggest block of diamond the world would ever see, refined from the ground. It had to be the ninth wonder of the world. Sargon Barron could not give him an estimate of the quantity in carats, but in blocks and it fueled him more to want to do business. His urgings to see the wonder left in Sargon Barron a good spirit. Few minutes later, he walked back into the office of Bobby Roberts in the capital. The Prime Minister instantly shifted his glance from his wristwatch to him as he appeared.

"Ali Garabed is in the air, coming from Indonesia to Canberra, en route Sydney!!"

"I like this!! I love the sense of business he exudes", Bobby Roberts responded in excitement, "Get Tom Harry on the team, before his arrival in the capital".

"I've dispatched the team, and it's about landing with measuring instruments in Brisbane".

"You'd wait for him in the capital and leave for Queensland together".

"That's the plan P.M."

"You did estimate 860 billion US dollars, you can do better".

"It's a bidding sir, and it's a process, be assured that the team would do granular measurements and turn out the best result.
"How much time would this take?"

"We don't have control over this sir, if Dynabiz means business, the team is going to work with its time".

"You've been doing this for decades Sargon! Don't miss anything, be thorough!!!"

"It'd be nothing short".

"Go engage your boys!" Bobby Roberts said and moved to another office.

The Prime Minister felt relieved at the mere thought that the diamond was finally going to have its first shot out of the Brisbane Museum. The blue stone appeared to have ingrained in him the memory of the dead in his head. He was largely responsible for the disaster as he had kept urging the Mining Corporation to get the best of the best mining companies from around the world to supplant the stone. In his quiet moments, he reflected on the nature of the stone, never had he heard of or seen a diamond refined from the earth. Though awe-inspiring, he only considered it a natural wonder and would not attach anything extraordinary. He was alone in his office for three hours, making a mental journey through time, and putting things in perspective, re-weighed his resolve to get rid of the blue stone. He stood up and returned to his studio office and found his mobile phone beeping a message from Sargon Barron. He found out that Ali Garabed had just arrived in Canberra. The Lebanese was a jovial, easygoing, free-speaking man with a thick accent, and a sharp business sense. He was almost twice as tall as Sargon Barron who strained his neck to make eye with him. He refused business formalities and urged to see the blue diamond. He planned to return to Indonesia the same day to begin his tour of the Nias Island. Sargon Barron did a short message to Tom Harry and climbed the private jet of the Lebanese, and both men flew off to Brisbane from the capital. The men were deep in their thoughts for the chunk of the time it took the plane to touch down in Queensland. Ali Garabed could not for one minute, take his mind off the diamond block, and everything he had been told. He doubled his steps as they headed away from the airport to be driven off to the museum

At the gate of the Brisbane Museum, Ali Garabed felt a tingling, and got dizzy for few seconds. He shook off the ugly experience and could not think it was a medical situation that needed attention. His heart was pumping faster as they connected the corridor to the display section of the museum. The blue diamond was hanging freely from three instruments in the middle of the show room. Ali Garabed was drawn like a nail in an intense magnetic field, to the blue stone. He was hopelessly captivated by the immense blue stone. He began to rub his hands on it with eyes dripping iration and awe. The Australian government had not lied to him, it was a blue rock! Hundred times bigger than the one found in Pretoria, South Africa, 1905. Sargon Barron had to remind him of the time, before he followed him to the discussion room, where the economic team presented him with the measurements of the diamond. Surprisingly, Ali Garabed did not ask that the measurements be redone for him. He walked to a corner of the room and placed a call through to Osman Leon, his personal assistant and one of the most senior officials in Dynabiz. Sargon Barron and his team patiently waited for him to start the bidding. Ali Garabed could not imagine cutting the stone, all he desired at the moment was to get Dynabiz to own it. He made Osman Leon to watch proceedings from England via a video conference in the museum. It did not take him time for Dynabiz to match the bidding of the Australian government. He was g the documents to transfer ownership, when Tom Harry walked into the museum with Paul Gardner. His spirit became agitated the moment he finished g on the lines, and he needed the blue stone to be flown to London right away. The company had sured all expectations of the Australian government. Ali Garabed knew what they did know about diamonds. The officials, including Tom Harry and Paul Gardner, facilitated the haulage of the blue stone to London and came out of the cargo wing of the Brisbane International airport Ali Garabed's face shone light of delight, as the stone was being loaded for freighting. All the officials filed to the outside and exchanged warm business pleasantries with him with hugs as the last document was signed by the Lebanese. He got ready to fly back to Indonesia from the airport.

Barely four seconds after the cargo plane with the blue diamond, lifted into the air, to everyone's shock, the plane began issuing a dense smoke in the sky! It traveled for two seconds more and caught fire and lost control. It burst into flames in the air and began to wobble in waveform. Ali Garabed and government officials got seized and struck dumb, they watched on helplessly with their eyes poking out..The plane somersaulted and careened against nothing towards the Coral Sea and somersaulted, before it nosedived to the edge of the sea bordering the Pacific Ocean.The inhabitants of the areas around the sea watched in fear as cars screeched to halt, to behold the unfolding spectacle. Pedestrians were frozen on the road side as deafening screams continued wrenching open the atmosphere around the sea and the airport.




******Please see the latest follow up post above this page for the last page of Chapter Two, thank you.

This is the second paragraph of Chapter Two
See the first paragraph at the end of this page, I'm sorry for the mix up.









"What has happened to the plane?" Ali Garabed asked with his mouth opened aghast, and he fainted.

"Holy shit!" Tom Harry said and looked into the eyes of Paul Gardner for answers.

"It's like the plane has been attacked!" Paul Gardner whispered.

"Bobby Roberts must hear this now!!!", Tom Harry said and pulled his phone from his pocket to pull a call, but his phone went off before he could do so. Bad news spreads with the speed of light, the Prime Minister was on his spectrum.

"Hello Tom!!!" Bobby Roberts said with a spark, "What's in the air?"

"The cargo plane transporting the diamond to London from Brisbane, has just plunged into the Coral Sea!"

"Is it real?"

"I'm afraid yes".

"It can't happen! Bobby Roberts spat his words, "They have gone too far for politics!!!"

"You think politics is involved?"

"I'd speak with the team right now!!" Bobby Roberts said breathing heavily, "Tom, this is negatively historic".

"It's sir!"

"I need you to instantly arrange for the diamond to be recovered from the sea. Do everything you can and can't, to restore the stone. You have my power".

"I'd be on it, right away!"

The link went down and Tom Harry turned around and followed Paul Gardner into the lane of the istration block of the airport. His head spun around on his neck as he hastened away, and his thoughts took him to the day the blue stone was discovered in Brisbane. He looked lost as he got into the office of the managing director of the cargo airline, where he spent a few minutes asking questions that had ready-made answers. He sighed loudly and walked back with Paul Gardned straight into a waiting SUV to take him to the government annex in Queensland.

"I didn't expect the MD to say anything less", Paul Gardner said as they drove off.

"I have been thinking Paul".
"About what?".

"The diamond block of course".

"What about it?"

"It seems awryness is locked around it", Tom Harry said with a troubled face, "I've never known peace since it was found in the ground".

"I don't feel the same way".

"I'm beginning to consider the school of thought that the diamond is the eyes of the Earth in Australia, and it's holding fast to the piece of stone".

"That's a superstitious line, what's happening to you Harry?"

"You really think so?"

"It's what it is".

"Don't forget easily the hundreds of human casualties that died in the bid to get this diamond out of the Earth".

"The scientist lost machines as well".

"That's exactly my point", Tom Harry said with a high pitch, "The casualties! If you look deep, something isn't making sense!!"

"What has happened to the plane was only an accident".

"Enough of this!" Tom Harry said to pause the argument, "You can't water down the crazy reality this damn stone has caused!!!"

"What did the Prime Minister say?" Paul Gardner resumed and changed the conversation.

"He wants me to initiate action to recover the diamond from the sea".

"Ok, what's the plan?"

"I know a couple of firms that we can use for the operation, and we're going for the best", Tom Harry said with no emotions, "The sea is very turbulent around this season as it overflows its banks to the Pacific Ocean".

"While you're at it, I would like to suggest that we get busy right now!".

"How do you mean?"

"I know a deep sea diving organization that can locate the position of the diamond in the sea".

"It's not a bad idea", Tom Harry said and scratched his head, "But, I don't know, this diamond doesn't bode good things I want to be careful".

"You're being illusional, Tom, it's just an incidence, and the diamond it's just a piece of stone!".

"We want to be careful about the diamond".

"I'm talking top professional divers here, why the fear?" Paul Gardner said persuasively with stress, "You'd gradually wind down from all the shock, we're going to recover the store".

"You may be on it", Tom Harry said as the SUV pulled up at the Queensland government annex.

The two men walked into the building with the sense of urgency the situation did not deserved, but pulled to think differently. Tom Harry heard TV stations, speculating diverse views over the plane incidence, as he walked with Paul Gardner through the reception hall in the annex to their offices. Paul Gardner parted from him and hurriedly withdrew to a corner in his office and began to scroll up the mobile of Erling Drake, whom he knew personally. Erling Drake was the Head of Operations of a deep sea diving organization, whose office was just a stone's throw away. He placed a call to him immediately.

"Hey Drake!" Paul Gardner said as he picked up.

"What's good?"

"The has been an incidence! The government needs your organization to conduct an operation!!"

"Alright Paul", Erling Drake said hurriedly, "What manner operation are we looking at?"

"A cargo plane has just gone down the Coral Sea!!"

"Yeah, it's in the news, the plane has the blue diamond block".

"That's right, we need you to find the diamond in the sea".

"I can get my boys to drag it out of the plane".

'"The government only needs you to locate the plane".

"How do we start?"

"Please come to the government annex now!!"

"I'll be there in a minute".

"Let's get it done done!" Paul Gardner said and rushed out of his office to meet Tom Harry.

They were impressed with the response time of Erling Drake to the annex. Tom Harry signed some papers quickly for Paul Gardner and rose to leave the building. Erling Drake struck a juicy contract with the Australian government and left the building quickly in excitement. He decided to get personally involved in the operation and took charge. He put together a team of twenty one deep sea expert divers and five technicians. They set sail in high confidence from their base on the Coral Sea, in a tugboat. It was not long before they sailed into the mapped zone, where the cargo plane had gone down. He pushed some buttons in a computer to activate the Echo Sounder mounted at the buttom of the boat as they sailed a little more forward, and they heard a loud sound blasting down from the surface of the water. He read the reflected sound waves in the computer screen and he made the boat to criss-cross the water surface. He pointed westwards and all the divers took a dive. He had carefully chosen all the divers, they were the top performers in the organization. It did not take up to ten minutes for the divers to strike the charred body of the plane. They found a way around it and accessed the carrier, but the diamond was gone. A group of divers cut out the black box compartment as others spread to search around for the diamond in the sea. Erling Drake waited restlessly on the boat as operation time rolled up to half an hour in the deep sea. Finally, one of the divers popped out his head and swam towards the boat with the black box.

"I need a tow hook, we've found the diamond!!" he said as he handed the black box to him.

"Good job! Great job!!!" Drake said and brightened up, "But, we're paid only to locate the position of the plane with the diamond, what do you need the hooks for?"

"We've agreed down there to bring out the stone".

"Whatch your oxygen, it can go only one hour fifteen minutes more".

"I see the reading, we'd make it back in twenty at most, move the boat over there", the diver said as he went down again.

Erling Drake and the technicians onboard soared hopefully on the tugboat as time started ticking again. He could not agree more with the diver, recovering the stone would be fantastic, it would position the organization to turn up for the books of the government. It had taken the divers roughly twenty minutes to locate the diamond and Erling Drake estimated give or take, fifty minutes for the next exercise. He laid with his back in the boat and watched the moving clouds up in the sky, occasionally stealing a peep at his wristwatch. His time piece appeared to have slowed as the day length shortened minute by minute.. The ticked off fifty one minutes, but Erling Drake was not worried until the hour mark was reached. From his calculation, could not have taken so if everything was alright down there in the sea. It was taking well over fifty minutes for the divers to set the hooks on the diamond, and return to the boat. Still very hopeful of their return, he spent over an hour waiting onboard.The technicians decided to pull the rope for any engagement, and shockingly, it came freely. Erling Drake quivered but would not conclude that the mission had gone wrong. He continued to hope into hope into the night for some kind of eventuality, different from the reality he was faced with right above the sea. Steadily, the obviousness got too bold, and reality hit him. With eyes streaming tears, he clasped his head with his hands as the hours stretched on unending into the night, he still hoped for some miracles that would not happen. The boat turned around in the thickness of darkness of the night, and set off for base.The homeward navigation was a long one, shrouded in death silence. Erling Drake regained himself in the darkness just before the tugboat arrived the operation platform. He would not forgive himself for being so crass in his moves. He continued to curse himself for not thinking through and through before embarking on the mission. He could never believe that he had lost the professionals in the sea. Still horrified, he mustered courage and pulled a call to Paul Gardner, as he stepped on the shore from the boat.

"Hey Drake! Updates!!" Paul Gardner said aloud with a hopeful note.

"The unthinkable has happened Paul!" Erling Drake said crying and weeping.

"How do you mean it?"

"As I speak! All my divers are lost in the sea!!"

"What! Damn it!!" What's happening!"

"The oxygen in their tank can't take them beyond an hour and hal, but they've been down for ten hours".

"Aren't they aware of their oxygen time?"

"Of course, they're all top professionals", Erling Drake said between sobs, "This is baffling, I can't believe that they'd seen their gas counting to zero, and failed to come out to refill".

"What could have gone wrong?" Paul Gardner asked as his mind got really pricked, about the issues around the stone for the first time, "Drake, I'm really very saddened at this outcome".

"I'm a dead man Paul!!!"

Paul Gardner said with a shaky voice as Erling Drake kept wailing, "I'm going to get government's attention about this now".

"It's not real Paul! it's not happening!!" Erling Drake continued to lament.

"I'd like you to come straight to the Ministry annex as soon as you are able to", Paul Gardner said as he dialed Tom Harry with another phone.

"Hello Paul", the Minister picked up with expectation, "Anything yet?"

"I'm afraid Harry!"

"What are you talking about?"

"The divers have spent their oxygen down in the Coral Sea".

"I didn't get you".

"They have failed to come to fill their tanks", Paul Gardner said with a cry.

"Take it slow now, all the divers? Still in the sea?"

"All of them!"

"Geezuz of Christ! I told you Paul!! I told you Gardner!!!"

"Erling is devastated!" Paul Gardner said and cried some more, "It's my fault!!"

"Can you feel my fears about the accursed stone?"

"It's scary, but it's just a stone", Paul Gardner said still crying.

"I don't know what to think about you!"

"Bobby Roberts wouldn't think like you about the stone Harry".

"How do you mean this?"

"It must be recovered, by any means", Paul Gardner said with a stable calm voice as he regained himself,"He wouldn't take you and your presumptions for it".

"Did you call the glaring facts presumptions, Paul? Aren't you made of senses?"

"But, that's still what it is, nothing is proven yet, nothing is established".

"I'm not going to take this further with you, I've got things to do", Tom Harry said and resigned, "Go clean up your mess!!!"

"I've asked Erling Drake to come to the annex".

"You will fix it yourself".

"What's at your end of this? Paul Gardner changed the conversation, "Any rescue firm?"

"The government has cut a deal with Riskshore, to bring the diamond from the sea"

"And when is the operation taking place?"

"I'm not sure anymore".

"Why?"

"I'm afraid, it might go awry!" Tom Harry huskily, "I'd need to lay the issues bare before Bobby Roberts".

"You and I know the pressure outside, and I can bet my life that the P. M.would go over you, to get out the stone, let's continue to engage Riskshore".

"I don't feel good about this, nobody would die anymore from the decision I make, on of this stone!" the Minister said sternly, "Something is openly mysterious about it".

"Riskshore might just cut it, what you think, are only feelings, Harry".

"I'm not going to see it happen"

"I know Riskshore!" Paul Gardner said confidently, "It uses underwater vessels for search operations, with very high safety".

"There's still risk with the forbidden stone".

"Kill your feelings, your fears! Let's try Riskshore, they use deep see vehicles".

"You can't talk me into another disaster Paul, don't move a muscle about this".

"What are you going to do about it now?" Paul Gardner asked with a raised voice, "Are you reg?"

"I'm not thinking right now, maybe".

"We can use Riskshore Tom".

"It's Period from me!!"

"We can use the firm to recover the bodies of the divers, they might still be alive".

"Move down to the office and discuss with other officials about it, Paul", Tom Harry said and angrily cut the line.

All the arguments he had had over the blue stone with Udi Daniel in Washington DC, down to Brisbane, flashed in the mind of Tom Harry, as he tried to imagine what could have held the divers in the sea. He recalled that the Udi Daniel had harped on weak holding forces of the ground, in the Brisbane minefield, as the factor that thwarted all the operations of the mining companies that failed to dig out the diamond in the minefield. He asked himself rhetorically, "What forces could be at work on the diamond inside the sea?" His mind swung over a range of questions, that no one would attempt to answer with science. He muscled his mind to switch thoughts, it would not take him far. He knew Paul Gardner had pointed out salient lines and he hated to think that he was being overly reading the situation. He felt hurt that the Prime Minister was never going to listen to him about his thoughts on the stone. The opposition to the government were stoking the fire to get back the diamond, he knew he had only two choices on the issue. He scribbled on a paper in his office, and asked his secretary to hand it over to Paul Gardner, and stood up from a chair in the annex. He signalled to his driver and instructed him to drive him to take him to the Brisbane Airport.

"Over there! Over there!!, Paul Gardner kept screaming, "Over there!!!"

Udi Daniel quickly raised the binoculars dangling from his neck to take a look at the area of the minefield where Paul Gardner pointed his two outstretched hands. He could see nothing at first. His handheld device picked radio signals with a buzz, and a tremor flushed through him. He took a quick glance at the signal indicator on the screen of the handheld device, and he focused the binoculars on the area again and this time, he did not miss it. Particles of dust continued shooting out from the ground sporadically. He dropped his binoculars and took another look at his handheld device and he sprinted to the shelter. Paul Gardner chased him from behind and ed him in the room. Udi Daniel did not care about his presence now. Tom Harry had seen the two men racing into the shelter but the action did not jolt him from his deep reverie. The screens had been restored and Udi Daniel skipped about, twisting and turning, getting all the equipment and systems up and running. He made the computer systems to boost-boot as his eyes were glued to the monitoring screen. The screen finally displayed but he was utterly disappointed, it showed no signal. He could not connect to the lead ant to read what was happening. He stood up and stormed outside, kicking everything out of his way. He felt Paul Gardner behind him as he fixed his eyes on the same area of the minefield where dust particles kept spurting. The earth suddenly burst open and one of his soldier ants drove up, out of the ground with its blades grinding at unquantifiable speed. The next thing he saw made him to dream. The lead ant emerged from the ground, followed by two worker ants. He moved farthar on the minefield to establish a good connection with his handheld device, and he saw the tip of what looked like a stone, pushing out of the earth. He raised his binoculars for a close view and he went berserk.

"Tom! Harry!! Diamond!!! He said incoherently.

Paul Gardner withdrew from him and dashed towards the SUV and amplified what he had heard him say, around the Minister, "Tom!! Harry!!! Diamond!!!! Paul Gardner had not fully understood what was actually happening on the minefield but he felt something bewildering was playing out as he returned to the field. Tom Harry hopped down and decided to raise his head over to see what was going on and his eyes almost popped out from their sockets, he was awestruck! Rising steadily from the earth, was a blue rock towering in the air. The sun focused its core beam of rays on it and it sparkled visible blue-light around the area of the field. Udi Daniel stood transfixed as he beheld what he could only believed, if it was enacted in a dream. He had never heard or seen a diamond block that looked refined from the earth. He struggled to come to with the reality, even as the heads of a few of his machines, reared up. He had never trained his machines on how to survive in this situation nor had he experienced a minefield caving in on them. They had not only battled out their way, they had rewritten the script for the operation. He heard loud jubilant noise drifting across from behind, as he took his eyes off the nature's wonder. He looked behind as the noise became feverish and saw a crowd, he could not imagine how this had happened in a few minutes. The giant stone got completely pushed out by the machines and it was laid on the ground. The surface of the piece of stone appeared like a blue body of water from a distance, as sunlight shone on it. A number of journalist were busy covering the diamond, the minefield and his machines. He saw the Minister shoving the journalists from his way as he walked up to him. The man looked like one recovering from delirium, his head was not ready to take questions from the media that kept jostling around him. He reached for Udi Daniel and grabbed him in a bear hug.

"Unbelievable!" He said over the shoulder of the scientist,"I've been wild!!"

"It's a piece of wonder!" Udi Daniel said, "Congratulations, Harry, it's over!!"

"It's more than a dream!" Tom Harry said between breaths.

"It's real now, you have your stone!"

"You made history Daniel", Tom Harry said as he pulled away from the hug, "You and your machines!!"

"Thank you".

"You would be taken from here to your hotel, and the government would finalize the transaction with NextTech".

"It's alright Tom".

"I have to go now!"

The rowdiness on the minefield got Tom Harry feeling uncomfortable as he pushed his way back, but he was very relieved as military trucks pulled up. He recognized some government officials, including Sargon Barron, the Head of the Australian government's economic team on Mining and Valuation. He met them half way into the minefield from the area where the gigantic diamond lied, and were soon engaged to a lively discussion. Udi Daniel moved away to tend to the machines and the media flocked around him and he dismissed them with a promise of a press conference. He needed to get his machines together, he however pointed to Paul Gardner. The journalists swooped upon Paul Gardner and he readily and excitedly recounted everything he knew had happened and how. Udi Daniel got busy controlling his machines to around the shelter and winding up cables. Four of the machines could not make it alive from the ground and he felt the loss. The machines were not only highly costly to create, they took months to be created. He thought hard on how to explain things to Ellinaz Ivanovo in Washington DC over the loss of the machines. She had witnessed the ants operating in well known areas around the world, where mining activities had been impossible owing to weak earth and other dangers, and the ants had come through with no fuse. She had fondly named the machines EXCAV-ANTS, and rated them as super creatures. She was enthralled by the inventions of Udi Daniel but she would not express it. Udi Daniel watched as officials in the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum transferred the diamond into one of the military trucks. The journalists and a number of officials including Tom Harry, drove behind the military trucks as the diamond block was taken away.

By the time he finished decommissioning all his equipment and systems, the day was was half spent. He was driven out of the minefield in a convoy and as the vehicle negotiated the last torn out the minefield, he looked back with his binoculars and saw vultures tearing out themselves, over something he could not see



***Please see the start of chapter Two at the end of the next page. The next page is chapter Two, thank you, I don't know what happened to it here, I reposted it****

Udi Daniel chose to remain silent in the SUV, he could see a vast open space on his left side as the SUV slowed down to negotiate a bend. They branched off to an earth road and the vehicle began to gallop down. The scientist needed no one to tell him that he had arrived at the minefield. He turned to look at Tom Harry who was busy with his phone, as soon as he could see the scale of collapse in the field. It would be believable if someone had told him that an earthquake had occurred on the mining site. The larger stretch of the field looked turned upsidedown. Minning equipment were scattered about, and heavy machineries were at work, dragging large pipes from the ground. He could see a number of workmen standing aloof, and a few others dressed in jackets, standing mostly in clusters, and locked into a whispered discussion. He soon realized that the men in jackets were officials in the Australian Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, as the vehicle got farther into the field and swerved to a corner.The SUV drew up near a shelter and he breathed out deeply. The truck conveying the artificial ants and the equipment pulled up right behind and Tom Harry looked up from his cellphone.

"We're here Dan!" The Minister said as he unfastened his seat belt.

"You needn't say it, I already know" Udi Daniel said as he climbed down, "But what exactly happened here?"

"You read the reports didn't you?"

"It was underreported", Udi Daniel said with hands akimbo as he gaped around drawing air into his nostrils.

"You prepared for this?"

"I should've come here to assess the location".

"Would it change annything?"

"Not really", Udi Daniel replied as he walked behind the Minister to the truck.

"I was thinking you might want to reload your arsenal, Dan".

"As long as the ground isn't moving under our feet, I'd give it a run!!"

"Sounds like you came prepared".

"It's the least I could be".

Udi Daniel stopped behind Tom Harry and unwrapped the fold of map of the field, and took another glance around the minefield. He could see that a portion was sealed off with a long red tape and he nodded as he resumed motion and doubled his strides to catch up with the Minister. Paul Gardner paced away from them and got to the truck and began pulling the lock system on it. The doors split open to reveal the artificial ants. Still stunned, Udi Daniel stepped forward and took a careful walk about on the minefield. He took off his sunglasses and balanced binoculars on his eyes and began to sweep the field. He could hear the shrieking sound of monkeys, bickering in a nearby thick forest and the sharp noise of crying hyenas from a distance. He unrolled the map of the site again and zeroed in on the spot where the giant piece of diamond lied hidden underneath. The area was marked with a pole tilting to the ground. He studied the position for a few minutes and continued walking eastwards. He got to an area and scanned the GPS device on his wrist and he picked a tool to feel the ground. He made a mark on the spot and shifted backwards to draw a circle of about one point five meters in diameter around it and he looked up at the sky. The sun was blazing hot and hanging right in the middle directly above him. Tom Harry and all the officials watched him keenly with feelings of suspense. He took off his binoculars and replaced it with sunglasses and began to walk back towards the truck. The Minister could not take his eyes off him as he returned.

"What were you doing?" Tom Harry asked the scientist as he got close enough.

"It's my business Harry, would you like to have a share in the snare?" Udi Daniel replied as he walked past him, "If you must know, I'm laying the foundation for the operation".

"Are you doing this right away like right now?"

"Do I need a command to start working?"

"I don't mean it that way, I'm sorry if I ask you so many questions".

"It's Okay!"

"I just want to get things clear for record keeping".

"The operation has begun, Tom!"

The Minister appeared apprehensive about the operation all of a sudden, and Udi Daniel could feel it in the way he carried himself around. It looked like his hands were shaking, his footsteps had become less pronounced. The Minister had been so upbeat about the operation moments before they had arrived the minefield, but right now, he was only wishing the pendulum would swing in positive reports. He watched on as Paul Gardner and some of the officials lifted equipment close to the shelter. Udi Daniel rolled up his sleeves and went to work on the field. Under an hour, he rounded off the installations of his outdoor radio equipment and moved to finish the setup of communication systems inside the shelter. He opened a box outside the shelter and took out a handheld device and moved towards where the artificial ants were stationed. He tapped a button and activated all the machines, instantly, they began glowing green. There were a total of twelve ants, each the average size of a human being. He opened the pool of mind programs of the machines, and selected the minds of all the machines needed for the operation. He reassigned tasks and did some modification in the lead ant and pushed a button. The lead ant crawled on all-four towards where he had drawn the circle on the ground. Tom Harry and all the eyes around could not wait to see how the diamond block would be forced out of the earth.

"This machine has very little limbs! The Minister said pointing at the lead ant to Udi Daniel, "How can it wrestle with the ground?"

"Why don't you sit still and see how stuff works?"

"I'm just curious".

"It's the lead ant, and the most equipped and intelligent. It doesn't need huge and long arms to carry out its functions".

The words were still in the mouth of Udi Daniel, when the lead ant got to the marked spot and sank its phangs in the ground. He received a radio message and he swiped the screen on the handheld device to tap a key on the screen. The action set off five digger ants that quickly tracked the prints of the lead ant to the circle. The lead ant scratched the ground and moved out as the digger ants advanced. Appendages with very sharp cutting edges shot out from around the head of the diggers as they got on the circle. Tom Harry and the officials drifted close to have a clearer view but were sent scurrying in the next second. The machines dug the ground with a supersonic speed, blasting away the dust high up backwards. In ninety nine seconds, they left a slanting large hole of eight meters depth. The lead ant went in, to the end of the hole and performed a function to determine the direction to the giant stone, and acknowledged the position of the diamond with a radio transmission to the handheld device in the hand of Udi Daniel. He touched a key on the screen and four worker ants straddled with gallons began to head towards the hole. Tom Harry followed the machines with his eyes to the edge of the hole and turned to face him. The scientist knew the Minister was about to ask a question, but he did not accord him attention. The worker ants got into the hole and a loud noise suddenly emanated from it to the shock of everyone except Udi Daniel. Tom Harry and the officials decided to withdraw cautiously but the noise stopped abruptly. Udi Daniel stood by the hole for the next thirty minutes as the operation progressed. He picked a signal from the lead ant and he spun around on his left heel, and hurried away to the shelter. The number of people on the minefield appeared to have increased in his eyes as he walked back. He reached the shelter and turned to look over his shoulder before pulling the door. He saw Paul Gardner and Tom Harry striding and heading towards him. He held the door ajar as they came close. The Minister looked excited and in good spirit. When the Machine Mind Technology of NextTech was recommended for the Australian government as the only sure means to extract the diamond block, he had received it with utmost skepticism, and had only opted to try it out since nothing more reassuring was on the table. Even when he had made the effort to convince the Prime Minister of the capacity of NextTech to deliver the operation, he was not speaking from the depths of his heart, and moments ago, his doubt had resurfaced, but right his spirit was soaring with absolute conviction. He had been stealing glances at his wristwatch, prepping for the time it would take for the minefield to collapse on the machines, like it usually did on the miners barely twenty minutes underground. The machines had been on it for over thirty minutes and he was happily disappointed.
"I'd like you both to be outside the shelter please!" Udi Daniel said as they came earshot away.

"For how long are the machines staying in the ground?" Tom Harry asked getting Udi Daniel a little thrown off balance.

"You're not paying for the time Tom!" He replied sharply.

"Certain high officials have indicated interest to see the machines on the field", the Minister put it straight to him

"I don't know, the ants do the operation", Udi Daniel said and turned to go inside the shelter, "My attention is needed".

"I'd be foolish to say I'm not impressed", Tom Harry said with a smile exposing a gap teeth.

The Minister watched the scientist slipping into the shelter, he would offer anything if he could catch glimpses of the machines underground. He swiftly moved inside the shelter, flipping on switches and turning on systems. He settled before two big computer screens and pushed on their power buttons. The screens flickered moving rainbow lines for few seconds and displayed blue-blank screens. He hit keys on the keyboard of the first computer with his eyes glued to the screen. He shifted to work on another computer and he froze! The screen of the first computer revealed what was going on in the hole, at the same time his handheld device received a message from the lead ant. He zoomed out the screen and found out that the machines appeared to be running from a point. He could not see what the predator was and the operation had stopped inside the hole. The ants had however already constructed a reinforced meandering tunnel through to the area near the diamond block in the hole. He pulled up an application in the second computer and linked up to the mind of the lead ant. He read it for few minutes and all he could decipher was a physical barrier, the barrier was moving in his reading, shielding the machines from accessing the diamond. He stood up with the handheld device and pulled the handle on the shelter door and came outside. Tom Harry studied his countenance to read the progress of the operation but he could not place it here or there. He followed the scientist as he moved to where only three of the remaining ants were placed. They were soldier ants, these machines looked different with cutting blades adorning almost all parts of their bodies. He touched the screen of the handheld device and pulled up the minds of the soldiers to modify them. The machines instantly turned from glowing green to glowing red. The sharp blades on their bodies that rested like scales on the body of a tilapia, stood up at once with a heavy grinding noise. Tom Harry and others slowly disappeared from around the machines. He touched a key and the machines moved as if on wheels. He watched them filing into the hole and he turned around to walk into the shelter. Tom Harry aimed to stop him on his way and he wriggled and dashed away into the shelter. The temperature inside appeared to have changed as he reconnected his eyes on the monitoring screen, that showed the end of the tunnel. He hit combination of four keys to shorten the screen and began using the arrow keys to navigate inside the tunnel. The machines in the hole gave way as the soldier ants marched past to the end of the hole with blades grinding at a mind-blowing speed. They drove through the end with initial resistance, but a little later, they grinded past the invisible barrier like a knife cutting past the body of water. Udi Daniel restored the complete monitor as the soldiers exposed an object. He assumed it to be the diamond block in the glow of the machines. His handheld device instantly started flashing a message as the soldiers retracted in the tunnel for the operation to continue, and all of a sudden, all the screens went blank inside the shelter! He sprang up, and he was rattled again, by a resounding outcry outside the shelter. He popped out and saw the minefield crumbling on the machines from the beginning to the end of the hole. Tom Harry was devastated and was lost, his brain could not processed the catastrophe.

Dumbstruck with weak legs and shivering hands, he gently walked away towards his SUV. His thoughts swung through the many conversations he had had with Udi Daniel about the stone. He was ready to pencil his resignation to Bobby Roberts. Paul Gardner looked around and found many leaving the mining site. His eyes rested on Udi Daniel who was fiddling with his handheld device absent-mindedly, and pacing about on the minefield. He took a walk behind the scientist with the intent to get his thoughts on the incident, but he decided to let go of the idea, when the scientist turned to look behind, he was looking disoriented and deflated. It would not cross the mind of Udi Daniel that a supernatural force was perhaps working against him and his machines. He stood still on a spot and tried to force his mind to initialize, to race through possibilities of what could have happened in the tunnel, but his mind reflected all the failures and successes of his undertakings since he became an adult, instead. In his craziest imagination, he could not have seen this happening. Long before he had obtained his master's degree in geophysics from George Washington University and his first degree in the science of neural networks in Havard, he had designed and tested the colony of systems of these machines, to perfection. Their decision-making functions and communication techniques were of matchless intelligence for machines, they had life in them. He had kept them for special operations such as this and they had never failed him both in test and in real life. How could they fail now? His thoughts took flight to Washington and back to Brisbane and to Tom Harry and to the situation and a plan surfaced in his head. He turned around slowly to walk back to the shelter and Paul Gardner startled him from behind.

He moved behind two vans that had been parked and he slapped his hand on the body of one of the vans. The vans had the artificial mining ants and other equipment for his mission. He returned to slide into the front seat of a black Mercedes Benz. The two vans followed the car from NextTech to the Baltimore/Washington International Airport in DC. Under fifteen minutes of his arrival in the airport, he was flown out to Australia in a private jet with his mining machines, in a cargo plane. He tuned his mind away from the reports of the different mining operations that had operated on the minefield, and from his mission in the air, and he soon fell asleep. By the time the jet landed in the Brisbane International Airport with the cargo plane, he was wide awake and brrimming in his usual confidence before a major operation. Tom Harry, and Paul Gardner, a high official in the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum had been on ground in the airport. They received him warmly and made to show him to his hotel, but the scientist declined. He needed to get back to the United States as soon as possible for unfinished businesses. He could not have read the clear conspicuous signs revealed in the morning sky in Australia, of what lied ahead of him in the future.

They led him away to the minefield in an SUV, as the truck that trad his artificial ants pulled from behind. He picked up the map of the minefield from his briefcase when the vehicle had driven away for about thirty minutes, and took a long look, concentrating his gaze around where the immense block of diamond had been found. He tossed the paper away and was going to ask Tom Harry a few questions about the mining companies that had operated on the diamond field when the Minister's phone went off.

"I need to take this now", Tom Harry said to him, pointing to the phone, "It's the Prime Minister".

"That's alright", Udi Daniel said and looked out of the vehicle.

"Hello Sir!" The Minister said into the phone.

"What stage are we now Tom?"

""I've just received NextTech from Washington DC, and we're leaving for the site".

"What haven't we done right?"

"I didn't quite get it Sir".

"I've got right here on my desk, another request from the Mining Corporation over the same piece of diamond!" Bobby Roberts said and paused for effect before he continued, "How many more will have to die to extract an ordinary stone?"

"Disregard the request please, the Corporation has received your executive directive to stop all minning operations on the field".

"Australia can't anymore afford the death of a miner over the stone".

"Exactly so!"

"I've instructed Finance to settle the bills of NextTech as you wanted in the mail, but don't you play me, it better be as you have put it".
"You don't trust me anymore?" Tom Harry asked with disappointment in his voice.

"You didn't get it", Bobby Roberts quickly added, "I've not heard anywhere that machines could do this".

"NextTech is the world leading player in the field of Artificial Intelligence, it uses a technology culled from the future, it's tested and proven. I can't hammer it enough".

"We'd see Tom".

"By the way, I have the scientist sitting right next to me, would you like to have a word with him?"

"No no, not now. Good luck!"

Udi Daniel scanned the countenance of the Minister as the Prime Minister clicked off the phone link at the far end. The man looked troubled. He could not fail again. He had been given the last shot to retain his ministry. Bobby Roberts like Tom Harry would never get it, how twelve renowned mining companies around the globe, could fall to dig up a stone from the ground. The Minister stole a glance at his wristwatch as the SUV reached the last turn on the road towards the minefield, and turned to face Udi Daniel. He knew the scientist had clearly heard his conversation with Bobby Roberts.

"I've given the Prime Minister one too many assurances, I understand him".

"It's not your doing, that the earth has chosen to be clingy", Udi Daniel said pointing to the floor of the SUV

"I don't get it", Tom Harry said looking confused.

"Nature tends to remain stable to resist invasion".

"Oh, there we go again, I can never understand. You call this invasion?"

"You would understand if you open your mind for fresh thinking".

"On this situation?"

"Oh yeah!!"

"You don't want to go there Daniel, I'm beyond conviction on this one".

"The earth is one big magnet!" Udi Daniel said as he turned his to find the eyes of the Minister, "Yes, an intelligent magnet".

"The earth can't possibly be found true to be hanging objects, can it?"

"Everything is inside the earth!"

"You're not talking me out of my stance", Tom Harry said sharply and turned his head away.
"I've had a couple of this situation operating in certain fields around the world", Udi Daniel said further to prove a point.

"You don't actually mean it?" Tom Harry asked and looked directly into his eyes, "You scientists teach that nothing occurs unless something happens, what could cause the earth to clamp a stone?"

"Things happen to nature".

"Like what?"

"Forces on, and forces in nature".

"You're back on my side Daniel, extraordinary forces right?".

"They are simply natural forces in science, nothing is extraordinary when it's understood".

"And you think these natural forces are holding the diamond in the ground?"

"Yeah, of course, definitely!"

"I wouldn't understand it, my friend isn't holding your thought"..

"Why wouldn't you?".

"The mining companies in their reports, have pointed out weak holding forces binding the ground, as the chief reasons the diamond block could not be moved", the Minister said as the SUV veered off the expressway to an unpaved roadside, "Shouldn't that be the reason for easy extraction of the block?"

"You don't get it, Tom".

"Help!"

"Two things can't move against each other on a shared surface, and make progress, one has to be stationary for the other to move across".

"What's the point scientist?"

"The ground is moving due to the weak holding forces, and the miners are moving as well, that's disaster already!"

"Strange things!"

"In a way, these weak forces protect the diamond block from Invaders, it's a natural thing for Nature to protect its own".

"It's bizarre!"

"It's not".

"It doesn't make sense, something must be manipulating something!!"

"What doesn't make sense Harry?"

"There can't be an intelligent force or forces around the diamond block for no reason!"

"It's Earth Physics, you wouldn't understand now".

"In my thinking, this is beyond science Daniel, I've said this before and I stick to my guns".

"You're ridiculous!" Udi Daniel said and flashed a shocking look at the Minister, "You don't assume what science can and can't explain".

"I feel it's you that's not getting it, these mining companies that have failed disastrously, and they have equally extracted stones from the ground even in worst environments, why's this one different?".

"Don't marvel!" Udi Daniel said, "What you think doesn't matter when an issue has been resolved with science, the ground has chosen to keep this diamond and it's not manipulative".

"You're twisting my head, I don't want to talk about this again ", Tom Harry said and looked straight, "So, what are you going do about it if it's the case, or not it?"

"The machines would force out the diamond from the jaws of the earth, in any case"

"It's Ok Daniel, what do I know?" Tom Harry said waving his right hand to his left.

"We're almost there", Paul Gardner spoke for the first time in the SUV.

"When this is over!" Tom Harry said and pulled out his cellphone to read a message, "I'm gonna start believing in God".

ONE








The tick-tock sound emanating from the wall clock hanging in Udi Daniel's office in Washington DC, got faster and louder in his ears, as he looked away from the bundle of papers he held in his right hand. He had been engrossed in studying the reports of the different mining operations of companies that had failed to dig up and dig out the largest block of diamond the world would ever see, in Australia. The government in Australia had contracted his company to unearth the diamond block that remained stuck in the ground in Brisbane.Tom Harry, the Australian Minister for Mines and Petroleum had been in his office to sign the dotted lines, and had personally handed the reports to him. He spun around on his chair to face the window and he could see that the sun had gone far down, leaving a yellow-red fading ball, up in the western sky.

He stole a glance at his wristwatch and sprang up as if a scorpion had just stung him. He needed to be on the plane to Australia. He let the papers fly from his hand and he breezed away to use a computer system. He took a seat and fired an email to the logistics office to double-check and sign out the items he needed for his mission, and he grabbed his briefcase. He hurriedly left the office and walked into the corridor, berating himself for pilfering from his productive, in reading through the reports that he had studied before. He had only made six strides outside his office, when his mobile phone beeped and began to vibrate. He looked at the phone's screen and could not ignore it, a call was coming in from Ellinaz Ivanovo, who had been away in Russia, globe throttling for business opportunities. She was a senior business developer and a project director that aided the setting up of NextTech in Washington DC.

"Hello Ellie", Udi Daniel said with a snappish tone, "You didn't respond to my emails".

"I'd left St. Petersburg at the time, there was nothing more I could do about them".

"You could've at least let me know!"

"I'm sorry Dan".

"Where're you at right now?"

"I've just touched down in London".

"I need you to finish the paper works on time and transmit same, I'm flying to Brisbane in a moment".

"How long are you gonna be away on this one?"

"I can't frame it, but it shouldn't stretch beyond twenty four hours, all things being equal, it's a block of stone".

"You did really well in your negotiations with the Australian government '.

"Don't flatter me Ellie, I could only think that they desperately needed it to get out of their way".

"I wouldn't have done any better".

"Come reign in your place and stop making me feel I've done great things in your office".

'I meant it, take the credit for this one".

"I must go now", Udi Daniel said as he walked close to two vans near NextTech's display room, "I've overshot my time".

"Quick one, why didn't you get any field technician on this operation?"

"I can't disclose this now, it's personal".

"Hmm, it's okay, i''d fly in tomorrow", Ellinaz Ivanovo said and the link snapped.

His mind raced to the exchange he had had with Tom Harry, as he put his phone away in his breast pocket.The Minister had argued vehemently and swore that something ominous must be about the diamond block, in his office, before he had left for Brisbane. The Minister could never understand what would render the mining operations of the most reputable companies in the mining industry useless, in extracting a mere block of stone. Udi Daniel had found nothing in the mining reports, indicating anything out of the ordinary, as the Minister would incline to believe. He had laughed it off when Tom Harry had conjured a mystic theory to capture his viewpoint. It was just a series of incidence as far as he could tell, and as far as science was concerne and nothing extraordinary. What continued to peplex him though was why these companies had kept sending in miners to die in their thousands, when the diamond would not come out of the earth.

The last time this book was sampled on the platform, it wasn't finished, due to reasons beyond my control, it has been modified for readers' delight. I'm going to be posting updates as frequently as condition is right.





It's a classless literary work. A condensation of everything, action/adventure, thriller/suspense, science fiction, romance, historical, mystery, military, horror and fantasy.





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"Chained with Diamonds inside the Ocean"- is a journey of a lifetime!






Book Description







The biggest block of diamond the world will ever see causes death to a great number of miners in Brisbane, as the minefield keeps caving in. It defies all operations of mining companies to get it out of the ground. The Australian government finally settles for the Machine Mind Technology of NextTech in Washington DC, a company co-founded by Udi Daniel, an American based scientist that has taken artificial intelligence to a strange level, in the manufacture of mining ants; to dig up the diamond.

Not long after the scientist has used his machine ants to battle out the gigantic block of stone, the diamond gets lost, when the airplane transporting it mysteriously plunges into the Coral Sea. He is caught up in the web of powerful and complex unexplained forces in the bid to recover the diamond from the sea in Queensland, and he will have no option, but to crush one of his machines in a nerve-wracking war, after it is turned to a monster by the strange forces, and seeks him out to devour.

He narrowly escapes from the invisible web, only for love to arm-twist him into an uncertain future in an unknown world, when he accepts the offer of Ali Garabed to conduct an operation in Indonesia.

Goaded by love and greed, he redesigns his highly intelligent amphibious machines, to bring out all kinds of diamonds in a wooden ship, that has been buried in the Indian Ocean for centuries in Indonesia. He gets even more entangled in the convulated web of the invisible forces.

Shortly after the ship is recovered, his world explodes to pieces before his eyes, as India, China, Indonesia and Australia later knock horns over the ship. He will fight for love, for revenge and natural justice.

It is the beginning for him as the lure of diamonds draws men and nations into a confined space for total annihilation by the demon of diamonds. He must be made to stretch science to the end by world powers, to save the world, for mankind to continue in existence.



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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 © 2025 by Dublyn Guonor Horris. All rights Reserved.

Contd





Udi Daniel and the Minister heard the blasts of gun shots in the car after they had driven some distance from the beach. Tom Harry hit the Indooroopilly Road towards the Walter Taylor suspension bridge. The plan was to fly from the Brisban Airport to Canberra, the Australian Capital Territory, to meet the Minister of Defence and the Prime Minister. As the car drew close to the mouth of the bridge, vehicular traffic began to build up from the other end. A commotion soon emanated from that end of the bridge, followed by an explosive hue and cry. The monster had come through the Brisbane River to sit on the bridge. Its long tail reached down through the bridge trusses and it whipped an SUV into the river. The noise peaked!

Adiam had caught sight of Udi Daniel being driven in a car on the Indooroopily Road, to cross the bridge. Vehicle owners abandoned their cars on the bridge and ed the flock of engers running down the bridge backwards in both directions. The Minister and Udi Daniel alighted from the their vehicle to see what was happening on the bridge. The rowdiness unsettled the demon in Adiam. Confused, the monster flew down to the road angrily and trapped some engers that were stampeded as they pushed to come out of a long bus.

Udi Daniel and Tom Harry could clearly see the monster and could hear it charging at the engers. The Minister put a nervy call through to the Chief of Police.

"Hello", the Chief answered.

"The monster is on the Walter/Taylor suspension bridge right now".

"We're moving there now!"

"It's on rampage", Tom Harry added.

Adiam scowled at the bus engers and overturned the bus, causing them to scream feverishly.

"Where is Udi Daniel?" Adiam bellowed at the engers with an earthshaking tone.

The Minister was shocked when he heard the monster ask of Udi Daniel. They turned around and started running. They never looked behind. The monster didn't get any response from the engers and it repeated the question. They were too frightening to open their mouths. Adiam got frenetic and began to push the bus out of the bridge towards the river.

The clattering and clanging as the monster pushed through abandoned vehicles were deafening, and it drowned the wild shrieks and wailing of the engers inside the bus. The street lights were fully on and people watched the horror helplessly from a distance, in full glare.

The Brisbane police helicopters headed for the Walter Taylor Bridge and one of the snipers used his binoculars to view the bridge from far away as the helicopter flew into Brisbane communities along the riverside. He aimed with his riffle as the monster was about to push the bus inside the river.

Three military attack helicopters showed up from the other side of the bridge and began to fire at the monster. Adiam escaped like light into the river before using its long tail to complete the damage. It sent the bus into the river! The action caused a long and loud noise from the onlookers.

The Minister and Udi Daniel had heard the confusion from behind but they would never turn back. They ran down the full stretch of the Indooroopilly Road and were about to change direction at a junction, when the Chief of Police spotted the two of them with the headlights, as one of the police vehicle negotiated towards the Indooroopilly Road. Tom Harry and Udi Daniel were heading to the train station, to travel by rail to Canberra.

The Chief of Police stopped the Minister and arranged for him to travel to the Australian Federal Capital in one of the police helicopters.The Brisbane River came to view again as the police helicopter lifted Tom Harry and Udi Daniel into the air. Tom Harry could see that heavy machines were being driven down the bridge. The Governor of Queensland had deployed emergency operation to get the bus with the engers out of the river. Their vision faded away as a crane lowered four hooks into the river, followed by the plunging of divers.

As the helicopter changed direction towards Canberra, Udi Daniel breathed a deep sigh of relief. He had been so close to being in the net of Adiam, and had come to realize that a negative intelligent force was operating in the humarine. How this could happen beat his human understanding.Tom Harry feared for the life of the scientistl. He was going to facilitate his travel back to the United States once the Australian government had completed the transaction with NextTech.

Three







The Chief Executive Terminator was midway in the air, between Iran and Iraq flying to Baghdad, boiling with rage. In his twenty three years of killing career, he hadn't come so close to being trapped like the incidence that led to the last failed operation in the Heathrow Bing Tower. He concluded in his head that Oscar Averes had set him up. It was him that ed the information about the location of the target, the time and the room 13 on the 21st floor of the hotel. He could not put the cards together on how the FBI had tracked him down and got the floor, the room number and the time. He was flying to see Dr. Omar Bin Lahmir, It was him that personally ed and contracted him with a phone call for the operation.

The airstrip of Al Ja'amah in Iraq opened into three well secured gates. The gates funneled into a cave that led into an underground mansion. The at each gate was different, if a visitor ed the first gate with a code and failed the entrance code of the second gate, he would be executed summarily. The gates es had to be correct for the visitor to reach the mouth of the cave, where a signal would be sent to Dr. Omar Bin Lahmir to acknowledge your mission, before you were guarded from the cave by heavily equipped men to see him.

He was a man with strange abilities. He could feel the presence of strangers within a one mile radius and decipher intentions. He was fittingly called the demon by his loyalists. His eyeballs were like tiny shiny beads in a very big skull. No hair strand had grown on his head since his birth. His long white goatee gave a sharp contrast to his hairless head. He was squatting in the inner most chamber of his ringed mansion, making some religious incantations as he floated in and out of trance. Some of the remaining of his terror organization were scattered about and around the building, mostly in groups. A clattering noise occasionally drifted into the mansion from a distance.

The LED device on the mat of the great one started blinking. He picked it up with his left hand and flipped it up with his left thumb. A message had dropped in. He spied the message with his left eye and raised the device in his right hand to switch on a screen that hanged on a chord from the ceiling. The screen came on and he pressed a button on the device to open the surveillance camera that watched the entrance of the cave, and saw the sniper. Rito Birdman hadn't come to the underground more than two times for the twenty years he had been converted to become a fringe member of the terror organization. He had grown into a full bearded man. His uncommon skill of leaving no trace or track after a hit, had endeared him to Dr. Omar Bin Lahmir. The evil doctor pressed "" on his device and fiercely looking giants led him to the second in command, Abdul Taheem.

"Look at you now! You're all grown up", Dr. Omar Bin Lahmir said the moment Rito Birdman appeared.

"Good to see you my lord".

"You don't look cheerful".

"There's a problem".

"We fix things here".

"The operation failed, the FBI aborted it".

"How could it happen, you're the greatest".

"Oscar set me up!"

"You know that's not possible".

"There's no other way to interpret how the FBI had stopped me".

"I swear to this, Azeez doesn't know a thing about it. It's Al Ja'amah that he is working for, he couldn't turn around and thwart his own effort".

"I would him to defend himself my lord".

"Shut this issue!"

"Ok".

"I trust you didn't leave a print for the FBI".

"You know my craft".

"Take your rest, we'd discuss some important matters later".

Rito Birdman spent a day with Dr. Omar Bin Lahmir in Iraq and got himself ready to leave. He hoped the dust raised by the foiled operation in the Heathrow Bing Towel had settled. As he moved out of his room into the living room of the underground mansion, with his bags, the evil doctor could see that he still nurtured a monstrous grudge with a smouldering temper. He signalled him to him on a mat where he squatted and tried to reason with him again.

"I have known Oscar Averes for more than twenty five years and I am dead sure he wouldn't do such a thing".

"But how could the FBI have exactly known the time and place where I was going to carry out the hit?"

"Honestly, I am a little bit confused".

"It's obvious he was behind it".

"I know he's loyal to death for the course of Al Jama'ah. He had no reason to trap you. Don't forget, the operation was meant to get an American spy on board".

"But how do you explain this my lord".

"I'm going to speak with him about it, but I already know he didn't do it. He is committed to the course and he knew how much Al Ja'amah needed you to come through".

"Time will settle it".

"Very well".

"I must go now".

"Just a few minutes, I will be back here".

As the demon was about rising on the mat, his Deputy, Abdul Taheem suddenly flung open the door to the living room, and breezed in to switch on the plasma TV screen that was hanging from the ceiling. A news headline flashed up in Al Jazeera Cable News, showing the face of Rito Birdman wearing a black face cap in an elevator. He switched to BBC, the same news was breaking and then to CNN. He left it on CNN as the reporter, Mitchell Bannes gave details: "On your TV screen is the face of the world most wanted killer", Mitchell Bannes looked straight and continued, "He has carried high profile assassinations around the world. His latest operation was neutralized by the FBI in the Heathrow Bing Tower in Washington DC." The hotel came on the TV screen and pushed Mitchell Bannes to a corner. It showed Rito Birdman in the elevator with a black face cap and another enlarged photograph of him without the cap. Mitchell Bannes went on: "He was to perform a hit through the wall of room 13 on 21st floor. He had drilled three holes in shape of a triangle on the hotel room wall. The FBI at the moment is tracking him, as other detectives try to unveil who was his target at the Heathrow Bing Tower........" Abdul Taheem switched off the TV as she went on.

Dr. Omar Bin Lahmir stood up as if a spring had released him and walked away from the mat as the TV went off. He used his eyes to sign to his Deputy to meet him in a different room. Instantly his color changed. He pulled Abdul Taheem's head towards him and whispered into his ear.

"Expend Rito Birdman now! The FBI could track him down here. He could reveal our schemes under torture when the FBI gets hold of him".

"He's a time bomb waiting to explode!"

"Shoot him in the head now!"

Contd






The CNN reporter was already at the Heathrow Bing Tower the next morning and was waiting for the FBI team with her camera man. Agent Morgan Howard and the air-to-surface surveyor arrived later. Agent Morgan was astonished to find the Mitchell Bannes at the hotel. She got up to meet him before he could step into the elevator.

"Where is Mary Greenwood?" She asked, Morgan didn't get it and she added, "I spoke with her yesterday and I told her I would be part of her team on the case.

"Well, something came up in the office that required her attention. She would in later"

He assumed Mary Greenwood had approved the coverage of the investigation by the CNN reporter. He thought it was premature to feed the public with anything yet, but who was he to challenge the all-knowing Mary Greenwood? He did not stop her from ing him. Mitchell Bannes gave the thumps up sign to her camera man and he hastily lifted his equipment to them in the elevator. Room 13 on 21st floor was already opened but sealed by the FBI.

Agent Morgan cut the tape and he entered with Martins Squilla. Mitchell Bannes gave another thumps up sign to the camera man as agent Morgan squeezed and pulled the curtain that covered the wall with the triangle of holes to his right hand side. The cameras were now rolling from different angles; one camera was on agent Morgan Howard as he pulled his laptop from his backpack. He powered on the laptop and opened up the computer re-presentation of the room that Mary Greenwood had designed, and waved at the surveyor to come around. The surveyor knew exactly what to do, he began mounting his instrument on a base near the wall of holes.

"What is the Hit Angle again?" Martins Squilla asked.

Morgan looked at the laptop and replied, "73 degrees to the midline".

The surveyor drew a straight line across the middle of the triangle of holes on the wall and used a divider to cross check the hit angle. He took a drilling tool and drilled a hole through the midpoint through to the outside and pulled up an instrument tucked on the frame of the stand. He ed it through the midpoint to the outside of the hotel wall. At the edge of the instrument outside, was a stylus carrying a lens. He pushed a button labelled, "Set'' on a handheld device that connected to the lens outside and the lens carrier stretched out from the stylus to one meter horizontally. He pressed another button and the lens carrier folded backward ninety degrees vertically. He punched a button labeled, 'Rotate to Coil', and instantly the lens outside began sweeping three sixty degrees parabolically.

The lens carrier gradually withdrew into the stylus as it continued sweeping to coil. The surveyor could see the movement of the lens inside the room on the screen of the device. He stopped the recording when the camera had withdrawn completely into the stylus. He pressed a button on the device to get the record transferred to a memory stick. He inserted the storage device into his laptop and opened an application. He typed, Narrow vision from 73 degrees" in a window that popped up in the laptop and scrolled to the bottom of the window and hit the ''Go'' button. The window vanished for six seconds and returned a captured image of a bungalow. He enlarged the photo of the bungalow and clicked the print button on the application. The captured image of the bungalow came out neat from the printer.

Mitchell Bannes signed to the camera man to stop action. The surveyor's professionalism had been called by the FBI many times before. Morgan Howard stood up and shook hands with before they gathered their equipment and went down to find the bungalow. As agent Morgan got into the FBI official SUV and was going to close the door, Mitchell Bannes held the door from slamming shut. "This is as far you can go Mitchell", agent Morgan Howard said. He waved at the driver to drive on while she still held the SUV door. Mitchell nearly tripped when the SUV accelerated with some fury.

Agent Morgan headed for the bungalow with the surveyor, who had opened up his laptop and plugged in a GPS. The surveyor directed the turns after turns as he looked at the GPS application on his computer. The driver finally pulled the SUV up inside an estate of bungalows. The surveyor alighted with his laptop on his two palms and walked a few distance into the estate. It didn't take him long to locate the right bungalow. He walked around to face room 13 on the 21st floor of the Heathrow Bing Tower. He balanced binoculars on his eyes and traced the holes on the wall. He found the holes and took the coordinates of the bungalow position. He keyed the coordinates in the open application and obtained the ''Hit Distance".

"The Hit Distance is four and a half miles", Martins Squilla said.

"Rito Birdman is a hell of a sniper!" Agent Morgan whispered.

Mary Greenwood was free now to him and the surveyor at the Heathrow Bing Tower. She looked at the wall clock in her office, the official closing hour had ed. She would have loved to head to the hotel. A new case had just developed, that would have taken her attention from Rito Birdman. She opened her purse to get her cellphone and pulled a call to agent Morgan.

"What's the update Howard?"

"It's a fresh wine. It's completely done. Ill send the full package to you shortly".

Mary Greenwood suppressed a laughter and replied, "Roger that".

"The next move?"

"You can go home and kiss your monkey. See you tomorrow.

She cleared her table and closed shop. A message dropped in her phone from agent Morgan. She was sure she would get answers to questions like; Why the target? Who wanted him dead? Who contracted Rito Birdman, and his hideout at the moment? She smiled to herself as if all her questions had been answered. She would soon add another feather and award to an already filled cabinet.

Contd





At last, Tom Harry got himself as electric bulbs in the beach were switched ON, and he pulled a panic call to the Chief of Police of the Queensland Police Division.

"How can I help you?" The Chief spoke sharply.

"This is Tom Harry, the Minister for Mines and Petroleum. We have a situation here in the Coral beach".

"Straight on sir, what's happening?"

"A monster has just emerged from the Coral Sea and it's attacking one of the officials in my Ministry".

"It's unheard of, I hope you're not telling tales".

"Hurry up and come to the beach!"

"I'm getting my men there at once".

"Alright Chief".

Udi Daniel could not cease wondering over the striking resemblance of the monster to the humarines, barring the long tail end its immense size. He restrained from thinking that Adiam had taken another form, he was sure of his training and programming. He knew the minds of the humarines had not the capabilities to transform to another creature. While he was still thinking, Adiam held Paul Gardner by his neck and raised him from the ground to full view. The monster looked into the eyes of Paul Gardner and asked in a monotoned voice, very loudly.

"Where's the diamond?"

"Theey tookkk itttt to the city", Paul Gardner stuttered.

Adiam slammed Paul Gardner to the ground as policemen drew up at the beach and it disappeared. Paul Gardener died on the spot. The police had watched from a distance and had clearly heard the monster when it had demanded to know where the diamond was taken. A trained police sniper was aiming at Adiam when it vanished. Tom Harry and Udi Daniel left the hotel as the police officers moved and spread around the beach to find the monster.

Tom Harry and Udi Daniel could see the Brisbane Police helicopters, heading towards the beach. People moved about hastily to their destination to beat the curfew that had just been announced by the State government. Tom Harry drove out of the Beach Side Hotel to access the back gate and saw hoteliers and guests scurrying to safety from the monster. He stepped hard on the breaks and swerved the car to go out through the front gate.

Adiam followed the signal of one of the monitoring systems that was not shut down in Udi Daniel's hotel room, and appeared inside. It saw the picture of the diamond and it hopped round the room, turning everything upside down. It saw the port photograph of Udi Daniel on the floor and it recognized him as the one who had programmed the humarines to forcefully remove the diamond from the gate to the deep black hole in the Coral Sea.The demon in Adiam became very sure that if anyone would know where the diamond was taken, it had to be Udi Daniel. It decided to wait for the young scientist to return to his hotel room.

The screams following the shoving and rowdy escape through the gates of the Beach Side Hotel, alerted the police to move to the hotel from the beach. One of the managers of the hotel stopped to direct the police officers to the room that the monster had entered. The officers filed into the hotel with their riffles in Y-shape, to trap the monster. The sniper saw the tail of Adiam resting on the window wall of the room of Udi Daniel, and he whispered to the Chief of Police to come around.

They spread out to a distance apart where their bullets could fire unhindered through the open window. Adiam stretched its neck through the window as it tried to figure out a face that looked like that of Udi Daniel in a car moving towards the Indooroopilly Road. The policemen simultaneously fired at the monster and it withdrew.. The bullets rained into the room continuously through the window and the monster could not disappear. The Chief of Police commanded some of the officers to enter the corridor that connected the room on the eleventh floor to the outside, and shoot through the door. As the officers came on the corridor, Adiam pulled down the door and escaped through the opened window of an opposite room. The officers followed it with fire but Adiam had gone with the wind.

Contd




Her whole life revolved around her work since day one that she started working for the FBI. When the management granted her vacation time, Mary Greenwood would still report at the office. The management had to literally force her to go on vacation in South Africa after she had cracked open a case that happened seven years ago. She had brought the untouchables in America to their knees and ensured that they were locked behind bars. The same management that had forced her to go on vacation, had cut it short. The disappearance of Prisca Bender had brought so much pressure to the FBI's hierarchy. She was playing with her baby on a sandy beach in Durban, when she got a call on her private phone. The message was simple and it came from one of the top Directors of the FBI:

"We have our hands full. Knotty cases that need to be cut open. Be on the next flight to Washington DC".

Mary Greenwood waited until her daughter's nanny had arrived before she left home for her office. She tried to separate the Prisca Bender's case from that of Rito Birdman, but something within made her feel strongly that the two cases were inextricably connected. Her focus was on the "Keyface and she hoped her approach would culminate to finding those behind the disappearance of Prisca Bender. She knew the FBI management wouldn't sanction the direction she had taken, without some conviction, however, every fiber of her reasoning power pointed her that way.

She arrived at the office to see a kind of chaotic movement. Everyone seemed under some kind of pressure. The FBI management was breathing down the neck of everybody to get results. For certain field agents, the management had set ultimatum for them to deliver. Mary Greenwood didn't do much in the office. She sat down in her office and sent update report on the Prisca Bender's case. Her table phone went off and she picked it up. The call came from a very stubborn reporter in CNN.

"Hello Mitchell".

"Can I ask for a favor from the FBI?"

"It depends on what you are going to ask".

"I've understood that you're leading the investigation into the disappearance of Rito Birdman from the Heathrow Bing Tower".

"What are you aiming at?"

"I'd like to be part of your team, we're producing a series of documentary and we're dedicating it to the elusive sniper".

"Look here, this case is delicate, we're only building the momentum to go full swing, when we reach a point, of course, you would be invited".

"This is important to me and my organization, let me in on this one, please!"

"I've given you my word".

"Just this time!"

"You will definitely get the juice of the story. Standby and watch out for it".

The reporter was still insistent and Mary Greenwood slammed the office phone into its socket. Mitchell Bannes was formerly of the BBC before she ported to CNN. She had the reputation of setting off breaking news of hot cases involving crimes around the globe. She was a darling in CNN. She would want every action relayed live with her camera at the Heathrow Bing Tower. Agent Bradley Stevens had leaked the latest development on the Rito Birdman's case to her. They were in some kind of an undefined relationship. Mary Greenwood turned to agent Morgan Howard in the office and he accorded her attention.

"Tomorrow morning we'll be going to Heathrow Bing Tower. I need you to make arrangement for an air-to-surface surveyor to sweep down", she said.

"Copied!"

She pulled out all the records of the sniper and looked through the files of his past crimes. She scanned them for anything that could connect to the way he had broken free from the Heathrow Bing Tower. She reasoned that it would be rash to conclude that the management of the hotel connived with criminals at this time. She would wait for the result of her findings into the target of the hitman in the hotel. She took her mobile phone from her bag and punched in the phone number of the Managing Director of Heathrow Bing Tower to inform him that the FBI would be there the following day.

Contd




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 wouldn't 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.




Two







Mary Greenwood got home and sat in her bath tub, full of warm soothing water, absorbed in thought. She wouldn't stop seeing the disappearance of Rito Birdman under her nose as direct affront. She transfigured into another realm, deep in reasoning. She perceived that the sniper was about to hit the young man in the picture through the triangle of holes in the Heathrow Bing Tower. She at once sprang up from the tub, exposing her complete nude, before grabbing a towel to wrap her chest down. She made her way to her study to flip on the light switch. She settled on a chair and took a sheet of paper and a pencil from a bag on the floor. She shut her eyes for a minute and went to work.

She drew a triangle that connected the three edges of holes. The target of the hitman was inside the triangle and the target's picture was crossed with a red ink. She penetrated the wall with the triangle of holes with her eyes, and could see the target out there, but no Identity. She rolled up her thought along critical reasoning, all she could see was blurred lines.

She exhausted all her investigative witchcraft and itted to herself that she would need help. It was almost in the middle of the night. She wobbled to her bed and fell into a deep sleep. Not long after she had hit the bed, she drifted into dreams. She found herself in the room 13 of 21st floor of the Heathrow Bing Tower. She saw a hand, writing on the wall of the triangle of holes. The hand measured the angle that Rito Birdman was going to position his rifle to hit the target and it marked it as "Target Angle". She was going to ask a question about the angle and the hand disappeared.

She woke up early in the morning and went to her study. The dream was still fresh in her mind. She labeled the target of Rito Birdman as the "Keyface" and considered unveiling it imperative to make a headway.

The hand in her dream had only measured the target angle and didn't show how it was arrived at. She visualized Rito Birdman hitting his target from any of the holes of the triangle. It gave her the idea of projecting the holes through the walls to meet outside. She arrived at a prism with a triangular base of holes. She drew a cross across the base of the triangular prism, and drew a line from the center of the cross to meet the pointed edge of the prism outside the wall of the hotel room, facing Adaz Obot's balcony, and straigthened up to measure the angle that the hand in her dream had measured last night. She got excited with what stared at her. She smiled broadly giving the impression of "I've finally figured it out" kind of feeling. The angle she had measured deviated only by two degrees.

She sauntered to another table with a desktop computer and took a seat. She powered on a computer and clicked open a drawing application. She began to make a 3D re-presentation of her sketch. She finished and measured the target angle to the "Keyface". It deviated only by one degree this time. She inserted a Usb stick in the computer to save the work. She finished and left to get a shower and prepare to leave for the office.

Abobii
Conbd




Adiam was rendered powerless by the invisible hand that held it in the deep black hole, on the bed of the Coral Sea. The hand sprang up out to the floor of the sea, holding tight to Adiam. It materialized into a giant black octopus and it dissolved into the humarine. Adiam had all the external features of the humarines with the exception of a strong long tail now. It swung its razor-edge tail around and sent sea animals scampering. It moved under the sea like a flash.

It received a radio signal from the platform where Paul Gardner was waiting for it to return. Like a lightening, Adiam appeared on the platform to see Paul Gardner about to shut down the systems and leave the platform. He fell on the platform in shock as Adiam manifested from nowhere. He tried to deactivate the mind of the humanrine with the handheld device as it walked towards him slowly on two legs, but the humarine would not respond to command. He could see and hear the long tail, making a metal sound on the platform as it got very close. He could also see that it had increased in size and now looked like a giant frog. Fear paralyzed him and he couldn't even scream.

Adiam got close enough and swiped his tail to send him writhing on the sea shore. The loud painful expression from him as he landed with a thud, caused Tom Harry and Udi Daniel to switch their eyes on the platform, but Paul Gardner was not there. They saw a black giant frog three times the size of an average human being, with a long tail, stepping from the platform onto the beach.

Tom Harry frantically pulled a call to Paul Gardner. The phone kept ringing in his pocket but Paul Gardner was too weak with pains to move a muscle, his back bone terribly ached where Adiam had flogged him with its iron tail. The possessed humarine moved majestically on the sea shore and flung its tail again to send Paul Gardner into the open, where Udi Daniel and Tom Harry could now see him. Paul Gardner coughed out blood on the beach as he made an effort to stand on his feet. The Minister and Udi Daniel watched in horror as both were stricken with fright that disabled their reactive senses.

Contd...




Agent Morgan Howard swiftly wielded his AK-47 two sixty degrees as he entered the room cautiously. Agent Bradley Stevens couldn't 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 couldn't believe her eyes. She was 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 it's him?"

"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 kidding!"

"How else can you explain what just happened?"

"I swear, I'll see the end of this!"

Agent Bradley Stevens phone went off, the Supervisory Special Agent of the FBI needed him and agent Morgan Howard for another operation. Mary Greenwood followed them outside. The elevator lowered the three FBI agents to the first floor and agent Bradley and Morgan left for a crime scene. Mary Greenwood walked to where Rito Birdman had parked his Bugatti Vernon, the car was gone. She walked back to the reception to see the receptionist for answers.

"Did you see the man that checked into room 13 on the 21st floor come out with the elevator?"

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

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

Mary Greenwood turned around to go to the office of the Managing Director of the Heathrow Bing Tower to see the CCTV footage of the last one hour. 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. 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 of the young man 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 asked.

"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?"

"I need you to play the footage in the last thirty minutes, and I want to see all the angles".

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

"It's classified".

"You can come into the control room, agent".

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

"I've never seen him".

He made the CCTV feed available for her and she began to watch with magnetic concentration. She had only watched a few seconds when her cellphone buzzed; she picked it up while her eyes were still glued to the CCTV. It was Michael Bending, the multi-talented FBI agent.

"Hello Mike.

"I have reasons to believe that Prisca Bender never left the Heathrow Bing Tower alive".

"Copy that".

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

"I didn'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 going in the hotel?"

"I'm on it".

"She was killed in the hotel and her dead body was removed".

"Thank you Mike, I would zero in on it", Mary Greenwood said, and asked the Managing Director to replay the CCTV feed again.

She took in every detail that played in the footage but couldn't 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 had 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.

Ok..... We'll see!

Chapter Five




Ali Garabed recovered from the heart attack he had suffered when the cargo plane had gone down into the Coral Sea, and was discharged to a hotel. The new government on the recovered diamond was ed to him and he signed the documents with a sense of loss. He had hoped to make a lot of profit cutting the diamond in England. He however thanked the stars for witnessing the recovery of the diamond by the humarines live on the TV.

He had read about a treasure of precious stones that got lost centuries ago inside the Indian Ocean, in an history book and he could not wait to meet Udi Daniel, to get him involved in the recovery of the stones. The story about the lost treasure was told to him by his grandfather who was a gold merchant, before he had read the history book. The wooden ship that contained the treasure had all kinds of diamond.The business mogul decided to do a little digging up on the story right away in Australia. He began to collect hard facts that would point to the area of the Indian Ocean, where a part of ancient civilization had washed into the floor of the Indian Ocean.

Udi Daniel wondered over what could have held Adiam back in the sea as he sat on a chair outside the Beach Side Hotel. He could see the platform where he had activated the humarines from his elevated position. Paul Gardner stood on the platform with the handheld device that he had given him to deactivate the mind of Adiam if it ever showed up. His eyes were roving over the Coral Sea, as his mind was busy thinking up where things might have gone wrong for Adiam.

He looked away from the sea as he heard the sound of a vehicle pulling up, it was the Minister for Mines and Petroleum.Tom Harry came with some documents for him to sign, for the government to start processing the transfer of the funds for the recovery operation. The evening was closing in on the Coral Sea and Udi Daniel was beginning to lose hope on Adiam.

"Please call Paul Gardner to leave the platform, it's getting to night. I'm not sure Adiam would make it back", Udi Daniel said to Tom Harry.

"The machine could come home anytime, let him be".
"I have finished g the papers".

"Ok", Tom Harry said, "NextTech will receive the funds latest tomorrow, I've spoken with Ellinaz about it".

"It's alright Tom".

"The Prime Minister is particularly impressed with your technology and he wants it introduced into the school system here in Australia".

"Artificial intelligence is the next big thing, the government wouldn't regret investing in it".

"Assuming I'm your student, what would you recommend for me to study about the humarines?"

"Principles and Operations of Machine Mind Systems".

"Where can I find a book on it?"

"But you're not a student", Udi Daniel said as he looked towards the platform.

Their conversation went on as Paul Gardner waited for Adiam to appear. Tom Harry could never know that Udi Daniel's technology was transcending the scope of human knowledge and existence into a higher realm. Machine Mind Technology was brewing trouble!


Expect next update by weekend.....

Contd




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 wouldn't 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?" The lady asked smiling at him.

"You can lift to your floor first ma'am".

The killer sounded like a complete gentleman. 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 the 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 bungalow's 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 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 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 didn't answer the voice. He dropped the riffle in the bag and tiptoed to the door. He looked through the key hole and saw a young lady flanked by two uniformed men with FBI badges.

Mary Greenwood had come to the hotel to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Prisca Bender in the hotel. 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 ed him in the lift. 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. She had been promoted to the rank of Assistant Special agent in-charge.

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. She had slipped into a well fitting combat outfit and secured her short gun on her waist belt. The two FBI agents had come into the first floor of the hotel just as she got out of the elevator. 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.