"Mr Orchard. It's so nice to see you again after all this time." Budi said.
I hoped that the cordial reception was genuine, but it didn't matter. I wasn't visiting the Harapan Conglomerate headquarters as a social visit, but because I had another mission. One last mission to bring me peace before I died.
I was 62 and I could have many years ahead of me, and yet I missed the peace that lay in death. More than everything I missed vengeance. I had hoped that revealing myself to Sabina would be enough. That the looming threat of my revenge would be enough to make her miserable. But I was wrong. Reports that I received from Australia, indicated that Sabina led a happy worry-free existence.
"Nice to see you too, Budi," I replied, and I forced a smile.
Budi smiled back and pointed towards the dining private dining room. "This way, Martin. I have ordered the chefs to bring our greatest most expensive dishes."
I nodded, but I didn't reply, and I followed Budi to the dining hall, where our table was set with an array of expensive Indonesian foods and beverages. I was anxious to get on with the mission, but it would be rude to not accept the invitation, and I wasn't in any form of a hurry. I calmed down and I enjoyed the assortment of delicacies while engaging in idle chatter with Budi and Rexi.
***
A while later, I was in a top-secret research lab owned by the Harapan Conglomerate. The lab was in the basement of the headquarters, many levels below ground. Budi and Rexi accompanied me, together with a few other nameless scientists.
"Is the technology ready?" I asked.
"Yes. We have a prototype ready for you. But please tell me, Martin, what is the point of this gadget?" Rexi replied.
"The usefulness of hiding nanotechnology cameras in contact lenses should be obvious!" I scoffed
"Yes, but the eye colour changing capability? It makes the lenses very costly and difficult to make." Rexi remarked.
"You don't need to have that feature on the final model. But I do need it on the prototype for a mission ahead of me." I replied.
Rexi stopped himself from objecting, and he replied. "Very well, please come this way."
We walked into an optics lab, and Rexi handed me a small box with contact lenses.
"Is this it? They don't look anything special?" I asked sceptically.
"Correct. The lenses wouldn't be as useful if they stood out, as yours and mistress Elaine's monocles did, before the, um, malfunction." Budi replied.
"Very well, let me try it," I stated.
I put on the contact lenses. They stung a bit, but I adapted after a while. The user interface was primitive, and the functionality limited. The scientists hadn't been able to accurately replicate the Zetan technology that we found in the Sunken Pyramid of Kiribati. But it didn't matter. All that I needed was to make sure that the lenses were fit for my purpose.
I connected the lenses to my phone, and I could tell that they were operational. I tried the camera and it worked okay. Although the cameras, didn't transmit clear images it was still a massive technological breakthrough. I tested the change eye colour feature of the lenses and I smiled at my reflection. With the help of my mobile app, I could change my eye colour at the press of a button, including giving myself purple eyes.
"Excellent. This is what I am after. Make sure to make a few pairs for a six-year-old child as well." I commanded.
"Yes, sir. Is there anything else that you need?" Budi asked.
"Yes. Have you hacked the Australian government websites to make sure that there is no arrest warrants and criminal charges against me?" I asked.
"Yes, I have already done this," Rexi replied.
"And have you appointed some helpers for my mission?" I asked.
"Yes, my men have already organised everything that you need." Rexi replied.
"Excellent. I am leaving at once." I stated.
I was walking towards the lift when Budi caught up with me. "Mr Orchard. Why are you spending so much on your revenge? We could just send our men to kill the family." Budi suggested.
"Killing them won't solve my issues. Causing them to suffer for a lifetime is the only way for me to avenge Elaine and get justice for Sabina's betrayal." I stated as I entered the lift.
***
I was nervous as I walked past the electronic border checkpoint at Kingsford Smith Airport. I hadn't visited Australia since 2040 for good reasons. On my last visit to Australia, I killed Szymon Yehuda and his Mossad operatives in the middle of Darling Harbour in front of hundreds of people. Budi and Rexi had intercepted me before the cops did and had smuggled me out of the country. I could only imagine the effort it had taken to clear my records after that incident.
I sighed of relief as I passed the border without incident. The Harapan agents Jaime Sanchez and Miguel Rodrigo met me at the airport. "Take me to the house that I rented for us at Seaside Parade." I ordered and we got into a car taking us to the perfect spot for stalking Sabina and continue with the plan.
***
I was sitting in a room on the top floor of the villa that we had hired at the top of the street. From my location, I had picturesque ocean views, and had a clear view of Sabina's house. I needed to spend time with Keila alone so I could put the colour shifting lenses in her eyes. That was the only way for me to convince Sabina that Keila was under Rangda's influence.
Jaime Sanchez entered the room and spoke. "I have discovered something, boss."
"Good. Please share with me, Jaime" I replied.
"Sabina hires a local teenager, Eliza Shaw, to babysit Keila. Perhaps we can pay this girl to give us access to Keila." Jaime suggested.
I thought about the suggestion. It would seem suspicious to Eliza if we appeared in front of her and requested to spend time with one of the children she was looking after. But if we gave her some money, and I had a credible backstory and it could work. If it didn't, we'd have to break into Sabina's place and kidnap Keila at gunpoint.
"Let's try to convince this girl to help us, do you have her address?" I asked.
"Even better, I asked Simona to hack and track, Eliza's phone. She is having coffee at the 'Coffee with Milk' coffee shop on Malabar road." Jaime revealed.
"Very well. Let's go there and see if we can make Eliza cooperate." I said, and I picked up a wad of dollar bills. While I didn't have Sabina's supernatural empath abilities, I had another useful trick in my repertoire. I could make people choose between gold and lead!
***
We walked into the coffee shop a few minutes later. Eliza was sitting by a table gossiping with her friend. I instructed Jaime and Miguel to order coffees while I approached Eliza.
"Eliza Shaw?" I addressed her.
Eliza turned around and stared at me in terror. This was an expected reaction. My appearance and the fact that I addressed a stranger by their full name was intimidating for the feeble-hearted.
"Yes. Who are you?" Eliza stuttered.
"I am Martin Al-Sham. My friends will join us shortly, but I would appreciate if we could talk in private." I said, and I pointed in Jaime's direction.
Eliza's friend took the hint, and she left the table. Eliza was shaking in terror and spoke. "What do you want?"
"You're baby-sitting my granddaughter, Keila Hines. I would like your help in spending more time with her." I stated.
"No way. This is too strange. Fix your relationship with Keila's parents if you wish to spend time with your granddaughter." Eliza said dismissively.
Jaime got seated next to me. He opened his jacket, to show the pistol he had holstered. After that, I took up an envelope with money, and I passed it over the table to Eliza.
"I only need to see Keila once, and nothing bad will happen. I'd prefer if you choose gold over lead." I stated.
Eliza looked terrified, and she was crying. "Okay. I will babysit Keila on Friday. Please don't hurt us." Eliza cried.
"Good. I will call you on Friday. Make sure to answer the phone, so we don't have any misunderstandings." I warned.
Eliza got up from the table and was ready to leave.
"Eliza, please don't forget the money that I paid you. I don't want to be in debt to you. Get something nice for yourself and your friend." I warned.
Eliza seemed hesitant, but eventually, she picked up the money and left the
***
I met up with Eliza at Grant Reserve on a Friday afternoon. The sun was shining, and the ocean breeze made this a comfortable spring day. I noticed that she had brought two other children with her, and I disapproved of this.
"What's going on. Why did you bring the other two children?"
"Because I always babysit these three children together on Fridays and their mothers know each other. It would look suspicious if I insisted on only taking Keila." Eliza replied.
"Very well. But don't try my patience." I replied.
Eliza seemed agitated and spoke: "What do you intend to do with her? Remember that there are cameras and many witnesses in this park."
I shrugged my shoulders and replied: "I do not intend to do anything inappropriate or illegal. I just want to spend some time with my granddaughter. That is what I intend to do. Stay in the background and don't intervene, Eliza."
I walked up to Keila and looked at her. She was a beautiful child, even prettier than her mother. I kneeled next to her and spoke. "Hi, Keila. We meet at last."
Keila gave me a bewildered look and spoke. "Do I know you?"
"My name is Martin. I am Sabina's real dad and your grandpa." I replied.
"No. John is Sabina's dad. My grandpa." Keila replied while looking confused.
"No, Grandma Ellen is a bad woman. She told John that he was Sabina's father so that he would buy food for her and Sabina." I replied.
"Oh!" Keila replied.
"Yes. And Alex isn't your real father. Your mummy lied to you too." I revealed.
Keila started crying and replied. "Why are you saying these mean things?"
"I am telling you the truth. But don't be sad, Keila. Because your real father is a god and you're immensely powerful. As a matter of fact, I brought you a gift." I stated.
Hearing this, caught Keila's intention and she looked at me with big, fascinated eyes. "My dad is a god? You mean like Jesus?" Keila said.
"Exactly. And I am like the three wise men bringing you a gift." I replied.
"Cool. Let me see the gift." Keila replied
I took out the box with the advanced contact lenses and showed them to Keila. "But I don't need contacts. You can give them to Jasmine, so she doesn't need to wear glasses." Keila objected.
"These are special lenses that I made for you. They can do cool things like changing your eye colour and showing you text messages from me. Do you know how to read?" I asked
"Yes, I love to read. I have been reading since I was three." Keila revealed.
"Great. You'll love these contact lenses. Do you want to try them on?" I asked with an encouraging voice.
"Yes!" Keila exclaimed happily.
I took out the contact lenses from the box, and I helped Keila put them in her eyes.
"Ouch, they are itchy!" Keila complained.
"You'll get used to them. Can you read the text in front of your eyes?" I asked.
I took up my phone, and I sent a short text to for Keila's lenses to display.
"My name is Keila. And I love my grandpa, Martin." Keila read aloud."
"That's silly. I don't know you." Keila chuckled.
"I just needed to hear you say it!" I said and smiled.
"Do you want to test another eye colour now?" I asked.
"Yes. Make my eyes brown like Jasmine's eyes." Keila said.
I did as Keila requested, and she got excited when I showed her reflection in the mirror.
"Wow! Jasmine come here and look at my eyes!" Keila called to her friend.
"No, I don't want to. Eliza told me to leave you guys alone." Jasmine replied.
"Oh!" Keila replied in disappointment.
"Don't worry about Jasmine, Keila. You can play with her tomorrow. Grandpa Martin is only here today." I said.
"Okay, so what game do you want to play?" Keila asked.
"I want to show you auntie Rangda's eye colour and tell you about Rangda, the Xenos and the Zetans!" I said, and I changed Keila's eye colour via my mobile app.
Keila looked at her new purple eye colour and exclaimed: "Wow. This is so cool. Please tell me everything, Grandpa Martin!"
I sat down with Keila and told her everything that I knew about Rangda, the Xenos and the Zetans. At the end of my story, Keila exclaimed. "Wow. That's so cool. I never knew that mummy killed an evil alien."
"Yes, but she also killed my wife and tried to kill me" I replied and sighed.
"Is that why you want me to threaten to kill my cat to get back at her?" Keila asked.
"Yes, we need to make mummy realise that she has been mean so that she will apologise and become nice," I replied.
"Can I see you without the mask, Grandpa Martin?" Keila asked.
I hesitated for a bit, the righthand side of my face was terrifying to most people, particularly to a child. But Keila seemed very mature and intelligent for her age, and her curiosity was a good thing. I took off the mask and Keila gasped in shock.
"Your face. Did mummy do this to you?" Keila asked.
"Yes, that's why I am angry with her," I replied.
"Wow. Now I know why you are angry with mummy. I'll pretend to kill Luna. After that, I'll give her the note and tell her where to meet you?" Keila asked.
"Yes. See tonight, Keila." I said. I put my mask back on, and I smiled.
After finishing my conversation with Keila, I walked up to Eliza and spoke. "Here is some money for your troubles. Don't mention this to anyone and our paths won't cross again."
"Understood. I will keep quiet." Eliza said and looked away.
Since there was no reason to trouble Eliza further, I left the park without a word.
***
I was looking through the cameras in Keila's lenses, and I had an epiphany. My far-fetched plan shouldn't have worked, yet it seemed to work. Was I doing Sabina favour actually exposing Keila's demonic possession? I had planned to convince Sabina about Keila's demonic possession to make her life miserable, but what if something did possess Keila? It seemed strange that any child would stay and listen to a masked madman but that was precisely what Keila had done, and she had appeared to enjoy it as well.
I saw Sabina take the knife away from Keila and lecture her about being kind to animals. I sent a message for Keila to read aloud. 'Mummy you said we shall Love Luna. But I saw Luna kill a mouse the other day. Isn't that the natural order of things? The cat killed the mouse because she is stronger. Likewise, I should kill the cat to prove my strength.'
As Keila read out the message, I changed her eye colour to convince Sabina that the late Rangda's spirit possessed Keila.
Keila's message terrified Sabina, and Keila handed her the note that I had given her. Much to my dismay, Keila took out a pistol to bring to the meeting point. This was a dangerous complication.
"Bring your tranquiliser rifle and be ready to fire!" I told Jaime as we headed to the meeting spot.
***
I was overlooking the dark ocean, and a cold, windy rain chilled me to the bone. The park was empty, and my heart rate was racing. I had waited several years for this moment, the moment that I would get my revenge. Yet I felt terrified. Sabina had brought her pistol and she was likely to use it. I wasn't going to kill her, there was no point in that, but what if she was going to try to kill me? She had tried before, leading to my disfigurement and there was no reason for her to not try again.
"She is coming!" Jaime said over the radio inside my earplug, and I turned around. I saw that Sabina and Keila were approaching me.
I studied Sabina, her face showed signs of fear and rage and her hand was close to her pistol.
"Sabina, we meet again. How unfortunate for us!" I stated
"What do you want?" Sabina asked.
"Justice," I replied, and I took off my mask revealing my disfigured face.
"Justice? You tell my daughter to kill my cat? What's wrong with you." Sabina shouted.
"What did you think would happen?" You promised to not hurt us, yet you murdered my wife, and you tried to kill me." I shouted back.
Sabina didn't reply. Instead, Sabina gave me a death stare. Her stare made me worried. I worried that the sedative in the tranquiliser dart wouldn't be powerful enough to knock her out before she shot me.
"Did you notice Keila's eyes? Beautiful, aren't they? They are shining purple, exactly like Rangda's" I taunted.
"What did you do to Keila's eyes, you monster?" Sabina roared.
"I didn't do anything. I merely invoked the spirit of Rangda that lies dormant within her." I replied.
"Bullshit!" Sabina shouted.
"Tell me, Sabina, who do you think is your father?" I asked.
Sabina gave me a dirty look. "John Hines. Haven't you done your research?" Sabina taunted.
"Sabina, we both know that is a lie." I scoffed.
"Okay. My father was Marvin Orchard, who died many years ago. He was also the father of my best friend, Eric. This made my teenage years difficult." Sabina sighed.
"Yes, it must have been difficult rejecting the visions that told you to engage in incest, wasn't it?" I mocked.
"My visions weren't that prevalent, and I found Alex in the end," Sabina admitted.
"But. Alex was sterile so you ended up fucking a Zetan in the Divine Dimension, didn't you?" I mocked.
Sabina lost her temper and pulled up her pistol. "Don't spread lies about me in front of my daughter. Keila is young, but she is perceptive for her age." Sabina shouted.
"Perceptive, indeed. Unlike Ellen who fucked up your entire life." I taunted, and I took out a document from my jacket.
I walked up to Sabina, and I handed her the document. She skimmed through it and replied. "Is this a bad joke? You could have falsified this paternity test?" Sabina objected.
"I could have, but I did not. Ellen mixed up Martin Orchard from Sydney, with Marvin Orchard from Sydney. Mistakes happen when you are overseas fucking everyone behind your husband's back." I taunted.
Sabina reflected over my statement for a few seconds and then she replied. "It doesn't matter who my biological father is. John is the one who raised me. I doubt that you or I will ever celebrate the holidays together." Sabina scoffed.
"But it changes everything. You never followed your pre-destined attraction for Eric because you believed he was your half-brother. Because of this, you settled for the sterile Alex and ended up fucking a Zetan so you could give birth to your destined daughter. Doing so, you allowed Rangda to be reborn as Keila. Keila is still young, she'll get worse. Much worse." I stated.
Hearing this, Sabina got heartbroken, and she collapsed to the ground crying and wailing.
"Why! Why are you doing this to me?" Sabina wailed.
I pointed towards my disfigure face and replied. "Revenge. And I just got it. You'll have to make an impossible choice. You must choose between killing your own daughter or allowing Rangda to rise." I mocked.
I studied Sabina as she was crying and shaking on the floor. I had avenged Elaine, and I could return to my solitude and die a peaceful death when it was time.
Sabina got up and aimed her pistol at me. "I won't let you live to rejoice in my misery! Prepare to die, Martin!" Sabina shouted.
"Fire now!" I said over the radio, and Jaime shot Sabina in the neck with a tranquiliser dart. The dart distracted Sabina and I ran up to her and kicked the pistol out of her hand. After that, I chased after Keila, grabbed her, and injected her with a sedative. As Keila fell unconscious, I removed the contact lenses from her eyes. I didn't want, Sabina to find out about my trick.
I ran up to Jaime, and I spoke. "Let's hurry to get to the airport. I don't want to be in Australia when they wake up from their unconsciousness."
Jaime nodded, and we hurried to the private jet that would take us away from Australia.