"Well if everyone's question is getting answered, I wanna ask my question. How old is Miss Cécile?" Ravi said in the most normal voice ever possible for the most untimed question of the universe.
Everyone sat there dumbstruck for a few seconds. *Cough cough* The silence was interrupted by Sat's hybrid of laughter and cough. "I think the Miss Cécile can answer it, of course the ball is in her court."
At this moment, everyone realised Sat at least isn't the rough and strict teacher he seemed to be. They all expected Cécile to freak out, but she was smiling lightly. "Why suddenly this question?"
"Well, anyone can at least imagine someone's age by looking. Not precisely, but in a range. But it's hard for you, you look like you can be 20 years old, or you can be in your late 30s too. So it's weird to converse with you, you can be the same age as us, or can be way older elder sister too."
"Twenty nine…and half. Okay?" Cécile said while calculating the precise age.
"Thank you." Ravi said being satisfied with the answer. Lucy and Rick were still dumbfounded, they couldn't comprehend what just happened. Yes even Rick wasn't interested in female related conversation for now, for some reasons. Everyone else ate as nothing happened.
Rick, suddenly said in a serious voice, declared, "I think we need to talk about something. The subject is-"
"Bowel motions." Rick was interrupted by Ravi. This time it confused everyone and they stopped eating.
"What? Do we really need to talk about that?" Even chill Sat was confused.
"I'd really prefer not talking about it, we're eating now." Cécile said as she paced up her eating speed.
"What? No! Why would I talk about that, what the hell Ravi!" Rick was clearly irritated.
"Sorry it sounded that way, but it's bit of an emergency. I need to go to the toilet." Ravi said in apologic voice.
"Don't sweat it, it happens. Go to the corridor here, 3rd room-." As Sat was giving directions, Sarthak interrupted, "The light isn't working at that toilet, refer him somewhere else."
"Wow, what's with the lights today… anyway remember where you came from the little turn? Just before reaching here? There is a toilet outside, wait let me show you…"
"The small building with a big B written above it?" Ravi asked.
"Oh yes yes, that one. You noticed it, clever boy."
"Well no need, I don't think you should go while you're eating."
"Well if you say so.", Sat again concentrated towards his food. "Call us loudly, we can hear you."
And Ravi quickly went out. Now Rick was getting impatient. "Sir I think we need to talk about him."
"Oh yeah, I was waiting for someone to bring this up. Please go on." Sat looked quite interested.
"The team Hunter…that got squished by Miss Cécile fortunately…I think you already you know what I am talking about? About using unfair means."
"And as I said, unfair mean is not uncommon there."
"Yes, but it was Ravi who was involved there!"
"What? Ravi?" Lucy freaked out. Although looking surprised too, Emma looked like she expected something like this.
"Why didn't you tell us this earlier?" Alex was furious. "We've been with him all the time, he could have done something again too!"
"You're not the one to talk ok? Did you ask anyone before stealing the gun? God knows what you could have done." Rick's anger was increasing bit by bit.
"Wow, really I'm getting compared with HIM now?" Alex said like he couldn't believe his ears.
"Is there anyone who is normal? Why all of you are so interested in killing is!" Suddenly Lucy was about to snap.
"I-" Emma tried to say something in her usual low voice but got interrupted by furious Alex.
"Wow, like you were keeping us safe, who agreed to participate in the death tournament again?" Weirdly always silent Alex wasn't silent at all.
"Ok ok SHUT UP!" Cécile said in cold voice. And everyone was silent. As some of them looked towards Sat, they realised he's been on his phone for quite some time. Not quite sure how long he'd been toying with the phone, Rick asked.
"Hey…were you even listening?" Wondering how someone could not concentrate on this much important matter, Rick forgot to be angry.
"Yes, and no, both, I don't like loud noises, so I didn't hear the last part…and if you're wondering since when I'm on my phone, answer is since you started talking." Sat said unfazed.
"How careless can you be? You can't even manage to hide a gun correctly…" Lucy couldn't hide her anger.
"You're underestimating me because of that, fair enough, it's on me. But what you need to do is calm yourselves. Take today's dinner as a lesson, you're old enough for it. What you've been talking…and accusing, I know every bit of it. What do you think I was doing before reaching you, as you were walking towards your sure death? So I have literally have no interest in. The only thing I need to know… I'll probably know tomorrow, because one of your friend didn't come with me…ah the only thing I don't know properly…
"So what I was talking about, you missed an important thing. As every one of you focused on being wary of each other, you forgot you're a team. Of course you don't know each other for very long, but I'm newer. You guys are believing me more than your teammates. There is more chance of me killing you than your teammates."
"But Ravi was not in the team, he was literally trying to kill us…" Rick muttered but it was loud enough to hear.
"Yes, suspecting him is fair, but you should have kept an eye on him for the time being. And I don't think you did…look every one of you have your fair share of misdeeds. But blaming each other makes things worse. Oh Emma, I think you were trying to say something for some time, go for it. Nobody would ask for your opinion, you have to declare it yourself." Sat said a long speech without looking away from his phone, his fast hand and eye movements signed that he was playing some game. He wasn't wrong about Emma.
"Sir he gobbled his food very fast, considering he ate a lot in the van too, it's almost impossible for someone his physique to have that much hunger." Emma reported all that in a breathe. Everyone looked at her in awe.
"Brilliant! At least someone noticed. And you noticed something else too right?" Sat was excited but still didn't look away from his phone.
Emma was excited getting praised, "Yes sir, for a big technical facility, this place it has zero number of guards. Moreover it's weird that only the lights outside are out, electric problems should not be this big in this big technical institute…"
"And that implies?" Sat and Emma were getting more and more excited.
"That implies the place have super secret and efficient plan which is causing it…or another chance is the whole thing is fraud and we're going to be sold in black market as slaves…" Emma again said the two contrasting things in a straight face.
"Hearing the first half, Sat's face was glowing like sun, but the ending seemed to have hurt him a little. "Ouch…"
"Hihi hihi, this is fun." Cécile smiled while putting a meatball in her mouth.
"And lastly, Ravi will most likely run away from this place, chances are he's already out." Emma finished and started breathing deeply.
"Yes, every thing was correct, now give your voice a rest. See everyone, you're not very different from Emma, so what made this difference? She was calm the whole time, not like she didn't do anything wrong the whole time, she had her share of misdeeds too. But she didn't blame, she is still assessing the situation. You all had the chance but wasted it. Remember this as a lesson."
Everyone was silent. They finally understood they got themselves played.
"Come on guys, don't be sad, you're here to study and learn remember? You won't learn without making mistakes. Cheer up!" It was Cécile who tried to cheer them up.
"So Ravi got out again? Can't believe we let that happen again, he'd again join the bad side and try to kill us again…" Lucy was grieving upon her mistakes.
"I highly doubt that…" Sat said smiling and showing them the phone screen. The screen showed a maze with a 2D human figure running towards the finish dot. "And I won."
"What?" Everyone was confused.
"Come on, do you think I'd face the danger, pay huge amounts of money to get him to come here, only to let him go away? Do I look that stupid?" Sat put his phone on the stand so that everyone else could see the screen. The 2D figure was slowly approaching the finish line
"Why are you showing us the screen?" Alex asked cautiously.
"It's not any maze game, it's special. You don't find a path here, you control the obstacles. The figure is super intelligent. It can easily find the destination, your job is to lead the figure to the starting point by moving obstacles and outwitting the figure. Of course the figure is unaware of my power….and looks like I win this one."
Nobody seemed to have understand the point of the game now. The figure almost reached the finish spot, when they all heard footsteps, someone walking very fast, almost running. The sound was increasing bit by bit. And they all got hit by sudden realisation as Sat sat there smiling menacingly.
As the figure reached the finish spot, they heard Ravi's voice. "aaaand FREEDOM!" and the door to the room opened with a thud. It was Ravi with a world winning smile, he was sweating badly. Everyone was staring blankly at him.
Slowly his smile vanished, and disbelief came to his face. He moved his head 180° to see the back, and moved it again. "What! The Fuck!" Now it was terror in his face as he saw everyone.
"Oh look how much you have sweated. Shit took so long, you need any medicine? Maybe you should not have eaten that much." Sat said sarcastically.
"You're… you're…who are you?" Ravi almost lost his mind, he couldn't calm himself down.
Sat tapped his phone once and all the lights outside glowed up. "Oh, the lights came! Wow, they finally fixed it." Sat said in the sarcastic tone again.
Everyone else was busy controlling their laughter. "Come on, sir in your seat, you failed, it was a good try…maybe. Your friends will enlighten you." Sat said as he proceeded to finish his food.
"You tried to be familiar with Mr. Alvarez, you were concerned about the lights. Although they meant nobody could spot you, but also meant you won't be able to see the path clearly. Your face showed impatience as he informed that lights will be out for sometime more." Rick said like a detective.
"You were weirdly extra sensitive when car was taking turns, you were clearly trying to remember the path we took." Lucy continued.
"You say you don't like wearing watch, but you left hand has a lighter patch than your skin colour, this indicates you used to wear watched regularly. You tried to deliberately hide the fact that you weren't wearing the watch because it might track your location. So you lied." Alex ended the deduction.
"Quite easy to read, am I? But that still doesn't check out. I precisely chalked out the path to exit, how am I here?" Ravi still looked devastated.
"No matter you precisely you checked, it was dark. It's impossible to notice little details. This whole area has a facility that I made myself. The buildings move. I can control the movement and the place. All this time you thought you were finding the exit very easily, I was controlling your route. There was no door like this room near the gate we entered. You thought you missed it because of the darkness. This led you here, same point as you started. You took me for a fool, you were so obsessed about getting out of here, that you took Everyone as a fool. Now ladies and gentlemen, it's time to end the dinner, with my ending comments."
"Emma you're not a computer, you're a human, so speak up if you feel you should, don't hesitate. Alex you tend to stay silent even though you feel emotions. This causes you to be an emotional pressure cooker, it sometimes bursts and you can't control yourself then, all your assessment on current situation and events to vain. Lucy you're part of a society, not society itself. Emotion is good, but you must control your anger. Rick you want to be the leader but sometimes you force it, first rule of being a leader is don't blame your team. And don't be a show off, you have nothing to prove, it's your life."
"And lastly Ravi. I know your past. You can't change your past."
Suddenly Ravi's face turned red in anger. "You don't know what you're talking about."
"Believe me I know better. Do you think you're the only one who suffered? The thing you're searching for, the one thing you dreamt of, you'll find it here." Sat said looking straight to Ravi's eyes.
"I am not looking for anything…" Ravi said while chewing the words.
"You don't know but you are, you are not searching for freedom, you're searching for that thing that you always wanted… believe me, I think you played enough, at least try this one." Sat smiled.
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------------ END OF ARC 1 ------------
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