A Sapphire Run

Chapter 4

"Where is he?" Shafaque feared exactly of this particular moment.

"Sitting in the living room,waiting for you." Ruhina was going towards kitchen, but stops suddenly. She turns back and looks into her elder brother's eyes. Shafaque can clearly see the concern and love for him there. "Do you really know anything about it,bro?"

"Umm?..No, I..I..how am I supposed to know? That is ridiculous question."

"I suppose so." She doesn't look very certain while going back to the kitchen.

Walking towards the living room, Shafaque's mind gets all over the place. What just happened in last few days was really difficult to absorb.

First, there was that incident in bus. He was returning from Oslo that day. Generally,buses remain almost empty on holidays. So when a stranger sat beside Shafaque, he was happy that he wouldn't have to travel alone. But when he noticed the man carefully,his malignant smile got hid inside a confused mould. This man was wearing a big cowboy hat (a bit uncommon in Norway),a heavy overall that stretched up to knees and a thick muffler that covered almost all of his mouth, not to mention the gloves on hands. A very common sight for pedestrians and locals in winter. But that was not what made Shafaque bamboozled. The man was not putting off any of his warm clothes even inside the bus. Moreover, when Shafaque looked into his eyes, he saw two red balls of flame.

"Hi", he tried to talk to the man in a nervous manner. The man didn't reply. Shafaque looked back to his left side window through which he could see the Hemsedal town on the lap of the snow-covered Alpine mountains. The river Hemsila that bisected the mountains and the city, ran through the valley down to the plane grounds to run towards North Sea where boundaries of Denmark were apparent. But now, in winter, the mighty river is just a monument of frozen ice, a good place to ski and play ice hockey. Watching all these gorgeously scenic landscapes, Shafaque suddenly forgot everything. So it was very natural for him to be at his wit's end when he felt something cold touching his neck.

"Don't try to move or shout", the man in mysterious outfit exhaled an air of command through his mouth. So slowly,yet so dominantly. His fully loaded Beretta-23 was resting against the muscular neck of Shafaque.

"What do you want from me?", Shafaque asked in a frightened voice.

"Aren't you Shafaque Ahmed?"

"Yes,I am. But how do you know--"

"You have to do me a favour. Well, in fact, you are bound to do that for me.", his loaded revolver was almost dancing through the chilled hair of Shafaque.

"What is it?", now Shafaque was fully conscious. His heartbeat was now racing, probably competing with the velocity of bus.

"You know professor Mierseley?"

"Quite a bit. He is my next door neighbour for five years now. He bought the house from me in which he is now living."

"What exactly do you know about him?"

"He is a professor of archeology, an archeologist and a man with profound knowledge in his subject. His only family is a daughter who is of my sister's age and naturally a friend of hers. His origin is unknown to us because he and his daughter never told anyone. I am at least sure that he is not from Norway. The man travelled many countries and had been to many historically important places. He has a large collection of archaeologically seductive collectibles. The gentleman is very keen and friendly to everyone most of the time.", Shafaque didn't reveal how 'rude and hostile' professor became sometimes for apparently no logical reason.

The man was listening attentively. "Did he tell you anything about a green medallion?"

That corrupted medallion! Mr. Miersely did prefer to keep it a secret to most of the people. Not to Shafaque's family though. He is one of the very few persons who actually had a good relation with them,specially with the oldest of siblings. Professor once showed him a bright green medallion made of a precious stone,most probably emerald. He told him that it was found in the remaining of an ancient Aztec village in Mexico.

"It's an amusing feeling, you know, I never had such a strange feeling with any of my collections. This medallion is believed to have brought unfortunate things to its owners for decades, according to Aztec myths of past. This medallion was in the hand of one of my colleagues after its discovery. But poor fellow died within a week after its acquisition. Then it went to another of my friends. He kept it for 8 months. But he once broke his leg and twice injured his hands severely during this period due to accidents. When I learnt that he didn't want to keep the medallion anymore,I was interested to acquire it. He just gave it to me for free and warned me about its past. I did not believe all those things at all. But after it came to me, I could see some effects. My new job in the University of Oslo wasn't very pleasant from the beginning. I have had lots of personal problems recently. My daughter Lucy acts strangely sometimes. She fears of
something, but when asked, she doesn't tell anything about it. Even I am having a lot of nightmares on a regular routine. And with me,there was that.." Professor suddenly stopped,then started again, "Nothing severe has happened till now, but I don't know what else is coming next. I still can't believe that the medallion is behind all this though."

Shafaque listened with full attention. He was taken aback by the information about the history of mysterious medallion.

His mind returned inside the bus where the man was still holding the gun behind his neck.

"Do you want that medallion?"

"Exactly. You are the one who will be bringing it to me." A cruel smirk appeared on the stranger's face.

###I aplogise to you, I have been really unable to post updates because of my exams. Hope I can update the story more frequently from now on.