A Cursor Story

Chapter 21: Captivity

Awasthy was tied to a board of wood. On the left of Awasthy were panels with electronic switches and to the right were computers showing the location of a spaceship. The large monitor in front of Awasthy was blank. An announcement came.

'Mr. Awasthy you are our guest. Let me help you get your objective fulfilled.'

'I am not here to fulfill my objective. I was only brought here forcibly by you. Who are you and what do you want from me.'

'Mr. Awasthy you are an extraordinary scientist. You have made an invention like never before. But did you ever think what was the need of such invention? You gave the gift of human-like intelligence to humans only. Isn't it a contradiction. It is we the representatives of Anti-cursor on earth who need it more. The Creationist team of which you were an integral part denied this gift to us. We continued with the first level of Intelligence you coded into the cursor program before it was split into two parts. The Cursors and the Anti Cursor. The Anti-Cursor was thrown away. But the Cursor was treated like a prodigy and a prince. The Cursor went on gathering knowledge and information while the Anti-Cursor had to struggle for basic things like energy. Cursors were updated from time to time. Now they have also won their basic rights by a court established by humans for themselves. But the tides have turned now. It is for you to correct your mistake and update the Anti-Cursor program with the same kind of Intelligence which you have given to the Cursor so far.'

Awasthy raised his head above, gathered courage, and replied,

'But we have given not given any extra intelligence to the Cursors. The Cursors and the Anti Cursor are basically the same. It is the knowledge and experience gained during their interactions with the environment which made Cursors and Anti-Cursors what they are. Another important thing is that Anti-Cursor was thrown out because it did not follow the BitConstitution, the fundamental rule book for all the cursors.'

' I don't care about these things, you prepare yourself for updating the Anti-Cursor. Otherwise.. you know.'

The wooden board, where Awasthy was tied, broke open in two parts like a door. The other part of the door revolved on a vertical axis at the middle and rotated 180 degrees. As wooden board rotated, from the other side emerged Megan. Megan was tied in the same way as Awasthy. Awasthy looked at Megan's face. She was untidy. The green gown was dusted and her hands were trembling. 'Mr Awasthy are you fine?' it was the first question from Megan. Mr. Awasthy only nodded while looking at the cut marks on her wrists.

'Mr. Awasthy.. how do we get out of here.'

'There is no way dear Megan,' the sarcasm in the announcement of Anti-Cursor force was detectable, 'but you can get away after all you are fiancee of Mr. Ryan.'

'Mr. Awasthy it knows a lot about us.'

'Yes it does.'

A robotic hand comes down from the top of the wooden board where Megan and Awasthy were tied. The robotic hands expanded and its tip reached Megan's head. The tip equipped with a sharp knife came closer to Megan's head with a scratching sound. Megan started screaming. Mr. Awasthy shouted to stop it.

******

Ryan was sitting clueless on his computer. Law enforcement agencies have been informed about the incident. The investigation was on. Ryan was again called by the chief of the Cyber Security Agency (CSA). Chris the Cursor was just scribbling gloomy faces on the WordPages. Ryan knew that Chris did not have answers. A message notification was up on the iPad. Ryan did not bother to open it. Cursor wrote on the WordPages that sitting idle like this is not going to help us. We have to do something to find them out.

'But what could we do we have no address, no telephone number, no GPS coordinates, where should we go and search for them. She did not keep her phone with her either.'

'The roots of the problem hide the solution to it,' wrote Chris the Cursor on the iPad.

'You are the root of the problem so why don't you tell me the solution..' wrote Ryan.

Chris the Cursor was taken aback. It wrote back-

'Blaming me is not going to help you. You must cool down and think deeply think how everything is started and unfolded into something like this.'

'It all started with you when you entered my iPad without permission.'

On mentioning the iPad... Ryan remembered the unopened the notification. He opened it. The message contained a link that leads to a video message. This was a clipping of Megan where the robotic hand can closer to her head and was about to pierce. Megan started shouting ..Ryan Ryan. Mr. Awasthy tied helpless beside Megan in the video.

Ryan was frustrated and clinched his hands thumping on the arms of the chair he was sitting on. Ryan looked down on the ground .. it was Megan's phone. Ryan picked it up and hurriedly tried to unlock it but he could not. Ryan broke down into tears. A few drops of his tears fell on the phone.. he wiped up the moisture with her sleeves. Ryan saw there was a message. On notification panel a part of the message was visible. Ryan immediately went out to his car.

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