Soul - The Shadow of Fear

Silent study

Martin was about to head to the airport when he realized, that it was just 6:30 am. It would be a big foolishness to head to the airport right now. If Soul had taken a flight, then it would take him eight to ten hours to reach here. That meant that he would arrive just in time to save the day, and by chance if he does 'teleportation' than there would be no reason for him to land at the airport. He would definitely choose a place nearby to the UN Headquarters, just like Elsa did. 

He was about to head back to the starting point but then he remembered, Soul had his own headquarters for New York nearby the John F. Kennedy airport. It was just half and hour from here. Maybe he can wait there till the time for the flight's landing. 

He reached at the headquarters in no time. They were full of dust and darkness. It seemed like no one had visited the place for a long time, he couldn't guess why. Maybe Soul already knew that the person who would use the test subjects against him will arrive in New York for something big, so he ordered everyone to stay out of this trouble. 

This one was not congested and creepy as the London one. This was also underground and had a lot of space. Soul had also done arrangements to keep the common people away from this place, (this place was considered haunted by an angry 'soul' who died with its life full of sorrows and despairs. That is why no one usually came here, even the police.) even his own agents had to be really conscious before entering. 

Martin went to the command room. As usual, it had lot of blank screens and empty chairs. He decided not to stay there. There was another room which Soul had termed as his 'private room'. Although he said that anyone can enter there if needed because according to him, it had nothing. He himself had went there once, but only for a short period of time, and he was convinced that this room...really had nothing.  So he decided that he can stay there. 

The room was dusty, but only a little. Strangely, it was not like Martin had imagined it, many things were now changed. The room didn't even looked like Soul's private room. It had a replica of 'The Old Guitarist' hanging in a dark corner, in front of which was a dusty Acoustic piano. He couldn't guess why Soul wanted these things in a headquarter where he barely lived. He had not even seen him playing a piano before. 

As he turned towards the darker side to had a better view of details, he suddenly had a strange feeling. 

'Have I seen this before?' He thought. 'But how, I have entered just now.' 

Anyways, Martin decided to clean the room, and he started from the drawers.

"Last time I visited this place, I didn't had much time to investigate." He said to himself. "Let's see if we can find something interesting this time."

With that he opened up and drawer and as soon as he did it, he found what he was searching for. The drawer only had a couple of documents regarding the past cases, but there was something which was wrong with this very first drawer which he had opened. There was a heavy report, covered in a transparent sheet, titled :

CASE NO. 273 
KARMA CASE

And the weirdest thing about this, was that it had a classified stamp, not from New York, but from India. On top of that, Martin had himself seen this file in India, first-hand.

"Oh my... Why didn't I thought about that before?" He said scolding himself as he remembered another slight detail of his old memory. "I have seen this exact arrangement way back in India"

He flipped the book, and turned the pages backwards. Soon he found the page which mentioned  the name of the writers of the report. The page was literally full of them. Some of them were the main writers of the report, who were present during the investigation in person. Their names were present at the very start of the report, and their was a detailed description about them, except one. 

"There he is." He said to himself. "One of the main investigators of the 'Karma Case'....Edward Collen. He had a room exactly like this when he studied in India with Elsa and Justice Smith."

'Was Soul studying about Edward? Does that means that he also has a doubt that he is more than what he knows?' Martin thought. 'Or Maybe, he has already figured something out. But the question is, when? If Soul was doing this before this investigation, then he would have already won by now, as the report was enough even for a kid to solve this case.' He thought. 'This report contained every information about Justice Smith, and the Omega labs experiment which had happened five years back. According to Elsa, Edward Collen was a detective, so he had personally invested the

"Wait a minute." He said to himself. "I got it. He was trying to set this room, as that of Edward's. Maybe, he was trying to live as Edward Collen."

He didn't knew what kind of 'Experiment' was Soul doing or what he had got from this experiment, but he could guess one thing abut this room.

"Elsa said that Edward appreciated all kind of arts. He talked less so he used different forms of arts to say what he can't say directly or didn't wanted to say directly." He told himself. "If this is true then this painting and this piano may have a specific meaning."

He walked towards the painting of 'The Old Guitarist'. It was painted by Pablo Picasso in early twentieth century. What could Edward be trying say from that?

'Picasso painted the original painting over another painting of his.' He thought. 'That means that there was something under the original painting.'

"Maybe Edward wanted to say that there is something hidden under the painting?" He said to himself. 

He checked beneath the painting and as expected, he found piano sheets. 

"As I thought." He said to himself. "Now I will have to play this music to reveal something interesting...I expected much more from Soul's past form."

He put the sheet music ahead of him, and sat down to play the piano.

Soul was sitting again in the Astral World, this time, it was a copy of Manhattan instead. Particularly, he was sitting on the top of the United Nations Headquarters. 

'So you would be standing here.' He thought as he made a small circle with a chalk around him. 'In this case, I will have to enter from that side.'

He stood up and turned to his left. 

'The forces may be standing down there, and more on the backside.' He thought facing the other side. 'I wonder how you will escape.'

Then he went to the original position, and turned his face to the ocean. 

"Ah! So you will be going that side. I got it." He said. "If Martin has found my note by now, I don't think I can do anything besides this. It would be a fun to see today's show, Mr. Magician...."

"...But I will be winning this time...." He said  in more serious tone. "CHANGE."