Mission

Aman exited the cab and looked up at the majestic entrance of the hotel he had been asked to come to by Ananya: Hotel Taj.

Apparently, the selector was lodging there for the duration of his stay.

Showing his ID at the reception, he was asked to wait for a bit as the staff confirmed his appointment.

He didn't have to wait long before he was in the elevator, rising up the floors to his destination.

Seventh floor, third hallway, room number eight.

He rang the doorbell and swiped his ID card in the security panel.

After a moment, he heard the sound of the door being unlocked and it opened to reveal Sushil Mohanty standing there.

He gave Aman an appraising glance with his piercing feline eyes, then stepped aside and invited him in.

"Come on in."

Aman followed him into the living room where he found Ananya already sitting there on the sofa with a man dressed in a crisp black suit standing behind her like a bodyguard.

Sushil took his seat on the couch opposite to the sofa and invited Aman to seat himself.

Taking his seat, Aman dived straight into the topic. "Thanks a lot for taking some of your precious time for me."

Sushil shook his head. "If what you said is true, then it could be greatly helpful for our research into the dreamland. For that, what is an hour or two?"

He leaned back in his seat. "Now, tell me about that dream you had and any other discrepancies you experienced after exiting the Spirit Dimension."

So, Aman narrated his prepared story and stuck as close to the truth as possible, only omitting important bits of information so that the overall picture became entirely different.

His version completely hid the presence of Nama and implied that he might have a special constitution that had a special affinity to the dreamland.

He wanted to sell the idea that he would be very effective in exploring the dreamland.

It seemed that he was successful as Sushil became pensive after he heard his story and remained silent as he pondered.

Meanwhile, Aman felt the scrutinizing gaze of the man who was standing behind Ananya.

He didn't feel any sort of malice or disapproval from that gaze. it was simply an impersonal assessment of him. Whether he would be disadvantageous to her.

It made him shudder.

Maybe he was out of his depth. It felt like he was playing with fire and he would get burned.

Sushil finally looked up.

"Okay. Perform the exercise I asked you to do during your selections. I want to see how much your soul actually recovered."

Aman obliged and concentrated upon his soul galaxy even as the cat-eyes of the selector shone with a weak soul brilliance as he focused on Aman.

This time, Aman found it much easier to control his soul and soon he was well on his way to concentrating his soul into his heart.

Suddenly, Sushil's soul pressure crashed down on his soul and he almost lost control. But, what Sushil wasn't aware of was that Aman had experienced the soul pressure of the Gods and this small amount was like a light breeze.

He had only been momentarily surprised.

Now that he was ready, no matter how much Sushil increased the pressure on Aman, he didn't flinch and continued his task of concentrating his soul and finally, he was done.

Even though Sushil had been half-convinced when he saw that it was Ananya who was vouching for Aman, he had still expected Aman's story to be a cleverly concocted lie to garner another chance at the Indian Institute of Eugenics.

But now that it was clear that he was speaking the truth, Sushil couldn't help but become excited. This was a significant find.

What was the cutting edge of science now? The dreamland of course.

Any advancement in the field was highly sought after as it would give the country an edge over the others in the race to conquer this new land.

Aman, if he really was found to have a special constitution would be a very significant asset for the Indian research teams.

And he, as the one who had discovered him would get a promotion.

But, there was one last difficulty.

Sushil kept the excitement he was feeling out of his expression and asked, "How many contribution points do you have?"

Aman was surprised out of his meditation by the question, but unlike before, he was able to gently release the condensed soul instead of suffering backlash like before.

This made Sushil nod internally. The boy had truly recovered a lot.

Aman hesitated a bit and replied honestly, "Zero. I exchanged all my extant contribution points for funds."

Sushil sighed. "I knew it would be that way. You probably sold your genes in the grey market to maximize profit." Noticing the tense cast of Aman's face, he hastily reassured him, "Not that that is a problem. Just, right now, you have two choices and you need contribution points to select the better option.

"You can either choose to enter the Indian Institute of Eugenics as an experimental subject or as a student. If you choose the former you'll be working for them and you get remuneration and contribution points but if you select the latter, you'll be working with them and as such, you need to pay some contribution points to pay for your education there as you aren't entering through the regular channels. Of course, the rate will be greatly discounted due to my recommendation and you will be paid for the hours you act as the experimental subject. That will, in time, counter-balance your initial payout. Also, you get to be the second author for any research paper that gets published with results pertaining to your body. This is the condition the Indian Institute of Eugenics offers to all people in situations similar to you. What do you want to do?"

Aman didn't even have to think to reply. "The second option of course."

Sushil cracked into a smile. "Good. As expected of the associate of an Adhikari. You have ambition."

His expression grew solemn as he addressed both Aman and Ananya. "The reason I'm here isn't to purely test students for talent. That is merely a cover for my true purpose of investigating some shady dealings that have been going on in this city. Ananya is here as she has to gain the contribution points required for entry to the Indian Institute of Eugenics independent of her father, as do all prospective Indian Institute of Eugenics students. Think of this as another layer of screening. Forming teams of two or three is allowed."

He looked them both in the eye solemnly. "I need your help. If you accept, this will be your team mission worth the required contribution points. Do you both accept?"

Aman turned to Ananya and she gave him a faint smile then turned to Sushil and said in a clear voice.

"We accept."