CHAPTER 12

As I was in deep thought all I wanted was the dark feeling of failure to completely vanish. I had to get my mind out of that place. Knowing that finally after so many years Miranda was on my side I had to make sure that I did not wander back into my usual despair.I kept pushing my brain harder and harder to find a solution. Any solution. Anything that would have saved us or added a speck of hope at that moment.

I opened my eyes back to reality. I knew being stuck in my mind would not solve anything. I scanned the entire room for anything that would give me an idea. I went looking at every inch and corner of the room. It felt like I was trying to imagine and create false hope for my heart but anything was enough to make it better. That is what I believed. I looked down to my side to look at Miranda's tiny hand wrapped into my large slender hands as if I was encasing them. As I was looking at them I noticed my watch was slowing down and I could tell that the ticking was slower. Well, I was calm enough to know that watches do not just go crazy all over the place unless there was something interrupting its path.

"Miranda, where is your face mask ?"

"It's there in my bag," she said pointing to the corner of the room.

Miranda's face mask was too far to interfere with my watch. If it was not her face mask than it must have been something else.

"What is it?"She asked.

"I have some ideas but I will need Glenn here."

Immediately I called Glenn and told him to meet us on X-floor. I assumed that Miranda would leave other clues around for herself that's why I took an ultra-sensitivity metal detector from my storage room.

"Miranda come here."

"What are you doing?"She asked.

"I am checking for any metal inside you."

"Never thought I would hear that statement in my life but fine."She said walking to me

I used it around Miranda and sure enough, metal was detected.

"Do you think it's a clue from me?"

"Probably."

We assumed that the reason why she sent herself to me was to find clues that she couldn't do in Gendwall. I wondered how she was able to even pass the checking point at the border control. She probably wore something that shielded her from detection or she was able to find a way to completely avoid them. Nonetheless, those were useless thoughts as the main point was that she had the metal with her at that point in time and that is where I proceeded to place my whole focus on.

After a few times adjusting the sensitivity of the detector so that we could properly pinpoint we found it her back muscle at the rhomboid major. (For all those wondering what the hell is a rhomboid major, it is a skeletal muscle on the back that connects the scapula with the vertebrae of the spinal column). Or just the back muscle. I was just curious about how a piece of metal was even jammed in there and why I had not noticed it since then. Or it was placed with an item that slowly disintegrated the longer it stayed in her muscle. I could not tell with Miranda's decision making all I knew that it was a beyond brilliant plan which could have drastically failed if anything went wrong at checkpoints. Even when she was technically not there she still managed to get her carelessness to shine through.

Glenn entered in the middle of all of it.

"Well, you two are getting busy."He said looking at me.

That is when I noticed that I was touching her back muscle and anyone who walked in would think otherwise. I felt my face going red.

"Cy relax. Gosh, you need to stop blushing or you will be completely red."He said teasing me even more.

"Heh, "Miranda sighed, "Can you tease him another time."She said looking at Glenn.

"I know you want to," he said pinching her skin ever so lightly. She looked at me and giggled at my red face.

When those two decided to double team me it was always bad.The very thing I was afraid of before.

"You two done now."

"Wait give me a second. Whenever your face turns to a sad strawberry it is hard not to laugh."He said laughing.

As much as that was an extremely useless detour from our previous discovery. Glenn managed to remove the dark ominous air that was in the air. Maybe that was his plan, to begin with, or he was just being his usual goofy self. Having a friend who was both a super genius and also super goofy was hard to navigate which side of his brain was working. Or he used both of them in unison. It was not clear which one it was I just did not enjoy being on the receiving end.

"Okay, now I am done."He said flicking off a tear from his eye, I guess the emergency was that you found it, didn't you?" he said walking over to us

"Yeah. How did you know?"

"Well, Cy I know how your simple brain works, I knew you could not stay without knowing. You have greed for knowledge. I was even surprised that you decided to find out earlier than I expected. It seems like it was something that kept you up at night."

Glenn could easily know what I would think and do. I never knew if I should appreciate his extremely high level of criticalness or dissect his brain to know how he thinks about all those things. Both options were actually beneficial to me not so much Glenn himself so I opted out of the dissection of his brain.

"How did you find out?"I asked.

"Well, I knew Miranda also plus she did feel odd. I remembered you two lovebirds being a little more what is the word, closer. Miranda built a habit of always being ner you unconsciously. She would stand and sit nearer to you when you guys made it official in the last few years before she was gone. When she came back it was as if she was still deciding on what you two are. Plus Miranda stopped calling me Glenn a long time ago which was a dead giveaway."

"Well since your Giga brain figured that out, our normal-sized brains found out that she has a metal stuck at her back. I assume Miranda put it into herself for some weird reason ."

"Well that explains the back touching, anyway I doubt that we could even remove...."

"Remove it," Miranda said firmly making it echo through the entire room. It was a dramatic echo.

Glenn and I glanced at each other in shock. We knew Miranda was extra and was careless sometimes but we could tell that we could just not dig out a piece of metal from flesh just like that.

"We don't have the right surgical equipment Miranda, it can cause... "I said

"I don't need complicated tools you have surgical scissors and forceps somewhere there are threads and bandages in my bag. I will guide you through the process it is just like removing a bullet. Just do it," she said seriously.

Glenn and I were hesitant. Her idea seemed unsafe but we could see the tiny fire in her eyes and I wanted to fulfill her wishes. Glenn nodded in agreement after seeing the fierceness of her resolve. I got the tools needed and I was scared to hurt her but I knew if I never did it she would feel even more terrible than before.

I managed to keep my hands steady and remained calm. She pulled her shirt over her head exposing her back completely. What I saw was horrifying, she had cuts and bruises all over. Some looked like distant scars while others looked fresh like they happened a few weeks back. Was that a form of torture there? I glided my fingers over them slowly and she flinched a little. I also flinched just by imagining the pain that came with those cuts and bruises.

"That's what happens when you try to defy the government, they punish by lashing ."

She took my hand and guided them to one of the fresh scars.

"That's what happened when I refused to bow down to one of them, It was the last one for a while now," she said in one of the saddest tones I've ever heard.

It then hit me the reality of the whole situation she went through. It was just not fun and games and a simple reunion we were going through, we weren't playing hacker and analyst it was an actual mission to save lives. Guilt struck me again with a mixture of hate and anger. The executive sent her on a near-suicidal mission. Or was that their plan all along? To remove one of us fro the picture? Those questions did not matter at that moment as Miranda was broken and now all was raw and seen. We were staring at the pain manifested and I could only begin to imagine how many people went through all of that.

Miranda insisted that she was okay. We just went along with 'the operation'. The metal piece was located deep in her back. She screamed halfway through it was a heartbreaking horrifying scream but every second she said she could handle it. We could see the sweat running down her back and we could feel the pain of another sharp object being struck through your flesh.

We managed to remove the metal piece which was coated with her blood. Miranda easily instructed us how to stitch herself up. As Glenn and I watched her wipe the blood off her hands and back she just smiled with sad eyes. Her eyes always managed to tell the truth of her heart and what I saw was pure pain.

"You both know that I hate pity," she said, making us break our stares on her.

She had always been something else. Her strength was always unmatched and this always made her go through the hardest situations with her head held up high.

We took the metal piece and looked at it closely.

"It's just a piece of circular metal," Glenn said examining it.

I placed the metal on the examination desk on top of the self- scanner.

"DC gives me a detailed analysis of every single molecule possible."

"It seems to have engravings on it, in a circular manner most probably there is a recording on it ."

"Play it, "I said excitedly finally uncovering something.

It was genius of Miranda to actually make a recording on a small piece of metal with small engravings to make a makeshift disc. Something you would never see anywhere being done even on TV.

When the voice recording came out it was in jumbled up and it took DC fifteen more minutes to decipher it and place it at the right frequency and then Miranda's voice cut through the air.

"Cy. I won't tell you why I erased some parts of my memory but it's not permanent, XR is the key to everything even gaining back my memory.just to mention XR is male to make the search easier. Tell Glenn I said hi he's smart he will figure it out and lastly, I will always love you and owe me a date afterward. I have to go."

The room was silent. all I could do was to smile at her words. They were short but they were definitely worth it.