Chapter 23

“Finally.” I bellowed, wiping the sweat from my forehead. I took a huge huff of breath and started to admire my work, gliding the slim frame with my finger and tracing it along the edge.

If everything goes as planned this would make my sleepless night, worth it.

‘Here goes nothing.’

Putting on the glasses made the muscles on my hand pulsed like crazy, not to mention the sudden shakiness of it.

Ok, I gotta admit this is nerve-wracking.

‘If this doesn’t work I’m gonna be totally pissed at myself’.

The glass flick light and with a beep, the screen popped up its menu indicating that it was operational. The simple hello on the screen made my leaping heart calm down and I couldn’t resist but squeal in success, prancing like a lovey-dovey school girl who just got acknowledge by her crush. Sadly my little victory moment ran short when;

The door opened

Mr. Grumpy stood by the door, a cup of coffee in his hand. He looked rather irritated but when he saw me on his table with glasses at hand, his mood suddenly changed to shock and amazement. Placing his cup to the nearest table, some of its contents spilling at the process which he didn’t mind as he zoomed to me, slamming both palms at the table.

“Let me see!” Flinching at his high tone made me back up a bit

Mr. Grumpy looked like an excited kid which was the exact opposite of his normal persona; the way his eyes sparkled under the low florescent light, shoulders hunched, and was smiling like a maniac. My sleep-deprived brain could not comprehend his liveliness so without any thought given to it,

I pass him the glasses.

“Extraordinary.” Turning it to the side “and you finished this just in one night?!”

Chuckling at his bewildered state, I grabbed my tech back.

Praise me more peasant, I pulled an all-nighter for this and it was no easy task. Good thing his lab has all the things I need though, if it didn’t I wouldn’t have finished the damn tech on time. Well if it didn’t I knew how to be resourceful enough, I’m not called a child prodigy for nothing.

“Well you won’t make me one so I decided to take matters onto my own hands.” Putting the glasses back on “I didn’t have enough time to encode an AI system so a simple one will do for the time being.”

He straightened back up, a fascinated expression on his face, and gestured for me to continue.

“In short, I programmed it to be linked to the person’s brain when wearing it. Like the ones, you see in spy movies. One of its main functions is to translate other languages to English.” I explained. “Now speak something in Russian.”

“What am I a dog?!” he argued earning an eye roll from me

“No, you’re a lab rat now speak.”

He crossed his arms and with a huff muttered “идиот”

Within seconds the screen generated the answer “Idiot.” Making me snicker, that it works not because of the jackass insult. Everything seems to be functioning as expected, not a glitch in sight.

‘Still needs a few updates though’

“You could have made a better design,” Cypher complained.

Oh gee, you don’t say. I had sketched one before starting but encoding and designing the program took longer than I expected, so I had no choice but to keep it simple for a while.

“I would but with the mission coming up, don’t have the time and effort yet.”

After saying that sudden dread swept through me, my eyes widen as I looked at Mr. Grumpy who in return gave me a ‘Yeah you did look’

“When I was coming up here Carat was hollering at everyone to find you.” He explained going back to get his cup of coffee “She was furious, to say the least, you see you were“

I didn’t hear the rest he was about to say as I was out the door before I knew it, zooming past him in long strides.

“Oh god, Lynne’s gonna kill me.”

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A quick wardrobe change and freshening up, I bolted down the stairs to the lobby. Passing through hallway after hallway bolting while also dodging every person on my way, I could feel my heart pounding through my ears. My chest feels heavier than usual making my breaths raspier and shorter, ok I gotta admit I'm not what you call a physically fit kind of person. Yes, I can run but couldn't keep up after a long period of time; like if I would give my all in running away from life and death situations but after that when my adrenaline wears off, I will just literally collapse on the spot as in blackout out and it would take me hours before I could regain my consciousness.

Running through a corner, I finally arrive at the lobby. Panting as I clutched my chest, knees a little wobbly from the lack of sleep and fatigue. Trying to catch my breath eyes scanned the room and there at the far side along with the door, just a little close to the reception was Lynne, and from the looks of it.

She wasn't amused

Her arms were crossed on her chest, foot-tapping in a repeated manner, chin up and grey eyes glaring at me those two voids look menacing enough. Lips were curled up like a lion growling at its cub, she gestured to come closer. My heart just literally just stopped beating, averting my eyes I walked in her direction. Every step was worse than the last, the pounding got louder to my ears until there was only a buzzing sound left. My hands felt sweaty and cold by my side, no matter if balling them took any the tension off nor the cold; I'm pretty sure I look like a pup, its tail tucked between their legs whimpering to not get scolded.

When I was finally standing in front of her with shoulders tensed and trembling all over, waiting for the full-grown lecture but it didn't happen. She just nodded to the door, outside there was a sleek black Jeep waiting for us. I looked at her confused which earned a sigh, sauntering past me with a silver briefcase at hand which I hadn't notice due to my shock. She opened the door of the Jeep and gestured at me to get in, I hastily did. Lynne boarding short after, the car later then drove off.

There was an uncomfortable silence between us as we took off, you can literally see the awkwardness. I fidget at the thought, should I apologize at least? Several questions flashed to my head, shutting down each one as I make them. I just need to say something.

I was about to buy Lynne broke the ice first,

"Here," She said handing me a black earpiece.

I took it from her palm, putting it in my ear; making sure that it won't unnecessarily fall under the circumstances as I was doing it Lynne pulled up the briefcase from before, after opening it I realized that it was more of a laptop rather than a case. Typing a few things in before pressing the enter button, the earpiece beeped in my ear indicating that it was connected.

"You could have done better with that spyware of yours." A voice suddenly commented making me flinch back, heart racing at the sudden loudness coming from the earpiece.

Good to see Blue sarcastic as ever.

"I don't need feedback from you." I asserted "besides it's not complete yet it's still a prototype."

"Yeah whatever you say noob." I could hear him smirking from his tone, a little bit of teasing laced into it.

Looking out the window to my side, there was one of his drones hovering a few inches from us; its sensors tracking our every move. Unlike Angels’ drones from the border his was painted silver with a logo of a three-headed dog on top of it, it was also slightly smaller and had better details than the angels. When you think of it, it’s kinda ironic that both of them are named that way, reaper, and his faithful dog Cerberus. Like mine is any better.

Ok, what’s up with computer geeks and edgy nicknames?

Brushing that thought aside for another time, I leaned up to the window and gave Blue the middle finger without a second thought. He snickered through the earpiece which turned into full-on maniacal laughter, the sound rumbling through his chest like a mad scientist.

“Don’t forget our bet, Midnight.”

“Like I could.” I chuckled “Get ready to be knock down your throne cause this noob is gonna put an end to your rule.”