Fired

The device

"So how is it in New York?", asked Diana.

"You've never been there?",asked Sam.

"Well, we pretty much have not been out of this lab and our apartments and before that we were students",said Oliver.

"So,you guys just stay here and invent things and -"

"And we have fun too",said Diana,"Me, Oliver and Mr. Williams sometimes have a small party and to be honest, we are like a family here."

"Must be good",said Sam, imagining if his life was that easy," What about your families?"

"My mother passed away when I was born and my father went away for a long time, so I grew up at my aunt's house. She was divorced and didn't have any kids either. And then when I was 15 , we heard that my father died in Vietnam. And when I was 21 , my aunt passed away. And that was when I met my best friend ,Oliver. And we both were special at something . So after a year course at an institution, Mr. William came to us with an offer and we have been with him since then.",Diana explained

"My mother passed away when I was 11 and my father disappeared from my life the same year. I don't really have much memory or things of them...which is weird My 19 year old brother brought me up and he worked overtime to pay the rent and fees for my school. Even after all the shortage of money,he gave me the best education. And then a very kind lady, helped us. She was Diana's aunt. And I met Diana at her aunt's funeral. She was a great lady though. Then as Diana said, Mr. Williams saw our talents and took us in.",said Oliver.

"I am so sorry for your losses",said Sam, looking sorrowful.

"Don't be. We are what we are because of Everything we went through",said Diana.

"What about your family, Sam?",asked Oliver

Sam wanted to be honest with them. They had been. He wanted to tell the truth, but he had already told Bolan something else. If you tell a lie, you will have you spin out another lie to keep up and it never ends until you cut the thread and stop spinning.

But clearly, Sam didn't want to be called a liar. He had to go on lying.

"My parents.......When I was young ,my father abandoned us and in search for him, my mother passed away.

My sister took care of me. And she did everything she could until,she had to go away",said Sam.

"Go where?", asked Oliver

"Umm....she went abroad for her studies. And Mr. Ronald took me in as his assistant",said Sam.

"We are sorry for your loss Sam..",said Oliver

"We clearly all have daddy issues",said Diana, smiling sadly.

Oliver nodded.

"Here you are ,Sam!",said William with a paper in his hand ,"Diana and Oliver , listen you two, I need you both to take him to the lab downstairs . Sam here listen, I need you to tell them everything you remember. To solve this problem, you need to co-operate with us. Remember, everything that happened.And then, Diana and Oliver, you sill come with a solution as usual and I will be in my office if you need me."

"Sure,Mr.William",said both Oliver and Diana.

"It's gonna be fun Sam",winked Oliver and Sam followed them both downstairs and after a series of turns they reached the room. There was a big board with a printed note in red,"AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY"

They went inside and Sam saw a number of strange equipments. He was full of questions but he didn't ask any.

There was a round table with a lot of chairs.

All the three of them sat down and the two of them stared at Sam.

"Sam, look, we need you to be honest. Mr. William mentioned that you were having this time travel problem. Personally ,I am very excited about it. But, you need to tell the truth ,about everything that happened",said Diana, with a serious facial expression.

"So, on which day did you start having this problem…?",asked Oliver with a diary in his hand.

"Two days back ",said Sam.

"Okay, the time?",asked Oliver.

" I don't remember the precise timing, but I was going to work. In the Ronald Labs . I had this coffee in my hand and I had my files. And the guard named Patrick was standing in front of the gate. He said hi and I said it back and we had a conversation and then I went inside the building,inside the elevator and I saw something distant coming something yellow and it hit me hard. It was bright and it had no shape. It just hit me . And I was back in front of the building with , I think tea, in my hand and Patrick standing right in front of me. I didn't understand what happened but then he said hi, as if nothing happened. I didn't understand. And then it happened again. ",said Sam, he continued and told them everything that happened, all that happened inside Ronald's office and when he imprisoned him and hit him with the knife,where Diana flinched.

"Did something trigger it? I mean, did you have some feeling of some kind ?",asked Oliver.

"No,....I have been thinking about it ",said Sam,"In the morning inside the elevator, I was calm, drinking my coffee, then inside Ronald's office , when he had me imprisoned, I was so hyped up and focused on escaping, I was afraid, nervous and very scared. Both those feelings were completely different ! It doesn't make sense"

"Okay Sam, if we are not getting the answers by reliving the moment when it happened, then we need to get to the past. Tell us, what suspicious things happened before you started having these yellow flashes?",asked Diana.

"I work inside Ronald's Labs,everyday suspicious things happen Diana!",said Sam, focusing," But one major incident happened inside the lab…"

"What was it?",asked Oliver, sounding nervous.

"A blast happened. I suppose you both know about the serum that Ronald has been working on? The one that kills people?",asked Sam.

"Yes we do, and I am helping make a cure for that, and constantly failing.",said Diana.

"Well, that night, Ronald injected the dog with the serum. I had overheard the doctors saying that it was not ready yet , but still Ronald used it. And then the dog started behaving strangely. Like, very strangely. And then he made some pretty bad noises, he replicated,then the replica of the dog, blasted and then after some time, the dog was shot down on Ronald's orders and then the body of the dog blasted, like for real this time, with smoke and fire and the doctors mentioned something about an extraordinary nuclear reaction. When the dog blasted, it emitted some kind of radiation, that affected me? But everyone else was there in the room with me! They didn't get affected",said Sam.

"Tell me Sam, were you having something extraordinary that the other people were not having? Like something out of the ordinary?",asked Oliver,who was taking notes all that while.

"All the other soldiers were holding big guns ,like really big guns, and I.......I was holding that device Ronald gave me",said Sam, horror struck , that he never looked at it from this point of view.

"Sam, what device?" ,asked Diana , nervously.

"I don't know much about it, it is long and as Ronald mentioned, it was supposed to protect me from that dog creature, that night. It was dangerous no doubt",said Sam.

"Can you draw that device here?",asked Oliver, passing him the paper and pen

Sam roughly drew it out and passed it back to Oliver.

"This is what it looked like",said Sam.

Oliver and Diana both looked at the thing Sam drew.

"We've never seen it before",said Oliver.

"And believe me , we have dealt with many strange objects and devices before and this is definitely not of them",said Diana.

"But we know one thing for certain , that this thing, whatever it is, it is responsible for the problem you are having and now that we have have the actual culprit,which turned out to be the device, it is really good , we can do some researching, run tests and we are going to find the answers",said Oliver, smiling.

"Whatever it is, this device is dangerous. We are gonna do it Sam! Don't you worry",said Diana standing up .

"Thank you, both of you",said Sam, smiling at both of them

"Now come on, guys, let's have a drink, we worked really nicely here",said Oliver.

And the three of them stood up,and made their way back upstairs.