271Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡI7Opt9OZmO
Without having a goal, it's difficult to score.
Paul Arden
Dex requested for help to take apart Chasm’s tech. He usually asks me because he doesn’t trust his engineers and technicians with the supervillain’s equipment. Dangerous devices like this could fall into the wrong hands pretty easily if not kept clandestine. The only problem with asking me for help? I realised I had no clue how mechanics worked.
“What do you mean the silver disc goes here?” I tilt my head to the side with a frown, so close to pulling my hair out in frustration.
Dex gives me a pointed look, gesturing towards the metallic gloves laying dismantled on the operation table like a dead animal. Pieces of metal chips and strips of wire are scattered haphazardly, along with numerous tools and shiny gadgets. It resembles a surgeons table.
“Kourtney,” Dex chides, as if I was a child. “If I knew you were going to be this unhelpful, I would have called Harry instead”
I have a good mind to stick out my tongue at him.
And when Dex snatches the metal disc from my hand, I scowl.
“If I knew any better, I’d say you have some creepy fancy for Harry”
Dex doesn’t even look up from what he’s doing. “I have a girlfriend”
My jaw drops.
“You’re going out with Ms Tydal?!”
Dex nods as he inserts the disc into a small compartment on the base of Chasm’s glove, slipping the piece of metal shut. It blinks red before settling constantly on neon green.
“Since when?”
“You’re not going to let this go, are you?” The lighters boss sighs.
I smile wickedly. “Nope, no way”
“Yes Kourt, I am seeing Ms Tydal. Since today morning actually after or date,” Dex loses awareness on the topic quickly when the glove’s green lights fade away.
“Interesting,” He muses, mumbling to himself as he jots down his results.
I roll my eyes dramatically. “I’m leaving you, see ya”
I know Dex is full on in this thoughtful mode and the chances of him concentrating on anything, but the gloves is a negative. I discard my rubber gloves and goggles and then I’ve dematerialised in the twinkle of an eye. In a lash, the lighters laboratory has vanished from sight and I’m standing in a dingy alleyway. A cat hisses from the top of a dumpster, glowing green eyes wide with shock at my sudden appearance. I smirk, striding passed the stray to the Starbucks across the road.
The bell chimes and the warmth of coffee and wood fills my sense, goosebumps rising on wherever my skin is bare. Ground cocoa beans and something entirely chocolaty makes my mouth water and I stroll to the bar, the low lighting creating a dark, earthy feel. A girl around my age stands behind the counter, stacking cream paper cups into an impressive pyramid. Her red curls bounce around her baby face as she spins like a ballerina to face me.
“Hi!” She says brightly, giving me a thousand-watt smile. “What can I get you?”
I scan the menu above for no reason. Dex and I order the same thing every time we’re here. Which means I know this girl is new – I haven’t seen her serving here before. I catch sight of a name tag – Liz Sandstone. Huh, interesting name.
“I’ll take a tall black coffee,” My usual order. “And a venti latte”
Liz is already starting the coffee machine. “Plain black?”
I nod. People always ask me that. I like my coffee bitter, like me. The thing is, I suck at making good coffee and only Starbucks knows how to make my drink the way I like it.
With two, steaming hot drinks, I leap back into the lab. I settle Dex’s latte on the small adjustable table striking out like a ledge on the side of Dex’s workstation. He barely registers my presence or what I’ve done, and I nearly laugh when Dex subconsciously picks up the drink and sips it, without a blink. I clamp my hands tighter around my own coffee, settling onto the armchair in the corner of the lab, with my laptop to get some much-needed homework resolved.
“Wait a minute –” Dex speaks up, frowning at the cup in his hand.
I grin. “Yes?”
“Why’d you write workaholic on my cuppa?”
“I didn’t write it,” My voice is innocent, my smile is not. “The barista did”
Dex shoots me a look. I seem to be on the receiving end of that deadpan expression a lot lately.
“Also, cuppa is for tea, that’s a coffee drink,” I persist just to mess with him.
Dex sighs and shakes his head, resuming whatever work he does. I click on a new email and my joy instantly dims. Our physics teacher posted the names of our groups for the project.
“You know what I find really odd?” My eyes stay on the computer screen, hating the universe and it’s sickening urge to lump me with the same people I don’t get along with over and over again.
“What’s odd?” Dex asks absentmindedly.
“The chances of being in the same project group as the alpha squad”
“I say the teachers sus”
“Dex,” I drawl blandly. “You say that about everyone”
“Because everyone is suspicious”
I roll my eyes and focus on the filling in the project template before me. My physics group haven’t started discussing anything as yet 0+- I guess we’d actually have to talk to each other for that to occur. Which seems pretty chaotic. Harry and Penelope hate my guts, Skye and Harry are rivals vying for Penny’s attention and for some reason, Skye is trying to be nice to me for ulterior motives I’m still unsure about.
I know Harry will het his end of the project done, he might not be the best team player, but he’s smart and efficient. Cold and ruthless. He’ll do what he must to get that A+. Penny on the other hand might just pay someone to do her work for her. She’s rich like that. As for Skye – well he’s a wildcard I never saw coming. I can’t get a read on him and it’s troubling me.
***
“Hey Kourt?” Dex calls out.
I blink several times, adjusting my eyes from spending so much time on the laptops screen. Blurry images and black dots spill in my line of vison for a second before my head clears. I rotate my neck until it cricks, feeling the muscles loosen after being hunched in one position for a over a few hours.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“Can you search up this logo for me?” Dex asks, holding up a metal tube with a red insignia printed on the side. I’m surprised Dex even managed to catch the logo out, considering how infinitesimal it is.
“Where did you get this from?” I take the tube, scanning it with google lens. Hundreds f red and black images pop up on my screen within seconds.
“Inside Chasm’s glove,” Dex explains, pulling out his goggles. “It was in the wrist band”
“Is the shape an N or a Z?”
I tilt my head to the side, focusing on the logo. It’s a deep crimson colour, painted on like spilled blood with a pitch-black background that could rival the night sky. Holding the tube between my fingers, I twist it around at different angles – there’s three red lines jutting through the N (or Z) with a small grey dot in the corner that makes my eyes unfocused.
“It looks more like a Z,” Dex says, checking my laptop over my shoulder.
“Why would Chasm have this anyway?”
Dex shrugs. “No clue. But it could be a good lead if utilised correctly. Every piece of information we get can be salvaged into evidence”
We skim through the information my laptop as to offer, diving deeper and deeper into he murky haze of the unknown. Several websites look too sketchy to be of any use except to scam unsuspecting users. There’s a few data statistics I don’t recognise and some model figures.
“There’s some kind of code needed to open this,” I say, trying to decrypt the website. So far, it’s the only one that looks promising.
“Can you access it?”
I don’t respond, my eyebrows knitted in frustration as I tap quickly on my laptop, my fingers flying cross the keyboard. The letters and numbers are jumbled up in a way that doesn’t make any literal sense and no amount of computer coding classes can help me decipher. For the next two hours or so, I go about searching for more information on the insignia. But every link I take leads to a dead end.
This is getting hopeless.
“Nope,” I say out loud. “This symbol is somehow super encrypted. I can’t find any leaks!”
“Don’t worry about it,” Dex assures me. “Ill take it up with my tech guys, they’ll figure out something”
“Are you sure?” I drop my head back on the couch.
“Yeah, I can trust Timothy and his team not to say a word”
“Okay,” I sigh dejectedly.
Dex gives me a sympathetic smile before ruffling my hair. “Don’t beat yourself up about it, Kourtney, Get some rest”
I turn my head back and face the computer screen.
Determination will be the death of me.
271Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSjAWiEpjHL
271Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHViPz0Vyzj
271Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrFubHrrSIa
271Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkFHKCt7Suq
