CODENAME: A.D.A

Chapter 14

1st April, 2006

Pius and Zoe had spent weeks working on the stopwatch alone. It was supposed to be able to make the wearer control time by going back to the past, for a start at least.

Pius hadn't heard from Ace nor Charles since the last meeting. His calls went to voicemail. Some were even declined. Luckily, Zoe was there to help pick up the pieces.

She stood by him and supported him by helping with the calculations. She was even smarter than he thought. Sometimes, he forgot she was a scientist too since she was working as a secretary for the mean time.

It didn't matter what he went through. He would endure the usual tantrums from his wife but it didn't matter because he knew he would see Zoe the next day. She always found a way to make him smile.

That day, they were even more confused than ever in the lab. They went through the calculations over and over again but nothing seemed to be working. For every step forward, they took two steps back and found themselves contradicted in every way possible.

In the past two weeks, they made ten stop watches with different methods of calculations but nothing worked. The particular stopwatch they made that day had exploded right in their faces.

The late-night shifts, the long back breaking hours and constant research seemed to be proving futile. Nothing was working.

"I'm at a dead end" Pius said as he took off his glasses.

"Don't say that. We'll try again"

"No" he shook his head "I don't want to"

"Why not?"

"I've been working on this for five years and nothing seems to work. Maybe everyone is right, the research is useless. People have worked on time travel for years and nothing happened. What makes me any different? I should just work on something else"

Zoe went closer to him and cupped his face in her hands.

"Hey" she said in her usual soft tone "no one said it would be easy. You're one of the most creative, intelligent and hardworking scientists I know. We're almost there. I can feel it"

"What if I fail?"

"What if you don't? We can't give up now. We're almost there. You've got this, okay?"

He nodded.

He wrapped his arms around her and let out the deep breath he had been holding. She always had a way of calming him down.

*

Pius had to go back to the drawing board. He stayed in his office for hours. He went back to his years of research and started his calculations all over again for what felt like the hundredth time.

"It's going to work this time" he told himself "It has to"

He drew diagrams, he calculated and wrote theories until his hands hurt.

The sound of the door distracted his thoughts. It made him smile. He thought it was Zoandra.

"Hey" he said.

His smile dopped when he saw it was his wife.

"Good evening darling" she said with a smile.

He looked back at his papers.

"You don't look happy to see me" she said.

"Where is Ada?".