The mission : 1

"It is natural for you to get surprised. I will explain everything once we complete this project successfully, until then you can call me Mr. Chief. Mr. Robert, please show her the requirements of this mission and then give her the special mobile phone and other important instruments."

Mr. Robert stood up from his revolving chair, started the presentation on the projector.

He explained that how a person can be eligible to execute such a risky task, the physical abilities required for the mission and the precautions needed to take while executing the experiment.

He also added that a person might even loose their body and be converted into dark matter if he or she does not follow the instructions strictly.

"Mathematically speaking, an error of 0.00001 % may put someone's life in danger. So, the participants must be physically and mentally prepared for this experiment." said Mr. Robert as he pointed to the highly accurate numbers like mass of extremely small particles on the projector screen.

It seemed like the others too were not aware of this information, by their tense expressions.

"This meeting ends here. We shall meet again tomorrow here at the same time. You must use the same path on which you came to return. Each one of you must collect one of the instrument kit which our men will give you before leaving. Also none of you are allowed to open the kit before we ask you to. I expect your full cooperation, until then, be safe, this world is full of greedy people."

Rhyme then followed everyone to the large wooden door and opened it to encounter the black door again. After reaching the balcony of the first floor of Rock Regency, they found those men ( who escorted Rhyme to the meeting ) carrying six suitcases. Each one of them took their respective suitcase and left for the ground floor one by one, so that other people staying in the hotel do not notice them.

Rhyme was still wondering what to do next. So much happened in the past couple of hours, she was just a normal student going to give an interview to pursue higher studies two hours ago. She was still shocked and confused at seeing Stephen Hawkings alive, perfectly healthy, with her own eyes.

Stephen Hawkings is famous worldwide for his work in the field of physics and his contributions in the field of astrophysics, black holes and to some extent, dark matter. He discovered some astonishing secrets about the black holes about which one could never think of. Many people think that if he had still been alive, the world would have made major leaps in some phenomena like teleportation, black hole radiations, with the help of his immense knowledge of astrophysics and modern physics.

Rhyme didn't realise when she took a taxi and reached her pad in New York while deeply engaged in these thoughts. She wasn't mad at the fact that Stephen Hawkings was still alive, but she was really surprised, and it was obvious.

She was really hungry as he hadn't eaten anything after breakfast that morning and it was already afternoon. She took out her phone to order something to eat, but as soon as she turned on her phone, she saw a gazillion missed calls and messages from her friends in New York, who wanted to check on her if she was eventually alive or dead. She finished replying to all of them after a really long time. She wanted to eat an amazing pizza after all this drama in the morning, but no one was delivering pizza to home at this time of the day as all the delivery boys were occupied, so she changed into her sweatpants and decided to go and get a pizza by herself.

Rhyme went to her favourite pizza outlet and started scanning the menu. After a lot of brainstorming, she eventually ordered a classic pepperoni pizza. It was very crowded there, and she wasn't able to find a single empty table to sit on. As she was roaming everywhere to find a place to sit, someone smacked her on the head from behind. Enraged, she turned around to see who was the culprit, who dared hurt her in front of everyone, and was ready to kick his ass, but as soon as she turned around, she found one of her two best friends, Tervey from high school smiling foolishly at her angry face.

"Holy shit , it was you! I thought that I would have to pick up a fight on my first day in New York. You haven't changed even a bit." Rhyme calmed down on seeing someone familiar in this new land.

"You came to New York and didn't even tell me? I didn't expect this from you."

"Aren't you the one to never check on what your friends are doing, the last time I contacted you, you were carrying out charity work in Albania."

" Mmm..... Let's talk about what are you up to these days here in New York. We still have a lot of catching up left to do- "

They keep teasing each other all the time.

"See? Now you are changing the topic once you are found guilty for doing something you accused me of. It's fine though I don't mind you forgetting your besties-"

"C'mon stop being so sarcastic. First tell me what are YOU doing here?"

"I'm here to complete my PhD. What about you? What are you doing here?"

"I'm here for doing a survey on local communicable diseases in big cities like New York, Chicago, etc"

Tervey was a medicinal doctor by profession, and was currently working for World Health Organisation, that was why he would be always busy doing charity work.

"Surveys are so boring!"

"But they are equally important, and I'll have to conduct them even if they are very boring and tedious"

"Good for you!"

Soon their pizzas arrived and they both ate as if they haven't eaten proper food in ages.

Halfway through their meal, Rhyme's phone started ringing. She didn't even realise it until it stopped, as she was so immersed in eating her first full meal of her day, and didn't even bother to check who it was.