69 Chapter 69

Raj looked at her innocent smiling face light up at the thought of a large pizza. They went to the company canteen and Raj ordered a large lunch for them, complete with slices of pizza with all sorts of toppings. As they ate, he called Rahul to come and take her back home.

"I would love to, but Anita and Mala dragged me out shopping. You know how they get. It's impossible to drag them away," Rahul said.

"Please," Raj pleaded. "It's been a very stressful day already. I can't get work done with her here."

"Relax. I'll come by as soon as they're done. An hour at the latest."

Raj returned with Tara to his lab grudgingly.

He left Tara outside and started running the experiment again. This time he was determined to make the ball move so fast that it would become invisible even if he shut down the power.

Each time he tried, the ball slowed down. Raj rubbed his temples in frustration. There had to be some air in the chamber, but the maintenance people had cleared it while they were eating. They had discovered a small crack in the inner glass layer, but fixed it. They said it was airtight now. Then what was slowing the ball?

Raj once again switched on the controls. The ball sped from zero to 30,000 kilometres per hour in five minutes. He increased the speed to forty thousand and kept it constant for some time. It seemed to be working. Then, he had an idea. He increased the speed to 42,000 slowly. Surprisingly the ball could take it. It was still moving in its orbit. He further increased it to 43,000. This time he was careful. He knew that one single mistake would destroy the whole experiment. He increased it again, but only by a hundred kilometres per hour, just to be on the safe side. If the material of the ball could sustain that, he would push it further. He wanted to see how fast it could go.

There was an abrupt voltage dip in the lab. The lights dimmed a bit. But a voltage fluctuation outside didn't affect the experiment that was running inside the chamber. The voltage returned to normal in a few minutes. Raj didn't even notice this small fluctuation. He was too focused to notice anything. He was too focused to notice the spark coming from one of the pipes feeding electricity to the chamber.

He increased the speed further and managed to reach 43,500 kilometres per hour. Suddenly, there was a loud cracking noise. This finally got Raj's attention. He ran towards the exit of the lab, threw the door open, and yelled, "Tara, run! Go outside to the guard now."

But Tara didn't pay attention. She wanted to get closer to the ball and, with the door open, this was her chance. She ran towards him and was in the lab before he could protest.

The cracking became louder. Raj pressed a button to turn on an alarm. "Tara, run now!" he screamed.

A huge spark flashed inside the chamber. The glass shattered with a loud explosion. The energy that radiated from the blast ripped through the air, travelling faster than the speed of the sound.

Raj looked around his lab. Although the explosion lasted for a few milliseconds, the entire room was damaged. Then he looked down at himself. Shards of glass stuck out of his body, soaking his clothes in red streams of blood.

He didn't have time to worry about that. He needed to find Tara. Before the explosion, she was standing by the door. He hoped she ran out of the room to find safety.