Survival

Chapter 34 Friendly Encounters

Quinton looked at the counter again. His mind refused to trust the sight before him. A small battery sat on the counter next to the switchboards he needed to rewire. Its absence this morning set off suspicious bells in his mind. Batteries didn’t just show up next to the project he was working on. From the rewiring and makeshift converter devices he had tried to fashion, he knew the desired dimensions better than his master passwords. This would fit in the tracker. He kept glancing at it from a distance, waiting for someone to pick it up or to catch him doing the same. By the time his manager was closing up the shop, he knew his window would close. He slipped the battery into his sweater pocket and said his goodbyes.

The walk back to his place dragged on much longer than normal. What if this was the battery? What next? Denying he had feelings for Mischa would be as effective as a submarine screen door at this point. He had hated the idea of having her watching over his shoulder as he worked with the tracker initially. It added pressure he most certainly didn’t need. But once he caved, he realized it helped more than doing it alone. Mischa kept her questions for moments when he wasn’t concentrating with a soldering iron. From the questions she asked, he knew she didn’t really have a clue what he would go on about, but halfway through he’d get another idea and jump straight to it. Her rarely faltering belief in his ability to fix things, or to over look that fact that he still couldn’t, was one of Mischa’s most admirable qualities.

Her words told him she didn’t want any part of a relationship, yet her actions relayed a different tale. He tried talking to Navjot about it, but he took her side. After the nightmare incident, Quinton knew she must harbour feelings for him. She had come here after being scared senseless, not to anyone else. Navjot argued she probably felt safe in his presence and trying to make his move would destroy the feeling. Quinton didn’t want to believe his statement, but he didn’t want to jeopardize things either.

He found the tracker that hadn’t fallen victim to his theories and effort; and ran his thumb over the screen. This was it. His heart beat loudly in anticipation of an outcome he already expected. He slipped off the back casing, slipped in the battery and snapped it back shut. When he pressed the power button, the screen lit up. Holy shit, after all that work... He quickly turned it off. Things shouldn’t have worked out this easily.

When Mischa stopped by later, she carried a brown bag of what she described as the solution to their impossible equation. Before he could even think about giving her the news, she started rhyming off all the different parts she had picked up from her father’s lab with pride.

“I’m impressed. You really know your stuff.”

Mischa let out a small smile. “I’ve had a pretty great teacher.”

“Who me?” he asked jokingly.

“Of course. Maybe I’ll transfer to the electronics sector.”

“You won’t see me complaining. Full days together sound fun.”

“You’d be so much more chill than my current co-workers, who hate me.”

“I’m sure they don’t hate you,” he said and gave her a small smile which she returned.

“I’m afraid they do. It doesn’t help when I destroy half the work they do by accident. Who knew drywall was so fragile?”

Quinton bit his lip to keep in a laugh. “What did you do?”

“Might have pushed a cart through it.”

“I... I’m not sure how or why that situation came up.”

Mischa ran her fingers through her long red locks. “Don’t worry about it, maybe then I can stop doing it myself. How about you show me how these fancy pieces can fix up our poor tracker?”