The Secret Weapon

Part 2/3 : The Thief

~It took me a lot of time to update but anyways, here is another part to the 5 people who read the previous part lol. Enjoy😊

In his lab, Detective Salar studied the contents of the sample of the melted lock. But there was not any known substance even to Detective Salar, who was a famed chemical physicist, which was capable of such damage. The lab door opened and a woman entered.

 "Ah, Miss Ariana! Please have a seat." said Detective Salar. "I know you must feel devastated after knowing that your safe was broken in to", said Detective Salar, more like melted, he thought.

 Miss Ariana shifted in her seat, "Not at all, Salar. I just confirmed it to Officer Hadi too. Although my vault was rummaged by the thief, there was no content missing." Detective Salar looked at her and she averted her gaze.

 Detective Salar sighed. "We've worked together at many labs before too, Ariana. I know very well that you won't lie to an old friend like me." Miss Ariana cast a glance at him and said, "You got me, Salar. But please don't tell this to anyone."

 She told that she was working on plasma in a lab whose sample she had got from space in one of her voyages and the head thought it unwise to leave the plasma in their lab so they put its container in Miss Arina's vault. But if Ariana admitted that the plasma sample was lost, it could possibly cost her the job.

 "Was someone else also working on this plasma project with you?" Detective Salar asked, making notes now. "As a matter of fact, I was placed as the coordinator of the group in place of Khizar." 

She further told that Khizar was found smuggling some rare contents of the lab for his personal lab. He was working on something. Stealing was strictly prohibited so the lab chief replaced him with Ariana. Salar now understood the whole matter. He told the District Police his suspect, Khizar who was a prominent physicist working in the same lab as Miss Ariana. 

Detective Salar soon got a call from Officer Hadi saying that they had Khizar in their custody. Detective Salar put all the reports of his analysis in his bag and went straight to the District Police lock-up with Miss Ariana. Miss Ariana gasped when she saw Khizar. "Khizar! You-!" Khizar looked down, frowning. 

"Perhaps, it would be best if Detective Salar himself presents his analysis report here", said Officer Hadi, who had just arrived there. Detective Salar explained. He had found out that the substance that had decayed the bank gates and locks was plasma. Since Khizar could not smuggle too much of the lab's content or else he would be caught, so he only kept a small quantity of plasma for himself. 

Being a highly reactive form of matter, he didn't need much to increase its quantity; he just shrewdly added highly acidic sulphuric acid in it. That is why, when he used it on the vault of the locks, they evaporated but since the acid was also used, they did not disappear completely, rather gave a burnt look. 

This step was also done to mislead the police as to which substance he actually used. "But I would want to ask Mr. Khizar how he stored the plasma by not harming himself", asked Detective Salar. "I made a plasma gun with unreactive matter to store the plasma, so that the plasma would not destroy the gun chamber", Khizar replied reluctantly. 

"But why did you go to such lengths to steal the plasma from my vault, Khizar?" asked Miss Ariana. "I wanted to make my own invention, the plasma gun!" said Khizar, hysterically. "I did not want to stick to the lab doing research all along, making no progress! And look, the plasma gun works just well!"

 Detective Salar looked up at Khizar. "Your purpose was not wrong, Khizar. But the way you did things was horrible. Stealing the lab's content, working on a harmful substance without any supervision and stealing from Miss Ariana's vault. As for the plasma gun, it has been confiscated." 

As they were about to leave, Miss Ariana turned and said with tears in her eyes, "Khizar, you didn't earn the plasma. It was I who got it from space in the first place. If anyone had the right to use it, it was me, not someone who would use it to break into others vault." Khizar looked with longing as she went away and started screaming hysterically.

How did you find this part? Interesting? Thrilling? Or... pridictable? Do let me know!