Chapter 4

"This is impossible...How... did... he...."

Madeline get up with her stumbled steps and ran inside the hall to look for Mr. Bennett. She found him talking with a couple of men beside him and sneaked to him. Once she reached, she greeted them with the best straight face she could make with her thumping anxiety inside her chest.

"Come out. It's urgent." She mumbled to Mr. Bennett as his smile fell into a stupor after she left without any further words.

He followed her quick steps outside, and finally, she stopped at an empty place a little far from the chirping hall.

"What happened? Is everything okay?" Mr. Bennett asked as she held her head while walking back and forth.

"No. It's not okay. We have to leave this place right now." She spoke in obfuscation.

"Maddy, I didn't get it. Please calm down first." He held her shoulder softly and gazed at her with concern. Madeline looked to her right and left and frowned at Mr. Bennett.

"Please Mr. Bennett, let's leave first, then we will talk." Her Uncle released a breath and nodded at her. They got in the car, and Mr. Bennett didn't let her drive after noticing her trembling hands.

"Now tell me what ensued that you dragged me out from the party," he asked as Madeline threw her mask off and breathed some air.

"They know. That stupid chief revealed about ARCER to some mafia!" She was articulate in rage, and Mr. Bennett shot her a baffled gaze.

"What? Who?" He asked to confirm the thunder he heard.

"I met this guy named Kevin near the pool. He was calling himself the CEO of some SK group. He reached me to get a deal with our ARCER, and this gathering was a trap. It must be that chief who informed him about your meeting with him regarding me." Mr. Bennett didn't look satisfied by her statement as he took a long breath before continuing.

"How is this possible when I didn't spell a single letter of ARCER to Cheif?" He mumbled, which got the younger more muddled.

"What?" she asked in perplexity.

"Yeah, I talked to the chief about you but to only organize a conference for you. I never explained or mentioned for what yet. So there is no way any word regarding your device got outside from him." the older told and sank Madeline into more clutter of the situation.

"What else he said?" Mr. Bennett gained her attention.

"He said he wants me to make a weapon out of it and sell him. He also mentioned he is the Mafia leader of some Shaw gang." She unfolds the incident in distress.

Mr. Bennett's whole body froze at her statement. He looked at Madeline in horror and cupped his mouth in grief, trying to digest her words. Soon they arrive at Madeline's house and get inside. Mr. Bennett got her some water, but she couldn't able to gulp down the fluid as she suffered from uneven breathing because of nervousness.

Madeline suddenly put the glass down and ran downstairs towards her lab, followed by her Uncle. As Mr. Bennett reached the laboratory, he saw Madeline taking out her files, tearing the memos from the board, and putting them in the dustbin. She took out the pen drives, memory cards, and hard disks from all the computers in the room and put them on fire with the research papers and records inside the dustbin. She grabbed a hammer and started beating every model of ARCER she was working on from last week.

Her Uncle felt sad as he saw her destroying the efforts that she valued more than her life. He got tense and ran to her when she got cut from a metal piece and a glass of a prototype inscribed on her skin as she hit it vigorously.

"Meddy, stop! stop it." He drew the hammer away from her hand and threw it before taking her in a hug. Her cries broke out as if she was bound from taking out her desperation to save this precious device that was once her father's hard work.

"They will come tomorrow morning to take everything or kill us. I won't let that piece of trash have it at any cost. It was my father's last project that he protected with his life. I gave up my youth for it. After coming all this way, I will never let it go to the wrong hands. Never over my dead body!" She strumbled to come out of her Uncle's arm and throw things here and there. 

"Madeline, calm down my child, please. Please listen to me." He pushed away the piece in her hand and let her cry on his shoulders. He rubbed the back of her head and kept mumbling to console her. She sobbed for fifteen minutes, and his heart was breaking in her state.

"Why? Why everything is falling apart when we guarded it all these years?" She screeched to him as his tears also flew down.

He pulled her out from his hug and look straight into her eyes.

"Listen to me carefully Maddy, we will leave New York before the sunrise." he declared with his glossy eyes as she gazed at him in surprise.

"You take care of here and pack your bags. I will clear your's and ARCER's records from our research center in case any are left there." He let go of her shoulders and pat her head.

"Don't be scared, I will take care of everything. Nobody can harm you on my watch." He assured her with a smile to give her strength because he knows she is braver than this.

She nods and wiped up her tears as he comforts her. He assured me to come back as soon as possible and leave for the airport immediately. As he walked out of her house car after locking the doors and windows, he pulled out a phone from under the passenger seat of his car. He sucked a sharp breath debating whether to use it or not after all these years. But then Madeline's face comes into his eyes, and his dilemma melt to take their safety priority over anything.

"I will make sure, you don't end up like your father, Madeline."