Chương 85: Chapter 84 – Blind as a Bat, Dumb as a Post

Mikale looked over at Elios who looked like he was on the verge of tears. They had been working on putting the teleport back together for hours and seemed to be no closer to accomplishing the task.

"Why are there so many pieces?" Elios grumbled, scratching his head, "It's as if they are multiplying. We get one on and it seems two more take its place," he sighed, plopping down in his chair and grunting loudly. He looked down at the piece in his hand.

"I don't even know what this is, but I could have sworn I already put it on… twice." Mikale looked down at the piece in his hand guiltily. When he first took on this assignment, he believed Elios was some evil mastermind working hand in hand with Blackwood. The more time he spent with him, the more aware he was becoming that Elios was merely a puppet. Elios had no power, he had no pull, he just danced while Mordak pulled the strings.

"Hey, why don't you take a break for a bit, I'll keep going, but go get a cup of emberbrew or something," Mikale said, placing the piece down on the table. Elios looked up at him, his eyes wide with dismay.

"How can you suggest such a thing? We are not getting anywhere here! Don't you understand, if we don't have this done by the deadline, we're finished, literally finished. They will find our bloody corpses rotting on the poor side of town and Blackwood will blame it on some degenerate gang," Elios said, fighting back tears.

"Elios, you obviously need a break, I'm not saying for hours, just a few minutes so you can regroup. You have been working on this so long now that all the pieces are looking the same," he sighed, reaching out, putting a hand on Elios' shoulder and squeezing gently.

"Go, take a walk, get a cup of emberbrew and something to eat. Do something other than walk around here in circles." He sighed, looking around at the scattered pieces.

"I will do what I can while you are gone and then we can step it up and get this baby put back together." The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Mikale could see that Elios was torn, by the way he looked at the pieces and rubbed the back of his neck.

"How can you be so calm?" Elios asked, "you are on the same chopping block I am, but yet, you don't seem concerned at all."

"Panic and frustration is not going to help either of us Elios. We need to find a way to not focus on what happens if we don't succeed, but instead, find a way to efficiently move forward to achieve success," Mikale said, calmly giving Elios a sympathetic smile.

"We still have twelve hours. We are a team and if we work together in a coordinated effort, we can get this done with time to spare."

"Alright, I will take a quick break," Elios said, his demeanor resembling a spooked horse more than a goblin.

"When I come back, we will sort this mess out. We will put it back together in the same way we took it apart," he said. He took a deep breath and walked away. Mikale watched to be sure that Elios had left, then quickly walked to a closet on the far side of the room. He checked to be sure no one else was there before entering. He reached in his pocket and pulled out the key fob then pressed the panic button once.

"Mikale?" a voice asked.

"Yeah, it's me." He said softly.

"Is it done?"

"We're working on it." The voice on the other end answered.

"Okay, but operation blind as a bat's window is closing, you have twelve hours left, I recommend you do what needs to be done, and do it quickly," he said, his heart beating rapidly.

"Got it," the voice said.

"Be careful," the voice added before disengaging. Mikale shoved the key fob back in his pocket, then grabbed a component of the teleport from the shelf and a tool. He opened the door casually and looked around before strolling back to the teleport, whistling along the way.