Squinting up at the top, Zoya turned to her partner while tying her ombre waves into a band "Pick me up" she ordered.

"Bossy" he tutted. Looking around, he placed a hand on his shoulder and laughed uncomfortably "In front of everyone?"

Sighing loudly, she pushed her hands onto the dents near his neck "Want me to tell them to shut their eyes?" Her tone was soothing and soft as her lashes fluttered charmingly.

Gulping, his head shook. Wrapping an arm around her waist, he lifted her so she could push herself up, tipping his head back so his chin was by her stomach, his brows furrowed "What exactly are you trying to do?"

Opening her compact mirror, she blew the powder onto the surface and held the mirror below the lightly sanded wording "It says 'Reach out and touch faith, your own personal Jesus' are we dealing with a cult?"

Aditya slid her down his body "It's a song, I know what we have to do" turning to the numbers, he pressed each one, listening intently to the different rhythm they all played, humming the tune as he pressed the corresponding buttons till the doors finally pinged open. Clicking his knuckles, he grinned "I'm something of a musician" he spoke with pride, "But I wonder" he dropped his voice so only she could hear it, "What kind of sounds an instrument as fine as yourself would make?"

Shoving him away, she stepped out and away from him, eyes darting across the two arrows pointing in different directions.

Abir nudged his companion causing her to jump and slap her chest with her hand.

"What?" She whisper shouted, her doe brown eyes wide.

"Oh, nothing" he relaxed his shoulder against hers, a bashful grin on his lips, "I just enjoy how reactive you are, I've dealt with a lot of explosive substances before, but none quite as responsive as you".

Dropping her head so he wouldn't see how red her cheeks were, Mishti sighed in relief when she landed outside the elevator so she could distance herself from him "There's two turnings, we'll go that way, you two go that way" she suggested, flinching when a heavy arm wrapped around her shoulders, "Don't, please" sliding away, she grimaced at the shooting pain that made stars appear before her eyes.

He frowned "Are you okay? I didn't mean to hurt you" He was far from the caring type, but he also had kind of accustomed himself to her, it would be a lie if he said he wasn't looking forward to spending more time with her.

"Fine" she snapped, "Let's go" tugging him along, she pulled him into the only door that would open, slammed it shut with her body and fanned her face.

Abir lifted the test tubes up "I'm assuming we have to put some kind of chemicals together to make something, but what?"

"Meth".

"What, how do you know that?"

Spinning him around, she pointed to the blackboard "It says make meth".

"Oh" he grinned, "I didn't see that, maybe because I was too busy looking at you?" There was this undeniable urge to make her smile again, he was used to annoying her and making her blush, but making her sad was new, he'd done it once when he'd evaluated her character and had no plans to do it again.

Ignoring him, she grabbed the box of tablets "We need to find the ones that include ephedrine, mix this with this solvent" she slid the bottle across the desk, "Then we filter it and put it in the fridge, usually it takes longer but I assume it will work quickly because we're on a limited time scale" reading through the boxes, she threw some into a bowl and the others to the side.

"How on earth do you know how to cook meth? Are you a secret drug addict?"

At that, she giggled "No, Zoya would kill me first, I've trained in Toxicology, so I know my stuff, that means I know what's toxic and what's not, and you, Mister are very toxic for my health" she waggled her finger.

Jutting his lips out, he perched his chin on the table "But you're so addictive, I just can't stay away" he couldn't help but smile when she did, she was cute, innocent and no matter how attracted to her he was, he wasn't about to taint her with his darkness by using her for a one night stand. At first, he really didn't care for her, but after spending time with her and seeing that there was more to her than just her shyness, he knew she deserved better. Mishti was a smart girl, had a lot of hidden talents and didn't brag about it, he respected that, respected her and that was why he really needed to keep himself together and not cross the line with her, she seemed the type to catch feelings quickly and he, on the other hand, enjoyed the single life far too much.

"Oh shh" she swatted at him, "Find the red phosphorus and hydriodic acid because we need to mix that with those two ingredients after, oh first put on that hazmat suit, these chemicals are dangerous" pulling one over her own body, she did a little jiggle and smacked her arms together "I feel huge".

"You really are something else" he shook his head, "You know that, right?"

Flashing him a grin, she twirled around "I know".

"What do we do after?"

Mishti pointed to a bottle "Add that so the meth connects, drain out the liquid, bubble HCG and pour it through a filter cloth, then we figure out what we do with the meth we've made".

He shrugged "Get high?"

"If that's the aim, you're the only drug I need" she responded, happy that she had beat him to it. Tipping his jaw up, she winked "You'll catch flys".

"Remind me to never underestimate you again" Abir chuckled.

●◇●◇

Aditya dropped the lock so it bashed against the door "We need to find the six-digit code" tapping his thighs, he began to lift things in the hallway, moving objects from one side to another till he spotted the painting on the wall "That painting is the birth of Venus, uh she was born when some kid castrated his father and threw his dick into the water".

"Right, what's that got to do with the lock?"

"She was the Goddess of love, she married" he eyed the fireplace, "The God of fire, his name was Vulcan, so that's Twenty-two, twenty-one, twelve, three, one and fourteen as each letter from the alphabet has a corresponding number, but that's still too many numbers so, two plus two is four, two plus one is three, two plus one is three, three again, then one and four plus one is five so" he moved back to the lock and moved the numbers, "Four, three, three, three, one and five, aha" he cheered as it clicked.

Zoya shook her head "I'm not gonna even ask how you got that".

He frowned "But I just explained it, see it's really easy" he opened his mouth to continue only for her hand to cover his lips causing the word to muffle against her palm.

"I got it, but you think in a very" she hummed, "Unique way, hope it comes in handy" turning to look around, she placed her hands on her hips.

Aditya pulled a pad of paper to his chest, flicking through the pages till he made out a few dashes and dots:

.--- . ... ..- ... / .. ... / --- ..- .-. / ... .- ...- .. --- ..- .-.

-- .- -.-- / .... . / .--. .-. --- - . -.-. - / ..- ... / .- .-.. .-- .- -.-- ...

.--. .-. .- .. ... . / - .... . / .-. . -... .. .-. - .... . -..

"Morse code, do you know it?"

"Of course, who do you think I am?" He scoffed.

Rolling her eyes back, she hid her smile "A geek?"

"You got that right!" With a childlike innocence, he began to translate the cypher letter by letter, turning his head toward the cross, he shuffled over to it "I think you were right about the cult".

"Oh yeah, why's that?"

Flapping the paper, he handed it to her "That's why".

Anyone work out the morse code?