TRON: ASCENSION

CHAPTER 22 - THE FIGHT FOR IDENTITY

THE GRID – THIRD TRONCYCLE

ABLE'S GARAGE

The would-be pair tiptoed and sneaked their way past the guest lounge and the private cabin of Mara with a pinch of luck and fatigue. Not to mention the number of tactics and improvisations they've had to apply all over the way in escaping from the workers' guard, especially Zed's scorn and skepticism. Those naïve workers were an easy hurdle to cross, as they are always immersed in their daily routine and never bother to check every nook and corner of the garage, and those same nooks and corners of the garage helped become checkpoints for the duo to slide their way into the secret vehicle Sam has spotted out from his recces. Just as they thought they were free from any vigilant mind, enter Zed. He's the only tough nut to crack in the whole garage, given his notoriety for scrutinizing eyes and excruciating interrogations, which he simply terms as "casual talk", talk about sarcasm. He stopped the couple and after they said they were going t talk to Mara for a while, Zed was about to turn on his inquiry mode and gain sadistic entertainment from his victims. But these were Mara's new friends, who were not at all to be disturbed without Mara's permission. Case in point, the fresh wounds of humiliation he got as a result of crossing the line a bit too far. An otherwise silent and peace-loving Mara never becomes aggressive and commanding unless and until it matters to her the most.

Keeping that bitter memory in his mind, Zed couldn't help but give a long suspicious look at them and turn his face away, minding his own business, and cursing his bad luck. Crossing him cautiously, Sam and Quorra were one step away from escaping the sweet prison, the bridge to their goal being Mara. They then approached her cabin and started to put on their friendly faces before greeting their innocent caretaker. Maintaining her usual bubbly nature, Mara greeted her guests-cum-friends and made them comfortable in their seats. Unlike the previous time, Quorra carried on the chat with Mara, as she was the one well-versed in the affair of the technopunk world. Taking the conversation in a current-affairs session, Quorra dragged her chair near Mara and narrated the several gossips and conspiracies she'd given attention to in her past, all the while arresting Mara's attention on her while seated opposite to her, whereas Sam silently slid his seat near Mara as well. Limiting her talk to only her past, omitting Kevin from the picture, Quorra had a delightful conversation with Mara where Sam dedicated his attentive ears to their sugar-syrupy words and eyes to the sparkling eyes and rosy red lips Quorra flaunted fashionably.

And then, as the right side of his brain tingled Sam's right half of his body. But then as the right arm settled itself comfortably on the desk, unable to execute its task, the left hand took the responsibility and activated the palm, and the fingers as well. Carefully plucking out the miniature tweezer from the garage, too small even by the standards of earth, from his pocket without grabbing any attention and moving his left elbow, he then waited for a few seconds as the tweezer then extended its pair of limbs into a tentacle-like, softer than ramen, tendril-like handles. Each of the handles is capable enough of grabbing medium-weight objects with its hidden magnetic property and dragging them to its crown. As Sam started to mingle in the conversation and slowly divert Mara's attention toward his charismatic face, he then got a little bit close to her and shifted the tone of the conversation into a more flirting one, close enough that his tweezer hand could hover over her right back pocket.

Confident enough that Mara's deeply invested in his attractive story, Sam then let the tweezer in his hand touch the opening of her back pocket as those handles traveled deep into the pocket and started doing their work. It was a minute process until the handles grabbed the pair of keys and dragged them to the crown, hanging those keys open in sight, visible enough for Quorra to confirm the key position to Sam with gestures and Sam to grab the keys by his hand. As he threw the tweezer to Quorra's successful catch, Sam then caressed his right hand gently onto Mara's back pocket and attempted to grab the keys without being noticed. As easy as it sounded on paper, the task at hand required delicacy, sensitivity and Sam's improving acting skills as well. As the key pair is in close contact with Mara's body, Sam needed her to just get up from her seat a little bit to make things easy. For that purpose, he then shifted his sweet talks into the narration of anecdotes through imitations of his friends and emptying his jokebook, succeeding enough in his attempt that Mara stood up from her chair as her laughter gradually increased with her giggling lips and shining teeth. At this moment, Sam knew the time is right and grabbed the keys by the hand from her back and pulled it out in a swoosh.