• All the chemical reactions and some of the metals/explosives stated below are false, hypothetical and do not bear any resemblence with real life things. •
-----
Nisha stood under the shower as the cold water washed her body, taking away the dirt with it as she wondered how cool it would be if this cold water erased all her pain, taking the horrible memories with it. She sighed and turned off the shower, stepping out. She quickly put on her inners and threw a shirt over her head as she remembered about the greyish white balls.
Aditya looked up as Nisha, clad in a black shirt that reached till her mid thighs walked out of the washroom. "Nisha, where are your pants, ah?" Aditya questioned, eyeing her exposed legs. "Ah, I was lazy to wear them. Anyways, it's pretty humid so this should do." Nisha spoke, grabbing her laptop and phone as she sat on the bed.
"Nisha, do not wear your tracks from now on." He said as his eyes darkened due to lust. "Ah, why?" She questioned, totally unaware of his lust-filled eyes as she opened her phone gallery to check the pictures from morning.
"Your legs are a good sight to my hungry eyes." Aditya spoke, bluntly as Nisha looked at him and smirked. His eyes darkened more as he pulled her by her shirt collar and captured her lips. She kissed him back, running her hands in his hairs.
He placed his hand on her naked thigh as she parted and shook her head. "No, not today." She whispered against his lips as he made a puppy face, his hazel eyes catching her off guard. "Sleep, Aditya. It's been a tiring day." She said, distancing herself.
No matter how much she wanted to do it, she still had a work in her hand to complete. "True that. Anyways, aren't you sleeping?" Aditya questioned to which Nisha shook her head. "No, actually I've to apply for some jobs so I'll complete it and join you." She lied.
Aditya nodded half-heartedly. Yesterday, Nisha and Adhya informed him about Ishaan and how Nisha was a replacement. Though he was initially upset as Nisha won't be working with him anymore, he was more than glad to welcome Ishaan into his empire; truly, Ishaan had some next level talents and knowledge of fashion. Moreover, Nisha too, had to accomplish her dreams of working as civil engineer.
Nisha lied to him as she wasn't yet sure if these grey balls were a big deal or it was just her exaggeration. She first wanted to confirm before telling him as she didn't want him to worry unnecessarily. She planted a kiss on his forehead as she heard his laboured breathing and walked towards the couch in the balcony, switching off the lights.
She quickly sat on the couch in Indian style and placed her laptop in her lap. She opened a Google tab and wrote down smelly greyish white balls scattered in soil in the search bar. She browsed through the search results and when she found nothing convincing, she clicked on images.
She moved downwards as more pictures of just soil, grey coloured random articles and some rubber balls came in her sight, adding to her irritated. She massaged her temples as she moved more downward. Just then, she came across a picture where the same small balls could be seen in the soil, that too in abundance.
She immediately clicked on the picture and zoomed, picking up her phone. She examined both the pictures and found a lot of similarities. Beneath the picture, she read the lines before clicking on it as a new tab opened, displaying an article.
Pendulum Cobalt Explosive, also known as PCE becomes the top most deadliest nuclear explosive; scientists from Smoke Ripper institution deduce it's combination, usage and effects. The headline of the article read as Nisha looked at the pictures displayed before reading the full article.
Pendulum Cobalt Explosive was found in 1997 by a small farmer in Spyderville. The man is said to be washing his clothes on a rock and suddenly, the clothe tore into small pieces with a loud sound and in the process, his palms were burnt severely that the doctors had to remove his hands, forever.
When the farmer informed the doctors about what had happened, scientists from Smoke Ripper institution examined the rock and found it to be the Judas rock, one of the rarest metals.
Judas is highly reactive with oxygen and when another metal Malice Gravity Cannon - which is in powered form at room temperature - combines with Judas in the presence of O2, it becomes an explosive and has to power to explode largest of the towers.
The cause for the explosion is that the detergent used by the farmer consisted of Malice Gravity Cannon which has a great bleaching power. This metal combined with Judas in the presence of atmospheric oxygen and the explosion occurred.
In this way, the scientists conducted many tests and found out the Pendulum Cobalt Explosive, which is now used to blast mines. Some of the terrorist groups also use this deadly explosive for attacks. PCE also becomes the costliest explosive available.
To blast mines, PCE is first packed in rolls made of paper which are dipped in petroleum and then, these rolls are packed together using jute rope in a pack of four. They are first planted in the middle of the place where the blast is to be conducted and fire is put off on it. Since, it takes half an hour before blasting, a man can lit it and run back quickly.
There was a video where a man is seen lighting fire to the stack of paper rolls filled with PCE and the reaction started taking place, giving enough time to the man for moving away from it. As she fast forwarded the video, an explosion occurred, blasting the surroundings.
After it blasts, there are some aftermath effects. After the reaction, it gives out methane gas along with Joprine Eblum, another metal which appears as greyish white balls with a pungent stench which slightly smells like cigarettes or burnt ashes.
Nisha forefinger froze as she stopped scrolling when the information registered in her mind. So, does that mean Nebula mall didn't collapse due to miscalculation or shoddy construction, but it was blasted? She thought as she slapped a hand gently to her mouth.
Who, why, when? Questions swirled in her mind like ice in a liquid as she wondered who would do this, or why would they do it. She clutched her head as a painful headache made it's way. She took deep breaths to ignore all the bad thoughts. She wasn't yet sure if these greyish balls were the same metal, Joprine Eblum. She had hope and she decided to cling on to it.
But what if all her worries came true? What if someone had wantedly blasted the Nebula mall? If all of this was true, then she was going to drag the person who's behind all of this to the court and get him the deserved punishment. Most importantly, if someone was actually behind all of this, then it would mean that Keshav Nanda was blamed here and that's when she decided to fight against all the odds and get the deserved justice.
Just then, her phone vibrated, indicating she had gotten a message. She quickly opened the message and saw it was from Hopeless Group - Join At You Own Risk. This group was created an year ago as the unemployed people of the city celebrated their unemployment. Nisha being the biggest unemployed person in the city had to join in that group.
She checked the chats between them which were at times funny and at times emotional but all these people shared a strong bond which was built up on the common fact that they were all unemployed.
"A material which emitted radiation energy in the form of alpha, beta, or gamma particles is known as radioactive, dumb peasants." - The message was from Ahmed, who was the chemistry teacher of their group. "Jeez, Ahmed! The girl was talking about Radioactive song by Imagine Dragons. For the love of God, stop with your chemistry lectures." - Amrutha typed out and they both started arguing.
Nisha smiled, looking at their banter and just then, an idea struck her mind. What if Ahmed could help her in the laboratory tests which determined whether the greyish balls were Joprine Eblum or not?
-----
"Ahmed, don't! If you put it in water, doesn't it react with oxygen in it?" Nisha screeched and Ahmed shook his head, sighing tiredly. "Nisha, if this is Joprine Eblum, then it wouldn't react with oxygen as it's the by product of the reaction that too place between Judas and Malice Gravity Cannon." Ahmed said, done with the girl infront of him who didn't even have basic knowledge about chemistry.
"So?" She questioned, still not understanding what he's implying at. "So what I mean is since the reaction between the two metals is a chemical one, the product obtained is a completely new metal which doesn't share any chemical properties with the reactants, which concludes that Joprine Eblum doesn't show any reaction when it's put in water." He concluded as Nisha nodded, smiling sheepishly.
"Now if you don't interrupt me, I'll continue with my work." He said to which Nisha stuck her tongue out at him, making him chuckle. "You don't know how much effort I put to get this soil secretly, okay? So shut up!" She said, flipping her hair back in a dramatic way as he raised his hands in defeat.
"Right. So, our first test is if this metal reacts with water or not." Ahmed said, inserting a spoon in the polythene bag in which Nisha had bought the soil, secretly. He quickly took a beaker which contained pure, distilled water and added the soil with those greyish balls, stirring it with a glass rod.
After a few minutes, all the sand, humus and rock particles of the soil settled down at the bottom whereas the balls floated on top. "Nisha, as you can see there's no effect on the balls so this is Joprine Eblum." He said to which she nodded, skeptically and he sensed her doubts.
"Since you don't look convinced enough, I've another test and this one's the last thing I can do. If the results are positive, then this is Joprine Eblum." Ahmed said, picking up a bottle of acetone from one of the cabinets of his lab. Ahmed was an unemployed chemist, still searching for the right job.
"What's the final test?" She questioned. "Just watch." He said, taking a beaker and filled half of it with acetone. He then filtered the previous suspension solution of water, soil and the greyish balls and obtained the balls on the filter paper.
He then put three balls using his forceps and watched for for awhile as the balls now disappeared as they were powered. He then placed the test tube in it's stand and lit the Bunsen burner. He now started heating the mixture of acetone and the powdery grey substance.
After a minutes, he stopped heating it as he placed the remaining contents in the test tube onto a watch glass. Nisha saw a grey jelly-like substance. "Nisha, this is undoubtedly Joprine Eblum." He spoke as Nisha looked at him, shocked. "How can you say it so confidently?" She whispered.
"The thing is Joprine Eblum is the only metal known to man-kind which reacts with acetone and powders down. Moreover, on heating this mixture of acetone and Joprine Eblum, the powdered metal becomes jelly-like. So, I conclude by saying that this is the metal you've been looking for." He explained as Nisha moved back, pinning herself to the wall.
"So that means the collapse of Nebula mall was a pre-planned one?" She questioned the obvious as tears brimmed in her eyes. Maybe this is what it is to expect the unexpected.
-----
"Nisha, why had you called me so urgently?" Abhinay questioned, taking a seat beside Anirudh. "Oh, and here's the file you had asked for." He added, forwarding a black leather file to her as she smiled at him, nodding her head in acknowledgement.
"Thank you for coming and also for this," She paused, pointing at the file. "and also, sorry for the disturbance but this is important." She spoke, addressing everyone present at the table - Aditya, Anirudh, Abhinay and Ahmed. "So-" Just when Abhinay was about to speak, he heard the voice that made his heartbeats race.
"What would you like to have?" Amrapali questioned. Clad in all black with a white apron on top, she had a straight face and was looking down at her notepad, waiting for them to speak. "What will you offer?" Abhinay whispered, involuntarily, grabbing all the attention as Amrapali looked up at him, speechless.
"I mean, can I get the menu?" Abhinay cleared his throat and looked down as Amrapali pointed towards the menu lying on the table. "Abhinay, you should totally have the cold brew coffee made by her. It's damn!" Nisha spoke, excitedly as he smiled at her, nodding.
"Alright then! Let's all have that." She suggested to which Amrapali nodded her head, noting down the order. "Five cold brew coffees, right." She said noting down as she felt Abhinay's gaze on him. Without looking up, she quickly walked away, avoiding him totally as he looked at her retreating back, evoking suspicions in Nisha's mind.
"Anyways, so that thing I called you all here for is that the collapse of Nebula mall isn't because of Keshav sir's miscalculation or shoddy construction, but it's uh a pre-planned one." Nisha spoke as Anirudh looked at her like she had gone nuts.
"Okay, what's wrong with you, Nisha? Seriously?" Anirudh spoke, bewildered at her as Abhinay looked at her, confused. "But Nisha, the case is already closed." He spoke as she nodded in agreement. "I want you to reopen the case and Anirudh, I want you to be my attorney." She spoke, looking at them both who exchanged glances at each other.
"What proofs do you have, Nisha?" Aditya spoke for the first time as she gazed at him. "I'll tell you. But are you all in with me for this fight against the real culprit? Fight to prove Keshav sir's innocence, even though the damage is done long back?" She said forwarding her palm as all of them looked at her, confused.
"I'm in." Ahmed announced, after taking a deep breath as he placed his palm in hers and the other three men followed suit, after exchanging glances with each other as Nisha gave them a full blown smile.