Nightfall
Chapter 20

He was nervous about who the council would find as a partner. If it was Lana…well he wasn’t responsible for his actions to that bitch. She had earned his scorn and everything else. He stood in front of the council waiting on his partner. A commotion at the entrance made itself known and a tall male, with wavy blond hair and green eyes, was shoved inside by an exasperated Tarric.

“Donny, why do you have to make things difficult? I told you it was a summons to the council and you still dressed like a bum!” said Tarric as he dragged the tall male to where he was standing. The male was dressed as if he had only thrown the first pair of clothes he found on. It didn’t even match! With a Loony Tunes t-shirt stained in grease all down the front, and jeans that resembled Swiss cheese. His socks were blue on the left and pink on the right and his feet were clad in sturdy sandals.

“I like what I’m wearing. It’s comfortable and I bet I’ll have to do the bulk of the programming as always,” muttered the male straightening himself and slipping from Tarric’s grip to face a disgruntled Wanda and council. I looked on nervously and somewhat amused. So this was my partner? He didn’t seem like much, but looks were often deceiving.

“Can we get on with this?” said Wanda as she stared me down. I gulped down my laughter, as those beady little eyes maximized by her glasses, stared at me. She looked like some insect about to sting.

Vivianna sighed and nodded. “Agreed. We have a lot of work to do.”

The male scoffed and Vivianna narrowed her eyes. “Yes?”

“You never work, aunty,” he said and she flipped her hair and to him the bird.

Reynolds laughed. “Well, Matt, the room is the same one. I know it’ll be a bit of a squeeze, but you’ll manage. The coordinates are in a black folder on the table there. Have a good one.”

I nodded and was taken to the room while the male was wrangled there. “Hey, Tarric! Careful with the goods!” he whined as the door opened and we were both shoved and locked inside. I immediately spotted the folder and started reading.

“Let me have that. You probably have no idea what you’re doing,” said the guy as he ripped the folder from my hands. I frowned as he read the satellite specifications and the coordinates. A few minutes later he handed the folder to me.

“I assume you know how to do all that?” he asked pointing to the folder.

I nodded and headed towards the satellite. The key code panel was the first thing I fixed so it should be functional. I pressed a number in and the panel lit up. Success! Now to override the last commands it had. I started working and my partner decided to start jabbering.

“You don’t talk much do you?” he asked.

“O-Only when needed to,” I said busy calibrating equations in my head. This would be easier with pen and paper. I searched for some. I found a roll of paper not too far from me, and a pencil that was wedged by the folder. I guess that pens hadn’t made it. I took some paper and began to work my equation out. My partner walked over and glanced at my math skills.

“So where are you really from? We lost some of those algorithms and only a few remember them,” he said pointing to my use of the negative function. I shrugged and kept working. I had no time for chatterboxes today. The council had given me a mission and…

“Hey! I’m talking to you! Answer!” he said angry now. He gripped my shoulder and shook it. I grabbed my pencil and stabbed his hand.

“Oww! Ya little!”

I turned and narrowed my eyes at his hopping figure. “I-I h-hate b-being called l-little. M-my name i-is Matt! And I don’t need a partner who distracts me. Sit down and keep quiet while I do this.”

He did just that pouting and holding his bleeding hand. It wasn’t a big bloodletting only a few drops.

A few minutes later when I was deep in mathematical equations he spoke again. “I’m Donny. I’m sorry I called you little. I was impressed with your math skills. Not many remember the N function.”

I hmmed and faced Donny. “Thank you.”

It was quiet for a few minutes before I solved the equation and then the soft peeps from the numerical pad filled the silence for a few. That is until Donny opened his big yap again.

“Well! I think I’m not needed here so…”

The shout of well startled me into putting in the wrong sequence number.

“Access denied.”

I groaned. I had to start over with a completely new sequence. I glared at Donny who gulped and sat back down.

“S-sorry! I’ll just be quiet now.”

And it was so. I got through another equation and started programming the satellite again.

“So I was thinking…”

“Password incorrect. Access denied.”

I sighed and put down the satellite. I wasn’t going to get any programming done at this rate. I turned to face what I knew now was a kid younger than me. Either that or someone with major ADHD! My glare softened at his sheepish expression.

“Um…”

I sighed and sat down. “Go on what were you thinking of?” I asked.

Donny brightened instantly. “You’re using backdoor programming right?”

I nodded interested in what he’d say.

“You can bypass this part altogether in most backdoor programming if you adjust certain things within your equation to compensate for it.”

I glanced at my work and nodded handing him the equation, curious as to what he meant. Donny grabbed the pencil and did his own equations based on mine and I saw what he meant. It was genius really. He adjusted the N function to serve the denominators and whala new formula. The kid was a mathematical genius.

“I see. Can you program?” I asked.

“Can I? I live and breathe programming!” he said smiling. “Scootch over and watch this.”

I let him program. The kid was fast and agile. In less than ten minutes we were into the system. He smirked and snuffed his fingers like guns smoking.

I smiled.”How old are you Donny?”

“Thirteen this coming Monday.”

I shook my head and chuckled. “Welcome to my team.”

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