But presently, in Ron's secret bunker, the final modifications made to the Quasiparticle Transporter had been completed, and they were finally ready to commence what they hoped to be the last test run they were ever going to conduct on the device.
On this very day, every crew member, worker, engineer, and the entire bunch of people who saw to the fruition of Ron's deeply-laid plans, were as usual, here to witness the first Teleportation device in action.
And as one would have expected, they all wore a face filled with excitement and glee, as they slowly trickled their way into the testing room, and later marvelling at the actual device itself.
It was absolutely breath-taking.
Most of these group of people who were observant enough, were able to catch a glimpse of Ron's uncharacteristic cheery expression as he inwardly adored the final, material creation of his research with a wide grin.
"Wow! It's so big...!!" Someone openly expressed their stupefaction. "Bigger than any thing I've ever seen in my life."
"I know, right?! It's way bigger than the last time I saw it." Another responded in kind.
"Hopefully this would be the last test run we're going to have."
"Yeah. Hopefully."
Due to the amount of people inhabiting Ron's bunker, it took quite a while before everyone could make their way into the testing room, which by the way was a very spacious hall whose maximum holding capacity could reach up to three-hundred people.
Although in reality, the sum of Ron's entire crew members didn't go any higher than 150.
A greater fraction of the group of people were those who had stuck with him throughout his hardships and sufferings, while a few others were the group he had picked up along the way — in the journey to establish his off–radar Den.
***
As more and more people made themselves present in the testing room, the room, previously quiet and tranquil, was now booming with indistinctive exclamations, gasps, and chattering.
But it wasn't at all an unjustified sense of gaiety that steered their minds, but rather it was just the mere thought of having been involved in the actualisation of what Ron seldom called "The next step in technological evolution".
If the test-run scheduled to be conducted today were to be successful, they were almost certain that their names would surely go down in history as the few people who had helped in inventing the Quasiparticle Transporter.
The feeling was all to saturating to resist.
'I hope it works this time,' Ron thought with a slight grimace. 'So I can finally rub it in the faces of the crooks of the Static Medicals and Technology....
...Bastards!'
But as soon as he got that heavy weight off his chest, a beautifying smile tugged on his lips once again.
However, amidst the seemingly torrential wave of blitheness that shrouded the space of the testing-room, there laid within, a small, dark wisp of bleakness. A wisp whose emitter stood at a secluded corner in the room, his facial expressions being something far from cheerful or happy.
Jack could only watch with a lustreless expression as more and more people walked into the room he was in. Some of which got unnecessarily emotional at the sight of the new Quasiparticle Transporter, while some simply displayed an insouciance expression at the sight of the device.
Jack was able to identify the latter group as the ones who had built the device themselves. They had probably seen it a gazillion times to be able to resist the excitement, as opposed to everyone else in the room.
Or it may be because they were in dire need of a long, reinvigorating sleep, evidenced by the heavy, dark bags which were conspicuously visible under their swollen eyes.
This was only so because of the long hours they had to stay awake in order to see to the completion of the Quasiparticle Transporter.
But sadly and unfortunately, Jack couldn't assimilate to either of both feelings.
In his own world of emotions, what he was currently feeling was a strange mix of guilt and shame. A feeling that required every bit of will left in him to restrain his body from collapsing on itself.
He felt shame because: in order to save his own life, he had to threaten Judge Harlan into giving the lethal injection sentence to John Carter, on the day of his final arraignment.
Then guilt because he thought that because of him, a potentially innocent man would lose his life in the most atrocious way ever.
'Well, I hear the victims of the lethal injection penalty often die peacefully during the execution.'
Jack showered himself with placatory remarks, which were far from making him feel less worse than he was already feeling.
'What the deuce am I saying?! Of course those victim who could testify to their alleged comfortability are mostly dead by now.' He admonished.
'God I'm going to hell for this, aren't I?'
Jack's self-loathing would have gone for an extended period of time, but sadly it came to an end the very moment a faint whisper was directed into his ears.
"Hello, Jack." The person said.
Jack, a bit startled, turned to the owner of the familiar whispering voice.
"Oh hi, Steve!" Jack whispered back, willfully trying to summon every ounce of light into his tone, but tragically ended up making his cheeriness a bit too exaggerated and obvious for Steve to notice.
With a raise brow, Steve said, his tone barely above a whisper:
"Listen, Jack. I recently came into a certain amount of money—
"Oh, yeah...?" Jack cuts him off with a question.
—Yeah," Steve continued. "So I was wondering if you interested in seeing a movie after we're done here."
"Not really in the mood for movies, Steve. Maybe next time." Jack replied, his voice a bit curt than normal.
"What? You? Not in the mood for movies? Well that's a first." Steve said, still playing the ignorant card on his friend's table of uneasiness.
Only after a while when no response came from Jack did Steve finally decided to address to his friend's anomalistic behaviour.
"Okay, something is definitely wrong. What's been bugging you? You seem a bit down than usual."
Jack turned to him with a confused scowl.
"What?" He said. "You mean you don't know? How can you be this ignorant and naive?"
John calmed and lowered his voice a bit to establish an evenness between the chattering from the group in front of him and his own voice, in order to ensure that their attention was always as faraway from him as possible.
He then continued: "I just had to threaten a judge to take the life of an innocent man. You on the other hand killed this innocent man's lawyer, his friends, and his other colleagues at work. Now, not only does he have to die because of me, he would have to do that alone, with nobody to say good bye to, and no shoulder to cry on.
Oh, and also not forgetting that we also got this innocent man's father killed too.
Why don't you seem perturbed at all?"
Steve, who had his eyes widened he entire time, finally swallowed the saliva he never thought he had been hoarding in his oesophagus.
"Okay..." He started. "First of all, you should already be aware by now that it was either your life or John's. I think Mr, Ron made that pretty clear the last time you two spoke.
Second of all, don't you dare say I don't seem perturbed at all for all of this, because I am. It all just a facade, Jack. It makes sleeping at night a bit pleasant... and less disturbing.
And lastly, I didn't kill his lawyer, or his friends and colleagues at work."
"What?! That's a lie." Jack uttered, very shock by the sudden revelation. "I honestly don't expect you to take it well, but at least you ought to give them a little respect."
"Seriously, Jack, I'm being frank. I didn't kill any of those people." Steve echoed again, this time, lacing it with much assurance.
With a slight confused frown, Jack said: "But the news going around states that John's lawyer was missing during his last arraignment, and up until this very moment, there had been no sign of him.
So what could you have possibly done to them?"
"Well... since you asked: I had them all captured and locked away in a remote area, invisible to anyone but me and my subordinates." Steve answered.
"Oh and don't worry, I had my subordinates looking after them while I'm away: Food, clothing, a once-in-a-while bath, and television are also provided for them.
So to answer your question: No, I'm not a psycho."
"I never said you were."
"Yeah, that may be, but you may have thought it."
"Hmph. You do know that if Ron finds out about what you did--- or rather, what you didn't do, he'd kill you without batting an eye, right?"
"Eh... Let's not dwell on that prospect, shall we? Best focus on the "now" and leave the "then" for the future, yeah?"
And in that very moment, the entire room erupted in a cacophony of clapping, whistling, cheering, and a few other indescribable sounds that startled both Jack and Steve.
It turned out that they had been a bit too immersed in their conversation that they missed the moment in time when everyone had finally made it into the testing room, and also the moment when Ron gave an insanely long and boring speech about his journey throughout his years of strife, in order to get to where he was at that very moment.
And right now, having checked-out every other thing out of their itinerary, they were down to the testing of the Quasiparticle Transporter.
"Commencing Test-Run 0348!" An operator said.