"Ah, Mr. Althaus. How have you been, sir?"

An Indian scientist in his early 40s peered at Mockingbird through his glasses as Mockingbird kindly smiled back.

"I've been alright. What about you, Mr. Iyar?"

"Splendid, actually. Thanks to your company's sponsorship of our humble research institute, we have been able to get a lot of work done recently."

"It was no trouble.", Mockingbird remarked.

"Oh no, Mr. Althaus. Have a seat please. We'll wait for my brother to come and then we can proceed with our business."

"Straight to the point as always with you, Vanketesh."

"Of course, Mr. Althaus. You have done so much for me and my family, how could I not do everything I can to help you?", Vanketesh stated.

"I remember when you mentioned that your brother could be of some help on this case..."

"Exactly, sir! I would never disappoint you...", he replied only to add, "You are the Master of us all."

Mockingbird shushed him and pointed around the crowded café.

"Sorry, Mr. Althaus. That will not happen again.", he responded as Mockingbird looked towards the window, recalling the very moment that he had arranged for his employment.

It had been a long day at work for the Evil Hand.

Coming out of a meeting with the AoE Board of Directors, Mockingbird, the Chairman of the Board, stepped outside the conference room to drink a sip of coffee in peace.

Socializing with others had never been his strong suit so he was glad that he was only required to come to these monthly conferences with the heads of their respective divisions, otherwise he would have gone mad long ago.

Walking along the hallway, he noticed the two top STEM personnel below the Director of STEM conversing by themselves in hushed tones.

The representative of the Western Hemisphere/Atlantic Region, Monsieur LeBlanc, a man with both Oneida and French ancestry looked up and stopped whispering, poked the other man, signaling that the Evil Hand was in their presence.

Sometimes, he wished people would carry on and forgot that he was there like they used to back in his college days.

It was harder now to be fly on the wall considering those with leadership positions knew what Mockingbird looked like and seemed to always live in fear of him.

Guess his disappearing act only made people more intimidated instead of calming their fears.

He was truly a modern Phantom of the Opera, all he needed was a mask to hide behind.

"Gentleman, good morning. Sorry to bother you, pardon me if you could and let me pass through."

The two just stared, unable to budge from their spot.

Knowing that they were either incredulous to the fact he had addressed him, he decided to take advantage of this opportunity and ask them for help.

"I was wondering whether you two would like my support.", he stated, internally grinning.

This plan would work as long as he played to their desires.

"Yes. How can we help you?", the bewildered representative of the Eastern Hemisphere/Pacific Region, Mr. Marchand, rudely inquired.

"Pierre! How could you say that to the man who runs AoE?", Monsieur LeBlanc hissed.

"It's alright.", Mockingbird said as he waved off the slight committed against him.

"He has his rights to feel doubt about me. I'm not exactly a well-reputed man and many rumors have left...a distasteful image of my character. However, there is something I need assistance with.", Mockingbird stated.

"What is it, Mockingbird?", Monsieur LeBlanc asked.

"I have heard that there is discontent among you from the STEM division with your leader."

"You're our leader, Mockingbird. We could never...", Monsieur LeBlanc swore only for Mockingbird to interrupt.

"No, I meant your director, Dr. Wolfheim."

The atmosphere in the hallway instantly turned deadly as the tension rose at the mere mention of that name.

"I see.", Mockingbird commented, adding, "You have no reason to fear. I want the same as you two. He has been in power long enough-from the time of The Master. I believe you two can choose the most competent one among you to take his place at the table."

"Why don't you kick him off the Board yourself? You are the Chairman, correct?", Mr. Manchard asked.

Mockingbird bristled at the hidden accusation. Calming himself down, he answered, "I am, however, as long as he fulfills his duty to come to meetings, his other activities, like keeping locked up in his lab all day, are beyond my scope and do not constitute reason to fire him. If you two team up with the other scientists, mathematicians, engineers and people in medicine to elect a new director, I would place the deciding vote from the Board for Dr. Wolfheim to leave."

"What do you want in return then?", Mr. Manchard asked.

"I usually would ask for nothing, but as a lot of members of AoE have used the contracting services from our STEM personnel besides you doing your own projects. Therefore, I request a scientist to work on a research project of mine. They would have to be loyal, dedicated, trustworthy and have a graduate level understanding of physics."

The scientist and the engineer from opposite sides of the world, who shared in common the fact that they both spoke French, whispered to one another about this opportunity to get rid of their most despised boss.

"Deal.", Monsieur Morin said, shaking Mockingbird's hand. Then, he pointed at Mr. Manchard who said, "Would you care if it was an Indian scientist?"

Mockingbird responded, "As long as they're capable, their ethnicity does not matter in the slightest. I am not my uncle, The Master, and am not discriminatory like your current leader, Dr. Wolfheim is. If that was a test, I would have been subtler about it, Mr. Manchard."

"I have a man who works in a research institute who just joined AoE. He could work.", Mr. Manchard replied.

"Good.", Mockingbird said right before turning to leave.

"What exactly do you want to do with him?", Monsieur Morin asked with a tremble in his voice.

"If you two pull through with this, I'll send a copy of the research findings to the both of you."

It wasn't much later that he met Mr. Iyar and to this day, he thought of it as one of the best decisions of his life.

Over the course of a few years, they chatted like life-long friends and greeted each other on first-name basis when no one was around. However, Vanketesh kept insisting that he call Tomas by his last name in public to protect his identity.

He even visited Vanketesh's family whenever he was in India and they called him Uncle every time they saw him. They had no idea he was technically Mr. Iyar's boss, but had been told by Vanketesh that he was a colleague from his days studying abroad in America.

Today, he had come to India because Mr. Iyar had promised him an update on the project and arranged a meeting with their history consultant, Mr. Iyar's half-brother, a history professor at the nearby Bangalore University.

"I am here! Sorry for the wait. Traffic was just horrible.", Dr. Iyar commented as he sat down.

"I can imagine.", Mockingbird mocked.

"Brother, what did you have for Mr. Althaus?", Mr. Iyar inquired.

"Well", he dropped a book in the middle of the table, heaving a sigh of exhaustion, "I finally found it."

"Found what?", Mockingbird asked.

"A link to help with your problem. You said that you were having problems with the theory on how to get the machine started. Then, I started thinking that maybe history had the answer."

He flipped to a page regarding cross-cultural legends and touched the Kronos legend with his finger.

"What? But that's not science, brother! That's myth! You can't possibly think that something like that would work...", Vanketesh replied.

"In theory, it would. I mean, that's what we are dealing with, theory, right?"

"Right. Thank you, Mr. Iyar. You will be compensated for your efforts.", Mockingbird responded back.

Vanketesh pulled Mockingbird aside, claiming he needed fresh air and his brother obliged, clearly believing the excuse.

"Mr. Althaus, are you nuts? Time machines can't just be ignited with something from myth..."

"Legend, not myth. And I read of the Kronos legend before in another book long ago. It's not that far-fetched as we both know the line between science-fiction and regular science has been crossed many times in the past."

"Yes, but...alright, Mr. Althaus. I trust you, but how are we going to find Kronos? I should really do calculations on whether what he said will work with the prototype we have now."

"Leave it to me. I have a tracker who will hunt the current Kronos down. In the meantime, complete those calculations and meet me next week in Thailand. Got it?"

"Yes, Mr. Althaus."

Mockingbird sighed and bid the two goodbye as he prepared to call for a taxi.

All this to bring his dead wife back.