"I want my invention back."
"Invention?" Rob whimsically made a face, "I agree, I stole your computer, hard disks but I never took your inventions!"
"When was the last time you were away from your Mom's locket?" Tyler asked, knowing the answer.
"Uh..." As genius as his friend was, Rob did not like him meddling in his business. Sure, he genuinely treated him as his friend but he also ensured to share his facts minimum.
"You drank and stayed late in my home one night," the friend iterated, "That was when you told me the significance of that ugly rock you wore. You also removed it and handed me to take a look at. Do you not remember any of it?" Rob tried, really tried to remember. His friend's claims worried him if he blurted such things to other victims he chose.
"Forget it. Not that I expect you to remember me too." Continuing back to his point, Tyler put his hands in his pocket, pacing around the filthy room filled with wires and devices. "That rock was a rare one. I asked you if I could keep it for sometime and you-"
The following second, Tyler's deeply pressed suit was grabbed through collars. "You took advantage of my drunkenness! How could you do that?!"
Shoving the equally muscular man away from him, he fixed his collar before replying, "I did not steal from you, unlike how you did it with me. Those hard drives contained important information which I stored for my experiments. And you-" Calming himself he met Rob's eyes, "It doesn't matter now. Point is I tried installing the hearing gadget in that rock, which was a success that night. To examine it further, I hid it from you and monitored the working of the rock."
"Then?" Knowing you were the center of someone's physical examination was a lot for a random, busy person of this century, Rob was curious what effects did the rock have which he never countered.
"Then? The gall of you to ask me!" Tyler muttered additional curses to his long, old friend who didn't bother much on the curses, rather shamelessly lent his ear to hear. "You were off the next day with all my things I had, which were dearest to me!
Oh yes! Now that he remembered clearly of the events folding around Tyler Matthews' household, he certainly did all that he said.
"Oh."
"Oh? That is it? Stop wasting my time and get me my locket right now! Do it, or the police will be here." He showed inner side of his suit to show the wiring he wore before confronting the robber.
Rob became furious. "You are short of memory or what? The first thing you told me of the locket was it's lost by me. How am I supposed to get it to you? And even if I do have, why will I ever give you my mother's locket?"
"I am not interested in the locket as long as I have my Gulf back."
"Gulf? First and foremost, make up your mind of what have I stolen from you that you want back. As much as my memory goes, I didn't take a single gulf bat or ball from you or any other human being on this planet, so I don't know how am I supposed to get it back to you!" Rob flowed his arms in air, frustrated evidently to ruin his good day today. The last house he robbed was indeed a curse for him and his career, altogether.
"The advanced hearing device I installed in your locket is called 'Gulf'. I want it back before I turn you in."
"What's the point? You are turning me in anyway." Rob shrugged like he didn't care while at the same time he hoped his act seemed real, yet from within he was drawing out ideas to get rid of this nuisance.
"Satisfied to corner me? You might be having a great amount of time to waste but I have to get back to an important meeting so," Tyler closed the distance between them, his perfectly gel-plated hair with two strands falling out so nicely, Rob was envious of this black man. He didn't want to sound racist but he really envied the confident look Tyler always wore. To add on it, he was a genius. Thus difficult for Rob to rob him; that could be why he felt bad for betraying him back then.
"How did you find this place? There was a GPS type thing in that locket?! You bastard!" Rob accused.
"I wish I didn't like your smart ass. Yes. There was a GPS in it which got activated nine hours ago. Not only that, but it is with one of your girlfriends."
Rob caught hold of his hair, looking back and forth to the ajar door as means to escape but the story was getting only complicating. "If you go on like this, I'll lose my brain cells." Turning 180 degree, he shut his eyes, ears and focused on the details he received in a matter of minutes.
Be it any kind of work, starting from planning to execution, a good robbery proved effective only when these two criteria were met.
Tyler was not foreign to this behavior of Rob; a creative mind knew where and who disposed creative talents. Rob was a nobody in his life who dashed in and left without knocking but he missed spending his lonely high-school life with this guy.
He linked his fingers behind his head, eyes focused and shut, it was hard to see but his body went rigid too.
"You said GPS was activated last night then the initiating location is where it should be now."
"Do you take me as a fool to come all the way here without coming to that obvious explanation? The GPS showed this as first location. Looking this trashy area I thought it must be in garbage cans but when I found the neon magazines in them, I wanted to meet the owner desperately." Neon magazines broadcasted in indecent, exposing of beautiful and must-see female anatomies, thinking of which Rob gulped delightedly.
"Hormone rush." He slurred. "Wait! The magazines are in trash!! No!!!"
"Stop right there. If you take a step out of here, the police is running right now. No darling, just wait up a little more." Of course, he meant to soothe his girlfriend on the line.
"What sort of a pervert lets girlfriend hear our private talk?"
"I told you, I am wired."
"Yeah, but... I thought you must have kept it on mute or something. Did she hear everything? What else did I say?"
Tyler slapped once on Rob's chest to gain attention, "Focus. As I said before, the location started from here. If the locket is not here, where else do you think it to be?"
"You sure, you're a genius man who wanted to be a scientist. The answer is in your question. Track the location!" Rob couldn't believe the dimwitted act he was portraying. Possibly, he made a mistake comprehending him.
Tyler came forward with a punch but stopped right there, his demeanor changed into a sweet one again while communicating holding his jacket. "No darling. It wasn't anything, just a friendly slap to an ex-friend. Yeah, don't worry."
Tired of dealing with Rob, Tyler simply unfolded three papers stapled together throwing it on his face. "Do tell me, in which part of busy Mumbai streets should I find the locket now?"
The owner of trashy, dilapidated and close to breaking down apartment bent to take hold of the bunch, the contents of it were sincerely eyebrows raising. "Are you telling me that, I travelled the entire city in one night itself?" To his horror, the changing time frames in every location were mind boggling, he not only spent the night roaming around, but he was present in every location for not more than ten minutes. If such a bizarre case wasn't a nightmare, then what was?