Raj looked away. "How, how could I forget you." he stammered and seemed uneasy, the terror in his eyes was there for all to see. Penny scared the hell out of him. He knew the game was up, he stroke the missing finger on his left hand. Rajesh Koothrappali was once a prosperous astrophysicist. He had been married and had a successful career, but five years ago, tragedy struck and the love of his life died in a car crash. He blamed himself and took it badly. He began drinking heavily to ease the pain. A few months later he calculated the trajectory of a comet and predicted it would not hit the earth. His calculations were wrong. It was a direct hit, killing thousands. That was the end of his career and earned him a jail term for three years. After his release, he met a person called Dr. Sheldon Cooper.
"You know him. Leonard asked?"
"I had the privilege of arresting him four months ago and interrogating him. He escaped with help, we believe from Sheldon and two unknown accomplices." Penny said.
"Did he talk?" Bernadette asked.
"Oh Yeah, by the time I finished with him, he couldn't stop talking. Penny grinned.
Penny pulled a chair and sat down facing Raj. "So are you going to tell us what we need to know, or do we do it the hard way." She said seriously
"I, I have nothing to say" he lied and looked away again. Raj could feel the sweat running down his back. He clenched his jaw and tried to shut everything around him out but failing.
"You sure about that. I'll give you one more chance to come clean." Penny threatened.
"I don't know where he is; I haven't seen him for months, it's the truth." Raj tried to sound convincing.
"Who haven't you seen?" Leonard asked.
Raj looked confused. "I thought you were after Dr. Cooper."
"You mean the evil genius," Bernadette added.
"We know you have been in contact with him. We have been monitoring your activities for weeks now." Leonard added.
"I swear I haven't seen him." Raj protested.
"Then who have you been communicating with, using codes." Bernadette yelled.
Raj was shocked they knew about the codes. "Ermmm I don't know what you are talking about."
"Come on Raj; we know you are lying. Where is Dr. Cooper hiding and how do we decrypt the codes?" Bernadette said and showed him some dots, symbols, letters, and numbers on a screen device. Leonard had tried to decode them but was not having any luck so far. The codes use sophisticated mathematical algorithms and long numerical sequences that are difficult to decrypt. It was an end-to-end encryption code ensuring communications stayed private.
Raj looked at the codes. "I don't know what they are."
"We have been monitoring your communications, and we know you have been in contact with Sheldon. What is Sheldon planning?" Leonard was beginning to get frustrated.
Raj went silent and uneasily took a sip from the plastic cup of water on the table.
"Look we are not getting anywhere," Penny barked. "I've had enough of this. Time to go Nebraska on his ass." She pulled out what looked like a penknife.
"Please don't hurt me. Raj cried out. I don't know anything I swear." Leonard sensed his fear and tried one more time to be diplomatic.
"Look you have one more chance to come clean, or I will let her loose on you."
"Okay, okay. I will tell you what I know. "Raj was now scared of what Penny would do to him if he didn't talk. The last time she captured him. She cut one of his fingers off. The thought of losing another finger made him shiver.
"I haven't seen DR Cooper in months. Yes, we have been in contact using codes. I swear I don't know where he is, Sheldon wouldn't tell me, or even if he is in this time zone. All I know is, he is working on the failed time machine project which he collaborated on with you, and he needs raw material to finish building it."
"That's my project, and he stole my papers!" Leonard sighed.
"Why would he need you to build a time machine? You are neither a Theological Physicist nor an Engineer. No offense Leonard." Penny said.
"None taken."Leonard gritted his teeth. "Theoretical Physicist." Leonard corrected her.
"He needs my knowledge as an astrophysicist, and he promised to take me back in time to meet my late wife and save her. He looked down at his missing finger. It was the finger he used to wear his wedding ring.
"How far is he from completing the time machine?" Leonard enquired.
"I'm not sure maybe 2 to 3 months depending on if he can get hold of more plutonium. He is not working alone, and don't ask me who they are cause I don't know, but they are not very nice people."
"Penny can I talk to you outside," Leonard said. She nodded and followed him, not before she turned to Raj and stared maliciously and said: "I will be right back, don't get too comfortable."
"We need to stop him, we cannot let him finish building the time machine. He could jump from universe to universe and use it to alter time. There could be consequences for altering time." Leonard said worriedly.
"Only if Sheldon was successful in completing the time machine. And the idea of time travel is impossible. Right. Your failed project proved it." Penny tried to assure him."
"It's not impossible. One of the reasons and from further investigation, after we accidentally opened up the portal to time jump into parallel universes, I concluded that time machines were not a safe way to travel through time, it could self-destruct, with the current levels of human technology. But Sheldon is a genius, and if anyone can, it will be him who could make it work. Penny what are we are going to do, we cannot let him get his hand on any plutonium in this universe, god knows what he will do if he finishes this project," Leonard said sighted.
"He could change the future or even destroy the time zone as we know it or hold us to ransom," Penny added.
"That will be too much power for one man to handle. We need to do something." Leonard concluded.
"I know but how do we find him. Do you think Raj is telling the truth about not knowing Sheldon whereabouts?" Penny asked.
"I think Raj is; he wouldn't lie. You scare the hell out of him. I wonder what happened to his finger." Leonard grinned.
Howard entered the room through a different door. "Hey, Bernadette."
"Hi, Howard. I was getting to know our new friend. Raj." she grinned.
Howard Wolowitz was an engineer who had built many successful space probes. He had been working for NASA when Leonard asked him to join the task force to help track down Sheldon. He had previously worked with Leonard and Sheldon on their time machine project. It was his job to track down Sheldon's timestamp, but so far he has been unsuccessful.
"Where are Leonard and Penny?" Howard asked. He walked with Bernadette to the far end of the room.
"They popped out for a minute; they wouldn't be long," Bernadette said. She was wearing a red floral dress and cropped cardigan half unbuttoned. She noticed Howard staring, but just smiled to herself.
Howard wasn't really there to see Leonard or Penny, he liked Bernadette a lot, and it was just an excuse to talk to her, he felt timid in front of her. He wanted to ask her out but was scared of rejection. "So how's it going?" Howard asked nervously?
"As good as it could get. I was all ready to work on Raj and give him a taste of my medicine when Penny took over, and he confessed." Bernadette said disappointedly.
Bernadette was the Chief interrogator for the task force, her reputation at getting answers from suspects precedes her. She was a microbiologist who had worked with all types of medicines and knew how to make a cocktail of the doses that will make the hardest of criminals talk. She was sacked from her job at a pharmaceutical company for illegally testing drugs on subjects without authorization. She nearly went to prison but for Leonard who recruited her into the task force as his chief interrogator. To this date, she had crack every single prisoner with her choice of drugs and made them confess.
"So how has your day been?" She asked Howard. She deliberately unbuttons the last two buttons of her cropped cardigan to let her cardigan fall open revealing her cleavage.
Predictably, Howard's eyes moved down to her boobs. She grinned, and he looked away, a rueful smile twitching at his lips. Without any thoughts Howard replied. "Well apart from building a one arm, I mean a robot, it has been productive. Howard felt embarrassed as soon as the words came out of his mouth and hoped Bernadette did not pick up on what he just said or his staring.
"Oh Okay, that nice, maybe you can show me your one-armed robot someday." she grinned. Howard just wanted the ground to open and swallow him; he didn't know what to say or do.
Bernadette saw how uncomfortable he looked, but she loved teasing him as she buttoned up her cardigan. Lucky for Howard, Leonard and Penny returned, and they went back to interrogating Raj.