An explosive truth
Ryan Craft awoke to the sweet song of the jasnik bird; he slowly sat up in bed. He breathed softly as he listened to the sound of activity in the 2 bedroom apartment she must not be awake yet he thought. He slid out of bed and got dressed in a tunic and jeans he slipped on his boots and dawdled down stairs he set a pan on the stove and turned on, hot steam shot out of jets he looked out of the window as the pan heated the sun was bright and sparkled as it passed through the steam the people rushed and flocked to work continuing their daily lives he hovered his hand over the pan to check if it was hot. It was so he placed bacon on it the bacon spat and sizzled the smell wafted to the upstairs room, before he knew it his roommate stumbled down stairs in her night gown her hair a bird’s nest “Ahh, it’s alive!” he said in mock terror. 
“Shut up Craft, I smelt bacon so I came down” she mumbled
“Well you can have the most part because I have to go to work, by the way find a damn job” he chastised
“But it’s haaarrrddd” she complained 
“Well there’s the paper right there,” he indicated to the newspaper “there’s a thing called the classifieds”
And with that he walked out the door. The streets were packed with people and the road clustered with others on their  daily commute  he rolled his bike out of the shared garage and headed off to the machine shop it took about 15 minutes ‘the steam punk’ was a technic shop that repairs all machines that use steam to power them. Ryan was what they called a steam technician.  “Hey, I’m back” he called as he entered the store.

“Ryan, get in here” his boss commanded passively.
Ryan walked in to his boss’s office in there was his boss and a stunningly beautiful girl.
“What’s going on Dave” he said nervously as he glanced cautiously at the girl. She was about his age, had ice blue eyes and light brown hair.
“Ryan, this is Miss Devont” Dave said
“Deserae, Deserae Devont,” she said optimistically as she held out her hand to shake his, as he grasped her hand she tugged his arm, forcing his forward into her embrace. They hugged a few seconds then she whispered “it’ll be a pleasure working together”
“Wait WHAT?!” Ryan exclaimed as he pushed her away.
“Well, as of tomorrow you are assigned to a government project” deserae explained
“What is this so called project?” questioned Ryan
“It’s a secret even I don’t know what it is all I do is collect the technicians,” she mumbled she looked distant as if to wonder what the project was.
“Oh by the way you begin tomorrow I’ll come round with a car in the morning at about 7 AM”
“Okay, welp see you tomorrow” as he ushered her out the door.
“You can go home now you won’t be working here for… who knows how long so what’s another day” ordered Dave calmly
“Thanks Dave” thanked Ryan. As he exited the ‘the steam punk’ he thought about the project and as he mounted and rode his bike he thought about what would lie ahead of him he was deep in thought until he reached the house when he noticed another vehicle it was a motor bike with two hatches one for water one for coal there was a small glazite -a mineral that is clearer and more resistant than glass but stronger than diamond- window to see if the fire was burning. As a technician he could appreciate the engineering in the bike to him it looked as if the bike was all custom he found it strangely familiar. He walked past the motor bike and continued inside “I’m home” he announced as he entered the house. He walked to the kitchen to find his roommate making two cups of tea “guess who’s here” she said
“Your boyfriend”
“Ha ha ha” she replied sarcastically “it’s actually your sister”
“Oh I thought I recognised her bike” with that he proceeded to the lounge room. There she was seated on the lounge staring out the window “hey Cera” quietly stated Ryan but this broke in silence was so abrupt it caused Cera to jump and turn around, “oh hey Ryan, you startled me”
“Sorry, I saw your bike outside. I almost didn’t recognize it”
“Yeah, I got a new paint job, but the engine’s still the same one you built nine years ago.”
“Not bad for a ten year old” he muttered as he looked down wondering if he should tell her about the government job.
“What’s wrong?” she questioned
“How did you know?”
“Please we’ve been siblings for 19 years I can read you like a book”
“Well, I got this government job bu-”
“A government job? That’s great!” Cera exclaimed
“As I was saying before you interrupted me the thing is that I don’t actually know what this job is and also the girl they sent to get me is very strange”
“Is she pretty?”
“No…maybe…a little bit…yes”
“How mu- wait does hazel know about it”
“No, but ple-”
“HAZEL, COULD YOU COME IN HERE PLEASE!” bellowed Cera
“OKAY!” screamed hazel in return and within five seconds she entered the lounge room with 2 cups of tea in one hand, a milkshake in the other and a plate of biscuits skilfully balanced on her right forearm she carefully paced all the items on the coffee table then picked up a cup of tea and sat on the lounge.
“Yesh” she mumbled over a mouth full of biscuit
“Ryan got a government job but he’s scared because he doesn’t know what the job is and the girl is kinda weird, “Cera explained to hazel then turned to Ryan and said “am I right?”
“Yeah” replied
“Is the girl hot?” Questioned hazel
“I don’t have to answer that”
“Does it pay much?”
“I don’t know” replied Ryan but as if on cue horn blasted through the conversation
“Mails here” sang hazel. Ryan rushed out to the mail box and grabbed all the letters and hurried inside. There was 4 letters 2 of them were bills 1 of them was a catalogue for some toy store but the last one was a small envelope he opened it as the two girls watched in awe inside there was 2 folded pieces of paper one was shorter than the other but seemed to be the same width it was folded in half and the other was folded in half lengthways and then in thirds horizontally, he unfolded the largest piece of paper and a business card fell out. He pushed it to the side with the smaller piece of paper and began to read
“Dearest Ryan Craft,
I have just been informed that I will be you ‘caretaker’ throughout the project. This means that I will answer any questions you may have. I will also be your guide so you do not get lost. Will be on call, call at any time. Any Time.
Sincerely Deserae Devont.
P.S the other piece of paper enclosed is your advance welcome to the team.”
After reading this they all looked at the piece and hazel made a grab for the paper but was too slow because when she was just a few centimetres away Ryan snatched it from the table he opened the piece of paper to find it was a cheque. For $7,000 “holy crap” breathed the boy
“What?” asked hazel as she snatched the cheque from Ryan grasp to take a look for her self
“Oh my god” exclaimed a stunned hazel
“What is it” queried Cera as she then grabbed the cheque from hazel’s hand and smiled “congratulations little bro, on your first big job”

Ryan woke up early around 6 AM - the earliest he had ever woken up. He waddled to the bathroom still half asleep. He had a shower and got dressed, he continued down stairs to make breakfast Ryan rummaged through the cupboards until he found what he was looking for, it was a metal container with hinges at one end and opened like a jewellery box on each side of the box was a long handle about a foot in length on the inside attached to each half of the box was a thick wire grate in which a piece of bread was inserted. He also pulled out a glass from a draw from which they are kept and in this glass he poured some orange juice. Just as he finished his breakfast he went into the lounge room to grab his wallet and his keys from the coffee table, only to find hazel wide eyed with a gaming controller in her hand and when she saw him she quickly said “I wasn’t up all night playing your ‘steam station’”
“You were weren’t you,” Ryan replied with a grin “well, I’m going to work and you need to get some sleep.”
“Okay” she answered compliantly and headed off in the direction of her room. Ryan jumped the couch to grab his things and smiled when he saw the TV it read ‘hazel_nut_chocolate has won the match’ but he quickly realised that he had to go and rushed out the door. A car was waiting outside for him he couldn’t see inside but he was sure deserae was inside he opened the door to see that he was right “hello Mr Craft”
“Just Ryan is fine”
“Whatever makes you comfortable, by the way I’m going to have to make you wear this blind fold” she said whilst offering the blind fold in her outstretched hand
“Fine” Ryan mumbled as he put on the blind fold after a few minutes he started to lift his blind fold  to sneak a peek and see where they were but deserae stopped him by grabing his wrist and squeezing so hard he had been forced to let go “not a chance honey, you’re not allowed to see where we are or where we’re going”
“Whatever, could tell me how long this drive is going to take”
“About two hours”
“TWO HOURS!”
“Well, yeah it has to be far away because the project is top secret”
“Okay” the teen said meekly. After half an hour of silence Ryan decided to try to make conversation “is this car bugged?”
“No” she replied shocked by this question
“Can the driver hear us?”
“No, I insist that all cars I travel in are sound proof”
“Also good, so we can talk freely?”
“I would surely hope so”
“Well seeing as this trip will be a long one let’s get to know each other better”
“Okay, we can take turns in asking questions I’ll go first. Where are you from?”
“Jarnland” the boy replied immediately
“Jesus,” she breathed “that’s on the other side of the country”
“Sure is,” he said with a smile “now my turn, umm tell me about your family”
Deserae went pale but Ryan could not see this, she went on talking any way “I had a good family I guess my dad was a Politian and my mother was an actress, I was an only child and the only friend I had was and outcast because of her parents status just like me but one day I came home to find a dashing man sitting at the coffee table and I later found out it was an arranged marriage so I ran away