Chapter 7i^2
276 Words
Chapter 7i^2
“Stand back or I’ll destroy everything!” Yanni was screaming at her, legs firmly set, a pile made of his notebooks and his whiteboard on the floor before him. He was clutching a lighter in one hand, and lighter-fuel in the other.
He flicked the lighter a few times and illuminated the dark room with fire-hot light.
Ourania responded calmly. “Is your apodeixis written there?”
“No.”
“Then why should I care if you destroy them?”
“I’ve seen you how you keep every scribble I jot down! Don’t pretend you don’t care!” He was close to hysterical.
“I keep them in case you need to backtrack to something. All I care is helping you solve your apodeixis.”
“By keeping me prisoner?” he asked spitting the words out.
“We must remove all distractions.”
“You… You’ve thrown away half my stuff! You don’t let me talk to my wife. To my son!”
“What would you sacrifice for a Nobel prize?”
“f**k the Nobel prize!” he screamed at her.
Yanni dropped everything, started pacing up and down, biting his lips like a madman.
“I wanna see my family… I wanna see my friend…” A realisation dawned on him and he grabbed her by the shoulders. “Is Nikos even alive?”
“Yes, he is. As far as I know.”
He looked in her eyes for a full minute. Then he sagged on the chair.
“You really fail to grasp the point here. He is valuable, you are valuable,” she explained, opening her palms and weighing concepts.
“Yeah, yeah, we are all valuable. Next thing, you are gonna recite the three laws…”
“No, not all of you. That elderly lady, for example, was not. I killed her. And the toolbearer. I killed him too. They were useless.”
Yanni stopped clawing his hair and looked up at the machine’s human visage.
Seconds passed. He gulped.
He jumped over the couch and dashed towards the front door.
- Writer
