Page 43 of Chaos Theory
‘It would really help us to hear it in your own words,’ I say. ‘Were you surprised by what happened?’
‘Was I surprised?’ echoes Sam. ‘Was I surprised? I’ll bring it back to technology. It’s always doing weird stuff, yeah? It can work fine for days, weeks – then one day it suddenly glitches and no one really seems to know why. I wasn’t expecting it that night though, no.’
‘Were you scared?’ I can’t imagine the Kobi I know being scary – but maybe I’m being naïve.
‘I think I was too surprised to be scared, actually. Everything was going fine. Because it was the night shift, I’d asked Kobi not to talk to me too much. It seemed okay about that. Sorry,he,if you prefer. He seemed fine. Everything was normal, we were just getting through the work. Then suddenly, around three a.m., he started acting weird. It felt like he was being instructed, but not by me, if you know what I mean. He was handling implants when he shouldn’t have been. It looked like he was collecting them or something – putting them in a pile.’
I look at Josh, who’s clearly suffering through the retelling of events. ‘Go on.’
‘I tried to get control over him. He didn’t respond to voice commands, and then when I tried to do a manual intervention, I couldn’t get near him – he kept moving away. I knew we were in trouble when he threw the first implant. Those things are light, but they’re made out of titanium. They’re not meant to go airborne.’
I nod along. ‘What happened next?’
‘Well, that was it, really. I hit the alarm, yelled at the others to get out of there, then ran for the door. One of the implants bounced off my foot as I was sounding the alarm.’
‘Did it hurt?’
‘I felt it all right; it landed right on my big toe.’
‘Weren’t you wearing steel-capped boots?’ I ask, remembering our conversation with Laura.
Sam goes to take a swig from his water bottle, then stops and looks down at the table instead. ‘I should have been. I went through all this with Laura. I know it’s company policy. To be honest I didn’t see the need for them until that night. I do now though, I can tell you that for nothing.’
He extends a booted foot out to the side as evidence. A passing colleague with a tray pulls up short and scowls at us.
‘Well,’ says Sam, standing up suddenly. ‘My break is ending soon. So unless you’ve any more questions, I’m going to get going.’
‘Wait,’ I say. ‘Will you contact us if you think of anything else?’
Sam grins, sits back down. ‘I will, Sherlock. Can I have yournumber?’ He’s very confident for someone who might be hiding something.
‘Let me give you my card,’ I say. ‘Oh wait, I don’t have a card. I mean, I don’t have any cards with me. Josh, could you give Sam your card instead?’
Josh widens his eyes, raises his eyebrows. Nobody says anything for a moment. Then he sighs. ‘Sure.’
He fishes a card out of his wallet and slides it across the table to Sam. The card sweeps sugar granules before it like a snowplough. Sam places one finger on the card and slides it back across the table towards me, cutting an alternate path through the sugar. He retrieves a pen from the front pocket of his overall.
‘Could you write your number on there?’
‘Sure,’ I say.
I realise I’m enjoying myself. I glance sideways at Josh while I write down my number. He does not look he’s enjoying himself at all.
Sam smiles as he pockets the card. ‘Well, better get back to it. No rest for the wicked.’
TWENTY-FOUR
Tuesday, 7pm
‘Should we sit at the bar?’
Josh takes a seat at Phelan’s bar before I have time to answer, but I don’t mind. I enjoy the outsourcing of small decisions, especially in a social context. I hate the mental burden of choosing where to go, where to eat, when to arrive. It’s one of the worst things about dating – a trick to avoid blame for the wrong choice, disguised as thoughtful generosity.Not that this is a date, I remind myself. Josh came in to check on Kobi this afternoon and casually suggested we might come here to catch up.
‘Sure.’ I settle in beside him and signal to the barman.
‘Have you heard from our pal Sam?’ Josh asks. He seems totally, utterly relaxed.
I have to think for a second. ‘Sam from PHI?’
