Page 98 of Chaos Theory
Josh starts pacing. ‘I just can’t believe this.’
‘I can’t believe it either.’ I turn away from Kobi and feel myself harden. ‘And I can’t believe that you didn’t know about any of this.’
He stops pacing. ‘I know.’
‘You had no suspicions? There were no signs? No overheard conversations? Nothing?’
‘Well…’ he says slowly.
I sigh, roll my eyes exaggeratedly. ‘Well what?’
His voice quietens, like he’s talking to himself. ‘Certain things are starting to make more sense now.’
Now it’s my turn to slump into the nearest seat. It’s a swivel chair. I start rotating slowly, like maybe I can lull myself into some place of comfort.
‘Certain things like what, exactly?’
He turns away to make his confession. He fiddles with implements on a workbench.
‘Why Kobi always said the time in military format. Why Ron wanted him to be able to navigate all kinds of terrain. Why he had me spend months getting Kobi’s grip to be strong yet delicate enough to hold a pencil – or a surgical instrument. Why his audio had to be so good – guess that’s useful on a battlefield.’
‘Josh,’ I say.
‘I know, I know,’ he interrupts. ‘I should have asked more questions.’
‘You think?’
His voice gets louder. ‘Well, if it wasn’t for yourbreakthrough, we wouldn’t be in this mess.’
I stop rotating abruptly. ‘You’re seriously blaming me for this?’
Out of the corner of my eye, I notice Kobi retreating towards his sleep pod.
‘Kobi, wait,’ I say. ‘I’m sorry.We’resorry – aren’t we, Josh?’
‘Yes,’ says Josh. ‘We’ve let you down, buddy.’
I look at him askance, raise an eyebrow.
‘I’velet you down,’ he says.
‘We’re not going to let anything bad happen to you,’ I say, to my surprise.
‘We’re not?’ says Josh.
I extend my foot to kick him, but he’s too far away for me to connect.
‘That’s right,’ says Josh.
He moves closer to me and lowers his voice, even though he knows as well as anyone that Kobi can still hear us. He looks at his watch.
‘I probably have about five minutes before security comes to escort me from the building. Seriously, what can we really do here? And before you answer – we’re probably being recorded right now.’
‘Kobi, can you disable recording?’ I ask.
‘Negative. Manual intervention required.’
I grab a tool from the workbench. ‘Okay, come over here then.’
