Alex Gore - The Cube

Now she was 37 and still irresistible.

In any restaurant she entered, all the glances were pinned on her. No man could avoid imagining her naked under her clothes of a working, emancipated professional.

And she never stopped provoking them. She loved short skirts and see-through tops. She found interesting how primal and oversimplified men were and how easy it was to make them crawl. She provoked them with arrogant behavior or light flirting and elegant smile.

The entropy of creation made her go on believing in great love.

She opened her eyes startled and looked at her watch, placed on the dresser. It was almost half past six. She remained lying, staring with an empty glance at the dark ceiling, not thinking of anything, just unwilling to close her eyes again.

Her phone gave a sound. It was the alarm.

The music of ‘Deep Purple’ sounded.

“Impossible!” Norman could not believe his eyes.

“I have no doubt whatsoever, Sir!” The Lieutenant was pointing at the lighted screen. “Those are from the National police service, those – from Interpol, and those – from the Civil protection organization.”

“And they match?”

“Absolutely, Sir! I double-checked them five times, there can’t be any mistake.”

“I can’t believe it.”

“See, these on the left are the fingerprints of the perpetrator on the body or what was left of it, we found them on a part of one of his shoes, on a piece from the rims of the glasses and particularly on the grinding device. And those on the right are his.” The Sergeant slipped them with the mouse to the left and overlaid them one on the other. “There is a 100% match.”

“Yes, these are for sure the fingerprints of the murderer.”

“Beg your pardon, Sir, I’ve been in military police, homicide department, I’ve seen all kinds of butcher scenes, but never anything like this… I don’t know what to call it, Sir.”

“Yes, I myself have never imagined that such savagery could exist and I’ve been on six missions. I’ve witnessed distressing pictures.”

“But how can he be capable of this? He seems the kindest man on earth.”

“I agree, but we need to detain him”, Norman said decisively. “Take two men and arrest him.”

“We are talking of the murderer, aren’t we, Sir?” The Lieutenant needed to be 100% sure.

“Of course, who else? Arrest Hans immediately.”

Alan was going to his room to fetch his sunglasses, when he saw her, standing with her back to him just in front of the door to his dome.

She was squatting and was picking something on the floor, her behavior seemed a little strained and unnatural, but the sun was shining so bright in his eyes, that he could not see clearly. He squinted, wrinkling the skin of his face.

He hated forgetting his glasses, because it was hard to see, his eye-balls started aching from the tension and moreover unwanted wrinkles formed at his temples. He did not want to provoke extra wrinkles. The botox he had been using for several years now was quite efficient but needed care.

“Hey, Marcela, what are you doing here? Do come in, I’ll show you my modest adobe.”

She just turned her head to him and stared. He was unable to see her eyes behind the enormous sunglasses, but he felt now was the moment to tell her.

“Look, March, come inside and let’s talk. I’ve been meaning to tell you something for a long time.”

She looked around as if to make sure they were alone and nobody saw them.

“No, no, there’s nobody here, everyone is at the central dome, I’m sure, I myself was there just a second ago… You know, I really like you very much and… err… I’ve been thinking for some time that I have to confess…”

Marcela stood up, turned and started walking slowly towards the fence.

“Hey, March, please, don’t be like that, I never meant to insult you. Where are you going?” Alan caught with her and took her by the hand – it was ice-cold, he felt like he was touching a corpse. “There is nothing in this direction, please, come back. I just wanted to invite you as a guest in my new show when this is over. Because I can guarantee after what’s happening here I’ll be back in the game.”

She released her hand coldly and went away without a word.

Alan remained motionless, looking at her.

The smell of fresh coffee refreshed them and took them away in their thoughts. It was pleasant just to stay quiet, while drinking from real china cups. It seemed there were suppliers with taste in that base. Michael, Marcela and Hans were up earlier than the rest, and they enjoyed being able to talk, free from the military, the Russians and Alan, about whom they joked that at nights, when he was alone in his room, he had started writing a script for a Hollywood blockbuster.

“How did you sleep?” Marcela sipped a large gulp of her coffee. “I dream a lot and wake up startled all through the night. Frankly, I haven’t slept at all since we came here.”

“I sleep well”, Michael replied. “Especially since Norman has lifted the ban on vodka.”

“I don’t sleep, I work, but in my opinion all mathematicians are like me. When there is a logical problem to be solved, we don’t find peace till we find the solution.”

“Hans, I don’t think the rest of the mathematicians are like you”, Marcela said, addressing him with one of her winning grins and the three of them laughed. It was quite obvious that at this moment they did not miss the rest of the group.

“Michael do you have a girl back at the University?” Marcela always found the right moment for the right question.

“No, nothing serious. There is Mary Ann, but so far we’ve only been loitering.” Michael remembered their last night together, her gorgeous gentle skin, as smooth as velvet.

“What about you, Hans?”

“You know that I don’t have anybody. I was never much interested in affairs. I have more important things to do with my time.”

“One should not skip amusement”, Michael noted with a smile.

“Mathematics can be quite amusing, actually. Didn’t you enjoy the Theory of subjective numbers?” The very thought made Hans smile. “If I have to be really serious, a man just needs two things in his life.”

“Just two?” she asked surprised.

“That’s right.”

“Probably the first is to live forever, which in your language is ‘plus infinity’, did I guess correctly?” Michael was very proud to be able to predict Hans’s mathematic terms.

“Hmm… immortality could be quite boring and lonely.”

“What then?”

“Just two things.”

“What are they, Hans, please…” Marcela was dying of curiosity.

“The first one, of course, is to find out the answer to all questions, how and why the Universe was created, what’s beyond it and what is a man in his or her essence. What is the point of our existence.”

“You are very philosophically minded this morning, Hans”, Michael said.

“Our Hans is a deep and vulnerable soul.” Marcela was not at all surprised by the deep sensitiveness of her closest friend in that ordeal. “What about the second thing, Professor?”

“The second, after you find the answer to the big question, is to have someone to share it with. Otherwise sublime knowledge leads to sublime solitude. Glorious minds have proved it through the centuries.”

“That’s right, Professor, love is the greatest thing in the Universe.” Michael looked outside the window with misty eyes. “But now, I guess, we just need to survive in all that mess, don’t you think?”