Chapter 2
(chorus)
What hath been said cannot be unsaid
Now the consequences must be reaped.
The infinite enormity of the situation, was still settling its weight uncomfortably on Pan’s shoulders. How could she have accidentally stumbled on something so incredibly massive? It wasn’t that Pan was very religious (in fact she really wasn’t at all) but, she knew a statement of this magnitude was going to upset a lot of people off.
It was time to take a step back from the situation, she could be wrong; she knew she wasn’t though. The option to not tell anyone was apparent; fame was a life Pan did not want. If no one was ever told, she could never have the assurance that she had been right; and it would be wrong to deny the knowledge to people, wouldn’t it?
"So, did those sudokus help you?" he asked.
"Huh?" Pan was still trying to bring herself back to life while simultaneously, convincing herself his head wasn’t about to pop; given she’d just shattered the foundation of belief, the idea seemed entirely plausible.
"The sudokus I gave you, did they help clear your head?"
"I didn’t get the chance to try them Toby." "oh…" the sorrow was tangible.
After a moment of staring at the floor, Toby lifted his head and began to mumble, "well, ugh…" but cut himself short when he noticed her computer screen.
"Hey, what’s that you got there?"
"NOTHING!!!" Pan shrieked, then began her most sly attempt to cover up the outburst, "it’s a, some…proofs, I was suppose to check…just some file."
"Oh yeah? Looks confusing. I was never very good at proofs," his eyes remaining glued to the sacrilege on her screen, as if trying to decipher some long forgotten language that resonated from a realm he just couldn’t quite grasp, "my geometry teacher use’ta say it was a major short coming of mine. She’d say, ‘Now Toby, if you don’t do your proofs you will never understand math,’ but I think I understand it just fine. Well, maybe I don’t understand it but, I can sure do it just fine and that’s really all that matte…"
Pan cut him off there, "Toby, as much as I would love to stay and hear about your shortcomings, I have to show something to Mr. Bodan. I’m afraid we will have to continue this chat another time."
"Oh. Yeah. Yeah, No problemo," he replied and turned to leave.
Pan saved the file to her portable thumb drive, stuffed it in her briefcase and was turning to leave; Toby was in the entrance again.
"Hey! By the way, you can hang on to those sudokus I gave you, think of them as a gift from me to you."
"Okay Toby," she exhaled, while not quiet impolitely shoving him out of her way and leaving the Sudoku book lying on the floor of her cubicle.
***
Mr. Jude Bodan had become bored of the view from his office; the room occupied the majority of the forty-second floor’s west wing. In most circumstances a CEO would have had their office on the top floor of the building; but Mr. Bodan was not most circumstances. Before taking the mantle of CEO, he had been systematically moving up through the company. Starting out in the mail room he seized every opportunity that became available to him. His hard work, dedication and diverse knowledge of math and science created a wealth of opportunities in the company. Promotions were common, but to give himself an edge in the company, he was known to even take demotions; if it allowed him a chance to gain experience in a different field. By the time he was able to make a move on the CEO position, Mr. Bodan had worked in every field the company offered. There was, literally, no job in the building he couldn’t do. It was because of his humble beginnings that he chose to have his office built on the forty-second floor. A CEO’s office on the top floor of a building inspired resentment among the employees, but a CEO who put his office in the middle of the building, right in the thick of the action, now that elicited respect. Add to that, the American Dream story, that is his career and you have yourself a Hero in the eyes of the employees; many of which could even remember working with Mr. Bodan at different times.
It was not heroic intentions that drove Mr. Bodan, rather a lust for power; he didn’t want to control the company, he wanted to dominate it; of course he never told anyone that. When offered the position of CEO, he made it seem like a burden he didn’t want to carry and forced himself to reek of guilt, merely for considering to accept it; but accept it he did, after all with his experience it would have hurt the company if he hadn’t.
You see, Mr. Bodan is one of the most dangerous kinds of ambitious people; he is the kind that hides their insatiable aspiration; the kind that will shake your hand and smile, while unbeknownst to you that smile is a signal for someone to come up behind you and stab you in the back. But that’s not all, he will then catch you as you fall and comfort you, he will fill in for you while you recover and from the position you once held, dissolve any and all trust that had been placed on you; reassembling it with him as the focal point, securing himself in the position, readying himself for another opportunity and ultimately leaving you defamed, bloodied and behind.
It is the versatility these kinds of people have that makes them so dangerous. If there is any way for a situation to benefit him, he can and will find it. Sometimes that means adapting a strategy out of nowhere and running with it, evolving it when need be, the way a good comedian is able to roast a random heckler smoothly through his routine. Other times it can mean being patient, so patient in fact, that he seems to be unambitious; just another log floating in the lake, but should an opportunity drift close to the log, it will reveal itself for the crocodile it is and strike with lightning speed, never planning to let go. Mr. Bodan was currently a log; he had taken control of Sci-volution and proven his dominance over it. Now, it was just a matter of waiting for an opportunity to show itself. He didn’t know what kind of opportunity he was waiting for, but he had realized he wasn’t satisfied; he needed more. Lucky for him, an opportunity was making its way to his office at this very moment, and when it got there it would find a starving crocodile, lying in wait. "Ding," rang his intercom, "Mr. Bodan, Pan Thedias from technical analysis is here, she said she does not have an appointment and it is too urgent to wait; should I send her in or schedule an appointment?"
An urgent problem from the tech department never amounted to anything; they felt any problem they could not figure out was urgent and had to be shown to him: he never would just ignore them, for fear of undermining his intricate façade, but he would schedule them for an appointment later in the week at his convenience; usually far enough away that the problem would be resolved long before meeting with him. To his recollection, Pan was the only techie that had never brought an urgent problem, or any problem, to him before. He knew Pan was brilliant at math and a wizard of numbers, if she had deemed a problem urgent, in all likelihood it could be significant. Regardless, he would control the situation. Mr. Bodan paused before replying, making it seem as if he was considering all of his options, "I am extremely busy right now, but I can always make time for an urgent problem from a colleague. Send her in." He smiled, knowing Pan heard every word he just said, through the other end of the intercom.
"yes sir."
He sat behind his desk, pulling a troubled operating program up on his computer which had been giving the company difficulties recently; it would add to his act of giving a damn.
Pan flew through doors to his office and seized a spot in an open chair before his desk; never pausing for an invitation. The look she wore revealed a deep internal strife, for which she was completely unprepared; as if she had beat the subject repeatedly with an aluminum baseball bat and yet it still refused to liberate a satisfactory expectation.
Mr. Bodan turned his attention from the computer to Pan, with a slight hint of dramatics, "Hello Pan, how are you doing today?"
And then it erupted forth:
eveyotheralternativebutforthissubjectIcan’tjuellanybodyandyouaretheonlyoneIfeelisqualifiedtohandle
somethingofthismagnitudeandmycomputersaysitsrightandIaccidentlydiditsoImabbiasanditsjusttosensitive
toletjustanybodyseeandIdon’tknowwhattodo!"
"Alright Pan, just relax. Take a deep breath. What exactly is it that you have to show me?"
"I can’t tell you what it is. I want you to look at it without any preconceived notion of what it means, that way you can tell me if it really says, or does or…or…well here just look," she said handing him the thumb drive.
He paused briefly, examining the drive before plugging it into an open slot on his computer. It opened up the math modulator system the company used and populated it with a slew of mathematical proofs and formulas. Mr. Bodan began to siphon through the numerical sensory over load that littered the screen; it seemed to compose one elaborate proof. The solution began to surface gradually, until he reached the end and it was right there in front of him.
He paused for a moment considering if he had really just read what he seemed to have read. His glance shifted to Pan for a moment, his intrigue meeting her curiously timid, approval wanting, gaze. Realizing he had to hide the fact he was caught off guard by the solution, Mr. Bodan returned his attention to the screen and began to go through the proof again. He had nearly run it over a third time when Pan interrupted him, "It doesn’t change. No matter how many times you look at it. Once you’ve seen the solution it’s clear and obvious and there is no rational alternative to it."
"What makes you think it isn’t still my first time reading through it?"
"I think the first time you finished it is when you looked up at me."
Damn, she had seen his moment of weakness, "Indeed it was; so what exactly would you like me to do with this?" he indicated to the proof on his screen.
"First, I want to know what you found the solution to be."
Mr. Bodan considered the most appropriate way to respond, "It would appear to be a mathematical proof that a celestial or heavenly creator, i.e. God, does not exist."
Now it was Pan’s turn to take a moment and pause; not to consider her best response to his statement, rather because all of the color seemed to flee from her face and in the process introduce her to the early stages of shock.
"I killed God," the statement escaped her lips riding a breath.
Her weakness was not lost on Mr. Bodan, "No, you did not kill anything; ultimately you proved that there was never really anything there to kill in the first place. Pan do you realize what we have here? It is the answer to the greatest philosophical and scientific question of all time!"
He smiled.
The opportunities were flourishing in his mind. Clearly Pan was not overly excited about her discovery; he however was considering how to market the breakthrough as his companies’; because in time, his companies’ discovery could become his discovery: Pan had just handed him the key to attain power he dare even dream about.
She was still mute; clearly the responsibility of getting this information out was going to fall to him. Mr. Bodan rose from his chair and allowed his smile to fade to a more somber look while making his way to the empty chair next to Pan.
Placing a caring hand on her shoulder, he asked, "Now Pan, this is important, did you tell anyone else about this breakthrough?"
She remained silent.
With a reassuring caress he tried again, "Don’t worry Pan I will be here to help you. Everything is going to be okay, but first I have to know if anyone else saw this."
"…"
He was going to try third time, when she finally spoke, "…I don’t think so…maybe Toby…"
That could be a problem; "Who’s Toby?" he asked.
"Tobias Mikael; he works in Technical Analysis with me. He came into my office while it was on the screen, he didn’t really seem to know what it was and in all honesty, I don’t think he could have followed it; he’s kind of dim."
Less of a problem, "Is that it?"
"Yes, I brought it to you as soon as I saved it to the thumb drive."
Definitely manageable, his smile returned, "very good. I will get a hold of the PR department and get the ball rolling on broadcasting your discovery. However, did you find this?"
"Wait what? I don’t know, it just kind of came to me, it was an accident. But hold on a minute, I don’t know if I want this broadcasted. It’s going to make a lot of people really angry, like
really angry. I mean death threats and attempts angry!"
Donning the guise of concern, he retorted, "Ah, well Pan, you do realize that any breakthrough of this magnitude is sure to evoke hostility from some."
"I know! And that’s my point, I don’t want to die because of this! I didn’t even want to do this, it just….it just happened."
He pretended to consider her point as valid for a moment, knowing exactly where he wanted to lead this conversation, "Yes, I see your concern, but this is not something we can just ignore; how about this? We can have the PR department play it off as the companies’ discovery, rather than just yours? That way, you won’t be a target and we can still get this information out to the public. The company and I will help you carry this burden Pan."
"Well…um…yeah, I guess that could work…"
"Perfect!" the smile came beaming back, it was almost his. He stood up and helped her to stand, while guiding her toward the door, "why don’t you go home for the day? I can handle the PR work for you."
"Um…okay…" She stopped at the door, as some sense of reasoning began to take root in her shock ridden mind, "do I need a copy of that data?"
Damn again, so she wasn’t going to make it too easy. Maintaining his smile, "Of course! Silly me, I just got too caught up in the excitement!"
Mr. Bodan went to his computer, copying and saving the data to it, then removing her thumb drive. He took the device back to her and said, "Here you are. Now go home and get a good night rest, feel free to take tomorrow off and I will go ahead and handle the busy work of this."
"Okay, thanks Mr. Bodan, I knew I could count on you."
"Of course you can Pan."
She left his office leaving him alone with his happiness. He was sitting on the biggest discovery of all time, but before he could bring it to the PR department, he would have to handle one loose end. Pressing the talk button on his intercom, he spoke, "Charreon, could you send Tobias Mikael from Technical Analysis to my office?"
"Right away, Mr. Bodan"
The view from his office was fresh again and he took the moment to relish in his megalomania. The world was his; if he handled this correctly there was nothing to stand in front of his conquest. He’d outgrown being the CEO of Sci-Volution; with this discovery he could make his deepest desires a reality, he could use this to become the President of the United States of Fucking America, for God’s sake; or rather for nothing’s sake. His smile distorted into something sinister has he ruptured with laughter.
Yes, the world was his, but first one loose end to handle; Tobias. If Pan was correct and the dolt was oblivious, then it would be as simple as a quick trip to the unemployment office; but if she was wrong, well this is the Presidency of the country we are talking about, and Mr. Jude Bodan was ready for the roll; he would be like his predecessors in the position; he would make any obstacle go away, by whatever means were necessary.
The crocodile was savagely gorging.
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