The key turned twice in the lock, the door opened, and Alexei, sensing something was wrong, walked inside.
Vadim Gennadyevich? — the young man called out anxiously.
After receiving his scientific advisor’s call, Alexei had rushed to order a taxi.
The first two taxi drivers, upon learning they needed to drive somewhere in the Moscow suburbs to abandoned cow barns with no address—just GPS coordinates—refused the trip.
Only one guy in an old Hyundai Solaris, who seemingly had nothing left to lose, agreed and appeared genuinely surprised when Alexei actually paid him.
In the third barn from the road, the professor and his lab assistant had installed a sturdy door and set up a small shelter.
They had slightly camouflaged the door, but this turned out to be an unnecessary precaution.
Only stray cats and wind-blown trash circulated in these parts.
Behind the door was a square room about six by six meters, with a bed, a wooden table, several chairs, a strategic supply of coffee, dried bread rings, and cigarettes, a gas stove, and a kettle lazily releasing steam.
Everything in the room was as before, with one exception.
On the floor was a huge oval drawn in chalk, covered on the inside with mysterious script.
The professor looked proudly at his creation. It was obvious that such delicate work had taken more than one hour. Next to the oval lay a bottle of whisky. Alexei picked it up and looked at the label. The slight professor had drunk more than half and appeared to be drunk.
«Laphroaig, twenty-five years aged.» Alexei’s eyebrows shot up, and he looked at his senior colleague. «Living large, Vadim Gennadyevich. So what’s with these late-night calls? And how are we getting back? Your car is outside, but I’m not letting you drive. And the taxi here already cost two thousand. From here, I’m afraid only some lunatic would drive us, and for no less than five thousand.»
«Quiet, quiet, Lyosha, forget about money, it will soon stop being a problem.»
«What do you mean?»
«Pour yourself some coffee. Look, the kettle’s boiling, just don’t touch the oval, that’s very important.»
The young man headed toward the kettle, about to step over one of the lines.
«Back!» the professor suddenly barked, and Alexei stepped back.
«Go around it, please.»
Not wanting to argue with the elderly and not-very-sober man, Alexei obediently went around the mysterious oval and poured himself coffee. He gestured to offer a second cup to his scientific advisor, but the latter shook his head.
Inhaling the aroma of the instant beverage, the young man stared questioningly at the professor.
«I see you’re waiting for an answer. Fine. What are we working on at the moment?»
«Teleportation of physical objects. We’ve been banging our heads against the wall for years. Funding gets cut more and more each year. And you’re distracting me from my righteous sleep.»
«You’ll forget about your righteous sleep now. What if I told you that today is a great day for both of us?»
«But that’s impossible,» the lab assistant said, dumbfounded.
«Lyosha, everything’s possible. You of all people should know that. Didn’t Marina marry you after all?»
«But all our calculations… We teleported a quantum particle? Yes. We teleported a photon? Yes. Energy? Yes. Nothing is impossible.»
«But why come here?» Alexei asked, stunned. «This is where we conduct dangerous experiments and…»
«Well, why did you stop? Go on,» the professor looked at him slyly.
«I’m not going to participate in dangerous experiments,» Alexei said firmly.
«My wife is sleeping at home.»
«Fine,» the old man said accommodatingly.
«I’m not asking you to participate in anything yet.
Let’s just talk hypothetically.
Imagine, just imagine, that tomorrow you and I, you and I, make a great discovery.
How will the world change?»
«Definitely for the better,» the lab assistant said glumly, not taking his eyes off the mysterious oval.
«Teleportation of physical objects will completely change the world.
Huge portals will be connected by a network to medium-sized portals, which in turn will connect to small compact portals.
The economy will be transformed, freight transportation will become obsolete, automation of the entire logistics system will lead to a revolution,» Alexei spoke faster and faster.
«Even now, the computing power of a small data center allows us to calculate all global logistics at the snap of a finger.
Combined with blockchain, smart contracts, and teleportation, it’s… it’s a dream.»
«See, and dreams are worth pursuing.
That’s why I’m going to stand in the center of this oval and…» Alexei became frightened.
The professor no longer seemed drunk, and the Arabic script suggested mystical thoughts—what if Vadim Gennadyevich had actually managed to connect two worlds, the supernatural and the technical?
«No, I won’t allow it. This is nonsense. A great scientist can’t be a guinea pig. Try teleporting at least a box or, I don’t know, that kettle over there.
Professor, you’re brilliant and have achieved incredible success.
«I understand why you drink such whisky, it’s absolutely deserved.»
«It’s not about that, not at all,» the professor jumped into the center of the oval, took a smartphone from his pocket, and began entering some code.
«How can it not be about that, Vadim Gennadyevich,» Alexei began to argue passionately.
«You’ve done great things. You don’t need to be like Emmerich Ullman and test the rabies vaccine on yourself. Well, at least let me stand there instead.»
After a long pause, the professor calmly spoke.
«What a poetic comparison.
Calm down, Lyosha.
The fact is, I have cancer.
The room became very quiet.
Only the howling wind and rustling leaves could be heard.
«Stage four—metastases in the lungs.
I have a month left at most.»
«But you never told me…» The young man was speechless.
«I didn’t tell anyone.
I don’t really talk to many people, to be honest, and I don’t have any friends at all, except for you.
Now listen further.
You can forget everything we said about teleportation.
At the current stage of technological development, teleportation of physical objects is impossible.»
«But you said, quantum particles, photons, energy…»
«Remember, you brought up teleportation, not me.
Have you looked at our calculations?
Why are you nodding? Of course you have.
How many methodologies and unconventional approaches have we used?
Thousands.
Remember how the Japanese and Americans blinked in surprise when we told them about our proposals?
Exactly.
It never even occurred to them.
But it’s all in vain, it doesn’t work, and it won’t for at least thirty years.»
Alexei sat on the floor and grabbed the bottle.
Twenty-five-year-old Laphroaig—excellent.
A big gulp sent blood racing through his arteries, and the amber liquid pleasantly ignited like a tiny atomic bomb in his stomach.
«Vadim Gennadyevich, I’m so sorry.
Without you, all the research will be meaningless.»
«It’s okay, Lyosha, it didn’t have much meaning with me either.
But I didn’t call you here to discuss how to properly wipe our asses with our calculations.
This was a test of your friendship, your loyalty, your enthusiasm.
And you passed it with flying colors.
And although in less than a month you’ll become the world’s leading expert in a completely unpromising field of physical object teleportation, I urge you to change direction.»
«But how?
I’m thirty-five, my wife is about to give birth, and I’ll leave them without…»
«Remember, at the beginning of our conversation, I told you that money would soon stop being a problem?
Well, I’m leaving you a small inheritance.»
«Thank you, Vadim Gennadyevich,» Alexei smiled softly.
«But I’m afraid your Renault and even your apartment in Vidnoye won’t change much in my life.»
«You read the news, Lyosha, right?»
«Of course.»
«What was yesterday’s main headline?»
«Bitcoin dropped 30 percent because someone…»
The young man’s eyes widened, and he slowly turned to the professor.
«Dumped a volume approximately equal to five billion dollars on Chinese exchanges.»
«5 billion, 580 million, plus or minus 300 thousand, depending on exchange rate fluctuations at the time of the last transactions.
But it will bounce back soon, don’t worry.»
«The transaction was anonymous, and the funds?»
«Spread across offshore accounts, mainly British and Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands, as well as crypto exchanges on Dutch and Swiss servers.
Approximately the same volume of funds remains in 24 cryptocurrencies, whose hashes are stored in the memory of this phone.
It also contains passwords to bank accounts.
They’re opened in your name and several other names you can use.
Take care of it.
I’m absolutely certain that at this moment this is the most expensive phone in human history.»
«How did you manage this?»
«I’m a scientist. It was immediately clear that the future is in cyberspace. In 2012, at peak prices, I sold my apartment downtown, bought another one in Vidnoye and this Renault. Back then it wasn’t so painful to look at. The rest I invested in cryptocurrencies. I wasn’t the only smart one, but I had enough patience to understand everything thoroughly and to ensure that no unsavory characters would come to me with offers to share.
And I also had the wisdom not to start selling when they suddenly shot up.
But listen to me carefully, I’m not giving you all this for nothing.
First, you must organize a decent funeral for me.
Let at least three or four jerks from the National Academy of Sciences come and say nice farewell words.
Second, you must solve all your financial problems.
You have a wonderful wife, and her patience should be rewarded.
And most importantly, third, forget about teleportation.
Your mission is much more important.
You must defeat this nasty cancer, wipe it from the face of the earth.
You have all the skills for this.
You’re a real scientist. You check and double-check everything.
You’ll be able to choose the most promising theories and projects.
You’re better than all these foundations.
Foundations may have ten times more money, but their leaders aren’t as smart.
With you, humanity has a better chance of defeating cancer.
I’ve played my part, trained you in science and given you the necessary resources.»
«I’ll do everything, I won’t let you down, but why didn’t you tackle this yourself?»
«I don’t have the strength, Lyosha. Just no strength left. I’m an old pensioner who suddenly learned about his disease and reconsidered life. I didn’t believe we would succeed with teleportation, so I didn’t invest money in it. And now I understand what’s truly important.
But I have no time or strength. Okay, I see I’ve loaded a lot on you. Let’s finish the bottle, or rather I’ll finish the bottle, and you’ll drive us home.»
«I’ve been drinking too.»
«Your net worth is 11 billion dollars. Even if they take away your license, you can afford a driver.»
«True. Then one last question. Why did you draw this oval?»
«Lyosha, I’ve reconsidered my life, and this is a symbol.
Our whole life is this oval.
A perfect figure, like human destiny.
Each person’s fate is enclosed in the cycle of birth and death.
But life has its ups and downs, so a circle doesn’t fit.
The elongated lines on the sides are the ups and downs, an inevitable part of our destinies. And besides, the universe itself points us to the right answer, because Earth, our planet, is not a sphere. Earth is an ellipsoid, and an ellipsoid is a three-dimensional oval.
And we must write our future correctly, inscribe it in the oval of mercy.»
«Are you serious?»
«Of course not. I waited for you for four hours and downed almost a bottle of whisky. What else was I supposed to do?
I actually wanted to draw a circle, but it didn’t work out because I was already tipsy.
But the Arabic script turned out pretty well.» Alexei chuckled and took the professor by the arm.
A full moon rose over the abandoned cow barns, the wind gently rustled the treetops, and stray cats illuminated the concrete walls with their eyes. The car started, coughed out some smoke, and Alexei, with the immediately sleeping professor, slowly pulled away.
Everyone was allotted their own time.
Some long, some short.
Each moved toward the future, each toward their own, but inevitably inscribed in the oval of mercy.