Codename Prague Read Online Free PDF Page B

“An odd request.”
    Truth said, “That’s what I say. So I made sure to underline the word carbonated and put it in bold print and capital letters on my grocery list. That way, when we got to the grocery store, I wouldn’t rethink what you may or may not have told us to buy. What I mean is, I wouldn’t think that what I wrote down might have been a mistake, even though I only write down what you tell me and I’ve never made a mistake before. But you never know.”
    Beauty said, “It’s difficult to know things, sometimes.”
    Truth said, “That’s what I say. The only way to really be sure about things is to write them down. And the more detailed you are when you write things down, the better. The word CARBONATED on my grocery list is an example of extreme detail. There’s no questioning it. There’s no denying it. It’s big and black and underlined.”
    Beauty said, “Like an ocean at midnight if you look at the ocean upside-down.”
    Truth looked askance at Beauty. “I’m not sure about that simile. I’m not sure if it works. I don’t even think it makes sense.”
    Beauty said, “It makes sense to me.”
    Truth said, “Everything makes sense to you. You’re like a—”
    “Enough!” The doktor finished his glass of wine, stared at the glass for a moment, and then hurled it across the kitchen. It shattered against the pantry door. A Mr Clean robot in white T-shirt and jeans exited a closet and cleaned and sterilized the mess with multipurpose mechanical arms. The robot bowed and returned to the closet, its white eyes burning brightly around two almost imperceptible black pupils.
    The assistants looked willfully at Dr Teufelsdröckh. “I’m not quite sure where to begin,” he said, feeling unable to holster the temper tantrum that welled up in him. “I suppose I should point out that merely writing something down does not ensure its truthfulness, and it certainly doesn’t mean I said it. Do I even have to say this aloud?” He paused. He clicked his jaw. “Let me just say…Good afternoon. I’m uncertain why you have elected to victimize and sabotage me. I’m not the best employer. I’m aware of that. I’m aware. But I’m not the worst employer either—far from it. Etcetera. Viz., and so forth.” Retrieving another bottle of wine from a cupboard, Dr Teufelsdröckh exited the kitchen, abandoning the soufflé he had intended to make himself for dinner.
    Beauty peered at Truth. “You’re scheming on a thing,” he droned. “That’s sabotage.”
    Truth rearranged his lips…
    Dr Teufelsdröckh strode down a hallway, slid open an oily chain-link fence and stepped into an elevator. He threw a switch. The elevator clanked and grumbled to life.
    “Lah-bor-ah-tory.”
    The slow descent took five minutes. On the way, he considered the prospect that Truth had actually been telling the truth. Truth almost always lied, but for the sake of speculation, he pretended that he didn’t almost always lie, or rather, he put faith in the small percentage of Truth’s character that wasn’t a dissembler. He didn’t like the prospect. It meant that he had deliberately requested carbonated olive oil, a request that had no raison d’être . Perhaps he had been thinking about carbonation. Had he dreamt of carbonation the night before? Had the idea of carbonation leaked from his unconscious into his preconscious mind, then sidestepped his conscious mind and surfaced in his discourse? If so, what were the chances that carbonation would emerge in his discourse precisely when he conceived to utter (and then uttered) the words “olive oil.” Preposterous. Absurd. And yet not impossible. He recalled drinking a certain variety of club soda that resonated with his palate. When had he sipped that club soda? Only last week. Clearly he had been preoccupied with the club soda. Clearly he had not forgotten what it had done to him.
    Sometimes he wished there was a hole. A hole without principle, merit, significance or