Obsession (Year of Fire) Read Online Free PDF

assistant. He works crazy hours, he’s irritable, he’s basically insane. Still, I did whatever I could to help him and participate in his research. I lived at night because Wright is a night owl. I was like a zombie during the day. Nothing else mattered. I trusted him with my studies, my plans, my breakthroughs. I’d never trustedanyone like that before. In fact, I never even used computers because they’re vulnerable. It’s so easy for a hacker to get into your computer and strip you bare. I worked in the old-fashioned manner, doing the drawings by hand and typing the reports on an Olivetti typewriter. And he stole it away from me. My work was my life.”
    “Have you only just found out? Because of the magazine?”
    “Yes. We were still exchanging e-mails up until a few days ago. Now I understand why he was asking me what he did. He needed to complete the centrifuge because the design he stole from me at MIT was unfinished. But as I never wanted to discuss my work over the Internet, I didn’t answer any of his questions.”
    “It would seem that he finished your work on his own.” Aldo was getting discouraged. “Otherwise he wouldn’t have published it. And he’s probably patented it already. Most likely they’ll end up buying the invention from him, prototype included.”
    “A prototype that’ll never work.” Blahetter’s sky-blue eyes suddenly perked up. Aldo raised his eyebrows. “I’m not going to give you a list of reasons why Wright’s model won’t work. You wouldn’t understand them. But I can tell you that Wright has made some errors in his calculations for the final phase.”
    “You could discredit him, expose him. He committed plagiarism and he shouldn’t get away with it. You’re its true inventor.”
    “I will. I’ll get my revenge one day. But I can’t until I have a prototype to demonstrate his mistakes. And I need to find out myself if my prototype works, which is why I need to build it as soon as possible, and for that I need money from a sponsor.”
    “Roy.” Aldo looked at him seriously. “You can’t mess around with the people we’re dealing with. You can’t promise to sell them something, build it and then say, ‘Oops! I was wrong. It doesn’t work after all.’ You’ll end up in a gutter with your throat slit.”
    “I know that it’ll work! I know it.”
    “You’re brilliant, son, there’s no doubt about that. And I trust you.”
    “Aldo, I’m desperate. I have a potential gold mine on my hands and I can’t exploit it. I need the cash to win Matilde back.”
    The older man smiled with an air of nostalgia.
    “Have you met my daughter? You’ll never get her back with money. That’ll just push her further away.”
    “I just want to give her financial stability so she doesn’t have to worry.”
    “I don’t judge you for having a lover. God knows that I’m hardly in a position to say anything. But did you really have to cheat on her only months after getting married? Worse than that,” Aldo complained, growing exasperated, “you were so negligent! It was as though you wanted her to catch you.”
    That’s not why Matilde left me. It was for something much worse , thought Blahetter, although he was unable to say it out loud.
    Eliah Al-Saud heard the voices of the first passengers as they passed him by and disappeared behind the curtain that separated first class from business class. He got up from his seat, ducking so as not to hit his head, and went out into the aisle to look for Esther. He stepped forward but hesitated when he saw Juana and “Mat” walking toward him. He was surprised; he had seen them queuing in the line for economy class. Juana was leading the way, looking back and forth between her boarding pass and the seat numbers; she read them out loud. “Mat” followed her in silence, studying her surroundings. Unlike Juana, who wore figure-hugging white pants and a tight, cropped pink T-shirt that declared “I’m in love with myself” in