Dr. Franklin Terzini hurled an object through the air, hard, and did not flinch as it exploded into the far wall of his work area.
Slivers of glass ricocheted from the concrete and showered down, littering the floor of his laboratory with prismatic splinters of varying shapes and sizes. Just seconds earlier, the shards had been intact and had formed a large beaker. The flat-bottomed glass cylinder was empty at the time of its destruction but several hours ago had held a thick, opaque liquid crucial to his work.
Pure rage had overtaken him and produced a rare, but intense, emotional outburst.
Breathing heavily in short shallow breaths, he panted. His heart raced. Beads of sweat stippled his forehead. He bent forward and placed both hands on his knees and attempted to catch his breath.
He had gone to the main house in search of Gabriel but found that his creation was not there. Gabriel had left, though he had not been granted permission to leave the grounds.
Gabriel had defied him.
Wiping his damp brow with the back of his hand, Dr. Terzini straightened slowly. As he rose, he glimpsed his image in the stainless-steel paper towel dispenser near the decontamination and sink area of his lab. He was startled by his reflection. An unfamiliar face stared back at him.
With glasses that sat askew across the bridge of his nose, hair disheveled and a mouth contorted unnaturally, he vaguely resembled the man who commanded worldwide respect a short time ago, the genius he knew himself to be, the man who would transform humanity.
As he gazed at himself in the reflective metal surface, a new feeling washed over him replacing the rush of anger that propelled his previous eruption: shame.
Shame rippled and flowed throughout his entirety, relaxed the grimaced muscled around his mouth and drained the color from his cheeks. Looking at his slackened and blanched face, his reflection, though disgraced, became more familiar.
He quickly smoothed his black hair, coaxing errant strands back to their prescribed coif shape then smoothed his dress shirt before tucking it into his trousers. Pulling back his shoulders he stood erect, with pride, composed again.
After several deep breaths, his thoughts were righted, his emotions reined in. Once he was calmed, he began to survey the tremendous mess he had made when rashly launching a beaker at the wall.
He had dozens more like the one he’d smashed, identical in shape and size. He was not upset that a piece of lab apparatus had been destroyed. He was upset, however, by what had caused it. He had been goaded to the point of emotionality, a loathsome, revolting state of existence.
His forced expressiveness was a direct result of Gabriel’s noncompliance. Gabriel had operated against ingrained conditioning that dictated he never act against Terzini.
Yet, Gabriel disobeyed direct orders, his orders, and likely attended the bonfire. In doing so, he exhibited a sign of defect, of weakness. He was demonstrating a mark of failure. And failure was alien to Dr. Franklin Terzini; alien and unacceptable.
The ramifications of such a catastrophic letdown implicated his work, challenged his integrity, his genius.
He inhaled deeply through his nostrils and exhaled through his mouth to halt the onslaught of another anger and adrenaline-induced frenzy. After relaxing and narrowly avoiding a repeat of the earlier equipment wrecking incident, he began considering his choices.
Gabriel’s apparent malfunction had provoked a destructive act. He would not allow Gabriel to rescind the significance of his work and make a mockery of him as well.
Fortunately, he prided himself on being pragmatic. He had a contingency plan, though it was not preferred in the least. A lifetime’s worth of work had been utilized; Gabriel was the culmination of that work. An alternative creation could be formed, though he never imagined he would need to do so. That is, before Gabriel had engaged in his supposed insolent behavior. If evidence and admission corroborated Terzini’s suspicion, that if Gabriel did not have a reasonable excuse for breaking protocol and going to the bonfire, then drastic measure would need to be taken. The potential for dire circumstances existed, circumstances that would warrant the new creation’s activation. He would be forced to start from the beginning again, educating, training and preparing for the replacement’s successful integration.
It would present a problem with his relocation. With his alleged death fresh in the Russian Mafia’s mind, moving would be a tremendous risk. Finding another house that boasted an underground shelter would be challenging as well. Both threatened exposure and, ultimately, his life.
He would also need to dispose of Gabriel.
But before such drastic measures were taken, he needed to be certain that a defect did exist. And if so, it was imperative that he know whether Gabriel’s malfunction was correctible. So many questions swirled about in his mind. Gabriel’s failure would be his failure. Was it possible that he was capable of making a mistake? The query seemed ridiculous, preposterous.
If he did not receive an explanation he deemed suitable and satisfactory from Gabriel, he would have to be destroyed; a new champion would be produced to advance society to its future state of perfection.