‘Damn,’ said Bradley, taking one quick mouthful of a splendid piece of Texas steak. He reluctantly pushed his plate aside, and walked to the communications booth at the rear of the jet. The video was only one way, so he had no compunction about continuing to chew as Rawlings gave his report.
‘We’ve been doing some research, Jason, about octopus sizes — the people out on the platform weren’t very happy when you laughed at their estimate.’
‘Too bad. I’ve checked with my encyclopedia. The very largest octopus is under ten meters across.’
‘Then you’d better look at this.’
Though the image that flashed on the screen was obviously a very old photograph, it was of excellent quality. It showed a group of men on a beach, surrounding a shapeless mass about the size of an elephant. Several other photos followed in quick succession; they were all equally clear, but of what it was impossible to say.
‘If I had to put any money on it,’ said Bradley, ‘my guess would be a badly decomposed whale. I’ve seen — and smelled — several. They look just like that; unless you’re a marine biologist, you could never identify it. That’s how sea serpents get born.’
‘Nice try, Jason. That’s exactly what most of the experts said at the time — which, by the way, was 1896. And the place was Florida — Saint Augustine Beach, to be precise.’
‘My steak is getting cold, and this isn’t exactly helping my appetite.’
‘I won’t take much longer. That little morsel weighed about five tons; luckily, a piece was preserved in the Smithsonian, so that fifty years later scientists were able to reexamine it. There’s no doubt that it was an octopus; and it must have had a span of almost seventy meters. So our diver’s guess of a hundred may not have been all that far out.’
Bradley was silent for a few moments, processing this very unexpected — and unwelcome — piece of information.
‘I’ll believe it when I see it,’ he said, ‘though I’m not sure that I want to.’
‘By the way,’ said Rawlings, ‘you haven’t mentioned this to anyone?’
‘Of course not,’ snapped Jason, annoyed at the very suggestion.
‘Well, the media have got hold of it somehow; the newsfax headlines are already calling it Oscar.’
‘Good publicity; what are you worried about?’
‘We’d hoped you could get rid of the beast without everyone looking over your shoulder. Now we’ve got to be careful; mustn’t hurt dear little Oscar. The World Wildlife people are watching. Not to mention Bluepeace.’
‘Those crazies!’
‘Maybe. But WW has to be taken seriously; remember who they have as president. We don’t want to upset the palace.’
‘I’ll do my best to be gentle. Definitely no nukes — not even a small one.’
The first bite of his now tepid steak triggered a wry memory. Several times, Bradley recalled, he had eaten octopus — and quite enjoyed it.
He hoped he could avoid the reverse scenario.
13 PYRAMID POWER
When the sobbing Ada had been sent to her room, Edith and Donald Craig stared at each other in mutual disbelief.
‘I don’t understand it,’ said Edith at last. ‘She’s never been disobedient before; in fact, she always got on very well with Miss Ives.’
‘And this is just the sort of test she’s usually very good at — no equations, only multiple choices and pretty pictures. Let me read that note again. . . .’
Edith handed it over, while continuing to study the examination paper that had caused all the trouble.
Dear Mr. Craig,
I am very sorry to say that I have had to suspend Ada for insubordination.
This morning her class was given the attached Standard Visual Perception Test. She did extremely well (95%) with all the problems except Number 15. To my surprise, she was the only member of the class to give an incorrect answer to this very simple question.
When this was pointed out to her, she flatly denied that she was wrong. Even when I showed her the printed answer, she refused to admit her mistake and stubbornly maintained that everyone else was in error! At this point it became necessary, for the sake of class discipline, to send her home.
I am truly sorry, as she is usually such a good girl. Perhaps you will talk to her and make her see reason.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Ives (Head Mistress)
‘It almost looks,’ said Donald, ‘as if she was deliberately trying to fail.’
Edith shook her head. ‘I don’t think so. Even with this mistake, she’d have got a good pass.’
Donald stared at the little set of brightly colored geometrical figures that had caused all the trouble.
‘There’s only one thing to do,’ he said. ‘You go and talk to her and calm her down. Give me ten minutes with a scissors and some stiff paper — then I’ll settle it once and for all, so there can’t be any further argument.’
‘I’m afraid that will only be tackling the symptoms, not the disease. We want to know why she kept insisting she was right. That’s almost pathological. We may have to send her to a psychiatrist.’
The thought had already occurred to Donald, but he had instantly rejected it. In later years, he would often remember the irony of this moment.
While Edith was consoling Ada, he quickly measured out the necessary triangle with pencil and ruler, cut them from the paper, and joined up the edges until he had made three examples of the two simplest possible solid figures — two tetrahedrons, one pyramid, all with equal sides. It seemed a childish exercise, but it was the least he could do for his beloved and troubled daughter.
15 (a) [he read]. Here are two identical tetrahedrons. Each has 4 equilateral triangles for sides, making a total of 8.
If any of the two faces are placed together, how many sides does the new solid have?
It was such a simple thought experiment that any child should be able to do it. Since two of the eight sides were swallowed up in the resulting diamond-shaped solid, the answer was obviously six. At least Ada had got that right. . . .
Holding it between thumb and first finger, Donald spun the little cardboard diamond a few times, then dropped it on his desk with a sigh. It split apart at once into the two components.
15 (b). Here are a tetrahedron and a pyramid, each with edges of the same length. The pyramid, however, has a square base as well as 4 triangular sides. Altogether, therefore, the two figures have 9 sides.
If any two of the triangular faces are placed in contact, how many sides does the resulting figure have?
‘Seven, of course,’ Donald muttered, since two of the original nine will be lost inside the new solid. . . .
Idly, he tilted the little cardboard shapes until a pair of triangles merged.
Then he blinked.
Then his jaw dropped.
He sat in silence for a moment, checking the evidence of his own eyes. A slow smile spread across his face, and he said quietly into the housecom: ‘Edith — Ada — I’ve got something to show you.’
The moment Ada entered, red-eyed and still sniffling, he reached out and took her in his arms.
‘Ada,’ he whispered, stroking her hair gently, ‘I’m very proud of you.’ The astonishment on Edith’s face delighted him more than it should have.
‘I wouldn’t have believed it,’ he said. ‘The answer was so obvious that the people who set the paper never bothered to check it. Look . . .’
He took the five-sided pyramid and stuck the four-sided tetrahedron on one face.
The new shape had only five sides — not the ‘obvious’ seven. . . .
‘Even though I’ve found the answer,’ Donald continued — and there was something like awe in his voice as he looked at his now smiling daughter — ‘I can’t visualize it mentally. How did you know that the other sides lined up like this?’
Ada looked puzzled.
‘What else could they do?’ she answered.
There was a long silence while Donald and Edith absorbed this reply, and almost simultaneously came to the same conclusion.
Ada might have little comprehension of logic or analysis — but her feeling for space — her geometrical intuition — was altogether extraordinary. At the age of nine, it was certainly far superior to that of her parents. Not to mention those who had set the examination paper. . . .
The tension in the room slowly drained away. Edith began to laugh, and presently all three of them embraced with almost childlike joy.
‘Poor Miss Ives!’ chortled Donald. ‘Wait until we tell her that she’s got the Ramanujan of geometry in her class!’
It was one of the last happy moments of their married life; they would often cling to its memory in the bitter years to come.