Richard was a paranoid man, and, going against the maxim of many, he kept his friends far and his enemies further. Only one man would he trust, and that was his assistant, Phillip. Through Phillip he relayed orders to his crew, and through Phillip he received information on how these orders were carried out.
But Richard was on to Phillip, and he had a feeling that treachery was on the horizon. Richard hadn’t always been such a recluse, and he felt Phillip was to blame, because he was. There was no question. It was all a clever trap to set him aside from his crew, and with one swift motion he would take Richard’s place as captain.
Unreasonable? Certainly not. Intelligent was a more accurate description of Richard’s sentiments. He was not about to walk into the traps that Phillip had set so foolishly, because he was a genius. As a genius, he would always prevail. It was simple physics, really.
“Would you like a cup of tea?” Phillip asked one day. Tea? With lunch? Phillip was making his plot painfully obvious.
“Certainly,” Richard replied smartly, playing dumb for Phillip.
Phillip, being the idiot that he was, prepared the cup of tea. He did*’t even hide the addition of poison! It was an unusual poison, in white, granulated form, but Richard knew what he was doing all along. He accepted the cup of tea, matching Phillip trick for trick.
Before taking his sip, Richard would allow Phillip one last chance to exit the situation without punishment. “Aren’t you going to have some tea?” he asked Phillip, testing him.
“Why, yes! I was just preparing your cup first. I’m getting mine right now.*
Phillip was smarter than Richard had first anticipated. It was a bump in the road—something that he had not been expecting. Richard’s heart began to race, and he could feel the perspiration gathering on his forehead. His breathing quickened and he glanced frantically around the room.
06-Jun-2011 21:31:21
