The Dharma Revelation

Chapter 14

"Tic-tac-toe?" Dr. Vincent Dualla asked. "You're sure she said tic-tac-toe?"

Petra pursed her lips and looked at him patiently, "Important lessons we can learn from simple things, she said."

"What can this mean?" Nasir asked. "Is she intending for us to break down the game, to analyze it logically?"

"Who knows?" Vincent said. "She wanted us to figure this out on our own. Or else she would have joined the rest of us here."

Petra stood up and walked over to the whiteboard. Noticing there were no markers, she grabbed the one out of Vincent's hand, touching his shoulder apologetically. She drew a tic-tac-toe game on the board.

"What does everyone see here?" she asked.

"Nine separate sections?" Nasir asked.

"I think she probably meant the game itself," Drake speculated, "not the board."

"But what if she referred to each section as a religion," Nasir said. "The X's connect some and the O's connect others."

"That's an interesting idea," Vincent said. "But wouldn't that mean we should all be using the same symbol? Not two separate symbols?"

"Maybe that's her point," Nasir explained. "We use these two symbols in the game, and—" He trailed off in thought, as his words were getting ahead of his theory.

"What about the rules of the game?" Petra asked. Maybe the game dynamics were her point."

"Three in a row wins," Drake shrugged, "X takes a turn, O takes a turn. I don't know; there are no interesting rules to the game. Vincent, what do you think? You're the scientist."

Dr. Dualla looked at Petra's drawing of the tic-tac-toe board and shook his head. "I have no idea what Dharma could have meant. It's a stupid game; there's no way to win."

"Maybe that's what she meant," Kushan Shiva said. He stood up and walked over to the board, and taking the marker from Petra, he drew an X in the middle square and handed the marker back to her.

She drew an O. They filled out all of the squares, and there was no winner.

"We cannot win?" Petra asked skeptically. "That was her message?"

"That's too negative of a message for Dharma," Drake agreed. "She must mean something else."

Petra erased the board and redrew a new game. "Perhaps if we combine the various angles, we—"

There was a knock at the door, urgent and sudden. The door opened a bit, and John Lassiter peeked in apologetically.

"I'm sorry to interrupt!" he said, dry washing his hands nervously. He looked at Drake.

"Sir, Carl is on the phone, he has news—he has some news! He was going to leave the message with me instead of interrupting you, but I think you should take his call."

"What is it?" Caleb asked.

"It's bad!" Lassiter said. "I think he could explain it best!"

Drake looked at the rest of the staff, and then nodded. "Transfer the call here, John."

John nodded and left, closing the door behind him.

"What do you think it is?" Nasir asked Drake.

Drake looked troubled, "I don't know."

"What was Carl doing today?" Vincent asked.

Drake gave him a worried look, "Something very important to all of us; he's recruiting the Christian."