A Breath Too Clean

I

Professor Drayton wiped the sweat on his forehead with a handkerchief. He was not sweating out of heat—the air conditioner was on—but rather out of fatigue. Dark circles surrounded his eyes as he heaved a sigh of exhaustion; he pressed a red button on the machine that sat before him.

He was in his laboratory working on a very important project. He was making an Air Purifier. He put in a bit of impure air into the Air Purifier. When the resulting air reached the Air Tester, it had a one percent impurity; it was not pure enough.

"Try twenty-two, unsuccessful", he muttered to himself as he typed the result on his laptop. His fingers hit the keys, drumming the same way the exhaustion did.

The laboratory door swung open and his assistant, Asterix May, walked in. Her rumpled white lab coat was draped over her petite frame and her afro hair was scattered in different directions. She had a tired smile playing on her lips.

"Any progress, professor?" In her hands, she held two chilled water bottles. Reaching the professor, she tossed one to him.

Professor Drayton sighed, catching the bottle. "Twenty-second try and still not good enough. I can't find a way of getting rid of the non-metallic substances after oxidising the acidic oxides. But I do have an idea on how to do the twenty-third."

"Are you planning to use Russell's Third Sequence method?" Asterix asked.

"Exactly!" The professor exclaimed. Then they heard a chime; it was his phone ringing. As he answered the phone call, he furrowed his eyebrows as he spoke. "Okay, I'll be there", he mentioned before hanging up the phone. He dropped the bottled water on a counter as he switched his lab coat for a regular coat.

"Is something wrong, professor?"

"None that you need to bother about, Miss May", he smiled politely. "If anything, I'll appreciate it if you carry out the Russell's Third Sequence method."

Four hours later, Asterix had carried out all the procedures of the Russell's Third Sequence method. She was tired and all she wanted was for the thing to work. Her eyelids drooped slowly and an intermittent migraine filled her head. After ensuring that everything was in place, she pressed the red button.

The button's probably as red as my eyes right now, she thought with a weary laugh at her terrible joke.

The purification process started as the impure air travelled through the air filters. Since she only put in a few litres of impure air, the process ended within a few minutes.

When Asterix put it into the Air Tester, it showed that the air was clean. It had zero percent impurity; it was a hundred percent clean! She jumped in surprise and excitement, did a mini happy dance, and then rushed over to the laptop to record the result. After that, she called the professor. He picked up after ten seconds.

"Professor, it worked!" Her words were filled with the joy of a child. "The twenty-third try was a success! The air was perfectly pure."

And she could picture the professor smiling in response.

That night, Asterix walked back to her apartment more excited than she had in years. The building was as empty and silent. A week before, she would have been greeted by her dog, Bari. But Bari had died a few days ago.

Asterix sighed, wiping a tear from her eye. She felt like a bad luck charm. Most of her dogs never stayed for more than three months. However, she pushed the thought away from her mind. Instead, she focused on getting a goodnight sleep. Or, at least, close enough.

The next morning, Asterix hurried to the laboratory, still excited about the success of the Air Purifier. As she reached the building, at once, she could see that something was amiss. The door that she had locked the previous night was slightly open. She would have guessed the professor was in the lab but it could not have been him. He always came to the lab about an hour later.

With her heart in her throat, she hurried into the laboratory. As soon as she opened the door, her jaw dropped in shock.

The Air Purifier was missing!

Immediately, she called the professor, telling him about the missing Air Purifier.

"Have you checked the CCTV cameras?" The professor asked calmly.

Asterix went into the security room and tried to retrieve the footage from the last six hours.

"Leilani", she said to the Artificial Intelligence software that was installed to monitor security. "Was there a break-in within the last twenty-four hours?"

"Good day Asterix May!" Leilani's excited robotic voice chimed. "No, there was no break-in within the last twenty-four hours."

Asterix frowned in confusion. "What about the last six hours?"

"There was also no break-in within the last six hours."

At that point, Asterix decided to search for it manually, besides, you cannot always trust an AI. Watching the footage for the last six hours proved to be fruitless for a while. Asterix was about to give up when she noticed the footage of a shadowy figure opening the door with a key. The figure was dressed in black from head to toe.

After opening the door, the figure made a gesture to others to come in. Then other figures also walked into the laboratory. Together, they carried the Air Purifier away in a black truck. Unfortunately, Asterix was not able to see the direction in which the truck went.

By the time she finished watching the footage, Professor Drayton had arrived. He appeared just as worried as she was.

"Why didn't Leilani sense a burglary?" A crease appeared on Professor Drayton's forehead.

"The person used a key", Asterix explained everything to him, and then they watched the footage again. Asterix was hoping to pick up something new from the footage that she had not noticed before, however, she was unable to.

"I suppose we should inform the police about it", Professor Drayton spoke as his face drooped in sadness.