Riskometer

VIII

Ridge had hardly slept. He did not even get a shut-eye.

After the exciting dive from the moon and unexciting ride back to his room, he safekept Roderick's costume inside the storage box hidden in his trashy cashew-filled couch where he also stuffed in Professor Yulek's ball clicker. He remembered how he manipulated his professor into letting him inspect the ball clicker. By that, he intended to take fingerprints if crucial for the exit to Nevah. Now that he did not need them, he went to his brainstorming corner and thought. He thought about what he could do with the ball clicker. That was Professor Yulek's Aptem as a current Physics professor. It would raise suspicion if Ridge did not return it after "fixing" it. So, return it to Professor Yulek? How would that benefit him? He decided it would be best to return it without having to be vis-à-vis with his previous Physics professor after that time. This time, without manipulation for personal gain. Technically.

Yulek would have figured Ridge out by now. So, he stayed in the shadows walking to the Academy in the Secondary Coverts to return the ball clicker to the sleeping professor. When he arrived at the teal aquarium of a classroom, he dropped his Riskometer. Making a mental note to find another way to carry the Riskometer, he picked it up and tiptoed to where the literal sleeping man was. Professor Yulek was right there as usual, hunched over his desk with his pince-nez. His keen eye was stuck on the grains of sand as they slowly pored down in the hourglass, except it was not watching it. Liquid came out of his mouth like a river. Very much like that river in Nevah. The sound of his snoring was absent, even though he would be a snoring mechanism asleep. The only sounds were the ticking of the cuckoo clock on the wall above the dead man and the hourglass- or, dayglass, since that is what Ridge turned it into during that time.

Ridge could have left the ball clicker on the table and reported the dead body for it to be buried in the Graveyard in the Primary Coverts, but as he did so and walked out of the room, he came to a halt as shapes formed before his eyes. The hypothesis shapes again, telling him to get rid of Professor Yulek's body. He had a hypothesis that once the governors find out the reason behind Yulek's death, they will inspect who tampered the hourglass for the time gaps between Yulek's timed soda intake. Before Ridge would know it, they would detain him just like how they did with Ab and Und. Or they will take the same hapless route they dragged Yulek in.

Also, it was too orthodox for him. For him to abide by the rules of Haven that were listed on blimps as a heads up. And literally, everyone's heads would be up to admire those rules. Those rules that were purported to be there for the citizens' safety. He was jealous of the Nevanese. Jealous that they were free to do whatever they wanted without having rules over their heads and under their noses.

Confidently, Ridge returned to the desk with the Riskometer in the ready. He took out some of the cashew crumbs as Riskomifiers in his pocket and placed them inside Yulek's hung open mouth. He used the Riskometer and vacuumed Professor Yukek's body, leaving no trace behind. Feeling a pang of relief, Ridge turned around again to leave the classroom, only for another hypothesis shape to tug at his eyes. He had a hypothesis that if he took Yulek's current Aptem, it would cause rumors among Havenians that Yulek was still somewhere since the Aptem was missing. That he was not dead, and rather took off with his Aptem. The rumors would go rampant to the point where the governors would be single-minded about that, rather than focus on Ridge and his Riskometer and his outings lest suspicions were incited.

Perhaps they would take Yulek's disappearance with the Aptem to be an act of embezzlement, and naturally the governors would be in the search for the lunatic professor. They would think Yulek went rogue since the hourglass was filled with more sand. It would not matter who did so and why, but what mattered was that Yulek was cut short of his timed intake of sedation and went missing with the ball clicker.