Read Online Sequence by Arun Lakra - Free Book Online

twenty-first time. Finally.
    THEO
    You’re pretty happy about that.
    CYNTHIA
    Well, I was starting to wonder. I mean, what if it came up tails? What would this mean? That all of your picks have come from… somewhere else?
    THEO
    From God?
    CYNTHIA
    Who the hell knows? Turns out your picks came from nowhere. There was no predetermination. No spiritual or scientific questions to be pondered. Just a coin flip gone bad.
    Pause.
    You seem disappointed.
    THEO
    A little. I was kind of hoping it would come up tails.
    CYNTHIA
    You’re sad because there is no spiritual reason for your lucky streak? You’re not God’s chosen one? You’re just a statistical aberration?
    THEO
    Thanks. I feel a lot better now.
    The phone starts to ring in the briefcase.
    CYNTHIA
    Sorry to disappoint you. But math is absolute. You can’t mess with it. Sooner or later, probability will prevail.
    CYNTHIA finds her autographed book, prepares to leave.
    THEO snaps open the briefcase, reaches for his phone.
    THEO
    I liked it better when I was an instrument of God.
    Laboratory
    MR. ADAMSON
    You’re joking, right? You can’t expect me to believe—
    DR. GUZMAN
    I understand your skepticism. I know it sounds implausible. There’s a reason nobody in the department knows I’m working on this.
    MR. ADAMSON
    How exactly does somebody find the gene for luck?
    DR. GUZMAN
    I started with those lucky families. I played a hunch and discovered all the winners put on their pants left leg first. Then I analyzed their DNA and incorporated gene candidates into mice. And I went looking for the luckiest mouse.
    MR. ADAMSON
    How can you tell a lucky mouse from an unlucky mouse? The one with the most cheese?
    DR. GUZMAN
    Exactly! Now you’re thinking like a scientist! I simply designed a random reward generator and identified the mouse with the most cheese.
    MR. ADAMSON
    Then you killed it?
    DR. GUZMAN
    Wouldn’t you know, just as I was about to euthanize him, the phone rang and the lucky bastard got away.
    MR. ADAMSON
    Really?
    DR. GUZMAN
    No. I killed him! If some higher power wants you dead, you’re dead, right? But I think I found it. On the X chromosome. Right next door to the PLO gene.
    MR. ADAMSON
    You’ve found the gene for luck?
    DR. GUZMAN
    First I need more data, or I will be discredited and put out to pasture for good. I don’t have much time left. I need to find a control… an exceptionally unlucky human being.
    Auditorium
    THEO speaks into the phone.
    THEO
    It’s me. Put everything on tails.
    CYNTHIA gasps, drops her book.
    Laboratory
    DR. GUZMAN
    It’s easy to find lucky people. But how do you find the unlucky ones? The unluckiest of them die. Usually in freak accidents, like playing with loaded guns.
    DR. GUZMAN rummages through a drawer. MR. ADAMSON moves closer.
    MR. ADAMSON
    So you need to get lucky to find an unlucky person to validate your luck gene? That’s a bit ironic.
    DR. GUZMAN
    Irony is like luck. Not everybody who thinks they got it got it.
    MR. ADAMSON
    I’ll have to remember that.
    MR. ADAMSON steals the door key from her lab-coat pocket.
    DR. GUZMAN
    It seems you
do
have something I want, Mr. Adamson.
    DR. GUZMAN produces a tourniquet.
    Your blood.
    Auditorium
    CYNTHIA
    What the hell? Your coin said heads.
    THEO
    Call it a hunch.
    CYNTHIA
    A hunch? How much money did you bet?
    THEO
    All of it. Eight hundred and fifty million. Give or take.
    CYNTHIA
    Holy shit. Eight hundred and fifty million dollars. On tails. On a hunch. How could you bet against your lucky coin flip?
    THEO
    How could I bet against Fibonacci?
    Laboratory
    MR. ADAMSON
    I couldn’t do that.
    DR. GUZMAN
    Your DNA would be most useful for my research.
    MR. ADAMSON
    That’s why you wanted to see me. You needed me for your research.
    DR. GUZMAN
    First I needed to establish if you were, in fact, luck deficient. Or if you were cheating. I think I have my answer.
    MR. ADAMSON
    Right. Yes, I’m