The Aeschylus by David Barclay Page A

doubted it. “I'm interested in what you do. Could you tell me?”
    “Absolutely!” The man grinned, but then, his face changed. A gurgling noise came from his nether regions. “Ooo... I don't think I can hold this any more.” He put both hands over his gut and started hobbling towards the bucket, paused for a moment as if not wanting to go, then cried out and forced himself onwards. “I'm so sorry, folks. I can't wait.”
    “Um—”
    “This is so embarrassing,” Ari said, pulling his pants down in a most unembarrassed kind of way. Before Dominik could grab the girls, Ari's hairy ass was staring him in the face. Lucja was stunned, but Zofia only looked confused.
    “Just a minute, Ari,” Dominik said. He grabbed both girls and turned them to face the corner of the room. “Let's be nice and give the man some privacy.”
    “That's so gross!” Lucja commented. She looked as if she might be sick.
    Zofia whispered as if Ari couldn't hear, which he clearly could. “What's he doing, Papa?”
    Ari let out another loud gust, this one propelled down into the bucket. It was accompanied by a soft, moaning noise from the man himself.
    Dominik, whose cheeks were barely dry, started to laugh. It was soft at first, and then grew to something louder. “I think, honey... I think he's trying to start a car. One of those old fashioned ones with a crank in the front.”
    “Hey now, I'm trying to concentrate,” Ari said. His bowels erupted. There was another loud explosion and a soft thud of wet matter into the bucket.
    “I take that back,” Dominik said. “It's more like a plane that's flying by. One that's dropping bombs on us.”
    Zofia, who was gripping her father's arm, loosened her hold and started to laugh. It was a completely normal sound, something he hadn't heard in days, and it was catching. Before long, Lucja had started in as well.
    “It sounds to me more like a dying hippo,” she said. “One of those big fat ones from the zoo.”
    Dominik started to cry anew, this time from laughter. He could barely talk he was laughing so hard. “It's starting to smell like a dead hippo in here, Ari.”
    “Oh, stop it!” Ari yelled, though Dominik could hear a ghost of a grin in his voice. A piece of bread hit him in the back. “That's for you to mind your manners!”
    Any hope Ari had of convincing them to be quiet, however, was lost in another blast. The three unwilling spectators erupted into fresh gales, and they couldn't stop. “Ari... I never knew... you played the trombone!” Dominik said between bursts.
    They were rolling on the ground now, and Dominik had to use his arms to keep the girls from rolling too far. He looked at his daughters and thought maybe, just maybe, they would be all right as long as they stuck together.

2
    “You think they want us to build a weapon, don't you?”
    That's what Ari asked him when the girls went to sleep. The previous year, Ari had published a theory— the theory—on thermal diffusion as a means of separating irradiated uranium, and Dominik was almost ashamed to admit he hadn't heard of him. He had heard of Ari's teacher, of course, the world-renowned Max Planck. It was clear that Ari was one of the man's proteges.
    Dominik sighed. “It doesn't quite fit. My field is biochemistry, not physics. If they wanted to build a bomb, they would have grabbed your teacher, not me.”
    “But chemical weaponry? Biological weaponry? What of that?”
    He had to admit it was plausible, though he didn't like thinking of such things. It was mere hours since he had lost his wife, and his mind was cluttered with other thoughts.
    They were interrupted by Burke the cook, and Dominik was saved the trouble of answering. The big man bustled into the pantry, looking harried and sweaty. Dominik was so surprised that it took him a moment to realize the door to the outside world was left wide open. Then, he realized he was being foolish. Even if they overpowered Burke, where would they go? They were at