"Do you know what prime numbers are?" "Because if you don't, you should just leave now." "In 1742, the mathematician Christian Goldbach observed that even numbers could be expressed as the sum of two prime numbers." "It's easy to see with small numbers." "18, an even number, is 7 + 11, which are prime." "24 is 5 + 19, which are prime." "50 is 13 + 37, and so on." "Say an even number." "100." "1,000." "100 is 83 + 17." "And 1,000 is 521 + 479." "It works with much larger numbers too." "Let's see, any number... 7,112." "7,112 is" "5,119 + 1,993." "Both prime numbers." "But you can't check it with all even numbers because numbers are infinite." "A law had to be found that would cover them all." "And finding it became the most difficult problem in the History of Mathematics." "Will you sign this?" "Yes, of course." " Your name?" " Inés." "For Inés." " Here you are, Inés." " Thank you." " And good luck!" " Thanks." "Why "good luck"?" "On February 20 I'm presenting my demonstration of Goldbach's Conjecture." "Come up!" "Hurry!" "Your demonstration's ruined." "Fuck!" " What'll you do?" " I can repeat it, but I need time." "I don't know how they got in without being heard." "FERMAT'S ROOM" "FOUR MONTHS LATER" "You like puzzles, don't you?" "See if you can answer this." "What is the link between Georg Cantor, Yutaka Taniyama and Kurt Gödel?" "Let's see." "The three were mathematicians." " The three went down in History..." " And the three went mad." "Kurt Gödel formulated the Theorem of Incompleteness." "Kurt Gödel committed suicide." "I was very tempted to commit suicide a few days ago." "But I remembered we had this game, something that you forget very often." "You can't go on like this." "You have to get out." "I'm speaking as a doctor, not as a friend." "You tell me three times a day." "Three!" "I'm speaking as a mathematician, not as a friend." "In fact, I'm going to go away." "Want to see what I got in the mail today?" "Rook F to E 8." "You'll see." ""If you are capable of solving the following puzzle, which I don't doubt, you will be invited to a weekend gathering with the most ingenious mathematical minds." "Sincerely," "Fermat."" "What's the puzzle?" "It's a sequence of numbers." "You have to find the pattern." "I've got ten days, but it isn't easy." "TEN DAYS LATER ...8, 5, 4, 9, 1, 7..." "Well?" "Have you solved the problem?" "No, I haven't." "And this was the last day." "If you want to stay late, I'll leave you the key." "Drop it in the mailbox afterwards." "Thanks." "One thing." "Put back any books you use in alphabetical order." "Eight, five, four..." "They're in alphabetical order!" "Their alphabetical order!" "Dear Sir," "Only you and three other people were able to resolve the puzzle." "As I said in my last letter, the mathematical society I preside over would value your presence at one of the meetings we arrange to exchange knowledge." "I hope you weren't offended by the test." "Now I know I can trust you." "If you trust me, follow my directions." "On Friday, July 25, at 19:00, come to the meeting point." "Take Highway 141 to Km. 18." "Take the turn-off and continue to the end." "Remember I am relying on you to put to you what I believe to be the most ingenious, unedited enigma ever set out." "Do not bring a cell phone." "Give no information about your identity to the other guests." "Your pseudonym during the gathering will be Pascal." "Sincerely, Fermat." "I'm sorry, I've broken down here." "It happens with old cars." "Mr. Hilbert." " We're going to the same place!" " Yes." "What a coincidence." "The more you study logic, the more you value coincidence." "Do you know whose phrase that is?" "No." "Mine!" "Hello." "Are you going to the mysterious gathering?" "According to my invitation," "I should call myself" "Oliva." "That'll be for Oliva Sabuco, right?" "The 16th century scientist." "I'm an inventor." "Have you invented anything I might have used?" "I don't know." "Lots of things, from huge hydraulic presses to..." "Look, things like this." "You'll like this." "This is..." "Well, you put the corn in here and then" "the popcorn comes out of his mouth." "A duck." "Why the nicknames?" "Well, in theory because what matters at these meetings are the ideas, not the people." "That's nice." "I'm sick of people saying I'm right because of who I am." "Yes, it's best if we don't know each other." "But I do know you." "I saw your photo in a magazine." "It said that you'd resolved" "Goldbach's Conjecture." "Is it true?" "If it is, it's best if no one knows." "You'd all say I was right, just because of who I am." "Hi, there!" "We're all here now." "We weren't supposed to know each other." "And we don't." "Mr. Galois picked me up on the road." "It's 19:00." "Now what?" "To be precise, there's half a minute to go." "I suppose they'll come and get us." "You've done this before?" "Yes." "There are always games and things." "I bet they'll pick us up in a luxury car." "Whoever is coming won't be punctual." "In 5 seconds it'll be 19:00." "Well, 3 seconds, 2, 1..." "Lights!" "I think you've just found the luxury car." "PYTHAGORAS" "Well, this reminds me of the riddle about the shepherd who has to cross the river in a boat with a sheep, a wolf and a cabbage." "You know it?" "Only two can go in the boat." "For example, the shepherd and the sheep." "Or the shepherd and the cabbage." "You have to work out how he can cross the river without the wolf eating the sheep or the sheep eating the cabbage." "Why would a shepherd bring a wolf?" "What's more," "I don't see what it has to do with this situation." "Perhaps Professor Hilbert meant that one of us is the shepherd, another, the wolf;" "another, the sheep and another, the cabbage." "They connected the car's system to a PDA." "They probably programmed it to switch on the lights at 19:00." "Now what?" "Where do we go?" "We're here, and we have to drive to there." "We have to go in here." "Here?" "In a grain store?" "I've certainly seen more stylish chicken farms." "The usual place for these gatherings would be an elegant drawing room." "A library filled with books on mathematics, a blackboard for doing calculations, a nice couch, armchairs, a tea table..." "So, anything missing?" "Well, at first sight," "Mr. Fermat is missing." "What time is it?" "21:50." "Anyone know anything about our host?" "I only know that I know nothing." "We can't know anything." "I know something." "I checked up and I discovered a few things about Fermat." "Shall I tell you?" "That's against the rules." "I'd rather not know." "True, but now that one of us has got more information than the others, isn't it best to share it, so we're all on the same level?" "OK." "A month ago, we had to send the solution to Fermat's P.O. Box." "P.O. Box 325." "Well," "I looked for the name of the owner of 325." "To discover Fermat's real name." "The Post Office can't tell you that." "It's confidential." "It is, in theory." "I went to the Post Office and said I was president of "Defend the Brown Bear"." "I said there were only 325 brown bears left in our mountains and we wanted that P.O. Box as a symbolic number." "The employee said that the number had been taken." "I insisted on how important the number was for us and how 325 brown bears would be very grateful." "And he gave you the name of the P.O. Box owner?" "And a donation for the bears." "Yes, he gave me Fermat's name." "I looked on the Internet, and here's the good part." "There isn't one file in his name." "Nothing." "Right." "That's all?" "Congratulations, you've discovered that you've discovered nothing." "At least, what is Fermat's name?" "Yes, it was something with F, like..." "Fran, no, Fer..." "Wait, wait." "A bit slower." "We can't process so much information at once." "You discovered something else." "Good evening." "Forgive me for being late." "I'm Fermat." "It's worth waiting if the enigma is really original." " The enigma you're talking about..." " Well, there's no hurry." "We can sit down first and take things calmly." "No, no." "The greatest enigma ever set out is:" "how is it that four people are in here together and still haven't touched the supper?" "The last gathering of this kind that I attended was about this." "Oranges?" "No, Kepler's old problem about how to pile up spherical forms." "It's still unsolved, isn't it?" "The fact is, mathematicians worry about stupidities with no practical application." "It's not stupid to be famous for solving a problem." "It should be any mathematician's dream." "Then I'm not any mathematician." "I read a study recently about the human being's most common impossible wishes:" "to fly and to be invisible, not to resolve mathematical enigmas." "What do you think?" "I'd prefer to fly." "Why?" "I don't know, to fly, to see places, to enjoy it." "I'd ask to fly too." "But if we could all fly it wouldn't be special." "It's special if only you can do it." "I think flying is overrated." "I think it's much more practical to be invisible." "For what?" "To see without being seen." "I think being invisible is only useful for doing harm." "What would a person want to do if he were invisible?" "Go into the girls' changing rooms, steal tips in bars, go to Mass naked." "Nothing good." "When we do something good, we like to be seen." "Yes, but if" "I were invisible I'd use it to do good for all of Humanity without being seen." "And no one would have to thank me." "When is this guy going to tell us the damn enigma?" "Well," "I guess that we'll start now with the greatest enigma." "I don't know." "I guess so." " Excuse me." " Yes." "Yes?" "When you investigated Fermat and got so much information, do you remember if he was a murderer?" " Why would he be?" " Come on!" "Because of the five of us who are here, he's the only one with a cell!" "Get it?" "A cell!" "It's not funny." "I think I have to leave." "Is anything wrong?" "I think that was the hospital, but I couldn't hear well." "And then I was cut off." "What's happening at the hospital?" "My daughter is there." "She's in a coma." "In that case, it may be good news." "Or it may be bad." "Maybe they just need some information, and I'll be back in an hour." "You'd better carry on without me." "I know what you're thinking." "All this is too weird." "Fermat forgot his jacket." "Fermat!" "Fermat!" "Your jacket!" "Fermat!" "Your jacket!" "All right!" "Well, let's see what we'll do now that we're alone!" "Where's Pascal?" "Fermat's jacket!" "Of course!" "Let's see." "Román..." "Román..." "Román..." "Fermat is called Román Naranjo López." "Sound familiar?" "Román Naranjo..." "I've never heard of him." "I don't know any Román." "The P.O. Box I checked out wasn't in that name." "It was like..." "It was Fermín de la Vega, or De la Cuadra..." "Or De las Vegas, or De las Cuevas..." "Maybe it wasn't Fermín." ""You've got one minute to solve the following enigma." "A sweet seller receives three opaque boxes." "One box contains mint sweets, another, aniseed sweets, and another a mixture of mint and aniseed." "The boxes have labels which say "Mint", "Aniseed"" "or "Mixture"." "But the sweet seller is told that all the boxes are wrongly labeled." "What is the minimum number of sweets the man will have to take out to verify the contents of the boxes?"" "Don't tell me the greatest enigma ever set out is this rubbish!" "A stimulating problem!" "Listen to me." "What happens if we don't solve it in a minute?" "Read it again, Oliva." "There are 3 boxes, one with mint sweets, one with aniseed sweets and one with a mixture." "They're wrongly labeled." "How can you label them, removing the smallest number of sweets?" "It's easy, you take one from each box." "No, because you'd have one of mint, one of aniseed and one that could be of either." "How do you know where the mixture is?" "This wall is moving." "Let's see, to know which is the mixture, you have to take out more than one." "So, you take out three, and all are aniseed." "Can you be sure it's the box of aniseed?" "It's a problem of probabilities." "Just take out one sweet." "It's an infantile problem." "The key is in the statement:" "all the boxes, "all the boxes", are wrongly labeled." "If that is so, you just have to take one sweet from the "Mixture"" "because the mixture can't be in there." "If the sweet is mint, the box is mint." "So where is the mixture?" "They can't be here, because then the aniseed would be here and the box would be correctly labeled." "But as they're all wrongly labeled, the mixture is in here and the aniseed sweets are here." "Answer:" "one sweet." "OK, I'll put it here and see what happens." "Correct." "Now will you listen to me?" "The room is shrinking." "Didn't it open outwards?" "An enigma." ""You've got one minute to break the following code:" " One, one..."" " What's the code?" "It's a huge list of ones and zeros." "If we take longer than a minute, the room will shrink again." "This must be a game." "It's... a joke by our host." "Let me see. 1, 1, 1, 0, 1..." " How many numbers?" " I'm counting them... 169." "You know what 169 is, don't you?" "I've got an idea." "I need pieces of something." "This..." "Look, over two months ago Mr. Román Naranjo bought four hydraulic presses." "Is it normal for a host to go to so much trouble to play a joke?" "I don't know." "You said you'd been in lots of gatherings like this." "No, not in lots, I've been in two." "Two, counting this one." "Fermat, Román Naranjo, whatever, doesn't want to play a joke." "He wants to commit a crime." "He's bought four Poseidon hydraulic presses, one for each wall." "And I guess he's connected the system to the PDA." "He's assigned a time to each riddle and if we take longer the presses move again." " Will you be much longer?" " Not much." "This room is about 50 sq. meters." "If each press advances 10 cm. per minute..." "That means in an hour this room will be the size of an elevator." "An elevator with too much furniture." "We'll fix this another way." "Will someone help me?" " Where do you want to go?" " You're wasting your time." "Do you know what a press like that is used for in real life?" "Inform us." "Have you ever seen the presses that turn cars into a cube of scrap?" "When those presses are no use anymore, they're made into a cube by a press like the one back there." "There's another one there, and there," "and there too." "All right!" "Push!" "All right!" "That's it!" "That's it!" "Shit!" "What fucking kind of gathering is this?" "What have we done to that guy?" "Just sit down and keep trying to find the answer!" "We have to solve the enigmas in the time we're given." "Yes, but we're human, we'll get tired." "The machines won't." "Why do you think he wants to crush us?" "No, not you lot." "You're just extras." "He wants to kill me." "It's to do with his daughter." "A few months ago, I managed something important." "I sold a patent." "It was for a doll that made popcorn." "You've seen it." "They organized a party." "The company director was coming but he rang to say he'd be late, it was raining and impossible to find a taxi." "I offered to go and get him." "I got in my car, started it and drove to his house." "I'd gone about a kilometer when suddenly" "I noticed a strange smell in the car." "It was dog shit." "What would the director think if he got into that gas chamber on wheels?" "You didn't open the windows?" "It was raining too hard." "I thought of something better." "I'd put my shoe in the glove compartment." "I took off my shoe." "I put it in the glove compartment." "When I looked up there was a girl in front of me, crossing without looking, without traffic lights, nothing." "I wasn't going fast." "If I'd braked then, nothing would have happened." "But I didn't." "At that moment" "I imagined my bare foot pressing the brake pedal smeared with shit." "Even so, I braked." "But those milliseconds of doubt had delayed me and I hit the girl." "I called an ambulance and waited for it to arrive but then I drove off." "But she had crossed where she shouldn't." "All you did wrong was to run away." "I went to the police station the next day." "When the effect of the drinks from the party had worn off?" "I tried to apologize to her family but they wouldn't let me see them." "When I saw this photo in Román's wallet," "I put it all together." "And the cynic said he was going to see his daughter!" "I've got it!" "169 must be 13 by 13, the coordinates of a square." "The ones and zeros form a face." "See?" "0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0..." "So the answer to the problem:" "a face." "I'll put it in." "It hasn't stopped." "It's not a face." "It's a skull." "I'll put it in." "CORRECT" "Fermat wants to kill you." "I understand that much." "But what about us?" "Do we have to die because you knocked someone down?" "You're circumstantial victims." "He wants to kill me." "You're all part of this trap." "A new enigma!" "Come on, we've got one minute." "Stop drinking." "We need clear neurons." "Let's see:" ""Inside a hermetically sealed room there is a light bulb, and outside the room there are three switches." "Only one of the three lights the bulb." "While the door is closed, you can press the switches as often as you want." "But when you open the door, you have to say which of the 3 switches lights the bulb."" "Shit!" "Let's imagine we push two switches, 1 and 2." "We open the door and the bulb isn't lit." "That would mean the correct switch is 3." " But if..." " And we parked at the lake!" "...we still don't know if the right one is 1 or 2." "He'll be sinking our cars now to leave no trace." "Let's concentrate." "Something doesn't fit." "What if I hadn't solved the enigma on the invitation?" "The numbers were in alphabetical order, it was easy." "Did anyone help you, or give you a clue?" "No." "Put back any books you use in alphabetical order." "Let's concentrate on the switches and the light bulb." "Time's running out." "Why is he going to so much trouble to get his revenge?" " Why doesn't he just shoot you?" " Stop it!" "I don't know what Fermat wants from us, but he thinks the simplest way to get it" " is with this room." " I've got a theory but let's solve this first." "Great!" "Now we'll be in the dark!" " What is it?" " Nothing." "I burned myself." "You burned yourself." "The trick is in the temperature of the bulbs!" "We turn on a switch, 1, and leave it on for a while." "Then we switch it off, switch on 2 and open the door." "If the bulb is lit, the right switch is 2." "If it's off and is hot, the right switch is 1, which we'd left on for a while." "If it's off and cold, the right switch is 3." "Case resolved." "That's the solution." "Come on..." "Correct." "Oliva, what's your theory about what's going on?" "For me, the jacket is the key." "Did Fermat forget it or leave it behind on purpose?" "I think he left it on purpose so Pascal would find the girl's photo." "Without that jacket," "Pascal wouldn't know why Fermat wants to kill him." "But there is a reason, the accident." "We three don't know why Fermat wants to kill us." "I don't know what, but we've done something." "Hot, isn't it?" "The Audi, how much is it?" " Which Audi?" "The maroon one?" " Yes." "There only is one." "I'm in a hurry, really." "45 euros, please." "45, Christ's age." "Shit, I forgot my wallet." "You don't leave without paying." "But..." " Did you know Fermat before?" " No." "This is me." "Without any pseudonym." "I don't know what I did to be here." "I knocked his daughter down, I told you that." "I'm a mathematician because it's the only thing I can do." "Apart from that," "I return video tapes without rewinding them," "I lie in electoral surveys," "I take communion without fasting," "I pick fruit without using plastic gloves." "Could anyone hate me for things like that?" "I've got no enemies." "I harm no one, so no one harms me." "Are you sure?" "I spent five years working on Goldbach's Conjecture." "Three weeks before the presentation someone got into my room and destroyed everything." "You're 26." "And?" "That's the age at which Oliva Sabuco died." "How old are you?" "Twenty-two." "Evariste Galois died at 22." "And Blas Pascal died at 39, the age I am now." "And at what age did David Hilbert die?" "Pierre Fermat died at 64." "Román Naranjo is 64!" "I'm sick of this guy!" "I bet he's here, looking at us from some hiding place." "Román!" "What do you want?" "Now we'll have seven years of bad luck." "Anyone want to hear the new enigma?" ""How can you time a period of 9 minutes, using two sand clocks, one of 4 minutes and one of 7?"" "We've got 2 minutes." "Here." "This might help you." "Pascal, do you think the presses will stop when the shelves are all together?" "Only one thing can stop a Poseidon press." "Two Poseidon presses." "We've got four." "Can't we set them against each other?" "All right." "This is the plan of the room." "The door was here, the blackboard, this is the table," "and here, here, and here are the bookcases." "Maybe we can neutralize the forces." "Sooner or later, you'll have to tell them what you know." "What do the bookcases measure?" "About 2 meters high." "And the width?" "All together, no more than 4 meters." "So, if we do... this..." " I know what you want to do." " Will it work?" "There's just one way to find out." "The way to find out is by doing it." "Oh, right." "I've got it." "I'll send the answer." "How long have we got?" "20 seconds." "Check the answer." "We need the time." "I'm sure." "We start the two clocks at the same time, the 4 and the 7." "When the 4 finishes four minutes will have passed." "We turn it upside down." "Three minutes later, the sand in 7 is finished." "We turn it upside down." "When the sand has finished in 4 the second time, eight minutes have passed." "But 7 will have timed one minute." "We turn it over and we've got the nine minutes." " You see it?" " Yes, absolutely." "One second left." "I'll send it now." "A new enigma." "I'll read it out." ""A student asks his teacher:" "How old are your daughters?" "The teacher answers:" "If you multiply their ages you get 36." "If you add them, you get your house number." "I'm missing a detail, protests the student." "The teacher answers:" "You're right, the eldest plays the piano." "How old are the three daughters?"" "That's surrealistic!" "One daughter is 9, and there are twins of 2." "But don't send it yet." "We need time." "How do you know?" "It's a classic, I can't explain now." "You think it'll resist?" "Pressure is unpredictable." "It can turn coal into dust or a diamond." "Was that Archimedes?" "No, MacGyver." "Hurry!" "Come on!" "Put the answer in the PDA!" "I haven't got it!" "What?" "Who's got it?" "It was on the table when you overturned it!" "It had to fall here!" "What's that?" "Fermat's invitation." " What?" " The invitation he brought." "Why did the host bring an invitation?" "It's addressed to Román Naranjo López." ""Only you and four others have been invited to the gathering I'm organizing."" ""On Friday, July 25, at 22:00, come to the warehouse..."" "He was told to come here!" ""Remember to bring your cell phone." "Your pseudonym during the gathering will be" "Fermat."" "What is this?" "We should look for the PDA while there's room." "Don't you get it?" "They arranged for Román to arrive ten minutes after we did, and he was told to introduce himself as Fermat." "When Román arrived, as he was the last, we all assumed he was the host." "If he wasn't the host, why did he sit at the head of the table?" "He sat in the seat we left for him, thinking he was the host." "So he impersonated the host?" "No, Román never knew he was our host." "That's why he seemed odd." "You'd better carry on without me." "How could we carry on without him?" "Why was only he told to bring a cell phone?" "To tell him the story about the hospital." "Yes?" "Román is innocent." "I'm sure of it." "I think he didn't even recognize you." "The PDA!" "I'll send it." "CORRECT" "You rang me, I left a meeting, I forgot my wallet," "I drove 60 km., I ran out of gas," "I have to go back to pay for it..." "But I'm saying we didn't call you!" "Maybe you didn't, but someone here did." "Speak to the nurse." "Speak to the nurse!" "Mr. Naranjo, listen to me." "We're in a hospital!" "OK." "Show me the number on your cell phone." "It says "Private number"." "When we call, the switchboard number comes up." "Mr. Naranjo, your daughter is still stable." "We didn't call you." "All I know is I have to drive 60 km. to the meeting, get my wallet, go back and pay for the gas and drive another 60 km." "Mr. Naranjo, why not leave it for tomorrow?" "Go home and rest." "Yes, thank you." "My house keys are in the jacket too." "You realize?" "The keys, the jacket, the gas..." "I feel so sorry for him." "What I don't understand is if Román didn't organize all this, who did?" "The person who destroyed your demonstration?" "That was some kid who was jealous." "Come on, a kid doesn't go into a hall of residence, destroy documents and leave without being seen." "Miss Oliva, you shouldn't solve a problem with information that isn't in the formulation." "How do you know where it happened?" "We were dating for two years." "Then we broke up." "Why did you break up?" "Ask her." "She might tell you." "We broke up, that's all." "Soon after, I got the invitation to come here." "I thought it was your doing." "If I called you, it was to clarify it." "I thought if we pretended not to know each other, started again..." "That was your idea." "Yes, and I stick by it." "In the False Land, all the inhabitants always lie." "In the True Land, all the inhabitants always tell the truth." ""A stranger is trapped in a room that has two doors." "One door leads to freedom, the other doesn't." "The doors are guarded by a jailer from the False Land and by another from the True Land." "To find the door to freedom, the stranger can only ask one question to one of the jailers, but he doesn't know which is from the False Land and which is from the True Land." "What question did he ask?"" "We've got less than a minute." "I saw that in a film." "One jailer always tells the truth." "Imagine that it's you." "The other lies." "You." "It should be the other way round." "You're the man locked in the room." "If I ask which door is the right one..." "You don't know which is lying." "I've got an idea." "If I asked you which door he'd tell me is the right one..." "As I always tell the truth, I'd tell you he'd say that one." "I've got it." "You have to ask one of them which door the other one would tell me is the right one." "As you would both point at the wrong door," "I take the opposite one." "Get it?" "Careful!" "Correct." "Why did you two break up?" "He got it into his head that I had a lover." "You couldn't convince him otherwise?" "It's a problem of ages." "I'll calculate it, I'm the most aged." "I never..." "I never liked Internet." "But one day I went in to play chess." "What's more innocent than playing chess with someone you can't see?" "From time to time, we sent messages until one day something happened with him that had never happened to me before with anyone." "He beat me." "We played chess dozens of times and he always beat me." "So I got interested in him." "One day the idea came up about meeting to play face to face." "He invited me to a party where there would be important people." "In his house?" "No." "Not in his house." "On a boat." "On a boat?" "Why?" "That's what I wondered too." "Why on a boat?" "Then I found out." "It had to be out at sea because at that party things happened that would be illegal in any country." "You want to know what things?" "Come on." "Dare to ask." "No, forget it." "At that party" "things happened, and the things that happened" "made me go back more times." "Wait a minute." "Couldn't that guy have organized all this?" "No." "Why not?" "He's idle, eccentric, smart, rich." "Why can't he be..." "It can't be him because he's in here!" "Time's up." "Want to hear the problem?" ""The mother is 21 years older than the son."" "I never thought he'd be here." ""In 6 years he will be 5 times younger than the mother." "What's the father doing?"" "We've got 10 seconds." "You both deserve to die here!" "What are you doing?" "You'll die too!" "I don't care!" "You don't care if you die?" "All this is too interesting for the person who organized it to miss it." "If I'd organized all this, I wouldn't settle just for revenge." "I'd want to see it all." "What do you mean?" "The culprit could be someone so keen to kill his victim that he doesn't mind dying." "Are you saying I'm capable of organizing all this?" "You said that they deserve to die and you don't care about anything." "Breaking this PDA is the closest thing you could do to killing us." "You knew there was something between us." "All this is just your style, so childish." "Those pedantic enigmas, those stupid brain teasers..." "Did you have to organize all this?" "You could have bought four hydraulic presses in Román Naranjo's name." "You could have set up the room, sent the invitations." "You could have done it." "But you didn't." "What?" "I've just realized he didn't do it." "Remember after the supper." "We were moving around, clearing the table and waiting for Fermat to set out the famous enigma." "Then there was an unexpected sound." "That call was a fundamental part of the plan." "Fermat would have to leave the room and we'd suspect him." "Whoever made the call was the person who organized all this." "He couldn't have done it because he was next to me on the couch." "Only one person could have made that call." "The one who wasn't in the room when Fermat was on the phone." "Is anything wrong?" "You just have to resolve one X." "Efrén Cuevas!" "He sent the letters." "It wasn't Fermín." "It was Efrén!" "The last call was made at 22:55." "You called Fermat from this phone." "Call for help!" "There's no time." "Call Fermat." "Maybe he's on his way back." "Fermat is dead." "Good evening." "Your driving license, please." "I haven't got it." "Well, I do, but it's in a house 5 km. from here." "Follow me and I'll show it to you." "Please, I'm asking you." "Follow me, it's very close." "Why don't you come with me?" "Please, I'm begging you, really." "Please." "No answer." "How do you stop this?" "How do we get out?" "There is no way out." "You'll die too." "I've been preparing this moment for some time." "I even made a model." "May I?" "Here it is." "My demonstration that Goldbach's Conjecture is correct." "You destroyed his demonstration?" "I?" "Two months ago I was so close to demonstrating it." "I was only missing a few minor verifications." "And, suddenly I saw this!" "35 years looking for an answer and a kid finds it ten days before you." "And saying things like:" ""My only merit is being young"." "I didn't know what to do." "I considered committing suicide." "But I felt a brutal curiosity to meet you." "Then" "I read this in the press." ""The solution to the greatest mathematical enigma sabotaged."" "I sent you an e-mail, but your girlfriend answered." "That's how we met." "She confirmed what I found so hard to believe." "Your work was sabotaged and you had to re-do everything." "I was immersed night and day in Goldbach's Conjecture until I managed to prove it." "Here it is." "Thank you." "This is brilliant." "I demonstrated the Conjecture but you did it first." "Even if you take another three years you'll still be the first." "Unless you don't manage to recover it." "And why can't you see what the father's doing if the mother is 21 years older than the son?" "I can't take any more!" " I can't!" " Come on!" "In 6 years, the son will be 5 times younger than the mother!" "What is the father doing?" "It's a negative result!" "It's possible!" "The son has minus three quarters of a year." "What is the father doing?" " I don't know!" " Leave him alone!" "Minus three quarters is minus nine months!" "The father is screwing the mother." "I set up this room to put your intelligence to the test." "I'll give you your grades." "What have Román and I to do with this?" "Tomorrow they'll think Román took his revenge on you and we were all sacrificed." "When they blame Román he'll defend himself." "I told you, he's dead." "He can't be." "I saw him drive away." "After supper, we cleared the table." "I didn't think the situation with the false host would be so much fun." "Before things got out of my control," "I went out to make the famous call." "Good evening, Mr. Naranjo." "I'm calling from the hospital." "Yes?" "Just a moment, please." "You very cleverly discovered that." "But you don't know that while I was talking to him" "I put phosgene in the clasp of his safety belt." "You have to come here immediately." "Your daughter..." "If inhaled, phosgene causes asphyxia in less than two minutes, it leaves no trace and if you're driving..." "I think I have to leave." "Is anything wrong?" "...the accident hides the cause of death." " What are you doing?" " Calling Fermat." "I never answer if I'm driving." "One must be careful." "Don't you know that 28% of people who die on the roads travel like you, without their safety belt?" "So all the rest, the other 72%, die with their belt on." "I don't believe you don't mind dying." "When they find us, I'll be clinging to this dossier." "I'll go down in history as the mathematician who demonstrated Goldbach's Conjecture." "That's enough for me." "It's my fault for lying." "What?" "I didn't resolve Goldbach's Conjecture." "I told you I was working on it so you'd notice me." "And it worked." "Then the lie got bigger, there were interviews, they asked for a demonstration." "I didn't know how to gain time." "No one went into my room." "I destroyed everything." "I didn't know what to do." "I did it for you." "I did it for you!" "Then," "I really was the first." "I resolved Goldbach's Conjecture before anyone." " What are you doing?" " He deserved it!" "He's thought of some way of getting out!" "I don't believe that story about dying with the dossier." "I'm sure he had an escape planned." "Why don't we just admit we're going to die?" "We'll die at the same age as Galois, Sabuco, Pascal, but David Hilbert died in his 80s." "This guy wasn't intending to die." "This room was a test of our intelligence." "There must be a way of passing it." "FREEDOM" "It's breaking!" "It's a bolt!" "Come on." " There's only room for one." " No, I won't fit!" "If your head fits, your body fits." "Try putting your ass in a helmet!" " I'm out!" " Send it up!" " The exit is blocked!" " I can't!" "Push it up!" " Push it up!" " I can't, it's too heavy!" "Try to push it!" "I'll try with this." "Go on, you next." " Hurry up!" " No, no, wait!" " What is it?" " Just a second!" " We don't have a second!" " Got it!" "Shit!" "What's wrong?" "My pants have got caught!" "Look." "The last quarter." "How ironic." "It's shrinking too." "What'll you do with that?" "It's a problem." "If I publish this demonstration just as it is," "Efrén Cuevas will go down in History and he'll have won." "But if I publish it with my name it wouldn't be ethical, but it would be the easiest for me, and take a load of my mind." " What are you doing?" " Problem resolved." "But why?" "It was the solution to a problem unsolved for over 250 years." "How can you do that to the world?" "The world is as it was." "Adaptation:" "Deirdre Mac Closkey"