CHAPTER 1

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”

—Albert Einstein

​

NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA

​

“I’M ROOTED,” TONY YOUNG THOUGHT.

       He was being pulled by his feet behind a new Aquariva Super, an Italian speedboat capable of 41 knots. The ski rope was taut. His hands were tied behind his back and his head was bouncing off the water. He felt powerless. Tony’s mouth was wedged open by an old fishing net stuffed down his throat. Salt water was steadily flowing into his windpipe causing him to gag, and he felt himself getting asphyxiated. 

    Boat weight plus body weight times horsepower = speed. “Boat weight of 1,000 kilograms plus my 15 stonetimes 200 HP,” Tony thought to himself. “We’re going 30 knots.” His mind on autopilot, he knew that if the intake of salt water is two milliliters per second and a person’s lungs hold 240 milliliters, he had about 120 seconds before he drowned.

  Tony was good at physics and math. Most accountants are. As a partner in a public accounting firm, Tony’s instinct was to calculate the probability of events, and his impending death was no exception. Using statistics and constants to calculate solutions to problems was second nature. But this time solving the time of his death with linear algebra and a diminishing mind was stretching his mathematical abilities. He thought about the knots in the ski rope.

   Young was well trained in knot theory, a rich area of mathematics. He learned from sailing that knots are based on the crossing number. There is only one knot with a crossing number of three, the cloverleaf knot. The figure-eight knot is the only knot with a crossing number of four. He tried to untie the ski rope around his wrists. It didn’t work. He knew it wasn’t a clover or figure-eight knot. Trying two other methods for untying five crossing knots didn’t work. Time was running out. From there the number of knots increased dramatically. Tony kept trying to solve the problem, “There are over 12,000 knots with 13 or fewer crossings and 1.7 million with 16 or fewer crossings.” His knowledge of knot theory wasn’t going to save him.

   “This is a sick form of waterboarding,” he thought, “and definitely not the peaceful slow death described in The Perfect Storm.” Drowning is a horrible way to die. Water fills your lungs until your chest feels like it’s going to explode. First there is surprise, then panic, followed by fight-or-flight, and then calm. As the airway begins to close to prevent more water from getting into the lungs, a person will start to hold their breath involuntarily until they lose consciousness. In 2007 it was reported that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency was using waterboarding on extrajudicial prisoners and the Department of Justice had authorized the procedure. Government officials said they did not believe waterboarding to be a form of torture. In 2009, President Barack Obama banned the use of waterboarding. Tony Young’s captors were not from the U.S., nor did they care about treaties banning torture. Besides, their technique was entertaining and produced results—death or declaration. 

    Tony could feel his lungs starving for oxygen. He was getting dizzy. The force of the water was pounding his bones. Eyes shut, ears whistling, and neck extended. “It’s too much pressure,” he thought. His collar bone started to tear from the clavicle while his sternum was pulling apart interconnected ligaments and tendons. Young’s short-lived hope was quickly fading away. 

      Accountants aren’t supposed to die this way.