Definitely Maybe Chapter 10 - Surrenders and Storms
Chapter 10 is the one that broke me a little. Everything has been building toward this, and now the pressure finally cracks Malianov open.
The Soldier at His Desk
Malianov sits at his desk and keeps working. He knows it’s over. He knows this is the end. But he keeps writing anyway, with what the book describes as a strange, proud satisfaction. Like a soldier covering his retreating comrades.
That image is perfect. He’s not delusional. He’s not pretending things will be okay. He knows the battle is lost. But he wants to go down doing the thing he cares about, for as long as he can. There’s something almost beautiful about it. The stubbornness of a man who refuses to put down his pen even when the whole universe is telling him to stop.
I’ve seen this in real life. Colleagues who knew their project was getting cancelled but kept working on it until the last day. Not because they thought it would change anything. Because the work itself mattered to them.
The Bra
And then the whole thing turns domestic in the worst possible way.
Irina finds Lidochka’s pink bra in Bobchik’s room.
Remember Lidochka? The impossibly beautiful woman from earlier chapters who showed up as part of the “pressure” campaign? She left a souvenir behind. And now Malianov’s wife thinks he had an affair.
Irina is devastated. She’s crying, she’s smoking. She’s not screaming at him or throwing things. She’s just sitting there, broken. Which is worse, honestly. The quiet devastation of someone who trusted you completely.
This is the cruelty of whatever force is targeting these scientists. It doesn’t just attack them. It attacks their families. Their relationships. It poisons the things that matter most. And it uses the most ordinary weapons. A piece of underwear in a child’s room. No lasers needed.
The Truth Comes Out
Malianov can’t take it anymore. He tells Irina everything. The whole story. All of it. The mysterious force, the dead neighbors, the pressure, the bribes, the threats.
Watch Irina’s face change as he talks. Suspicion turns to amazement. Amazement turns to fear. Fear turns to pity. She goes through the whole emotional spectrum in one conversation, and by the end she believes him. Not because the story is believable. Because she knows her husband. She knows he’s not capable of making up something this insane.
The Storm
A storm breaks outside. Rain, lightning, the works. They sit together in the apartment, and Irina says two things that I want to write on a wall somewhere.
First: “You must make your decision as though I didn’t exist. Because I will be with you always anyway.”
That’s love. Real love. Not the “I support you no matter what” kind you see in movies. She’s telling him: don’t sacrifice your work to protect me, because I’m not going anywhere. Don’t use me as your excuse to surrender.
Second: “You must really have invented something great for them to be after you. You really should be very proud.”
And she’s right. The intensity of the pressure is proof of how important his work is. If his research didn’t matter, nobody would bother trying to stop it.
The Telegram
They have tea. They try to act normal. And then a telegram arrives from Malianov’s mother-in-law.
“BOBCHIK AND I LEAVING TOMORROW MEET FLIGHT 425 BOBCHIK SILENT VIOLATING HOMEOPATHIC UNIVERSE LOVE MAMA.”
With a correction strip that says: “HOMEOPATHIC UNIVERSE STET.”
This is terrifying and absurd at the same time. His son is being affected. Bobchik has gone silent. And the telegram itself has been tampered with, because “homeopathic universe” is obviously the mother-in-law’s garbled version of “homeostatic universe,” the very theory at the center of everything.
They’re threatening his child. That’s the final blow. You can resist bribes. You can resist beautiful women. You can even resist fear. But when they come for your kid, you fold. Every parent on earth would fold.
The Envelope
Malianov gathers his research. All of it. He puts it in an envelope and writes the title on the outside: “On the Interaction of Stars and Interstellar Matter in the Galaxy.” Then he crosses out his own name.
Think about that for a second. He’s not just giving up the work. He’s erasing himself from it. As if he never existed. As if the research belongs to nobody now.
He heads upstairs to Vecherovsky’s apartment. On the stairs, between the 7th and 8th floors, he finds Glukhov. The old orientalist is sitting there, hunched over. He talks about the pain of capitulation. How the wound never fully heals. How you think you’re fine and then one day it opens up again.
Glukhov says goodbye. “Forever,” he says.
I believed him. This is a man who surrendered years ago and has been bleeding quietly ever since. He came to this building hoping to find others who understood. And now he’s leaving, knowing he was right about one thing: giving up doesn’t make the pain stop. It just changes the kind of pain.
Vecherovsky’s Door
Malianov reaches Vecherovsky’s apartment. He hears unfamiliar voices inside. He rings the bell. And then something happens that has never happened before in this entire book.
Vecherovsky asks: “Who’s there?”
This man has never been afraid. Not once. He’s been the rock. The one everyone else leaned on. The one who stayed calm while others panicked.
He opens the door, and Malianov has never seen him look like that.
The chapter ends right there. And you have to turn the page because there’s no other option.
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