and fought through the crowd as they fought the opposite way, towards the exit. Students shouldered past me as I tripped down the stairs, desperate to reach James before he was gone. I stammered my apologies and was finally deposited at the ground floor—just as James was pushed out the far door.
The doors thumping shut in front of me stopped me dead. Damn! I stared at the No Admittance for a minute, dumbfounded. Of all my luck! The one chance I had to meet James Nightgood and he was shepherded away from me before I had a chance for so much as a ‘Hello!’.
I spun on my heel, feeling like a fool and my foot sent something skidding across the carpet. A thumb drive. I frowned, hardly caring, before seeing the name written across it: James Nightgood. My stomach fluttered excitedly; I might as well have found buried treasure.
I swiped up the USB from where it rested and looked down at it. He must have dropped it in his hurry to leave. I glanced back to the closed doors. Too late to catch him now? I had no way of knowing which way he’d gone.
I closed my fingers round the tiny device and the stuffed it into my pocket. Then, somewhat defeated, but still a bit hopeful, I turned myself for home.
When I was back, I found myself staring questioningly at the far wall. The USB sat on the table before me. Right next to my phone.
I still hadn’t decided exactly what to say. And I was feeling bloody ridiculous. Ridiculous that I was still trying to piece together an explanation. Ridiculous that I was nervous about it.
I laughed out loud at my foolishness.
I still didn’t write out a message.
To be honest, I did feel slightly intimidated. James was younger than I’d thought—I was thirty-four, he couldn’t have been older than twenty-six. For another, he was a genius and I was…not.
And it was that second fact that felt like the insurmountable wall between us.
I sat back frustrated, huffing my breath out. Why was I doing this to myself? I turned away from the phone and thumb drive, unable to face it at the moment and flipped the telly on in desperation for a distraction.
What I saw certainly wasn’t a distraction.
I stared at the screen in surprise.
It was him.
James Nightgood.
He was on a chat show.
He sat perched on the edge of his seat, hands in his lap, reminding me of a small child; still wearing his rumpled suit from his lecture, but it looked like he—or someone else—had tried to straighten him up a bit.
A blonde woman was leaning towards him, smiling charmingly, in a skirt that might have been a little too short and high heels. She was midsentence as I focused in.
‘…And what most people may not know about you, you are one of the youngest in your field to have achieved so much. Creating a new mathematical theory at your age is quite remarkable.’
James tilted his head slightly to look at her, almost hopeful. ‘Do you actually understand my theory?’
The woman flushed a little. ‘Well, I’ll admit I’m not an expert in maths, not like you!’
James’s expression suddenly became incredibly bored. He gazed past her, as if something more interesting had appeared over her shoulder. ‘No, clearly you are not. So any attempt to explain something as complicated as my Universal Theorem would be completely useless, would it not?’
An awkward silence for two ticks. The woman let out an uncomfortable little laugh she tried to disguise as charming. ‘Now,’ she said, ‘tell us. Since you have proven to the world your understanding on the subject, I was hoping we could end up where we started this discussion. What do you think of InVizion’s upcoming product? What sort of benefits for society should we be expecting? From the demos we’ve seen, we’re all very impressed!’
James returned his attention to her once again; an odd, almost nasty curve came to his lips. ‘Oh,’ he purred in a voice that could, quite frankly, melt butter, ‘all of you people are so interested in
The doors thumping shut in front of me stopped me dead. Damn! I stared at the No Admittance for a minute, dumbfounded. Of all my luck! The one chance I had to meet James Nightgood and he was shepherded away from me before I had a chance for so much as a ‘Hello!’.
I spun on my heel, feeling like a fool and my foot sent something skidding across the carpet. A thumb drive. I frowned, hardly caring, before seeing the name written across it: James Nightgood. My stomach fluttered excitedly; I might as well have found buried treasure.
I swiped up the USB from where it rested and looked down at it. He must have dropped it in his hurry to leave. I glanced back to the closed doors. Too late to catch him now? I had no way of knowing which way he’d gone.
I closed my fingers round the tiny device and the stuffed it into my pocket. Then, somewhat defeated, but still a bit hopeful, I turned myself for home.
When I was back, I found myself staring questioningly at the far wall. The USB sat on the table before me. Right next to my phone.
I still hadn’t decided exactly what to say. And I was feeling bloody ridiculous. Ridiculous that I was still trying to piece together an explanation. Ridiculous that I was nervous about it.
I laughed out loud at my foolishness.
I still didn’t write out a message.
To be honest, I did feel slightly intimidated. James was younger than I’d thought—I was thirty-four, he couldn’t have been older than twenty-six. For another, he was a genius and I was…not.
And it was that second fact that felt like the insurmountable wall between us.
I sat back frustrated, huffing my breath out. Why was I doing this to myself? I turned away from the phone and thumb drive, unable to face it at the moment and flipped the telly on in desperation for a distraction.
What I saw certainly wasn’t a distraction.
I stared at the screen in surprise.
It was him.
James Nightgood.
He was on a chat show.
He sat perched on the edge of his seat, hands in his lap, reminding me of a small child; still wearing his rumpled suit from his lecture, but it looked like he—or someone else—had tried to straighten him up a bit.
A blonde woman was leaning towards him, smiling charmingly, in a skirt that might have been a little too short and high heels. She was midsentence as I focused in.
‘…And what most people may not know about you, you are one of the youngest in your field to have achieved so much. Creating a new mathematical theory at your age is quite remarkable.’
James tilted his head slightly to look at her, almost hopeful. ‘Do you actually understand my theory?’
The woman flushed a little. ‘Well, I’ll admit I’m not an expert in maths, not like you!’
James’s expression suddenly became incredibly bored. He gazed past her, as if something more interesting had appeared over her shoulder. ‘No, clearly you are not. So any attempt to explain something as complicated as my Universal Theorem would be completely useless, would it not?’
An awkward silence for two ticks. The woman let out an uncomfortable little laugh she tried to disguise as charming. ‘Now,’ she said, ‘tell us. Since you have proven to the world your understanding on the subject, I was hoping we could end up where we started this discussion. What do you think of InVizion’s upcoming product? What sort of benefits for society should we be expecting? From the demos we’ve seen, we’re all very impressed!’
James returned his attention to her once again; an odd, almost nasty curve came to his lips. ‘Oh,’ he purred in a voice that could, quite frankly, melt butter, ‘all of you people are so interested in
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