Elijah reached the blackboard and studied the symbols without speaking.

Hollis tapped his watch.

“Having second thoughts?”

Elijah shook his head.

“No, sir.

I’m wondering why you changed the final condition.”

The room went quiet.

Hollis’s smirk vanished.

“I did no such thing.”

Elijah circled one symbol.

“This should be negative.

With a positive sign, the problem has no valid solution.”

A student lowered her phone.

“He’s right.”

Hollis stepped forward.

“Put down the chalk.

You’ve seen this problem before.”

Elijah’s hand trembled, but he kept writing.

Line after line appeared beneath the equation.

A graduate student in the front row stood up.

“Professor, that method isn’t in our textbook.”

“I said sit down!” Hollis snapped.

The side door suddenly opened.

Thomas stood there in his custodian’s uniform, holding a sealed envelope.

Beside him was the university dean.

Hollis went pale.

The dean looked from Elijah’s work to the equation above it.

“Gerald, explain something to me.

Why are you presenting a problem taken from Elijah Carter’s private research paper?”

Hollis stared at the board.

Then Thomas placed the envelope on the lectern.

“This,” Thomas said quietly, “is what you were hoping no one would find.”

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What was inside the envelope—and why did Hollis fear Elijah’s work?

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