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"Wait" Duncan’s voice swung away from Grant, not towards "The proof, it’s as much yours as mine You should write it up"

Duncan reached Grant with long strides He offered the proof to Grant

"You need the proof as a template for the ready-to-wear version" Grant could write it up from memory "Send me a copy of the video instead?"

The video had its flaws, but it was a proof verified at a major show More iht now

"I uploaded it just after the show ended" Duncan patted Grant’s back "Within a week, anyone with even half an interest in math will have seen it"

"I’ll send you a draft of the paper to review in a few days" Grant forced hi heat of Duncan’s desire

"When you’re swaet who asked you first, ok?"

Grant wouldn’t dignify that ridiculous thought He just grunted a hoarse laugh as he walked out the door

Stacks of boxes took the place of reference books, papers, and office supplies on Marc and Lisa’s office shelves The two grad students sat at their desk reading their tablets Whatjunk food

Either Marc and Lisa had gotten better at hiding their stockpile of chips, cookies, and whatnot, or they’d removed it Hyperactive metabolisms be damned They couldn’t eat like crap forever if they expected to be able to verify their proofs at conferences However, Grant had never expected the about it

"Not that I’, but why is the office suspiciously clean?"

"We’re leaving school, Grant" Lisa couldsound reasonable "Everyone’s seen that video of you in Dr Banks’s show The word is you’re going back to hi us"

Lisa looked hurt Grant hadn’t realized that was possible

"One, I’ you know first" Grant put his hands at his waist "Two, I can’t believe neither of you bothered to check withto voice mail" Lisa swiped then tapped on her tablet It chimed a few times She thrust her sent mail folder in Grant’s face "And you haven’t answered any of my emails"

Grant fished his cellphone out of his pocket The screen stayed blank when he tried to wake it "Oh, I forgot to turn it back on"

His phone vibrated as it booted up His eyebrows raised at the nu for hi He recognized the sender addresses: every theorem house of note, editors of all the important journals, and all of the best mathematics schools in the world, except one, Duncan’s Its mathematics department would have been formidable even without hiainst a shelf He swiped through his eain, daet aith anything "You fixing the proof on the fly is all anyone has talked about for days"

"I always disconnect aze et distracted"

"Why the hell are you teaching here in the first place, Grant?" It was Marc’s turn to rip into hie--"

"Hey, I’ood" Marc held out the last word "That last pass up and down the runway--" His eyes widened and his voice broke with awe "Why don’t you have your own collections?"

"That’s why you let your funding lapse" Lisa’s face lit with revelation "You’d planned to abandon us"

"No, we’re losing funding because I write really crappy grant proposals"