Page 42 (2/2)

"Done" Duncan teased thethen handed it to Grant "I told you No one knows you better than I do"

Grant studied the pages he’d glazed past the first tied, but he hadn’t becoht Duncan any hu his self-assurance down to match his achievements, he’d scaled his achievements up to match his self-assurance

"It’s up to you, Grant" Duncan walked towards the locker rooain I pro "Tellto prove?"

Duncan turned around His gaze pressed against Grant He looked as if he were intuiting the right response froainst his back, how Grant hadn’t tucked in his t-shirt or how off-kilter Grant had knotted his boot laces

"I should have known you’d see it right away even if I hid the conclusion fro P=NP sexier"

"You’ve juain Back it up, Duncan" For years, saying that ht as well have been Grant’s full-time job If Duncan expected mere humans to understand him, he needed to take it step by step

This tiht to wistful As he sighed, he seemed to deflate Grant had never seen hi" Duncan took a deep breath "Rehashing old results in ever ant ways has done so well for me, I don’t have to be practical I can do real math now You know, throw yourself into unsolvable proble mathematicians say they’ll do until they realize they need to eat It’s tiht you’d want to do that too With ain "Like I said, it’s up to you"

P≠NP meant that computationally intractable problems would always be intractable The best anyone could do was recognize that then focus on heuristics and other approximate solutions Mathematicians would care about that result, but no one else The proof ant anyone has ever seen but his theorem house would never sell it No one, not even Duncan, had a body perfect enough to wear it in public without eaze for what seemed like days before Duncan turned around He started towards the door, his motion so perfectly controlled, Grant couldn’t tell how Duncan felt

"I think e flesh out your outline, we may find that P=NP is undecidable" Grant allowed a small smile on his face Duncan was at least capable of the truth on occasion That was a start

Duncan stopped, then pivoted around Grant made a note to ask Duncan so

The puzzled look on Duncan’s face melted into one of realization then resolve "Perhaps" He shrugged "Let’s discuss it over dinner My treat"

Wind swept across the parking lot A hoodie coalesced around Duncan His giddy sht poles see Jersey barriers Not even the parking lot could contain Duncan tonight

No wonder he was so happy Grant had done exactly what Duncan wanted Maybe Duncan had discovered the virtue of telling Grant the truth Maybe Duncan had maneuvered Grant here the way he’d maneuvered Grant back onto the runway Grant only knew one way to find out as true Take Duncan on They’d tumble and swirl around each other until either they covered each other or Grant fell into the trenches of spikes

Grant suspected he could tumble on the runway forever and never really know Not everything that’s true had a proof No consistent forh if he didn’t want to find out