Demon Hunters: Book 1 Faith [editing]

Chapter 52

Mr. Laycock nearly jumped when Zoe walked into his classroom. "Oh, you are here! This is so great."

"Sorry about yesterday. Doctor's visit."

"Don't worry about that. I have some people here to meet with you." Mr. Laycock pointed to the back of the room where one woman and two meet had been sitting.

The rest of the class stared, mouths agape. "Who is she anyway?" one whispered to another. "Some kind of savant or something, I guess."

The party stood and made their way to the front of the classroom. They dressed like a foreign delegation, suits and ties. "Hello, Zoe," the woman said, extending out a warm hand. "We've heard so much about you."

Zoe took a step back, a defense stance. What's going on here?

The woman smiled. "We're professors at the University of Missouri. I'm Dr. Sylvia Anderson. This is my colleague, Dr. Amir Patel, and Dr. Lloyd Garrison."

"I'm so happy to meet you," Dr. Patel said, his voice thick with an Indian accent. "You are quite brilliant."

Laycock placed his arm proudly around Zoe, nearly making her throw him back. What is it with people touching me?

Mr. Laycock explained, "These are professors from the mathematics and physics departments. They would like to talk with you about about some the problems on that test I gave you a couple days ago."

Oh, no! What was on that silly test anyway. "Uh, I'm not sure that I'm supposed to talk with others. You know, with situation."

"Yes, that's right. Well, no one will know about this. It's just one conversation. I've reserved the faculty meeting room across the hall."

"We just want to ask you a few questions," Dr. Anderson said.

No one will know? Zoe glanced at the astonished faces of her classmates. Zacharias was going to be angry again. Keeping a low profile felt like an impossible task. She needed to get out of the classroom. "Okay, let's go somewhere else."

"Great!" Laycock nearly flipped with joy.

The four of them relocated to a conference room where each person introduced themselves. Dr. Anderson smiled again. "We were so impressed with the answers that you provided on that comprehensive examination you took."

"Did I get them all correct?" Zoe asked.

The Indian mathematician laughed. "Did you get them all right? Zoe, no one has ever gotten them all right, ever."

"Oh." Zoe had been tricked.

Dr. Garrison, an older man with short white hair, leaned forward and placed a copy of the test in front of her. "My dear," he said in a soft tone. "No one has ever solved that last problem before. Well, not in the way you solved it." He displayed her answer, which filled the bottom portion of the page and the entire back of that page. Her answer had been written in small print and consisted of dozens of formulas. Zoe had been so distracted over Ren's letter the day before that she hadn't realized how quickly she completed the problem or how much she wrote.

Dr. Patel giggled, a giddiness bubbling throughout his core. "How did a sixteen-year-old girl learn to mix abstract mathematics and complex string theory? You are a miracle. A miracle."

"Okay, calm down, gentleman," Dr. Anderson said. "We just want to ask how you solved that last question. That's all."

Zoe leaned forward and picked up the test. The question seemed simple enough, some kind of moving scenario involving finding out what would be the largest sofa that someone could get to fit around a sharp turn in a narrow hallway. At first glance, she didn't realize why the question was such a big deal. The question didn't even ask for an answer, just an explanation of how a mathematician might attempt to solve the dilemma. 

They team of professors waited in anticipation. What should she tell them?

"Take your time," Dr. Anderson said and smiled again.

That woman smiles too much. She's nervous and excited and fearful. These humans are such a puzzle.

She sighed. Her answer described three approaches to the problem. First, you get a sofa that would fit the space exactly, sort of like moving a wooden block into a square hole. The sofa could be rotated longways through the turn in hallway. Second, you could make the sofa curved so that it could be maneuvered around a corner easier. In this case, the sofa could be just over 2% larger than the width of the hallway. Finally, there was refraction where you simply fold up the sofa's matter like a slinky to make it smaller. Refraction!

Zoe's stomach cringed, and she wanted to slam her head into the wall. How could I be so stupid! Humans don't know what refraction is. She needed to think of something quick.

She lifted the paper. "I made it up. It's make-believe. Refraction isn't real."

Dr. Patel pulled out a pencil and a small notebook. "Refraction. Is that what you call it?"

"No." Zoe nearly screamed. "That's just made up."

"Don't get upset, dear," Dr. Garrison said. "I'm an old physicist, and I've seen lots of impossible things happen over the years. I can see why you call it refraction." He gently tugged the paper from Zoe's hand and pointed to some of the mathematical formulas. "These formulas suggest that the sofa must be folded into itself, what you call refraction. And this indicates—"

"The math's correct, Zoe!" Dr. Patel interjected. "You did it. You proved that this refraction thing exists, that matter can squeeze into itself and then unfold, like a tesseract!"

Dr. Anderson placed on hand on Dr. Patel's arm. "Amir," she said. "Let Lloyd explain."

"Well, yes, Amir is right. Zoe, your calculations created not only a third dimension analysis into this second dimension problem, but also speaks to a fourth dimension where matter can almost re-size itself."

Zoe snatched the test back. "Listen, I already said that I made it up."

"Well, dear," Dr. Garrison continued, "then you have the most accurate imagination I've ever seen."

"I'm not supposed to be talking to you anyway." She stood up.

"Okay, okay," Dr. Anderson said, gesturing for her to sit down. "Maybe we are pushing this a little too far. Please, take a seat. How about a compromise?" The woman's eyes begged her not to leave.

Zoe folded her arms and leaned against the door. "What?"

"You don't have to explain anything to us, but can we give you another test. Maybe next week."

"Next week?" I won't be here next week. A huge sense of relief washed over her.

"Yes. It'll take us time to construct the test. It will only have a few problems on it. Just answer the questions and turn them in to Mr. Laycock. We won't bother you again."

"You can't tell anyone where you got these ideas from."

"Yes, of course," Dr. Anderson said.

Dr. Patel blurted out, "Not a soul. We swear." Dr. Garrison nodded.

"Okay, next week then." Zoe held up the test and ripped the last page away and shoved that into her pocket. "Remember, this conversation never happened. This test never happened."

She opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. They probably made a copy of it, but there's nothing I can do about that. Nonetheless, she growled in frustration. This mission couldn't end fast enough.