Zane grabbed the book and left the library, heading back to his department.


    After stashing the book in his office drawer, he paused, then decided to make a detour to the archives.


    Years of research materials were stored there. Since they were from older projects, they weren''t ssified anymore and students could check them out if they wanted.


    In his seven or eight years of teaching, Zane had only ever had one student, Mirabe, who showed any interest in those dusty old files.


    The archive room was on the third floor of the admin building and required a key card for ess.


    Zane punched in the code, opened the door, and started rummaging through the stacks. He eventually found a thick, faded man envelope that looked like it had been there for ages.


    He untied the seal, quickly skimmed through the contents, and then put everything back in the envelope.


    A momentter, he was out the door with the envelope in hand.


    On his way back to his office, he bumped into Calvin, the department head, who was chatting with a student.


    Instinctively, Zane hid the envelope behind his back and nodded at Calvin. "Mr. Calvin."


    Calvin had noticed the envelope, but didn''t seem too interested. He just nodded back. "Mr. Zane."


    Meg, who had been discussing research with Calvin, stopped talking when she saw Zane and greeted him politely, "Mr. Zane."


    "By the way, do you have a ss this afternoon?" Calvin asked.


    Zane nced at him and replied, "Just one."


    Calvin nodded, thinking for a second. "After your ss,e to my office. There''s something we need to discuss."


    "Alright."


    "Great." Calvin said, then hurried off with Meg.


    Zane watched them go for a moment, then headed back to his office. He sent Mirabe a quick message, telling her to swing by and pick up the materials when she had a chance.


    **


    Meg and Calvin stepped into the elevator, swiped their ess card, and pressed the button for the fifth floor.


    The fifth floor was home to the researchbs, which were off-limits to regr students and only essible to the research team.


    "Professor, are there any promising freshmen this year?" Meg asked respectfully, standing beside Calvin.


    "There are a few with good grades who joined our department, but it''ll take some time to see if they''ve got real talent," Calvin replied slowly.


    Meg noticed her mentor didn''t seem too impressed by any of the new students and said softly, "That makes sense."


    "Hmm." Calvin responded.


    As the elevator dinged and the doors opened on the fifth floor, Calvin led the way out; continuing the conversation. "Make sure to finish your gic research thesis soon. The deadline for the international biochemistry journal is at the end of Nóvember, and we still need to run the experiments, so we''re a bit pressed for time."


    "I''m almost done. I''ll have it for you in a few days," Meg assured quickly.


    Calvin nodded. "That''s good. Later, I''ll ask Mr. Zane to arrange for a student to help you with the databaseparison experiments."


    Meg hesitated for a moment before speaking "But I''m worried there isn''t a particrly skilled data analyst in the IT department. I''m concerned it might affect our research progress."


    Calvin paused and rubbed his forehead. "That is indeed a problem."


    Out of the sixty or so students in the IT department, none seemed capable enough for the task. Saying they were draining the department''s resources wasn''t an exaggeration.