Adler mulled it over for a moment, then grabbed the pages Mirabe had just sent him from the printer, pieced them together, and read through them a couple more times. The blurry thoughts in his mind started toe into focus.


    But he still needed to dig a bit deeper to figure out if this abandoned document was actually useful.


    Not wanting to hang around the abandoned document room, he quickly took the papers and headed downstairs.


    As he reached the ground floor and stepped out of the lobby, he bumped into some colleagues from other research departments who had just wrapped up their overtime and were heading out.


    "Hey, Adler! Didn''t you leave early?" one of them asked, surprised.


    Since radioactive sources were a no-go topic at the institute, Adler just yed it cool. "Came back for some documents," he said.


    The colleague gave a quick nce at the papers in his hand, then shrugged and gave him a thumbs up. "That''s dedication."


    Adler chuckled, "Alright, I''m off," and walked briskly towards the exit.


    Watching him hurry off, the colleague shook his head and sauntered out at his own pace.


    **


    The next day.


    Zane called Mirabe to his office.


    When she arrived, there were three other students in the room, all seniors from her major.


    "Linden, here''s the group project n. Take a look," Zane was saying. When he saw Mirabe, he handed the n to Linden and waved her over.


    "Professor," Mirabe greeted him with a slight nod as she approached.


    Zane nodded back with a smile, then introduced her to the group. "This is Mirabe. Don''t let her freshman status fool you; she''s a whiz at data analysis."


    Linden looked up and did a double-take at Mirabe, not expecting such a pretty freshman in their department this year.


    Recovering quickly, he nodded politely. "Nice to meet you, I''m Linden."


    The other two, Kason and Jessie, both graduate students, also introduced themselves warmly, showing no signs of looking down on Mirabe for her freshman status.


    In the bioinformatics department, students were few but tight-knit. Since Mr. Zane specifically praised Mirabe''s skills, it was clear she was the real deal.


    Besides, it had been ages since their department formed a research group. Mr. Zane wouldn''t let a newbie join just to make up the numbers.


    Linden, Kason, and Jessie got this.


    Seeing everyone getting along, Zane felt a wave of relief. He''d been worried about pairing his top students with a freshman, but it seemed he''d worried for nothing.


    "You guys can start familiarizing yourselves with the research n. I need to go find Mr. Calvin," Zane said, grabbing an application report from his drawer.


    He hurried out of the office.


    As Zane left, Linden watched for a moment, then turned back to Jessie and the others, motioning to the chairs. "Let''s go through the professor''s n," he said, handing out the copies.


    Mirabe took the document from Linden, staring at the cover for a moment. She felt a bit puzzled. Wasn''t Zane supposed to talk to her about something?


    Something seemed off.