Linden looked pretty troubled, and it was no wonder. Meg seemed to have all the confidence in the world, thanks to Mr. Calvin backing her up.


    Linden had heard about Mr. Calvin before; he was the one guy in the department you really didn''t want to cross. There were stories about students who''d gotten on his bad side and ended up being pushed out of the program for one reason or another.


    If Mr. Calvin decided to step in, the whole idea theft thing could easily be flipped around, making the user look like the guilty party. It wouldn''t be shocking if, eventually, the younger student found herself facing pressure from other professors too.


    Thinking about all this made Linden feel even worse, regretting his earlier outburst. Stealing an idea was bad enough, but dealing with faculty bacsh could be seriously scary. It might just mess up her whole future.


    Linden stood there, staring at the closed door for a moment. Then he turned to Mirabe, struggling to say, "Let''s just drop it today, alright?"


    "We can''t afford to go up against Mr. Calvin," Linden admitted with a sheepish smile. He wanted to stand up for the junior student but knew he didn''t have the clout to do so. That''s just how things are sometimes; those with connections always seem to have the upper hand.


    Mirabe saw Linden''s guilt and gave him a reassuring smile. “So, you called me because their decryption algorithm was off, causing the data to keep mismatching, right?"


    Linden was a bit confused about why Mirabe brought it up again but nodded. "I''ve been trying to help them sort it out for days. I''m not great with algorithms, and they seem to think theirs is fine. They''re ming the constant data mismatch on my analysis."


    That''s why he had asked Mirabe to step in. He was sure his data analysis was solid.


    Mirabe nodded, motioning for Linden to leave first. "Your data alignment got stuck at ny-seven percent, didn''t it?"


    Linden, following her lead, looked at her in surprise. "Yeah, that''s the number."


    Mirabe, calm as ever, pressed the elevator button. "Your data''s fine, and so is their algorithm. It''s just missing a key piece of data."


    Linden was caught off guard.


    When the elevator doors opened, Mirabe stepped in, and Linden quickly followed. "Key data?"


    Mirabe nodded. As she watched the elevator numbers tick down, her eyes were thoughtful. Meg had copied her algorithm method to the letter, but she didn''t get data alignment. She didn''t know that during the process, a crucial data piece needed to be entered.


    That''s why Mirabe had a perfect sess rate, while Linden, trying to help, only hit ny-seven percent. The real difference was in understanding the research.


    If Meg had really tried to learn, she would have found that missing piece easily. But unfortunately, some people just can''t get it, even with a map in hand. The elevator pinged on the ground floor, and they walked out together.


    Linden, still mulling over Mirabe''s words, didn''t speak until they were well away from theb building. Then he turned to her. "So, no matter what, her experiment''s pretty much doomed to fail?"