York smiled and nodded. "That''s right. I''m here today to show you the progress we''ve made." As he finished, he nced at Eleanor across the table. Eleanor pressed her lips together and gave a subtle nod in return.


    Julian took over, giving a brief overview of the experiment. Then, the presentation shifted to a series of images. Faye stared at a photo from two years ago. There was a young woman in the frame, standing at theb bench, head down, jotting something in a notebook.


    Wait a minute. Faye''s eyes narrowed. That girl-wasn''t there something about her that looked just like Eleanor?


    Was she imagining things?


    Eleanor looked at the photo, a wave of emotion rising in her chest. She remembered that experiment vividly: thete-night virtual discussions with York, the endless debates. Aftern left the country with their daughter, she bought a ne ticket and flew straight to theb.


    Faye''s eyes widened as the projection shifted to a video-there, on the screen, a girl who looked unmistakably like Eleanor was working intently, her hands moving deftly over a tangle of sophisticated equipment.


    Faye stared at the screen as if struck by a bolt of lightning. It couldn''t be. How could it be Eleanor?


    Suddenly, the video yed a new clip. Eleanor stood at theb bench, sometimes typing rapidly on the keyboard, sometimes adjusting the equipment, her eyes sharp and steady, intelligence radiating from her every movement.


    Back then, he hadn''t even known what she was working on.


    The Eleanor on the screen was confident, professional, shining with a brilliance that was almost dazzling a world apart from the gentle, amodating wife he thought he knew.


    So this was who Eleanor really was. She had never been someone who lived in his shadow. She had her own gifts, her own ambitions. Even two years ago, while he was oblivious, she was already making breakthroughs at the cutting edge of science.


    A tightness grew inn''s chest.


    Faye''s face had gone pale. She stared at the screen, then at Eleanor, disbelief written all over her features.


    The first person to make a breakthrough in brain-machine interfacing... was Eleanor?


    Impossible. It was absurd.


    Now, the video showed Eleanor and several researchers gathered around a patient bed. She was connecting a brainputer interface to a monkey that waspletely paralyzed. After several careful adjustments, her steady voice rang out, "Begin testing."


    Everyone in the conference room held their breath. The monkey, lifeless just moments before, suddenly jerked as if shocked by a surge of electricity. Then it moved a forelimb, then the hind legs twitched. Tentatively, the monkey sat up, then took a cautious step forward. Another step. Then, with surprising agility, it hopped twice on the bed-just as the footage jolted and cut out.


    York sighed. "That''s where the video ends, unfortunately. The monkey attacked one of our researchers, and we had to stop the experiment immediately."