Chapter 4

Something happened at the end of my second semester. Julia came back to Valdria, or to be exact, Richard sent her back to take her exams.

The plan was for Julia to study my notes back home, fly over for her exams, and head home again once she passed. She would come back the next semester and repeat the cycle until she graduated.

My job was to be a human study machine.

The day Julia landed in Muni, I went to pick her up at the airport.

Airport pickup wasn't in the contract, but Richard had called to make a point of it. "It's her first long flight by herself. Go pick her up." He said it like he was giving orders to the hired help.

At the airport, I held up a sign that read: [Julia Summers]

A girl with long hair and a white dress came out of the crowd at arrivals, pulling a pink suitcase behind her.

She was gorgeous, no doubt about it. I finally understood why Richard was willing to spend 1.8 million dollars worrying about her grades.

Julia spotted the sign and jogged over. "You must be Daniel," she said with a big, bright smile. "Thank you so much. Your notes were a lifesaver. I read every single one back home."

"You're welcome," I said.

"Let me take you to dinner!"

"No need. I've got class this afternoon."

Julia was caught off guard. "Wait, you're still taking classes?"

"Yeah, a summer research seminar," I said. "Professor Miller runs it. It's about applying computational fluid dynamics to aircraft engines. There were only 12 spots, and I grabbed one."

Julia blinked at me. "Aren't you here to scout for me? What do aircraft engines have to do with my major?"

It was a great question, and the answer was nothing.

I was quiet for two seconds. "It's all connected," I said.

Julia obviously didn't buy it, but she didn't push. She took her exams and left, and her results weren't bad. She passed four classes and failed the other three.

Richard called, sounding more relaxed than usual. "Good work. At this rate, she should be about done next year."

"Sure," I said.

"You can start wrapping things up on your end, too. The contract runs through the end of the year, and I'll add two months' pay to your first-year bonus."

I gripped my phone and opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Wrapping things up was the last thing on my mind.

"Mr. Stone," I said, choosing my words carefully, "I think I might need to stay another year."

Richard went quiet on the other end. "Why?"

"Ms. Summers still has three classes to pass," I said, "and next semester's courses get harder. I need to scope things out ahead of time."

"One year is enough," he cut in.

"Also, Professor Miller invited me onto his research project. If I pull out halfway through, it could cause problems."

"What research project?"

"Computational fluid dynamics. It's an interdisciplinary project with an aerospace angle."

The line went silent again, longer this time.

"Daniel," Richard said.

"Yes?" I said.

"I hired you to go to school, not to do research."

"I know."

"Then what are you doing?"

I was learning. For the first time in 26 years, I was doing something I really wanted to do.

But I couldn't say that out loud. It would sound corny and unprofessional, and it would make me look like I didn't deserve the 50 thousand a month.

"I'm making sure Ms. Summers graduates without any problems," I said. "Working on Professor Miller's research will give me a deeper understanding of the curriculum, and that'll help a lot with the notes."

It was total BS. But Richard bought it, or at least he chose to.

"One more year," he said. "Tops."

"Okay," I said.

I hung up with my palms drenched in sweat.

Lucas poked his head down from the top bunk. "Did you tell your boss you wanna stay another year?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Aren't you supposed to be scouting?"

"I am."

"You signed up for a summer research seminar, joined a research team, took astrophysics and philosophy, and now you're teaching yourself advanced math. You call that scouting?"

I lay in bed and stared at the ceiling. "It's in-depth scouting."

Lucas didn't say anything. After a while, he asked, "You love school, don't you?"

I didn't answer. But I rolled over, switched on my desk lamp, and picked up the fluid mechanics textbook I hadn't finished.

Under the lamp, the equations lined up neatly on the page. Every symbol had a reason to be there, and every line of the derivation led to one clear answer.

In six years as a stand-in, I'd played hundreds of people, and none of them had been me.

But in that dorm room, with those textbooks in front of me, I was Daniel Grant. I wasn't anybody's stand-in.

*****

In my second year, something unexpected happened when my transcript made its way back home. The problem wasn't that my grades were bad. They were too good.

The Institute of Technology's Apex Award, given to the top mechanical engineering student of the year, went to Daniel Grant, and only one student got it each year.

The school posted the news on its website with my photo, and it was Conrad who had nominated me.

I was in the lab building a model when my phone blew up.

Lucas texted: [Dude, you're on the school website] with a long string of exclamation points after it.

Alex texted: [Mr. Grant, Mr. Stone saw it.]

Richard texted: [.] That was the whole message.