open the journal to the page marked with one of Nigelâs ubiquitous Post-It notes and glanced at the title. Tabitha and everyone else disappeared when I saw the title of the article: âTopological K-Theory of Algebraic K-Theory Spectra.â
No way. My eyes darted far enough down the page to confirm what the title suggested.
I looked up at Nigel. He was watching me, glasses in hand, face without expression.
âHe proved my thesis,â I said. âThis is my dissertation.â
âMore or less.â
âHow much less?â
âNot enough, Iâm afraid.â
I stared at the offensive page and tried to keep my lip from curling. Iâd been scooped. Some math geek from the University of Washington had done the same research I was doing, and heâd reached his conclusion before I had.
My mother had never allowed me to swear; sheâd always said it was a cop-out from expressing yourself with eloquence. Too bad. I wanted to blue the air. As it was, I flung the journal back onto Nigelâs desk, where it landed on the neat piles like an inkblot.
âSo what does this mean?â I said. âDo I start all over? Find a new thesis?â
âNot exactly,â Dr. Frost said.
âNot
exactly?
If I have to backtrack at all, itâs at least a week added onâand I donât have that kind of time. What does not exactly mean?â
He continued to look at me, until I realized I was standing up, driving my index finger into the desktop. I dropped back into the chair.
âIt means you can keep what you have,â he said. âYouâll just have to take it further than he did.â
âGo further, go backwardâit still means the same thing in terms of time. Iâm so close. How many people on my committee will have read that article?â
âI didnât hear that,â Nigel said sternly, looking at me over the tops of his glasses, which had by then found their way back to his nose.
âNo, you didnât because I didnât say it. I justâ¦thought it out loud.â
âWell, donât think it. We donât breach integrity here.â
âI know. I donât want to duplicate somebody elseâs research. I wouldnât sleep at night. Not that Iâm going to be doing any sleeping anyway. All right, what do I need to do? Come up with an amended proposal?â
âGive yourself a day or two to fume,â he said.
âI donât have a day or twoââ I caught myself and consciously put on a calm face. âAnd I donât need to fume. Thereâs no reason to. Every graduate student knows this is a possibility. Iâll have a new proposal on your desk by, say, Friday, and then Iâll double up on my time on the weekends and get caught up. Iâll blow Mr. University of Washington right out of the water. Anything else?â
Nigel took off the glasses again and slipped them back into his pocket. He placed
K-Theory
back on its pile on the corner of the desk. Finally, he leaned back in the chair again and crossed his legs.
Come on, Nigel
, I thought.
If I donât get out of here so I can drag my hand through my hair, Iâm going to drag it through
whatâs
left of yours
.
âI donât want to see a proposal until Monday. You need to take the time to determine how youâre going to proceed. You may want to discuss it with me a bit, should you get into a bind with itââ
âIâll be fine,â I said. âI donât anticipate any problems. Iâm well enough acquainted with K-theory to anticipate the challenges.â
Yeah, even my mother would have been proud of that exit line.
What I knew she wouldnât be proud of, I thought as I finally escaped Nigelâs over-the-glasses scrutiny, was the fact that there was now a good chance I wasnât going to finish my dissertation before my funding ran out. The thought of asking her for money was about the
David Sherman & Dan Cragg