Wu was suggesting that Mosala’s whole approach to building a TOE amounted to much the same thing: all the mathematics simply canceled itself out. On a grander scale, and in a far less obvious manner – but in the end, a tautology was still a tautology.

Wu spoke quietly as equations flowed across the display screen behind her. To spell out these connections – to short-circuit one part of Mosala’s work with another – Wu had had to prove half a dozen new theorems in pure mathematics – difficult results, all of them, and useful in their own right. (This was not my own uneducated opinion; I’d checked the databases for citations of her earlier work, which had prepared the ground for this presentation.) And that was the extraordinary thing, for me: that such a rich and complex restatement of “X minus X equals zero” was even possible. It was as if an elaborately twisted length of rope, weaving in and out of its own detours a few hundred thousand times, had turned out not to be knotted at all, but just a simple loop – ornately arranged, but ultimately able to be completely untangled. Maybe that would make a better metaphor – and in the interactive, viewers with force gloves could reach in and prove for themselves that the “knot” really was just a loop in disguise…

You couldn’t grab hold of a couple of Mosala’s tensor equations and simply tug , though, to find out how they were joined. You had to unpick the false knot in your mind’s eye (with help from software – but it couldn’t do everything). Subtle mistakes were always possible. The details were everything.

Wu finished, and began taking questions. The audience was subdued; there were only a couple of tentative requests for clarification, expressing no hint of acceptance or rejection.

I turned to Mosala. “Do you still think she’s on the right track?”

She hesitated. “Yes, I do.”

The auditorium was emptying around us. In the corner of my eye, I could see people’s gaze lingering on Mosala as they made their way past us. It was all very civilized – no swooning teenagers begging for autographs – but there were unmistakable flashes of infatuation, reverence, adoration. I recognized some members of the fan club whose support had been so evident at the press conference – but I still hadn’t so much as glimpsed Kuwale anywhere in the building. If ve was so concerned about Mosala, why wasn’t ve here?

I said, “What does that mean for your TOE? If Wu is correct—?”

Mosala smiled. “Maybe that strengthens my position.”

“Why? I don’t understand.”

She glanced at her notepad. “It’s a complicated issue. Maybe we could go into it tomorrow?”

Wednesday afternoon: our first interview session.

“Of course.”