She continues—“All the easy stuff was figured out first. And here you are. You’ve chosen what might just be the most difficult problem in all the universe and declared you will throw your life against it like your existence is just some sort of weapon. Is this why you’ve been . . . you’ve been . . . ?”

When she looks like she might cry, he shakes more viciously. “No, you don’t know. There is a duty to genius.” One finger points to the floor, to all of it. He expels the words with force. “There. Is. A. Duty.”

“I know. I know. But are you okay?”

“Does it look like it?”

“Kierk, he has so much control over you. Don’t let him. Just stop. Stop seeking his approval.”

His face is tortured. “He’s still the smartest person I’ve ever met.”

Carmen starts to cry. She sits down beside him, grabbing at his arm.

“I’m out, Carmen. I’m out of the program. Karen saw Moretti and me in a shouting match. I can already see it coming. Karen is going to get the committee together and we’re all going to have a little chat . . . I can’t go through this again.”

“No,” she says, grabbing his arm. “You have to stay and fight. You have to. It’s not fair. And we’re so close. Listen, listen. Moretti, he was here. He was in town the night that Atif died.”

Kierk’s face transforms from sadness to confusion, then to something like pity.

“What are you talking about, Carmen?”

“Well, I . . .”

“No. What are you talking about?”

“I just meant . . .”

“That’s insane. He’s many things, but he’s not a murderer. There is no murderer.”

“. . . What do you mean?”

“How long do you want to do this, Carmen?”

“Do what? Us? The investigation? You staying and fighting for a position here? What?”

“This so-called investigation, Carmen. How long do you want to keep chasing these supposed leads? And why? Why this?”

“Longer! We can figure it out. Listen, Atif’s death was mysterious. And you can feel it too, that there’s something mysterious going on in the CNS. Something is so . . . wrong there. I know there is. You know there is.”

“Just because two things are mysterious doesn’t mean they are related.”

“Don’t you think that, just perhaps, a mystery in one area might be related to a mystery in another?”

“It’s time to let it go. Why is this . . . puzzle that you’ve constructed so important to you? I know you got an email, and you knew the man. Briefly. But why? Really, why?”

This is something Carmen herself has been thinking a lot about lately, so she’s ready with her answer.

“In the end how we orientate ourselves to mystery defines how we live our lives. You’re asking me to abandon something that’s important to me.”