4: 4
The room went dead silent.
More than a hundred of the country's top scholars, and not one dared raise a hand.
The institute director nudged Doris with his elbow, motioning for her to stand.
"Doris, haven't you been working in this exact area? Walk Academician Heath through your thinking."
Doris got up reluctantly, her face flushed red, and stammered out a few sentences.
She hadn't even finished when Ellie cut her off.
"What department are you from? You don't even have the basic concepts straight."
"Complete nonsense. You're wasting my time. Sit down."
Doris's eyes went red at once, and she shrank back into her seat.
Julian turned and patted her back, murmuring something to comfort her.
"Everyone in the country working on this is right here in this room. It's only natural you couldn't answer."
The director's smile was starting to slip too. He lifted a hand and wiped the sweat off his brow.
"Right, even Academician Heath is stuck on it. Don't be so hard on yourself."
On the stage, Ellie swept her eyes across the room.
"Is there anyone else here who can offer another idea?"
I dropped the empty water bottle in my hand into the trash bag and spoke, my voice low.
"Try setting the critical value to 8.927."
The whole room heard the voice and turned toward me, full of expectation.
But the moment they saw it was a cleaner, they snickered and started whispering to each other.
Doris recognized me and shot to her feet.
"Security, this woman snuck in here to cause trouble."
Julian pointed at me too, shouting.
"Karen Pruitt, have you lost your mind? You think this is somewhere you belong?"
The director waved toward the security at the door.
"This girl was fired from our institute. Academic fraud. Don't let her make a scene here."
Two guards ran in through the side door, seized my arms, and started dragging me out.
I didn't struggle. I kept my eyes on Ellie the whole time.
She stood on the stage, frowning, staring at the data model on the big screen, lost in some thought.
Then she raised her hand to the keyboard and typed a number into the control console.
The moment she hit enter, the whole hall's sound system let out a sharp, piercing tone.
On the big screen, the model that had been throwing up red errors and crashing suddenly flickered.
The red warnings vanished. The data streams scrolled on and on, too fast for the eye to follow.
Every theoretical metric began to climb at once.
The entire simulation was undergoing a violent shift no one had ever seen before.
Ellie stared hard at the screen, the teacup in her hand shattering against the floor, shaking with excitement.
Everyone in the room was on their feet too, stunned by what the model was doing.
Ellie snatched up the microphone.
"Everyone, stop. Let her go."
The guards' hands loosened, and my arms came free.
I straightened up and fixed the collar they'd yanked crooked.
Ellie came down off the stage, striding past all those big names and officials, and walked straight up to me.
The director's smugness was still on his face, waiting for Ellie to come down and deal with me herself.
Doris pulled out her phone to record it, ready to send the clip to her mother and mock me.
Ellie stopped in front of me.
She looked at my cleaner's uniform, looked at my face, gaunt and worn from living on plain bread.
Then she pulled a pass from her coat and pressed it into my hand.
"This is the person you didn't want?"
She turned to face the room, her voice ringing through the whole hall.
"Wonderful."
"You're all blind."
