Stepping out of the puzzle room nearly made Troy faint. The whole standing around the same place for hours on end could not be good on his ankles. Was he really risking a life of heart disease for this? Not that he needed to be worrying about stuff like that for the next twenty years. But, Troy wouldn't mind pushing that up to at least thirty.

 

And, oh lord, how his body was protesting this job of his. Had he done anything lately, which could be classified as healthy body-work? His body didn't think that and was beginning to show its opinion about it, in the form of stiff joints.

 

Troy needed to do something physically challenging if he was going to be fixing this stiffness. He didn't care what it was. He just needed to do it.

 

Outside the puzzle room, just a meter or two away from the platform, Dr Hale was there to receive him for a change. Where was- oh, of course.

 

Dr Fidelis was at the screen typing away word after word in quick succession, not putting any parts of his mind on the world around him. How… not surprising at all.

 

“While I normally disagree on many of Dr Fidelis´ assessments of you, there is one I can, which I can undoubtedly agree on”, Dr Hale stated, from below him. “And that is your general liking to being awfully slow. Even more so, when there are others unwillingly waiting on you to get your inferior posterior down from there.”

 

How much fun she was having down there. Maybe Troy should just let her enjoy it a while more, and take his time getting down the few steps. They were slippery in this season. There wasn't any reason not to be precautionary.

 

Troy did hasten his stride by a bit. Even if he wanted to irritate the minds of others, Dr Hale had officially been put out of that list. She had dirt on him, so he would be on his best behaviour around her. Well... more like, better behaviour, really.

 

“I'm going as fast as I can”, Troy said back, taking the last step to the ground.

 

“Seeing as you didn't dive down the stairs, I find your statement hard to believe,” Dr Hale refuted back, her one of voice as professional as ever. Though, was it just Troy, or was her words getting more… blunt, in front of Dr Fidelis? “Just get over here, so Dr Fidelis can get on with preparing the next test.” And a little more aggression had slipped into her words than usual.

 

Had something happened between those two, while Troy was inside testing stuff? Better not to ask, if he turned out to be right.

 

Troy hurried over to the not at all patient Dr Hale, where the two of them got right up with stripping down him of his recording gear. This included the feel-through gloves, which were more than a simple hassle to get off.

 

He had even been slightly scared of making them rip, but it seemed that his hand had larger chances of doing so, as he felt a couple of unhealthy cracks, as he removed the gloves. It wasn't from the bones, lucky for him, but from the joints. Still hurt, though.

 

“I'm not going to be the one putting in all the work,” Dr Hale reminded him, not stopping in her efforts in getting on the microphone strapped to his shirt. Seemed like she didn't want to go Dr Fidelis´ route of simply ripping it off, with no regards of the damage it might cause. “Get the camera off your head yourself.”

 

Troy did so, with no comment on her struggles. And, how amusing it looked. Definitely didn't let that one show on his face.

 

“Tug it upwards, while twisting it to the right”, Dr Fidelis muttered, without looking away from the screen. His eyes were enamoured with whatever he was working on. When Troy had taken a look at what he had been doing, he only saw pictures of forestry landscapes of all things. What a weird thing to look at. Was he even working most of the time?

 

Dr Hale stopped in her struggles for a moment, before following his advice.

 

It came off seamlessly. Troy wondered why he hadn't followed his own advice last time.

 

This left himself, as the only person working on getting this gear off him. It was more than a little difficult, in doing so, seeing as Troy couldn't see, what he was working with. And, Dr Hale didn't seem to be in the mood for helping, instead just silently looking at Troy judgingly. Oh, she was enjoying this, wasn't she?

 

After too much time had passed, Troy finally got the headpiece off of himself. It wasn't elegant in any sense of the word, and he might have lost a few stray hairs in the process, but he did learn one thing from it. He preferred Dr Fidelis. It was set in stone.

 

Seeing that he was done, Dr Hale handed the rest of the equipment over to him, before going back to her usual placement of being in the background, taking constant notes. This gave him the obvious task of giving it all over to Dr Fidelis, who still hadn't spared as much as a glance over to them. Taking another look at what he was working on that screen of his, Troy saw another landscape, this one of a featureless desert, without a single building in sight. How unrealistic.

 

Troy went to do this assigned task off his, trying to do so as quietly as possible. He hadn't yet seen the reaction Dr Fidelis gave when disturbed during working. And, he wasn't currently in the mood of finding out the inner workings of that particular reaction today.

 

As silent as a very fat fox, he tried to delicately put down the gear on the table. The gloves were easy, with the fabric already being so light, and not making any sound upon impact. It was after those, that it got so much harder.

 

The next moment came right out of a bad comedy, with Troy trying to put down the microphone, with the same level of caution, accidentally letting go of it too early, recoiling in the horror of his actions, and presumptively losing steering of all other objects in his grasp. As in, the recording camera, which made a mighty fine shattering of glass sound, when hitting the floor.

 

Troy didn't know, what he expected Dr Fidelis´ reaction to be. Anger? It would the most obvious one. Destroying one's own equipment was fine enough, but others doing it with no direct purposes? Not the finest thing in the world.

 

But, this was Dr Fidelis he was talking about. The man, who Troy saw as a little lax on the rules, not caring for anything other than great, true results. Maybe, he would see the whole thing as a joke, just cracking a smile at Troy's misfortunes.

 

None of this happened though.

 

As Troy winced, ready for a reaction on Dr Fidelis´ part, nothing came. He just thought it as a delayed timer, where the bomb would blow at any second.

 

But… nothing came. Not even as much as a raised exhale.

 

Dr FIdelis was simple looking at Troy impassively, with a thoughtful gaze.

 

“There is something, which I have been wondering”, Dr Fidelis stated, not putting any attention on the mess in front of him, and instead of looking up at Troy.

 

Troy took this as a great aversion, to the standard response to thousands of dollars worth of recording equipment destroyed, and entertained Dr Fidelis in his mumbles.

 

“Anything about me, which I might be able to tell you?” Troy asked, digging more into what Dr Fidelis was saying.

 

“No, but also yes,” Dr Fidelis responded, his eyes focusing on Troy's face. “It isn't about you specifically, even if it does involve you personally. And, I think you can help me, in clearing a few things up about it.”

 

Not something personal, but something which Troy would know a lot about. He didn't even need to ask.

 

“It's about Adam”, Troy said, continuing his thought process.

 

Dr Fidelis looked at Troy for a moment, with a face that told no thoughts. It was disturbing, knowing one was being watched, but not knowing the thoughts or emotions of the observer.

 

“Yes. It is”, Dr Fidelis confirmed. His voice had risen in the tones, going from a minor of somberness to a raw mass of curiosity. He was getting back to his normal levels of it, but the enthusiasm wasn't quite there yet. “I don't know why, but Adam is great at these test. Brilliant even. If I was allowed to do so, I would acclaim him for his valiant efforts, and the magnificent score records which he has gotten himself.

 

But, I can't. And, this is because, it was planned, that Adam should not have gotten the results. He should have failed horribly in nearly all of them, with only pure chance holding him back from total loss.

 

Yet, he prospered. He survived. I can't tell the reasons why this is. Yesterday, it was all going along to plan. Adam wasn't failing in anything completely, of course, but any of the harder challenges we threw at him would be misunderstood, or just gotten plain wrong in the assessments. You didn't even catch a couple of them, much to my own merriment.

 

Now, the question is… why hasn't Adam failed in this test of mine?

 

I'm thinking you might be able to fill me in on that.”

 

As Dr Fidelis came closer to finishing his little speech, Troy grew more and more nervous. Forget the hold Dr Hale had upon him. She didn't even need to do anything when it came to him being exposed. Dr FIdelis would find it all by himself, with pure, methodical deduction.

 

Why hadn't Troy thought of the implications, that the escapade would have on Adam? Troy had called it a test, to use as an easy, and reasonable excuse! Of course, Adam would be taking it seriously, documenting everything like he was supposed to do, and learning from everything Troy ever saw.

 

With so many people, Adam´s deduction abilities must have skyrocketed. The small amounts of presumed progress in any of the regular tests didn't matter. The amount of sheer information Adam had to work with had increased exponentially.

 

Take this. In a normal test, Adam would get the information about everything happening with one body, in the usual timeframe of, say, two-three hours. The poker game had lasted nearly four alone.

 

And, oh god, the number of people present was so much more, than what could ever be shown in the standard tests. Just under ten was at the table around him. Hundreds, if one had looked further than that.

 

Troy didn't doubt that Adam had done so.

 

Dr Fidelis had been right in his assessment. Adam should have failed horribly today if that was what was planned to happen. No amount of analysis of the test could have furthered his levels of skill to such high levels in such a short amount of time. He would have needed outside help to do so. Outside resources, which Adam should have never been able to get without Dr Fidelis knowing about it.

 

So, what did Troy need to do? Confess him crimes, and serve the punishment? Call him crazy, but he just couldn't do it. He was dead to rights in being caught. Acting stupid would only bring him more punishment.

 

But, refusing that anything had happened wasn't smart either. Adam must have gotten the information from somewhere, and Troy was the only one with the necessary means to do so. Dr Fidelis knew he had the earpiece. They had been discussing it a while before.

 

To sum it all up, Troy needed to understate, what exactly he had been doing, while still giving probable evidence, as to why Adam would be in his current state.

 

And so, he began talking. His face was already scrunched up with a guilty face to match it. How he hoped it could be used for multiple purposes.

 

“You're right in your guess,” Troy began it all up with, giving himself a second to compose himself by making a small cough. “I… I may have been communicating with Adam, outside of testing. It was just that, of course. Small talk or two.”

 

His words brought amusement to Dr Fidelis´ eyes, but the rest of his face remained as serious.

 

“Do you take me, for such a fool, that I can't hear a lie so obvious?” Dr Fidelis asked rhetorically. “I could even call your words a dishonour to be heard.”

 

Troy prayed his new job wouldn't suck too much.

 

“No, I don't,” Troy said. “I was just putting my chances a little too high.”

 

At this, the stone face cracked, and Dr Fidelis burst out with laughter. He just watched the serious features fade away, replaced by signs of pure mirth. Troy had never taken him for a sadist. Was he really enjoying his firing so much?

 

Any moment now, Dr Fidelis would go all serious, and just say he was fired, before going into another fit of laughter. He just knew it.

 

“´A little´, you say?” Dr Fidelis nearly shouted, not matching the words Troy had presumed would be coming before the laughter overtook him yet again. “That is the understatement of the week if I have a thing to say about! Which I do, seeing as I'm the one keeping count of it.”

 

It was official. Troy had no idea what was going on.

 

“Please be more careful in your lying, in the future”, Dr Hale supplied informatively, from behind him. “Calling your interactions with Adam ´small´, is not in any way possible. The amount of needed interaction needed to have brought him into the possible realm of getting these levels of results indicates that you have spent a larger part of your free time talking to him. It is obvious, this is the reason, with your lack of proper functioning this morning.”

 

If Troy had not stopped himself, he would have audibly gulped. Dr Fidelis didn't know the truth! The possibility of him having confessed was scary to think about. He could be getting out of this free.

 

“How stupid of me”, Troy said, not putting any effort into speaking the words correctly. It seemed like he would live another day.

 

Dr Fidelis screams of laughter indicated so, at least.