He was a smallish, roly-poly sort of man, with wild hair and a thick beard. His clothes were worn and kind of grubby, as if he hadn’t changed them in months. But it was his face that drew the most attention. His smile was warm and friendly, yet the gleam in the eyes behind those small, round glasses pulsed with an intelligence well beyond that of most people.
“Ha, I knew it!” he said with a chuckle. Then he turned back toward someone in the room that the Trackers couldn’t see. “Didn’t I tell you? Huh?”
There was a loud grumble from the other person, who was clearly unhappy. Then Dr. Newton turned to the Trackers again and, gesturing with his hand, said, “Well, what are you waiting for? Come join us!”
As they filed into the room—a large, well-lit office that didn’t have much yet beyond a desk and a few chairs—they immediately recognized the other person as Dr. Locus, head of the math department. He was, they all remembered, the same person who decided the Trackers weren’t allowed to attend today’s lecture.
“So what do you think now, Sam?” Dr. Newton asked him.
Dr. Locus—a neat, thin, silver-haired little man sitting with his arms folded like a naughty child who just got caught stealing a cookie—said, “None of those clues was that hard.”
“The degree of difficulty was not the point,” Dr. Newton replied quickly. “And you know it.”
“Wait, hang on a second,” Gabby said, putting her hand up as she took a step forward from the other Trackers. She looked every bit as stunned as the rest of them, but she still managed a smile. “Let me get this straight—you weren’t really lost, were you….”
“I confess, I was not,” Dr. Newton told her.
“It was a test,” Simon said. “A test! To see if we could figure everything out!”
“Correct, Simon.”
“That’s so cool! I can’t believe—wait, you know my name?”
Dr. Newton patted him on the shoulder. “Of course, I know all your names—Simon, Chelsea, Gabby, Cooper, Jamal, and Maya.”
“But how?”
“When I first heard that there were a few young kids who wanted to attend today’s lecture, I was thrilled. So I asked a few questions about you.”
“Even though you knew we wouldn’t understand most of what the lecture was about?” Maya asked.
“Of course! It doesn’t always have to be about understanding. Sometimes it’s just about being excited. Learning comes in time, no matter how complicated the subject. But the enthusiasm for the learning—that’s something that needs to be nurtured as much as possible. Curiosity and the desire to learn new things should never be discouraged.” Dr. Newton turned his gaze back to Dr. Locus. “You know what I mean, Sam?”
When Dr. Locus didn’t respond, Cooper said, “Hang on a second. What if we didn’t solve all the clues? What if we got stuck on one?”
Now Dr. Newton looked to Pascal. “Would you care to answer that one, my good and faithful assistant?”
The mouths of all six Trackers fell open.
