Chapter 5

Garrett shoved me back down when I tried to get up. The hood stayed over my face, and the tape underneath it kept anything but a muffled groan from leaving my throat.

From the lectern, Walter could see the blood on my wrists, but he had no idea who I was.

With the entire board and half the field looking on, he turned to Garrett. "What is going on here?"

"We caught a spy, Professor." Garrett held up my report. "She was carrying my unpublished research."

The security captain jumped in and gave his version of the story, with plenty of flourish. I tried to shout over him, but all that came out was a dull, choked sound.

Garrett passed the report to Walter. "I was planning to present this work tonight, and she saw her chance to steal it."

Walter didn't answer right away. He knew exactly what Garrett was capable of. Garrett was quick, sure, but he was also arrogant and had no patience for the slow, boring work that real research demanded, and almost nothing he'd turned in over the last five years had survived review. If someone really were a spy, why would she pick his work to steal?

Then Walter opened the report, and his expression changed. "Are you sure you wrote this?"

"Of course." Garrett didn't even hesitate. "I put years into it. I meant to give it to you tonight."

A group of senior researchers crowded in around them.

"Walter, this is your student? This report finds a whole new route around the regeneration problem we've been stuck on for years!"

"If the trials hold up, people with severe toxin injuries, factory workers, soldiers, first responders, might finally get to keep their limbs."

Garrett nodded, perfectly calm. "It's the result of years of work. Thank God we caught her in time. If this had reached a competitor, I can't even imagine the damage."

The researchers turned to look at me, and every one of them was angry.

"You can't just brush off something like this."

"Walter, after tonight, Garrett has to be named director."

"To accomplish this at his age is remarkable."

Garrett soaked it all in while he arranged his face into something modest. "I only did my job. This achievement belongs to the whole field of regenerative medicine."

Walter stayed quiet for a moment. Then he asked again, more slowly this time. "Garrett, are you absolutely certain this report is yours?"

Something like guilt flickered across Garrett's face, but he steadied himself fast. "I am."

Blair stepped forward to back him up. "Garrett has lost countless nights of sleep over this project. It's years of his life in there."

One of the researchers glanced at her. "And you are?"

Garrett pulled her to his side. "My wife, Blair Ellison."

Walter frowned. "Wait a minute. Wasn't Margot your fiancée?"

Only then did Garrett seem to remember that he had met Walter in the first place because I'd recommended him.

Blair's eyes filled with tears right on cue. "Margot left town with another man before the wedding. I took her place so our families wouldn't be humiliated in front of everyone. She's resented us ever since, and that's why she snuck in today. She wanted revenge."

Someone let out an approving sigh. "Garrett's a talented young man, and you two look like a perfect match."

Another professor was too eager to wait any longer. "If the report is yours, then present it now. Let's hear whether this new approach can actually work."

I kicked over the metal chair next to me. At the crash, Walter hurried across the floor and pulled off the hood, and his face changed the second he saw mine.

"Margot?" He ripped the tape off my mouth, took the key from the nearest officer, and unlocked the cuffs himself. "Who did this to you?"

I pushed myself upright through the pain. "Garrett accused me of stealing, and then he tried to pass my report off as his own."

"You still have the nerve to twist this around?" Garrett shouted.

"Then present it, Garrett. This time, I'm not going to be there to fill in the answers for you."

The hall went quiet, and nobody seemed to know what to make of what was happening.

Walter held me steady and announced, in a voice like ice, "This report belongs to Margot."