Chapter 40 One variable. No draft. No process.
Octavio let out a groan of pain and buried himself in his books, motivated by his fear of death.
“Katherine, how many problems do you have to do?” he whispered after a while.
He leaned over and saw that her list of exercises covered an entire page. They were complex calculus and geometry problems. He swallowed hard. Okay, maybe he's not so biased after all. That's a lot.
“Don't worry,” said Octavio, regaining his “protective older brother” posture, even though he was struggling with his own lesson. “I'll help you when I'm done here. That's what friendship is all about, and loyalty above all else.”
Katherine didn't answer. She just twirled her pen and began.
Exactly ten minutes later, the doorknob turned, and João Pedro Arbex was a man of British punctuality.
“João! Already?” Octavio panicked, covering his half-empty sheet. “Calm down, I've only done half! I'm thinking!”
At that moment, beside him, there was a soft sound as Katherine put her pen down on the table and pushed the book and notebook forward in a gesture of completion.
João Pedro walked over to the table, ignoring Octavio's panic, picked up Katherine's materials, opened the notebook, and his eyes, trained to find errors in billion-dollar contracts in seconds, scanned the page.
Slowly, his eyebrows came together. His gaze became deep, dark, and indecipherable.
“I'm leaving. Good night.” Katherine stood up, stretching discreetly.
“Did you do all this yourself?” João's voice sounded low, dangerous.
Octavio, curious about his brother's tone, stretched his neck to peek, and what he saw confused him, and all his questions were answered. But something was wrong. Or rather, something was missing.
For the more complex questions, those that would require half a page of calculations and derived formulas... there was only the final answer, a number. One variable. No draft. No process. No auxiliary calculations.
It was as if the answer had simply appeared in her mind.
Octavio laughed, trying to ease the tension.
“Isn't it obvious? She must have looked it up on the internet while we weren't looking, but don't make things difficult for her, brother. These questions are advanced level, we haven't even seen this in class yet, and not everyone was born a math genius like you.”
“She looked it up on the internet?” João Pedro repeated, his voice laden with skepticism.
He turned slowly to Katherine, his dark eyes searching for the truth in her face, and Katherine didn't even blink. She looked at the textbook with masterful boredom and shrugged.
“I just followed your notes. The logic was there.”
“And the calculations?” João pressed. “Where's the development?”
“There wasn't enough space on the sheet to write everything,” she replied, with the simplicity of someone saying that the sky is blue. “So I did it in my head.”
“I did it in my head...” Octavio muttered, rolling his eyes. “Man, admit it, she's just lazy.”
João Pedro held Katherine's gaze for another second. There was a spark of defiance there, an intelligence that she was trying, without much success, to hide from him. He closed the book with a soft sound and handed it back to her.
“Go rest.”
“What?! That's it? Man, I need those notes too!” If she used them, I want to use them too!" Octavio's eyes widened in indignation.
João Pedro lifted the notebook, that mathematical treasure map he had made exclusively for her. With a deliberate movement, he placed it on top of Katherine's pile of books, out of Octavio's reach.
“Figure it out yourself.” He looked at his younger brother and said, mercilessly.
A slight, almost imperceptible smile curved the corners of Katherine's lips, and she picked up the notebook, looked at Octavio, and repeated her brother's words in an amused tone: “Figure it out yourself, buddy.”
With that, she turned and left the room, taking the secret of her genius with her.
João Pedro remained motionless, watching her figure disappear down the hallway, and without him realizing it, the hard line of his mouth softened. A slight but genuine smile appeared on his face.
Octavio, who was watching everything like a hawk, almost fell off his chair.
“Pedro...” He pointed a trembling finger at his brother. “Were you... smiling? Just now? Was that smile for Katherine?”
“Do your job,” João Pedro's icy mask returned instantly, and he ordered, his voice returning to its arctic tone.
Octavio threw his head back, beginning his usual drama.
"Oh, come on! I want that VIP treatment too! I had plans for tonight, a very important game... Can I skip my homework? Just for today?
“If you don't finish everything, don't even think about leaving this office.” João Pedro stood up, elegantly adjusting his watch on his wrist, and walked to the door without looking back.
"BROTHER!!!
After a restful night's sleep, Katherine woke up before sunrise, and the digital clock on her bedside table read 4:56 a.m.
The world was still silent. Since she had gone to bed early, her mind was clear and sharp, so she finished reading the last chapter of her comic book and, bored, turned on her computer, her fingers flying across the keyboard as she accessed the internet.
Breaking news dominated the home page of the business portals: “SCANDAL IN THE EARLY HOURS: Corporate Group exposed for billion-dollar tax evasion and embezzlement. Confidential files leaked.”
The comments from internet users were a celebration of applause and revenge. The job had been clean, quick, and devastating.
Katherine smiled. She copied the link and sent it to an encrypted chat window.
\[Katherine: Did you do this?\]
The reply came in seconds.
\[Jessica: Why are you awake at this hour? Insomnia?\]
\[Katherine: Answer me.\]
\[Jessica: I had nothing to do last night, I was bored. I decided to play around with their firewall a little. Why? Are you mad because I didn't invite you to the party?\]
\[Katherine: You have a lot of free time.\]
\[Jessica: It's your fault. We used to do these hacks together. Without you to cover for me, I got nervous. I couldn't sleep and ended up staying up all night playing video games.\]
Soon after, Jessica sent a screenshot of an online shooting game, circling a name in red.
\[Jessica: See this person? It's the first time I've found such a competent teammate. I was practically useless the entire match; he carried the team on his back.\]
Katherine narrowed her eyes, focusing on the player's circled nickname. The ID was strange and aggressive: \[Don't Come Near. You're in the Way.\]
Katherine replied. \[I don't know him.\]
\[Jessica: It's a new account with no history. But the guy is definitely not a beginner. His movements are professional-level.\]
\[Katherine: Let's play.\]
The match began, and as the battle intensified, something surprising happened. Katherine and the mysterious stranger fell into perfect sync. They didn't need to speak; each instinctively covered the other's blind spot, and they decimated their opponents like reapers.
Katherine raised her eyebrows, impressed. This was... interesting. Much less boring than she had imagined. For the first time in a long time, she had found someone who could keep up with her frenetic pace.