Shadows All around Her

Chapter One Assistant Professor Caitlin O'Shaughnessy surveyed the semi-comatose freshmen who'd shown up for her nine o'clock calculus lecture, and seriously considered setting off the sprinklers. She loved mathematics; she loved teaching mathematics, even bonehead calculus. She'd prepared a kick-ass lecture on the mean value theorem, including a real-life economic interpretation designed to engage the business majors currently dozing in the back row. Spring had sprung, and hormones were running amok, which made for late nights and groggy mornings.She glanced down at her new pointy-toed, stiletto-heeled Ferragamos, the same lovely shade of butter yellow as her skinny, narrow-ribbed sweater. A cold shower might wake up her students, but it would almost certainly ruin her shoes. So forget the sprinklers. She'd go with Plan B."Take out a piece of paper," she said, "and number from one to three."A collective groan went up at the promise of a pop quiz. "This totally sucks" seemed to be the consensus. Caitlin wanted to laugh at her students' outraged expressions, but she kept her facial muscles under rigid control. At least the whining proved that, contrary to appearances, the majority of them were still alive."We're going to play a word association game. When I say a word, you write down the first thing that comes into your head." She paused. "Any questions?"The students exchanged bewildered looks as if wondering if they'd somehow been zapped out of Math 20 into Psych 101."No questions. Excellent. First word, closed." She gave them a second or two to scribble their answers. "Second word, open." Again she waited for the pencils to stop moving. "Third word, mean.""Noun or verb?" a lanky blond kid asked."Don't think. Just respond," she told him.He wrote something on his paper.Caitlin stifled the impulse to grin. "Okay. Responses? Closed circuits? Closed doors? Closed minds? Closed what?""Closed windows?" a girl in the front row suggested."What else?""Closed bars!" yelled some bleary-eyed joker in the back row. Several people laughed."Think math, people. Closed what?""Closed interval?" the blond boy said."Bingo! Okay, second word. Open.""Open sesame.""Open door.""Open-minded.""Open-and-shut.""Open up and say 'ah.' ""Open bars!" the comedian in the back row yelled, but this time no one laughed."Open mouth, insert foot," someone muttered, and a few people snickered.The comedian flushed."Come on," she said. "Don't give up now. Look for a math connection.""Open-ended?" someone ventured."Close, but no cigar.""Open interval!" the comedian yelled suddenly."And the synapses fire! We have a winner." Caitlin gave him a standing ovation, then let her gaze drift across the classroom. "All right, my young brainiacs, we're down to the wire." She tapped out a drumroll on the edge of the lectern. "And finally...our third and final word. Mean.""Mean value theorem," half a dozen voices chanted in unison, and the rest of the class applauded.Hands on hips, head cocked to one side, Caitlin studied them. " 'Fess up now. You practiced that."Laughter rippled through the classroom.Amen. She had their attention. "Which brings us to the topic of today's lecture..." She paused expectantly, arms extended, palms up."The mean value theorem," the class recited on cue.Dominic Fortune sat slumped in the driver's seat of a nondescript rental car, his driver's cap pulled low, his face hidden behind a copy of today's Scotsman. Across the street a black Lincoln Town Car with diplomatic plates pulled up to the gated -- and well-guarded -- entrance to the Calixian consulate. The driver lowered his window to display his credentials, and the car was waved through just as it was every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at this time. Barring bad weather, the diplomatic pouch arrived on the 10 A.M. flight from Tavia to Edinburgh and was then transferMulvany, Catherine is the author of 'Shadows All around Her', published 2005 under ISBN 9780743493840 and ISBN 0743493842.