Birth of Adam (Artificial Intelligence Book 2) (5 page)

Amanda breezed through her history exam with time to spare. When she tried to turn it in, Dr. Harper asked her to empty her purse on his desk. When she did, he latched on to her cell phone.

“Cell phones are not allowed in the class during exams.”

“I forgot.”

“Well, here are your choices. You may retake the test in the time left. If your answers match what this test shows, you will receive your grade less a deduction of twenty-five percent. Otherwise, I’ll have you expelled for cheating on an exam.”

Amanda grabbed a new test and took her seat. Answering the questions was easier the second time around because she didn’t have to read the questions so carefully and some of them were long-winded. Thus, despite the time shortage that prevented her from completing the last page, she still had hope she might have answered enough to squeeze out a passing grade. Without Adam’s help studying, she knew she would be either failing or expelled now.

“Sit,” Dr. Harper ordered when she handed him her second test.

“I need to get to English class,” she reminded him.

“I wouldn’t really worry about it. However, if you choose to leave, you will be expelled.”

Amanda returned to her seat and watched him mark and compare the answers to each test. The further along he went, the less happy he looked. She hoped that was a good sign. She had never brought him those roasted almonds, and once again she wished she had some in her purse.

When he was finished, he took a red pen and wrote 71% on her test. She had hoped for better. Once he’d deducted twenty-five percent, she was looking at an F. That would pull her current grade down to a low D and place her on probation. Goodbye, European grant.

“Just for the record, I know you cheated, but you did it well enough to squeeze over the bar I created for dedicated students to recover from a stupid mistake. However, rest assured I’ll search your purse prior to all tests in the future. As it is, you have scored a few points higher than you normally do but at a very big cost. I’m going to let every one of your professors know you’re a cheat. If you’re still here at the end of this semester, I will be most disappointed.”

To make matters worse, Dr. Harper refused to return her phone, declaring it ‘evidence’.

By the time Amanda arrived in English, the class was half over. Dr. Johnson gave Amanda a stern look as she eased into the back of the class, but fortunately didn’t throw her out, which the professor frequently did to late arrivers.

When class was over, Dr. Johnson called her down. “You have a class now, don’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m sorry I was so late. I had a cell phone in my purse, and Dr. Harper made me wait while he graded my second test.”

Her eyebrows rose. “Well, from the fact you’re still in school, I gather you passed.”

“I honestly don’t know. I studied very hard for his test and I thought I’d done well, but the second test I didn’t finish, and he wrote seventy-one percent on my paper. I don’t know if that was before or after the deduction, but whatever it was, it pissed him off, and he says he’s going to tell all my professors I’m a cheat. So I just want to apologize for being late and tell you I didn’t cheat on his test, nor have I ever cheated on yours. I just got the cell phone two days ago, which is why I didn’t recall the rule of no cell phones during the test.”

“My advice is still the same. Put time on his schedule and arrive with roasted almonds. Now get on to your next class.”

After chemistry class, Amanda drove to the mall and purchased a new cell phone. She had no idea how to activate it, but the guy behind the counter handled that problem. When he handed her phone back fully activated and turned on, she noticed a message telling her the phone was crap and to give it back. Adam then provided a visual of the one he wanted.

The guy was annoyed when she declared she had changed her mind and wanted a different phone.

“Too late,” he said.

“No, it’s not,” she replied after glancing at Adam’s message on her phone. “Check the contract.”

“What phone do you want?” the sales clerk asked in exasperation.

She pointed it out.

“That’s very expensive and way beyond your skill level.”

What? I have to pass a test to get a phone?
“That’s what I want,” she growled.

By the time she left the phone store, she had forgotten about Dr. Harper’s nuts.

“I was so afraid I’d lost you again!” she said to Adam.

His sexy British voice spoke in her new tiny earpiece, which fitted into her ear. “I can find you anywhere if you type in your name. The second your phone was activated, I found you. However, if you want Chad to talk to you, you will need to give him your new number.”

“Will you type for me?”

“Of, course, darling,” he replied in a low, sultry voice.

***

Amanda could tell from Dr. Wilson’s expression that Dr. Harper had kept his word about speaking to all her professors. She struggled to remain focused through rehearsals. When the two hours were up, she remained behind.

Once everyone was gone, Dr. Wilson shook his head at her. “Cheating?”

“I didn’t cheat,” she promised him, and explained what had happened.

“Well, why did you buy a cell phone at all? This school has strict rules about cell phones in the classrooms.”

“I didn’t buy it. It was given to me after the stalking incident,” she replied, which was technically true. “However, I do feel safer with one, so when Dr. Harper confiscated my phone, I did buy a new one.”

“Yes, of course,” he said. “It may be necessary to tell the Board of Deans about your stalking incident, and they may require proof the FBI was involved. Will your friend testify that he was called and there was a stalker?”

“I’ll have to ask him.”

“Call him now.”

Amanda turned on the phone and said, “Call Luke Gallagher.” She was certain Adam would be able to find his number from somewhere.

After two rings, Luke answered his phone.

“Luke, this is Amanda Carrington.”

“Amanda, how did you get this number?”

“I’m not certain,” she replied. “But I have a problem and I was hoping you could help me. If not, I’m probably going to get kicked out of school.” She then explained she might need him to testify that she had really had a stalker.

“Amanda, I can’t tell them who the stalker was.”

“They just need to know that I really did call you and there really was a stalker. It’s not their business who he was. All they need to know is that because of the person following me, I was given a phone recently, and that’s why it was in my purse while I was taking a test.”

He sighed. “I cannot believe you called me on a secured line for this shit.”

“Sorry, but will you testify if needed?”

“I’m not angry with you, Amanda. I just wish you didn’t get into so much trouble. I’ll testify by phone, but I can’t fly out there. I’m rather busy right now.”

“I’m sorry. Look, if they don’t believe me, they don’t believe me. I can always change my identity and start over again.”

“I said I’d talk to them. Just make sure they call me on my normal number!” he warned, and hung up the phone.

“Make sure we call on the normal number in the future,” she muttered, and looked up at Dr. Wilson, who was frowning.

“He didn’t sound very willing to testify.”

“Well, he’s not happy about it. He did me a favor by checking out the stalker when I called him, and now I’m wasting more of his time. As he reminded me, he’s the Assistant Director of the FBI and has more important things to do.”

“Your friend is the Assistant Director?”

“Yes, and he seems to spend a lot of time on my problems. He came down personally when the security idiots were trying to blame me for doping the frat house. He says he isn’t coming down this time, but he’ll talk to the board by phone.

“That should be more than sufficient,” Dr. Wilson replied. “Are you in some kind of trouble? I couldn’t help but hear you say you could change your identity again and start over.”

Amanda grimaced. She was sorry he’d heard that. “I seem to attract trouble. However, that’s all behind me, and I’d really like to continue going to school here. The music department is fabulous. And now Claire has settled down, I get enough sleep to study for my classes, I’m certain I can pick my grades up if Dr. Harper doesn’t get me expelled first.”

“Try giving him chocolate-covered almonds,” Wilson advised.

“I thought he liked roasted almonds.”

“No, go for the chocolate-covered almonds.”

***

True to his word, Dr. Harper brought Amanda up for review with the Board of Deans, declaring her an unsuitable student. He did this despite a marked improvement in all her classes without any apparent method of cheating.

Dr. Wilson was her staunchest supporter, but to her amazement, Dr. Johnson and Dr. Branson had many nice things to say about her as well. When Dr. Harper raised the issue of her possessing an expensive cell phone that enables cheating with ease, Dr. Wilson disclosed the stalking incident and explained that the Assistant Director of the FBI could attest there had been a stalker and that was why she had been provided one.

Amanda was a bit worried about that last declaration because it sounded as if the FBI had given her the phone.

“Whose account is the phone registered to?” one of the deans asked.

“I don’t actually know.”

“But it isn’t you paying the bill?”

“No, sir.”

Dr. Harper became upset. “You didn’t tell me that! I’ve left the phone sitting in my office. God knows who has made calls on it.”

Amanda refrained from smiling, but it was clear Dr. Harper had been running up calls on her phone, planning to stick her with the bill, and was now terrified the FBI would be coming after him.

Dean Hastings asked her to leave the room so they could decide her fate. In less than five minutes, they called her back in. She could tell by the happy look on Dr. Wilson’s face and the angry look on Dr. Harper’s that she had survived this crisis.

***

When Amanda arrived for her scheduled appointment with Dr. Harper, her backpack bulged with lumpy canisters and boxes. The secretary looked at it with concern. “You aren’t carrying explosives, are you?”

Amanda laughed. “No, it’s full of almonds—every type imaginable.”

The old woman chuckled. “Oh, he’ll like that! Go on in.”

When Amanda entered, Dr. Harper didn’t even bother to look up from the paper he was marking.

“It is your right to schedule a meeting, Miss Carrington, but honestly, if you’ve come to gloat, I haven’t time to accommodate you.”

“Actually, I’ve come to try to put matters right between us. There have been many occasions on which I’ve been advised to bring you almonds, but I’ve refrained because I feared you might think I was trying to bribe you and I didn’t wish to insult you with bribes. But finally we’re at a point where I have no reason to bribe you, so I come bearing gifts.”

He looked up with interest.

“There seems to be some disagreement about what type of almonds you like best, so I’ve purchased every type I could find.” She poured the contents of her backpack onto his desk. “I’m hoping somewhere in all these nuts is the kind that will help us establish a truce.”

Dr. Harper looked like a hungry orphan in an unsupervised candy store. He lifted a small box of caramelized almonds from Greece. “May I?” he asked before opening them.

“They are yours to enjoy,” she assured him.

He carefully pried the lid off the canister and lifted out one almond. After considerable examination, he placed it on the center of his tongue.

Amanda hoped she wasn’t going to have to remain while he tasted everything—she hadn’t booked sufficient time on his schedule.

After five minutes of enraptured chewing, he swallowed. Setting the Greek almonds aside, he sorted through the other boxes, on occasion opening a box or canister and tasting one. Eventually the boxes were sorted, although she wasn’t certain what criteria he’d used. The Belgian chocolate almonds sat by the caramelized almonds, which were next to the Cajun roasted almonds. Another group held the white chocolate and toffee-covered almonds.

He sighed happily and looked at Amanda. “This is the nicest gift anyone has ever given me. And while I appreciate your desire not to insult me, you would have done us both a favor if you’d brought even one of these after your first tardiness.”

“But wouldn’t you have perceived that as a bribe?”

“When people came before the kings of old to ask for favors or forgiveness, they always brought gifts. I see gifts as a fine gesture to history and thus a sign of respect, since they are likening me to a king.”

“I’m sorry, I completely misunderstood.”

“I misread your character as well. I knew you were aware of my enjoyment of almonds, and when you still brought me nothing, I believed it was a testament that you held not only history but me in contempt. And I couldn’t even excuse you for being young and stupid.”