Chapter 71: 71. The Nerd Actually Provided Me Some Good Shit! (But I Will Steal From Him)

The three of them looked at each other in the way of people who had arrived at a group decision without discussing it.

"Fuck this, we’re leaving."

Then they left—neither running nor walking slowly.

Mike watched them go until they turned the corner.

’Ah shit... I should’ve asked for their names, but at least I remember their faces.’ Mike thought. ’I’m going to have them as my friends, only to see if they have a girlfriend or a mother I could fuck with.’

Then he turned around.

The man with the glasses was standing exactly where he had been, books in arms now, looking at Mike with equal measures of gratitude and the specific shock that occurs when something you had given up expecting actually happens.

’Now that I think about it again... this is fucking stupid and disgusting... why do I have to prioritize protecting a bullying victim first?’

"Tyler Schmith," he said, which appeared to be his version of an introduction under stress.

"Mike Hawk," Mike said.

He came back up the steps and stood beside him, looking in the direction the three had gone. "Do they always do that often?"

"Often enough," Tyler said.

He spoke in an even, measured manner that indicated he had learned to be precise in his communication, suggesting that his accuracy stemmed from a need for precision rather than an act of calmness.

"I’ve calculated various strategies for avoiding the overlap in our schedules, but this building is unavoidable for my program."

"What’s your program?" Mike said.

"Physics," Tyler said. "Second-year undergraduate."

"And when did they start doing this?" Mike asked.

"Six weeks," Tyler said. "Since the start of term."

"Six weeks," Mike said. "And today was the first time someone walked past at the right moment, huh?"

"At the wrong moment for my calculation," Tyler said. "I miscalculated the session length by eleven minutes."

"I exited the building eleven minutes later than projected, which put me in their schedule window rather than outside it."

"Eleven minutes," Mike said.

"I’ve been managing a twenty-two-minute avoidance detour on Thursdays and Tuesdays," Tyler said. "The precision matters."

Mike looked at him. "You mapped their schedule."

’This guy really is the ultimate nerd... I hope this will be fucking worth it for me.’

"Avoidance is more efficient than escalation," Tyler said. "Usually."

"You said that like you’ve tried escalation," Mike said.

"At my previous institution," Tyler said. "The outcome was that I became more interesting to the relevant parties."

"Formal process made the situation more visible without improving it."

"So you went around it instead," Mike said.

"For six weeks," Tyler said. "Until today."

He looked at Mike with the direct, precise attention that was clearly his default register for everything. "Are you in postgraduate?"

"Economics," Mike said. "First year."

"And you intervened because—" Tyler considered the available options. "Altruism? Boredom? Pattern recognition?"

"I was walking past," Mike said. "It was easier than walking around."

Tyler regarded him. "That’s a specific way to describe a pro-social behavior."

"Is it accurate?"

"Partially," Tyler said. "You also used a threat about their academic records that you couldn’t necessarily back up."

"Couldn’t I?" Mike said.

Tyler looked at him. "You said you checked their faces when you walked in."

"I did say I checked the faces," Mike said. "But I didn’t say what I found."

"Did you find anything?"

"I found a reasonable inference," Mike said. "Business program students at a research university have placement considerations. The inference held."

Tyler was quiet for a moment, turning the issue over with the same careful precision he probably applied to physics problems. "That’s not how most people operate," he said.

"I know," Mike said.

"You made a threat based on a probable rather than a confirmed fact," Tyler said. "That’s a significant risk if the inference had been wrong."

"It wasn’t wrong," Mike said.

"But if it had been—"

"Then I’d have handled the other version," Mike said. "There’s always another version."

Tyler studied him intently. "You’ve encountered other versions before," he stated, not phrasing it as a question.

"A few," Mike said.

"The way you moved," Tyler said. "When the first one came at you, it was a different experience."

"That wasn’t a first-time response."

"Nope," Mike said.

"You’ve been trained," Tyler said.

"I’ve had practice," Mike said. "Different thing."

Tyler appeared to accept this distinction. "Are you going somewhere?"

"Walking nowhere, probably," Mike said. "I have a free afternoon for now."

"I have a computational session in twenty minutes," Tyler said. "After that I was going to the east-wing canteen."

"The one with the good vending machines?" Mike said.

Tyler stared at him. "How do you know about that one? It’s not on the standard campus map."

"I walk a lot when I’m bored," Mike said.

"You’ve been here four days," Tyler said.

"That’s enough," Mike said.

Tyler regarded him for another moment. "You’re interesting," he said. "I mean that observationally."

"I know," Mike said. "Come find me after your session in the east wing canteen."

"Ninety minutes," Tyler said.

"I’ll be there," Mike said.

...

Tyler arrived in eighty-eight minutes, which was probably as close to ninety as his schedule had allowed. He found Mike at a table near the window, halfway through the assigned reading for Friday’s seminar.

He sat across from Mike, set his bag down with the careful precision of someone who had a system for where things went, and pulled out a thermos.

"Session went well?" Mike said.

"The dataset is behaving the way I predicted," Tyler said. "Which is either good news or means I set up the prediction wrong."

"Which do you think?"

"Seventy-thirty in favor of actually being right," Tyler said. "I’m being conservative."

"Sounds right," Mike said.

Tyler looked at him. "You know computational physics?"

"I know how confidence intervals work," Mike said. "Different field, same principle."

"You hedge toward certainty," Tyler said. "Most people overclaim."

"Over-claiming is how you get caught," Mike said.

"Caught doing what?" Tyler said.

"Anything," Mike said. "Being wrong. Being overconfident."

"They’re the same problem in different clothes."

Tyler sat with that for a moment. "That’s not a standard framing of epistemic humility."

"Does it matter if the framing is standard?" Mike said.

"No," Tyler said. "Just unusual."

He poured from the thermos into the lid. "The three from the courtyard."

"What about them?"

"Their names are Jay, Tobin, and Cody," Tyler said. "Jay is the one you put on the ground. Business program, second year."

"Jay and Tobin both receive athletic scholarships, while Cody does not."

Mike looked at him. "How do you know their names?"

"I told you I mapped their schedule," Tyler said. "Mapping required identification. Identification required some research."

"You’ve been tracking them for six weeks," Mike said. "Quietly."

’At least he’s being useful by giving me those names... now I have to find a way to befriend them to see if they can give me some good shit.’

"Data collection is not the same as action," Tyler said. "I collected data because data is useful. I didn’t know what to do with it."

"And now?" Mike said.

Tyler looked at him steadily. "Now I know someone who apparently does."

Mike held his gaze. "You’re very direct about that."

"Indirect communication costs time," Tyler said. "I don’t have much of it."

"Fair," Mike said. "What are you thinking?"

"I’m not thinking anything specifically," Tyler said. "I’m noting that you have skills I don’t have, and I have information you don’t have, and this morning demonstrated that the combination is more effective than either separately."

"That’s a very clean way to describe a potential arrangement," Mike said.

"I like clean descriptions," Tyler said. "Is it inaccurate?"

"No," Mike said. "It’s accurate."

"Good," Tyler said.

He drank from the thermos lid. "Jay has a meeting with the faculty athletics liaison every other Friday."

’The meeting runs forty-five minutes. During that time he’s in the administration building, which means Tobin and Cody are alone."

"You’re telling me their schedule," Mike said.

"I’m sharing information," Tyler said. "What you do with it is your decision."

Mike looked at him for a long moment. Tyler looked back with the calm, precise attention of someone who had thought the matter through and was comfortable with where it had arrived.

"You’ve been sitting on this issue for six weeks," Mike said.

"I’ve been waiting for a useful variable," Tyler said. "Today provided one."

"You’re not what you look like," Mike said. "I actually respect that."

"Most people aren’t," Tyler said. "You’d know that."

"I would," Mike said.