I found her because I went looking in the place Damian would never have looked, which was down.

He had always scanned upward and sideways, toward the people who could advance him and the rivals who might not; he had no instrument for noticing the quiet competence three floors below, because quiet competence could not do anything for him.

So of course the best mind in the building had been sitting in the propulsion lab the entire time, overlooked for exactly the reason that made her trustworthy.

Dr.