Chapter 4

4、

I'd assumed John and Winifred would back off once they saw how things stood. Instead, barely three days later, the two of them cooked up something new.

First they went to reporters and got it onto the radio: that I was jealous of Winifred's talent and deliberately blocking her doctorate out of spite.

Then Winifred went live, weeping into the camera about how she'd studied medicine under her father since she was a child, and how she couldn't understand why, when it came time for her doctoral review, I—the Master Surgeon—simply refused to sign off.

John played the wronged father in her stream too, laying out the so-called "truth" for everyone to hear. He said I was Winifred's half-brother, that when he was young he hadn't taken proper care of me, and that I'd nursed a grudge over it all these years.

So now, when it was his daughter's turn to be reviewed for her doctorate, I was supposedly letting my resentment fester and refusing to let her pass.

I hadn't expected the stream to catch fire the way it did, pulling in wave after wave of attention online.

I even traced it back to a bot farm John had hired, churning out a flood of coordinated posts. The gist: that I, the Master Surgeon, was afraid my sister would grow into someone whose skill outstripped mine and threatened my standing.

Reluctantly, I opened the stream. Winifred was right there on camera, tears running down her face.

"Hubert, I admit you're brilliant."

"But we share the same blood. We're both children of a medical family. You shouldn't strangle me in the cradle."

"I know you're a Master Surgeon. But isn't a Master Surgeon's duty to train more good doctors?"

"You can't be this selfish. If you hate Dad for abandoning your mother all those years ago, and you want to take that revenge out on me, fine. I have nothing to say to that."

"But do you understand? I was born to give myself to medicine. I'm the hope of all mankind. My potential could cure so many hard cases in the future. You have no right to stand in my way."

Then Winifred's mother, Ruby Finch, appeared on camera out of nowhere, dropping to her knees and kowtowing to everyone watching, pleading, "Hubert Lambert, I know you hate me. You hate me for coming between your parents back then."

"But your sister Winifred is innocent. You can't destroy her gift. I'm apologizing to you. I'm begging you—stop making things hard for your sister."

"And whatever you do, don't shut her out of medicine for good. If you want revenge, come to me. I'm right here."

I watched all of it on the screen, then shut the stream off.

In that moment something in me went cold all the way through. The three of them had made it plain—they were going to trap me with guilt and drag it out in public.

Less than half an hour later, a pack of reporters barged into my office without permission, shoving a forest of microphones into my face and firing questions at me one after another.

"Professor Lambert, is it that you're afraid your sister will surpass you one day?"

Another asked, "Professor Lambert, why can't you set aside a personal grudge? Your sister is extraordinarily gifted. She might work miracles for the whole field of medicine. Blocking her doctorate is a loss for all of mankind."

I didn't answer any of them. I just picked up my phone, quietly, and made a call.

"Hello, is this the Medical Board's Disciplinary Unit?"

"I'd like to file a formal, named complaint against a student named Winifred Lambert. She's committed academic fraud, and her work history is fabricated too."

"More importantly, Nat Lawrence, the dean of the College of Medicine, has been taking bribes on the side."

I paused there. Every reporter in the room was staring at me, unblinking.

"And fifteen years ago, Professor John Lambert embezzled thirty million in hospital public funds. I have solid evidence."