Vanya worked for a day. Then another. He could feel in his bones he was close because he sensed the changes he was making to space itself as he calculated, the curves smoothing and the heights coming to a plateau. He sensed their depth and weight. Even their moment in time. When he made a mistake, he could see his error as plain as a child who’d drawn outside the lines. Through all of it, he felt as if he were putting something back where it belonged.
On the third night of work, he stopped. Miri dozed across from him, her head resting on the glass. “I’ve done it,” he whispered, knowing she wouldn’t respond even if she were awake. “Mirele, it’s complete. I’ve solved relativity.”
Still, he’d check one more time. He went back and compared the version of Mercury’s path that he’d calculated to actual observations. It took hours. He checked and rechecked his work. Yes. “Yes!” he shouted.
It matched. Precisely. Absolutely. “Good God,” Vanya said. “Finally. Finally.”
“What?” Miri asked half-awake now. “What’s wrong?”
Not one deviation between observation and calculation. He didn’t have approximate numbers, like Einstein. Vanya had exact numbers. His field equations were elegant. Precise. Exactly as they should have been. “I have my math.” Did he yell? Was he shaking? “I’ve done it!”
“You did?” Miri asked, rubbing her eyes.
“Yes. Yes!” Vanya’s heart beat so hard he felt it in his throat. He scrambled to hold his notebook over his head, waved the pages high. He grabbed Miri’s hands. She didn’t get up, but she swung her arms with him in a small dance and smiled for him. “I have it. Finally, I have it. Because of you. You’re brilliant. Gravity and acceleration. They are the same.” Through the glass he saw the stars twinkled as bright and clear as ever. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. He felt weightless. He’d been told it was impossible. Other professors told him he was wasting his efforts. They said no one could challenge Newton. But they were wrong. All wrong. He, Vanya, had found the answer.
But was he too late? He had no photographs, no way to reach Eliot safely with his news. The Okhrana were after them. They’d lost Yuri, and Miri’s soldier, too. They had no way of knowing if Baba was even safe.
He’d beaten Einstein, but for what?
He had solved his puzzle, but in his single-minded focus on the science he had dragged everyone he loved into danger. Without the other half, without the photographs, he had failed them all. He couldn’t remember ever feeling more tired. He rolled into a ball on the seat and closed his eyes. Sleep must have come quickly.