"Where's Lin?" Mai asked, serving Noll his afternoon tea.

Noll cast a look over his glasses, "He's returned to England for the time being. I am unaware if he has any intentions of returning, honestly."

Mai shrugged, "Ah… That's sad. I think he and I were really starting to get along."

"I'm sure you'll see him again," Noll said nonchalantly. He sipped his tea and smiled. Mai did make quite good tea…

"I hope," Mai mused, leaning over Noll's desk. "What are you working on?"

"Research," Noll answered. He didn't bother hiding his drawings from Mai. He doubted she could tell the differences between most of them. They were scarcely labeled as well. His notes, however, were locked away in his filing cabinet.

"What did you use as a reference to draw all these?"

Noll couldn't hide his smirk, "Various autopsy images."

"Why draw them? If you had pictures?"

She certainly was in the mood to ask questions that day…

"It's easier to distinguish minor differences when one copies an image by hand. Also, I plan to publish. Autopsy images are less desirable in print. These would be acceptable models," Noll explained.

"Oh…" Mai puffed her cheeks, "So, what have you found? I mean, you spend a lot of time with this. I'm sure you've observed something fascinating."

Of course Noll had made fascinating observations, but explaining them in detail to Mai wasn't convenient at that time. He considered his words carefully.

"Yes. All these individuals held rather similar occupations, with the exception of one. All those who participated in said occupation have similar abnormalities in their brains. Some are more exceptional than others, but it's an obvious pattern."

"So, someone can be predisposed to an occupation based on the structure of their brain?" Mai was confused.

"No," Noll clarified, "this particular occupation calls for particular talents. Much like athletes depend on physical traits, such as longer legs, for example, this occupation depends on mental capacity. I suppose… Something akin to I.Q."

"Ah," Mai seemed to have a better understanding. She didn't pose any more questions.

Returning to his tea, Noll discovered it to be gone. Looking to Mai he offered the empty cup.

"More tea."

"Already?!" Mai groaned, "Shessh, it's like you love this stuff more than me."

"Perhaps I do," Noll teased.

Mai swiped the cup from his hand and stormed off to the office kitchen, "You're such a jerk sometimes, don't you know that?!"

Noll concealed a chuckle behind his smile as he returned to his work.