"Actually, it's more serious than that," Troy said, frowning. "It's not just cheating; I believe it's theft, which means it's against the law."
Everyone looked at Alex in surprise.
"I don't understand," Alex said calmly. "What do you mean?"
"I'm not sure how you cheated," Troy said. "But this is a serious competition, and it has been designed to showcase the skills of medical professionals. If you stole the exam papers, that's a crime." He shook his head. "The Top Doctor Competition is extremely important, and if you're found to have cheated, the consequences will be severe."
He turned to Wayne. "Mr. Shannon, they're waiting for you in the conference room."
Wayne nodded and left.
Troy glanced back at Alex. "Are you ready to confess? If you admit your guilt, then maybe we can let this matter go. Otherwise, I'll be forced to call the authorities."
He met Alex's gaze. "So, did you cheat?"
"Do you have any evidence that I've done anything wrong?" Alex asked.
"How could you have achieved one hundred percent if you didn't cheat?" Troy asked, raising an eyebrow. "You got full marks in every section, and the tests were exceptionally difficult. Even Mr. Shannon dropped some points! Of all this year's candidates, Melissa came first, and her score wasn't anywhere near as high as yours. And yet you claim there was no trickery?"
His lip curled with contempt. "You are a disgrace, and the medical board will not look kindly on this kind of behavior.
"Full marks?" Melissa's jaw dropped open. Then she burst out laughing. "That's not possible. Apparently, Alex isn't even bright enough to cheat properly. All he had to do was keep his score low enough to be believable. What an idiot!"
Alex had his doubts about Melissa's honesty. After all, her progress had been surprisingly rapid, so she had some nerve accusing Alex of anything.
"I got full marks because I knew the answers," he said simply.
"Alex, don't make things worse for yourself," Melissa said. "Own up to what you've done. We both know you don't really understand medicine."
"Didn't you hear me?" Alex asked. "I didn't cheat. Besides, where do you think I got the answers from? I couldn't have stolen the papers in advance because the questions came from different examiners. No one had access to all the questions." He spread his hands. "So, even if I had stolen the papers from one person, how could I have gotten full marks on every section?"
It was the truth. None of the examiners knew the contents of the entire test in advance. And some of the questions had come from the state medical board.
Troy was stunned, and so were all the other competitors. Alex was right—the accusations didn't make sense. If he had taken the exam papers, then surely the examiner would have reported it at the time. And if he had stolen from all the examiners—which he would have had to do to achieve full marks—then it was highly unlikely none of them would have noticed.
"That's what I want to know," Troy said, scowling at Alex. "How did you steal all the answers without being discovered?"
"Dr. Wilkinson, you're being ridiculous," Alex said, rolling his eyes. "Why not just ask me a random question and see if I know the answer? If I don't, I'll say so. If I do, you'll have to admit my innocence." He glared at Troy. "But do not publicly accuse me without evidence, or I'll make a complaint against you."
"Do you really want to take the risk?" Melissa asked, feeling a little uncomfortable because she had cheated to win first place. "You're just setting yourself up to be humiliated."
"Fine," Troy said, sneering at Alex. "I'll give you a chance. I'll test you right here and now."
He pulled out a piece of paper with three complicated questions written on it. They had been intended for the exam, but he had changed his mind and hadn't used them.
Troy placed the paper on the desk at the front of the hall. "Work here, where no one can help you," he said smugly. "You have fifteen minutes to answer these three questions. If you succeed, then I will accept your innocence."
Alex didn't bother arguing. He simply sat at the desk, pulled out his pen, and started to write.
Several examiners stood nearby, watching him to make sure he didn't look up the answers.
Melissa smirked as she looked on, believing Alex would fail.
Less than five minutes later, Alex stopped writing and said, "I'm finished."
"In only five minutes?" Troy asked skeptically. "You must be some kind of genius."
Then he glanced at the exam, and beads of sweat began to appear on his forehead. Alex hadn't even stopped to think it over, so Troy had assumed he had just been scribbling nonsense, and now he was shocked to realize Alex had succinctly answered each question.
In fact, Alex had analyzed the patient's condition quickly and had described his reasoning in a clearer way than Troy had. It was incredible.
The three questions had been about tropical diseases, and many experienced doctors had made mistakes in their diagnoses in these cases. Even those who had been correct had spent more than an hour working it out. And yet Alex had done so in five minutes.
How did he do it? Troy wondered, staring at Alex in a daze. Is he really a medical genius? Oh, Hell, I promised to admit his innocence, but how can I? I already told Mr. Shannon that Alex cheated. If I take it back now, I'll look like an idiot! No. I can't do it.
Troy simply couldn't accept that Alex was so gifted, so he grabbed the paper, scrunched it into a ball, and tossed it out the window.
"I knew he would fail!" Melissa said, laughing. "What a waste of everyone's time."
"Yeah, get out of here," someone called.
"He's a cheat!" yelled someone else.
To everyone watching, it appeared Troy had asked his questions, and Alex had failed to answer them correctly.
Alex was stunned. How could Dr. Wilkinson do that? he wondered. It's absolutely shameless.
Furious, he clenched his fists as he opened his mouth to challenge Troy.
"What's going on?" Wayne asked, striding into the hall, followed by several members of the state medical board and some security guards.
"Be quiet!" he called, looking around at the crowd. "Now, someone explain."
Troy nodded to him and pointed at Alex. "Mr. Shannon, Alex was unable to answer my questions."
"Alex, please come with me," Wayne said. "Let's not disturb everyone else. We need to have a chat. If you refuse, we will have to call the police, and then you can explain the matter to them down at the station."
If news spread that Alex had stolen exam papers and had then failed Dr. Wilkinson's test, then he would become a laughingstock, and his clinic would suffer.
The members of the medical board looked down their noses at him, clearly unimpressed with his conduct.
"Alex, enough is enough," Melissa said. "This is serious, and you don't want to go to prison, do you?" She shook her head. "You went too far, and denying it now just makes everything worse. Your behavior is disgusting."