Chapter Twenty-Seven

It was the very early hours of the morning before Chance looked up from his computer screens. He was in his office at X-Tech, the one located at the end of the plain corridor, behind a door that few ever dared enter. Gabe was the exception to that. He sat at the far end of Chance’s desk, fingers flying over his keyboard, jacket and tie long since discarded, hair no longer artistically ruffled but simply ruffled.

Chance thought it fair to say that he felt fairly fucking ruffled, as well. He leaned back in his chair and stretched out his back. It ached. Everything ached. And he was fucking exhausted, but they were making progress.

“You okay there, Gabe?” he asked.

Gabe looked across at him. His eyes were red. Probably his contacts scratching. Gabe did not go for the geeky-guy-in-glasses look. “We haven’t pulled an all-nighter likes this since we were kids,” he said. “I kind of miss it.” He looked over at the many empty soda cans and pizza boxes. “We might be past the age of soda and pepperoni,” he added. “I’m going to pay for this tomorrow.”

“You and me both,” Chance said. He eyed the code running down his screen. He could remember writing most of it, some though…it was almost unrecognizable to him. “We’ve never pulled this sort of all-nighter,” he said after a moment.

“The sort where we try and get some control over rogue AI?” Gabe asked.

“ERQ is not AI,” Chance said. “At least, not in the true sense.”

“She’s wonderful,” Gabe breathed. “If we could find her corrupted code and—”

“Absolutely not,” Chance said quickly. “ERQ’s days are numbered.”

Gabe sighed. “You were more fun when we were younger.”

“And you dressed better,” Chance said.

Gabe picked up a balled wrapper and threw it in Chance’s direction. Chance swatted it away.

“I should be asking you if you’re okay,” Gabe said. He picked up a can of soda, took a swig, and pulled a face. “Flat.”

“I’m wonderful,” Chance said. “Just fucking wonderful. I’ve spent the last few years stealing other developer’s work—”

“We don’t know it’s the last few years.”

“However long it’s been,” Chance said.

“It wasn’t on purpose.”

Chance rotated his shoulders. The muscles twinged. “That’s not the point.”

“We can fix this, Chance,” Gabe said. “I’ll help.”

“You are helping.” He looked back at his screen. The code continued to run. “How much stolen data do you think we’ve tracked down?”

Gabe picked up another balled wrapper and threw it at him. “I don’t even know why you’re asking me that. You and I both know you’ve been running the calculations as we go.”

“Two point seven percent,” Chance sighed.

“Based on her records?”

“Yeah.”

Gabe let out a low whistle. “It’s going to take days, my friend, if not weeks.”

“And then some.”

“We need to think about what we’re going to do once we figure out how much data she has actually stolen,” Gabe said. “And who she stole it from.”

“We contact her victims,” Chance said quickly. “What other choice do we have?”

“Victims…” Gabe sighed. “Whatever we do, we’re going to need to think it through carefully, get legal involved.” He snapped his fingers. “We just delete it all. Delete every bit of research that ERQ brought to us.”

“Our people will still remember some of it,” Chance said. “We’ll still benefit from it.”

“Job offers, then,” Gabe said. “We bring them all into the fold. Every nerd out there wants to work with us. If we let them develop their work here…”

Chance started at that. “Develop the Golden Group?”

Gabe sighed. “Someone is going to do it eventually, Chance. When are you going to realize that?”

“I do realize it,” Chance said.

“You don’t accept it, though.”

Chance rubbed a hand over his face. They might only be three percent into ERQ’s logs, but Chance had seen enough to know that she’d gathered a lot of information on the Golden Group. No wonder X-Tech had made so many inexplicable leaps. “I can’t believe I let this happen.”

“Too clever for your own good,” Gabe muttered. He took another swig from the can and visibly shuddered. “What about ERQ? Tell me you’re not really planning on shutting her down?”

“You’d rather I left her to prowl the Web?” Chance asked.

Gabe grinned. “I’d rather you sat down and worked out where she went wrong, or right, depending on your viewpoint, pull the code out, and see how we can integrate it into some of our other projects. Hell, Chance, I’ll head it up myself.”

“You really think that’s a good idea?” Chance asked, his tone making it clear what his view was.

“I think it’s a fantastic idea,” Gabe said. “There’s all kinds of potential here. ERQ could be the thing that kick-starts some of our projects into life.” He paused. “I meant to tell you, I’ve opened back up the driverless car division.”

Chance couldn’t even find it in himself to get annoyed. He was too exhausted. “That tech—”

“Yeah, yeah, world changing, but I’ve thought about it,” Gabe said. “And Musk has made a mistake in his design. I’m sure of it. We can do better.”

“You have to stop this archrival thing with Musk.”

“Archrival? He wishes.”

“If you’re heading up that division, you won’t have time for ERQ,” Chance said quickly.

“I’ll make time,” Gabe said, he tilted his head slightly. “Better yet, why don’t you ask Dr. Marlowe to come in and head it up?”

Chance shot Gabe a look. “Don’t go there.”

“How can I not after what I heard earlier?” Gabe asked. “She’s…”

“What?” Chance demanded. “What is she?”

“A handful,” Gabe said.

A handful…Meg was that and then some. And yet, she was in the right in every possible way. Chance had fucked up. Bad. She should be angry. She should be furious. Not only had he stolen her work but he’d deceived her all week long. How was he ever going to fix that?

“I can’t think about Blue right now,” he said.

Gabe laughed. “Running scared, Chance?”

“Seriously? You’re asking me that? I remember the women who used to cry on my shoulder, because not only did you never call them back, but you weren’t man enough to face them.”

Gabe waved the words away. “Ancient history.”

“Only because I stopped doing it,” Chance said.

“You stopped doing it because they friend-zoned you.”

“Every woman friend-zoned me back then,” Chance said. “I was…a nerd.”

Gabe scooted his chair along the desk. He grabbed Chance’s flat soda and emptied the contents into his mouth. “We were both nerds. Difference was, I knew women liked it.” He dropped the can back on the desk. “Dr. Marlowe, Meg, Blue, whatever you’re calling her, she likes you. She wouldn’t be so angry with you if she didn’t.”

“I fucked up,” Chance said.

“We all fuck up,” Gabe replied. “Question is, how badly?”

Chance thought of his plan to get Meg on his side. How he had constructed it like he constructed any plan. Stacking up the variables, analyzing their interactions, moving on from there. She’d summed it up perfectly; it really had been input A, output B. Only, he hadn’t realized that where they were concerned it would never work. He hadn’t factored in the variable that was them. He was a fucking idiot.

“Badly,” he said.

“Is it fixable?”

Chance hesitated. “I don’t know.”

“Do you even want to fix it?”

There was no hesitation. “Yes.”

Gabe laughed and gave Chance an approving clasp on the shoulder. “I can tell you this much; you’re not going to fix it from here. My advice? Go to her apartment. Take some flowers. Chocolates even.”

“Flowers? Chocolates?”

“Just to get things started,” Gabe said. “Once she’s softened a little, you can give her what she really wants.”

“And what is that?” Chance demanded.

“It’s obvious,” Gabe said. “She wants her work recognized. Give her that recognition. Invite her in to head up the Golden Group. To finish her project and any others she likes the look of. She can sort out ERQ while she’s at it.”

Chance swallowed against the sudden lump in his throat. An image of Meg sitting with him in his office, laughing and smiling as she tapped away at her keyboard, entered his mind and refused to be dislodged. What would it be like to come into work every day knowing she was here? Knowing that she was full of ideas and full of energy.

Intriguing.

But Meg would never be satisfied with anything simple. She would want the Golden Group.

“She’ll solve the problem,” Chance said after a moment. “I looked at the work so far. She’s so close.”

Gabe sighed. “Chance, you have to stop trying to control everything.”

“The world isn’t ready,” he said.

Another sigh. “You don’t get to decide if the world is ready.”

“Who does then, Gabe?” Chance demanded.

“The people who make the discoveries,” Gabe said. “You can hide as much of your work as you want. Solve every puzzle in the world and tell no one. That’s fine. That’s your choice. But you don’t get to tell others to do the same thing.”

“I deleted that code,” Chance said softly.

“Because no one was close.” Gabe sighed. “Would you have deleted it if they were?” He held up a hand. “You don’t need to answer that. I already know what you’re going to say, even if you don’t.” He paused. “You’re a bit crazy, Chance, I know that. I’ve always known it. It’s the genius thing.”

“You have it, too.”

“I’m a quiet genius,” Gabe said, grinning once more. “I’m not the dramatic type like you are.” Another pause. “Dr. Marlowe strikes me as the dramatic type, too. You make a perfect couple.”

Couple? Was it even possible? Chance hadn’t dared to let himself consider the possibility. There was too much to untangle. Too much to try to figure out. It was all unraveled now, though. Everything was out and in the open. Could he and Meg work their way through it? Did she even want to?

“I can’t even go and see her until ERQ is under control,” he eventually said.

Gabe snorted. “That’s days away, maybe even weeks.”

“She might want those days,” Chance said. “To think things through, I mean.”

“Want them?” Gabe shook his head. “It’s not about what she wants, my friend, it’s about what she needs. And right now? After everything that’s happened? She needs you on your knees begging forgiveness.”

“You think she’ll give it me?”

“There’s only one way to find out.”