Page 43 of Close to the Edge

I set my glass in the holder. “Why Q?”

“What?”

“Cipher Q. What does the Q stand for?”

She toyed with a damp strand of hair. “What do you think it stands for?”

“I thought it was Quantum. But I’m going with Queen,” I replied.

Her head dipped, that hint of shyness and innocence adding to her appeal. “It’s silly, I know. And vain. But...”

“But you wanted to feel empowered at a time when things felt out of control?”

Her mouth dropped open a few seconds before she shut it. “I don’t like it when you do that,” she murmured.

“Do what?” I asked gently.

“See...too much.”

“I won’t hurt you, Lily. Not with any information you give me. I can promise you that.”

After a moment, she nodded.

Grasping that tiny leeway, I probed softly, “How old were you when you started hacking?”

She looked a little trapped by my question, but she answered, “Thirteen.”

“I’m guessing it was your stepfather who made you feel...less?”

A shadow crossed her face and she remained silent for a long time before she nodded. “He was saddled with me after my mom left. Every now and then he would let me feel his displeasure.”

My fist tightened. “Did he hurt you?”

“Physically? No. In other ways...yes.”

I took a sip of bourbon just for something to do so I didn’t drive my fist through the wall behind me. “Tell me what he did.”

Her nostrils quivered as she sucked in a breath. “I don’t have all night.”

“Then tell me exactly how you got involved with Chance.”

“When I was fourteen, I hacked him. I was good back then, but I wasn’t great. He hired another hacker to find me, and turned up at my house with the cops. He gave me a choice, work for him or go to jail.”

“Your stepfather didn’t tell him to get lost, I take it.”

She gave a bitter laugh. “Not when Chance started throwing money his way, he didn’t.”

She flinched at my tight curse. I reached across the counter and placed my hand on hers. She stared at it with a sad smile before she inhaled long and deep.

“Anyway, between them they hammered out a deal that he’d pay my stepfather a monthly fee for my maintenance, then my college tuition fees on condition that when I left MIT I’d devote all my time to developing something big for him.”

“The algorithm?” I asked, my chest and throat tight with the effort it took to keep my fury inside.

She nodded. “I had the beginnings of the idea back then.”

“Why didn’t you walk away when you turned eighteen or even twenty-one?”

Her lips tightened and she shrugged. “I gave him my word I wouldn’t.”

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