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“I don’t—“
”—Have a father. I know. I know!“ Jericho interrupted me with a roll of his eyes. “What do you know about computers?”
“More than most.” I took a sip of my coffee. Creatine is tasteless, mostly odorless depending on the brand, but I pretended it added the taste like creamer. Having creamer in my coffee wouldn’t be good for staying within my macros. “I studied computer science for a while. I dropped out after my sperm donor died…”
“Don’t disrespect him like that, brat.” He slapped his hand on the table, halting my words. He glared at me. I glared right back. Then I took a deep breath and continued.
“I was a computer science major and only got an Associates Degree.” We were still glowering, but I continued. “I was pretty short on cash beforehand. I used to study at the strip clubs because they had free food after midnight. Or my girlfriend at the time would get me something from the kitchen.”
That broke Jericho from his anger, and he chuckled.
“What about hacking?” He asked.
“I can hack into CCTV, troll the dark web, and get into most people’s accounts.” I shrugged. “Courtesy of thatman who shall not be named.”
Jericho’s eyes narrowed for a moment, but I could almost see the exact moment he decided that it wasn’t worth the fight.
“Well, money won’t be a problem for you from this point on.”
“Oh? You’re going to be my sugar daddy?” I asked with fake sweetness.
He shuddered. It was a deep body shudder that made his shoulders rise and fall in disgust.
“Ugh, don’t ever say that again.”
“Not into younger women, are you?”
“No, not even a little.” He looked at me dead in the eyes. “And as far as I’m concerned, you’re a girl. Not a woman.”
“I’m twenty-two.”
“And I’m old enough to be your dad.” He knocked his knuckles on the countertop. “That’s not what this is.” He nodded to the black laptop again. “If you can get into that computer, you’re going to discover a lot of things. One of those discoveries is going to be the fact that you are rich. Do you understand?”
“I crack this laptop, and I win the lottery?” I asked.
“No.” He shook his head in disbelief. “It’s a game. You crack it, you get you millions.”
“How many millions?”
“Depends on when you crack it.”
I squinted at him suspiciously, then pulled the computer towards me, opening it up as it whirred to life. It rang out a tone before the black screen turned blue, and a white box appeared requesting a password.
This was easy. I typed inpassword.
The box shook, the letters I typed disappeared. The input was invalid
I typed inpassword1.
The same process occurred, but when the word INVALID appeared, the screen’s backdrop melted. The image showed the blue washing away as black took over. The computer shut off. I clicked the keys. Nothing happened. I clicked the power button, and nothing responded.
“Jericho, what is this?”
“Who is Jericho?” He asked. “My name is Brett. And you are Jubilee. Get into the habit.”
“Brett,“ I corrected, my voice dripping with irritation. “What is this?”
I gestured with both my hands to the computer that was now mysteriously off and would not turn on.
