A Better Life

by Liza O'Connor

“How?” Stevie asked.

  “Is it cat?” Tommy asked.

  Angel laughed at how close the boy had come to guessing the password. “Guessing won’t normally work. So, let me explain some better options.

  “In the old days, we would try to get to know the person who created the password and then test all assortments of birthdays, children’s names, pet names.”

  “Facebook would be good for that,” Kelly declared.

  “It would,” Angel agreed. “However, as such information became easier to gather, people have learned not to use such easy-to-guess passwords. Still, this is a level one programmer, so this person may not be so smart. For example, how many letters do you think this password has?”

  Tommy stared at the page. “Three?”

  “That’s right.”

  “We can guess this.” Stevie wiggled excitedly and placed his fingers on the keyboard.

  “Maybe, but can you guess it before five tries, because if you are wrong five times in a row, the computer will lockdown the file.”

  His fingers pulled away. “How we gonna do that?”

  We have three choices for clues. One’s free. One costs fifty cents and may or may not help you. The last option costs five dollars and you have to assemble it before it can work, but if assembled correctly it will break the password.”

  “Do we have money?” Stevie challenged.

  “Yes, you do. You earned five dollars for locating the backdoor yesterday. But it’s game money, so you can only spend it in the game.”

  Dare whispered in his ear, then Stevie asked, “Can we try more than one option?”

  “You can try as many as you have funds for. Can anyone tell me how many that is?”

  “Two,” Kelly replied. She pointed out the two alternatives and explained why, so Tommy understood.

  Stevie nudged his brother. “Good thing we got Kelly on our team. Nobody’s taught you math yet.”

  Tommy’s brow furrowed the same way his father’s did when he wasn’t happy. “Yeah, how come I don’t know math? I go to school now.” All the boys looked at Derrick to explain this mishap.

  Angel laughed and tried to help him out. “Kelly when did you learn math?”

  “When I was six, I think.”

  Stevie sighed heavily. “That’s too far away. Tommy needs to know now!”

  Tommy agreed with exaggerated nods.

  Derrick smiled. “I’ll talk to your teacher.”

  Dare whispered in Stevie’s ear and he nodded at once. “Will we earn more money once we get the password?”

  “You will.”

  His grin spread from ear to ear. “Then we’ll do the free one first and if that don’t work, we’ll spend our five dollars for the sure thing.”

  His entire team agreed that was the right decision.

  The free option was a list of information about the programmer.

  Joe had two cats named Max and Min, one dog named Jap. His favorite car was the Porsche 990, his favorite color was red, and his favorite sport was baseball.

  “Do we get five more tries with the sure thing?”

  “Not today. Five wrong passwords will shut down the program today, and upon discovering someone attempted to break in, Joe will change his entry, so you’ll have to start completely over and find his new backdoor. He’ll have changed his password too, probably to something harder.

  Steve smacked the side of his head. “What about the sure thing? Does it only need one guess left?”

  She nodded.

  He looked at the others. We got four guesses. It’s got to be three letters. Each person gets one guess.

  “Cat,” Tommy declared.

  “Max,” Dare said.

  “Jap,” Kelly said.

  “I’ll go with Red,” Stevie stated and entered them one by one. When the last one was rejected, he muttered. “Free don’t get you much.”

  “No, it doesn’t. Now let’s look at Option 2 that you didn’t use.”

  “Can we use it?”

  “No. But since it’s the early concept that later became a computerized password breaker, studying it might help you understand how to assemble your tool so that it works. Because remember, you’ve only one shot to build it correctly.”

  Stevie growled. “We shouldn’t have wasted our guesses on that free stuff. Mommy warned us the programmers got smarter.”

  “If you understand Option 2, then you’ll be able to assemble Option 3 correctly.”

  She then brought up Option Two. “This option tests every combination of letters, one by one.”

  “But we only have one guess left,” Stevie objected.

  “Realistically, with the five-mistake limit, this could take over a month to crack the password, assuming you stopped at four tries each day so it didn’t alert the programmer you were trying to break in. Still, good programmers change their passwords monthly, so the only way you could break it is by chance. For example, if you had used Tommy’s guess and run this program, you would have broken the password in two tries. But with any of the other guesses, you would have failed.”

  “What was so special about Tommy’s?” Stevie asked.

  “It just happened to have two of the letters correct.”

  “Which two?” Tommy asked, excited he was so close.

  “Can’t say.”

  Stevie glared at him. “Doesn’t matter, we only have one chance left.” He then looked at Angel. “Can we assemble Option Three now?”

  “Option Three is a computerized version of this. The big difference is that the first thing it does is to sneak around the counter so it can keep guessing until it gets it right.”

  “Cool!” Stevie and Dare said at once.

  She then opened up the three pieces of code.

  “Uh, oh…” Kelly stated.

  “Mommy, this don’t make sense,” Stevie chided.

  “Ask an expert for help.”

  Kelly smiled. “Can you tell us what each piece says in English.”

  “That’s a good request. Let’s make sure you understand what all three of the pieces do.’

  She pointed to the first segment. “This part asks the computer if the first letter is whatever it is currently guessing. When the computer tells it yes, then it moves to the next letter and asks the same thing again. When it gets that one right, it goes on to the next.” She then pointed to the code that did the comparison and the code to repeat until X = X+1

  “Good, let’s use that one first,” Tommy suggested.

  Dare shook his head and whispered in Stevie’s ear, the Stevie asked, “What do the other two do?”

  “Good question. You need to know what all three pieces do before you try to assemble them. The next piece gets around the counter of wrong attempts.” She pointed out the section in the code that convinced the counter it was always at one.

  “And this big piece?” Stevie asked.

  “It asks the computer for the restrictions and length of the password. For example, this one only uses the alphabet, but most allow numbers and some programs allow all the odd little things above the numbers on the keyboard. The program has to know this because if it’s a possibility, then it has to run through the possibility for each block.”

  “No wonder this cost five dollars. It works really hard.” Stevie said.

  “And really fast. Within a blink of an eye it will have compared a hundred possibilities. Now, who would like to put it in proper order?”

  No one spoke up.

  “Well, let’s think about this logically. Let’s say you hire a man to count the people at the door and not to let any more than five inside. But then the four of you snuck through before the man could start counting. How many people will he let in the room?”

  They all looked to Kelly. “Nine,” she replied.

  Angel nodded. “And how many will he report to have let in?”

  “Five!” Tommy declared.

  Stevie glared at his brother but nodded in agreement.

  “That’s ri
ght. He only counted five.”

  “Now what happens if he’s already counting when you guys arrive?”

  “Then we get counted,” Tommy insisted.

  “That’s right. So, if we don’t want our guesses to count should they sneak past the counter first or start counting first?”

  “Sneak past,” they all declared.

  She helped Stevie switch the two pieces.

  “Now once you’ve snuck behind the counter, do you start comparing first, or finding out what you have to include in your comparison first?”

  Their furrowed brows gathered as the question seemed to overwhelm them. They were so cute that Angel had to resist covering their faces with kisses.

  “If I asked you to find a match to three items I have hidden in my basket, do you need to know what type of items I have in my basket before you begin your search?”

  Stevie chuckled. “It would make it a lot easier.” He slapped his head. “Of course!” He moved the inquiry in between the other two pieces of programming.

  The others weren’t convinced, and he had to defend his decision. Kelly still remained unconvinced it was necessary.

  “But if I don’t know what’s in the basket, I’ll go outside and gather up rocks and bugs, while Mommy has fruit in her basket. I’m just wasting my time until Mommy tells me what I should be gathering for the comparison.”

  Only once all four were satisfied did Stevie hit enter. A second later, the screen blackened.

  “Oh no!” Tommy cried.

  Dare sighed. “I thought we had it right.”

  Then the screen burst into happy colorful letters.

  Congratulations!

  You have successfully entered the backdoor of computer files for Mr. X.

  Funds: $20.00

  Stevie pointed to the dollars in the far-left corner. “Look, we’ve won twenty dollars!”

  “And it’s your bedtime.”

  With a great deal of happy protesting, the kids went to bed.

  Once Angel had them settled, she returned to the living room to discover Derrick, Tom, and Davenport in quiet discussion.

  She approached. “Is this something I can hear? Or should I head on to bed?”

  “Oh, you are definitely invited into this conversation,” Tom stated.

  Davenport’s hand slipped onto the small of her back. “Hamilton’s watching these lessons, and all the kids are impressing the hell out of him. Therefore, I am authorized to do whatever you want to advance their education, including getting them different teachers if needed.”

  Angel looked at Derrick. “Is there a problem with their current teachers? Because having failed to teach a five-year-old math in the short time he’s been in school is not unreasonable. Most children aren’t taught math so early. Honestly. I suspected my kids might take to numbers early. However, Dare hung with them the whole night and Kelly is having a great time as the math expert.”

  Derrick smiled and nodded. “I just wish my boy would speak for himself instead of channeling his thoughts through Stevie.”

  “With a little more confidence, he might outgrow that.” She then returned to the topic at hand. “But to my question, is there really a problem with their teachers?”

  Derrick sighed. “There is a big difference between their behavior and interest level here and at school. But it may be a content issue. Tommy has no interest in coloring within the lines and placing round balls in round holes. I suggested moving him up with the other two boys.”

  Tom spoke up, “But I’m worried about him missing developmental skills, such as coloring within the lines.”

  Angel laughed and hugged Tom. “You cannot expect a child of mine to color properly.”

  “He’s…” Tom stopped himself before he said more.

  Angel sighed and looked at Derrick and Davenport and then at Tom. “It’s okay for you to claim him now. He’s our son. You have a say in this. And if his natural inclination was to color in those lines, I would say he got the trait from you and I’d let him color properly. But Derrick says he has no interest in following those lines, so even though he’s your son, you have to accept my parts in him as well.”

  Tom kissed her, filling her body with pure love. When he broke the kiss, he stared at her. “How long have you known?”

  “Since Max told me a few weeks into our marriage.”

  Tom’s brow furrowed.

  “You’re mad because I never told you I knew?”

  “No!” He pulled her against his chest. “I’m pissed that Max insisted you didn’t know and would never want to know.”

  She sighed heavily, wishing her rose-colored Max-glasses weren’t fading with use. But there was nothing she could do about her husband. She had a new life, and Hamilton left no doubt Max would never be a part of it, and honestly, she understood his perspective.

  “Let’s focus on things we can have impact upon. The truth is, Tommy has been struggling to keep up with Stevie and Dare since he first became aware of their existence. Tommy was walking at seven and a half months and talking at nine. His first words were ‘me too’.”

  Tom nodded in agreement. He had moved into their home the day his wife kicked him out when she discovered Angel’s new son was named Tommy. He had been a father to his son from the first week on.

  “Keeping up with his brothers isn’t harming him. He’s just learned to try harder, to overcome his roadblocks. He’s his own little man, strong and determined.”

  Tom caressed her cheek and then looked at Derrick. “Since my boy does not like coloring, let’s move him up so he can study with Stevie and Dare.”

  Angel added, “But if he starts to lose his confidence, let us know and we’ll come up with a different plan.”

  “Sounds good,” Davenport replied. “I’ll talk to the boys’ teacher tonight and they’ll start a new curriculum tomorrow.” He then glanced at Derrick. “If you don’t feel the teacher has embraced the change, let me know, and we’ll get someone else.”

  Derrick nodded. “Kelly will keep her teacher, right?”

  “Yes, unless you have an issue with the guy.”

  “Other than my daughter has a crush on him, no, he’s fine.”

  “You want a change?”

  He smiled. “I think this is something my girl just has to face. Unrequited love is a bitch, but not half so bad as a meddlesome father sending her beloved teacher off.”

  “Wise man,” Tom stated. “I can tell you from experience, even the best of daughters will make mistakes when it comes to men. I intervened when my girl was eighteen and fell in love with a playboy cop twice her age who was a good friend of mine.”

  Angel grimaced, knowing he was talking about Steve.

  His hand rubbed Angel’s back. “I reacted really badly and did some things I’ll never forgive myself for.”

  Angel knew exactly what he was talking about and wrapped her arms around him, wishing she could take away his pain, because she was very glad they had become lovers, even if it had started out, on Tom’s part, as an act of revenge against Steve.

  Steve had taken Tom’s baby girl, so Tom took Steve’s true love.

  Tom pulled her close as he continued his advice. “You should talk over any action you plan to take with Angel before you act. She can keep you from doing stuff that will destroy your relationship with your daughter forever.”

  Derrick focused on Angel. “So, you agree I should just ignore this?”

  She nodded.

  Davenport smiled. “I can make sure the guy knows if he touches Kelly, he’s fired.”

  “No,” Derrick stated. “That would alter his relationship with Kelly, and she would suspect I’m the cause. I just have to trust my daughter on this.”

  Angel was shocked by Derrick’s response. He wasn’t normally so reasonable. Before she could question his change of heart, she noticed Kelly’s door was open a crack.

  Angel yawned. “Well, I’m headed off to bed. Anyone else sleepy?”

  Tom nudged her to Dav
enport. She smiled at her stern, powerful soldier. His hand slipped onto her back and he led her to her bedroom.

  Once inside, she helped undress him, so she could enjoy the tactile study of his chiseled body. She felt the ripple of muscles as she removed his shirt. “Your muscles even have muscles,” she teased.

  He removed her clothes and then cupped her butt and lifted her up as if she weighed but a few ounces and tasted each nipple.

  He then slowly eased her down until the tip of his penis touched her. “They have their uses.”

  She wrapped her legs around his firm waist. Her eyes sparkled with delight. “Does this mean…?”

  “Dr. Hanson said we could try as long as I’m not penetrating you more than two inches.

  “Two?”

  “Yes. According to Dr. Hanson, your G spot is two inches up on your belly button side. So, we are going to find it.”

  “All right! I can’t believe you discuss my G-spot with Dr. Hanson. What made you ask?”

  “Other than my painful need?”

  She nodded. Davenport would never ask just to ease his own needs.

  “I thought you deserved a reward for the great job you’re doing, both at work and teaching the kids your skills.”

  He slipped inside her, holding her butt so all control was in his hands. Her soldier normally buried himself deep within her, so she didn’t expect this two-inch prod for the fabled G spot was going to do much, but she soon discovered that when provided such clear directions, Davenport could do a hell of a lot with just two inches.

  Chapter 11

  Hamilton smiled as he reviewed the new Suspected Terrorists list. In a month, his team had uncovered over two hundred before unknown groups being funded by extremist. He supposed he should feel upset at such a long list, and later he would feign such concern, but right now, he simply felt a great satisfaction. A month with Angel on his staff proved, beyond all doubt, his methodology was far superior to Max’s.

  Still, it could have so easily gone wrong.

  He’d been on edge for the entire month as he left billions on the table waiting for his very small team to evaluate all the recipients. He took a big chance. All it would take was one of the team to send a message or trip an electronic warning, and the money could disappear, and the Feeder Companies could all disappear, along with the receiving companies.