“No, it’s okay,” Vaughn cut in. “But why prime numbers? Why not just use one to ten? Would make things easier, wouldn’t it? Like to organize the game?”
Now Ivy shrugged.
“I have no idea. But, yeah, it would make things much easier from a design perspective.”
“Hmm.” Vaughn took all this in, realized that both Darnell and Ivy were waiting for him to say something. “Well, Ivy, thank you for your help. Again, I’m sorry about the photo.”
“No problem.”
With a curt nod, Darnell and Vaughn left the professor’s office.
“You understand any of that?” Darnell said out of the corner of his mouth as they walked the hall.
“Not a fucking word.”
?Chapter 29
Ivy was stillreeling from the photo.
She was also mortified that the cute cop had seen her video.
And the 100 prisoners problem? What the hell was that all about?
Her mind went there, thought about permutations. Looping, odds. This was her happy place. Math had always been her refuge, where she felt comfortable. Math was specific, math was undeniable, math was truth.
People, on the other hand, were unpredictable. Even people like her father.
Ivy’s first introduction to math, even before fractals, had been through chess. On her third birthday, Ivy’s mother had bought her a checkers board. At this point in her young life, she’d rarely seen her parents fight. That didn’t happen until later, when her father was spending every waking hour on his work.
But they’d fought then.
Gene had been angry, saying that checkers was linear tic-tac-toe. Said it was for simpletons. He’d taken the board from Ivy, thrown it out. Ivy had cried.
Later that day, Gene had returned with a chess board. Said that chess was a real game, a smart game, a thinking person’s game.
“There are more possible chess games than there are atoms in the universe, Ivy.”
That was her father—that was Eugene Reeves. And that was Ivy.
Over the years, they’d played hundreds of games, with Eugene always coming out on top—he never let her win.
Wetness suddenly leaked into the corner of Ivy’s mouth, and she absently licked at it. She hadn’t even realized that she’d been crying.
Her phone buzzed, and she glanced at the call display. Sniffed, wiped more tears before answering.
“Hey, Abs.”
“If it isn’t the Bae-sian Prof!”
Ivy choked.
“What? You saw that?”
“How could I not? You’re famous, bitch!”
“What the hell, Abs! I want it taken down!”
“Why? It’s blowing up! You need to monetize that shit. ‘Member the Hawk Tuah girl? She made hats and shirts... hell she even had a meme coin. Made millions.”
