Read The Cipher for Free Online

realized his grooming advice to Ben was probably the most productive contribution he’d made to society in his entire life. The strange friendship had even given him his last great idea for
his own thing
: to start a comprehensive life-skills school for the socially awkward. Hopefully with students more receptive than Ben, who despite that one shining moment seemed to ignore the copious copies of
GQ
and
Men’s Health
that Smiles “accidentally” left in Ben’s apartment in hopes they might stir some interest in his own betterment.
    Smiles had given up on the nerd-school idea after drawing up one lesson plan (“Acne: Know Your Enemy”), but he was still holding out hope for his ultimate project: getting Ben a girlfriend. Smiles mulled over strategy as he wandered to the card table. On the wall above, Ben had taped an official-looking letter from some big-shot journal called
The Annals of Mathematics
, which had accepted one of Ben’s math papers for publication. Smiles desperately wanted to make a joke about how it sounded dirty, but he figured Ben wouldn’t appreciate it.
    â€œSo, you nervous about meeting with those spies?” he said.
    Ben had told Smiles that he had to get some kind of government agents to clear his article before it could even get published. All top-secret and everything. That’s why Ben was going to the conference—to meet with the agents about his article.
    â€œThey’re not spies,” Ben said. “They’re just some guys from the NSA.”
    â€œThe NSA,” Smiles repeated, not wanting to ask.
    â€œThe National Security Agency. They do cryptography.”
    â€œUmm-hm. Cryptography.”
    â€œCode-breaking,” Ben said, his voice bored now. He hadn’t even looked up from his books.
    â€œSo what do you have in that paper, anyway—state secrets?”
    â€œIt’s nothing special. All high-level work in cryptography has to be screened before it gets published.”
    Ben was playing it off, but Smiles knew the truth: The kid was a mad genius.
    Melanie’s reply buzzed through his cell: “
In trig. Hang in there—see you tonight
.”
    Tonight. Why she had agreed to come over tonight, Smiles wasn’t exactly sure. Probably to give him the ax—or, knowing Melanie, maybe she was just being nice. Either way he had to make the most of it. Smiles figured he should probably clean up his place, or at least make a dent in his mountain of laundry. Just the thought of tackling it made him tired.
    â€œSeriously, man, how do you live without a stereo?” he said, flipping through some of Ben’s mail and other papers.
    Ben just grunted.
    â€œYou need some music in your life. It’s healthy.” Smiles was just talking to himself, like he did regularly here. It was nice to have someone there to hear you, though. Ben was like having a cat, Smiles thought as he read a crinkled flier from a place called the Clay Mathematics Institute.
    MILLENNIUM PRIZE P ROBLEM CHALLENGE it said at the top, and underneath—
    Holy shit. They had seven math problems there, and they were giving away $1 million if you figured any of them out.
    â€œDude,” he barked so that Ben wouldn’t ignore him this time. “Are you trying to solve these?” Smiles waved the flier at him.
    Ben turned around. “Maybe.”
    â€œWhat do you mean,
maybe
?”
    â€œI don’t know. They’re hard.”
    â€œI hope so, for a million bucks.” Smiles read some more. Ben had circled one of the problems in pen. It was called the Riemann Hypothesis, and it appeared to be the granddaddy of them all. Something to do with prime numbers. Smiles was pretty sure his dad’s system—his special encryption technique—was based on prime numbers, too.
    â€œSo come on—are you doing this or not?” Smiles said.
    â€œPut it away, Smiles. Just leave it.”
    â€œGod, that’d be pretty