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him on Saturday. She smiled, and then giggled. His interest in her would be tested to the max. Would he pass or fail? Continue their fast-growing friendship or slink away like— what was it the cowboys said in the old westerns Lee loved to watch—like a lily-livered coward? If she were a gambling woman, she would put her money on Josh.
    But Jenn had called Katie a risk taker. So, maybe she was a gambling woman. Maybe she had already put her money on Josh.
    If you slink away like a lily-livered coward, I’ll kill you, Joshua West.
     
     
     
     

6
     
    Thursday morning, Katie caught the early bus to the U. It was only 7:10 AM when she keyed in the cipher and entered the lab.
    Josh sat at a UNIX workstation, fingers flying on the keyboard.
    “I didn’t expect to see you here so early.” She felt a smile growing.
    “After accepting that offer I couldn’t refuse, I was afraid you might put out a contract on me if I wasn’t here bright and early.”
    “So, you’re afraid of me? I’ve got you at a disadvantage. Right where I want Joshua West.”
    He stood and stepped away from the workstation. “Kate, you have everyone in the department at a disadvantage. Everyone but old Prof Bergmeier cringes when you start barraging them with questions.”
    “No they don’t. I’m not—”
    “But they do, because they know you have the answers and they usually don’t.”
    “Can we change the subject to something more pleasant?” She frowned.
    “I thought the subject was extremely pleasant.” He studied her frown and grinned. Josh was trying to flirt. That wasn’t like him.
    “I’m the flirtatious one in this relationship and you—” Relationship? The word had slipped out. Jumped from her heart and flew out of her mouth.
    Josh’s face showed surprise.
    And that look in his eyes…she needed to get focused. “The work we’ll be doing is normally done by people with high security clearances, the compartmentalized kind.”
    “You mean people who work for NSA, the FBI, or CIA, and maybe DHS?”
    “Exactly. But if we just push forward in our work, our lack of clearances shouldn’t matter.”
    “Push forward to what, Kate?”
    “To findings that, when presented to the authorities, will probably get classified…top secret, or higher.”
    The door to the lab opened. An undergraduate student stepped in with a huge backpack hanging from his shoulders.
    “Josh, do you have time to go somewhere private to talk?”
    “I accepted your offer. Didn’t I promise you all my time for the next two months?”
    Kate studied his face and eager eyes. Josh was the nicest guy she knew in the computer science department and handsome beyond belief. But she knew very little about what he believed, about his worldview. Before this relationship she had mentioned grew any further, she needed to know what he believed. What she discovered might even save his life, or his dignity on Saturday evening when Lee’s and Granddad’s questions shredded any incoherence in Josh’s worldview. “Come on. Let’s walk over to the little coffee shop on 15th. Order anything you want. My treat.”
    Josh’s gaze immediately sought her face. “Anything I want and you’re treating me?” He grinned. “Now, that’s an offer I really can’t refuse.”
    The day was warm and sunny by Seattle standards. Fifteen minutes later Kate and Josh sat outside the coffee shop huddled around a small table in the sun, holding steaming drinks in their hands.
    Josh took a sip of his caramel macchiato, a sweet salty drink, sighed, and then focused his gaze squarely on her lips. Though he hadn’t said a word, this was beyond flirting.
    “Josh, how would you like a karate jab?”
    “I wasn’t flirting, Kate. Honest. Just…wondering.”
    “More like wandering.”
    “Yeah. Guess my mind was wandering. Where were we? Something about Internet topology and routing?”
    “Yes. And using our knowledge of them, you can constrain the class of problems we’re dealing with