Crazy = Genius

Chapter 21: You Deserve Better

Jeremiah felt a pang in his chest as he watched his daughter interact with his boss' newfound obsession. He knew she was what Hannah needed, he regretted ever making her feel bad about being a mother figure. At that moment and since she met his daughter, she had been nothing but mom material.

"Casper is a genius, are you a genius too?" Hannah asked, looking at Lilianna with wide eyes.

"Yes, I am."

"Did you go to one of those big schools in America?"

"Yes, I did. I went to Stanford for psychology."

"Stanford?"

"Yeah, it's a nice school. Casper?" Lilianna turned her attention to the young boy with glasses. He stopped mid-bite of his burger, eyes glued to Lilianna.

"Yeah?" He mumbled through a full mouth.

"Where did you go for post-secondary?"

"Oh, I was in honours comp-sci at Massachusetts Institute of Technology." He answered.

"Oh, wow." She mumbled.

"I was expecting you to say 'but Stanford has better computer science professors'." He chuckled.

"I would, but we're rank second to MIT." She laughed as well.

"Damn right you rank second," He teased making Lilianna roll her eyes with a smile. "You were Wallon's apprentice?"

"Yeah, I was in his master's class. I got in via a recommendation from my undergrad prof, Jessica Flanne. She worked the Robert Pickton case back in 02 before she moved to the States." Lilianna elaborated.

"She's a legend. The Pickton case was global news, the first time Canada was in the news for a serial killer case."

"She got me into Wallon's graduate class immediately following my undergrad. I became his apprentice a week into the first term and I was his partner once I completed my graduate and started my Ph.D."

"I was an apprentice to Larry Page," Casper told her, Lilianna's jaw dropped in shock.

"Really?" He nodded in response.

"Then what the hell are you doing here?" She asked making him laugh.

"I started to get too ballsy with my work. I hacked into his system and found a bunch of docs he had signed off to the government for new age war machines and weaponry. The schematics were based on lots of my early designs and projects. He had fine-tuned them and taken all the credit. I confronted him about it and I got fired, he called the CIA to get me locked up for hacking into private government files. So, I ran." He shrugged and looked over his shoulder at Terrence. "Then I ran into Terrence thanks to a buddy of mine who helped me to hide. He hired me on the spot to be his tech genius and hacker. I've been with him since the first Vendetta global appearance."

"You know, Larry Page went to Stanford for comp sci." Lilianna pointed out.

"Wow, that's what you took from all that? Really? Wow, Lilianna, just wow." He chuckled as she bit back a laugh of her own.

"Can I go to Stanford when I'm a big kid?" Hannah asked, catching Lilianna off guard.

"Of course you can. Just remember you have to work really hard to keep your marks up. I'm sure you can do it." Lilianna told her, smiling as the child grew excited.

"I'm gonna be smart like Lili, dad!" She yelled, looking over at the man who stood the farthest from the group with Terrence at his side while they spoke in hushed tones.