Maybe... but there's a sad text

Home with you? Your heart is beating so fast you wonder if you're having a heart attack.

That buzz sounds almost like a cardiac unit alarm... except... damn, it's your phone. You've got a text from Jeremy.

Hey bud, sleep somewhere else tonite. Hot chick and me make magic.

"Can't go home," you admit to Anna. "Jeremy is dibsing some privacy."

She looks at you curiously, as if she's wondering whether you're gaming her.

You hand her your phone. "I'm couch surfing with Jeremy. Looks like he got lucky and doesn't want an audience."

"Too bad. That Asian chick very hot."

"Uh, yeah." Crap, was she saying she was a lesbian?

"I have girlfriend. She pick me up."

Well, that answered that question.

Anna takes out her own phone, punches the screen and mutters something in a foreign language.

Five minutes later, a cute brunette strides into the diner, takes one look at where you are sitting sitting, and stomps over to your table.

She's short but more muscular than tiny, with a pale complexion, green eyes, and chin-length dark hair with bangs that hang into her eyes. She's wearing a tight pair of jeans and a tank top with, obviously, no bra underneath.

"Mara, meet Mike," Anna announces. "He is trying to hack the digital universe."

Mara gives you a second look then sits beside you. "You know that's impossible, right?"

"Why would it be?"

"It's the universe."

"It's a simulation. And simulations run on code. And all code is buggy."

"Even if it were code, it wouldn't be created by a fallible human."

"Who but some sort of post-human would want to create a simulation of this shit? And, even if it's an advanced AI doing the programming, ultimately there are humans somewhere down the line. All code is buggy and all code can be hacked."

"Mara is mathematician," Anna says. "You need real mathematician."

"But you--"

"I'm physicist. Deal with basic maths. Real mathematician deal with fake math."

"Not fake." Mara sounds like she's regurgitating an argument they'd had a hundred times. "Anyway, even if you're right, we don't have access to the computer it's running on."

"We're in it so we have access to it. We just need to learn how."

She glares at you for thirty seconds, then shrugs. "Maybe. Come on, Anna. Let's go."

"I call you later," Anna says as she follows her friend to the door.