Page 81 of Never Again

“That makes it more difficult to explain this,” Bailey admitted as she worried her bottom lip between her teeth while she tried to figure out how to explain this to him.

“Try me,” Quinn said, leaning back against the headboard as he took her hands in his and entwined their fingers together.

Slowly exhaling, Bailey said, “This code for this game is more advanced than any of the other games that I’ve created and with it broken down like this, I needed something to hold it all together and make the connection seamless, but that’s a problem sometimes with millions of lines of code, each one with a different code structure because of how I broke this down. His program would have made it easier for players to move between levels and made sure that everything the player earned, coins, extra lives, powers, weapons, etc., moved with them.”

“Isn’t that the norm for video games?” Quinn asked, looking genuinely confused.

Shaking her head, Bailey said, “Not like this.”

“What’s different about this game?”

“Everything,” Bailey said, unable to bite back an excited smile as she thought about her newest baby.

“Meaning?” Quinn asked softly as he leaned in and brushed his lips against hers again.

“Normally, each level provides the same player experience, making it easier for players to share codes and tips and know what to expect in the game. It also allows them to beat the game faster when they play it again because they’ve played it before and know what to expect, but not this game. I’ve created an AI program to enhance the experience so that it learns from the player, adapting to their skills, choices, and weakness so that it changes with each level, providing the player with a challenge and a whole new experience every time they play the game. There’s nothing like it on the market. A million players could play this game and every one of them would have a different experience.”

“Jesus Christ…” Quinn said, looking absolutely stunned.

“That’s another reason why the game has been broken down into so many parts because the game needs information and code to work with to make this happen,” she explained with a shrug.

“And Jonathan’s program would allow this?” he asked, watching her curiously.

“Yes and no. I’ve already developed the program to pull it off, but his program would have made it easier to connect everything,” Bailey said, slowly exhaling as she thought about all the work that she needed to get done.

“Can you pull this off without it?”

“Yes, it will just take more time, something that we’ve been trying to avoid,” Bailey said, trying not to think about all of the sleepless nights ahead.

“Have you ever accessed the files from outside Haven Technologies before?” Quinn asked, looking lost in thought.

“I’ve never had to before,” Bailey said, even as she told herself that she really didn’t have a choice anymore and-

Suddenly found herself placed on the bed next to him with a kiss on her forehead. That was followed by her grumbling pathetically as she watched him climb off the bed with an absently murmured, “Stay here,” and headed for the door.

“Fine,” Bailey mumbled sadly as she watched him go even as she reminded herself that she had a job to do. She allowed herself a moment to pout before she reluctantly reached over and helped herself to his iPad, deciding that this would be a good time to figure out what she was going to do about her laptop and-

I miss you.

-felt sick to her stomach when she saw the text message waiting for him.

CHAPTER48

“You fucked up this time,” Tristan said, not bothering to look up from the file on his desk.

“Yes, I did,” Quinn said as he sat down in the leather chair in front of the large oak desk as he thought over everything he’d just learned and-

Christ, no wonder they were after her.

He didn’t know a lot about video games, but he knew enough to know that what she just told him was going to be a game-changer. It also meant that the pool of suspects just expanded into a fucking nightmare. Every video game developer in the world was going to want to get their hands on this game, which meant that she wasn’t going to be safe until the game was released.

“Why didn’t you tell me that you knew her?” Tristan drawled as he turned another page.

“I told you that I needed to be replaced,” Quinn reminded him.

Nodding absently, Tristan said, “Yes, you did, but you didn’t tell me why.”

“Would it have really made a difference?” Quinn asked as he watched the man who’d saved his life.

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