Mercury Rising Page #3

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so my body was virgin territory

for caffeine.

It makes me feel so Ricki Lake,

like I can talk to anybody.

What can I say? I`m the Java Queen.

What`s wrong?

Kudrow wants to see me.

Cool! Maybe you`ll get

your own section.

No. I, uh,

I screwed up.

Well, just go in there

and throw him a Bart Simpson.

Kudrow, dude, chill out.

- It was that way when I got there.

- Doh!

Puzzle line?

Puzzle line?

Now, l`ve traveled 10,000 miles

in the past 24 hours.

So l`ve had a lot of time to reflect

on this. Correct me if l`m wrong.

But I believe neither one of you has

ever said the words ""puzzle line"" to me.

Before Mercury went operational,

we ran a standard validation protocol.

The works. Double sets of paired

Cray supercomputers...

fricking velociraptor machines

chewing at Mercury 24 hours a day.

Mercury came out unbent.

Awesome, sir. It was finally a code

that couldn`t be broken.

But there was one last thing

to check out. The, um... geek factor.

Human beings will fool you sometimes.

We thought it important--

We slipped a message

in one of those egghead word games.

We dared amateurs to crack it.

- We were sure nobody would ever call.

- But somebody did.

His name is Simon Lynch. He lives

in Chicago. He is nine years old.

And he has deciphered a message written

in the most sophisticated code...

the world has ever known...

in a geek`s

puzzle magazine.

I don`t recall

ever authorizing...

anyone to put any message...

into any magazine!

That couldn`t just happen.

A kid couldn`t just pop it open.

Not only is he nine years old,

he is handicapped. He is autistic.

Y es, that explains it.

So our $2 billion code

is an open book...

- to people of diminished capacity?

- No, sir.

Autism isn`t synonymous

with diminished capacity.

Autistic people are--

They`re shut off.

But it`s not unusual

for an autistic person to be a savant.

- Oh, a savant!

- He may not be able

to actually decipher the code.

- It might just appear to him.

- Right. He didn`t calculate anything.

He just saw it. Like those stupid

pictures at the mall. You stare at them.

- All of a sudden you`re looking

at the Statue of Liberty.

- Exactly.

This is not a stupid picture

at the mall.

This is national security.

Looking at the best case scenario,

let`s suppose the boy is unique...

and he doesn`t understand

what he`s just done.

Does that solve my problem?

Answer:
. No!

Analysis:
. All we need now

is for someone else...

who understands his capability

to come along...

and my problems are increased

exponentially.

Then maybe we should talk

to the kid.

- And, uh--

- No.

No. No.

There must be nothing

that connects the boy to this office.

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