A Well-Timed Entrance - Lauren Ipsum: A Story About Computer Science and Other Improbable Things - page 49

“Come to think of it, I never liked that cousin.”
“Hey . . . did you notice something?”
“Is it dinner time already?” Xor asked hopefully.
“No! When I said 'Turtle,' she said no right away,” Laurie said.
“So? It's not the password,” Xor said.
“But when I said 'Algorithm,' she took longer to say no. And with Abstraction, she took a
little longer than that, moving her finger over the page . . .” Laurie cleared her throat and
spoke to Jane. “Is the password, um, About?”
“A . . . B . . . O . . . No.”
“See?” she whispered.
“Okay, but what does it mean?”
“Maybe it means the real password starts with AB! So if we keep guessing AB words . . .”
Letter by letter they cracked Rustic's password. It was difficult for Laurie to think of words
that started with the right letters. She did not know many of the words Xor told her to try, but
he swore they were real, on the honor of Thesauruses everywhere. She knew they were get-
ting warmer because Jane would take longer and longer to say no.
“Abend!”
“A . . . B . . . E . . . No,” Jane replied.
“Abdicate!”
“A . . . B . . . D . . . No.”
“Abrogate!”
“A . . . B . . . R . . . O . . . No.”
“It starts with ABR!” Laurie whispered to Xor. “Abrupt!”
“A . . . B . . . R . . . U . . . No.”
“Abraid!”
“A . . . B . . . R . . . A . . . I . . . No.”
“We're getting close,” Xor said in her ear. “What starts with ABRA?”
“Abracadabra?” Laurie said out loud.