36. He Whose Code I Am Not Worthy to Debug

“Turing? You showed TURING my stuff? The stuff that I wrote down about scanning cards and stuff? Alan Turing? The Alan Turing? Can you get me his autograph?!”

“Woah there,” said Nigel. “Er, ‘yes’ and ‘maybe’ respectively. I see that he’s still known in your time.”

“Known! Known, dude, he’s ...!” Mateo knew he looked like a teenage girl meeting a boyband, but that made sense, darnit.

“Well, yes, yes I did. He thought it was very interesting, but possibly not applicable for this ... certain project. But—“

Mateo slumped visibly. “...I guess I’m not going to be able to out-Turing Turing. Worth a try, I guess.” He sighed. “Which one is it? Enigma? Ultra? Colossus?”

“Good lord! You have to stop doing that! You sound like some hideous information leak every time you do! It’s ... a computer.”

“We’re the only ones in the lab.”

“I don’t care, it’s still going to make me old before my time. What’s Colossus?”

“Uh...”

“Never mind. As I was trying to tell you, while using a photoelectric eye specifically may not be useful, he did have some questions brought to mind by your ideas, or the ideas we’re reporting as yours.”

“He did?!” Mateo immediately un-wilted. “Go on, tell me!”

“You may want to take notes,” Nigel said, pulling a stool over for him.

“Yeah, yeah. Good idea.”

Mateo had had some concerns about accidentally screwing up the past, but now he was starting to wonder if he could even change it at all. Well, he’d changed it by just existing there. But changing any outcomes? He didn’t know. Could go either way.

“Ok. Lay it on me.”

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