54 Chapter 54:

Sophie gave him a tour around the house, it was tastefully decorated all around, and when Ace asked about who had done it, she smiled: "My mother is an interior designer and decorator, this house was, and still is, a pet project of hers, when she meets new clients, she usually invites them over, once they see the house and realise who has done, they are sold."

Ace nodded, it was a good tactic, and he could not deny that a good job had been done decorating. She showed him around the main house, and as they went, Ace began memorising the grounds. Once they got back from the short tour, there were already people in the outhouse. Ace saw John, the surfer looking guy from Amy's house, and Amy herself. There were also another two girls and two other boys, all in all, eight people.

Sophie did the rounds with Ace, informing him of who was who, they all seemed pretty nice, but the person that caught his eye was a brunette, she was wearing normal clothes, they were expensive, but she was not flaunting them, it was more as if she had bought them for the comfort, something which Ace could appreciate. From the moment they were in the room, she had been on her phone the whole time, staring intently at her phone, scrolling once in a while. Only when Sophie came to say hello, did she look up and give a small smile before looking back at her phone again. "Don't worry, she is always working, but she will loosen up after a while.", Sophie grinned, seeing Ace's curious face.

They began by playing cards, and at John's insistence, Ace did not participate in the poker game, he played the part of the dealer. This meant that John was free to clear the table, which made Ace smile and John look at him with a cheeky grin. They both knew who would have won if Ace was taking part, but Ace did not mind playing the dealer. It gave him time to see how each of the people he did not know played, it told him a lot about their different personalities. For example, one of the boys was extremely abrasive, he played to win big every time, not winning anything for the most part. The other boy played in a more meek manner, but he had a few good rounds where he outsmarted most of the table. The other girls, were interesting, two of them played in exactly the same way, same teacher perhaps? The other, the one with the phone, played safe, almost ridiculously so, but Ace had a feeling that she was also doing something quite interesting. There was no way to count cards in poker, but she was definitely counting 'outs', or the probability of getting a card she could win with. She played safe, even when her chances were high, and that was why she only ended up the middle of the pack.

"Hey! What about if we play blackjack? I will be the dealer", Amy declared, Ace kept his face stoic, but he noticed that the girl, Lina, let out a small smile. 'Ok, so she can definitely count cards. This will be fun'.

Amy of course had the required equipment, and after opening a new pack of cards and setting it all up, they began to play.

Of course, Ace was counting cards, but not only that, every time, he was running calculations on what cards they each had, and what cards would come out. His brain was whirring, and it was the most fun Ace had had in a while. He began soft, and so did Lina, they were just waiting for the first round of cards to pass, but once it did, it would be free. There were various ways to count cards, and you did not need to be a genius to learn it. Of course, some more complex ways would work better long term, and others short term. The main hurdle to get past was making conversation and paying attention to people, all the while actually counting the cards without making a mistake.

Lina seemed to be using a more simple way to count them, adding tags to each value, and adding or subtracting as necessary. Ace used a more complex method, that would also let him predict in advance what cards each player would get. The game went on for about thirty minutes, and by the end of the game, everyone had wiped except for Lina and Ace.

They both smiled while the others whined in a joking manner. They had fun, but now, it was time to eat.

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Lina's mind was racing, the game of Blackjack they had just played was meant to be in the bag for her, but for whatever reason, she had actually lost to the boy - Ace. The others thought they drew, but she knew that was not correct, he was counting the cards and predicting outcomes more efficiently than she was, and over time, he would have beat her.

She sat on the table, it was round, with enough space for all of them to sit spread out. She was curious as to who he was, Amy, Sophie and John seemed to know him, but that was as far as she got. She knew his name was Ace, but that was that.

When she noticed that Amy was alone, she went up to her and asked: "Hey! Who is that blondie?", Amy smirked and laughed.

"Who? Ace? Join the queue."

"Oh come on! Just tell me, who is he?"

"He is Ace Goldsign, heir of Goldsign Enterprises, she is his grandmother. And trust me, anything you are thinking of, he has already done so, and is 15 steps ahead of you. He is a genuine genius, and not just mentally, my family ran a preliminary test - as much as we could without raising suspicion, and the testers predicted his EQ was off the charts. If you have any interest in him, be careful, you are not the only one, and some of them belong to families you should not dare to offend.", she said this with a steely gaze, almost as if including herself as part of that collective.

Lina nodded, thanked her and walked away, she had much to think about.

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Lunch was fantastic, Ace sat next to John and one of the girls Becky, they were both pretty interesting, Becky and Rene both lived together with her parents, and had been best friends since newborns, they did everything together. John, on the other hand, lived with his older brother in California, but came to New York sometimes to meet friends and accompany his brother on business, he was homeschooled so it was not a problem. Ace figured out that he seemed to enjoy psychology, and their whole conversation pretty much looked like a therapy session. Which for some reason made Becky smile, Ace later found out that when John acted this way, no one was his match, but it seemed that he had finally found a challenger, one that seemed to even come out on top.

Nevertheless, what truly fascinated Ace was Lina, he had caught her looking at him multiple times, and at first, he thought it was merely infatuation, but he soon realised it was not, she was looking at him like a photographer looks at a potential prospector model, analysing every angle, attempting to figure out what was up with him or her.

At the end of lunch, they all went back to the outhouse as they had eaten in the garden. This meant that Ace had his chance, so he sat down on the couch next to Lina, "Hey, so, how come you are so fascinated with me?"

She blushed at him, and he continued, "There must be something that caught your attention, what is it that you do?"

"What do you mean?", she suddenly acted defensively, and Ace began to figure something out

"Well, I mean, what hobbies do you like? They all have hobbies, so, what's yours?"

She frowned and was about to speak when Ace interrupted her, "If you don't want to, don't tell me, but don't lie please."

She reddened, even more, being caught red-handed, "Well, uhh, I work with electronics you know?"

"So hacking?", Ace asked, with a smile on his face

"What! No!", she quieted down, noticing the others giving her looks, and waited until they went back to their own conversations, "I would never do that"

"Hmm, sure, so, what collective are you part of?"

"What?"

"Well, I thought I spotted a sticker on your phone, but I could not see it.", that was, of course, a lie, there was no sticker on her phone, but he was giving her a way out

"Notitia"

"Ah, Information, you guys stand for what, transparency?"

"Yes, it is unfair that certain secrets be kept from the general populace"

"Ok, cool. But still, what does that have to do with me?"

"I don't know, do you know how to 'code'?"

Ace smirked, "I dabble, but I might be able to give you a new point of view."

She nodded, and handed him her phone," I need some help, I have to crack this"

It was an algorithm, not too difficult to crack, and Ace could see the issues she may have with a cursory look. "Ok, I can crack it, but what do I get?"

"Well, what do you need?"

"Nothing really, let's just say you owe me a small favour." He then inputted a set of commands, and the program unfolded like a lotus flower.

"Thank you", she was staring wide-eyed at the phone. Ace did not know this, but she had been working on this for over a week, and she had not been able to fully solve the problem, and he had done it within seconds, it was amazing. "Have you ever thought of joining a grou-"

"No thank you", he said with finality, "Plus, why would I? I have meagre knowledge at best.", he gave her a smile, and shifted his attention to the conversation the others were having, leaving a perplexed Lina on the couch.

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Ace got home, happy with how the day had gone, it was fun, and he had made plans with John for him to teach Ace surfing at some point. They soon had a week of holidays, so he could go to California, and then go to the Convention that weekend. It would be a packed plan, but should be immensely fun.

With a smile on his face, he picked up a notebook and began looking over some German slang.