Double Vision — Randall Ingermanson

A start-up software company is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, and treachery is afoot from a rival firm. In a last-minute maneuver, the CEO hires researcher Rachel Meyers to employ a Manhattan Project approach to the development of a radical new encryption system using nanotechnology. But her coworker, Dillon Richard, runs off with the novel. Dillon is a high-functioning autistic who can write code with such speed that Rachel's research actually becomes practicable. More than that (or less), he is completely literal-minded, so that he doesn't understand metaphors or how two women, Rachel and the company's bean counter, Keryn Wills, can vie for him.