Gene Mapper by Taiyo Fujii

right, it’s missing.” If Yagodo had somehow altered the document to conceal the signature, there would have been a security warning. This was no contemporary document. Maybe he counterfeited it somehow, while we were talking?
    “Very good, Mamoru. Never trust anyone.” My Behavior Correction setting wasn’t high enough to conceal my look of doubt. “But in this case, you can. I’ll even tell you where to get your own copy. Don’t worry, no charge for this one.”
    The dog pushed a new file across the table. Under the “WebArchiver Pro” banner was a screenshot from what looked like an old web page. Parts of the image were blank and the resolution was grainy. On the timeline indicator “2012” was flashing. It looked genuine.
    No one would have the skill to fabricate something this suited to the context while we were sitting there. It had only taken Yagodo seconds to pull it off the old World Wide Web.
    “What do you think? A simple example of salvaging. I don’t usually recommend trusting a dog, but this is just a taste of what I can do.”
    “I’m blown away. I looked into what salvaging involves before I posted that ad. I interviewed some salvagers too, and they told me what you just did would take days, maybe a week. But you did it while we were sitting here talking. I’m impressed, to say the least.”
    “I’m glad to hear that, but it wasn’t that difficult, you know. Public documents aren’t hard to salvage.” The dog raised a paw and laid it over his eyes, a pose like one of those cat toys in Chinatown. Yagodo was probably scratching the back of his head in embarrassment, but the dog’s forelimbs weren’t flexible enough for that.
    “If the genome for your intruder isn’t in some public corner of the Internet, finding it is going to take work. And I have a feeling you want me to do more than just find it.”
    “You’re right. Identification is the first step. I need to know how it got there, figure out a way to get rid of it, and keep it from coming back. I’d like you to get started as soon as you can.”
    I’d already made my decision. I could always keep looking, but I had a feeling I wouldn’t find anyone better. “If you went to work now, how much time do you think you’d need?”
    “I’ll be honest—I don’t know. A standard search for public sources of matching Oryza DNA might take two, three days. If I don’t come up with it that way, it means going to a deeper level.”
    “What deeper level?”
    “Let’s just say a deeper level. Listen, I hate to sound like I’m dictating terms, but I have a request.”
    The dog put his paws side by side and peered closely at me. I wanted to hear more about Yagodo’s “deeper level,” but I was more anxious about his request. We’d be operating on L&B’s dime, but I didn’t have a blank check. If he was expecting some outrageous fee, I’d have to pass.
    “Could we do this project in person?”
    “In person? You mean physically in person?”
    This was a surprise. I’d worked with Kurokawa for several years and never actually met the man. Sure, I got together with friends, but AR had made physical presence almost completely unnecessary for work.
    “Yes, in person. I’d like you to come to my office. I have a slight problem with using TrueNet to interface with the same address too often. I know this sounds odd. It’s not the usual approach.”
    “Well, I have two hundred gigabytes of data to deal with. It would be easier if we were in one place.”
    “Two hundre d ?”
    “Yep, and I’m not sure why, but that’s what they sent me. It looks like the sample is a mix of DNA from several organisms.” The dog’s brown eyes opened wide in surprise. “I’m waiting for a redo on the sampling, but I don’t want to sit around waiting. Bringing you what I have and dealing with it on your end would be faster and more efficient. The thing is, I’d need my agent to sign off. Can you wait?”
    “Of course. No problem. If you