even trying.
Change, she suddenly realized, was even more infectious than she had thought.
SIX
ONE IS TWO
The technicians cleared out. Hannah strapped herself into the pilot's chair on the Sholto 's upper deck, while Jamie used the fold-down acceleration chair on the lower deck, and the combined vehicle that was the Adler and the Sholto undocked from the BSI HQ Docking Complex. The Sholto 's main engines and the booster stage came to life and launched the ships out toward the perimeter of CenterStar's planetary system at a constant ten gravities acceleration. The spec sheets for the Sherlock -class said fifteen gees would be safe with the ships docked nose to nose, but Hannah wanted a fat safety margin, and Jamie did not argue.
"So," Jamie asked as they secured the ship from initial boost, "which job do you want to avoid first? Researching the case or searching the Adler ?"
"Well," Hannah replied, climbing down the rope ladder to the lower deck, "we're going to have to do both at once after a while. But maybe we can get some better idea of what, exactly, we're looking for if we study up on the case first." She pulled out a folding work chair from a compartment next to the air lock and sat down facing Jamie in his acceleration couch.
Jamie readjusted the acceleration chair, raising the back support so he sat upright. "Or else," he said, "we find the decrypt key five minutes after we start searching the Adler so we can abort the rest of the mission and head for the barn right away. We could get the key back to HQ, then go out and investigate what happened to Special Agent Wilcox without that job being a cover story."
"That's possible, I suppose," Hannah said. "We might find it in a hurry. But our people have done two searches of the ship's interior already. Short of going over every surface with a microscope and a scanner, I don't know what we can do that hasn't been done. And I don't believe the scanner and scope approach is the way to go."
"Yeah, that's pretty much what you said to Gunther," said Jamie. "Why not? A microdot is so easy to hide and so hard to find. Why wouldn't Special Agent Wilcox have gone that way?"
"For starters, because the equipment to make a microdot isn't usually carried aboard a Sherlock -class. Granted, that doesn't mean she didn't carry one. We can check the manifest for the Adler 's last trip, and see if one's listed--though of course things get aboard ship without being on the manifest. But if there were a microdot generator aboard when the ship was recovered, Gunther's team would have spotted it. Of course, Wilcox could have brought the dot generator aboard without manifesting it, or obtained it on Metrannan, made a microdot, and then jettisoned the generator to hide the fact that he was making microdots--but that seems unlikely."
"You haven't convinced me yet."
"Well, consider this: microdots are just one possibility. Wilcox might have used some other system to make the decrypt key very small. A strand of encoded DNA deliberately left behind on his toothbrush. Micro-etched dots and dashes burned onto one length of monofilament thread sewn into the padding on the pilot's chair. Techniques that would produce a message platform so small that a scan for a microdot might miss them altogether. So small that we couldn't prove absolutely prove he didn't go the micro-message route unless and until BSI HQ decides to disassemble the Adler and go over each piece by hand with every kind of scanner and microscope on the market. Which is why I very much doubt Wilcox would have done it that way."
"I don't quite see your point."
"It's trade craft and doctrine stuff. A microdot is a concealment technique you use only when you're confident that you will be the one to recover the message, or else if you're confident you'll be able to tell your people where to find it without the bad guys listening in. Wilcox couldn't be sure that he would survive long enough to recover the key, and knew he had no
Change, she suddenly realized, was even more infectious than she had thought.
SIX
ONE IS TWO
The technicians cleared out. Hannah strapped herself into the pilot's chair on the Sholto 's upper deck, while Jamie used the fold-down acceleration chair on the lower deck, and the combined vehicle that was the Adler and the Sholto undocked from the BSI HQ Docking Complex. The Sholto 's main engines and the booster stage came to life and launched the ships out toward the perimeter of CenterStar's planetary system at a constant ten gravities acceleration. The spec sheets for the Sherlock -class said fifteen gees would be safe with the ships docked nose to nose, but Hannah wanted a fat safety margin, and Jamie did not argue.
"So," Jamie asked as they secured the ship from initial boost, "which job do you want to avoid first? Researching the case or searching the Adler ?"
"Well," Hannah replied, climbing down the rope ladder to the lower deck, "we're going to have to do both at once after a while. But maybe we can get some better idea of what, exactly, we're looking for if we study up on the case first." She pulled out a folding work chair from a compartment next to the air lock and sat down facing Jamie in his acceleration couch.
Jamie readjusted the acceleration chair, raising the back support so he sat upright. "Or else," he said, "we find the decrypt key five minutes after we start searching the Adler so we can abort the rest of the mission and head for the barn right away. We could get the key back to HQ, then go out and investigate what happened to Special Agent Wilcox without that job being a cover story."
"That's possible, I suppose," Hannah said. "We might find it in a hurry. But our people have done two searches of the ship's interior already. Short of going over every surface with a microscope and a scanner, I don't know what we can do that hasn't been done. And I don't believe the scanner and scope approach is the way to go."
"Yeah, that's pretty much what you said to Gunther," said Jamie. "Why not? A microdot is so easy to hide and so hard to find. Why wouldn't Special Agent Wilcox have gone that way?"
"For starters, because the equipment to make a microdot isn't usually carried aboard a Sherlock -class. Granted, that doesn't mean she didn't carry one. We can check the manifest for the Adler 's last trip, and see if one's listed--though of course things get aboard ship without being on the manifest. But if there were a microdot generator aboard when the ship was recovered, Gunther's team would have spotted it. Of course, Wilcox could have brought the dot generator aboard without manifesting it, or obtained it on Metrannan, made a microdot, and then jettisoned the generator to hide the fact that he was making microdots--but that seems unlikely."
"You haven't convinced me yet."
"Well, consider this: microdots are just one possibility. Wilcox might have used some other system to make the decrypt key very small. A strand of encoded DNA deliberately left behind on his toothbrush. Micro-etched dots and dashes burned onto one length of monofilament thread sewn into the padding on the pilot's chair. Techniques that would produce a message platform so small that a scan for a microdot might miss them altogether. So small that we couldn't prove absolutely prove he didn't go the micro-message route unless and until BSI HQ decides to disassemble the Adler and go over each piece by hand with every kind of scanner and microscope on the market. Which is why I very much doubt Wilcox would have done it that way."
"I don't quite see your point."
"It's trade craft and doctrine stuff. A microdot is a concealment technique you use only when you're confident that you will be the one to recover the message, or else if you're confident you'll be able to tell your people where to find it without the bad guys listening in. Wilcox couldn't be sure that he would survive long enough to recover the key, and knew he had no
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