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something might happen to someone close to her. He might have been talking about a sochemate, or a
casual friend. You've never been around him, Sergeant. There's a quality to his voice. It's unforced,
natural, but The Mock can order take-out Chinese and make it sound like he's going to commit serial
murder. When he actuallyis making a threat..." There being no need to finish the sentence, her voice died
away.
Cardenas pulled the conversation back to an earlier thread. "This project of his, the one that he had
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Katla working on: can you tell us anything about it? We don't know anydetails, only that it's of some
significance. Apparently, others besides your husband are very interested in it."
She spread her hands wide and shrugged. "I told you. Katla tried to explain it to me, several times. I
only remember a little about it, and I don't pretend to understand even the parts that I remember. It has
something to do with a procedure she called 'quantum theft.'"
The two federales exchanged a glance. "That's all?" Cardenas prodded her.
"Oh no, there's lots more. I just don't understand any of it."
Brow wrinkling, Surtsey Mockerkin struggled to remember terminology and designations, definitions and
descriptions, that were clearly beyond her. As she rambled on, it became increasingly evident to
Cardenas that much of it was equally beyond him and his partner. What was worse was that, in the
absence of their charred spinners, they had only their own inadequate minds with which to try and record
any of the details.
"It all centers on the remote controlling of the optical switches that drive the commercial ganglions of the
Box. I'm talking about the global Box, not some local offshoot dendrites." Seeing the expression on their
faces, she added wryly, "Itold you I didn't understand it. I just remember some of it."
"Go on," Cardenas urged her, desperately wishing he had his spinner. Or the knowledgeable presence
beside him of Aurilac the Wise.
The remembering seemed to help her relax. In between declamations, she drained the remainder of the
beer. "Apparently the trick that's what Katla kept calling it is to tune the relevant multiple amplifiers
so that the lasers being controlled at the opportune moment exactly match a certain wavelength. If
correctly pumped, this is supposed to create an onsite duplicate of whatever information is being scanned
at that time. The instant this exact duplicate is created at the remote site, the original is destroyed." She
shifted her backside on the couch.
"It's supposed to duplicate bank numbers, or stock details, or whatever information is being pumped, on
someone else's molly."
"And at the same time," Cardenas added, straining to make sense of what she was telling them, "the
original information is rendered useless?"
"Not just rendered useless," she corrected him. "It's obliterated, as if it never existed. But it does, in the
form of the perfect duplicate that's been created elsewhere."
Both men were quiet for a moment, trying to digest it all. As he so often did, Hyaki neatly summed up
what they had just been told.
"The banks are gonnalove this."
"Very nifty," Cardenas observed. "Not only do you steal information, you simultaneously eliminate the
original record of its existence. Like running away from someone while brushing out the tracks you leave
behind you." His brows drew together slightly as he regarded Surtsey Mockerkin."If it works."
Setting the bottle aside, she extracted another from storage and flicked on the chill. Once again, she did
not offer any to her guests. Cardenas supposed he couldn't blame her.
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"I couldn't tell you that. I wouldn't know if something like that was working right even if I saw it in
action."
"So you don't know if this wild concept is anything more than a theory? You don't know how far along
any practical application actually is, or if your husband's people have gone beyond just theorizing?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]