“Just that he was sorry for all that I was going through and sorry that the Internet had been used in this way.”

“The Internet?”

“Yes. It was almost as if he was apologizing that something he was so personally invested in would be implicated in any way with Jon’s death. That struck me. I hadn’t really thought of it again until just now, but yes. He seemed apologetic.”

Interesting.

Ralph had mentioned legislation involving Internet privacy, and now I asked the senator about it. “What can you tell me about the bill that deals with quantum encryption? I understand it’s in committee right now.”

“What does this have to do with my son’s death?”

“I’m really not sure.”

The coffee began to percolate.

“The future of message transmission is through quantum encryption,” he told me, “specifically what’s referred to as high-dimensional quantum encryption, or 4D encryption. The data is sent on photons that each encode two bits of information: 00, 01, 10, or 11.”

“Okay.”

“In order to secure sensitive data, we’re striving for a worldwide quantum encryption network that’ll be able to send messages securely between earth and our satellites.”

“We?”

“The government. The military. Our allies. Right now, the Chinese are at least two years ahead of us in the development of light-harnessing quantum key distribution, or QKD, and we can’t afford to be left behind.”

“I’m sorry. I’m not very familiar with all of this. What does that mean? Quantum key distribution?”

“Basically, it’s using quantum states of light to provide decryption information. If someone tries to listen in on the transmission—that is, hack into it—the data will be altered, and this will immediately be obvious to the sender. Then, the actual message won’t be sent.”

I could see why this was important. Clearly, there was a lot hinging on it. And when you have something this high-stakes, it doesn’t necessarily bring out the best in everyone.

In fact, the opposite would more likely be the case.

“Every week the Chinese are siphoning off millions of dollars’ worth of corporate and military secrets,” he told me. “If they’re able to encrypt their information in a way that’s unhackable and we’re not, we would fall behind in ways that our country might never be able to recover from.”

Enough coffee had brewed for a couple of cups. I poured one for each of us.

He tried his and gave me a satisfied smile. “Very nice.”

“It’s called Total Eclipse. The blend is from Leopard Forest roasters in South Carolina.”

“I’ll have to remember that. And a coarse grind.”

“You noticed.”

“Yes.”

“That’s very observant of you.”

“I try to keep my eyes open. Sometimes it’s easy to miss the things right in front of you.”