“Yes. As I told you, it was the scanner at the door to the bridge connecting the building I work in to the immediately neighboring building. It refused me passage.”

“And no security person was standing there?”

“No. No one.”

“Good.”

“You understand the science behind this, don’t you?”

“In general, I suppose from what you told me.”

“To review, it is based on the fact that irises are unique, like fingerprints. Even identical twins have distinct irises. What the scanner does is use mathematical and statistical algorithms on certain visible characteristics, and digitalizes them, and then compares them with its library of stored scans. In a place like Nano, the results of a scan are then compared with its list of people who have access at the particular scanner. It is then yes, you have access, or no, you don’t.”

“I appreciate your taking the time to do this,” Pia said.

“Hey, I’m enjoying myself. This is exactly the kind of computer stuff that I find interesting. I’m also kind of a movie buff, and it reminds me of that movie with Tom Cruise. What was it?”

Pia shrugged. She’d only seen a handful of movies in her life. Her life had enough drama. She never felt that she needed more.

“Minority Report!” said Paul, happy that he’d remembered. “Tom Cruise got his eyes switched out, which of course is going a bit overboard, which is what Hollywood’s all about. . . . Anyway, we’re not doing anything so drastic, thank goodness. But I think the system has a flaw that we can exploit, at least the system that is currently in use.”

“This is fun for you, I can see,” said Pia. “What did you do in high school, hack into ATMs?”

“What I did in high school is none of your business,” said Paul, but with a smile on his face. “Seriously, what are you going to do if this works? Whose eye are you intending to photograph? The only actual people you told me about at Nano are Berman and that Spallek woman I met. He’s the big boss and she’s a horror show. How are you going to get those pictures?”

“Now you’re asking too many questions,” said Pia. She hadn’t told Paul much about the development of her relationship with Berman, or what Berman had perceived as such. But she thought that Berman would be the most likely target, especially because of the nascent social connection she had with him. She knew she was playing with fire, but so be it. There seemed to be no other way if she was serious about finding out what Nano was up to. The other benefit of using Berman was that he undoubtedly had access to everything.