He tapped the phone to access his database of stolen law-enforcement agency files. Tapped again to open the biometric search engine and then submitted his photo for a facial-recognition check. The database relied on periodic security breaches by hackers and was far from exhaustive. There was no guarantee it would draw a match. But he thought his chances were at least forty percent. Not good, but fair.

In this instance, he came out on top. It was an FBI personnel file, probably from the same hack that had produced Musil’s information. Though the photo was several years old, the man was easily recognizable as the same person walking alongside Musil. Ki Lung Marton.

Grigor scanned the file, glancing up ahead to make sure he didn’t lose the two. He wondered where they were going and after a minute found out. Midway down West Fifty-Third Street, they turned into the restaurant he’d seen the taxi driver enter the day before. Coincidental on the surface, but again Grigor’s mind automatically weighed the odds.

If they were having lunch, they would probably choose somewhere within walking distance so as not to waste time. Say within three to five blocks north or south, given the average hour’s break. He estimated there were four restaurants or cafés per block on each side of the avenue. Thus, twenty-four within three blocks, thirty-two within four, and forty within five. Making the chances of Share Punjabi being their destination about one in sixteen once they turned south in front of the Terminal.

Again, not a bad shot mathematically. But by luck or likelihood, Grigor thought, things were stacking up nicely to his advantage.

He walked on past the restaurant toward the taxi stand.

13

April 19, 2024
New York

Morse had never been a fan of the word takeaway. It suggested that it was necessary, or at least preferable, for a given event, report, article, speech, what have you, to have a salient point, or set of points, to make it worth stowing away in your memory. To her that was a very limiting perspective—and one that very often led to unforced errors. What at first looked incidental sometimes turned out to be essential. And changing circumstances could cast the seemingly important into total irrelevancy in a heartbeat.

In her opinion it was best to steer clear of looking for takeaways and keep an open, probing mind when evaluating things. A prime example being the complicated CloudCable–Seven Winds tangle Carmody had just presented.

“If I understand correctly, what you’re telling me is your personnel file reinforces the suspicion that our Seven Winds twelve were Chinese threat actors,” she said.

“Or it would, if the system wasn’t so much of a snap to hack,” Carmody said.