“I was getting to that,” she said. “I’m not a computer person. So maybe it’s why I have trouble understanding how an easier-than-expected hack of a human resources database turns into someone deliberately planting the file.”

“Possibly deliberately,” Carmody said.

She nodded.

“Right,” she said. “But I wonder how that’s really a considered opinion. We’re talking about a company that provides cruise ships with kitchen help. That isn’t the type we would normally equate with high-level network security.”

Kali was still standing inside the office door.

“Be smart,” she said.

Morse looked at her. “What?”

“The assessment was mine,” she said. “I am a computer person.”

A thin smile spread across Morse’s lips.

“So we all know,” she said.

Kali showed no expression.

“OK,” Morse said. “Say something’s very unkosher about the twelve. And say Seven Winds and its Chinese parent company were complicit in putting them aboard the Stalwart. That sounds like an international conspiracy to attack an American ship. Why would they plant the file for us as an Easter egg?”

“We didn’t say it was planted,” Carmody said. “Maybe HR thought it was put away safe and sound. Could be somebody fiddled with their system to lower the defenses.”

“A third party? That’s what you’re suggesting to me?”

“It’s possible.”

Morse looked at him. “So someone hacks their system to make it easy for us to hack it and find the file,” she said. “Pulls the strings to jerk around China and the United States. That’s your hypothetical scenario?”

“Yeah,” he said. “A double-blind.”

Morse thought for a long moment, then shook her head.

“It would be very goddamned clever,” she said. “And sinister.”

“There’s plenty of clever and sinister to go around.”

“And you’re convinced there had to be an insider aboard Stalwart?”

He nodded. “When twelve new crew members come shipboard in a foreign port, it triggers all sorts of automatic security procedures. Especially when they’re citizens of another country. Chinese citizens would get serious background checks.”

Morse looked at him.

“Who’s to say it didn’t happen?” she said. “Anyone who went to the trouble of putting them on board would make sure they had the right passports, work visas, that sort of thing.”

Carmody shook his head. “That wouldn’t be enough. Stalwart was a US cable layer. It was working on a project that was partially government funded, with CIA spooks along for the ride. There would be strict anti-terrorism protocols.” He paused. “These twelve were total blanks. No résumés, no nothing. They would never cut the mustard.”

“You’re positive.”