I said, “You have got to be fucking joking.” I could tell she wasn’t, though.
“Our intent is to find one of ours. That’s not espionage. I signed.”
“Good girl.” It was a technicality, but if ever questioned, we had a truth we could stick to.
There wasn’t much I could do while she built the gear, so I did some calisthenics, then researched places I could shop for groceries. It was also time to change soap and deodorant again. Anything to change chemistry.
With the advantages of modern nanocircuitry, she was able to put together a replacement device to spoof credentials. The software was more important. While I don’t know the details, the summary goes as follows: her device quietly listens in on as much traffic from the security network as possible. They had a choice of hard wires that we could tap and that they’d have to check constantly, or wireless that would have encryption changed regularly. The latter was easier. Her gear lurks and pulls enough data to determine the algorithms used.
With background on protocols, she could instruct the device to send the router a false route to the authentication server. Then our unit requests authentication, and the terminal responds with the correct key. Then it calls another node, logs in with that password and connects the two.
The terminal queries the ID. The network tries to confirm with the server. Her gear insists it is the server, and validates our ID. Once she had access she could draw information from the terminals to keep updated—they had to offer authentication to her.
With that information, we could then both hack into their network and acquire intel, or spoof the network when queried. That’s how we could have false official ID on Caledonia. When it queried the net, it was querying the one in Silver’s shoulder bag, which was spoofing the official one. Of course it validated us. If I’d had that with me when I got picked up, I might have walked.
My concern with the Earth network was that they’d toughened it up since the War, and were very aggressive against intrusion.
“We’re in,” she said, and I heaved a sigh.
She turned and smiled. “Worried?”
“Yes, I was,” I admitted.
“No serious trouble,” she said. “It flagged us as an advertising hack on the second query, but I set it to present differently and it went through again. We’re one of fifty portable units the station police use. As long as we’re not on at the same time as Number Forty-Eight, we’re fine. If so, it’ll disconnect and try to log as Forty-Two, Twenty-One or Twelve. However, we can observe only. I have no access to the controls and I’m not sure about ID readers.”
“That’s fine. We can be ourselves for now, or at least the selves they think we are.”
She said, “Assuming they don’t have audio built into these tourist chips.”
I rippled in shock. Ohshit. That was simple, possible and a threat.
She saw my expression and said, “That was my thought, too, once I figured it out. There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of visitors at any time. Even if they do so, they’re likely using an AI to listen for patterns. Mine’s under the pillow.”
I had mine off in a second, and felt like an idiot.
She said, “Okay, I’m going to bring up screens and throw images. This is a little easier since we have description and photo to work from. Ready?”
“Yes,” I said, taking a seat next to her. It was well-padded and very comfortable. One of the advantages of a decent hotel.
I hoped to find something fast. I needed to know which way to move. I’d also rather it was out of this system, where they hadn’t quite gotten around to cameras in the toilets yet, but would any day. It was a dehumanizing, outrageous environment, one that contributed to my mental state, and coming back was not healthy. I was running on adrenaline for no reason at all.
“Found his entry,” she said.
“Right at the gate?”
“Yes, as he debarked. Is that him?”
I looked over.
“Yes. Absolutely him.” Older, but not changed a lot. A little more mass, mostly upper body. Decent shape. He’d styled hair and beard and changed clothes, but I’d lived with him for over a year. It was him.
“Refining,” she said. “I think I can follow him.”
This was exciting, tense, twitchy. This was it. We were twenty-six Earth hours behind and closing.
“Following,” she said. “He was on foot, took slideway, off at a stop here. That’s on the other side of the Habitat. He went for Budget Stay. Scrolling. Also slugging info to you.”
I started from right now and worked back on departures. Insystem were every hour or so. There’d been three interstellar. I scanned from departure time back on each.