involvement. The public key has already been sent to you. The private key, along with the way to retrieve the encoded information, has been coded onto an antigen group in my bloodstream. Here are the specifications for the isolation and decoding of the antigen group, and I will cooperate when you draw a blood sample.’ Then I hand him the directions for isolating that, and offer to let him draw a blood sample. Then I say, ‘We will proceed no further than that until you agree to perform the service which you will find in the same block of code. When the service is performed, I will cooperate fully with your people so that you can obtain the information, locate the evidence, and destroy it. Should you attempt to obtain the evidence without performing the service, I am authorized to tell you that Circle Four will immediately disclose the location of all the evidence to every relevant police and prosecutorial authority.
You may be assured that it will be more than enough to obtain your conviction on serious charges in all five matters in many different jurisdictions.’”
“Then what will happen?”
“Then he’ll draw my blood, go read the offer, possibly communicate with you, and one way or another engineer Sesh’s escape. While he’s doing that he will probably keep me somewhere as a hostage, but he’ll keep me in touch with you to make sure that no misunderstandings lead to the evidence being released.
When I get the message from you that contains the phrase that we never speak or write, I tell Riveroma to go ahead and get the sliver, and by at least three channels not directly in his control, I notify you that I’ve done it. His surgeon pulls out the sliver, supposedly painlessly, and I go back to the Hilton. You transfer funds for my ticket home. I catch the next sunclipper.
“Through this entire thing, I stay within budget, avoid entanglement in anything that isn’t part of the mission, and keep my mouth shut and my ears open.” Jak smiled. “How did I do?”
“You’re letter perfect, which makes me extremely nervous, but too late to worry about that now.”
“Attention all passengers. Boarding for the ferry to the Spirit of Singing Port commences immediately.
Repeat, boarding for the ferry to the Spirit of Singing Port commences immediately. Launch in ten
minutes. Please advance through the boarding doors at once.”
Sib stuck out his hand, Jak shook it, and the two embraced for a moment. Then Sib whispered, “Do good, be lucky.” Jak said “Thanks,” and he turned and walked through the doors into the ferry, a squat little cylinder barely a quarter the size of a gripliner, studded all around with the heavy tanks and nozzles of a freeflight spacecraft. He had barely strapped in when the tractor platform, on which the ferry rested, began its crawl up toward the North Pole of the Hive, where the launch loop was already spun up to speedthrough the viewports, Jak could see little streaks of white, flattened curves or straight lines, blazing brightly across the stars, whenever the sun reflected off the loop. “Your first trip?” an older man beside him said.
“Yeah.”
“Thought so. Nobody looks out the window after the first time.” The gwont settled into his reading, comfortably sliding a finger into one nostril. “Boring. Lights and streaks in the sky, then an exciting tangle of pipes and tubes and wires. We’ve got two months of boring ahead of us, and it starts off with the two-hour bore of getting up onto the launch loop. Enjoy the novelty while there is any.” Not surreptitiously enough, he checked his finger, and finding nothing, went back to work on his business report and his nose, bent on digging out everything he could.
Jak resolved that he would look at nothing but the viewport until they were safely aboard the Spirit of Singing Port.
It was not a hard resolution to keep. The loop at the North Pole of the Hive was about 200 km across, an immense circle of dark
You may be assured that it will be more than enough to obtain your conviction on serious charges in all five matters in many different jurisdictions.’”
“Then what will happen?”
“Then he’ll draw my blood, go read the offer, possibly communicate with you, and one way or another engineer Sesh’s escape. While he’s doing that he will probably keep me somewhere as a hostage, but he’ll keep me in touch with you to make sure that no misunderstandings lead to the evidence being released.
When I get the message from you that contains the phrase that we never speak or write, I tell Riveroma to go ahead and get the sliver, and by at least three channels not directly in his control, I notify you that I’ve done it. His surgeon pulls out the sliver, supposedly painlessly, and I go back to the Hilton. You transfer funds for my ticket home. I catch the next sunclipper.
“Through this entire thing, I stay within budget, avoid entanglement in anything that isn’t part of the mission, and keep my mouth shut and my ears open.” Jak smiled. “How did I do?”
“You’re letter perfect, which makes me extremely nervous, but too late to worry about that now.”
“Attention all passengers. Boarding for the ferry to the Spirit of Singing Port commences immediately.
Repeat, boarding for the ferry to the Spirit of Singing Port commences immediately. Launch in ten
minutes. Please advance through the boarding doors at once.”
Sib stuck out his hand, Jak shook it, and the two embraced for a moment. Then Sib whispered, “Do good, be lucky.” Jak said “Thanks,” and he turned and walked through the doors into the ferry, a squat little cylinder barely a quarter the size of a gripliner, studded all around with the heavy tanks and nozzles of a freeflight spacecraft. He had barely strapped in when the tractor platform, on which the ferry rested, began its crawl up toward the North Pole of the Hive, where the launch loop was already spun up to speedthrough the viewports, Jak could see little streaks of white, flattened curves or straight lines, blazing brightly across the stars, whenever the sun reflected off the loop. “Your first trip?” an older man beside him said.
“Yeah.”
“Thought so. Nobody looks out the window after the first time.” The gwont settled into his reading, comfortably sliding a finger into one nostril. “Boring. Lights and streaks in the sky, then an exciting tangle of pipes and tubes and wires. We’ve got two months of boring ahead of us, and it starts off with the two-hour bore of getting up onto the launch loop. Enjoy the novelty while there is any.” Not surreptitiously enough, he checked his finger, and finding nothing, went back to work on his business report and his nose, bent on digging out everything he could.
Jak resolved that he would look at nothing but the viewport until they were safely aboard the Spirit of Singing Port.
It was not a hard resolution to keep. The loop at the North Pole of the Hive was about 200 km across, an immense circle of dark
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