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"Good"

"But if we did, be no stoppin' us"

If we had a coreed not to say, and not a moment too soon, because those five little words played a key role in every sentence out of hisdeath of Byron Leopold and Will's string of homicides (What I didn't have was a client, unless you wanted to count Adrian Whitfield, who'd paid ed ation to cover both cases) Whichever one I wanted to fool with next, TJ seemed certain a computer would ie on into the insurance company's data base Airline records? Do the same for the airlines The whole world was on-line these days, and a well-schooled hacker could reach out with ease and touch someone, anyone, and pick his brain while he was at it All you needed was a co into and the world would whisper all its secrets to you

"You also need sos to crack the NYNEX co to believe you could learn how to do all that, but not fast enough to do us any good now"

"Take a while," he adh it"

"If they happened to be in the neighborhood"

"They ain't the only hackers could do it Be easy to use theh, an' they wouldn't have to come down from Boston to do it All they'd have to be is near a phone"

"How do you figure that?"

"Nothin' to it," he said "I'd be on the computer, and be on the phone with them at the same time You'd need two phone lines is all, one for the modem and one for the phone Or you could use a cell phone to talk to them if you didn't want to run a second line in"

"In where?"

'In wherever you got the computer Your apartment, most likely Or the shop"

"Elaine's shop?"

"So's she could use it for keepin' books an' takin' inventory I could do all that for her"

"If you took a course or two"

"Well, it ain't rocket science I could learn"

"There's not a whole lot of spare room in the shop"

He nodded "Be better off settin' up in the aparts," I remembered "Had to rent one, so that our little invasion of the phone company computer couldn't be traced back to us"

"So?"

"Because what the Kongs did," I went on, "was illegal and traceable If we pulled anything like that frouys with badges knocking on the door"

"Hackers has learned some tricks since then"

"And what about the cyber cops? Don't you think they've learned anything?"

He shrugged "Way it works," he said "Build a better onna build a better y only takes you so far, even if you're the Kongs They couldn't get into the system, remember? No matter how many keys they punched, they couldn't find the coot in"

'They talked their way in They put technology on hold and called up a huirl, wasn't it?"

"And they sweet-talked her into giving up the password They used that technique routinely enough to have a special phrase for it" I groped around in , that's what they called it"

"What you gettin' at?"

"I'll show you/' I said

"Oham said "To think there was a time when I booked you and Elaine to London and Paris And now it's Ohty have fallen," I said "But I don't want to go there I just want to find out if somebody else did"

"Ah," she said "Detective work?"

"I'm afraid so"

"And if he went there you have to chase after him?"

"I think he went and came back" I handed her a slip of paper "Probably flew out there on either of these dates, and returned on either of these"

"From New York to Omaha, and-"

"From Philadelphia"

"Frouess who flies nonstop from New York to Omaha, and I know America West used to, and I don't know if they still do, but it doesn't matter if he flew from Philadelphia But who flies Philly to Oers, frowned, tapped away at the keys "Nobody," she announced "You can get there on USAir via Pittsburgh or you can fly Midwest Express through Milwaukee Or United if you don'tat O'Hare Or any airline, just about, but those are the logical ones I don't suppose you knohich airline he used?"

"No"

"And his name?"

"Arnold Wishniak"

"Well, if we find him," she said, "we'll know it's hi from Philadelphia to Omaha?"