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Stories from the Verse
Spy Verses
Chapter 131: Brown 153
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Chapter 130: Slade 131
It took Derek a while to work out what he had to do. It wasn’t as if he’d never done any of this before. He had hacked into systems over what remained of the Internet in that mutant world, but he wasn’t really trying to get past heavy security. He had hacked into a far more sophisticated police computer system on TerraNova, but he was sitting at a terminal in the compound and had already done some of the groundwork. He had gotten past many security systems on computers he was able to access directly, but this was a different story. Complicating it, he was not quite sure how to locate the Romanian police databases through the Internet.
It occurred to him after some searching that it was entirely possible that the Romanian police were not on the Internet. After all, dictatorial states tended to be more paranoid than democratic ones, and they might be more worried about hackers than about information sharing. They probably built their own isolated network to service their own police--if they weren’t still using paper files and fax machines.
As he pondered this, it occurred to him that Interpol existed in this world, and that as a member of British intelligence he was technically law enforcement. He connected to their system, stated that he had detained someone at the British embassy in Bucharest who had been wandering restricted areas, that the white male claims to be Dorin Dalca, living in Bucharest, but won’t say more. He appears to be about twenty years of age. Embassy security is requesting a check on the identity, whether there is a criminal record and if so details such as last known address and known associates--and please check with Romanian police to verify local details. A recent photo would help, if available.
Having finished that, it occurred to him that the information would be faxed to the security office at the embassy, so he gave Colonel Simpkins a call to alert him to the possibility that something might be coming.
“Good thinking,” Simpkins said. “What makes you think he has a record?”
“It’s a longshot,” Derek said, “but I figured, who would they recruit for a mission like this? They need someone who projects a bad boy image, so there’s a good chance he’s got a record for minor offenses somewhere.”
“Well, we’ll see what happens.”
Yes, Derek thought. Then we have to figure out what to do with the information if we get it.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twenty other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #269: Versers Arrive. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
