"But we don't want to believe that, so we open up the system for element scan. It's like—Do you cook?"
Roarke only chuckled. Eve sneered. "Let's be serious."
"Okay, I was going to say like a recipe where you separate the eggs from the sugar and like that."
"I'm not a moron, McNab, I can follow that."
"Good, great. When we're taking the elements for our cake and examining each one for, like, quality, maybe we see one's off, just a tad off. Like the milk's turned. So when we figure the milk's turned we want to know why. Now we find there's a leak in our refrigeration system. Just a tiny leak, microscopic, but enough to affect the quality, enough to let in germs. Your house system had a germ."
"What does that have to do with echoes?"
"Ian." Roarke held up a hand. "Before you whip up a four-course meal, let me explain this. Electronic signals leave a pattern," he told Eve patiently. "And that pattern can be tracked and simulated. We've run the patterns for incomings on this unit for the last six weeks. We also ran patterns for outgoings from the main system for the same length of time. When doing so, and taking it through several levels, we discovered a shift in pattern on one incoming. The one that matters. An echo—or a shadow layered over the consistent pattern—which clearly indicates a different source."
"You can prove the transmission didn't originate from here?"
"Exactly."
"Is this the kind of proof you can put into black and white and I can take to Whitney?"
"You betcha." McNab beamed at her. "EDD's used this kind of evidence in hundreds of cases. It's standard. This one was buried deep and the pattern was nearly smooth. But we found her."
"You found her," Roarke corrected.
"I couldn't have done it without your equipment and your help. I missed it twice."
"You came through."
"Before I toddle off," Eve interrupted, "and leave you two boys to bask in the glow of mutual admiration, would you mind taking just a moment to distill this evidence into hard copy and disc for my pesky report?"
"Lieutenant." Roarke laid a hand on McNab's shoulder. "You're embarrassing us with your praise and gratitude."
"You want praise and gratitude?" On impulse, she grabbed Roarke's face in her hands and kissed him hard on the mouth. Then—what the hell—she did the same to McNab. "I want the data within the hour," she added as she strode out.
"Wow." McNab pressed his lips together to hold on to the taste, then patted a hand on his heart. "The lieutenant has some great mouth."
"Don't make me hurt you, Ian, just when we're beginning such a beautiful friendship."
"She got a sister? Cousin? Maiden aunt?"
"Lieutenant Dallas is one of a kind." Roarke watched the needle give another, barely discernable jerk. "Ian, let's distill this data for her, then wouldn't it be fun to see just how far we can follow this echo?''
McNab's brow furrowed. "You want to try to track an echo this faint? Hell, Roarke, it takes days of man-hours and top equipment to track a solid one. I've never heard of anything below the scale of fifteen being tracked."
"There's always a first time."
McNab's eyes began to shine. "Yeah, the boys in EDD would bow to me if I pulled it off."
"More than enough reason to push forward, I'd say."
*** CHAPTER TWELVE ***
Eve paced the reception area outside Mira's office. What the hell was taking so long, she wondered, and checked her wrist unit once again. It was twelve-thirty. Summerset had been in testing for ninety minutes. Eve had until one to present her progress reports to her commander.
She needed Mira's findings.
To help herself wait, she practiced her oral backup to her written reports. The words she would use, the tone she would take. She felt like a second-rate actor running lines backstage. Sweat pooled at the base of her spine.
The minute the door opened, she leaped at Summerset. "What's the deal?"