Scattered Graves

house, but we brought all his computer gadgets here. The picture on the box looks like a webcam and I didn’t actually read the box. Or rather, it didn’t register until now. Frank and I were talking about all the kinds of security measures that could be in effect, and it just hit me,’’ said David. ‘‘Did you get the photographs too?’’
‘‘Of course,’’ said Neva. She handed Frank a folder. ‘‘Photographs?’’ said Diane.
‘‘Of all the principals involved,’’ said David.
Neva pulled up another chair, and they all sat around the computer.
‘‘Where is Rikki?’’ asked Diane.
‘‘She requested the day off to show a friend the museum,’’ said Neva. ‘‘David, being in charge in your absence, gave it to her. She’s probably lurking some where here in the museum. The crime lab is being cleaned. Jin agreed to babysit it while TechClean’s in there doing their thing.’’
David connected the camera cable to the USB port and immediately the software came up on the screen.
‘‘This is good,’’ David said.
‘‘Very good,’’ said Frank.
‘‘What are you going to do?’’ said Diane.
‘‘We’re going to see if the camera will recognize Jefferies’ iris pattern,’’ said Frank.
‘‘It doesn’t seem like it would be much use as a security device if you can use a picture instead of the real person,’’ said Diane.
‘‘It’s not made for unsupervised applications,’’ said Frank. ‘‘If the pictures are high-resolution enough, we should get some action.’’ He smiled at her.
Frank apparently enjoyed this part of his job— decryption. In that respect, he and David were two of a kind.
David selected a full-face glossy publicity photo of Jefferies. He put one eye in the photo in front of the camera lens. A large image of the eye appeared in one window of the software. Another window printed a message and played accompanying music—the first line of the song ‘‘Bad Boys.’’
‘‘That’s interesting,’’ said Frank.
‘‘Are we making progress?’’ asked Neva.
‘‘We are,’’ said David, grinning. ‘‘We now have es tablished a dialogue of sorts.’’ He rubbed his hands together.
It reminded Diane of Izzy. She told them she had arranged for Izzy to join the team.
‘‘Did I hear someone mention my name?’’ said Izzy, walking through the door.
‘‘I suppose Andie will let just anybody in here,’’ said Frank. ‘‘You’re going to have to speak with her, Diane.’’
Frank shook his hand and congratulated him. Izzy pulled up a chair and sat down on the other side of David. All the team were there now except Jin. Diane didn’t think another person would fit around the computer.
They tried a photograph of Peeks. Same message.
‘‘What does this mean?’’ said Diane. ‘‘I don’t think this is how the mayor would have it set up.’’
‘‘Maybe you have to hold it longer,’’ said Neva. ‘‘Don’t you have to wait several seconds? And isn’t there supposed to be some sort of laser scanning the eye?’’
‘‘That’s what I was wondering,’’ said Diane.
‘‘You’re thinking of retinal scans,’’ said David. ‘‘Not the same thing. A retinal scan shines a low-energy infrared light into the eye and reads the pattern of blood vessels. We are just reading the pattern of the iris. It only takes a second.’’
‘‘Still, this thing doesn’t sound friendly to Jefferies or Peeks,’’ said Diane.
‘‘No,’’ said Frank, ‘‘it doesn’t.’’
David tried the photograph of Peeks again. Same message.
There was silence around the table.
‘‘Well, watcha gon’ do?’’ asked Neva, giggling.
‘‘It’s still progress,’’ said David, unfazed. ‘‘We know it’s reacting to them. I may be able to use this program to worm my way into some of the others.’’
Diane got up and looked over David’s shoulder at the readout, as if maybe there was something in the lyrics of the song that would help. As she leaned in closer, the readout changed, as did the audio.
‘‘Hello, Dr. Fallon. I’ve been waiting for you,’’ it said in that quirky machine voice.

Chapter 41
    ‘‘What the hell is that?’’ said Izzy, recovering his voice first.
    They all turned to look at Diane. She stepped back and stared at the screen.
‘‘This isn’t normal, is it?’’ said Izzy. ‘‘I know I haven’t been here long, and I don’t know a thing about computers, but is this—normal?’’
‘‘Okay, this is