3-243: Aboard the Aerostat X

[What a good time to roll a 5 and an 8…]

Oliver thinks that Argyle (assuming it’s his notebook) is trying to develop a way of hiding encrypted messages inside other, routine, comms traffic in a way that can’t be detected.  It’s possibly a device that would connect to a router, but maybe not – that part is not quite clear.

There are two broad components to the work:  One is about network engineering and how the messages might be slipped in; the other is cryptographical, about how they might be encrypted.

Oliver’s skills allow him to recognise and understand both fields enough to see what’s going on, he can also recognise that whoever wrote this knows his stuff in both fields, and knows something about security systems too.

The time spent on the trip is enough for Oliver to get the gist of what is going on here; it’s probably cycles (or more) to figure out exactly how it all works – assuming there is more information in places other than this book.

In response to Oliver’s dramatic gesture and comment, Dicard frowns.  He says carefully, “that could mean involving the Legion, and I’m not sure Frederick would approve.”

After a pause he says, “I might be able to alert the local Vizierate Wardens.  That might be sufficient, and we can leave; what do you think?”