Chapter 71

Poe assumed Bradshaw would want to start immediately. That she would put her computers next to the strongest wi-fi signal she could find and stay there until her cargo pants were enmeshed with the chair cushion. Or at least until she had an answer for him. His role now was to stay out of her way. Do the occasional fruit-tea run.

But Bradshaw didn't want to start immediately. She wanted to go shopping.

‘Why's that, Tilly?' Linus had asked.

‘Can I tell him, Poe?'

‘As long as it's boring.'

‘Ha ha,' she said. She faced Linus and continued. ‘CSM.12.R2.CL was tattooed on both Cornelius Green and Nathan Rose.'

‘It was.'

‘And handwriting analysis has now confirmed Cornelius Green didn't just tattoo himself, he also tattooed Nathan Rose.'

‘It has.'

‘Well, I think Poe was right earlier when he said the tattoo would be like the elastic band addiction trick, a reminder of a shared experience.'

‘Really? Why?'

‘Because CSM.12.R2.CL means something, Linus. It isn't a random mishmash of letters and numbers and full stops; there's human intelligence behind this alphanumeric string. It's code for something. And because the purpose of codes isn't mathematics, it's about messages being safely passed between individuals, even countries, the sooner we understand what these messages might be about, the sooner we have somewhere to start.'

‘The courses,' Linus said.

‘The courses,' Bradshaw agreed. ‘Because we now know the course was a shared experience between Nathan Rose and Cornelius Green, we can use CSM.12.R2.CL as the basis for a metadata search. I can use it as my frame of reference. Something I can test certain words against.'

‘What words?'

‘I don't know yet. That's why we need to go shopping.'

‘What do you need, Tilly?' Poe asked.

‘Religious books and pamphlets, Poe. Lots of them, the more obscure, the more extreme the better. Old Testament rather than New Testament. Cornelius Green didn't own a computer so CSM.12.R2.CL will be a reference from a book, not a web article.'

‘And if it was online, you'd have found it,' Poe said, not completely covering a yawn. He checked his watch. It was getting late, too late for the bookshops to be open. ‘OK, here's what we'll do. We'll get some rest and, in the morning, Tilly can make a start with what she already has while me and Snoopy hit the bookshops. That way we can cover twice as many—'

‘I'll observe Tilly, if that's OK?' Linus cut in.

‘No, it's not OK, Snoopy.'

‘Nevertheless.'

‘"Nevertheless"? What the hell does that mean?'

‘It means I can call my director and order your director to order you if necessary.'

‘I don't give a shit who you call, you little knob, it's not—'

‘It's OK, Poe,' Bradshaw said. ‘Linus can watch me tomorrow if he wants. What's the worst that could happen?'

Poe really wished she wouldn't say things like that.