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not have been of any use to the thief. He would need to know the security code to get access to it."
    "The Tanner file," I said, with sudden certainty.
    "Yes. How did you know?"
    "I guessed."
    "It seems very odd to steal something one cannot use."
    "The rest of it, the silverware, and whatever else they took, was a blind," I said. "They knew precisely what they were after. How many of them were there? Did you recognize anyone?"
    "They knocked out the power before they came in, Alex. I wasn't functioning."
    "How did they do that?" I asked.
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    "It was easy. They simply broke a window, got into the utility area, and cut some cables. I do not have visuals down there."
    "Damn. Wasn't there some sort of burglar alarm? Something to prevent this?"
    "Oh, yes. But do you know how long it's been since there was a felony in this area?"
    "No," I said.
    "Decades. Literally decades. The police assumed it was only a malfunction. They were slow to respond. Even had they been more prompt, a single thief, if he was familiar with the premises and knew precisely what he was after, could have accomplished it all inside three minutes."
    "Jacob, what was Gabe working on when he died?"
    "I don't know whether I ever had that information, Alex. Certainly I don't now."
    "How good is the security on the Tanner file? Are you sure the thief can't get at it?"
    "In maybe twenty years. It requires your voice, using a security code that is in the possession of Brimbury and Conn."
    "It'll be easy for the thief to get a recording of my voice to duplicate. We'd better notify the lawyers to take precautions with the code."
    "That's already been done, Alex."
    "Maybe the lawyers are involved."
    "They do not have access to the code. They can only turn it over to you."
    "What kind was it?"
    "A sequence of digits, which have to be spoken by you, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, during a time period no shorter than a full minute. That prevents a high-speed computer attack.
    Any attempt to circumvent the precautions results in immediate destruction of the file."
    "How many digits?"
    "The recommended standard is fourteen. I don't know how many Gabe used."
    I sat quietly, watching the fire. The street lamps were yellow blobs, and the wind shook the trees.
    Snow was piling up against the skimmer. "Jacob, who's Leisha Tanner?"
    "Just a moment." The roomlights dimmed.
    Outside somewhere, a metal door rattled shut.
    A holo formed near the window, a woman in evening dress, her face angled away from me, as though her attention were fixed on the storm. In the uncertain light of the fireplace and the sodium postlamp, she was achingly lovely. She appeared to be lost in thought, her eyes reflecting, but not seeing, the snowscape.
    "She's in her mid-thirties here. When this was taken, she was an instructor at Tielhard University on Earth. It's dated circa 1215, our time."
    Six years after the Resistance. "My God," I said, "I assumed she was someone I was going to be able to talk to."
    "Oh, no, Alex. She's been dead quite a long time. Over a century, in fact."
    "What's her connection with the project Gabe was working on?"
    "Impossible to say."
    "Is there anyone else who might know?"
    "No one that I know of."
    I poured myself a drink, a real one, of the Mindinmist. "Tell me about Tanner. Who was she?"
    "Scholar. Teacher. She's best known for her translations of the Ashiyyurean philosopher Tulisofala. They are still available, and some authorities consider them to be definitive. She's produced other works, but most are no longer in circulation. She was an instructor in Ashiyyurean philosophy and literature for forty standard years at several universities. Born on Khaja Luan, 1179. Married. Possibly one child."
    "That it?"
    "She was a star pilot, certified for small craft. A peace activist during the war. The records also Page 17

    show that she served as an intelligence officer and a diplomat for the Dellacondans."
    "A peace activist and an intelligence officer."
    "That is what