Читать книгу The Calling - Джеймс Фрей, James Frey, Nils Johnson-Shelton - Страница 21

An Liu has a disadvantage, and he is ashamed.

Blinkblink.

A tic.

BlinkSHIVER.

SHIVERSHIVER.

But An Liu has advantages too:

1. The Players are coming to Xi’an, China.

2. An Liu lives in Xi’an, China.

BlinkSHIVER.

SHIVERblink.

3. Therefore, he has initial home-court advantage.

4. An is a world-class hacker.

5. An is an expert bomb maker.

BlinkSHIVERblinkblink.

Blinkblink.

BlinkblinkSHIVER.

6. An knows how to find people.

After decoding the message, An continuously hacked passenger manifests at airports close to the other impact zones, filtering results for age, ticket-purchase date, date of visa issuance, and blink-blink-blink assuming there would be a more-or-less even distribution of gender, sex.

SEXSHIVERSEX.

He figures that shiver-blink the Players near the Mongolian and Australian impact zones, on account of their remoteness, will be tricky, so he abandons them. The Mongolian will be coming overland blink anyway, and the Aussie will also probably start his or her journey blink by jeep or possibly chartered aircraft. Instant dead ends.

He also discounts Addis Ababa, Istanbul, Warsaw, and Forest Hills, New York, on account of these being shiver-shiver-SHIVER rather populous. He concentrates on Juliaca, Omaha, Naha, and Al Ain. These smaller markets make the hacking and filtering easier.

Initial results provide 451 candidates. These are cross-referenced with train and/or plane ticket purchases for transport within China. An blink is blink not blink hopeful.

Blinkblinkblinkb​linkblinkblin​kblinkblink​blinkblinkb​linkblink​blinkblin​kblink.

Had it been necessary for him to travel to reach the Calling, he would have taken the obvious precaution of using aliases, forged visas, and at least two passports, but he knows that not all people are as paranoid as he is. Even Players.

And lo. Shiver. He gets a hit: Sarah Alopay.

SHIVERblinkblink.

Blinkblink.

Blink.