Cryptonomicon

"So. We may accelerate the work. We may bring more workers for the final phase of the operation," says the aide in a soft voice.

"How many?"

"The total may reach a thousand."

Captain Noda stiffens, grunts out a "Hai!"and turns towards Goto Dengo. "We will need more ventilation shafts."

"But sir, with all due respect, the complex is very well ventilated."

"We will need more deep, wide ventilation shafts," Captain Noda says. "Enough for an additional five hundred workers."

"Oh."

"Begin the work immediately."

Chapter 74 THE MOST CIGARETTES

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Pontifex Transform: tentative verdict

Randy.

I forwarded the Pontifex transform to the Secret Admirers mailing list as soon as you forwarded it to me, so it has been rattling around there for a couple of weeks now. Several very smart people have analyzed it for weaknesses, and found no obvious flaws. Everyone agrees that the specific steps involved in this transform are a little bit peculiar, and wonders who came up with them and how--but that is not uncommon with good cryptosystems.

So the verdict, for now, is that [email protected] knows what he's doing--notwithstanding his strange fixation on the number 54.

–-Cantrell

"Andrew Loeb," Avi says.

He and Randy are enduring some kind of a forced march up the beach in Pacifica; Randy's not sure why. Over and over again, Randy is surprised by Avi's physical vigor. Avi looks like he is wasting away from some vague disease invented as a plot device by a screenwriter. He is kind of tall, but this just makes him seem more perilously drawn out. His slender body is a tenuous link between huge feet and a huge head; he has the profile of a lump of silly putty that has been drawn apart until the middle part is just a tendril. But he can stomp up a beach like a Marine. It is January, after all, and according to the Weather Channel there is this flume of water vapor originating in a tropical storm about halfway between Nippon and New Guinea and jetting directly across the Pacific and taking a violent left turn just about here. The waves thrashing the beach, not that far away, are so big that Randy has to look slightly upwards to see their crests.

He has been telling Avi all about Chester, and Avi has (Randy thinks) used this as a segue into reminiscing about the old days back in Seattle. It is somewhat unusual for Avi to do this; he tends to be very disciplined about having any given conversation be either business or personal, but never both at once. "I'll never forget," Randy says, "going up to the roof of Andrew's building to talk to him about the software, thinking to myself 'gosh, this is kind of fun,' and watching him just slowly and gradually go berserk before my eyes. It could almost make you believe in demonic possession."

"Well, his dad apparently believed in it," Avi says. "It was his dad, right?"

"It's been a long time. Yeah, I think it was his mom who was the hippie, who had him in this commune, and then his dad was the one who extracted him from there, forcibly--he brought in these paramilitary guys from Northern Idaho to actually do the job--they literally took Andrew out in a bag--and then put him through all kinds of repressed-memory therapy to prove that he'd been Satanically ritually abused."

This tweaks Avi's interest. "Do you think his dad was into the militia thing?"

"I only met him once. During the lawsuit. He took my deposition. He was just this Orange County white-shoe lawyer, in a big practice with a bunch of Asians and Jews and Armenians. So I assumed he was just using the Aryan Nations guys because they were convenient, and for sale."

Avi nods, apparently finding that a satisfactory hypothesis. "So he was probably not a Nazi. Did he believe in the Satanic ritual abuse?"

"I doubt it," Randy says. "Though after spending some time with Andrew I found it highly plausible. Do we have to talk about this? Gives me the creeps," Randy says. "Depresses me.

"I recently learned what became of Andrew," Avi says.

"I saw his web site a while ago."

"I'm speaking of very recent developments."

"Let me guess. Suicide?"

"Nope."

"Serial killer?"

"Nope."

"Thrown into prison for stalking someone?"

"He is not dead or in prison," Avi says.

"Hmmm. Is this anything to do with his hive mind?"

"Nope. Are you aware that he went to law school?"

"Yeah. Is this something to do with his legal career?"

"It is."

"Well, if Andrew Loeb is practicing law, it must be some really annoying and socially nonconstructive form of it. Probably something to do with suing people on light pretexts."

"Excellent," Avi says. "You're getting warm now."

"Okay, don't tell me, let me think," Randy says. "Is he practicing in California?"

"Yes."

"Oh, well, I've got it, then."

"You do?"

"Yes. Andrew Loeb would be one of these guys who gins up minority-shareholder lawsuits against high-tech companies."

Avi smiles with his lips pressed tightly together, and nods.