The clock ticked; Jan sat in silence. It was 8:27.
This is good, she thought darkly. She toyed with McKibben' s card as she brooded.
The cryptic phrase on its flipside flashed in and out while she turned it. IEOB: OP-SI MUST BE INIT. IEOB: OP-SI MUST BE—
She stopped, focusing on that.
What did it mean—IEOB: OP-SI MUST BE INIT? She chewed it over. Obviously, it was a string of acronyms ... or quasi-acronyms. But what did they stand for? And why put them on the back of the card?
She rubbed her chin. Hadn't Professor Dalmas said something about that once? That certain government contracts, certain programs, were considered so important as to require a coded “threat” on each and every article involved?
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP ...!
Jan jumped. An alarm was going off on her computer.
She swi
