"The lobby bar was full again."[...]
"This is a matter in which possession of information accounts to involvement. Do you understand?" Hubertus Bigend
"Milgrim found himself heading for Brown's parked Corolla, or rather he found his body, cramping and gasping from its unaccustomed gallop, weaving unevenly in what he supposed to be that general direction."
Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):
Chapter 43. PONG
Bigend tells Hollis that Bobby’s employers have given him two tasks: one, to track the "Flying Dutchman of shipping containers" where Bobby fishes out an intermittent, encrypted signal among many others, and two, to "fake evidence that he still hasn’t found the signal" which he encrypts andstenographicallysteganographically embeds into music on the drives of iPods that he ships to Costa Rica.Bigend has learned that the iPods are reshipped from Costa Rica to New York, probably to unknown "retired U.S. intelligence officers." He has also learned that the intermediary in Costa Rica has not received the packages, instead giving instructions to the post office box to forward the packages directly, probably out of fear of the "whoever owns the contents of that container." [761 characters]
I am still intrigued about how the false information planted on the iPod is meant to be read by those who think that they have intercepted it, if strong encryption is used and it is hidden using steganography.
Chapter 44. EXIT STRATEGY
In the immediate, siren-filled aftermath of the "bust" involving Brown’s Red Team, the old man and Tito, Milgrim makes his way back to the Corolla and sees some "9/11 superpolice" [Hercules team] exit three black SUVs. Brown makes Milgrim lie down on the floor of the car before the former-Blackwater stooge gives Brown the iPod he "captured" from Tito. Brown and Milgrim drop off the car and head to Washington via the Metroliner. [431 characters]
Blackwater are a US based Private Military Contractor i.e. a mercenary company, who are very active in Iraq.
The para-military "9/11 superpolice" [Hercules team] seem to have been predicted by Neal Stephenson in SnowCrash:
- "MetaCops aren't allowed to lean against their Unit - makes them look lazy and weak. They can almost lean, look like they're leaning, they can even brandish a big leaning-against-the-car 'tude like this particular individual, but they can't lean. Besides, with the complete, glinting majesty of their Personal Portable Equipment Suite hanging on their Personal Modular Equipment Harness, they would scratch the finish of the Unit."