The Power of One by Jane A. Adams

Author:Jane A. Adams [Margaret Duffy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House Publishers
Published: 2015-03-23T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-SIX

On the way out of Iconograph Mac contrived to slip behind the rest of the group, pausing to examine one of the more unusual photographs. Lyndsey, just behind him and Ray, to whom he’d been chatting about the images, paused beside him.

‘I have something more to ask,’ Mac asked quietly.

‘Sure. Anything we can do.’ Ray glanced at the rest of the group who were now in the lobby. ‘Shoot.’

‘Does the phrase The Power of One mean anything to either of you?’

Ray laughed. ‘Sure. It was a sort of in-joke. You know, Binary code, all ones and zeros. One way of thinking about it is like a switch, either off or on. Zero is off, one is on. Paul always joked that once you’d switched something on, anything was possible. You should never underestimate the power of one.’

‘He meant it like individuals too,’ Lyndsey added. ‘Like, one person can make a difference. You do nothing, you’re a zero.’

That made a kind of sense, Mac thought but didn’t get him any further. ‘What about Payne 23?’

Puzzled looks. ‘No,’ Ray said. ‘Where did you see it? If I knew the context …’

‘It’s probably nothing,’ Mac said. ‘Just something scribbled in a margin. I found it kind of intriguing.’ He smiled. ‘Occupational hazard. Seeing significance in everything.’

Ray laughed. Lyndsey, Mac noted, had said nothing.

‘Edward and Lydia, are they OK?’ Ray asked as they moved on. ‘Amelia said they’d gone away for a few days.’ Mac was aware that Abe Jackson watched, eyes narrowed.

Mac nodded. ‘They’re staying with friends,’ he said. ‘We thought it might be best for them to get away. I think Mrs de Freitas was finding the media interest a little too much to handle.’

‘Where have they gone?’ Abe asked as they left. ‘We should make sure they have adequate protection.’

‘Oh, they do,’ Mac told him. ‘But they have asked their solicitor not to reveal their address for now. He’s acting as go-between for any messages. I can give you his number?’

Abe frowned. ‘I don’t think that’s appropriate,’ he said. ‘We need to know where they are.’

‘They are not accused of any crime, Abe,’ Mac said gently. ‘I can’t order them not to leave town. Now, how about you tell us what Paul was up to?’

For a moment Mac thought Abe was going to match his own intransigence, but he did not. He sighed. ‘Paul was a revenger,’ he said. ‘Apparently one of the best in the business.’

The use of the word rang bells for Mac. Some obscure discussion he’d had with Tim on the history of magical illusion and the engineers who had … ‘reverse engineering’. He said, ‘You take an object; a … a piece of finished technology and you take it apart, find out how it’s made.’

Abe nodded. ‘Technology, or code or both.’

‘Wasn’t that what they did at Bletchley Park during the war?’ Andy asked, surprising them all. ‘They needed to know how the enigma coding thingys worked. Ian Fleming, you know, the James Bond man? Well he or

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