The forger saw them coming, gestured for them to follow without waiting to see if they would. Cooper felt his irritation growing. Just get what you came for and get out. Time to head for Wyoming, find John Smith, and finish this. Maybe it wouldn’t solve all the problems in the world. But it would solve one of them. And it might buy a little time for the world to grow the hell up.
For a man of his means, Schneider certainly hadn’t spent much on his office. Cinderblock walls painted white, a chipboard desk with a lamp and a phone. The only expensive item was a custom-looking newtech datapad, sleek and machined. The forger sat down, opened a drawer, and took out an envelope. “Passports, driver’s licenses, credit cards.” He tossed the packet on the desk.
Cooper opened it, pulled out a passport, and saw his picture above the name Tom Cappello. He flipped the pages, saw that he had traveled extensively, mostly in Europe. The document was faded and worn soft. “The microchip matches?”
“What do you think I am?”
“I’m getting tired of that question. The microchip matches?”
“Of course.” Schneider leaned back, crossed his ankle over a bony knee. “More important, your information has been hacked into all of the relevant databases. A complete profile—spending habits, mortgages, voting record, speeding tickets, all of it.”
Cooper opened the other passport, saw Shannon’s picture. It must have been from a security camera somewhere in the building, but the shot was clean, the background suitably bland. Then he saw the name. “Are you kidding me?”
“What?” Shannon moved beside him, took the document. “Allison Cappello. So what?”
“He made us married.”
Schneider smiled his dental horror show. “That a problem?”
“I didn’t ask for it.”
“The profiles support each other. Minimizes the risk of the data insertion.”
“Yeah, for you. For us, it means we have to be able to play a married couple.”
Schneider shrugged. “Not my problem. Now listen. You both exist, but only at a superficial level. Your new identities have been implanted into the baseline systems. But it will take time for it to propagate. That’s the only way to do it. No way to modify every computer that would have a record. Instead, I plant your identities like a seed, and they grow.”
“How long?”
“You could probably clear a basic New Canaan security check now. But in a few days you’ll have recursive backup, with your identities spread throughout the whole system. Wait till then if you can.”
Cooper didn’t answer. He put the passport back in the envelope and turned to go.
“And Poet?”
“Yeah?”
“Come back anytime. I can always use your money.” The forger laughed.
When they walked back through the loading dock, the big man was gone. Just as well. In his current mood, Cooper might have used him as a practice dummy.
“We could probably stay with Lee and Lisa for a few days.”
Cooper unlocked the car, shook his head. “Let’s get on the road.”
“You want to drive to Wyoming?”
“Might as well. We need the time, and it’s safer than an airport.”
“All right.” Shannon thumbed through her passport. “Tom and Allison Cappello.” She laughed. “If that’s your way of trying to get me into bed, you get points for originality.”
“Cute.” He started the car and pointed it east. “So how did we meet?”
“Hmm?”
“We’re married. If we get questioned, we need to be able to look married.”
“Right. Well, at work, I suppose. It’s true, after all.”
The layers of irony in that made him smile. “Maybe a different job, though. Something boring, so no one asks follow-up questions about it.”
“Accounting?”
“Anybody asks me about their tax return, we’re done. How about…logistics. For a shipping company. No one wants to know how things get from place to place.”
“Okay. I worked there first. We met when you were transferred to Chicago. No, Gary, Indiana. No one wants to know about Gary, Indiana, either,” she said. “You were smitten with me, of course.”
“Actually, I think you chased me. I played it cool.”
“It was totally obvious. You kept pulling puppy-dog faces. And making excuses to come by my desk.”