Free Dollar Down by Sam Waite

Japan until my discharge.
Did a year of law school before joining a global investigative
agency. Started my own shop when I got ambitious. The
ambitious part wasn't exactly accurate. I left over a conflict of
human morality, but it was close enough for now.
    I also had apparitional visits from the warmest
grandmothers in human history. I didn't tell Alexandra that.
She might not understand. They had come along for the
evening and one of them advised me to watch Alexandra's left
cheekbone. You had to catch the light just right to see it. About
half an inch below the outside corner of her eye was a small
irregular patch of skin. It was set off by a subtle tinge of orange,
a birthmark. I had expected to keep that observation to myself,
but Grandma Fitzgerald goosed my psyche.
    "The imperfection that makes your beauty
memorable," I said aloud.
    I couldn't quite decipher the look that Alexandra
flashed at me, but it wasn't one I wanted to see twice. I made
an embarrassed smile and shook my head. "I shouldn't drink
bold claret. Here," I pointed to the corner of my eye, "there is a
very light birthmark. Your features are so balanced, I was
looking for something that wasn't a perfect fit."
    Alexandra smiled with her mouth and frowned with
her eyes. "I was just surprised. That's something I wouldn't
have expected you to say."
    "Me or anyone else, I would guess."
    She nodded and lost the frown. She also folded her
napkin and laid it on the table.
    "Thank you for the evening. It was a refreshing break
from work and..."
    Her voice faded. She didn't have to say anything about
Sabine or Trevor.
    "You paid for drinks at the hotel," she reached for her
handbag. "Let me get the check."
    "Not as long as I'm breathing. It was my
invitation."
    "Well then, next time I'll invite you."
    I scowled.
    "Are you too proud to let a woman pay?"
    "I wouldn't call it pride, just the way I was brought up.
My grandmothers wouldn't forgive me."
    I could hear the calculator clicking away in her
mind.
    "Are they still alive?"
    I shook my head. In the glow of a good meal and
friendly company and my what-a-good-boy-am-I appeal, I felt
some mental hugs coming on.
    "Not physically anyway."
    Alexandra had the grace not to say anything about that
comment, or anything else, for that matter. We said good night
efficiently, no backward glances, no question of where do we
go from here.
    I returned to Sabine's apartment and called Burroughs
to ask if he'd received my package. He had.
    "Last time I talked to you, I asked you what you did for
humor. I guess I know now, but I don't think it's funny. I don't
mind a practical joke, even if it's on me. I just don't get it."
    "What joke?"
    "Nobody's that dumb. You didn't show this file to Bizet.
What's going on?"
    "The computer file? I never said I showed that to Bizet.
He only saw the paper notes."
    "Are you for real, Sanchez?"
    "I must be, because I have no idea what you're talking
about."
    "The file wasn't encrypted, at least not if you can read
Chinese."
    "It wasn't Chinese. It was garble."
    "Not if your software is configured to read BIG 5
character code, two-bytes."
    There was a moment of silence, then I heard
Burroughs' laugh. It was loud.
    "You actually thought it was encrypted." He laughed
again. "There aren't many items in the ASCII character set, so
you need only one byte to represent a character. Chinese needs
two bytes for its fifty thousand or so hanzi . If your
software is reading one byte at a time, you get garble."
    I knew that. It just hadn't occurred to me that might be
the problem. "Thanks I'll have it translated. What about the
notes?"
    "I need to talk to Bizet."
    "If you need verification about where they came from,
let's try something else. I promised I wouldn't give out his
name."
    "You didn't. I'll explain it to him, and I don't need
verification. No one trying to trick me would have such a
clueless request for decryption. I need his ideas for describing
a model on the dollar fall. No normal factors could