Free No Way to Die by M. D. Grayson

said it, answering her own question. “First off, we know that Kenny is an irreverent type who’s not in the habit of paying tribute to anyone—except maybe himself. Also, it’s a well-known fact that although Kenny can almost tolerate the Apple brand itself—and I emphasize the 'almost', Kenny didn’t even like Steve Jobs. Or Bill Gates, or Larry Ellison, or any of the other big techies, for that matter. He doesn’t consider any of them his intellectual equal. He would never knowingly pay tribute to any of them. These facts combined, I conclude that this rules out potential number one.”
    Kenny started to squirm in his chair.
    “That leaves us with possibility number two. After I ruled out the first scenario, I asked myself, ‘Why would a guy who’s never worn a turtleneck suddenly start to wear one on a relatively warm day like today?’ Then, just like that, it hit me.” She looked at Kenny. Her smile turned into a wicked grin. “You’ve got something to hide, don’t you?”
    Doc and Richard started chuckling. Kenny started to blush—he literally turned as pink as a lobster right in front of us. “You’re full of crap,” he said dismissively. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “Don’t I?” Toni asked. “Well, that’s easy to prove.” She looked at the rest of us. “I propose to the group that our colleague Mr. Hale got himself hooked up last night with one of his young little chickies, and,” here her voice raised, “lo and behold—said young chickie turned out to be none other than a vacuum-sucking remora who left a souvenir on Mr. Hale’s neck in the form of a big, red love-kiss, which he now attempts to conceal with the black turtleneck!”
    “It’s a lie!” Kenny said. Doc burst out laughing.
    "Love kiss?" Richard said.
    "A love kiss," Toni answered. "A big red hickey." She turned to Kenny. “If it’s a lie, prove it. Roll down your turtleneck and show us.”
    Kenny looked around, flustered. After a moment, he said, “I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to dignify your—”
    “Enough!” I said, interrupting him. I turned to Toni. “Very amusing, counselor.”
    “Thank you. The state rests.” She sat back down, the mischievous grin still on her face. She turned to Kenny and pointed at him. “Got ya, you little twerp. Now we’re even.”
    I let them have their fun for a couple more minutes. Kenny ended up giving in and pulling down his turtleneck. For the record, Toni was right. Fortunately, our group is tight-knit, and this sort of horseplay leaves no hard feelings. Truth is, Toni is probably the closest thing Kenny has to a big sister. They just like to go after each other from time to time.
    “Well, now that that little discovery is behind us,” I said, “maybe we should talk about a new case.”
    When I was sure I had everyone’s attention, I continued. “Yesterday, my dad called and asked us to talk to a woman named Katherine Rasmussen.”
    “The widow of Thomas Rasmussen?” Richard asked.
    “Yes.”
    “Thomas Rasmussen was like a tech god,” Kenny said. “They named shit after him. I think his company is in Redmond and it's called ACS or something like that.”
    “That’s right—Applied Cryptographic Solutions.” I went over our interview with Katherine and our subsequent talk with Inez Johnson. I mentioned that Katherine had said that ACS had a new product.
    “I’ve heard rumors of something called the Starfire Protocol,” Kenny said. “It’s hush-hush stuff—more speculation than anything. No one even knows if it really exists. I can say that even the rumor of it definitely has people’s attention, though.”
    “Katherine couldn’t explain it except to say it had to do with cryptology,” I said. “Do you know anything about it?”
    “A little, just based on what I’ve heard through my network. Without getting too technical, almost all modern cryptology relies on a concept known as asymmetrical key technology. In it,