"Vernor Vinge - The Cookie Monster" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vinge Vernor)

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"Why does everybody suspect me?" he said.

"You should be proud, Victor. You have such a reliable reputation." She shrugged. "But actually,
this isnтАЩt quite your style." She read on. "The rest is smirky lascivious, but otherwise it
doesnтАЩt mean anything to me."

"It means a lot to me," said Dixie Mae. "This guy is talking about things that nobody should
know."

"Oh?" She went back to the beginning and stared at the printout some more. "I donтАЩt know about
secrets in the message body, but one of my hobbies is rfc9822 headers. YouтАЩre right that this is
all scammed up. The message number and ident strings are too long; I think they may carry added
content."

She handed back the email. "ThereтАЩs not much more I can tell you. If you want to give me a copy, I
could crunch on those header strings over the weekend."

"Oh. . . . Okay, thanks." It was more solid help than anyone had offered so far, butтАУ"Look Ellen,
the main thing I was hoping for was some clues here in Building 0999. The letter pointed me here.
I run into . . . abusers sometimes, myself. I donтАЩt let them get away with it! IтАЩd bet money that
whoever this is, heтАЩs one of those graders." And heтАЩs probably laughing at us right now.

Ellen thought a second and then shook her head. "IтАЩm sorry, Dixie Mae. I know these people pretty
well. Some of them are a little strange, but theyтАЩre not bent like this. Besides, we didnтАЩt know
weтАЩd be here till yesterday afternoon. And today we havenтАЩt had time for mischief."

"Okay," Dixie Mae forced a smile. "I appreciate your help." She would give Ellen a copy of the
letter and go back to Customer Support, just slightly better off than if she had behaved sensibly
in the first place.

Dixie Mae started to get up, but Victor leaned forward and set his notepad on the table between
them. "That email had to come from somewhere. Has anyone here been acting strange, Mousy?"

Ellen glared at him, and after a second he said, "I mean тАШEllen.тАЩ You know IтАЩm just trying to help
out Dixie Mae here. Oh yeah, and maybe get a good story for the Bruin."

Ellen shrugged. "Graham told you; weтАЩre grading on the side for Gerry Reich."

"Huh." Victor leaned back. "Ever since IтАЩve been at UCLA, Reich has had a reputation for being an
operator. HeтАЩs got big government contracts and all this consulting at LotsaTech. He tries to come
across as a one-man supergenius, but actually itтАЩs just money, um, buying lots and lots of peons.
So what do you think heтАЩs up to?"

Ellen shrugged. "Technically, I bet Gerry is misusing his contacts with LotsaTech. But I doubt if
they care; they really like him." She brightened. "And I approve of what Prof. Reich is doing with
this grading project. When I was a TA, I wished there was some way that I could make a day-long