"But the stories...They’re more than that. Tub said they were informationally dense. They’ve got code in them. Steganography. Huge detail, so vast space to store information. Obfuscated executable System code. It’s broken up! It’s broken up and it’s inert—it needs to be reassembled, reconnected, before it can run. That was the compromise. It couldn’t be automatic or the System would recognise it. It was always what she wanted. She had them bring her weapon inside the System and she knew that as long as they didn’t know what was in her head they’d do anything to put it all together, they’d do what she couldn’t and smuggle it in for her. Smith, Jones, whoever—they thought they were beating her. But they weren’t, were they?"