Origin in Death (In Death 21)
Page 31
My God, he thought, it was good to be home.
"There are a number of inside pockets, if someone needed to secret weapon of some sort."
"Frosty. Man, Baxter's going to crap himself when I walk in wear--.; this."
"Lovely image, thanks."
"It's really great." She kissed him again. "I really love it. I gotta go."
"See you tonight."
He watched her walk away, and thought she looked like a warrior.
Since she had nearly an hour before the start of her shift, Eve took a chance and headed to Mira's office first. As she had expected, the doctor was in, and her dragon of an admin wasn't.
Eve knocked on Mira's open office door.
"Sorry."
"Eve. Did we have an early appointment?"
"No." Mira looked tired, Eve noted. And sad. "I know you usually try to get in before hours, catch up on paperwork or whatever. Sorry to get in the way of that."
"It's all right. Come in. Is this about Wilfred?"
"Wanted to run something by you." And she felt lousy for doing it. Doctor-patient relation sort of deal. You keep case files."
"Of course."
"And in addition to the consult position with the department, you do some private work. Counseling, therapy, and the like. You sometimes treat patients on an ongoing basis. Over the course of years, say."
"Certainly."
"How do you keep the files, the data?"
"I'm not sure what you mean."
"You passcode your unit, for security?"
"Absolutely. All files are confidential. The private cases. And the consults for the department are on a need-to-know basis."
"The discs themselves? Those protected, too?"
"I would add a layer onto the more sensitive material, if I felt it necessary."
"You encode the data?"
"Codes?" This time Mira smiled. "That would be a bit paranoid of me, wouldn't it? Are you worried about leaks on my end, Eve?"
"No. Other than paranoia, why would a doctor passcode unit, discs, then encode the data on the discs?"
The smile had faded. "I would have to assume the structure in which the doctor worked required such precautions, or the data itself was hypersensitive. There is the possibility the doctor had reason to suspect someone might attempt to access the data. Or the work being documented was highly experimental."
"Illegal."
"I didn't say illegal."
"Would you if you weren't aware I was asking about Icove?"