Claudia and Scott, Backdated to Oct. 25

[om_cherrybomb]

Claudia pokes her nose in where she doesn't belong, and ends up discussing chess and other topics with Scott.


He was surprised, though Scott's face gave nothing away. New girl - he didn't recognize her - and she looked pretty young. Alex's age, maybe. And she was messing up his set up. "Don't."

"One move," Claudia stated, finishing what she started and stepped back. It was the only move she needed to make, since the rest of the game would fall into place without another fork. "I can put it back if it's really a problem."

Scott stepped up behind her, though with plenty of distance between them still, to look at what she'd done. She'd moved Tessa's pieces, and in the same way he would have, had he been playing with what had been left. Interestingly, it hadn't been the route Tessa had actually taken, which was why he'd have to replace the piece. "Even though that's the move that makes the most sense, it's not the one she made. So, yeah, we need to put it back."

"All the other moves give white a chance to regain ground," Claudia protested. "What's the point in going with stupid moves?"

"The point is to understand my opponent," he replied. "This isn't an ongoing game. This is a debriefing."

"People never make that kind of sense," she said, quietly. "They always change the rules."

Scott heard the downtrodden knowledge of experience, and he took a note of it. Another one, then. Like him, like Noriko, like Benjamin and Laura. People who'd grown-up too fast and too fucked up. Of course, it didn't mean he thought she was right. "No person is completely unpredictable. Everyone has internal rules -- the trick is figuring out what they are."

If people had rules, she'd never really been able to see it.

"Math has rules, physics has rules. People pretty much always break any rules they can," she responded. She hadn't been able to make that part of the world make sense since getting put in foster care after Joshua vanished. "It's like the only rule that applies."

"People are predictable, and break rules in predictable ways. It might not be math, but it's there. More often than not, anyway." Scott studied her for another moment, and then, "What's your name?"

"It's the not that bugs me," she said, toying with a lock of her hair. "Claudia. What's yours?"

She didn't particularly enjoy being studied, but she didn't back down, either.

Interesting. Useful, maybe, if she could learn to wrap her mind around behavioral patterns. Which, he suspected, she could, even if it would be unconscious. After all, she expected people to act totally randomly - that was an expectation in behavior. It just had to be tweaked.

She reminded him of kids he'd known, before he'd come here. Smart, unconsciously aware of how people acted and reacted because that knowledge was necessary to survive. Tough. Very interesting.

"Scott," he replied. He took a seat and gestured at the board. "I'm guessing you play?"

"Some," Claudia said, shrugging a little as she sat opposite him. "It got boring, after a while. At least when you only have the same people to play. I liked the puzzle books, though."

She almost mentioned that her brother had taught her, but she didn't mention him, not to anyone. He'd taught her so much, and then he was gone.

Scott reached for the pieces and began resetting them - he'd come back to his debriefing later. "What puzzle books?"

"The ones the ICF publishes for people to try out on your own. You know, submit your solutions for master's points? It's easier than trying to find an opponent, most of the time," Claudia admitted. "A lot of people say chess is for snobs, or nerds. At least I got left alone with the books. MENSA had some, too."

"Because playing by mail against a book isn't for nerds," Scott said dryly. He finished setting up the board, and gestured for her to make her first move. "Where're you from, Claudia?"

"Nowhere, really," she said, and went for a classic opening. The first few moves didn't really matter, because there wasn't much shift in the power structure. "And you can be places they won't find you with a book. Or at least where they don't think to look. My last foster mom didn't really care as long as I got good grades and didn't attract trouble. Besides, the books were free. Lessons cost money."

"Not attracting trouble is a good skill to have." He countered and then crossed his arms as he watched her pick her next move. "Particularly in the foster system."

Claudia was going for a traditional game, waiting to see what he'd do. If Scott worried about replaying games, he might actually be a good player, but even good players fell into patterns, and chess was all about patterns. "And nobody is going to start a fight in the library, or the computer lab. It wasn't like I had anywhere else to go."

"You'd be surprised," he murmured. He moved a piece - not yet really attacking her, but setting himself up - and then waited.

Claudia made a move that broke the previous pattern, but wasn't an obvious counter. At least not for the next couple moves. It strengthened her control of the board for the time being, and increased directions of movement. "Maybe in another year or two, but the system doesn't have a lot of outs, and it's harder to get access to nice things like electricity and computers on the street."

The corner of Scott's lips tipped up into something between a smirk and a smile. "No, I meant you'd be surprised at the fights I saw in libraries and computer labs."

"But at least those fights are generally bloodless, at least physically," Claudia pointed out, then made her first obvious offensive move. "Check."

A simple move - by his standards, at least - took his king out of any danger. "Usually."

And that was when one of her knights pounced from a normally inconspicuous position, ready to wheel through his lines while under the protection of several power pieces. It would begin a series of brutal exchanges to neutralize that threat, and she wondered if he would see out that far. "So what about you?"

"What about me?" Scott eyed her knight warily, and calculated his move to head-off the concern.

"Well, you know my name, that I was in the system, and I'm going to beat you in this game," Claudia stated, although the last part was a little less certain. It was time to stop being quite so straightforward and traditional. The game was all about numbers and control of terrain and opportunities, the kinds of things she excelled at. "Where are you from?"

He snorted. "Confident, are we?" It was both an honest response and a deflection. Scott didn't particularly talk about his past unless he had to. And even when he did, he glossed over the details in favor of less personal generalities.

"Apparently it's sorta my thing," Claudia said with a shrug. She didn't really remember when she'd started seeing deeper into the puzzles she so enjoyed. Electronics and programming were still more her thing, but chess was a way to try to figure people out. Not that she had much luck there. "And you didn't answer."

"I'm from Nebraska." Not exactly true, but it was where he'd bee picked up by Xavier and Lensherr. "Confidence is your thing, or chess is?"

"Chess is some of it. Math, science, anything with rules." The rules and how they interacted let her navigate with somewhat astounding results at times, like how she was drawing the lines of a trap around Scott's pieces on the board. At the moment, there were at least three moves that could pull the fangs out, but she hadn't met very many people who would notice even one of them.

She hadn't met Scott Summers before, though. He smirked, and made his move. "Sociopaths?"

Claudia actually smiled a little at that. So it actually was going to be a real match. She hadn't had one in ages. "Never tried. Unless you mean the kind who like to take home orphans. Those I can avoid well enough."

She didn't want to understand those rules, really. Not unless she had to. "I prefer electrical engineering and programming. Gadgeteering, you might say."

"That's good. I'd be concerned if you preferred serial killers." He made his next move. "So is that your mutation? Gadgeteering?"

"Seeing how things work, and where to improve them, I think. Yours has something to do with your eyes, right?"

That was kinda obvious, since the lenses were hardly standard, the frames perfectly fitted to cover everything. Strange, really. She wondered if most mutations were flashy and hard to hide, but their teachers looked normal.

"So yours is mental," Scott said, partially to himself. Another thinker, like Tessa. Though, based on how this game was going, not remotely the same. "And yes," he added dryly. "My mutation involves my eyes. However did you guess?"

Claudia gave him a look. "As long as you aren't implying I'm mental. Is it rude to ask what people can do? I'd never met another mutant until the Professor showed up."

That hadn't exactly been subtle, but a boarding school would mean she wouldn't suddenly be even harder place. She'd hacked in to view her file more than once, and knew that her intellect had scared off more than one potential parent. Not that she minded. She didn't want family.

"I'll save my psych evaluation of you for some other time," Scott assured her, deadpan. "And it depends. Everyone is different. Worthington and Braddock's mutations are pop culture knowledge. Alisha Daniels, another student here, hates the question. Most of us fall in-between."

"Hm," she said, as she considered her move. "It's different. I wasn't even sure I was a mutant, but I guess they'd know."

"Probably less obvious when their aren't physical changes," Scott agreed, watching her as she thought. Of course, Claudia might be the only person he'd met who hadn't realized she was a mutant, or at least something other than baseline human. But he supposed without having the obvious destructive shit happen, like him or Alex, or hearing voices like Lady Braddock or Tessa, there'd be nothing to clue her in.

"When I was little, my brother was always explaining things so that I could understand them. He taught me chess when I was four," Claudia said, and then shut up. She didn't want to talk about Joshua. His accident had been the end of anything resembling a normal life. "I always liked learning how things worked."

He noticed that she'd cut off kind of abruptly, but Scott didn't press it. Yes, he'd remember it, but he'd put up enough 'no trespassing' signs around his personal life in his day to respect others. Usually. "Well, then you're in a unique place for it. Geniuses, scientists, and the island of genetic misfit toys."

"And which would we be?" Claudia said, even though she noticed his noticing, she decided to take the offensive again in the game. It was starting to lose some of the challenge. "Mate in seven."

"You, I'm not sure yet. I'm a misfit toy." He smirked and, just like that, slipped his bishop into position. Whatever she had planned, Scott was going to dismantle it.

Yes. He was planning the thrashing defeat of a girl his little brother's age. Character building, something something.

Claudia actually took a moment, considering a few lines she'd left open as she began to put together a defense. There were holes in it, left by the pieces already captured, but if she played it right... Yes, that could work. "Lost the genetic lottery? What do you do? Not X-ray vision, since leaded glass would be bluish, not red."

"Optic force blasts." Scott moved his rook where he needed it. "Or, in layman's terms, bright red gaze of death."

"Really? How many newtons of force?" Claudia said, actually interested. Just because something was deadly doesn't mean it was too dangerous to look into. The glasses were a controlling factor, then. Intriguing. But the rook had to be pinned with her bishop, furthering her gambit.

Scott swiftly took her bishop with one of his remaining pawns. "It's essentially several kilotons of TNT."

And while he was focused on that part of the board, she pushed a single pawn one final square. "My queen please, check."

It looked like they were on the final round, but there always a chance. A tiny chance, in this case.

He handed her her queen without protest -- it wasn't going to matter anyway. Scott made his move. "So I wouldn't touch the shades if I were you. Even by accident."

"I'm not about to risk my life for a little scientific curiosity," Claudia snapped, too harshly. Just the idea scraped too close to old wounds. She countered forcefully, trying to focus on the game instead. Opening up to Mister Closed-book wasn't something she would ever do.

Scott's eyebrows rose. Well, that had been interesting. Touchy subject, apparently, though without more information he wasn't quite willing to hazard a guess at why. "I wasn't suggesting you would," he pointed out mildly. "I give a somewhat standardized instruction. Just figured I'd give you the version without profanity."

To him, it looked like her upset had made her slightly less dangerous - in chess anyway. Though she'd proven skilled enough so far that Scott was still on guard in case it was a feint.

"And more patronizing. I'm not an idiot," Claudia said, scowling. That moment of inattention had made some things shift more in Scott's favor, but she wasn't about to make it easy on him.

He quirked an eyebrow. "I'm not seeing how it was patronizing, but I'm sorry if it was." Scott calm surveyed his options and then made his next move. "I'll be sure to tell my brother not to warn you that same way. Just in case."

"I know what a few kilotons for TNT can do, especially with a linear force vector. It's like putting stilletto heels on King Kong before he steps on you," Claudia retorted. Then relented just a little, verbally, at least. The game was another matter. "Brother?"

"My brother goes here." Scott surveyed the board as he contemplated where he wanted to go next. Not that he had a wide variety of great options - she was too good for that - but he wasn't completely hopeless, either. "Also one of those powers that involves explosions."

Claudia tried not to remember the sound that had been more than just a sound when her brother's lab went up. It was why she never played much with chemistry. "I could think of a few dozen ways to make something go boom using only the stuff in a typical bathroom. I really don't like things that go boom. A healthy respect. Too easy to lose control," she said.

She captured one of his pieces, changing the balance a little more, but Scott was good.

"Probably a good party line." The loss of the piece hadn't been unexpected, and he kept on his game. She was interesting. Seemed like a good kid, too, and smart. Not a bad new addition.

"I'd probably do something with electricity as far as incapacitating someone," Claudia said, shrugging. "Modulated right, you can shut down the nervous system without any lasting damage. Of course, avoiding that kind of notice was usually easier. Nobody expects a computer geek who plays chess to diversify."

"I don't know," Scott mused. "The computer geeks I know are also some of the most dangerous people I know."

"Depends on the geek. But it made things easier. Hours on public internet at the library or in the computer lab. I don't make things to hurt people. No matter how much anyone would pay for it," Claudia said, and pushed her rook forward a couple squares. "Check."

He deftly maneuvered himself back into safety. "Good to know." And it was. It was always good to know what people's lines in the sand were.

Claudia grinned. "And that's why you tell people to keep the fuck away from your glasses?" She took another piece, and saw the end of that chain about three seconds too late.

"I tell people to keep the fuck away from my glasses because I'm pretty sure it's considered bad form to blow holes in my classmates." Even if occasionally the impulse was there, with some of them. Scott smirked as he looked over the board. Perfect.

"You can't stop it?" Claudia asked. She'd seen some of the other kids who'd changed too much to fit in anymore, but this was way worse. "Bummer."

She thought about resigning, because the game was over, but she let the last moves play out.

"Guess I left that part out. I have uncontrollable death gaze," Scott agreed. He moved his bishop. "Check."

Claudia shrugged. "At least you have something to show for it."

The move forced her to bring the new queen into danger. And it was nearly over. "I just build stuff that does things people don't expect."

'Something to show for it.' Scott had no idea what she meant by that, which surprised him -- Claudia struck him as generally being straightforward. He couldn't imagine what the hell he had to 'show' for his mutation, though. Unless she meant he could make a show out of it. A really destructive show that people thought were lasers. It would be like a mushroom-induced nightmare.

"I wouldn't underestimate that ability. Creation is generally preferable to destruction." He took her queen.

"Sometimes a little destruction isn't a bad thing, though," she said, even as she made one last-ditch effort to throw the game. The next move was mate, though, and there wasn't enough left on her side to turn it. "It might come in handy with, say, clearing a minefield. Applied force from a distance."

"Nothing is completely lacking utility," Scott agreed. He made the move. "Checkmate."

"Pleased?" Claudia said, smirking. "It was the only remaining outcome."

She didn't mind losing all that much, because she didn't think he'd beaten her, she'd been slightly distracted. "Seriously, though, if you could build anything, what would you do?"

She knocked over her king with finality.

"You mean in the grandiose sense, or the more immediate one?" Scott asked, even as his smirk grew. Yes, he was pleased. He always was, when he won and no one got hurt.

"Something smaller than a breadbox, since you want some limits." She was curious, and what people would try to do with her tech skills sometimes told a lot.

He leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest as he thought a bit. Something smaller than a breadbox that he wanted, if he could build anything.

"Unhackable, untracable communication capabilities."

"Tall order," Claudia said. "If you can capture enough of a signal, you can usually decrypt it with enough time. There's have to be a lot of frequency hopping."

She could think of a few ways for short bursts, but actually keeping an entire conversation. That might take some doing.

"You said 'anything', not 'anything doable'," Scott pointed out, the corner of his lips tipping up.

"And I didn't say it was impossible, just difficult," Claudia said, smiling herself. "I could think of a few ways to mask a signal, but the more you use something like that, the more likely someone will find a way around any blocks you put up. Television might be a good place."

He couldn't it as his eyebrows rose slightly in question. Scott couldn't claim to be an electronics guy, but that...television? "Television?"

"The best place to hide something is in plain sight. And most people would mistake a slight hitch in the videostream for sunspots or the like," Claudia said. "And it gives you an entire satellite system to play with."

Huh. Scott wondered how feasible that actually was - because if it was actually possible, it would be a good idea. They needed a way of getting into contact that couldn't be cheated or stolen. They had telepaths, and if they were comfortable and reliable enough in using that, then telepathy would be a good option, too. But if they weren't ready yet, or they weren't available...well, he suspected good comms were something worth looking into.

"You think the television aspect would be too distracting?" He wondered thoughtfully.

"I wasn't saying a video conference. But if you shift a tight-beam encrypted audio into the video portion, it's look like a bad pixels or a loss of synch on to someone watching, and that happens all the time," Claudia mused aloud. "The code wouldn't be hard, but it might be harder to make a signal that will penetrate a building or underground. I've hid worse."

That last bit got her a look, but he didn't ask. "So the people actually talking wouldn't have to be facetiming or whatever?"

"It was just some things I didn't want the people looking to find out about me when I was selling a gadget or three over the internet," Claudia said with a shrug. "No, just voice. It'd be harder to hide full video. Unless that was what you were thinking. Anyway, I'd have to figure out how to relay the signal and stuff, so it's mostly materials."

"I wasn't thinking video," Scott assured her. He was a little surprised she actually seemed to be considering building something based on what he'd said. He'd figured she'd been fishing for more information about him, not that she'd been looking for an actual project. "What kind of materials would you need?"

Claudia laughed a little.

"Give me maybe a week to sort it out. Something like a walkie-talkie wouldn't be hard, until you start adding other people," she explained. "The ideas are easy, at least when we're talking electrical engineering. I kinda enjoy tinkering, anyway. A couple cell phones, a GPS guidance system, that kind of stuff. Don't know if I'll have to actually go into the guts and put on new circuits until I really try."

"Well, if you need anything..." He shrugged. He wasn't some kind of tech guy - he knew what he needed to know for safety and training's sake, but he wasn't on the same wavelength as Claudia seemed to be. Not even close. Still, she was basically offering him something.

Probably not for free, even if she hadn't asked for anything in response. Nothing in life came without strings.

"Another chess game, maybe. I just was starting to get bored, and it's not like I couldn't control something like that. I've seen what's been going on. Mutants are the newest group to hate and fear," she stated. "And you don't need any help starting a war, even if you were the terrorist sort. There are reasons to hide."

"Mutants are the newest group, period. Hate and fear is expected, but it's not a guarantee of anything." Scott started to reset the board.

"And of course the fact that these volatile and dangerous mutations are cropping up in a portion of the population well known for being headstrong and impulsive and hormonal doesn't make people feel safe," Claudia said, sighing. "It's annoying, really. Some politician standing up on a soapbox saying that just because the power exists, it's going to be misused. It's true about guns, too. I don't see them doing a good job keeping those under control."

"We license people to own guns," Scott pointed out. "No one licensed me. I'm scary. I can kill someone by blinking, even without meaning to, and I'm a 17 year-old guy. We aren't exactly known for good decisionmaking. I would be afraid of me, if I were them."

"After that game, I'm not sure I have a whole lot to be scared of," Claudia responded. "Although if I had your control issues and were out in a crowd, I'd do something about making sure those couldn't get jostled off."

Bet then she considered. "What was the game you were looking at earlier?"

Scott managed not to roll his eyes at the dig. Barely. He also refrained from pointing out that he had some less-easily-moved eyewear. The downside to wearing it was that it looked alien - the visor and the goggles would stand out far more than red sunglasses. "I played Tessa. I was reviewing it."

"I haven't really met most of the people here," Claudia said. "So you'll have to forgive me for not knowing the names."

"Mental mutation. Low level telepathy and enhanced cognition." Tessa was not shy about her mutation, and Scott knew she wouldn't mind him explaining. "She could explain better, but essentially, her mind works like a super computer. She can see every possible move and all possible outcomes before you've even touched a piece."

Claudia looked really impressed by that. "That's really cool. I mostly just see the math and probabilities, which pieces are in control of which squares, those kinds of things. Patterns and statistics. How efficient something is. It's really hard to explain. I've tried, before, but it's just the way I think," she admitted.

"You ever beat her?"

It killed him to admit it. "No. But I've made her work for it and surprised her, which is...something."

"Not everything's about winning," Claudia said, shrugging. "At least, that's what my brother used to say. He could be a total jerkwad, too."

"I'm sure he'd be real thrilled to hear you're comparing him to a dick like me," Scott said wryly. "Besides, it's hard to take a rebuke on my competitiveness seriously when it comes from someone who, believe it or not, has spent her short life winning."

"I wish he could," Claudia said, quietly. She looked off, trying to remember why he'd had to try that one last time. "You haven't seen my English grades."

Some of the pieces clicked together. Her brother was gone. If Scott had had to guess, he'd have said something having to do with scientific curiosity and explosives, based on her earlier touchiness about the topics. He kept his face blank, though. "You haven't seen mine, either. I meant the bigger things. You went through the system and came out seeming relatively whole - that's a victory."

"I learned the only person I could count on was me, and the rest was just trying to be what people wanted to see," Claudia said. "At least machines only do what they're supposed to."

"And people only do what they know how. You lived and don't seem like a sociopath. It's harder than you think -- give yourself some credit."

"You have a thing about sociopaths, don't you?" She couldn't help asking, since this was the second time that had come up.

"I have a talent for hyperbole, and they make a pretty stark end to a spectrum." He shrugged.

"Unless you read history. There are plenty of people who were probably borderline sociopaths who were able to turn that trait into something of benefit," Claudia retorted. "Fine line between insanity and genius and all that."

"They don't care about social rules or niceties. It makes them incredibly dangerous, but also very effective." Nothing stood in their way - like emotion or humanity or the like. Which was horrifying, but useful in a very perverse way.

"My last psych eval had me as 'detached with a heightened sense of paranoia.' It made for an interesting read. But then, it's always nice to know what people are saying behind your back," she said, grinning as she confirmed some of the paranoia. People had been interested in her in ways she hadn't liked, so Claudia learned to keep an ear to the ground.

Scott smirked back at her, the equivalent of a smile from him. "It's only paranoia if they aren't actually out to get you."

"And some people really should read the memos in their inbox about network security protocols," Claudia added. "I have to admit the whole paperless thing makes everything so much easier to get a hold of."

"Didn't have a computer before," he admitted. "But since coming here, it seems pretty fucking obvious that nothing on a computer is ever secure. I think we have enough computer people here to stalk the NSA."

"Did you ever see that experiment where a bunch of guys from Cal Tech were able to remotely engage the brakes on a moving car?" It had been pretty cool, although it was also a relief at the sheer amount of variables to surpass if you didn't have complete access to the vehicle's information.

He hadn't, and his eyebrows went up in surprise. On most people, it might look like a mild response. On Scott it was the equivalent of shouting with shock. The implications of that kind of thing were...concerning. "A regular, run-of-the-mill car?"

"A luxury car, one of the ones with an app interface," she began "The thing is it's actually cheaper and faster with computers to have Bluetooth connect things like the brakes to the computer. But it still took a full computer dump of the car in question and about three months to write a program that would take over enough to do that. You'd have to have access to the car, intercept the phone signal, and about a dozen other things even to do it. And the program would be unique to one particular vehicle because they change that much in production. Part of the reason cars have so many computers on board is so they don't have to be as rigid in the rest of the engineering. The computer makes up for lack of tolerance in the manufacturing lines."

Well, there was another reason to only buy cars from the stone ages. Beyond the fact those were the only cars he could afford. "You think it could be done to a Jetta?"

"Could I do it? Probably," Claudia said. "In the 'real' world? You'd need a team of folks with advanced degrees in computer science, electrical and mechanical engineering, and possibly physics. It's not an easy hack even if you own the vehicle in question."

"I'm not asking you to do it," he made sure to clarify. Because Scott had no desire to hack his own girlfriend's car. He'd asked out of paranoid curiosity more than anything else. "Just wondering."

"The only reason to do something like that is to hurt people," Claudia said. "I wouldn't do it anyway. But no, it's not really possible, in the sense that it's too time intensive and hardly worth the money."

Not worth doing to most people, anyway. Not exactly a crime of opportunity. But say someone wanted to hurt someone who'd been publicly outted as a mutant, or who had associated publicly with them...

"Would it leave physical traces? Whatever you'd have to do to the car to tamper with it?"

"Not the car, no. You just use the diagnostics port to get a copy of the car's programming," Claudia said. "That's why they tried it. Any mechanic's shop has that part of it. The thing is the programming language is proprietary to the make and model, and without someone who can translate it beyond knowing how to look up an error code, using it is a real trick. It's a bit like cloning a phone, only a couple orders of magnitude harder."

Scott crossed his arms over his chest as he thought, one hand coming up and a thumb tapping against his chin. "Is there any way to guard against that kind of thing? I imagine doing your own maintenance would reduce the risk..."

"It's not something you really need to. Maybe I'd worry about it if a car was stolen and then recovered, but not on a day to day thing. It'd be a lot easier to manufacture an accident another way," Claudia said. "You'd have to field test it, and I think people would notice if their car did something like that without their intention."

He was sure he was the one who sounded paranoid and delusional now, but he didn't really care. He'd look like the world's biggest moron to keep everyone safe.

"We have a lot of high profile targets that live here with some pretty nice cars." Worthington, Braddock, Lydia, Jean-Paul, Alison Blaire...so far. And he didn't know them well enough to know how observant they were. "Seems like a question worth asking, at least in the abstract."

"Let's just say it'd be easier to hack the traffic signals than the cars," Claudia said. "At least for the next decade or so."

"Well, gee, I feel better then," he said dryly. "Still, though. Good to know. Thanks."

"I see I'm not the only one with a well developed sense of paranoia," Claudia responded, equally dry. "Any system can be hacked. The point is to make the cost-to-benefit ratio unpalatable. Just like most things. Good security is still going to do more to protect those high profile targets, although you shouldn't quote me on that. People can have pretty skewed values."

"Good to know." Not like Scott was an expert on it, after all. Might be something worth talking to Arthur about, though, since he was under the impression that the other man was the security point person for Lydia's PR team.

"I'm a part of this freak show, too," Claudia said, grinning. "Who knows, maybe I can even earn my keep."

He considered her for along moment, and then gave her a half-smile. "I'm pretty sure you will. We could undoubtedly use it."