The Enigma Ignite

It was difficult to determine who rolled their eyes first, Otto or Jacob, at that last comment. Petra simply kept her features in place with no emotion displayed, as did Wolfgang. Subtleness was not Quip’s strong suit.

Otto cleared his throat but kept his tone serious as he said, “Quip, I suspect you are right that we need to engage with Andy. The others on his team that might be leveraged, however, is totally up to his discretion. We do not dictate to our subcontractors who they use, if the requests can be met in the prescribed timeframe.

“I think that you need to provide a statement of work to Wolfgang and me, which we three can review. Let’s get that done as quickly as possible now that you have defined the gap so effectively.”

Quip nodded and said, “That’s all for my updates at present.”

Petra chimed in, “The decryption and encryption programs that we are using have all been updated. I also took the precaution of adding some algorithms to our internal data storage. I completed a new routine for rapid translations, to which Jacob has added some elements and it is working flawlessly. We have added it to the other search and analytics that ICABOD is currently using. This cuts the time to a fraction with the millions of data components to be searched and retrieved for storage if needed.

“I found an interesting document in our retrieved folders with regards to the future of metrics measurements as a part of herd management for ranchers. It was a very thorough review done some time ago about the needs of herd management and how technology can play a role. As you may be aware, location devices have been used for a long time on cattle, for example, to track herds with the associated web based programs to site them based on GPS coordinates.

“This paper seemed to take this technology and leap forward to cover the overall health of the members of the herd and how that might be possible as technology evolved. It was quite good, actually, and compelling enough that the professor that wrote it was provided with a university grant.”

Otto stroked his chin as he asked, “That does sound interesting and innovative. Do you have the name of the professor who wrote it?”

“Yes, it was written by a Professor Su Lin, located at Texas A&M,” grinned Petra.

Otto merely shook his head as he replied with resignation, “Somehow that simply should not surprise me, but yet it does. Why can’t brilliant people stay invisible?