"I doubt that would be possible. ImpSec has more resources than he does."

"I'm not prepared to entirely rule it out, but the balance of probability is likely with you, yes."

"I can imagine farfetched solutions like moving to a hermitage on some backwater planet and eschewing any activity that might leave a data trail. But I can't quite imagine Mark taking them. Not permanently."

"But long enough that by the time he's findable again he could have gotten to anywhere in the nexus?"

"In order to get to anywhere in the nexus, he has to travel from place to place in jumpships. That's usually how we find him again after the long silences. Someone catches sight of him at a spaceport or station."

"If I were trying to hide, I would try, very quietly and very covertly, to make a friend. A staggeringly unlikely friend who could smuggle me from place to place."

"So far, he seems not to have chosen that option."

"Maybe he had trouble with the 'make a friend' step."

"Or the 'unlikely' one. I'm trying to think of someone whose company I couldn't believe Mark would enjoy, and I'm only coming up with a specific and dead individual."

"...That too," Miles admits. "He likes Ivan, after all."

"Ivan's not that bad."

"Many people like Ivan. It's just I don't think many of them like him as much as Mark does."

"No? Not even his string of girlfriends?"

"Yes, and how long do those last? Longer than Mark knew him for, some of them, but - still."

"I haven't decided."

"Silver, fountain option, engraved with an eye," Miles suggests cheerfully.

"Ha," says Simon. "No. The fountain option is tempting, but I prefer the simplicity of the original style. And I do think I want a custom engraving, but that custom engraving seems a bit much."

"I think it would be very charming. Initials are popular. And little abstract designs wrapping around the casing."

"I'm considering initials."

"Then you are unlikely to cause any interesting anecdotes among the fabrication staff when they read your order form."

"I still say go for the eye," says Miles.

"It's an amusing thought," he acknowledges.

"I don't think it's been done, though I'd have to check to be sure."

"I haven't seen any."