Quest: Direction and misdirection

Sammie was a nerd. He could code a Raspberry Pi and could estimate the gain of a Yagi antenna. He was Dmitri’s disciple and had been instrumental in salting the landscape in no-man’s land with sensors.

He was also somebody Quinn trusted with his life.

Sammie was pointing at a tiny, flat, plastic box beneath the seat of Quinn’s motor-bike. “It is a transponder” Sammie said. “They made it from the back of an old, 3G flip-phone.”


There was a small, button magnet glued to the back and a couple of discrete wire pigtails that terminated in alligator clips to keep it powered. If somebody knew what they were doing, it would take all of ten seconds it install.

That solved one of the mysteries, how Lieutenant David Greene knew Quinn was in his area and reviewing his troops.

The implications of his own troops tracking his movements triggered a short-lived, white-hot rage. If his troops could track him because of that transponder, then the enemy could do the same. If they knew where he was, then they could target him at-will and that put Dysen at risk.

Quinn’s rage cooled as he realized that he didn’t have quite enough information to act.

“Does Dysen’s bike have a transponder?” Quinn asked.

Sammie didn’t know. Twenty minutes later he reported “If it does, I can't find it.”

Quinn’s bike continued to move in the same irregular routes and times that it had in the past. During the day, Quinn was seen riding it. At night...Dysen’s motor-bike would leave the shed a half hour after Sammie left riding Quinn’s. At Quinn's direction, Sammie left the transponder in place.

Quinn had Sammie upgrade the muffler on Dysen’s bike. There was no profit in alerting the spies to the fact that Quinn was aware of their game.

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