13 June 2006
Here's my latest continued list from the spreadsheet on S&E questions and thoughts.
- Does Dag give the business to his secretary at the end? I think that after they meet and she saves his life in Vegas that he does a lot of grooming her to take over the business. It could make for a lot of interesting possibilities if she is trying to help him on the case.
- When Dag logs into his computer, there is nothing there. The basic applications appear, but no files at all. He opens a DOS prompt and types in a string to launch a program that connects him to his server. That's why there's no immediate connection to the server and why the connection is broken whenever he closes the laptop.
- There is still a second log-in, however, after he connects. And files on the server are encrypted with his log-in key.
- Dag and his secretary play a continuous good-natured game of teasing. At one point she sits on his desk and says, "Come on, Dag. Don't you want to get lucky?" He stands and says all right. You asked for it. Get your coat." They leave the office and go to the Pier to play arcade games.
- This gives me the opportunity to have Dag leave Maizie in charge of the office. When they get back Maizie has pinned an intruder on the carpet and kept him subdued.
- Maizie will also help Dag in some other ways. Like when Brenda comes into the office completely in charge, she'll collapse in a chair when Maizie sticks her cold nose in the back of her knee.
- Maizie is a small bulldog (only 13" high and 40 pounds) because she is a mix of a pitbull and a dachshund. Don't ask which parent was which.
- Angel will end up being a good guy. She has been working with Simon to transfer all the money to various charities. The partner and wife are both trying to bet their share out of Simon before he succeeds and they are willing to do anything to stop him. Ultimately, Angel will have the key to the encrypted files on Simon's laptop.
- Speaking of encryption, Dag will be able to break everything except Simon's 512 bit encryption coded info about his Swiss bank accounts. It will be almost as if Simon is leading him to the result but is trying to make sure Dag will carry out the charitable donation first. Then when Brenda comes in, Dag will give her one of hte codes and she will think she has everything. Secretary will connect him to send out the rest of the codes.
- Angel will come in to Dag because a) she has met his secretary and knows he will do the right thing, or b) Simon had told her to go to Dag.
- I always suspected that Dag was Swedish. I think he's from Ballard and that his name may be Dag Håmmar instead of Dag Hamilton.
- Dag and secretary are introduced by a college professor who was a colleague or instructor of Dag's and puts the secretary up to following him.
- Dag is going to leave the business to his secretary.
- Secretary may have a final personal contact with Dag.
- Secretary is now down to one of two names: Deborah H. Riley or Kate Riley. DH Riley would be a good professional name, but Kate is strong and direct. In either case, Dag will simply call her Riley.
- Just figured out how Riley breaks into Dag's computer when he's unconscious in the hospital. She uses his biometric thumbprint scnner and just touches his thumb to it while he is asleep.
- What is the situation that Riley gets into that brings Dag out of the office and into danger to "rescue" her?
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1 comments:
Man, you do have a lot of questions.
22: No, I don't think he does. That is, I don't think he grooms her for taking it. I think he does leave it to her in a will-and-testament way, but with the expectation that she can liquidate the assets in order to get herself started on her own life. I get the feeling that Dag feels very paternally towards her (or he will, by the end), and as such he'll probably have too much respect for whatever life-ambitions she has previously told him about. So in his mind, probably the best thing he can do is leave her some saleable assets in order to help her finance those ambitions. Also, I think it's much more powerful if she chooses, freely and on her own without having been groomed or pressured in any way about it, to carry on his work. As an honor to Dag, to his work, and because darn it, she's hooked!
23, 24. Of course. Except that I think the encryption on the files themselves is probably separate from his logon credentials. Two locks are safer than one, and all that.
32: I like the Swedish angle, but wasn't there a PI or cop type character named "hammer" somewhere in recent pop culture? A tv show or something?
35: I would hope so. It seems fitting that she would be the last person he interacts with. And, although it practically screams SEQUEL! at you, it's the obvious spot for Dag to talk regretfully about that one nagging little thing about the case that he could never figure out. Which, although Deb obviously wouldn't say anything about it at the time, might be why she gets into the business. Like, she has some sort of hunch about the thing, and tells herself "I'm not going to be a PI forever, just until I figure this one thing out. For Dag." But then, of course, by the time she does she's hooked.
38: does it have to be related to the case? If not, I'd argue for a completely ordinary thing like maybe she was on a date that went bad and she walked out, but then finds herself stuck on the east-side with no way home. So she's stuck calling Dag for a ride, which he obliges because it's nice to be needed and all that. And, particularly if he hadn't liked whoever the date was to begin with, he can pointedly NOT say I told you so on the ride back to her place. Seems like a nice way to work the paternal angle into things. Of course, if you're looking for mortal peril or something, then you'll have to come up with something that fits the plot.
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