Weird Harold wrote:cthia wrote:...The Detweilers were the only people working on the dangerous side of the genetic fence.
Not exactly. Leonard Detweiler left Beowuf to colonize Mesa with "like minded" people. There were several hundred, or so, people working on the dangerous side of the "genetic fence."
I'm sure that there were even more "like-minded" immigrants over the years since Mesa was colonized.
Over the centuries, enough outside DNA has been imported into "improving" the Detweiler genome that Leonard, himself, probably would qualify as a "Detweiler" by current LRPB standards.
You're not thinking like an ONI agent. At least not like a
Manty ONI agent, vested by Pat Givens.
Detweiler and the number of people known to be dabbling in the black arts is just one filter. And that one filter has already reduced the "persons of interest" to simply "several hundred" as you say? Out of billions scattered about the Honorverse. What a helluva first filter for a fine first step.
Then, the next filter would be financial background checks. An operation of this magnitude has deep pockets. That fact should be obvious even to idiots like the Solarians. It was obvious to Harahap,
who deduced as much in the available info dump. And if Harahap can put these things together, so can RMN intelligence. How many of the several hundred people capable of that kind of intelligence also has the same cavernous bank accounts?
Also, the nanites themselves are technology that can be analyzed if a sample can be acquired.
"Cross reference your findings with everyone who wore green underwear on Friday." That's the intel probably available on some planets -- like the shockingly unfathomable, privacy forfeited planets out on the "Verge of Way Beyond."*
Now, to be sure. Detweiler would have covered his financial tracks. BUT! None of the other "persons of interest" even remotely, have the depth of pockets needed to feed this hidden entity. BUT AGAIN! Where are the Detweilers who were known to also dabble in the black arts? They were the number one name in the old days, when the feud originally began between Leonard and Beowulf.
That makes three, three filters that ONI inexperienced cthia has come up with. I'm certain Pat Givens would use many more different types of filters to reduce the playing field. (I could state what some of those might be, but then I'll have to kill some of you, since rank hath its privileges. LOL)
*We've seen glimpses of these computers on tv...
"Now cross-reference X with XY."
"That's a hit sir! That narrows down the possibilities to simply 4 outfits. Two of them are ours."