Corner the small enemy. Strip away its options, and there is nowhere left to run.
— The 36 Stratagems, Close the Door to Catch the Thief
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@xulingfeng, "And we are the trust store." That's the whole story in five words.
An engine that skips pinning and falls back to the system trust store is fully readable the moment it runs on someone else's ground. Most teams never think about it until they're standing in an auditor's sandbox, and by then the handshake's already in the logs.
Torres's defence. Preprocessing anomaly filtering really is standard practice, which is exactly what makes it such good cover. It holds up right until someone checks which samples got dropped. "Coincidence doesn't pick one side" is the line that brilliantly closes the door.
Also enjoyed that Alex just left his probe running. No conclusion, no action, a lamp nobody watches. That's how it usually goes in real life.
Glad the rhythm came back for this one. Enjoy the game therapy, and no rush on #23.
@ndcodes So glad you brought up Alex — and that "lamp nobody watches" image was spot on. Funny thing: Alex wasn't in the original draft of #22 at all. But every time I reread it, I felt like he had to be there, haha. Maybe he was whispering in my head: "I don't talk much — but you can still give me some quiet scenes." Also, just put down my game controller, and your comment was the first thing I saw. Made my day. 😄
That goes both ways. Reading this after a long day was a good way to end mine too.
Enjoy the rest of the break, and say hi to Alex for me. 😄
Will do. Alex says hi back. 👋😄
I really want to read your post, but it's already 12 AM and I still have 3 hours of work left. Oh God! 😭 I'm already missing your post. Hopefully, as soon as I finish my work, it'll be the first thing I read.
No rush at all — work comes first. The articles will still be here, and so will I.
@xulingfeng, things are really starting to connect now 😄 I remember Apex and the Singapore connection coming up earlier, so seeing those threads come together here was interesting. And Torres going from being caught to sending that “Run” message definitely makes me curious about what’s actually behind all of this. Looking forward to #23!
@hemapriya_kanagala Haha, you're reading every single one so you catch these little threads — that honestly makes my day.😄
As for #23... the characters are still fighting in my head, and I'm trying to figure out who gets to walk out first. Fourteen stratagems to go, and all the threads from the first half will be wrapping up one by one — but right now I've only got a vague outline, and unlike the first half, I don't have a stack of finished drafts waiting. I just have to wait for them to finish fighting and come out.
Let me chew on it a bit more.😂 See you at the next one.
Writing #22 finally felt like the old rhythm was back — all thanks to those three days of torture on #21.🤣🤣🤣
Yeah #21 was an "investment" which paid off !
Haha, but now I'm back to suffering on #23. Need a breather — maybe a bit more gaming will help shift my mood. Game therapy!😂
Yeah sure, take a pause, then come back stronger later on - works well most of the time!
great story! I came out of the hibernation now.
Hibernation broken that's the best compliment this story could get. 🐻🤣
hahahaha :)
Nice one, an enjoyable read - this brought back memories from earlier episodes, with names like Torres and Caleb ...
Opponent well and truly cornered - what's the next episode gonna bring? :-)
Still working on the next one's setup. The protagonists are currently having a fight in my head about who gets the spotlight. 🤣