"It's a key," Parker explains, "so all you have to do when you want to log into one of Hardison's systems, or any system he's got control of, is plug it in to whatever you've got and then let it do the talking to assure him that you're okay."

Eliot held the small device in his hands, genuinely touched for a moment about the trust that the little thing held in its silicon, before his brain caught up to the situation.

"If Parker can explain it to me, that means she's gotten hers long before I—Dammit, Hardison!"