I'm surprised how many readers reject the premise outright. I thought the part 'this wasn't a credit card play, this wasn't a get info on every American play' was somewhat compelling. plus the part about looking into a handful of people with high security value?
there was a tremendous ATP episode about this exactly, maybe 6-9 months back. John's explanation of case sensitivity and file systems is a real gem, if anyone can remember the title
Hemingway's style is much more simple than Tolstoy - no doubt he would decry the flowery, unnecessary language of the KP partner. Can't speak for Faulkner but this guy is trying to emulate Dostoevsky