To be sure that the people who worked for him had not been compromised by the cops, Ross made his closest advisers adopt a question-and-answer system that only those two people would know. So if he asked one of his employees, “How’s the weather?” the employee would have to reply with the exact phrase: “Boy, is it cold here in the Bahamas.” If the employee said something else, like “Oh, fine, how is it with you?” Ross would know something was amiss and could immediately shut down their account. Each employee had their own question and answer. “[If I say] can you recommend a good book?” Ross wrote to another underling, “you reply, ‘Anything by Rothbard.’”