The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2577 by Angharad Copyright© 2015 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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I told the others I needed to check the dormice but inveigled Trish to come with me; as she was only plotting to fire some cruise missiles at Russia, she acquiesced to accompany me to the university.

Delia had the day off and we had no students in today which was one reason I was there. Going down to the lab in which our unfortunate technician met a violent end she poked about asking awkward questions.

“Is this where he was killed, Mummy?”

“You know it was.”

“Just checking. How was he lying?”

“Trish, you’re beginning to sound like a boy...” I played the nastiest card in the pack and she went a little pale and very quiet. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.” I wrapped my arm round her.

“I only wanted to help,” she said sniffing.

“I know you do, and in a moment I want you to do just that. Seeing the body wouldn’t have done anything but give you nightmares, instead I want your help with this.” I switched on the computer the technicians use.

“Won’t the police have checked it?”

“Almost certainly.”

“So it’s a waste of time then.”

“Not necessarily, they might have missed something that you can find.”

“I can try, Mummy.” Her face lit up immediately and I stood back and let her try her hand with the computer. She found all sorts of things over the next hour, from orders for equipment and chemicals to internal emails. I was sitting next to her doing some work on my laptop when she got off her seat and stamped her foot.

“What’s the problem?”

“There’s something here but I can’t get into it, it’s like double encrypted.”

“It’s not a Trojan or other virus, is it?” See I know about computers.

“How do I know? I can’t friggin’ open it.”

“Language please, young lady.”

“Well you told me I was acting like a boy earlier.”

“I did apologise, so that’s it then we’re stumped.”

“Not yet,” I watched as her small nimble fingers danced over the keypad, she sent off an email. A minute later she did something else and I watched the cursor moving about the screen yet she was sitting back from the computer.

“How are you doing that?” I asked.

“Doing what, Mummy,” she replied pretending to be more angelic than usual.

“That,” I pointed at the screen where not only was the cursor moving but other things were happening as well.

“Oh that?”

“Yes,” I glowered at her which made her laugh.

“I’m not.” She gave me a beatific smile which made me recognise the coup de grace was coming.

“Well who is then?”

“Sammi.”

“What—our Sammi?”

“Who else?” Game set and match to Trish.

“How is she doing that?”

“I let her. She asked to do things remotely and I said yes.”

“Isn’t that going to show if they examine the computer again?”

“I doubt it, besides we’re using Mr Black’s passwords.”

“They still on there?”

“Yes, I got into that in a few minutes and he used the same one for everything, unlike you an’ me, Mummy. You don’t do you?”

“’Course not,” I replied blushing.

“You sure, you were yesterday.” She smiled so sweetly I nearly got diabetes looking at her. “Most people do, Gramps, only has one for everything.”

“You don’t hack into his accounts do you?”

“Nah, not any more, his and yours are too easy, so we put up a supadupa firewall to keep you safe,” she said absently. “Ooh, she’s nearly there.”

Some sort of countdown thing was displayed alongside which some other bar was showing numbers and figures flashing in very rapid fashion. “What is she doing?”

“She’s got a special de-crypter programme, it’ll get into anything pretty well.”

“Where did she get that?”

“She wrote it.”

“She invented a programme to open encrypted ones?”

“Yes,” she sighed as if I were some old lady asking her the same question for the tenth time in as many minutes, “It’s what she does for a living.”

“I thought she ran the bank’s cyber security?”

“Yeah, what d’you think that is all about?”

“I hadn’t thought about it really.”

“Duh, like that’s pretty obvious—look out, she’s in.”

This time the screen filled with text and it scrolled through very quickly. It was pure gobbledygook, and in the top right hand corner a small box was posting letters, which were equally nonsensical.

Once the major text finished, the little box which had accumulated six inches of nonsense began to scroll quickly and this time the letters appeared at the bottom of the screen. This time I could read them.

“Print it off, sweetheart.” I asked Trish while my heart beat rapidly. No wonder the police missed it, Mr Black, if that was his name wasn’t working for some loony religious group he was working for the Russian secret service.

I called Jim, he was still at the house feeling sleepy. “I’ve got a feeling I know who stabbed you.”

“Who?” he asked yawning.

“Ever heard of the FSB?”

“Did I hear that correctly?”

“From your reaction, I suspect so.”

“Russians—well bugger me.”

“I thought you were trying to give it up.”

“Ha ha, very funny.”

“So what do we do?”

“Where are you?”

I told him and I could hear him walking to his car as we spoke. He arrived fifteen minutes later.

“How did you get into this?” he asked, “This sort of stuff is so tricky, they have special decrypters for this sort of stuff.How did you find it, it’s usually invisible on the computer?”

“Trish found it.” She was blushing and beaming at the same time.

“Clever girl, you didn’t open it as well, did you?”

“No, Sammi did.”

“Your Sammi?”

“Yes, she does it all the time for the bank.”

“Sorry, Cathy, but we’ve got to tell the authorities.”

“I had a feeling you were going to say that. What did he do with all that money?”

“I don’t know but it might explain why your auditor chappie died, if he discovered it.”

“Why this university?”

“Because it’s relatively small, and they had you as a cover story.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, if he was rumbled he’d claim to be working for some crazy right wing church group—Texas is full of them. He’d probably be doing a bit of snooping on you as well and if he found anything, he’d send it back to them to be held for future use. But it looks as if your vice chancellor was going to do very well out of it, unlike the bank, who’d be accused of money laundering, except they couldn’t get into the bank’s computer system.”

“Sammi, that’s why,” said Trish. “She’s brill on computers.”

“So who killed him? Obviously not the Russians.”

“Unlikely, MI5 perhaps, or another agency.”

“The bank wouldn’t have taken in a huge amount of money, would it?”

“It might have done from the university, research sponsorship and so forth and then changed the name of the deposit by hacking, except they couldn’t do it.”

“Better call the men from the ministry and do your duty.”

He shrugged and began to dial.