It was close to an hour after Tommy had settled into tinkering with a new computer he’d procured, if for no other reason than to take it apart and see if there was anything new in how it functioned, and Spence was squarely focused on her own tasks that Andy finally emerged from the obsession that had taken hold of him. But rather than greeting them as he so often had done in the past whenever he’d tuned out people who’d come to be more family than employees, he began to spit out orders in a manner that startled Spence and catapulted Tommy back to the days when he and his mates were being addressed by their ever-friendly sergeant major.
“Tommy, shelve whatever it is you’re working on and head up to Morpeth. Once there, you’re to find out all you can about the people who picked up the shipment of computers that were in the container Charlie Mills’ driver picked up in Antwerp.”
“Is there anything in particular I’m looking for, boss?”
Before he answered, Andy hesitated. Averting his eyes, he thought on the matter before meeting Tommy’s steady gaze. “Maybe nothing. But if I’m correct, you’ll know right off.”
Then, without waiting for a response or expanding upon his reply, he turned to Spence. “Pull up that program of yours that analyzes word use and writing styles on your secure computer and then run this through,” he ordered, even as he was tossing a flash drive across the room to her.
Suspecting Andy’s answer to her question as to what she was looking for would be no different than the one he’d given Tommy, Spence didn’t bother asking even as she reached up and caught the flash drive with an adroitness that impressed Tommy. She then set aside the project she’d been working on and spun about in her chair to access a computer that was not only isolated from the Internet but was shielded by a cabinet of Tommy’s own design intended to keep whatever was typed on it from being detected by another system. While it was not entirely bomb proof, anyone wishing to hack into it would, Tommy claimed, have to be damned determined, cleverer than him, and incredibly well equipped.
Having given both Spence and Tommy their marching orders, Andy glanced up at the wall clock across the room from his desk. After doing a quick time zone conversion, he wondered if it would be worth the effort to call New York now, before he had answers to the questions he had assigned the others to look into. Deciding it might be best if he waited at least until Spence had run a comparison of the files he’d passed over to her to see if there really was a match, he put off calling Susan G. It wouldn’t do to bother her until he had something more substantial than a hunch to discuss with her, he concluded. Having managed to make something of a fool of himself the last time he’d seen her, he had no intention of doing so again or, even worse, giving her the impression he was using a theory he was toying with as an excuse to contact her. As it was, things were already becoming far more complicated in his life, Andy reminded himself as he glanced over to where Karen Spencer was busily carrying out his orders.
3
Rather than wander about like a brash young Guards officer too proud to ask for directions, Andy stopped the first NCO he came across who looked as if he was switched on and asked where he could find Major Barrett Sanderson’s office. Much to his surprise, the staff corporal grinned. “Oh, I expect you’ll find the Sandman locked away in his dungeon.” When he saw the odd look on Andy’s face, the corporal stepped back, turned, and pointed back in the direction from which he’d come. “At the end of the corridor make a left, sir, go down two flights of stairs, and then follow the signs pointing to the R Signals computer lab.” With that, the corporal hurriedly saluted and headed off without feeling the need to waste any more time on a scruffy captain who’d somehow managed to escape being censured by his regimental sergeant major for stepping out looking more like a busker fresh from a night spent in a London station than an officer holding the Queen’s commission.
When he finally came upon a door marked with Major Sanderson’s name, Andy knocked. After waiting a minute without a reply, he knocked again with a bit more zeal. His second effort was rewarded with an answer. “It’s unlocked.”
Assuming this was an invitation to enter, Andy opened the door and did just that. Having taken the precaution of finding out exactly who Major Barrett Sanderson, Royal Signals, was, Andy was not at all surprised to see his office resembled a secondhand electronics shop. At the moment the only person in the room, whom Andy assumed was the major, sat with his back to the door at a table pushed up against the wall on the far side of the room. The balding officer appeared to be bent over a keyboard whilst staring intently at a computer screen.
Closing the door behind him, Andy stood just inside the room, patiently waiting for the major to finish up whatever he was working on and address him. When he didn’t, Andy cleared his throat. “You sent for me, sir?”
“If your name is Webb, yes, I did.”
Andy was left standing there, watching as Sanderson’s fingers flew across the keyboard of a computer nestled between a pair of other machines. In time the major stopped and leaned back in his armless swivel chair as he took to studying what he’d just typed. Only when he appeared to be satisfied with his labors and had hit a few more keys did he spin his chair about, wheel himself over to his desk, and pick up the computer component Andy recognized as the one he’d been given by the rogue storeman.
Resting his elbows on the desk before him, Sanderson held the device aloft in both hands as he stared at Andy with an intensity that was unnerving. “Do you know what this is, Captain?” Sanderson asked with a measured deliberation that reminded Andy of his former headmaster.
Not sure if he’d been had by the storeman and was about to receive a right proper bollocking for wasting a staff officer’s precious time, Andy paused uncertainly. “I was told it was the hard drive from a computer.”
“Oh, it’s much more than that,” Sanderson murmured. “So much more.” He waited a moment, allowing his cryptic comment to hang there between them. “Without bothering to hook it up to a compatible system and finding out for sure, I could pass it off as the complete works of William Shakespeare. Or it could hold the entire order of battle for the British Army of the Rhine and its subordinate commands’ assigned sectors along the Inner German Border.”
Not knowing what to say, Andy simply stood there, waiting for the major to continue.
Having concluded this odd little introduction to the strange world of computers where he appeared to be the undisputed lord and master, Sanderson set the hard drive down, eased back in his seat, and waved a hand at the only other chair in the room. “Have a seat, Captain. Would you care for some tea?”
With his curiosity piqued, Andy nodded his assent as he settled down, his innate caution causing him to shift the chair slightly so he could see both the major and the door he had entered by.
Coming to his feet, Sanderson walked over to a bench that stretched along the length of one wall. Plugging in the ubiquitous electric kettle nestled alongside half a dozen further computers, no two of which were alike, Sanderson returned to his desk where he once again took up the hard drive Andy had recovered from the storeman, made his way back to the table he’d been seated at when Andy had entered the room, and proceeded to attach it to a computer that had had its protective case removed. “Do you know what a hard drive is?” he asked as he was fiddling about.