ACV's 1 Operation Black Gold (49 page)

Davie peeked out from behind his hands.  I knew that look; I was going to get it tight later on.  ‘There is one more piece of equipment you might be interested in Sir.’  Davie unpacked our X-Ray machine.  ‘It’s an ultra sound scanner but this lot have dubbed it to X-Ray machine.’  Grigor kindly lent his leg again so Davie could demonstrate how it worked.

He was puzzled.  ‘I don’t understand how this works; shouldn’t the scanner be in contact with the skin?’

‘Why?’  Me again.

‘Well eh, that’s how they work isn’t it?’

‘Is it?’  He looked to Davie for support but got none.  ‘Don’t you think that would make it a wee bit awkward to operate?’

‘It is, does, yes.’

I tapped my foot impatiently.  He looked to Davie again who just shook his head.  ‘You’ll have to ask him how he did it I’m afraid, I still don’t understand.’

‘So, how did you get it to work?’

I took a deep breath.  ‘In layman’s terms?’

‘Yes please.’

‘Ultra sound works in the same way as radar, it sends out a signal that is bounced back to a receiver, correct?’

‘That’s a fairly good description, yes.’

‘To get the same picture quality as you would with it placed against the skin, what do you think you have to do?’

‘Ah, um, increase the output.’

‘No, no, no, all you would end up with is a picture of the nails in the floor.  No all you have to do is increase the diameter of the unit’s collector or radar dish if you prefer.  To aid that we place a reflective blanket under what we want to X-Ray and the framework keeps the shuttle at the optimum height for collection of the sound waves.’

He seemed quite pleased with himself.  ‘Yes I followed that.’

‘There you go then.’

‘That’s it?’

‘Aye, more or less.’

‘But…’

Davie was grinning now.

‘But what?’

‘Well we have a thing about that size to interpret the pictures.’  He indicated something the size of a video.

‘So!’

‘Well it’s obvious, you don’t.’

‘Don’t need it.’

‘No?’

‘No.’

‘Eh, why not?’

I was tapping my foot now with impatience.  ‘All right, it’s fairly simple, the information collected by your radar dish is sent down the line in a data stream, binary.  The big black box converts it into a picture basically, that you can watch.  Yes.’

‘Yes I think so.’

‘Well all I’ve done is write a computer programme that can do the same job.  All you need for that is a disc reader writer and a few chips to process the information and bobs your uncle.’

‘Indeed.’

‘Yip.’

‘So you wrote a programme that replaces the black box?’

‘Well sort of, basically yes.’

‘Basically?’

‘For god sake, I found a programme that held the whole human physiology and stole it.  I then married the data streams to the ones on the programme so it knew what to print onto the screen when it was given the relevant information.’

‘Show him Jim.’

‘Awa n fuck.’

‘No, please this is fascinating.’

‘OK but quickly.’  I took him through to the office taking the disc with me.  I fired up the computer tapped a few buttons and binary flashed onto the screen.  ‘Do you see these numbers here spread across the screen?  Do you see how they’re all the same?’

‘Umm yes.’

‘Follow them down.’  I scrolled the screen until a solid wall of numbers appeared.  ‘Do you see how they break through this layer of numbers here to this point here; do you know what they are?’

‘No.’

‘Take a stab in the dark.’

‘I honestly haven’t got the foggiest.’

‘They are hair follicles, once I realised that I had a good starting point.  This solid line of numbers here is the surface of the skin.’  I scrolled down the screen pointing out the different numbers that indicated a change in the density between the different layers of flesh.  Once I recognise a stream of binary I marry it to a picture of what it represents and it prints up that picture but within the dimensions of the binary stream; that was the hard bit.’

‘The hard bit!’

‘Aye.’  I looked up from the screen but I had lost him, it was obvious by the blank look on his face.  I cancelled the screen and put the picture of Grigor’s leg back up.  ‘At the end of the day this is the result.  I’ve dubbed this X-Ray format because that’s the way Davie likes it, but you can also have it in diagram format.’  I pushed a button and the leg appeared whole.  I peeled off the skin to reveal the muscle underneath.  ‘The disadvantages of this format are immediately apparent, you can’t see the damage that’s been done, you really have to hunt for it although it does have one redeeming factor.’  I peeled away the layers of muscles until I found one that was badly damaged and wasted, cleared the screen and brought it up by itself.  I rolled it round, zoomed in and out, cut it in half so he could see the inside that sort of stuff.  I looked up from the screen again to find his jaw damn near onto his chest.

‘Is this an accurate representation of the muscle inside and out?’

‘Wouldn’t be much use if it wizná.’

‘What else can this do?’

‘Nothing really.’

‘Shite, show him that clear thing ye did Jim.’  Buff butted in, he had been hiding in the office drinking tea.

‘What clear thing?’  Davie was onto me like a shot.

I scowled at Buff.  ‘This clear thing.’  I pushed a few buttons; all that was left of the leg was the artery and main veins.  Another push of the button and it pulsed with life.  Both men’s jaws had dropped.

‘You never showed me that,’ he accused.

‘Aye well I forgot.’

‘You forgot?’

‘I only found the data stream the other day there,’ I addressed the General.  ‘He treats this thing like a bairn.  Won’t let anybody near it unless he’s there, I’ve had to nick shotties when he’s away shagging.’

‘This is amazing, can you do this on the unit itself.’

‘No its set up to display it in X-Ray fashion only.  It really just records the data.’

‘Could you make it do It.?’

‘Aye, all you’d really have to do is add a keyboard and a few processing chips.  Our real problem is power.  It can only run for about half an hour before the battery needs recharging.  Ali’s working on a mains connector now and a unit we can fix the new radio batteries to, there will always be plenty of those kicking around but they’re not in general issue yet and they won’t let us keep them for more than a few days.’

‘You’ll get them by the end of the day and keep them as long as you need.’

‘Oh right, that’s great, thank you.  In that case I’ll phone the company and give them the new specs.’

‘When do you think they’ll go into production?’

‘Production, I don’t know, there was only supposed to be one unit for us and I haven’t finished writing the software for it yet.’

‘What are its limitations?’

‘There are none, the problem’s recognising the data stream.’

‘Could you make it diagnose certain physical ailments?’

‘I could if I knew what the hell I was doing but I’m not a doctor.  The results you see here is input from Davie or just me mucking about, thinking he might need it, apart from this the well’s dry gentlemen.  I was hoping to get a little time on it next week when this lot are away.’

‘I’m free all next week; could you do with a hand?’  The general offered.

I shrugged, ‘if you want.’

‘Good, I’ll rack my brains during the weekend and see what I can come up with; I’ll meet you here first thing Monday morning.’

I opened my mouth to say something but the words didn’t come out so I closed it with the feeling I’d just been duped.  The General seemed well chuffed; he certainly had a gleam in his eye.

‘I have a machine in the hospital that cost two million pounds and fills a whole room that doesn’t come up to the quality of this.’

‘So!’  I humphed.

‘Ignore him sir, he’s just a little miffed over the development costs.’

‘Oh, of course, I never thought, how much has it cost so far?’

‘I’m not sure, Jim?’

‘About thirty to forty grand.’

‘That isn’t too bad.’

I raised an eyebrow.  ‘The company aren’t paying the development fees, I am.’

‘You are?’

‘Hey dinna let him off wee the two million Jim,’ Buff laughed.  This was the one that stuck in my craw.

‘What was two million?’

Davie looked a little embarrassed.  ‘Before the company would undertake the development of our products, Jim had to invest rather heavily in them.’

‘You had two million?’

‘Had,’ Buff laughed.

‘I had no idea.  I believe I owe all of you an apology.  I had no understanding of what you men were capable of.’

‘Is that why you restricted our budget?’  I could see the regret in his eyes.

‘To be quite frank, yes, I considered the whole thing a waste of resources.  I am sorry.’

‘Accepted.’

‘Thank you.’

We followed him back through to the store.  ‘With the equipment you have here you could quite easily turn a number of ambulances into emergency mobile surgical units.  Would I be able to get a hold of some of this equipment myself?’

‘Aye, I should think so; I’ll put you in touch with the company we deal with.’

‘Thank you, now what are we going to do about your friend?’

I was left out of this one but I stood by while they discussed it.  I didn’t have a bloody clue what they were on about.  Eventually they put it to Grigor.  It basically entailed a number of operations on his leg, then a lot of physiotherapy.  However, Grigor wasn’t having any of it, ‘I cannot stay here for months.  I must be at home to collect my pension; half the money keeps my son at university.  It is impossible.’

‘How long does he still have to do?’  Davie inquired.

‘Two years, I think.’

‘Can he collect it if you’re dead?’

‘No.’

‘Then he’ll never finish university Grigor, because you’ll be dead in six months.’  The General agreed with Davies’s diagnosis and that was that.  I always forgot to ask if they were having him on.  Buff offered to pay the son’s fees.  It took a lot of arguing for him to agree and he did so only on the understanding that he would pay the money back in full.  Buff not only paid up his university fees, but Ali added a little spending money.  So that settled that.

I waited until things had quietened down before checking on our little friend.  She had written a whopper of a story, front-page stuff too.  I decided to do a little fixing, when I was finished, I checked her memos and E-mail.  ‘Oh very nice,’ I told the computer.

CHAPTER 51

It’s amazing the life a dark alley can see in two long damp hours.  I’d been lying in wait between two large wheelie bins, by the time she swung round the corner singing softly to herself, my nerves were at snapping point.  I almost sighed with relief she was on her own.  As she rummaged in her handbag for the door keys, I slipped up behind her.  I clapped a hand over her mouth and the knife along her cheek.  She dropped the keys.  I caught them with my foot and flicked them farther into the darkness; I followed pushing her into a recess where her lighter clothes were obscured from casual observation.

I turned her round.  ‘Hello Gail, remember me.’  She opened her mouth to scream so I took her by the throat and hoisted her up the wall.  She thrashed noiselessly in my hand as I fought the black rage that engulfed me.  Her struggles began to weaken so I pinned her to the wall with my lower body and replaced my hand with the back of the knife.  The edge was far too sharp to fuck about with.

‘Gasp quietly,’ I commanded her and she responded.  I waited until her eyes swam back into focus.  ‘I read your story, it was really rather good.’

‘Ho--, How?’  She croaked.

‘Shhh,’ I chided gently.  ‘You did miss a bit out though, you want to hear it.’  Her eyes widened a little.  ‘It was the bit about how I murdered the wounded with a machine gun, or didn’t you know?’  She rocked her head from side to side tentatively.  ‘Pity, I think it would have made a better headline.’  I was stuck now; I’ve never threatened or hurt a woman in my life and found myself at a loss as to what to do next.  I ran the knife along her cheeks, to give myself time to think.  As it passed over her lips, her knees jerked up in a nervous action.  I caught the left one neatly with an elbow.  ‘Kinky bitch, eh.’  The heat of her groin came into direct contact with mine.  She squirmed in panic.  Whether it was that, that galvanized me or the smell of her fear, I don’t know; but the force of my reaction to her shocked me and then the devil took hold of my soul.

I ran my erection up and down her gusset.  Her weak struggles darkened my mind.  ‘Like this do you, fancy a piece before you die?  Oh god you’re hot.’  The buttons on her blouse gave way easily to the ministrations of the knife.  She moaned in terror as I cut through her bra, the loose leg jerking up and down with a life of its own.  I revealed a small but perfectly formed breast; the nipple became erect as the cold metal kissed it.  ‘Remember the crows?’  I whispered into her ear.

‘Nooo…’  She croaked.

I stood back as a little sanity was restored and let her crash heavily to the cold wet slabs.  I pulled her head back brutally.  ‘No, I think I’ll have a blow job first.’  I opened my zip and let him out into the clod night air.  He was large, angry and swollen.

Her eyes shone in terror.  ‘Please nooo.’

‘Too late you should have thought of that before you decided to fuck with us, but now I’m going to fuck you.  Before I do, you’re going to give me the best blowjob of my life.  Bite me and I’ll slit your throat right here and now.  Come on baby, take him.’  I ran the length of him along her cheek.  ‘Who knows, if you’re really good, I might even let you live.’  The wet tip ran across her lips and her whole body convulsed.  ‘Open wide.’  Her lips began to part and a great surge of triumph swept through me.  As the moist heat from her mouth engulfed the head of my penis, I shoved her brutally away.

I returned the knife to its sheath and zipped myself up.  Crouching down beside the sobbing woman, I pulled her up into a sitting position.  ‘Congratulations, you’re a first; I’ve never laid so much as a finger on a woman before.  Want to know something, I enjoyed it so much I want to kill you right now, but that would spoil your big surprise tomorrow and we can’t have that can we.’  I stroked her face gently, brushing away the tears and running my fingers over the bruising on her neck.  She shuddered at my touch.

‘Everyman, jack of us has worked hard to repay to society our deeds of that day, all you have to do is look, it’s all there.  We’re now a medical unit dedicated to saving lives and we’ll be needed very, very soon.  In a few weeks’ time, you’ll have so much to report you’ll forget we even existed, but just in case you don’t and you decide you want to mess with us again, I’ll make you a solemn promise, I’m going to find you and kill you.  But before I do that I’m going to have a good try at fucking you to death first, do you understand.’  The ruthless tone in my voice left her in no doubt.  She nodded, her eyes clenched tight.  I stood to leave.  ‘Good, it would be a shame to waste such a sweet bit of meat.’  She collapsed back onto the wet slabs sobbing.  ‘Oh, if you don’t want to choke to death in your sleep tonight, crush some ice into a tea towel and wrap it around that scrawny neck of yours.’  I vaulted easily over the wall and away, leaving her lying in the filth of the dark alley sobbing.

*

She saw his feet turn away and waited for him to attack again.  Her terror built and she wanted to scream.  It turned to a sob as she choked it back frightened to spark another attack.  She didn’t know how long she’d waited there before she gained the courage to look up, but he was gone.  How, where, he had to step over her to leave the alley but hadn’t.

She looked around in panic but he wasn’t there either.  She struggled to her feet picking up her bag and began to slide herself along the wall almost fainting when she stood on her keys.  Picking them up with a sob, she carried on scraping herself painfully along the dirty wall.  A wave of panic caused her to look the other way then back again, nothing.  The terror built as realisation dawned, she wouldn’t see or hear him, he moved like a cat and was twice as deadly.  Was she the mouse, was he playing with her now, would he pounce from the darkness and snap her neck when she was moments away from safety.

For the first time in her life, she found herself praying for a man to protect her.  Finding the right key by touch, she launched herself across the chasm from danger into safety.  Gail hurried up to her flat slamming the door behind her and fell to the floor sobbing.  A wave of panic hit, she scrambled to her feet checking all the windows, they were secure then dead bolted the door but what if he was already in.  She had to check all the closets and wardrobe before she finally felt safe.

Her soiled clothing, including the ruined bra, she slung in the bin.  Slipping on a dressing gown her aching throat led her to the fridge where surprisingly she crushed ice into a tea towel and wrapped it around her throat.  Collapsing onto the couch with a soft towel under her head, she slipped into a fitful sleep.

*

I couldn’t believe what I’d just done.  I cornered Buff when I got back and confessed all.

‘Fucking hell Jim, that wiz a bit overboard.  We said scare her not rape and kill her.’

‘I ken, I ken.’

‘Is she a right?’

‘Aye, I think so.’

‘Fit came over ye?’

‘I have no idea; bit that’s not the worst of it, I want to go back and finish it right now.’

‘Ye canná d´ that man.’

‘Aye, I ken.’

‘It must be the stress your under.’

‘Fit stress, I haven’t felt so alive in years.’

A slow grin filled his face.  ‘Aye well I ken that feeling.  What are you going to do if the police arrive?’

‘Fuck knows.

‘Fancy a beer?’

‘Aye, it might be a long time afore I taste another.’

*

It came at her again, enormous and swollen.  Its heady scent filled her nasal cavities as she opened her mouth to take in its glistening head.  ‘Yes.’

‘Nooo…’  She bolted upright out of her sleep.  ‘Noo.’  She groaned, lying back onto the damp towel.  ‘You’re not doing this to me you bastard.’  Gail had always been fairly sexless, wondering what all the fuss was about.  She’d taken a few boyfriends in her time but more for show than sex.  After the last one had started out calling her a dead fish in bed, she hadn’t bothered looking for another, her job giving her all the stimulation she needed.

Her nipple ached where he’d touched it with the knife, maybe he’d cut her.  Gentle fingers searched the area tentatively.  As she touched the erect nipple, a cry of surprise escaped her lips at the sensations that filtered down to her lower body.  There was no cut or bruise.  Squeezing it hard to try and kill the feelings only made them worse.

‘Oh god what are you doing to me.’  Her hand moved off her nipple and down across her belly slipping it under the elastic of her panties.  For a moment it rested on her pubic bone, but she had to know.  Opening her leg to admit her probing fingers she cried out in shock at her own wetness.  She lay still, too frightened to move or even breathe.  She bit her lip and tasted him.  It tipped her over the edge.  Her fingers twitched delving into the wetness, then again and again and again.  Even bursting into a flood of tears couldn’t stop her frantic fingers.

Her eyes opened to the urgent ringing of a phone, papers flew as she grabbed for it.  ‘Gail, get your arse in here.’  The connection was cut before she could reply.  Her whole body felt battered but a hot shower began to ease it.  Looking over her naked body in a full-length mirror, she could detect no sign of the evening’s assault, apart from the bruising around her throat.  She touched it gently and gasped in surprise as the pain made her nipple stiffen.

She went straight to the editor’s office.  ‘Have you seen the paper yet?’

‘No,’ she croaked.

‘Then you’d better take this.’

She sat down and opened it, then looked up frowning.  ‘Where’s my story?’

‘Don’t know yet, we can’t find it anywhere.  That’s our original front.  We think it’s some glitch in the computer we’re checking now.’

‘I wouldn’t want to spoil your surprise.’  His words ran through her mind, could he have possibly have meant this.

‘Are you alright?’

‘Yes.’  She touched the silk scarf at her throat.  ‘Just a touch of laryngitis.’

‘Have you been to a doctor?’

‘Not yet, I’ll make an appointment later.’

‘OK.’

There was a lot of shouting coming from the sub-editor’s office.  ‘Of course I got the memo.  Of course I bloody checked, it wasn’t there and then I got this one from you.’

‘I didn’t send you another memo.’

‘Then who the fuck did?’

‘I don’t fucking know.’

‘Excuse me Gail; I’d better go calm this down before I lose some good men.’  He came back a few minutes later with both angry men, seeing her calmed them both a little.

A reporter burst in. ‘Ed, I think you’d better come see this, oh hi Gail, you’d better come too.’  They all followed him back to his workstation.  He peeked up at Gail.  ‘I’m trying to recreate your story from your notes watch this.’  After a couple of sentences the screen went blank, then the picture of a syringe appeared with virus written across it.  A small child in combats appeared carrying a ladder.  It placed the ladder against the plunger and started to climb.  A message appeared underneath.  ‘If you don’t want your system to crash for good then you’d better switch this off.’  The reporter did so quickly and looked up for guidance.

Four hours later a very worried looking systems analyst walked into the editors office.  ‘Please sit down.’  He did so eyeing those that had gathered.  ‘Can you help us?’

‘We’ve checked every system and every programme you’ve got half a dozen times, we can’t find it.’

‘It must be there somewhere.’

‘Oh it’s there alright, but nowhere I can get at it.’

‘Explain.’

‘There is only one explanation; the bug has been planted in the main programme itself.’

‘I thought that was tamper proof?’

‘It is, well it is to mere mortals like myself.  There’s only one man who could have done this.’

‘Who?’

‘The man who wrote it.’

‘Someone who works at Microtel?’

He shook his head while scratching his chin.  ‘No, I don’t think so, last I heard they were still looking for him.’

‘For who?’

The analyst took a deep breath and launched into one of the computer industry’s biggest mysteries.  ‘The word was,’ he concluded, ‘that he was killed, his programmes stolen and any trace of his existence eradicated.’

‘Until now?’

He shrugged.  ‘I don’t know, what I do know is if someone’s cracked the coding they’re going to be worth millions.’

That brought Gail’s head up.  ‘They’re all worth millions,’ she croaked.

‘Everyone?’  Asked the sub editor.

‘Yes.’

‘All who?’  Now it was the analyst’s turn to listen to a story.  ‘That’s a wild bunch you’re dealing with.’

‘With more tricks up their sleeve than I could have dreamed, so what can we do about it?’

‘Well you could keep on looking for an add on programme hidden in the system, or.’  He paused for thought.

‘Or what?’