“Like I said, Dalton, I don’t like to think of myself as a snitch, but you were good enough to give me a job, and my devotion is to you and your brothers. I wouldn’t want anything to be going on with your family’s company that you don’t know about. Especially something that can affect it negatively.”
Dalton nodded. “That’s not being a snitch, Percy. That’s called being loyal, and I know my brothers and I appreciate you for it.”
“Thanks. I’m a newbie in the department, pretty much still in training. I don’t think anyone, even Mr. Castor, knows of my past association with you. Nor do they know of my intensive background in technology. I deliberately didn’t mention either. The former is because I didn’t want anyone saying the only reason I got the job is because of my connection to you...although that’s true. And the latter is because I don’t want anyone thinking I’m coming into the company with the attitude of a know-it-all. So basically, I’m learning what they are teaching me and moving on from there.”
Dalton knew John Castor was head of the IT department where Percy worked. He seemed like a likable guy who’d been with the company a good twelve years. He’d met Castor at several department-head meetings, and he always seemed alert, up-to-date on modern technology and on-point in making sure Granger’s computers and software were high-tech and state-of-the-art.
The waiter delivered their drinks. After he left, Dalton said, “I think that playing it safe is a smart strategy. The technology field can be pretty competitive.”
“I know. Anyway, Mr. Castor assigned me to look at a computer that had been brought in for repairs. The secretary said the keys were sticking and that when she typed one letter, another appeared.”
Percy paused a moment to sip his drink. “I know I was only supposed to check out the keyboard, but I became fascinated by the model of the computer as I’d never worked on one like that before. It was pretty high-tech—especially for simple word processing—and I wondered why the keys would be sticking on that particular model. In fact, it should have been installed with a slider program. With a slider, all you need is a light stroke for the keys to operate. Also, the slider has a memory function that retains memory of certain keystrokes. Follow me so far?”
Dalton nodded. “So far, yes.”
“That made me even more curious, so I checked out the hard drive to see whether the slider program had been installed, and I came across another program that was removed from laptops back in the nineties, because it was obsolete after the Y2K scare. So I wondered why this computer, a very new model, had it. It took me less than an hour to figure out the program actually was a type of filtering program that can erase data. I mean, wipe it out altogether. It can also transfer data from one computer to another from a remote device.”
Percy paused, and Dalton knew he was giving him time to absorb all he’d told him so far. He’d been a kid, but he remembered the Y2K scare, and the belief, at the time, that with the changeover to the new millennium, computers worldwide would cease functioning. That didn’t happen, of course, but that didn’t stop corporations and financial institutions from buying into the scare. The only ones to benefit from the scare were the computer programmers, technicians and virtually anyone who knew anything about computers.
What really concerned Dalton was the last part of what Percy had said. He believed some type of filtering program had been installed on that particular computer that could erase data. Hadn’t Bruce Townsend claimed that’s what happened to Brandy’s computer? That somehow it had been wiped clean?
“And you say it can be wiped clean from a remote location?”
“Yes. Without anyone ever detecting it. Sometimes it’s all but impossible to trace.”
Dalton leaned back in his seat. “Where is this particular computer now?”
“Back on the floor.”
“In what department?”