Hacker (11 page)

Sebastian emerged from their sitting room, a smile on his face. He rounded up Gib to show him a model of some airplane he had just finished working on.

We’d barely been in the house ten minutes when Aunt Beth announced that lunch was ready. It was roast-lamb kebabs, rice and salad, followed by strawberries and vanilla ice-cream. One of the things I liked about Aunt Beth was that she could cook!

Gib and I didn’t say much throughout lunch. Mum and Dad and Sebastian and Aunt Beth wittered on about boring grown-up things, the price of food, the price of clothes, the price of houses, the price of everything. I kept waiting for them to ask Dad what had happened in court yesterday – I wanted to know that bit myself – but nothing doing. I think it was another of those ‘not in front of the children’ jobs. Really annoying! They talked about the forthcoming baby for a while which was a bit more interesting but nothing I hadn’t already heard before.

‘Babies are so expensive,’ Aunt Beth said. Sebastian and Aunt Beth didn’t have any children of their own so I wondered what they would know about it.

‘I know,’ Mum shrugged. ‘But David and I have wanted another child for a long while. I just wish being pregnant didn’t make me so tired all the time.’

‘Have you got all the baby’s things yet?’ smiled Aunt Beth.

‘Not yet.’

‘You don’t want to wait. The prices of prams and babies’ clothes and toys go up pretty regularly.’

‘It’s a shame your salary at the bank doesn’t go up as fast.’ Sebastian smiled at Aunt Beth.

Aunt Beth smiled back, like there was no one else in the room with them. Sebastian reached out for Aunt Beth’s hand. They were making goo-goo eyes at each other. Gib turned to me and pulled a face. I totally agreed! How wet could you get!

‘If we’re in the way just say so and we’ll leave!’ Dad teased.

Sebastian laughed and let go of Aunt Beth’s hand. ‘Sorry.’

‘Don’t forget, David,’ Aunt Beth grinned, ‘Sebastian is my second husband. We haven’t been married as long as you two old fossils.’

‘Fossil! I beg your pardon,’ Mum said with mock indignation. ‘Speak for yourself, Beth. You’re older than me.’

‘Thanks for reminding me,’ Aunt Beth replied.

The grown-ups were off! I faded out for a few minutes, like turning down the volume on a television, until I heard Sebastian say, ‘It’ll get sorted out, David, just you wait and see.’

‘I can’t exactly do anything else.’ Dad smiled slightly to take the sting out of his voice.

I looked at Gib. I’d missed what had brought this conversation up in the first place. I’d ask Gib later.

‘I can’t help thinking that it’d probably all be sorted out by now if they’d only run my weekend checking program,’ Dad sighed. ‘But Nicola, the General Manager, refuses to see past the nose on her face.’

‘What do you mean, David?’ Mum asked.

I wanted to know that too.

‘My checking program runs on both the development and the live system. It reads through all the relevant program files on the development system and checks the transaction files on the live system for any strange anomalies,’ Dad began. ‘But Nicola reckons that I put a time trap in my program and that’s how the million pounds got into my bank account in the first place, so she’s ordered that none of my programs should be run until further notice.’

‘What’s a time trap, Dad?’ I asked.

They all looked at me as if they’d forgotten Gib and I were at the table.

‘It’s a piece of code you write to only work on a certain day at a certain time,’ Dad replied, before turning back to Sebastian and Aunt Beth. ‘Now I reckon that if she’d just let my checking programs run on both systems, there’d be a report on all those things on the systems that need further investigation. And in one of those reports might have been a pointer to the person who really put the money in my account. Do you remember, Beth, how I caught you out a few weeks ago.’

Aunt Beth laughed. ‘I sure do. I’d specified an end-of-month date incorrectly in one of my programs. I had input a date for last year instead of this year and the acceptance testers didn’t spot the mistake.’

‘But my program did,’ Dad said stonily.

Aunt Beth nodded.

‘Well, there’s no point going on about it,’ Dad sighed. ‘If they didn’t run it, they didn’t run it. I’ll just have to wait for my innocence to be proved another way.’

‘And it will, David.’ Mum smiled at Dad.

‘It’s a shame I’m on holiday for two weeks, David,’ Aunt Beth frowned, ‘otherwise I’m sure I could get Nicola to run your program. Mind you, as soon as I get back I’ll ask her. I’ve already asked Eric to make sure that all the transaction logs and system changes are copied onto back-up media while I’m away, so that I can analyse them when I get back.’

‘It’s very good of you, Beth,’ Dad said gratefully.

‘Nonsense.’

‘And if I can help in any way …’ Sebastian left the rest unsaid.

I glanced at Gib and coughed, nodding towards the door. Gib frowned at me and carried on eating. The dimwit didn’t get the hint at all. But I reckoned I was on to something.

I STOOD UP.

Mum asked, ‘Where are you going?’

‘The loo!’ I replied.

Mum and Dad exchanged a look and I walked to the door. I turned back to try and catch Gib’s eye, but he was deeply involved with his roast lamb. I ran upstairs to the bathroom. Another good thing about Aunt Beth’s house was that Gib and I could run everywhere and the sound would be muffled by their pile carpet so we never got bellowed at to ‘Walk, don’t run!’ They had the same mid-grey carpet throughout the entire house and it looked really good.

Once in the bathroom, I locked the door and leaned against it. I knew why that money had been put in Dad’s account. I was sure I was right. What had Dad said? Running his security program every Friday or Saturday was standard procedure? So the person who put that money in Dad’s account must have done it to make sure that Dad’s checking program didn’t run. Whoever it was must have known that with Dad accused of taking all that money, no way would his programs be allowed to run on the computer. The question was, why the need to stop Dad’s program from running in the first place? It must have been because the checking program would have revealed something. Something big. Something someone didn’t want revealed.

But what?

And that still didn’t tell me who was responsible for all this. But I was closer. I could feel it.

When Gib and I got home, we’d have to sit down and work through all those printouts we’d got from the bank’s live system. If they didn’t hold the answers then I’d just have to figure out what other files I should print out from the bank. The trouble was, each time I logged on to the bank’s computer, I knew I stood a greater chance of getting caught. This was getting more and more dangerous.

I left the bathroom and was about to go downstairs again when I noticed one of the bedroom doors was slightly open. Being naturally interested in everything around me (in other words – nosy!), I tiptoed into the room. It was full of bookcases crammed with books. Books covered the floor in neatly stacked piles. Against one wall was a PC, exactly the same as the one Universal Bank had given Dad – before they took it away again.

The room was lovely. Just the sort of room I wanted when I got my own house one day. I tiptoed out.

It’s all right for some, I thought enviously.

Soon Gib or I would be sharing our room with a new brother or sister. And here Aunt Beth and Sebastian could devote one whole room to nothing but books. I tiptoed past the bathroom to the back room. It had a small double bed in it and a dressing table and that was it. Closing the door, I crept to the main bedroom at the front of the house. Wincing as the door handle made a noise as I turned it, I stepped inside.

Wow! Talk about luxury! Aunt Beth and Sebastian had the biggest bed I’d ever seen. Fitted wardrobes with mirrored fronts stood against one whole wall and a dressing table like something out of a magazine stood to the right of the window. I walked over to it. It was brilliant! Dark red-brown wood, with lots of drawers and covered with lotions and potions and bottles and jars. In the middle of the table was an open jewellery box, the prettiest I’d ever seen. Not that there was much jewellery inside. In fact, there was just a delicate gold bracelet. It looked like if you sneezed on it, it would disintegrate. Aunt Beth seemed to like that kind of very simple jewellery.

‘Imagine having a box like this for just a pair of stud earrings, a necklace and a bracelet,’ I muttered to myself.

What a waste!

But then I caught sight of a slip of paper just sticking up from under the empty ring tray. I took a quick glance around before lifting up the tray and taking out the piece of paper. It was two pieces of paper actually. Two airline tickets to be precise. I opened the top one.

Destination: Rio de Janeiro via Air France. And the date on the ticket was for three days’ time – Wednesday.

Talk about being doubly all right for some! I flicked through both tickets then put them back and replaced the ring tray on top of them.

Then I caught sight of Aunt Beth’s perfume.

Chanel Number 19. Mum’s favourite. Only Mum wouldn’t even let me breathe near her bottle. I stretched out my hand towards it.

‘Vicky, what are you doing?’

My head whipped around at the sound of Sebastian’s voice.

‘I … er … I …’

‘Vicky? Victoria Gibson, what on earth are you doing in there? Couldn’t you find the bathroom?’ Mum appeared behind Sebastian and she looked seriously annoyed.

‘I wasn’t doing anything,’ I said quickly, my face on fire.

‘No harm done,’ Sebastian said lightly.

‘I … I just wanted to look around your house … ’cause it’s so pretty.’ My excuse was lame – even to my ears. But it was the truth.

‘Vicky, you should know better,’ Mum said, one hand on her hip. ‘You had no business going where you hadn’t been invited.’

‘I didn’t do any harm,’ I protested.

‘That’s not the point and you know it,’ Mum said.

‘What’s going on here?’

Dad, Gib and Aunt Beth had turned up now. I was desperately praying for the carpet to move aside to reveal a large hole that would swallow me up.

‘I wasn’t doing any harm, Dad, I promise,’ I said quickly as he opened his mouth to speak.

‘Victoria, what are you doing in here?’ Dad frowned. ‘I thought you said …’

‘It’s no big deal,’ Aunt Beth soothed. ‘If Sebastian and I don’t mind then why should anyone else? You were just looking around, Vicky, weren’t you?’

I nodded.

Sebastian’s eyes were laughing. He ran a hand over his wavy blond hair.

‘Dad, I didn’t take anything, honest I didn’t,’ I pleaded.

‘No one said you did,’ Dad replied firmly.

‘I just like their house. It’s so neat. I’ve never seen a house so neat and tidy …’ I couldn’t think of anything else to say so I shut up.

‘Come out of there, Victoria,’ Dad beckoned to me.

I walked out of the room, my head bent, and Sebastian closed the door behind me.

Once downstairs, the subject got on to holidays. Aunt Beth and Sebastian talked about their forth coming visit to Rio.

‘We’re only going for seven days. It’s all we could afford,’ Aunt Beth sighed.

‘But what a seven days, eh!’ Sebastian raised his eyebrows a few times in Aunt Beth’s direction.

We stayed for about another hour until Mum said she was getting tired. At last it was time to leave. I hadn’t said a single word since being found in Sebastian and Aunt Beth’s bedroom. I’d sat on the sofa, examining my shoes, the entire time. I wanted to crawl away and
die
. I’d never, ever been so embarrassed. I couldn’t leave their house fast enough. Gib kept giving me funny-peculiar looks. I swore if he started laughing I’d punch his face in!

‘Vicky,’ Mum said, once we reached home. ‘The next time you’re thinking about being nosy – don’t!’

‘I wasn’t …’ I began, but I couldn’t finish – because I was!

‘Right, you two. Off to your rooms to do your homework,’ Dad said.

‘Hang on. Dad, can I ask you a question?’ I said.

‘A homework question?’ Dad asked.

‘A bank question,’ I replied.

‘Vicky, I don’t think …’ Mum began.

‘It’s all right, Laura. Let her ask,’ interrupted Dad.

‘You said that at Universal, the development system and the live system are exactly the same,’ I began, choosing my words carefully.

‘Yes. So?’

‘So why isn’t the batch library file in the same directory on the live system as it is on the development system?’ I asked.

Dad shrugged. ‘Because you don’t need it on the live system. Only the linked files – the finished programs – get copied across to the live system, so you don’t need information on that system about when the object files were created and when each program was first written and suchlike. We just make sure the two systems are the same when it comes to running the programs.’

‘Oh, I see. Is it the people who test the programs who put the information about each program into the batch library file?’ I asked.

‘No, the acceptance testers don’t do that. There’s a program which automatically picks up the dates and times from all the other programs and adds their details to the batch library,’ Dad explained.