Page 241 of The Texas Sterling Collection
“Next week will be interesting,” Rod sipped his martini and savored the smoothness of the Irish vodka. “If I were you, I would watch for early implementation. Ailbe may be crafty enough to throw a false deadline.”
“Good point, babe. He already hinted at that.”
“Really? In what way?”
“Remember this morning when Ailbe said he wants students to begin their lab work after they receive their graded projects? I will have everything graded by the end of the week, and students will enter the coding as I finish grading. He mentioned a trial run on the 28th, but I can see how he might also launch the program that day.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Wednesday morning, Wyl arrived at GMIT at 10:30.
Ailbe poked his head out as Wyl strolled down the hallway. “Wyl, got a minute?”
“Sure, Ailbe. What’s up?” Wyl followed Ailbe into his office.
“I have two projects I need you to grade. These projects are from the two murdered students. I’m having difficulty getting through them because of the circumstances.”
“Sure, Ailbe. I’ll be glad to.” Ailbe was good at lying, and Wyl thought he deserved an Academy Award.
“Good,” he handed the two projects to Wyl.
Wyl realized these two projects were his opportunity to throw a monkey wrench in Ailbe’s plans. Since Ailbe may not have looked at them, he could find a way to manipulate the code so that the final program would run but stop before completing.
“Do you know where in the overall project these will fall?” Wyl asked.
“Rafferty’s project is near the beginning. Moynihan’s project is at the very end. He was a brilliant student with a promising future ahead of him. It’s such a shame he died so young.”
Academy Award number two, Wyl thought. “That is good to know. Would you like me to input these when I finish looking them over?”
Wyl hoped Ailbe would buy into having a master like him enter the codes. It would be a guarantee of success, or in this case, failure. What better way to ensure a perfect end to Ailbe’s scheme than to have Wyl involved?
“That is an excellent idea, Wyl. Focus on those two projects today. They are both critical, so take your time.”
Wyl detected a slight smile on Ailbe’s face—thesmile of a doomed cyberterrorist.Wyl turned out of the office.
He spent the day working on the two critical pieces of the overall plan. Both students wrote flawless code with no detectable errors. Wyl sighed.Such brilliant young minds, silenced forever by a madman.He began entering the code, carefully inserting a small algorithm that would halt the process near the end and wait for specific operator input. The wrong input would abort the operation.
* * *
Thursday morning, Wyl arrived at the campus at 10:30. He tapped on Ailbe’s open office door. “Good morning, Ailbe. Is there anything you need me to do today?”
“Ah…Wyl. Good morning. I think we’ve got things in good shape. We've finished grading the last two projects you submitted yesterday. Students are entering their projects into the system. We will finish this week, with any luck, and I can do a trial run on Saturday.”
“Wow,” Wyl said. That’s much earlier than you planned, isn’t it?”
“Yes…But I thought the grading would take longer. I didn’t plan to have the assistance of the top cybersecurity expert worldwide.”
“I’m glad I could help. Why don’t I hang around the lab and be available to assist the students?”
“Good idea, Wyl. They will be honored to have your help.”
* * *
Garrett Burke picked up the phone and dialed Glenn Cross.
“Cross,” Glenn answered.
“Glenn, Garrett Burke here.”
