Psinapse Read online

  "Police are tonight looking for a man in connection with an arson attack on a downtown laboratory. So far there is thought to be only one fatality but firefighters are still at the scene and do not rule out the possibility of further casualties. In a statement released tonight, police said they had retrieved some security camera video footage and a discarded plastic petrol can which has been taken for forensics. The motive for the attack is unknown but believed to be related to redundancies made earlier yesterday."

  Karen was taken aback by the very mention of security camera footage as she never knew of the cameras' existence and she was sure to feature on the recordings. But they said they were looking for a man? Could they have mistaken her?

  It was pitch black and unless the cameras were equipped with infra-red night-vision, there would have been little to see. Surely the police would have visited her by now if they did not already suspect somebody else? Perhaps a co-worker from Psi? It wasn't her, so the video cameras could hardly incriminate her as the arsonist, just as a thief, if they recognised her at all.

  But there was a fatality due directly to the fire; surely there could be nobody genuinely at Psi at that time of night who may have become trapped in the fire by accident - she hadn't seen anyone there.

  Whoever it was must have arrived after her, but before the fire started. Perhaps the arsonist had become trapped himself, but then why would the police still be looking for him? If it wasn't the arsonist who died in the fire, but a victim of a deliberate and premeditated murder then she could find herself in an even worse position than at first thought.

  The whole scenario was getting too complicated even for a logical programmer like Karen, versed as she was in the mental acrobatics involved in writing her algorithms. She had to think straight - logically and sequentially.

  It wasn't her, but it was someone with a grudge against Psi and possibly the, as yet, unknown victim and the police would have to be aware of this person's grudge.

  She was on the security tape, wearing riding leathers and helmet, and the perpetrator had to look sufficiently similar for the police to mistake her for him, whoever he eventually turned out to be.

  The only person she could think of who fitted these categories was her friend and completely unlikely arsonist, Dr. Eric Harvey.

  He was one of the few people at Psi who owned a motorcycle, a petrol-driven motorcycle. Apart from Karen herself, everyone else had Alcodrive or electric cars of one sort or another. Eric had always owned a bike for as long as she could remember. He did therefore own riding leathers, a crash helmet and presumably, petrol cans. His leathers were dark red and would probably appear black on the security video.

  He had also been made redundant along with Karen earlier yesterday and was certainly a reluctant participant in Psi's plans, even if he didn't complain quite as vociferously as Karen had done in the past.

  There had to be more. There was still nothing to make the police suspect Eric any more than Karen (apart from assuming an arsonist and possible murderer to usually be a man). If anything Karen seemed the more guilty of the two; yet she still had heard nothing from anyone.

  Perhaps Psi had been torched by someone else with a definite known hatred for them? It was rumoured that the PsiNapse tests hadn't been going well lately. It was perfectly possible that someone had been injured in some way through them and now strove for revenge. If this unknown person had a criminal background of some kind, the police may have been onto them instantly, never getting as far as suspecting either Karen or Eric.

  Yes, that had to be it. Eric wouldn't burn anything down. She had been there but the police couldn't tell from the tapes who it was and then figured it to be someone different altogether. Yes, that's what must have happened.

  She would ring Eric now, confirm his innocence, tell him about the fire if he didn't already know, get his backing for an alibi should she later need one and laugh about how Psi got what they deserved.

  She pulled the videophone over to her, turned the camera off (she didn't want Eric to see her in this scruffy state) and pressed instant redial.

  Two rings later, a stranger answered the phone.

  Karen slammed the handset back down.

  * * *

  Identification

  Following a restless night, prevented from sleeping as she had been by a combination of adrenaline and anxiety, Karen was still sitting before the television when dawn came and went. She slowly spooned soggy cornflakes into her mouth, tired eyes still closed belying the thought going on behind them.

  She was irritated with herself for not fully waking up sooner. Sitting bleary-eyed for hours in a semiconscious state had caused her to miss the fire on the news and it was going to be the best part of an hour before it was to be repeated. She consoled herself with the fact that it was unlikely there would have been any developments during the last few hours, so she had probably missed very little. Nevertheless, she justifiably felt she might not still be awake next time around.

  Slowly her thoughts began to blur again, wandering and intermingling with each other and the newsreader's words. Her consciousness waned until she was soon asleep once more.

  Twenty minutes passed before she was startled into awakening. A cold, wet sensation in her lap brought her round, followed by the tinkling sound of the spoon rattling around her bowl as she poured the milk onto herself. She awoke and put the bowl on the table while holding the uncomfortably wet part of her dressing gown away from her legs.

  Not long after, she returned from the bathroom, dressed and fully awake, just in time to catch the news she had been waiting for.

  "A fire caused extensive damage to a local research laboratory in the early hours of this morning. Police have identified one of the victims as Mr. Stephen Sedgwick, a forty-four year old divorcee. The badly-charred remains were identified from an ID smart card found nearby. Police believe Mr. Sedgwick's position as head of the recently-disbanded research and development department may be connected with his death."

  The photo of Sedgwick's inappropriately-grinning face was removed from the screen and replaced by a few dark and grainy frames from a closed-circuit television camera.

  "Police have released some CCTV footage salvaged from the security cameras at the Psi building and urge viewers to come forward if they think they know of the intruder's whereabouts. He is described as being around 43 years of age, stands 172-7 centimetres tall and weighs about 180lbs. He is also thought to wear glasses and is a known motorcycle enthusiast. If you have any information on his whereabouts call the number shown below..."

  Karen was initially relieved to see that although the police did have CCTV film of her, it was dark and unincriminating. Any evidence gained from it would be at best, inconclusive. She was slightly offended to find that the police thought she fitted their description of a middle-aged, 180lb man though.

  The relief soon became puzzlement again when she realised that the prime suspect was Eric and that the police were seemingly ignoring all other possibilities. It must have been the police that answered Eric's phone this morning, and as such, they must have made up the majority of their description from details found around his house. They never learned much from the film as somehow it was already apparent to them who the culprit was.

  But Eric couldn't have started the fire, could he? It was beginning to look more like he had.

  If the police were dead set on pinning the fire to Eric and Eric was completely innocent and unaware of this fact, then why are they still looking for him? It seems the police have already paid him a visit during the night and surely they would have found him at home.

  Karen wondered if she could expect a visit too? She was a known acquaintance, even if she was only an acquaintance. She would rather not be subjected to fierce scrutiny as her own alibi was somewhat lacking.

  There was also now a new angle she had to see this from; it seemed the fire was a cover for a murder rather than an arson as previously thought. Sedgwick had been killed in the fire
; possibly accidentally, but more probably deliberately.

  She had, like most people, quite a disliking for him and although she had been surprised to find he was dead, she was not shocked. She too had dreamed of killing him many a time and now someone had done her a favour.

  Karen decided that she should leave Eric to fight his own battles - if he had done the murder then he should get whatever he was due and there was nothing she could do for him. If he never did the murder then she couldn't interfere and risk putting herself in the same position. With her alibi she would surely be right up to her neck in it, and if the police did arrive she should lie about being home all night and attempt to leave the situation as it stood then.

  Lastly, she had just been made redundant. She had barely a week's money left and she was going to have to either find a new job - a difficult and lengthy option - or obtain money by slightly less legitimate methods.

  Sedgwick's sudden death had opened up an obvious avenue for her to pursue option B.

  Sedgwick was flash. He always lived beyond his means. He had an Alcodrive car, plenty of suits, gold jewellery, the works. It was therefore reasonable to expect him to have plenty of credit, and more precisely credit cards.

  Now he was known to be burned almost beyond recognition in the fire, and any credit cards either got burned with him or stolen by the perpetrator. That meant they would not have been reported stolen, certainly not yet.

  If she could find what cards he had and what numbers he had, she could use these numbers over the phone until they were reported stolen or the credit limit was reached. To do this would normally be a daunting task, but she did just steal one of the few trappers around these days and that should make the job considerably easier...

  A few minutes later, Karen was dialling up one of the main credit card companies in the country. She herself owned one of these cards and although she only had a meagre limit, she was hoping Sedgwick's card was good for a much higher figure.

  She dialled their enquiries computer via modem, to ask for her own expenditure details. She waited for the prompt to ask her card number and she "trapped" it with the red button on the trapper. This interrupted the program at the command it had reached, so she could see what answer the program was expecting.

  After a quick disassembly, she found that it was comparing input against her card number, 52120007 which was stored for comparison in a row of addresses beginning at a specific location. She wrote this memory location down on the notepad she kept by her computer and restarted the program.

  Access was granted and she glanced briefly over her grim financial figures before exiting.

  She then dialled again, identified herself as "SEDGWICK S." and again it prompted her for the card number. She "trapped" the program again, looked at the same address as before and there was Sedgwick's card number for the taking. This really was easy - no wonder trappers had been outlawed.

  She wrote down this number and restarted the program once more. When the prompt returned she entered Sedgwick's number, 86369702 and his statement of expenditure appeared. She was right to expect he had a higher credit limit - the list was full of transactions, but the last one was the most intriguing.

  The charge was made at 1:44am this morning - an hour after the fire.

  Realisation

  Karen was not entirely surprised by this strange transaction. It was highly likely that the arsonist would steal Sedgwick's cards as they would all be valid for at least a day or two. It was easy money.

  What seemed strange was the fact that the charge was for such a paltry amount. Admittedly, the thief would be a fool to draw attention to himself by buying a new car or something similarly expensive, but why take the same gamble over such small change? The fraudster was obviously not well versed at this. It wasn't really the sort of thing she would expect from Eric, but then she was beginning to wonder if Eric was quite what he had seemed.

  Anyway, the fact remained the card had been used recently. She hoped the card had been destroyed in the fire, but it apparently had not. This made the card too hot for her to use. There was no telling how clumsy this idiot might be with his dealings and she might well get caught up in his problems. It was all too risky for a card with little credit left on it.

  Nevertheless, it was handy to know the number should she become desperate...

  She had to expect that Sedgwick's other cards had gone the same way and that using those too would be a risky business. She had to move on to pastures new. Karen drew an asterisk by the number in the notepad to save confusion later.

  Karen was going to have to move into big time hacking.

  She had gained 'system manager' status before at school and Eric had shown her how to do it in their early days at Psi, but this would be her most ambitious hack yet.

  She suspected that Sedgwick, having not been exactly broken-hearted at Psi's collapse over the last few days, might, just might, have had a pay-off or was at least financially secure for the time being.

  One of the few things Karen did know about Sedgwick was that he couldn't stay married for more than a few years. He had been married several times before and it was a wonder to her that such a snake could ever find any wife, let alone keep one. It was also rumoured that he had moved house, miles away from his ex-wives in order to avoid paying maintenance and therefore his location stayed secret to them and his savings would have remained intact. If Sedgwick was financially secure as late as yesterday afternoon, then it would be reasonable to assume he had not had a chance to spend much and that it was still stored in some bank account somewhere.

  If Karen could only find this account, then surely with the trapper's help she would be able to get access to it. It was a long shot, but then she had just lost her job and she did suddenly have rather a lot of time on her hands.

  Deduction

  Firstly, there were five banks and eleven building societies in this city alone, all of whom Sedgwick could hold an account with. It was equally possible that Sedgwick may have opened his account with another society in another city when with one of his previous wives.

  Karen looked on the CableFax financial section and called up a table of interest rates and account types. The most popular building society had low interest for large savings and high interest for a cheque account. If as she expected, Sedgwick had a large amount of savings, this would not be the account for him. He had gone to great lengths to escape his wives' alimony and he was not the type to throw money away carelessly. On the thousands she expected him to have, this would be an appreciable amount.

  He was more likely to go for an account with high interest on large savings than a tiny difference in a cheque account. This narrowed her choice down to five of the largest building societies. She could just try ringing them all but it would save time if she could whittle down the choice still further.

  One of the branches was just across the road from Psi and contrary to expectations, it was unlikely he would go there. Karen and Eric held accounts there and he wouldn't want to bump into any colleagues while he was holding wads of notes in his hand.

  Another was in the ghetto end of town and he never even drove through there, let alone stop and get out. He would not relish leaving his car to be vandalised while he carried money around. No, that was definitely out.

  The third was notorious for phantom transaction arguments and Karen was wary of them herself, so Sedgwick certainly would be too. They were out.

  Only two possibilities remained. One was a major branch and had four cash tills outside. The other was minor and only had one. She felt Sedgwick would plump for the major branch for two reasons - he might become too well known in a small branch; preferring to remain faceless and secondly he would rather not have people behind him in the queue for a till eyeing up his balance and overall state of wealth. With four tills, there would be less chance of this.

  So Karen's decision, albeit based on probability and chance, was that Sedgwick would save with the Staffordshire and Norfolk building s
ociety.

  Karen took a handful of biscuits with her to her computer and ate them while she operated the mouse. She clicked on the money symbol on the screen and icons for each bank and building society appeared. She then clicked on Staffordshire and Norfolk, the computer found the number instantaneously and her modem connected. It was still early and her call was promptly answered.

  A list of options appeared and still eating, Karen dabbed at F7 for a Gold Save account enquiry. At the ID she entered "Sedgwick S" and it replied "identification unknown. Please try again."

  Karen returned to the main menu. It still appeared she had chosen the correct option, so she tried again. "Identification unknown" was the response and she was dumped out of the program for two incorrect attempts.

  Karen could not call again for five minutes as the program remembered the caller in case they were attempting illegitimate entry, which she was.

  She decided to do her shopping while she thought about other means of entry. She couldn't live on biscuits all day and she did have a new credit card to try out...

  A vast array of icons reappeared as her modem was disconnected, Karen clicked on the shopping bag icon and after a quick connection the virtual supermarket was online.

  The trolley at the bottom of the screen followed the mouse's movement, spinning strangely at times - just like the real thing. Ordinarily this would have been fun, but Karen was so accustomed to it, virtual shopping had become as much of a chore as actual shopping.

  Karen wandered around the aisles choosing whatever she fancied, dragging their graphic representations into the trolley, unusually unconcerned about the running total. The muzak and announcer's voice annoyed her to the point of muting her monitor.