Dangerous Reality Read Online Free PDF Page B

it’s cleared through me first.’
    ‘How d’you know it was reprogrammed?’ I asked. ‘Maybe VIMS just … got its wires crossed or something!’
    ‘VIMS did not get his wires crossed,’ Mum said icily.
    ‘But Dominic does have a point,’ Jack ventured. ‘Maybe something happened to one of VIMS’ circuits …’
    ‘You two aren’t listening to me,’ Mum said impatiently. ‘VIMS WAS SABOTAGED!’
    ‘I can’t believe it, Carol. I mean, who would do …? You must’ve made a mistake.’ Jack didn’t get any further.
    Mum flared up like a rocket on bonfire night. ‘And I’m telling you, I haven’t.’
    ‘How can you be so sure?’ Jack asked.
    ‘Because four days ago I added a special program to VIMS’ system.’
    I opened my mouth, but Jack got in before me.
    ‘What kind of special program?’
    ‘A special diagnostic protocol.’
    Mum and Jack regarded each other.
    ‘I thought the diagnostic protocol was Mario’s project and that it wasn’t working yet?’ Jack said.
    ‘I took it over last month and that’s what I’ve been spending every spare second working on for the last three weeks,’ Mum informed him. ‘I was determined that if, on the slim off-chance something
did
go wrong today, I’d be able to get straight to the source of the problem.’
    ‘You didn’t tell me that.’ Jack shook his head.
    ‘I can’t come running to you with every work-related problem I may have. I’m meant to be the Project Manager. Besides, I didn’t want to worry you.’ Mum sighed. ‘And I didn’t want to jinx the demo. I thought it’d be almost like admitting that I was
expecting
something to go wrong.’
    ‘What’s a diag-whatsit, diagnostic protocol?’ I asked. It sounded like a brand of insect spray. Or a James Bond film title!
    Mum turned to me. ‘It’s just a special program that records who changes, adds or deletes which lines of code and it also monitors any other changes to VIMS’ system. And it also allows me to step through VIMS’ instructions, one line at a time or one function at a time. Luckily for me, I was able to trace through step by step and instruction by instruction just what VIMS was doing before he went haywire. It’s a faster and more efficient way of checking for errors in VIMS’ programming. That’s why I know which part of VIMS’ programming was changed.’
    ‘And that’s what you’ve been doing all day?’ I asked.
    Mum nodded. ‘I was checking through to see what went wrong but then I found that a number of sections of code had been changed. It’s taken me this long to check and recheck my facts.’
    ‘So there’s no doubt about it? It was sabotage?’ Jack said sombrely.
    Mum nodded again.
    ‘Who did it?’ I asked Mum.
    Mum’s expression became even more grim. ‘I wish I knew. When I connected up VIMS to his control panel, all the diagnostic reports were supposed to be loaded up from him onto my computer system, but someone got in before me. All the relevant files that would’ve identified who did this have been deleted.’
    ‘I thought you were the only one who was working late to look into VIMS’ problems,’ I said.
    ‘By the time I realized what had happened, everyone else had gone home. But that doesn’t mean that the saboteur couldn’t have deleted the files before he or she left.’
    ‘Can’t you get them back?’
    ‘Whoever deleted the files knew what they were doing. I tried to retrieve them off my computer’s hard disk but the sections of the disk containing the data I wanted have been over-written with a number of large files, all full of gibberish. There was no way to get back any of the previous information on the disk.’ Mum shook her head.
    ‘D’you have any way of finding out who’s responsible?’ asked Jack.
    ‘I’ve still got a move or two left.’ For the first time since Mum had set foot through the living-room door, a faint trace of a smile flitted across her face. ‘I’m hoping that the person who deleted the