“Amazing. What an excellent way to keep tabs on student work. I hope criminals don’t use this.”

Declan coughed. “Interesting thought, Rod.” He turned off his monitor.

* * *

Dusk came and Rod stopped by the market on the way home to pick up groceries. He got to the flat as Wyl walked up from the bus stop.

“Hi babe, how did the rest of your day go?” Rod waited as Wyl unlocked the door, then handed him one of the grocery bags. They walked into the kitchen with the groceries.

“Fine. I reviewed five more projects. They are all well-written. Only a few minor errors, but it’s the errors that stop a program.” Wyl placed his bag on the counter. “Did your visit with Declan include any surprises?”

Rod began putting away the groceries. “No surprises, but his setup at the university is interesting.”

“Anything like Ailbe’s lab?”

Rod nodded. “Not quite as advanced, but well equipped.”

“The Irish are adept at technology. Martini?”

“You read my mind. I bought lemons.” Rod washed a lemon, then used a paring knife to cut a couple of twists.

Wyl took down two highball glasses. Ice clinked as he dropped in cubes. He ran the peel around the rim of each glass, dropped in the twists, and poured the Boru over the ice.

“Declan can monitor his lab from his office,” Rod said. “As he told me about that, he seemed to enjoy the power provided by the technology. He can control one computer from another. His sinister side is emerging.”

“He’s the brawn behind the brains, but he’s no dummy. He’s the type who would shoot first and ask questions later.” Wyl handed Rod a martini.

“Next week will be interesting,” Rod sipped his martini and savored the smoothness of the Irish vodka. “Are you watching for potential early implementation? Ailbe may be crafty enough to throw a false deadline.”

“Excellent point, babe. I already ran across an indication.”

“In what way?”

“Remember this morning when Ailbe said he wants students to begin their lab work after their projects are graded? I will have everything graded by the end of the week, and students enter the coding as I finish grading. He mentioned a trial run on the 28th, but 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 students who died. I’m having difficulty getting through them because of the circumstances.”

“Sure, Ailbe. I’ll be glad to.” Ailbe lied like a pro, and Wyl thought he deserved an Academy Award.

“Perfect,” he handed the two projects to Wyl.

Wyl realized these two projects gave an opportunity to throw a monkey wrench in Ailbe’s plans. Since Ailbe may not have read them, manipulating the code so the final program would run but stop before completing is easy.

“Tell me where these fall in the overall project?” Wyl asked.

“Rafferty’s project is near the beginning. Moynihan’s project is at the end. A brilliant student with a promising future, it’s such a shame Moynihan died so young.”

Academy Award number two, Wyl thought. “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. Creating an absolute guarantee of success, or in this case, failure. What better way to ensure a perfect end to Ailbe’s scheme.

“What 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. The smile 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, slipping in a small algorithm that would stop the process toward 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. “Morning, Ailbe. What needs doing today?”

“Ah…Wyl. I think we have things in excellent shape. We finished the grading with those last two projects you did yesterday. Students are now entering their projects. 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.”

“Yes…but I thought the grading would take more time. I didn’t plan to have the assistance of the top cybersecurity expert worldwide.”

“I’m glad to help. Why don’t I hang around the lab and be available to assist the students?”

“Fantastic 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.”

“Hi, Garrett. What’s up?”

“Dr. MacGowan escalated things. The original schedule included another week to finish entering our projects, but he wants everything completed by Friday evening.”

“Interesting news, Garrett. Thanks.  I’ll pass it on.”

“I’ll call if anything else unusual happens.”

“You did well, my friend.”

“Thanks,” Garrett disconnected. He hoped everyone on both sides would be okay.