Page 31 - Three Adventures

Deflator Mouse

As the director continued to stalk about and fidget, Captain Jack
wished he hadn’t quit smoking four months earlier. In need of
screening his facial contortions, he resorted to stroking his mandibles
as if in deep thought; then he opened a desk drawer and extracted a
file folder. “Of course, Director, we shall assume you are not
Deflator Mouse. Unless your psychological profile is a complete
forgery, self-destructive behavior is totally out of your character.”
Lampson ignored the other man’s immediate and sarcastic expression
of gratitude, and opened the file. “Now, let’s get down to cases. We
should be able to eliminate some suspects, if nothing else. We’ve got
to identify two groups of people: one with access to a Xerox machine
when we think it was used, and the other with access to your terminal
when we know it was used. Then we see who is in both groups.”
Beveledge’s circumambulation ceased. “Yes. Yes, you’re right. Let’s
proceed logically. But it’s not that easy. The copiers in this building
might not have been used for the cartoons and the fake safety poster:
although you had the paper analyzed, and it’s probably ours, all
Xerox machines produce the same sort of image with identical toner.
Beyond that, you must realize that nearly everyone uses the copiers
here, sometimes for personal business; most employers look the
other way, and we would face mutiny by removing that privilege.
Therefore, your first group of suspects is not very exclusive. As for
the second, we might have a lead. The date and time of every
transaction is stamped into the back-up record, so I can tell you
without fear of contradiction that this—this memo was entered into
the computer last night at precisely eight fifty-three.”
Lampson started writing on his blotter. “Okay. I can get the duty
roster from the main gate and see who worked late.”
“Even that won’t be definitive.” Beveledge sighed, the hissing of a
mighty dirigible blowing off excess helium. “Many of our people
have hook-ups at home that allow them remote access to our
computer through PCs and dumb terminals.”
“You have a list?”
“Only of the people with equipment issued by us. Anyone with a
modem and the right series of codes can dial in from anywhere. At
this point, I’d say about eighty per cent of my technical staff use that
facility on a regular basis.”
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