Part 7 (1/2)

Angelo put his gun away. ”What can I help you with, today, gentlemen?”

”We're your escort Angelo.” Souza said.

”Escort?”

”You're getting the f.u.c.k out of Dodge on the noon stage.” Mangar said.

Angelo looked at Souza.

”That's correct. Brown told us to escort down to the airport and onto a plane back north.”

”Really? Can he do that?” Angelo asked. He knew very well that it was a violation of his civil rights.

”I can.” Mangar snarled.

”Don't make any more trouble for yourself than you have to.” Souza warned.

Angelo sighed and counted his options. ”All right. Let me pack.”

Angelo walked back into the Vista City Police Station the next morning. As he walked through the labyrinthine old building, all h.e.l.l seemed to be breaking loose. Cops were standing around with confused looks on their faces. Suspects and other people were standing around being irritated. Some in louder tones of voice than others.

Angelo observed quietly. He walked around to the back of the building to the old squad room that was the headquarters for the Special Investigation Squad.

Just down the hallway he spotted the Systems Administrator for the Vista City Police Computer Network. She was a short black lady with a funny face and an irrepressibly happy att.i.tude. She was merrily cursing in her native Swahili tongue.

”Hi Uhura. What's going on?” Angelo asked.

Her name was Uhura Young. Uhura from the old Star Trek television show that her parents enjoyed, and Young from their Mormon religion. Naturally, the woman had an interesting point of view on the world.

”Some mis-guided person hacked our system last night.” Uhura said. She p.r.o.nounced ”mis-guided” to rhyme with ”Son-of-a-b.i.t.c.h” but Uhura never cursed in English.

”Well, your computer seems to be working okay.” Angelo observed the colors and graphics flas.h.i.+ng on Uhura's screen.

”Yeah, but mine's the only one, and that's because I never let Wild Bill Dornan hoodwink me.” Uhura said.

”What does that mean?” Angelo asked.

”Some one introduced a virus that destroys all Geos based programming. It even got my Geos emulators. I run my system on CP/M, and that saved it, but every other computer in the station is down today.” Uhura said.

”Any clues about who might have done it?” Angelo asked.

”I don't know, but it was a brilliant piece of coding. I'll give the mis-guided soul that.” Uhura bent back to her task. ”I'm sorry Angelo, but I have some heavy work to do here, and explaining it step by step slows me down by a factor of ten.”

”Excuse me. I'll just be in my office, painting on the cave walls.” Angelo said.

”Save me a s.p.a.ce. We're not an effective police force today without the computers.” Uhura said.

Angelo walked into the old squad room and took his seat at his desk. An old metal board had been unearthed. Metal pegs had the names of the SIS officers in three columns. There were people off duty, people in the station, and people on patrol. Next to that was a marker board with every one's cell-phone number scrawled on it. Angelo shook his head ruefully. The VCPD was getting a lesson in how important their computers were today. It seemed as though they weren't enjoying it.

Scott Ashby walked out of his office with his cell phone glued to his ear. ”No, I don't really need regular reports, Terry...No. That's right. Just if you need back-up or advice. Yes I know. Well, I trust your judgment. Ha ha, well Angelo's back, so I've got to go. Right. Over and out.”