Stan Mason - Stopping World War Three

‘It’s not far from here,’ she informed me, walking on so that I was forced to follow her. ‘I met Chris Devon about six years ago at evening classes. I got as far as word-processing; Chris went on to better things.

‘Or worse things if you take into account that he spent three years in prison,’ I corrected.

‘Maybe,’ she responded, ‘but no one can take his talent away from him. He is an expert in the true sense of the word.’

I shrugged my shoulders as we arrived at a terraced house in a seedy part of London. For a moment it reminded me of the time when we stood outside Menel’s hovel in Jaffa. Penny lifted the large knocker on the front door and brought it down three times. We waited patiently and shortly there was the sound of footsteps clattering on the stairs inside before the door was opened. Chris Devon was a person to whom I took an instant dislike. He was as thin as a rake and looked like a scarecrow. He had a gummy smile because all his front teeth had eroded. His long black hair was tied behind in a pony tail and he sported an ugly beard which had grown completely out of shape. In the lobes of each ear were three silver ear-rings while a mock diamond pin had been pierced through his nostril. He wore a dirty shirt and very stained trousers and I was not enchanted by the foul odour that seemed to follow him around wherever he went.

‘Come upstairs!’ he invited casually. ‘Hope you don’t mind the mess. Wasn’t expecting you.’

We followed him up the narrow staircase and I struck my head on the well of the stairs which hung particularly low. ‘By the way,’ he called out belatedly. ‘Mind your head!’

We entered a small room which sported a profusion of television monitors, computers, computer screens, and shelves of computer books. As Penny had told me, Devon lived and breathed computers. The only evidence of normal life were a tiny table, a skinny wooden chair, a tin kettle on a single gas-ring, a bottle of milk and half a loaf of bread.

‘So you’re the computer expert,’ I offered in a contemptuous manner.

‘Sorry there’s no other chairs, ‘ he told us as though I hadn’t spoken to him at all. ‘Never need them. Don’t get any visitors normally.’ He turned to me sombrely. ‘Er… there’s a half bottle of beer here somewhere if you can find it.’ He pressed a button on one of the computers and a video game appeared.

‘It’s all right,’ said Penny warmly. ‘We’re not staying long. We have something that might interest you.’

‘Oh yeh!’ His mind was a million miles away as he started to play the video game. ‘What’s it all about?’

‘Hold it there for a minute!’ I shouted angrily. ‘Just hold it there!’

He stopped the game and stared at me non-plussed. ‘Did I miss something. I thought I got all the invaders.’

‘Not the game, you idiot!’ I ranted. ‘We’ve come here to offer you a job. A very important job! I’m not going to talk to you while you’re playing a damned computer game!’

‘Man,’ he explained in simple terms. ‘You don’t understand. I’m a multi-player. I can do more than two things at once. I can listen to you and still play the game.’

‘Not while I’m talking to you!’ I told him point-blank. ‘When I talk you listen. Is that clear? Otherwise we’ll look somewhere else to take on the job.’

Reluctantly, he stopped the game and closed it down. ‘Okay, man. What’s on your mind?’

‘Before we discuss the matter, I want you to swear to secrecy. No one must ever know what we are planning. I want you to swear to secrecy. Do you understand what I’m saying?’

Devon looked towards Penny with an old-fashioned expression on his face. ‘Is this guy for real? I mean who’s he with… the CIA or something? Swear to secrecy! That’s rich! I ‘aint a priest or a doctor!’

‘I’m serious,’ I went on. ‘You cannot reveal anything that we say to another individual otherwise we shall all be in trouble. You cannot tell anyone… not even your mother!’

‘I don’t have a mother,’ he returned calmly.

I threw my hands in the air and turned to Penny. ‘Is this the best we can do? Is it really the best?’

‘He’s the right man for the job,’ she insisted adamantly, trying to hide the smile on her face in relation to the personality clash.

I looked directly into Devon’s eyes. ‘This conversation must be kept entirely confidential. Is that understood?’

‘If you say so, man,’ he replied casually. ‘You know, this is getting’ to be boring. Isn’t it time you cut to the chase and told me what it’s all about?’ He moved away slightly and sneezed ostensibly into his beard.

‘The target is an international company making military weapons,’ I told him.

‘Oh… Dandy Advanced Electronics,’ he returned without even blinking, cutting across my diplomatic approach like a hot knife through butter.

‘What makes you think it’s them?’ I demanded, irked that he should come to the right conclusion so quickly.

‘Well there’s only two major companies in the field and you wouldn’t dare to try to break into their computer systems. Anyway, Miss Smith works for Dandy. She told me so.’

‘All right,’ I continued with irritation. ‘You know it’s Dandy. I need some information from their computer but I don’t know how to do it.’

‘No sweat, man,’ he responded casually. ‘Lead me to the system and I’ll crack it. When do you wanna go?’

‘It’s not as easy as that. We have to break into the plant to get to the computer system. You can’t just walk in there as though you have the front door key.’

‘The other problem,’ cut in Penny, ‘is that the information is access barred and there are two passwords required to get into the system.’

Devon shrugged his shoulders aimlessly. ‘It takes a bit longer, that’s all.’

‘I’ll come clean with you,’ I confessed reluctantly. ‘The weaponry division runs off a separate computer system. We would have to get past a number of security checks before we even got to it.’

‘What information are you lookin’ for, man?’

‘Why do you have to know that now?’

‘Are we searchin’ hundreds of files or is it somethin’ simple… like a set of plans. It would help if I knew.’

The computer expert had an alarming way of reducing important matters to mere trivia. ‘It’s a set of plans. Will you help us get them?’

He smiled in an ugly fashion at Penny. ‘For this lady, I’d do anything… anything. Just say when you need me and I’ll come runnin’. I presume there’s a fat fee in all this. I mean I’ve just done three years in jug. If I get caught they’ll put me away for ever.’

‘Just leave that to me,’ related my secretary firmly. ‘You’ll be contacted within the next few days.’

A cold chill passed through my body as her words echoed in my mind. I had already witnessed how Penny Smith took care of people… often it was effected by a bullet in the head or in the heart. At other times, she ran them down in a motor car as she had done on the Jaffa dockside. She appeared to have no conscience about her actions whatsoever. In my opinion, Chris Devon should have been far more concerned about my secretary than he was about his probation.

Believing that the conversation with us had ended, he switched on his computer again manipulating the buttons on the console. ‘Is there anythin’ else you wanna know, man,’ he asked finally.

‘Just one thing before we go,’ I added. ‘I’ve been told how good you are but how good are you really. I mean our future lives are on the line here. I don’t want anything to go wrong.’

‘Man,’ he retorted without moving his eyes from the screen in front of him, ‘I’m the best!’ He paused for a moment before continuing. ‘You know I can get to level eight in this game with no sweat.’