A Deadly Game by Janet Lorimer

Author:Janet Lorimer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Saddleback Educational Publishing
Published: 2014-08-03T19:36:58+00:00

Chapter 8

Ms. Clay groaned. “What next? Okay, I'm coming.” She turned to Jim. “I'm sorry, Mr. Salvatori, but I'll have to leave you on your own for a while.”

After Ms. Clay left, Jim went to work at the computer. The deeper he dug into the infected program, the more interesting it got. He examined the whole thing carefully, looking for something that might tell him more about the hacker. For one thing, he noticed that the program had been loaded at night. If this were the same hacker, he was pretty busy after dark.

By studying the program a little longer, Jim picked up some clues about the way it was written. He learned that the same person who had changed the philosophy grades had also written this program. That suggested that one person was doing all the mischief on campus!

On the other hand, making it hard to take care of sick people was no prank. Why had the hacker planted a virus in the hospital system? Didn't he realize he was playing with people's lives?

“This character thinks he's pretty smart,” Jim thought. “But at least I've figured out a way to lock him out of the hospital system.”

Jim went to find Ms. Clay, to let her know what he planned to do.

He spotted a nurse in the hallway and asked if she could help him get a message to Ms. Clay. He explained why.

The nurse smiled. “If there's anything I can do to help, just let me know,” she said. “In fact, if you want someone to hang the hacker by his toes—I'll be thrilled to do that, too!” The anger in her tone was obvious.

Jim raised an eyebrow, and she spelled it out. “One of our patients— Professor Anderson—almost died a while ago. He came this close.” She held her thumb and first finger close together. “It was an accident that never should have happened.”

“How did it happen?” Jim asked.

“Someone messed around with his chart. We're guessing that it was your hacker up to his usual mischief.”

Jim winced. “Hey, he's not my hacker,” he cried. “Tell me what he did.”

“He changed the amount of medicine Professor Anderson was supposed to get!” she cried in an outraged voice.

“Slow down,” Jim said. “You mean that kind of information is being kept on the computer?”

“Of course,” the nurse replied. “The nurse who usually takes that shift was out sick. So the nurse who came in to give the professor his medicine didn't realize that the chart was wrong. Almost at once, Professor Anderson had a bad reaction. After the medical team got him stabilized, we checked the records. Sure enough! The dose had been changed. That's when we figured out what must have happened.”

“But the professor is okay now, isn't he?” Jim asked nervously.

The nurse shook her head slowly. “He's not completely out of danger. And what a shame! Professor Anderson is a brilliant man. Why, just a few months ago he published an award-winning article in a science journal. He's really something special!”

Jim whistled.

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