Up All Night by Carmen Reid

Author:Carmen Reid [Carmen Reid]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781409085348
Publisher: Transworld

Chapter Twelve

The galloping pace of technology is making industrial espionage, such as electronic eavesdropping or theft, even more of a potential problem for companies today.

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Thursday: 8:45 p.m.

Jo had just walked through the door of her home when the mobile in her bag began to trill.

‘Declan,’ she greeted the voice on the other end of the line, almost pleased to hear from him, he was becoming as much of an evening ritual as brushing her teeth.

‘Thought you should know, one of the whooping cough children is reportedly in a coma and on life support. Just wondered if this is going to affect the copy I’m supposed to be getting from you tonight.’

‘A child is in a coma?’ she repeated, ‘Jesus . . . Yes, I’d say that pretty well affects everything.’

‘I’ll get Jeff to call you, shall I?’ Declan offered. ‘He’s phoning me back in five anyway.’

‘Right, OK, I’ll talk it through with him. How old is this child?’

‘Eight.’

‘Eight and . . . he? She?’

‘She.’

‘She’s just got whooping cough, no other complications?’ Jo asked.

‘It’s only just coming in on the Press Association newswire. No further information at the moment.’

‘Which hospital is she in?’

‘Northampton, I think. We’re sending someone there tonight to keep us up to speed, try to speak to the family and all that.’

‘OK.’ Good grief! A child could die of whooping cough! Had that happened outside of Victorian England?

Writing a piece about the dangers of Quintet when someone’s child was possibly going to die of a disease that the vaccination supposedly prevented was going to be very tricky.

‘The techies are at your desk again,’ Declan added. ‘Two of them this time, been there all evening. Occasionally I go over and ask how they’re getting on, but they’re saying they’ve never seen anything like it.’

‘Really?’

‘Has your computer broken down?’ Declan asked.

‘No, it’s just running really slowly. This is the first time I’ve asked them to come up and look at it, though.’

‘But I’ve seen the tech department at your desk before. They’ve been in quite a few times over the last couple of months.’

‘No, Declan, this is the first time I’ve asked them to look at it. . . ’ Jo suddenly thought of the unfinished bag of peanuts in her desk drawer that had attracted the rat. What if someone had been there – at her desk, tampering with her computer?

‘Jo, are you sure?’ Declan asked. ‘Because if no one’s been asked to check out your computer, then who was—?’

‘That’s just what I’m thinking,’ Jo broke in. ‘Why don’t you let me speak to the people who are there now?’

‘OK.’ There was the click of one receiver going down and a silent pause before a new voice picked up.

‘Ms Randall,’ came the voice at the other end. ‘Hello, I’m Manzour Khan, we’re running through some checks, but the feeling is that your computer’s been set up to spy on you.’ He waited a moment to let the implication of this settle on her. More like unsettle her.

‘My colleague and

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