The Mouse Watch, Volume 1 by J. J. Gilbert

Author:J. J. Gilbert [Gilbert, J. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Disney Book Group
Published: 2020-05-26T00:00:00+00:00

Bernie took in the vacant desks, the scattered papers, the numerous laptop computers in sleep mode and wondered what might have happened to prompt such a thorough and complete evacuation. And, more importantly to her, why had she and Jarvis been abandoned in the process? Wouldn’t Alph or someone, anyone, at least have remembered that she and Jarvis were in the simulation room and sent an agent to let them know what was happening?

“Ummmm…it looks like everyone suddenly left in the middle of what they were doing,” said Jarvis. “Something horrible must have happened.”

Bernie glanced up at him and noticed how anxious he looked. Beneath his flop of blond hair, his brow was furrowed and he was wringing his paws.

“I guess we should look and see if anybody’s around,” said Bernie. She immediately set off to the nearest glass cubicle and headed for the laptop within. She observed that whoever had occupied this particular desk had left so quickly that whatever they were coding was partially done and that a half-eaten sandwich was left sitting on a plate.

Must have been something really bad to leave a perfectly good sandwich, she thought. “An attack of some kind?” she wondered.

“What’d you say?” asked Jarvis.

“That cheese sandwich is half-eaten and the coffee in the cup is still warm,” said Bernie, touching the paper cup. Jarvis tapped the space bar on the mouse-size laptop, and a log-in screen came up.

“Great. Password-protected,” she said. “So much for that idea.”

“Hang on,” said Jarvis, suddenly interested. Bernie watched as the lanky rat looked over the computer carefully, noting the serial number on the bottom of it and the design.

“Hmm. It’s a two-terabyte peanut drive with an integrated mousewheel graphics card. Nice,” he observed. Bernie noted with interest that all of the anxiety Jarvis had been feeling seemed to have disappeared. He was completely engrossed in the machine and talking half to Bernie and half to himself.

“But there’s a design flaw,” he said happily. “Watch.”

Jarvis’s nimble rat fingers flew over the keyboard, filling the password box with a series of numbers, letters, and symbols that went by so fast Bernie didn’t even have time to register them. After a few seconds, he punched the ENTER key, and the laptop, with an affirming chime, let him in.

“Wow,” said Bernie. She couldn’t help feeling impressed.

“Oh. Um, it’s nothing really,” he said awkwardly. “Occam’s razor.”

“Acorn razor? What does shaving have to do with anything?” asked Bernie.

“Not a razor like shaving,” said Jarvis. “It’s a mathematical probability theory. William of Ockham was a Franciscan friar who said basically that the simplest answer is usually the right one.”

“Actually,” said the Candroid as it rolled by, “that is the law of simplicity. Occam’s razor states that when deciding between two similar hypotheses, the one with fewer assumptions is usually right.”

“Actually,” Jarvis said, “one could argue that—”

“So, what was the simple answer to the code you were cracking?” Bernie interrupted. The Candroid rolled away.

“Cheeselover123,” said Jarvis with a shrug. “Probably the password for a lot of agents around here,” he said, glancing around.

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