'Well done! All of this was very interesting.' Daisy at last felt she had a lead to the possible bomber, however tenuous and weak it might be. 'Can you give me a print-out? I think I'll fax the details to the Yard and get someone to interview him, immediately!' She stood up expectantly looking for the printer.

'Wait! I've not finished, yet!' He started clicking up more displays and tables. 'See, these are the numbers, he's called, since he moved in to the house about a year ago. Or at least since the phone was transferred to his name. This one is the old Queen Mary College, just down the road at Mile End. And!' He clicked another icon. 'Hey! Presto! Here's a picture of Stephen Williams, who's a lecturer in Electronics. Is this one and the same person?'

'How did you get that?'

'Alex! You've worked with me for several months!' He held his hands up to show his frustration that his boss seemed to be unable to surf the Internet intelligently. 'Copied it off their web site. There's also a complete profile of himself and his research. Basically, he's into quality and reliability, judging by this and his published papers.' He reached under his desk and handed Daisy a thick sheaf of A4 sheets. 'I got these out of our computers. Apparently, Stephen Williams is very well thought of by lots of people here, as he's consulted on several projects. We've even funded some of his research.'

'Are any of the other numbers significant?'

'He spends a lot of time on the Internet.' He indicated the broadband traffic on the screen. 'But I'd say he's either very lonely or very private, as there's hardly any personal calls at all. So he's phoned a few shops, a couple of sex lines, but there's no pattern of lots of calls to one number.'

Daisy laughed. 'I know what you mean. My eldest is always on the phone to his girl-friend.' She laughed again. 'And she lives just round the corner.'

'I would say that as well as living alone, he has no permanent relationship, with either a woman or a man!' He thought of what he had said earlier. 'I'd say he fits the profile as I do! The loner in love with his work and his computer!'

***

'Would you send out bomb threats?' Daisy had already made a long phone call of instructions to London and was talking as she put all the information into a fax-machine.

'No!' John paused. 'But then engineers often speculate about what you can do with modern technology!'

'So have you been speculating?'

'More than that!' He turned towards the computer. 'I think I've found out how the message was made.'

'Only think!' Alex was teasing. 'You're usually much more positive than that!'

'Speak something into this microphone!' He beckoned Daisy forward as he spoke.

'What do you want me to say?'

'Try this from Henry the Fifth!' He handed her a sheet of paper. 'But make a few mistakes. Say 'beach' for 'breach' for example. But speak it properly!'

'Am I sober enough, now?' John nodded. 'How does this help us?' She picked up the paper as John typed a keys on his keyboard. 'One, two, three ...'

A minute or so later and she had read the speech. Not immaculately, as Sir Laurence would not have lost his way half way through. But even she thought it had been passable.

'Now listen!' He typed a few more keys and the Daisy's version of the speech was replayed over the speakers. A click of the mouse and the voice changed to the immaculate lilt of Richard Burton! John moved his hand to stop the women from saying anything. Another click and the voice changed again to the estuarial tones of David Beckham. Yet another and Mrs. Thatcher took it up. She even made the same deliberate mistake Daisy had made.

'How did you do that?' He clicked up an About screen which showed the software he had been using. 'I used this. We've got a couple of copies here and I borrowed one. Normally, it's used to personalise the messages you get in automated call centres!'

'It does a good job.' Daisy spoke. 'How does it work?'

'You just teach the software, by listening to the voice you want in the end. The more you teach it the better it gets!' John was paging through the various dialogs on his computer. 'That's why Mrs. Thatcher was used. There are lots of different tapes of her voice and some very long speeches. Churchill would be another easy one!'

'Does it take long to setup? You did well in the two hours we were away!'

'I didn't set up Burton, Beckham or Thatcher as the Speech Lab here had done it already. In fact, they didn't do Burton and Thatcher as they come free with the software.' He made a dismissive venture with his hands. 'I just got them to copy the files over!'

'Could our bomber get hold of this software?'

'Yes!' He clicked on a web page. 'You just download it from the Internet and then pay with a credit card.' He pointed at a page. 'It costs the grand sum of four hundred and ninety-nine Euros. Who do I charge it to?'

***

'John! Alex!' A bearded head poked round the door. 'Am I early? Can I come in?'

'Yes! Come in George!' John addressed the short dapper man, who was now walking towards where they sat with the two women perched on desks for support in the middle of the office. 'This is Daisy! She's from London!' They shook hands. 'She came down to see us about phone calls and how they can be analysed. The conversation got a bit general and Stephen Williams came up! Apparently, someone up there is thinking of using him on a very large new and expensive project! And when I searched our reports database, it seemed that you and him had done a lot together!'

'That's true! And so have we! But what's this about?' George was straight to the point.

'I've been told that for commercial reasons, we can't know anything about it here!' John was leading the conversation away from any answers that might require Daisy to think straight! She may have sobered up a lot, but he wasn't going to take a chance. 'For a start! How did you find him to deal with?'

'Very difficult and totally private! Never really got to know him at all!' George thought for a bit. 'But his overview of what makes a system reliable was beyond reproach! If we couldn't find anybody else, then we would probably have to use him again as he is without doubt the best.'

'What did you use him for?' Daisy felt if she kept asking the simple questions and didn't move from the desk she'd be OK!'

'You know the problem of rural broadband in that if you are several kilometres from the exchange, you either can't get it or you get a half-baked and quarter-powered service.' Daisy nodded and decide it was best to stay quiet, as she'd never lived further into the countryside than Cockfosters at the end of the Picadilly Line. George continued. 'Well! One solution was to use boosters that connect to the Internet through the 3G mobile network. Effectively, it's like putting one of the sophisticated Internet phones up a telegraph pole, where several lines connect. The idea was to take the pressure off the lines to the exchange.'

'A fairly simple concept! A bit like a by-pass!' Daisy stated the obvious. 'So where did he fit in?'

'It's simple in concept, but not necessarily in execution.' He thought a bit before continuing. 'Let's say you live in the country and need a fast connection. And so do your three or four neighbours! When broadband started this wasn't so much of a problem as it was unlikely all four of you would be using the system heavily at the same time!'

'Ah! I get it!' Daisy realised some of the problems she was experiencing in North London. 'We have a similar problem when all the kids are downloading music and watching videos. Not enough capacity!'

'Bandwidth!' George corrected her. 'But if you're close to the exchange, it's just a matter of adding capacity there! We have that covered from years of experience!'

'So what's the difference in a rural area?' Alex chimed in!

'We needed something very small, exceptionally reliable and completely independent of any external power supplies! There were lots of questions to answer. Do we have a single phone in the device or would two be more reliable? Should we use solar power? Do we mount it on top of a pole? In the ground? In a building? What is best in terms of cost? etc. etc. Stephen's skill was in calculating the reliability of the complete system and judging that against cost! He also told us the best components to use and how they should be integrated.'

'You used told!' Daisy asked the question. 'Any significance?'

'Yes! You do as he says!'

'Did he do a good job?'

'No!' George smiled. 'It was absolutely superb!'

***

As George made as if to leave, he shook hands with the detective. 'It's been good to meet you, Superintendent!'

'Oh! Dear!' She screwed her face into a wry expression. 'Am I really that famous?'

'I'm afraid you are! And possibly infamous as well!' George smiled back. 'We've all seen the pictures! What's all this really about?'

Daisy thought quickly. 'I can't tell you much! Well not really anything at all!' She was stalling and desperately thinking of something worth saying.

'Can I tell them?' John broke in. 'After all it was my idea to broaden Daisy's visit!'

'Yes! Of course!' Daisy hoped he'd got a decent story. She hadn't! 'Go on!'

'I said that Daisy had come down to see what we can do!' Daisy nodded. 'This came about, as I'd seen in the East Anglian that she was very interested in more and different ways to analyse network traffic to look for suspicious hot spots and odd connections. So I got Alex to phone up and suggest a visit!'

'It's funny, but we put out a press release to trawl for ideas and it only gets published in a couple of local papers!'

'The Police should do that more often!' George replied. 'There's so much useful technology here that they never bother to take notice of! It's all those civil servants who spend their time in meetings, writing memos to each other, blocking progress and ideas, protecting their backsides and creating more useless jobs! They never have time to find out what technology can give them!'

'You can say that again! This new Government is no better despite the rhetoric!' Daisy was thinking of the waste in her section, where buying something like a simple new computer cost three times what it did at Dixons! They said it was the extra support! But then the user never used any once it was switched on!

'When Daisy came she had a list of other things where we might help!' John continued his story. 'I just searched the database as I said. Except it was the topic, that brought up Stephen Williams, who happened to be on the list as well. It sort of completed the circle. More or less what I said before!'

'I'll believe you!' George was cynical. 'Can I suggest something?''Go on!' Daisy waved him to continue.

'Knowing what you do and his reputation, I suppose you want his ideas on how to set off a terrorist device?' George was satisfied he had now completed a suitable story. 'After all, the news indicated that they used mobile telephones in Madrid!'

'We think they did too!' Daisy confirmed the story and paused. 'But as to what we're doing with Stephen, I can't say!' Daisy stalled again. 'I actually don't know really. But I suspect you're not far away!'

'He could certainly make a very good timing device!' George turned to leave. 'But he's not the only one! Hang on a minute!'

Copyright 2004 by Ewart Higgins