ACV's 1 Operation Black Gold by J Murison, Jeannie Michaud Page B

break into the coding and removed it.’
    He was shaking his head.  ‘As far as I know, no one has ever been able to break into the coding.
    ‘Want to see it?’
    He was shaking his head again.  ‘No thank you, I’m not doing three months in jail for crashing a master Console.’
    That caused me to scratch my head a bit.  ‘Why jail a man for crashing a Console for god’s sake, it only takes a few seconds to reset it.’ 
    Now it was his turn to frown.  ‘You can’t reset it.  Once it has crashed, it’s crashed.  The army’s got a warehouse full of them.’  I racked my brain for the reason for this strange phenomenon.  Had I withheld the reset procedure all those years ago with the rest of the security procedures?  I couldn’t remember. 
     
    Buff dug me in the ribs and whispered in my ear.  ‘Is that the clock thing?’
    ‘Aye.’  I confirmed.  Anyone tampering with a console or entering the wrong passwords will eventually lead to a signal being sent to the consoles internal clock giving it a date it cannot possibly recognise and crashing.  The only way it could be removed was by resetting it at start up with a GMT time signal.  It seemed my small brainstorm had reaped the whirlwind, Buff was in kinks, ‘even I could do that,’ he boasted. 
     
    Captain Stewart took a step forward.  ‘Are you trying to tell me you can fix them?’
    ‘Well you have to be connected to a mainframe, but yes, there’s nothing easier it only takes a few seconds.’  I could see a light spark in his eyes.  It could be he had just landed the biggest fish the army had seen in years; but the fisherman was about to snag his line on a shark. 
     
    He was looking at Buff sceptically.  ‘You can fix them too.’
     
    ‘He could,’ I butted in.  ‘When I was writing the program, I invited Buff over to help me make it Jock proof and Jock friendly.  The ham-fisted shit crashed the program that many times, I got sick of resetting it myself and showed him how.  Do you still remember how Buff?’
    He shook his head, ‘nah, don’t think so, but I still mine my log on code.’
    ‘His contribution to the program was invaluable,’ I added.
    ‘Hey, d’ye remember á they error messages we made up Jim.’
    Now it was my turn to start laughing.  A thought flashed across my mind and I almost went into hysterics. 
    ‘Whit, whit, whit?’
    It was a full minute before I could draw breath and answer him.  ‘They’re still there.’
    ‘Whit.’  His jaw dropped.  ‘I though ye were going to change them.’
    ‘I forgot; I was going to do it when they sent it back, but they never did.  Hey do you remember the one about the popcorn.’  The audacity of it hit him and he joined me in laughter.  There were a lot of puzzled looks floating around.
     
    ‘What did you write about popcorn?’  The officer asked intrigued.
    ‘Why?’  I could see the hook bite a little deeper.
    ‘Just curious.’
     
    ‘I bet that’s a well-kept secret Jim.’  We both fell about laughing, but there was more to it than that, I could see it in his eyes.
     
    ‘I’ll tell you what, you tell me what you know about popcorn and I’ll tell you what I wrote.’  The hook sank deeper.
    ‘You tell me first.’ 
    It was like a child’s game I conceded.  ‘OK you know every time you go up in rank you get a new clearance and password.  Well you also get a new error message.  When you reach the higher ranks General, Brigadier etc. the message goes something like this.  To receive this high a clearance you must be a highly respected and highly placed member of the Armed Forces, no doubt entrusted with the lives of many.  However to make so silly a mistake in so simple a procedure, I would personally have great difficulty putting you in charge of anything more dangerous than a bowl of popcorn.  Please press the space bar to reset and try again.’  That brought a general round of mirth even this Captain Stewart seemed to thaw