The Cold Steel Mind by Niall Teasdale Page B

but he hasn’t,’ Aneka relayed. Her eyes narrowed. ‘Why?’
    ‘According to the logs, Drake accessed the Agroa Gar data files last night,’ Shannon replied. ‘Except he’s not here and it was a local access made from the terminal in our cabin.’
    ‘I’d have thought you’d have noticed if someone was in there.’
    ‘I spent the night with Monkey and Delta.’ Not even a hint of embarrassment from Shannon, though Delta went a little pink. Monkey looked smug. ‘You have been having those odd sleep things…’
    ‘If Aneka had snuck out in the middle of the night I’d have noticed,’ Ella stated flatly. ‘Those bunks aren’t big; I sleep cuddled up to her back.’
    ‘If we are relatively sure that Aneka and Al are not responsible,’ Wallace put in, ‘we need to find out who is.’
    ‘Logically,’ Cassandra said, her voice quite calm, ‘I am the only other person capable of duplicating the codes required.’
    ‘Anyone could with the right equipment,’ Delta replied, ‘and I’m the newcomer to the team…’
    ‘Except I’d have noticed if you’d done it,’ Shannon said before Monkey could get in. ‘I think you were the middle of a train when the access was made. No, I think there’s something else going on.’ She looked at Aneka, apparently expecting her to think of something.
    ‘Uh… Let’s go look at the cabin then. Maybe there’s something there that’ll provide a clue… Um, I don’t suppose anyone’s got some fine powder, like talc?’
    ‘I believe I can get something fabricated,’ Wallace said. ‘Why?’
    ~~~
    Sure enough, the fine, white powder Wallace had provided highlighted a lot of fingerprints on the room’s console. Al set about comparing them to the biomorphic data in the ship’s databases as soon as they were revealed.
    ‘Fascinating,’ Wallace said. ‘Of course, these days we use a fluorescence scanner to detect the proteins and generally just perform a DNA analysis. This was how the Peacekeepers worked in your time?’
    ‘They were called police,’ Aneka replied, ‘and this was done by forensics officers, and we did have DNA tests, but this was the first port of call. Fingerprints are unique, and easier to find than DNA.’
    ‘Unfortunately,’ Al said, ‘these fingerprints belong to Drake and Shannon. However, I believe I know why. The access was made through this terminal, but via a direct connection to one of the data ports. I only need your access codes to get that data.’
    ‘A direct access? Someone plugged in… Doesn’t that mean Cassandra…?’
    ‘Cassandra would have left traces in the access logs, even if she had used Drake’s codes. Her programming would not allow it to be otherwise. We have no direct data port. Unless someone here is a cyborg, we have an intruder.’
    Aneka’s eyes scanned the room. ‘Al says that whoever did this connected straight into the terminal through a data port. He says it wasn’t Cassandra so we have…’ She stopped as she noticed sparks of blue light, markers from her ultraviolet overlay, from the floor under one of the air-conditioning vents. Walking over, she bent down and swiped at them with her fingers.’
    ‘What’s that?’ Shannon asked, walking over.
    Aneka looked at the specks of metal on her fingertips. ‘Looks like metal shavings…’ She looked up at the vent, seeing the scratch marks around the screws highlighted by her edge-recognition software. ‘Al thinks we have an intruder. And given that something came through that vent, and that vent is too small for a Human, I’d have to say we have a really small intruder.’ She looked around at the others. ‘A hyper-intelligent glickle?’
    ~~~
    It had taken the combined efforts of Wallace and Shannon doing the recalibrations and adjustments, and Delta and Monkey realigning array heads, but they had got the station sensors which had been tuned to scan the Agroa Gar to work over the Garnet Hyde instead. That had taken almost an hour, and then it