The Delta Chain by Iain Edward Henn Page A

hunters-?’
    Jean had an answer before she’d heard the question. ‘There’s never been another sighting or report on them. Vanished, it seems, into thin air.’
    ‘But surely…’
    ‘No. Nothing.’ As though suddenly realising or remembering something, Jean’s eyes widened and her hand flew to her mouth. ‘Oh dear, oh…what on earth am I thinking, inviting you to dinner then laying all… that …on you. Believe me, I don’t usually…and now, of course, I’m rambling…’
    Hank reached forward and clasped her hand in his. It was a spontaneous act. ‘You’ve had a terrible cross to bear.’
    ‘Still, it’s hardly dinner conversation.’
    ‘It could use a little work,’ Hank said with a wink. And she smiled.
    ‘You’re probably wondering why I’ve stayed here, but as I said before I feel close to Kevin, and I know his father would’ve liked it here as well. What’s more, I like to keep in touch with Mandy.’
    ‘Mandy?’
    ‘Kevin’s widow. She’s remarried now to a nice fellow and they have a daughter. Best thing for her.’
    ‘Yes,’ Hank agreed. The conversation turned to other things and the mood lightened again. But in the back of Hank’s mind, old familiar wheels began to turn. The reporter in Hank Mendelsohn’s soul had never retired, he lurked within, forever inquisitive. And the story Hank had just been told was one of the most bizarre he’d ever heard.
     

 
     
     
     
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
     
     
     
    William Westmeyer was a controlled man, but in this instance he showed anger to make his point. ‘What the hell is going on, Kate.’ He rose from his desk as she entered the office, flanked by Jackson Donnelly and Stephen Hunter. ‘I’m not ungrateful, I know you walked into the middle of this and you’ve been putting in long hours. But there’s been no improvement, if anything the problem’s worse, and situations like this one today are totally unacceptable.’
    Kate had come straight from Hunter’s lab, where she’d isolated the virus in the DataStorming program and then deleted it. After shutting the system down, she’d rebooted. Hunter’s programs and data were intact, with the exception of the work he’d processed that afternoon.
    ‘It seems this is a mutating virus,’ Kate explained. ‘When we’ve isolated and deleted the infected data, as I’ve just done in Stephen’s lab, we’re not actually getting the core of the virus itself. It’s still lurking in the mainframe, triggered by an unknown code or signal.’ She glanced at each of them, and then focused once more on Westmeyer. ‘When that trigger occurs, I believe the virus is replicating itself in the form of a mini virus, which attaches to programs at random.’
    ‘Okay,’ said Hunter, ‘so that’s why there’s ongoing attacks. While you’re fixing one hole, another’s forming.’
    ‘Exactly. If it wasn’t for this mutating effect, the problem would’ve been solved long ago.’
    ‘But you swept the entire network with your anti-virus program,’ Donnelly said. Whenever Donnelly spoke to her, the simplest comment always came across with a sneer. He was one of the most obnoxious men Kate had ever met. This was not the first time she was struck by how Westmeyer’s right hand man was the complete opposite, in manner, outlook and appearance, to Westmeyer himself. Donnelly, crew cut and pug faced, reminded her of a boxer who’d hit middle age and was pissed off about it.
    ‘Yes. And at the time I believed it would be an end to the problem. But this particular virus has been designed to resist even the most sophisticated a-v software.’
    ‘And you still have no idea how this blasted thing got into my computer network, despite all our security precautions.’ Westmeyer was referring to the “firewalls”, set up to block any corrupted, incoming data, or hackers.
    ‘Not yet,’ said Kate. What she couldn’t reveal was the suspicion she’d shared with Betty. Only someone with inside knowledge