me half-an-hour. I find it difficult to work with someone looking over my shoulder.’
Brian hesitated. ‘I’m really worried. I’ve got my new book saved on there. It’s almost finished.’
‘You’ve got it all backed up though, of course?’
‘Well…’
‘Do you use Dropbox or anything?’
Brian looked blank. ‘No. It’s just saved on the hard drive.’
Jamie sighed. ‘OK. I’ll do what I can.’
Thirty minutes later Brian came back into the study, looking anxious. ‘Have you found out what’s wrong with it.’
Jamie swivelled round on the chair. ‘You’ve got a virus. You probably got it from an email or downloading some dodgy program. It looks like the virus you’ve got is a brand new one. There might not even be an antidote for it yet. It’s a bad one as well. It’s running through your system eating the files on your hard disk. Have you got a virus checker on your system?’
‘No.’
‘OK. I’ve got the software downstairs. I can install it for you. First, let’s try and find out where you caught it from.’
He doubled clicked on the email program, Outlook. The screen flickered and Jamie thought the system might crash again. Eventually, though, the inbox appeared, with a list of all the emails Brian had received.
Near the top of the screen, in the list of people who had sent emails to Brian, Jamie saw his own name.
‘What the hell?’
‘What’s wrong?’
‘There’s an email here from me.’
‘I know. You sent it to me on Saturday. What was it meant to be, by the way? I opened the attachment and it just brought up an empty Word document.’
Jamie stared at the screen, the mouse pointer hovering over his name. ‘I couldn’t have sent you an email on Saturday. I was in Scotland. I didn’t send any emails over the weekend.’
‘What?’
‘I was in Scotland!’
‘But that’s definitely come from your email address?’
‘Yes.’
Jamie knew he hadn’t sent anything from his smartphone. Somebody’s been in the flat.
With a trembling hand, he clicked on his name. There was no message, just a paper clip to say there was a file attached. He clicked the paper clip to bring up the name of the file. It was called Honeymoon.
He stood up and ran out of the room, down the stairs, into his own flat. He rushed over and turned the computer on.
‘What’s going on?’ Kirsty asked.
He didn’t reply. The PC was making the same grinding noises that Brian’s computer had made. The desktop appeared and, one by one, Jamie tried to open his files. Nothing worked. He couldn’t even open Outlook to check when emails had been sent from his account. After a few seconds, the computer crashed.
‘Jesus Christ!’
‘Jamie, what is it?’
‘My PC – someone’s put a virus on it.’
‘What? How?’
He turned and faced her, his eyes wild. ‘Someone has been in here. I was right. Someone’s been in here and loaded a virus onto my computer and then sent emails to – God, to who knows how many people – and they’re all going to think it was me!’
‘Jamie, sit down. You’re babbling.’
Brian appeared in the doorway. ‘Jamie, what’s happening?’
He looked up, panic bleaching his skin. ‘I’ve been sabotaged. Somebody’s been in here.’
Kirsty went over and closed the door, saying to Brian, ‘You’d better call back later.’
‘But my computer…’
‘Later.’
She sat and held Jamie as he shook, his face buried against her chest. Eventually, he looked up and said, ‘I’ve got some phone calls to make.’
It wasn’t just that the computer was knackered. He had been violated, and his name was attached to the virus, which might have been sent to dozens, hundreds or thousands of people. God yes, he had been violated.
Somebody had been in the flat.
And he knew who.
Somebody had violated him.
Oh yes, he knew who it was.
But what are you going to do about it?
He stood up and looked at the monitor. As he stood there, a shaft of sunlight illuminated the screen. The dust on the screen twinkled and, horrified, Jamie saw a word etched in the dust, drawn with somebody’s fingertip. A single word:
danger
He spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone to Norton Anti-Virus.. He had been right – the virus was brand new, so his own virus checker software, and the virus checkers of anyone else who might have downloaded it, wouldn’t have detected the virus. He was going to have to rebuild his hard drive, and any work saved on the system was lost.
Still, that was the least of his worries.
He drove into work with dread in his heart. As soon as he walked