"That's all right. I do. Just let me get your IBM networked into these terminals here. Fortunately it's compatible, and all it's going to be doing for now is bouncing back numbers generated by the mainframe." She flipped some switches, then typed my number onto the screen. I momentarily wondered if the sleet had knocked out the phone system. It hadn't.
Again the seconds crawled by, but as soon as she'd finished her chat with my IBM downtown, the row of terminals suddenly started beeping away. Two shots, beep, the next one came alive; two shots, beep, right down the row.
"Okay, your computer is running the show now. Sooner or later maybe something will click." She punched a couple more keys, then got up.
"It's done?"
"Ready to rock and roll." She was putting on her coat. "We'll be running millions of numbers."
"Isn't anybody going to know you've pulled this?" I was, I confess, totally dumbfounded.
"Not unless they discover my little program in the mainframe downstairs. But it's just a random-number generator, something any sophomore could write. The trick is, we're hitting it with so many terminals it won't be programmed to keep track of all these little elves trying to sneak in. And when we're through we'll turn them all off using your modem downtown."
"Good God, whatever happened to pen and pencil?" I was still dazed. She'd done it all so fast. "If you can find the decryptor key and get into the files, then what? You going to dump all the info on Mori's sexy little CD down at my place?"
"I hope you've got lots of paper. Who knows what's on it." She was shutting off the lights. "Come on, let's get out of here."
"Aye, aye, Professor." I walked back, clicked off the light in Mori's office, then paused to double-check the lock.