Rolling off the bed, Jake slipped into a pair of sweats, gazing briefly at the woman sleeping with the covers pulled up to her neck.
He clicked on a small lamp, sat at the table, and flipped open his laptop computer. As the system warmed up to the Windows prompt, Jake glanced back at the woman who had just rolled to her side. The two of them had shared dinner on Bergen, downed a few more beers, and then found their way back to his room a few hours ago. He still didn’t know her name, which hadn’t seemed important during the course of recumbent gymnastics.
Her purse lay on the table next to him. He reached for it and pulled his hand back. His curiosity was more a reaction to caution than any great need to know.
He looked at the Windows screen and then back at the woman in his bed. She was definitely a looker, that he couldn’t deny. Maybe that had also been a reason for signals to go up. She had been so loose with her body and so scant with any background information, like a married woman whose older husband could no longer pleasure her.
On the computer, Jake accessed his mail and then scrolled down the document he had just received from Otto Bergen. The e-mail document was a complete history of his company, Tirol Genetics, and also biographical information on Leonhard Aldo, the company’s geneticist. Jake was impressed. The man was only in his early fifties, yet he had already discovered a genetic link for Down Syndrome, and two other birth defects. His most recent study involving the small population in northern Italy would have been his most important breakthrough. A cure for heart disease. Was that even possible, Jake wondered.
Jake heard a small buzzing and he checked the lines on his computer. Nothing seemed out of order. He had hitched up his laptop to his cell phone, so he had access to his e-mail. Maybe the buzzing noise was a result of the power difference from the internal adapter.
While he was online, he decided to check the Web for Tirol Genetics on the Zurich exchange. He downloaded a brief summary on the company, including a stock history for each of the last four quarters, plus the three, five and ten year figures. Then he pulled up the same thing on the New York Stock Exchange.
He had just saved those to his hard drive when his screen flashed a message. “Hey, Jake. Getting sloppy.”
“What the hell?” Jake said aloud.
He clicked the roller ball and started to get off the system, when his computer started making a noise.
“Shit!”
Finding the telephone line at the back, Jake yanked it out. The screen froze and the sound stopped.
He just stared at the screen. “What in the hell was that?” he whispered.
He reboot his system, clicked on his utilities program and started scanning for viruses or any other intrusion on his system. After a couple of minutes, the program reported no viruses found. He thought about the sound he had heard. It was as though someone had started to copy his hard drive. Not good. Considering how long the sound had been, the person couldn’t have taken much. He had a few things on his system he probably shouldn’t have had, like access numbers for various government agency databases. But those were hidden on the end of innocuous documents on a secret hard-drive partition, so those were safe. Regardless, he wasn’t too happy that someone had tried to violate his system. It was almost as bad as catching an intruder sneaking through your living room window. Only he couldn’t take a shot at this person. He thought about the note in his car earlier in the day, and the fake bomb. Someone really wanted to piss him off, and they were succeeding.
Then an idea struck him. He called up a number on his computer for the Austrian telephone company, found his account, and located the last call to his number. He memorized the number and then went to Innsbruck’s phone book online. Punching in the number, the account popped up on the screen.
“Damn it!” That would help but there had to be three to four hundred rooms at the Innsbruck Tirol Hotel. It was interesting that the call had come from Murdock’s hotel.
He tried accessing the hotel computer system to see which room might have made the call, but he was denied access. He was able to find occupancy. There were over a hundred and fifty people staying there currently.
He turned off the computer and stared at the blank screen for a moment. Then his eyes wandered back to the woman’s purse. He looked at her again. She was still asleep, her back turned away from him. Deftly, he found her wallet, scanned her driver’s license, and then put it back where he found it. He couldn’t believe it. How could she?
Going to the window, he looked out over the city lights. Now he’d have to reassess his investigation. When he turned Ute had rolled to her back, the covers off of her completely.
“I could sure use something to drink,” she said, running her hands across the empty sheets. “Could you go to the bar for a bottle of wine?”
Without answering, Jake slung on his jacket over his bare skin, slipped on his shoes, and headed out.
When he was gone, Ute went to her purse and retrieved a computer disk. She turned on Jake’s computer and prompted it to hurry up, slamming her hand on the table, her bare breasts bouncing with each hit.
The computer’s Windows screen flashed on. She went into the file manager, typed in a wildcard, dropped the disk into its slot, and started copying all text files, zipping them onto the three and a half. After that was done, she went into DOS to search for hidden files.
“Clever boy,” she muttered. She copied a few other files, retrieved her disk, shut off the computer, and shoved her disk deep into her purse. Then she hurried back into bed, leaning against the headboard.
Less than a minute later Jake came in carrying a green bottle of Mosel Riesling, already opened, and two glasses. He smiled at Ute in the bed.
“I hope you haven’t started without me,” Jake said. “I’d hate to miss out on anything.” He poured the two glasses, set them and the bottle on the table, and then threw his leather jacket across a chair and kicked off his shoes. Then he looked back at the chair for a moment, curiously.
He picked up the glasses and went to the bed, handing one to her. “This should do the trick.”
She smiled at him and downed half the glass before setting it onto a night stand. She reached over and slowly lowered his sweats.
Jake helped his sweats to the floor and then took a long drink of wine, finishing his.
She took him into her mouth, guiding him into bed.
Much later, when she had finished her drink he had spiked, she lay completely passed out. Jake went over to her purse, looked at her driver’s license and other credentials, and found the computer disk. He had been right. He glanced around the room, thinking what to do. Of course. He turned on the computer, and after it had warmed up, put Ute’s disk into the drive and checked the directory. Damn. She had taken most of his text files. He quickly reformatted the disk. Then he smiled as he downloaded a file to it and returned the disk to her purse.