Rachel

Yes, I know, very late with this one, but there was not a lot I could do about it. That's what happens when you have a new computer installed and programmed. That's what happens when Rachel appears.

Rachel?

To cut right to the chase, Rachel is a colleague of my minder and butler, Irving, and at his request was staying at the manor "for an interim period" as Irving put it. Now I am well aware that nothing is so permanent as the interim, but this was OK. Turns out that Rachel could do almost anything with a computer, given one that was well-equipped. Hence the upgrade, a kind of tit for tat arrangement. A room for her, a state-of-the-art machine for me. As for Irving, he was grateful.

Turns out that Rachel knew Irving in his Mossad days, and I suspected that he knew her not only as a colleague, but in the Biblical sense as well. This attraction appeared not to have diminished over the years; the number of dewy-eyed glances between them that I noticed would suggest that the attraction remained a strong one. This did not surprise. Irving was a handsome devil, physically adept, and very, very smart. Rachel almost matched his six feet, was drop dead gorgeous, and as mentioned could make a computer sing.

And this was where the trouble started. Rachel had re-vamped my computer room, putting in God knows what devices and peripherals, so much so that the room now resembled a NORAD control centre. I was OK with this -- Rachel assured me that the information she managed to garner from the world's cyber systems would be of enormous use. What she was less forthcoming about was how she and Irving were using the system.

Bit of background now. Rachel had left Israel under a bit of a cloud. She was dead against further settlements into Palestine, and had disrupted computer-ordered construction supplies meant for the outlying settlers. These were sent instead to the West Bank, Ramallah to be exact, where they were gratefully received. The uproar this caused when it came to light was such that Rachel decided to get the hell out, even given strong support from a goodly portion of Israeli citizenry. Others, particularly in the Knesset, were not so forgiving, so Rachel took off. At least, that was the story I was given.

This should have tipped me off that Rachel was a bit of a loose cannon, but Sir Harry had me hard at work analyzing the North Korean succession -- one insane idiot preparing to transfer power to another insane idiot. So it was that for a time I was unaware of the following, all of which emerged after a frantic calls from Matilda Hatt of the CIA, and Sir Harry.

Rachel was indeed brilliant, and had developed a piece of software she termed WRAITH. This little piece of programming allowed her to surreptitiously take over another computer system, with the organization or person being totally unaware that such a thing had occurred. Rachel, had worked in Unit 8200, the signals intelligence arm of the Israeli defence forces, and had used WRAITH to send a virus that crippled Iran's computer systems, bringing work at Iran's newest nuclear power station at Bushehr to a crashing halt. This was looked upon as a Good Thing by her employers, particularly since Ahmadinejad had refused to believe such a thing was possible by the Allah-forsaken Israelis and ordered the arrest of four engineers working at the power station. They were now languishing in the pleasant confines of Evin prison in Tehran, and totally baffled at why they were there.

But it was the Predator drones that did her in. Somehow Rachel had tapped into the guidance systems of these weapons, and several times had altered their targets to focus on the Number 2 in Al-Qaeda, old Ayman al-Zawahri himself. She just missed him twice, but he had been rattled enough to disappear, not only from those hunting him, but his own troops. The Americans, needless to say, were also rattled, and by concentrating mightily on where the disrupting signal was coming from, had zeroed in on Toronto.

This prompted a call from Tilly Hatt.

"Simone, just what the hell are you up to?"

"Nothing. Although there's a Mayor's race on, and --"

"Well, you'd better bring 'nothing' to a stop, she interrupted. "At least where the Predators are concerned. I can deflect the issue, but it must stop."

"Predators?"

That's when I learned of the signal disruption, something further confirmed when Sir Harry called and inquired about some very sophisticated software that had somehow disappeared in Israel, and they wanted it back. Badly. One didn't need to be a rocket scientist to connect the dots, and I had very extended conversation with Rachel and Irving, and they agreed to down tools for the moment. For certain Rachel needed a secure place to stay for a while, and Irving was obviously smitten, but she had brought unwanted attention and would likely create more. On the other hand, this WRAITH thing....

Nothing for it, then, but to have a good think about it all, so I told them that I would give them my decision shortly, and headed for my decision-making place. I filled the Jacuzzi with hot water, bubbles, and jasmine oil, threw off my clothes, slapped Das Rheingold on the surround sound, and sank in. The only way, really to decide things.

Doesn't everyone?