Gender Equality Essay Example for Free

Gender Equality Essay Paying more attention to the differences between boys and girls, or men and women, starts getting people to have many ideas about them. The question remains whether we should ignore them or not. I don’t blame the family in the rural Canada for making the girl feel like she’s nothing more than just a girl, because simply these people there could be ignorant. There is a difference of course between men and women, but not that one is inferior to the other, rather as equal but distinct beings. Right before writing my opinion about boys and girls, I asked my dad whether he though there was a difference, and that maybe a girl is a girl because of influence and experience. He told me how he used to take my sister and me to Toys‘r’Us when we were small. He would bring us to what he thought were the cool toys such as mechanical gadgets and how we wouldn’t even look at them and directly walk off like zombies to the Barbie section. This explains how maybe it is in our genes, which bring off a kind of barrier, a difference between a boy, and a girl. Now maybe feminists take it a little to the extreme about female rights, but isn’t that because people (mostly men) have taken the difference between boys and girls to an extent where they forget about equality and what woman are really capable of doing? I still believe that there are many ways of stereotyping men and women these days, even as distinct as they were in the rural Canada in the selection. It is possible, but I believe the more educated we are, the less we will care about whether we are a man or a woman. In some countries, it is the communities’ traditions which still give to men more rights and privileges than to women. This is mostly because people in those areas are not yet socially evolved to the Western level. For example, in Saudi Arabia woman wont dare revolt or express their ideas of what’s really unfair or unethical to them or not. We need to stop buying into the myth about gender equality. It isnt a reality yet. Today, women make up half of the U.S. workforce, but the average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change. Men have to demand that their wives, daughters, mothers and sisters earn more—commensurate with their qualifications and not their gender. Equality will be achieved when men and women are granted equal pay and equal respect. Humanity requires both men and women, and we are equally important and need one another. So why are we viewed as less than equal? These old attitudes are drilled into us from the very beginning. We have to teach our boys the rules of equality and respect, so that as they grow up, gender equality becomes a natural way of life. And we have to teach our girls that they can reach as high as humanly possible. We have a lot of work to do, but we can get there if we work together. Women are more than 50 percent of the population and more than 50 percent of the voters. We must demand that we all receive 100 percent of the opportunities.

The Data Protection Act 1988 and 2003

The Data Protection Act 1988 and 2003 Monika Karaliunaite Introduction People are exchanging, sharing and using data every day.   Data, meaning information that can be processed automatically or manually.   When it comes to Personal Data which is data relating to a human being who can be identified from the data, Data Protection becomes very important. The Data Protection Act 1988 and 2003 confer rights on individuals as well as placing responsibilities on those persons processing personal data. Data Subject Data Subject or also called Data Receiver is a living individual to whom personal data relates.   Data Protection Acts provide Subjects with certain rights, to enable them to check what data relating to themselves is being held and how or where it is used.   The rights of data subjects †¢The right to establish the existence of personal data †¢The right of access †¢The right of objection †¢The right of rectification The rights come with responsibilities, it is not given to data subjects that they could make enquiries out of just simply being curious. Rather so that they can check what data is being processed on them and whether it is correct.   Ways for Data Subject to ensure rights †¢Tick boxes online (to choose whether your information can be used for any other purpose) †¢Unsubscribe (from notifications, information/offer e-mails etc.) †¢Read term and conditions, when setting up accounts online †¢Avoid to send e-mails containing confidential information †¢BCC- Email Data Controller is the one who controls the content of personal data.   It can be a legal entity like government department or a company, or an individual say, sole trader or a General Practitioner.   Data Controllers are recognised in the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003 as having certain responsibilities imposed on them by law. The responsibilities of Data Controller †¢Ensuring that data is obtained lawfully †¢That it is used for the purpose †¢That it is kept safe and secure †¢It is accurate and up to date †¢That it is relevant †¢That it is not disclosed or used for unlawful purposes †¢That it is not stored longer than necessary and provided to the subject on request All data controllers must comply with the rules/ responsibilities above, and some data controllers are obliged to register annually with the Data Protection Commissioner, to make evident their data handling procedures. How Data Controller ensure the responsibilities are carried out and organisations responsibilities Data Controller must make himself aware of his responsibilities relating to Data Protection.   Within organization, the staff should also be made aware of their responsibilities and appropriate induction training should be given.   Internal data protection policy, relevant to the personal data held by the organisation can be put to place, available to the staff.   Policy reflective to the elementary data protection rules, applied to the organisation.   It can then be enforced through consistent reviews and management. Data Processor Data Processor is someone who processes data on behalf data controller.   It does not include someone who is an employee of data controller and processed the data during his employment.   It is rather a subsidiary company contacted by the data controller to manage or process data on its behalf, such as: †¢Payroll Companies †¢Tax advisers †¢Accountants Data Protection Commissioner Data Protection Commissioner is a sole person who enforces Data Protection Act and its compliance.   He can investigate any complaints concerning data protection breech, develop codes of practice and maintains a register of data controllers. There have been cases when supermarkets have passed on their customers data to other companies. When using loyalty cards at supermarkets, we automatically let the company to gather the information about us without even thinking much of it.   Usually to avail of the loyalty card a questionnaire or an application form needs to be filled, so we are passing on some of our personal details to the company, therefore become the Data Subject.   The company now the Data Controller holds some of our information, and with the help of a loyalty card can continue gather information such as; log of purchases. Coming to the point, there have been cases when consumers of a supermarket have been contacted by formula company, by e-mail, advertising and offering their product.   Passing on personal information is considered a noncompliance with Data Protection Act. www.dataprotection.ie www.ictlaw.com

Survey on Traffic Pattern Discovery in Mobile Ad hoc Network

Survey on Traffic Pattern Discovery in Mobile Ad hoc Network Priyanka Sen Priti Saktel Abstract— Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) is one of the networks of mobile routers that is self-configuring and connected by wireless links. Anonymity communication is one of the major issues in MANET. Though there are many anonymity enhancing techniques that have been proposed based on packet encryption to protect the communication anonymity of mobile ad hoc networks. There are still passive statistical traffic analysis attacks that can be vulnerable to MANET. The communication anonymity consists of two aspects: source/destination anonymity and end-to-end anonymity. In order to discover the communication pattern without decrypting the captured packets, this proposed system will be designed. The proposed system will first search the required node by using a heuristic approach. Then statistical traffic analysis will be performed to find the data transmission of the searched node to its neighboring nodes. After performing the statistical traffic analysis whether the search node is source or destination will be estimated. With the help of this estimation the traffic pattern will be discovered. The utility of this proposed system is basically in military environment. Keywords— Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET), anonymity communication, statistical traffic analysis. I. Introduction Mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a self configuring infrastructure less network of mobile devices connected by wireless network. It is one of the types of ad hoc network. Every device in MANET is independent to move. This results in changes of link of such device. Thus MANET is also known as an infrastructure less network. The devices that are present in the network must forward the traffic to other devices. In MANET each device must act as a router. The basic figure of a mobile ad hoc network can be illustrated in Fig 1. One of the critical issues of MANET is communication anonymity. Anonymity can be defined as the state in which identity of an object that performs the action is hidden. An anonymous communication system can be defined as a technology that hides the object identity. Communication anonymity [1] has two aspects: Source/destination anonymity and End-to-End relationship anonymity. In source/destination anonymity it is difficult to identify the sources or the destinations of the network flows while in end-to-end relationship anonymity it is difficult to identify the end to- end communication relations. In MANET communication anonymity has been proposed by anonymous routing protocols such as ANODR (ANonymous On-Demand Routing) [7], OLAR (On-demand Lightweight Anonymous Routing) [6]. All these anonymous routing protocols rely on packet encryption to hide the information from attackers. Still the passive attackers can eavesdrop on the wireless channel, intercept the transmission, and then perform traffic analysis attacks. Traffic analysis [10] is one of the types of passive attack in MANET. Traffic analysis is further subdivided into predecessor attack [8] and disclosure attack [9]. The following are the three nature of MANET due to which above approaches do not work well to analyze traffic in MANET: 1) Broadcasting nature: In wired networks point to point transmission can be easily applied to only one possible receiver. While in wireless network message is broadcasted to multiple receivers. 2) Ad hoc nature: Mobile node can be served as both source and destination. This can create confusion to determine the role of the node. 3) Mobile nature: Traffic analysis model do not consider the mobility of communication peers. This makes the communication among mobile node more complex. There is a need of such a technology which can analyze traffic without any interruption of the above three characteristics of MANET. This proposed system fulfills the need. The objective of this paper is to show that passive attackers can perform traffic analysis without the knowledge of the adversaries. This approach is required in military environment. The proposed system will perform statistical traffic analysis to discover the traffic pattern. This system will perform the point to point as well as end-to-end traffic analysis among receivers. Indirectly this calculation will provide probable source and destination of the network that will discover the hidden traffic pattern. Thus the adversaries will not be able to know about the traffic analysis. Fig. 1. Mobile Ad hoc Network The remaining paper is organized as follows: Section II describes the previous work. Section III presents the proposed work. Section IV describes the expected outcome of the proposed system. Lastly section V presents the conclusion. II. PREVIOUS WORK Yang Qin, Dijiang Huang and Bing Li [1], proposed that though there are many anonymous routing protocols and anonymous enhancing techniques available still mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is vulnerable to passive statistical traffic analysis attacks. The authors proposed a system called as Statistical Traffic Pattern Discovery System (STARS). A STAR is used to discover the hidden traffic pattern in MANET. The drawback of this proposed system is that no searching algorithm is applied to search the traffic free path. Douglas Kelly, Richard Raines, Rusty Baldwin, Michael Grimaila, and Barry Mullins [2], investigated on anonymity. For a user anonymity can be defined as using any services while keeping their identity hidden from an adversary. Anonymity help user to protect their data from attacks. Unidentifiability, Unlinkability, and Unobservability are the three properties of anonymity. Unidentifiability means the adversary is unable to determine one’s identity or action among similar ones. Unlinkability means the adversary is unable to relate messages or actions by observing the system. Unobservability means the adversary is unable to observe the presence of messages or action in the system. Since unobservability keeps the identity of messages or action secret it can be implied as anonymity. Unidentifiability is subdivided into sender anonymity (SA), receiver anonymity (RA), mutual anonymity (MA) and group anonymity (GA). Unlinkability is subdivided into location anonymity (LA), communicat ion anonymity (CA) and group communication anonymity (GCA). In order to discover the traffic pattern we have to work on unidentifiability property of anonymity and decrease the sender anonymity (SA) and receiver anonymity (RA). Lei Liu, Xiaolong Jin, Geyong Min, and Li Xu [3], proposed that in order to detect the attack in a network traffic intensity and packet number are the two important metrics. Lei et al. had designed an anomaly detection system. This anomaly detection system is used to detect the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack in MANET. When traffic analysis is carried on MANET these two metrics are used to detect the DDoS attack. Similarly when traffic analysis will be carried on our proposed system data transmission will be considered as a parameter. We can conclude that data transmission will be an important factor whenever traffic analysis will be carried out, though the reason may be for detection of attack or for discovery of traffic pattern. Zhilin Zhang and Yu Zhang [4], introduced that control traffic plays an important role in route discovery in MANET. The characteristic that involve to carry out research on control traffic in MANET when on demand routing protocols are used include distribution of nodes’ control packet traffic, communication of control packets between nodes, rate of RREQ (route request) packets and the ratio of number of RREQ packets originating from one node to all RREQ packets relayed by this node. These characteristics of control traffic are affected by factors such as mobility, node density and data traffic. Thus theoretically we can determine that indirectly one of the factors of control traffic is data traffic. Hence we can conclude that control traffic will also play an important role in route discovery in our proposed system though the situation will be different. In our proposed system we will find traffic free path i.e. control traffic path so that it will be easy to find out the numb er of data packets transmitted to neighboring nodes. This will help us to discover route in our proposed system. Y. Liu, R. Zhang, J. Shi, and Y. Zhang [5] designed a novel algorithm called as traffic inference algorithm (TIA) which allows an adversary to infer the traffic pattern in MANET. This algorithm is based on the assumption that difference between data frames, routing frames and MAC control frames is visible to passive adversaries. Through these differences they can identify the point-to-point traffic using the MAC control frames, recognize the end-to-end traffic by tracing the routing frames and then find out the actual traffic pattern using the data frames. This algorithm is not a successful invention as it depends on the deterministic network behaviors. Stephen Dabideen and J.J. Garcia-Luna-Aceves [6], proposed that routing in MANET using depth first search (DFS) is feasible as well as efficient than breadth first search (BFS). The algorithm introduced is called as ordered walk search algorithm (OSA). The objective of this algorithm is to take advantage of the smaller time complexity of BFS and combine it with the low communication complexity of DFS in order to improve the efficiency of the search through the known path information. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of OSA, ordered walk with learning (OWL) routing protocol has been presented which uses DFS to establish and repair paths from the source to the destination with minimum signaling overhead and fast convergence. The following are the advantages of DFS over BFS that had been investigated by Stephen et al. in MANET: (i) DFS require less overhead as compared to BFS. When large number of nodes is performing BFS, the routing TABLE 1 COMPARISON OF SEARCHING ALGORITHMS overhead can saturate the network making it difficult to deliver any packets. However DFS use only small network for routing. (ii) When BFS is used in a network, where there are multiple flows of search packets this situation can lead to increase the load on network and loss of packets. On the other hand as DFS involves only a small part of the network, thus this reduces the load in the network and results in less packet loss. A comparative study of searching algorithms is shown in TABLE I. From this table we conclude that DFS is better searching algorithm for MANET than BFS. III. PROPOSED WORK One of the characteristic of MANET is that all the nodes are hidden. This proposed system will unhide the nodes by using one of the searching algorithms. The searching algorithm chosen for searching the node will be depth first search (DFS). Source node will use DFS algorithm for traversing or searching the path in the network. Then statistical traffic pattern analysis will be performed on these searched nodes. This analysis will provide an estimation of the data transmitted to all the neighboring nodes of every searched node. We can discover the traffic pattern by using probability distribution. The working of each of the module is explained in detailed below. A. Searching node in MANET using depth first search. In this proposed system we are using DFS for routing decisions. When a node receives message for the first time, it sorts all its neighboring nodes according to their distance to destination and then uses that same order in DFS algorithm. It starts its searching from the source node and updates one hop neighbors. This search continues to reach traffic free path between source and destination node. As shown in Fig. 2, depth first search works on tree or graph. The Fig. 2 gives an example of DFS routing path for the following graph: The searching starts from root node A. It is assumed that the left edges are selected than the right edges. Each node remembers the last visiting nodes which help to backtrack and reach the last node to complete the traversing. From Fig. 2 the path will be: A, B, D, E, C, and F. B. Statistical traffic analysis of packets in MANET For point-to-point (one hop) traffic in a certain period, first build point-to-point traffic matrices such that each traffic Fig. 2. Depth First Search matrix only contains independent hop packets. There can be situation in which two packets captured at different time could be the same packet appearing at different location. In order to avoid a single point-to-point traffic matrix form containing two dependent packets time slicing technique is used. Time slice technique is technique in which the process is allowed to run in a preemptive multitasking system. This is called as the time slice or quantum. The scheduler runs once every time slice to choose the next process to run. In this proposed system a sequence of snapshots during a time interval constructs a slice represented by a traffic matrix. The traffic matrix is denoted by W. This traffic matrix will consists of traffic volume from one node to another. For example, Here 1 indicates that there is transmission of data (traffic volume) from node 1 to node 2 whereas 0 indicate that there is no transmission of data between the two nodes. C. Discovery of system The traffic matrix tell us the deduce point-to-point and end-to-end traffic volume between each pair of nodes. We need to discover the actual source or destination in order to discover the traffic pattern. Here probability distribution is used. Probability distribution calculates the probability of the data transmitted to neighboring node which provide an accurate estimation of a node as source or destination. This will help to discover the traffic pattern. The equation required for source probability distribution is The equation required for destination probability distribution is Fig.3. System Flow Diagram Where s’(i) is the source vector, N is number of nodes, r(i,j) is the accumulative traffic volume from node i to node j, d’(i) is the destination vector. In the Fig. 3, the flow of the proposed system is explained. When the system will start it will form a network. This network will consist of certain number of nodes. All the nodes will be browsed. In order to search the node a heuristic searching algorithm will be applied. If the required node is present then statistical traffic analysis will be performed on it. After performing statistical traffic analysis probability distribution will be applied to discover the traffic pattern. However, if the required node is not found then the system will stop and no further process will be carried out. IV. EXPECTED OUTCOME From the idea of the proposed system we are clear with two outcomes. The outcomes will be to discover traffic pattern in MANET and to find probability of point to point transmission among receivers. These two outcomes are discussed below. 1. Discovery of traffic pattern in MANET The first step to discover traffic pattern will be searching a node. Then using point-to-point traffic matrix and end-to-end traffic matrix a statistical traffic analysis will be performed. The parameter to be considered for traffic pattern discovery will be number of data transmitted. 2. Probability of point to point transmission among receivers is estimated Point-to-Point transmission can be estimated by point-to-point traffic matrix. This matrix will consists of traffic volume between each node at one hop distance. The calculated traffic matrix will be used to determine the probability of point to point transmission among receivers. V. CONCLUSION The proposed system will be an attacking system. As nodes are hidden in MANET a heuristic searching algorithm will be applied. This heuristic searching algorithm will be depth first search (DFS).This system will perform statistical traffic analysis to find the data transmission between one to one and one to many nodes. Probability of point to point transmission among receivers will be estimated by point-to-point traffic matrix. Then by calculating multihop traffic and performing probability distribution the traffic pattern will be discovered. This will provide an approximate traffic pattern with approximate source and destination in the network. The proposed system will reduce the issue of anonymous communication in mobile ad hoc network (MANET). REFERENCES Yang Qin, Dijiang Huang and Bing Li â€Å"STARS: A Statistical Traffic Pattern Discovery System for MANETs† IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, Vol. 11, No. 2, March/April 2014. Douglas Kelly, Richard Raines, Rusty Baldwin, Michael Grimaila, and Barry Mullins, â€Å"Exploring Extant and Emerging Issues in Anonymous Networks: A Taxonomy and Survey of Protocols and Metrics†, IEEE Communications Surveys Tutorials, Vol. 14, No. 2, Second Quarter 2012. Lei Liu, Xiaolong Jin, Geyong Min, and Li Xu, â€Å"Real-Time Diagnosis of Network Anomaly based on Statistical Traffic Analysis†, IEEE 11th International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications, 2012. Zhilin Zhang and Yu Zhang, â€Å"Control Traffic Analysis of On-Demand Routing Protocol in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks†, IEEE Second International Conference on Networking and Distributed Computing, 2011 Y. Liu, R. Zhang, J. Shi, and Y. Zhang, â€Å"Traffic Inference in Anonymous MANETs,† Proc. IEEE Seventh Ann. Comm. Soc. Conf. Sensor Mesh and Ad Hoc Comm. and Networks, pp. 1-9, 2010. Stephen Dabideen and J.J. Garcia-Luna-Aceves, â€Å"OWL: Towards Scalable Routing In MANETs Using Depth-First Search On Demand†, IEEE 6th International Conference on Mobile Adhoc and Sensor Systems, Oct 2009. Y. Qin and D. Huang, â€Å"OLAR: On-Demand Lightweight Anonymous Routing in MANETs,† Proc.Fourth Int’l Conf. Mobile Computing and Ubiquitous Networking, pp. 72-79, 2008. J. Kong, X. Hong, and M. Gerla, â€Å"An Identity-Free and On- Demand Routing Scheme against Anonymity Threats in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks,† IEEE Trans. Mobile Computing, vol. 6, no. 8, pp.888-902, Aug. 2007. M. Wright, M. Adler, B. Levine, and C. Shields, â€Å"The Predecessor Attack: An Analysis of a Threat to Anonymous Communications Systems,† ACM Trans. Information and System Security, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 489-522, 2004. G. Danezis, â€Å"Statistical Disclosure Attacks: Traffic Confirmation in Open Environments,† Proc. Security and Privacy in the Age of Uncertainty, vol. 122, pp. 421-426, 2003. J. Raymond, â€Å"Traffic Analysis: Protocols, Attacks, Design Issues, and Open Problems,† Proc. Int’l Workshop Designing Privacy Enhancing Technologies: Design Issues in Anonymity Unobservability, pp. 10-29, 2001.

Mary Shelleys Frankenstein as a Critique of Masculinity Essay

Introduction The idea for the novel of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein came to her one night when she was staying in the company of what has been called ‘her male coterie’, including Lord Byron and her husband, Percy Shelley. Mary Shelley’s whole life seems to have been heavily influenced by men. She idolised her father, William Godwyn, and appears to have spent a good part of her life trying very hard to impress both him and her husband. There seems to have been a distinct lack of female influence, her mother, Mary Wollstonecraft, having died weeks after her birth, being replaced by a neglectful step-mother. These aspects of her life are perhaps evident in her novel. The characters and plot of Frankenstein were perhaps influenced by Shelley’s conflicting feelings about the predominately masculine circle which surrounded her, and perhaps the many masculine traits that we see in novel were based upon those of the male figures in Shelley’s own life. In th is essay I will attempt to show some of these traits. Argument Perhaps the most obvious way we can read the novel as a critique of masculinity is the very obvious way in which Shelley develops the male characters more than she does the female. She portrays the male characters as the stronger sex with the female characters seemingly completely dependant on the male, and their whole lives seem to be taken up by the males every move. The female characters in the novel ar every much idealised figures of perfection and passiveness. She portrays women as weak, beautiful, subservient beings who live only for the men in their lives. This is evident from the opening sentence of the narrator of the novel, Walton, who is writing to his sister in England while he is on an expedit... ...e life that he is creating is undeniably male, as this is the sex he views as the stronger of the two, there is never a question for a moment that he may create a female. Conclusion The theme of masculinity is strong throughout the novel, and I will finish with what may be the strongest example of masculinity of all, although it is not a favourable one. Perhaps the character of the monster represents the flaw in masculinity in the society of that day, created without the use of a woman, and is an example of the dangers of a society without woman. And I feel that Shelley was perhaps manipulating the masculine identities in the novel to show the flaws that such attitudes towards women can create, and persuade her audience that a society without women would be disastrous. Bibliography Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, (Berkshire: Penguin Popular Classics, 1994)

Vanadyl Sulfate: Could it be a wonder drug for the future? :: Sports Medicine Health Essays

Vanadyl Sulfate: A Wonder Drug For The Future? Introduction In the competitive world of sports, athletes are always trying to get an edge. When practice is not enough, many athletes try to change their diets to gain an advantage over the competition. To make more educated decisions about what they eat, many athletes look closely at what happens to food once it enters their bodies. From studying the gastrointestinal and endocrine systems, athletes and researchers have learned to appreciate the role of insulin in athletic performance. In order to enhance performance, researchers have developed a product called vanadyl sulfate, which supposedly mimics the effects of insulin. While its effectiveness as a workout supplement is still in question, vanadyl sulfate also has promise as a possible alternative treatment for diabetes. The Insulin Theory To properly comprehend the importance of insulin and the rational behind wanting to increase it artificially, one must first understand the process of sugar metabolism. Sugar metabolism is the process by which the body converts food into energy that can be used by muscle cells. (http://encarta.msn.com/find/default.asp) The process begins when enzymes break down food into glucose, a simple six carbon sugar that can be easily absorbed in the intestine. From there, the hormone insulin plays several important roles. It is obvious that the cells that make up a person need energy to survive and function. Insulin is crucial in the delivery of energy to cells. In the body, glucose is the standard form of energy after digestion. Unfortunately, glucose's size and structure make it hard for the molecule to pass through the outer membranes of many of the body's cells. Insulin helps to fix this problem. Specifically, insulin bonds with the outer membrane of cells to increase permeability. This enables glucose to pass through the cell membrane more easily and gives the cell access to more energy. Without insulin, it is extremely difficult for glucose in the blood to be used by the body's cells as energy. Conversely, an abundance of insulin increases the rate at which glucose is used by the cells and therefore lowers the amount of glucose left in the bloodstream (Guyton, Hall, 972). In addition to helping to provide the cell with energy, insulin can also help the cell in other ways.

Hackers Blackmail Mahanta, Spandan Section B Statement of the Problem

Hackers Blackmail Mahanta, Spandan Section B Statement of the Problem: Implementation of EMR (Electronic Medical Records) to replace paper records in Sunnylake hospital was a visionary idea. However a major area in implementation of technology i. e. Network Security was overlooked by the organisation. Moreover there was limited or no risk assessment done leaving Sunnylake’s IT team ill equipped to handle a possible intrusion into their network.The result was that the organisation was forced into a situation where they were on the verge of getting into myriad of legal problems including lawsuits amounting to millions. But more than the monetary damages, human lives were at stake which made it even more important for the Sunnylake team to arrive at an early and effective solution to the problem in hand. Analysis: Paul Layman had come to Sunny lake Hospital with the vision to transform the small hospital from a Community Care Centre to a role model for all small hospitals.To turn his vision into reality Paul Layman, the CEO decided to use state of the art technology to replace paper records with Electronic Medical Records (EMR). Accordingly a plan was formulated leading to formation of an IT team in the organisation under the leadership of a young IT Director Jacob Dale. Both Paul and Jacob gave in their best to implement a system which was initially not widely accepted by majority of the Doctors in the hospital. However with time, as the efficiency of the EMR’s showed up the resistance became minimal.For good three years Paul was basking under the glory of his successful implementation of EMR’s but was naive enough to overlook the technology security advancement and did not keep its security up to date and updated. Sunnylake Hospital was almost at a dead end mainly due to human and technological errors. The intrusion into their network was due to someone in the staff mistaking the threat to be an antivirus download or updation of an existing application. This can be a termed as a human error. But more importantly lack of an updated or upgraded security system hich is a major technology flaw was the major contributor to network invasion of the Sunnylake hospital network. The result of these mistakes resulted in Sunnylake hospital on the verge of losing millions in lawsuits, losing the reputation it had built up over the years of service to the community and most importantly a large number of human lives were at stake. Keeping in mind the repercussions of their mistakes, which were quite serious in nature the most immediate solution that I feel would be appropriate would be to pay the ransom amount to hackers thus securing the safety of the affected patients.Having done this we can look at the future course of actions which should include stringent security/access policies, stronger network administration and safety and last but not the least educating the staffs of the network safety measures that needs to be taken care of while using or accessing the organisations network. While we are discussing about all these prominent problem statements, Paul Layman CEO of Sunnylake also has to deal with another long term effect of the fiasco. He had implemented a system for which he had received resistance from many quarters.However with the passage of time as the EMR’s proved to be efficient, these resistances subsided. Now that the EMR’s failed after 3 years of efficient work, the people who had opposed the very implementation of technology including the chief of staff George Knudsen would have a free say to justify their resistance at the first place. And Paul has to see to it that the crisis is solved immediately as he is at a risk of not being able to convince the staff to trust the system or more importantly trust him. Recommendations:In reference to the analysis of the problem above, the following solutions in order of priority along with recommendations are mentioned below. First and for emost Paul Newman will have to pay the ransom to the hackers in order to secure the lives of the affected patients as well as get back access to their network. However he should not overlook the adversities that may crop up later and I would recommend engagement of professionals with expertise in dealing with such situations including law enforcement agencies.Once access to the network is gained, the organisations IT team should immediately put into place network safety policies. For this I would recommend that the IT team implement stricter security policies, access should be limited for the users as per the roles delivered, commonly known dangerous websites be blocked, training the staff on the security measures and finally up gradation of their systems to be able to avert such instances in future. Hackers Blackmail Mahanta, Spandan Section B Statement of the Problem Hackers Blackmail Mahanta, Spandan Section B Statement of the Problem: Implementation of EMR (Electronic Medical Records) to replace paper records in Sunnylake hospital was a visionary idea. However a major area in implementation of technology i. e. Network Security was overlooked by the organisation. Moreover there was limited or no risk assessment done leaving Sunnylake’s IT team ill equipped to handle a possible intrusion into their network.The result was that the organisation was forced into a situation where they were on the verge of getting into myriad of legal problems including lawsuits amounting to millions. But more than the monetary damages, human lives were at stake which made it even more important for the Sunnylake team to arrive at an early and effective solution to the problem in hand. Analysis: Paul Layman had come to Sunny lake Hospital with the vision to transform the small hospital from a Community Care Centre to a role model for all small hospitals.To turn his vision into reality Paul Layman, the CEO decided to use state of the art technology to replace paper records with Electronic Medical Records (EMR). Accordingly a plan was formulated leading to formation of an IT team in the organisation under the leadership of a young IT Director Jacob Dale. Both Paul and Jacob gave in their best to implement a system which was initially not widely accepted by majority of the Doctors in the hospital. However with time, as the efficiency of the EMR’s showed up the resistance became minimal.For good three years Paul was basking under the glory of his successful implementation of EMR’s but was naive enough to overlook the technology security advancement and did not keep its security up to date and updated. Sunnylake Hospital was almost at a dead end mainly due to human and technological errors. The intrusion into their network was due to someone in the staff mistaking the threat to be an antivirus download or updation of an existing application. This can be a termed as a human error. But more importantly lack of an updated or upgraded security system hich is a major technology flaw was the major contributor to network invasion of the Sunnylake hospital network. The result of these mistakes resulted in Sunnylake hospital on the verge of losing millions in lawsuits, losing the reputation it had built up over the years of service to the community and most importantly a large number of human lives were at stake. Keeping in mind the repercussions of their mistakes, which were quite serious in nature the most immediate solution that I feel would be appropriate would be to pay the ransom amount to hackers thus securing the safety of the affected patients.Having done this we can look at the future course of actions which should include stringent security/access policies, stronger network administration and safety and last but not the least educating the staffs of the network safety measures that needs to be taken care of while using or accessing the organisations network. While we are discussing about all these prominent problem statements, Paul Layman CEO of Sunnylake also has to deal with another long term effect of the fiasco. He had implemented a system for which he had received resistance from many quarters.However with the passage of time as the EMR’s proved to be efficient, these resistances subsided. Now that the EMR’s failed after 3 years of efficient work, the people who had opposed the very implementation of technology including the chief of staff George Knudsen would have a free say to justify their resistance at the first place. And Paul has to see to it that the crisis is solved immediately as he is at a risk of not being able to convince the staff to trust the system or more importantly trust him. Recommendations:In reference to the analysis of the problem above, the following solutions in order of priority along with recommendations are mentioned below. First and for emost Paul Newman will have to pay the ransom to the hackers in order to secure the lives of the affected patients as well as get back access to their network. However he should not overlook the adversities that may crop up later and I would recommend engagement of professionals with expertise in dealing with such situations including law enforcement agencies.Once access to the network is gained, the organisations IT team should immediately put into place network safety policies. For this I would recommend that the IT team implement stricter security policies, access should be limited for the users as per the roles delivered, commonly known dangerous websites be blocked, training the staff on the security measures and finally up gradation of their systems to be able to avert such instances in future.

Bag of Bones CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I climbed the stairs to the deck instead of going around to the front door, still moving slowly and marvelling at how my legs felt twice their normal weight. When I stepped into the living room I looked around with the wide eyes of someone who has been away for a decade and returns to find everything just as he left it Bunter the moose on the wall, the Boston Globe on the couch, a compilation of Tough Stuff crossword puzzles on the end-table, the plate on the counter with the remains of my stir-fry still on it. Looking at these things brought the realization home full force I had gone for a walk, leaving all this normal light clutter behind, and had almost died instead. Had almost been murdered. I began to shake. I went into the north-wing bathroom, took off my wet clothes, and threw them into the tub splat. Then, still shaking, I turned and stared at myself in the mirror over the washbasin. I looked like someone who has been on the losing side in a barroom brawl. One bicep bore a long, clotting gash. A blackish-purple bruise was unfurling what looked like shadowy wings on my left collarbone. There was a bloody furrow on my neck and behind my ear, where the lovely Rogette had caught me with the stone in her ring. I took my shaving mirror and used it to check the back of my head. ‘Can't you get that through your thick skull?' my mother used to shout at me and Sid when we were kids, and now I thanked God that Ma had apparently been right about the thickness factor, at least in my case. The spot where Devore had struck me with his cane looked like the cone of a recently extinct volcano. Whitmore's bull's-eye had left a red wound that would need stitches if I wanted to avoid a scar. Blood, rusty and thin, stained the nape of my neck all around the hairline. God knew how much had flowed out of that unpleasant-looking red mouth and been washed away by the lake. I poured hydrogen peroxide into my cupped palm, steeled myself, and slapped it onto the gash back there like aftershave. The bite was monstrous, and I had to tighten my lips to keep from crying out. When the pain started to fade a little, I soaked cotton balls with more peroxide and cleaned my other wounds. I showered, threw on a tee-shirt and a pair of jeans, then went into the hall to phone the County Sheriff. There was no need for directory assistance; the Castle Rock P.D. and County Sheriff's numbers were on the IN CASE OF EMERGENCY card thumbtacked to the bulletin board, along with numbers for the fire department, the ambulance service, and the 900-number where you could get three answers to that day's Times crossword puzzle for a buck-fifty. I dialed the first three numbers fast, then began to slow down. I got as far as 955-960 before stopping altogether. I stood there in the hall with the phone pressed against my ear, visualizing another headline, this one not in the decorous Times but the rowdy New York Post. NOVELIST TO AGING COMPU-KING: ‘YOU BIG BULLY!' Along with side-by-side pictures of me, looking roughly my age, and Max Devore, looking roughly a hundred and six. The Post would have great fun telling its readers how Devore (along with his companion, an elderly lady who might weigh ninety pounds soaking wet) had lumped up a novelist half his age a guy who looked, in his photograph, at least, reasonably trim and fit. The phone got tired of holding only six of the required seven numbers in its rudimentary brain, double-clicked, and dumped me back to an open line. I took the handset away from my ear, stared at it for a moment, and then set it gently back down in its cradle. I'm not a sissy about the sometimes whimsical, sometimes hateful attention of the press, but I'm wary, as I would be around a bad-tempered fur-bearing mammal. America has turned the people who entertain it into weird high-class whores, and the media jeers at any ‘celeb' who dares complain about his or her treatment. ‘Quitcha bitchin!' cry the newspapers and the TV gossip shows (the tone is one of mingled triumph and indignation). ‘Didja really think we paid ya the big bucks just to sing a song or swing a Louisville Slugger? Wrong, asshole! We pay so we can be amazed when you do it well whatever â€Å"it† happens to be in your particular case and also because it's gratifying when you fuck up. The truth is you're supplies. If you cease to be amusing, we can always kill you and eat you.' They can't really eat you, of course. They can print pictures of you with your shirt off and say you're running to fat, they can talk about how much you drink or how many pills you take or snicker about the night you pulled some starlet onto your lap at Spago and tried to stick your tongue in her ear, but they can't really eat you. So it wasn't the thought of the Post calling me a crybaby or being a part of Jay Leno's opening monologue that made me put the phone down; it was the realization that I had no proof. No one had seen us. And, I realized, finding an alibi for himself and his personal assistant would be the easiest thing in the world for Max Devore. There was one other thing, too, the capper: imagining the County Sheriff sending out George Footman, aka daddy, to take my statement on how the mean man had knocked li'l Mikey into the lake. How the three of them would laugh later about that! I called John Storrow instead, wanting him to tell me I was doing the right thing, the only thing that made any sense. Wanting him to remind me that only desperate men were driven to such desperate lengths (I would ignore, at least for the time being, how the two of them had laughed, as if they were having the time of their lives), and that nothing had changed in regard to Ki Devore her grandfather's custody case still sucked bogwater. I got John's recording machine at home and left a message just call Mike Noonan, no emergency, but feel free to call late. Then I tried his office, mindful of the scripture according to John Grisham: young lawyers work until they drop. I listened to the firm's recording machine, then followed instructions and punched STO on my phone keypad, the first three letters of John's last name. There was a click and he came on the line another recorded version, unfortunately. ‘Hi, this is John Storrow. I've gone up to Philly for the weekend to see my mom and dad. I'll be in the office on Monday; for the rest of the week, I'll be out on business. From Tuesday to Friday you'll probably have the most luck trying to reach me at . . . ‘ The number he gave began 207-955, which meant Castle Rock. I imagined it was the hotel where he'd stayed before, the nice one up on the View. ‘Mike Noonan,' I said. ‘Call me when you can. I left a message on your apartment machine, too.' I went in the kitchen to get a beer, then only stood there in front of the refrigerator, playing with the magnets. Whoremaster, he'd called me. Say there, whoremaster, where's your whore? A minute later he had offered to save my soul. Quite funny, really. Like an alcoholic offering to take care of your liquor cabinet. He spoke of you with what I think was genuine affection, Mattie had said. Your great-grandfather and his great-grandfather shit in the same pit. I left the fridge with all the beer still safe inside, went back to the phone, and called Mattie. ‘Hi,' said another obviously recorded voice. I was on a roll. ‘It's me, but either I'm out or not able to come to the phone right this minute. Leave a message, okay?' A pause, the mike rustling, a distant whisper, and then Kyra, so loud she almost blew my ear off: ‘Leave a HAPPY message!' What followed was laughter from both of them, cut off by the beep. ‘Hi, Mattie, it's Mike Noonan,' I said. ‘I just wanted ‘ I don't know how I would have finished that thought, and I didn't have to. There was a click and then Mattie herself said, ‘Hello, Mike.' There was such a difference between this dreary, defeated-sounding voice and the cheerful one on the tape that for a moment I was silenced. Then I asked her what was wrong. ‘Nothing,' she said, then began to cry. ‘Everything. I lost my job. Lindy fired me.' Firing wasn't what Lindy had called it, of course. She'd called it ‘belt-tightening,' but it was firing, all right, and I knew that if I looked into the funding of the Four Lakes Consolidated Library, I would discover that one of the chief supporters over the years had been Mr. Max Devore. And he'd continue to be one of the chief supporters . . . if, that was, Lindy Briggs played ball. ‘We shouldn't have talked where she could see us doing it,' I said, knowing I could have stayed away from the library completely and Mattie would be just as gone. ‘And we probably should have seen this coming.' ‘John Storrow did see it.' She was still crying, but making an effort to get it under control. ‘He said Max Devore would probably want to make sure I was as deep in the corner as he could push me, come the custody hearing. He said Devore would want to make sure I answered â€Å"I'm unemployed, Your Honor† when the judge asked where I worked. I told John Mrs. Briggs would never do anything so low, especially to a girl who'd given such a brilliant talk on Melville's â€Å"Bartleby.† Do you know what he told me?' ‘No.' ‘He said, â€Å"You're very young.† I thought that was a patronizing thing to say, but he was right, wasn't he?' ‘Mattie ‘ ‘What am I going to do, Mike? What am I going to do?' The panic-rat had moved on down to Wasp Hill Road, it sounded like. I thought, quite coldly: Why not become my mistress? Your title will be ‘research assistant,' a perfectly jake occupation as far as the IRS is concerned, I'll throw in clothes, a couple of charge cards, a house say goodbye to the rustbucket doublewide on Wasp Hill Road and a two-week vacation: how does February on Maui sound? Plus Ki's education, of course, and a hefty cash bonus at the end of the year. I'll be considerate, too. Considerate and discreet. Once or twice a week, and never until your little girl is fast asleep. All you have to do is say yes and give me a key. All you have to do is slide over when I slide in. All you have to do is let me do what I want all through the dark, all through the night, let me touch where I want to touch, let me do what I want to do, never say no, never say stop. I closed my eyes. ‘Mike? Are you there?' ‘Sure,' I said. I touched the throbbing gash at the back of my head and winced. ‘You're going to do just fine, Mattie. You ‘ ‘The trailer's not paid for!' she nearly wailed. ‘I have two overdue phone bills and they're threatening to cut off the service! There's something wrong with the Jeep's transmission, and the rear axle, as well! I can pay for Ki's last week of Vacation Bible School, I guess Mrs. Briggs gave me three weeks' pay in lieu of notice but how will I buy her shoes? She outgrows everything so fast . . . there's holes in all her shorts and most of her g-g-goddam underwear . . . ‘ She was starting to weep again. ‘I'm going to take care of you until you get back on your feet,' I said. ‘No, I can't let ‘ ‘You can. And for Kyra's sake, you will. Later on, if you still want to, you can pay me back. We'll keep tabs on every dollar and dime, if you like. But I'm going to take care of you.' And you'll never take off your clothes when I'm with you. That's a promise, and I'm going to keep it. ‘Mike, you don't have to do this.' ‘Maybe, maybe not. But I am going to do it. You just try and stop me.' I'd called meaning to tell her what had happened to me giving her the humorous version but that now seemed like the worst idea in the world. ‘This custody thing is going to be over before you know it, and if you can't find anyone brave enough to put you to work down here once it is, I'll find someone up in Derry who'll do it. Besides, tell me the truth aren't you starting to feel that it might be time for a change of scenery?' She managed a scrap of a laugh. ‘I guess you could say that.' ‘Heard from John today?' ‘Actually, yes. He's visiting his parents in Philadelphia but he gave me the number there. I called him.' He'd said he was taken with her. Perhaps she was taken with him, as well. I told myself the thorny little tug I felt across my emotions at the idea was only my imagination. Tried to tell myself that, anyway. ‘What did he say about you losing your job the way you did?' ‘The same things you said. But he didn't make me feel safe. You do. I don't know why.' I did. I was an older man, and that is our chief attraction to young women: we make them feel safe. ‘He's coming up again Tuesday morning. I said I'd have lunch with him.' Smoothly, not a tremor or hesitation in my voice, I said: ‘Maybe I could join you.' Mattie's own voice warmed at the suggestion; her ready acceptance made me feel paradoxically guilty. ‘That would be great! Why don't I call him and suggest that you both come over here? I could barbecue again. Maybe I'll keep Ki home from VBS and make it a foursome. She's hoping you'll read her another story. She really enjoyed that.' ‘That sounds great,' I said, and meant it. Adding Kyra made it all seem more natural, less of an intrusion on my part. Also less like a date on theirs. John could not be accused of taking an unethical interest in his client. In the end he'd probably thank me. ‘I believe Ki might be ready to move on to â€Å"Hansel and Gretel.† How are you, Mattie? All right?' ‘Much better than I was before you called.' ‘Good. Things are going to be all right.' ‘Promise me.' ‘I think I just did.' There was a slight pause. ‘Are you all right, Mike? You sound a little . . . I don't know . . . a little strange.' ‘I'm okay,' I said, and I was, for someone who had been pretty sure he was drowning less than an hour ago. ‘Can I ask you one question before I go? Because this is driving me crazy.' ‘Of course.' ‘The night we had dinner, you said Devore told you his great-grandfather and mine knew each other. Pretty well, according to him.' ‘He said they shit in the same pit. I thought that was elegant.' ‘Did he say anything else? Think hard.' She did, but came up with nothing. I told her to call me if something about that conversation did occur to her, or if she got lonely or scared, or if she started to feel worried about anything. I didn't like to say too much, but I had already decided I'd have to have a frank talk with John about my latest adventure. It might be prudent to have the private detective from Lewiston George Kennedy, like the actor put a man or two on the TR to keep an eye on Mattie and Kyra. Max Devore was mad, just as my caretaker had said. I hadn't understood then, but I did now. Any time I started to doubt, all I had to do was touch the back of my head. I returned to the fridge and once more forgot to open it. My hands went to the magnets instead and again began moving them around, watching as words formed, broke apart, evolved. It was a peculiar kind of writing . . . but it was writing. I could tell by the way I was starting to trance out. That half-hypnotized stare is one you cultivate until you can switch it on and off at will . . . at least you can when things are going well. The intuitive part of the mind unlocks itself when you begin work and rises to a height of about six feet (maybe ten on good days). Once there, it simply hovers, sending black-magic messages and bright pictures. For the balance of the day that part is locked to the rest of the machinery and goes pretty much forgotten . . . except on certain occasions when it comes loose on its own and you trance out unexpectedly, your mind making associations which have nothing to do with rational thought and glaring with unexpected images. That is in some ways the strangest part of the creative process. The muses are ghosts, and sometimes they come uninvited. My house is haunted. Sara Laughs has always been haunted . . . you've stirred em up. stirred, I wrote on the refrigerator. But it didn't look right, so I made a circle of fruit and vegetable magnets around it. That was better, much. I stood there for a moment, hands crossed over my chest as I crossed them at my desk when I was stuck for a word or a phrase, then took off stirr and put on haunt, making haunted. ‘It's haunted in the circle,' I said, and barely heard the faint chime of Bunter's bell, as if in agreement. I took the letters off, and as I did found myself thinking how odd it was to have a lawyer named Romeo (romeo went in the circle) and a detective named George Kennedy. (george went up on the fridge) I wondered if Kennedy could help me with Andy Drake (drake on the fridge) maybe give me some insights. I'd never written about a private detective before and it's the little stuff (rake off, leave the d, add etails) that makes the difference. I turned a 3 on its back and put an I beneath it, making a pitchfork. The devil's in the details. From there I went somewhere else. I don't know where, exactly, because I was tranced out, that intuitive part of my mind up so high a search-party couldn't have found it. I stood in front of my fridge and played with the letters, spelling out little pieces of thought without even thinking about them. You mightn't believe such a thing is possible, but every writer knows it is. What brought me back was light splashing across the windows of the foyer. I looked up and saw the shape of a car pulling to a stop behind my Chevrolet. A cramp of terror seized my belly. That was a moment when I would have given everything I owned for a loaded gun. Because it was Footman. Had to be. Devore had called him when he and Whitmore got back to Warrington's, had told him Noonan refuses to be a good Martian so get over there and fix him. When the driver's door opened and the dome-light in the visitor's car came on, I breathed a conditional sigh of relief. I didn't know who it was, but it sure wasn't ‘daddy.' This fellow didn't look as if he could take care of a housefly with a rolled-up newspaper . . . although, I supposed, there were plenty of people who had made that same mistake about Jeffrey Dahmer. Above the fridge was a cluster of aerosol cans, all of them old and probably not ozone-friendly. I didn't know how Mrs. M. had missed them, but I was pleased she had. I took the first one my hand touched Black Flag, excellent choice thumbed off the cap, and stuck the can in the left front pocket of my jeans. Then I turned to the drawers on the right of the sink. The top one contained silverware. The second one held what Jo called ‘kitchenshit' everything from poultry thermometers to those gadgets you stick in corncobs so you don't burn your fingers off. The third one down held a generous selection of mismatched steak knives. I took one, put it in the right front pocket of my jeans, and went to the door. The man on my stoop jumped a little when I turned on the outside light, then blinked through the door at me like a nearsighted rabbit. He was about five-four, skinny, pale. He wore his hair cropped in the sort of cut known as a wiffle in my boyhood days. His eyes were brown. Guarding them was a pair of horn-rimmed glasses with greasy-looking lenses. His little hands hung at his sides. One held the handle of a flat leather case, the other a small white oblong. I didn't think it was my destiny to be killed by a man with a business card in one hand, so I opened the door. The guy smiled, the anxious sort of smile people always seem to wear in Woody Allen movies. He was wearing a Woody Allen outfit too, I saw faded plaid shirt a little too short at the wrists, chinos a little too baggy in the crotch. Someone must have told him about the resemblance, I thought. That's got to be it. ‘Mr. Noonan?' ‘Yes?' He handed me the card. NEXT CENTURY REAL ESTATE, it said in raised gold letters. Below this, in more modest black, was my visitor's name. ‘I'm Richard Osgood,' he said as if I couldn't read, and held out his hand. The American male's need to respond to that gesture in kind is deeply ingrained, but that night I resisted it. He held his little pink paw out a moment longer, then lowered it and wiped the palm nervously against his chinos. ‘I have a message for you. From Mr. Devore.' I waited. ‘May I come in?' ‘No,' I said. He took a step backward, wiped his hand on his pants again, and seemed to gather himself. ‘I hardly think there's any need to be rude, Mr. Noonan.' I wasn't being rude. If I'd wanted to be rude, I would have treated him to a faceful of roach-repellent. ‘Max Devore and his minder tried to drown me in the lake this evening. If my manners seem a little off to you, that's probably it.' Osgood's look of shock was real, I think. ‘You must be working too hard on your latest project, Mr. Noonan. Max Devore is going to be eighty-six on his next birthday if he makes it, which now seems to be in some doubt. Poor old fella can hardly even walk from his chair to his bed anymore. As for Rogette ‘ ‘I see your point,' I said. ‘In fact I saw it twenty minutes ago, without any help from you. I hardly believe it myself, and I was there. Give me whatever it is you have for me.' ‘Fine,' he said in a prissy little ‘all right, be that way' voice. He unzipped a pouch on the front of his leather bag and brought out a white envelope, business-sized and sealed. I took it, hoping Osgood couldn't sense how hard my heart was thumping. Devore moved pretty damned fast for a man who travelled with an oxygen tank. The question was, what kind of move was this? ‘Thanks,' I said, beginning to close the door. ‘I'd tip you the price of a drink, but I left my wallet on the dresser.' ‘Wait! You're supposed to read it and give me an answer.' I raised my eyebrows. ‘I don't know where Devore got the notion that he could order me around, but I have no intention of allowing his ideas to influence my behavior. Buzz off.' His lips turned down, creating deep dimples at the corners of his mouth, and all at once he didn't look like Woody Allen at all. He looked like a fifty-year-old real-estate broker who had sold his soul to the devil and now couldn't stand to see anyone yank the boss's forked tail. ‘Piece of friendly advice, Mr. Noonan you want to watch it. Max Devore is no man to fool around with.' ‘Luckily for me, I'm not fooling around.' I closed the door and stood in the foyer, holding the envelope and watching Mr. Next Century Real Estate. He looked pissed off and con-fused no one had given him the bum's rush just lately, I guessed. Maybe it would do him some good. Lend a little perspective to his life. Remind him that, Max Devore or no Max Devore, Richie Osgood would still never stand more than five-feet-seven. Even in cowboy boots. ‘Mr. Devore wants an answer!' he called through the closed door. ‘I'll phone,' I called back, then slowly raised my middle fingers in the double eagle I'd hoped to give Max and Rogette earlier. ‘In the meantime, perhaps you could convey this.' I almost expected him to take off his glasses and rub his eyes. He walked back to his car instead, tossed his case in, then followed it. I watched until he had backed up to the lane and I was sure he was gone. Then I went into the living room and opened the envelope. Inside was a single sheet of paper, faintly scented with the perfume my mother had worn when I was just a kid. White Shoulders, I think it's called. Across the top neat, ladylike, printed in slightly raised letters was ROGETTE D. WHITMORE Below it was this message, written in a slightly shaky feminine hand: 8.30 P.M. Dear Mr. Noonan, Max wishes me to convey how glad he was to meet you! I must echo that sentiment. You are a very amusing and entertaining fellow! We enjoyed your antics ever so much. Now to business. M. offers you a very simple deal: if you promise to cease asking questions about him, and if you promise to cease all legal maneuvering if you promise to let him rest in peace, so to speak then Mr. Devore promises to cease efforts to gain custody of his granddaughter. If this suits, you need only tell Mr. Osgood ‘I agree.' He will carry the message! Max hopes to return to California by private jet very soon he has business which can be put off no longer, although he has enjoyed his time here and has found you particularly interesting. He wants me to remind you that custody has its responsibilities, and urges you not to forget he said so. Rogette P.S. He reminds me that you didn't answer his question does her cunt suck? Max is quite curious on that point. R. I read this note over a second time, then a third. I started to put it on the table, then read it a fourth time. It was as if I couldn't get the sense of it. I had to restrain an urge to fly to the telephone and call Mattie at once. It's over, Mattie, I'd say. Taking your job and dunking me in the lake were the last two shots of the war. He's giving up. No. Not until I was absolutely sure. I called Warrington's instead, where I got my fourth answering machine of the night. Devore and Whitmore hadn't bothered with anything warm and fuzzy, either; a voice as cold as a motel ice-machine simply told me to leave my message at the sound of the beep. ‘It's Noonan,' I said. Before I could go any further there was a click as someone picked up. ‘Did you enjoy your swim?' Rogette Whitmore asked in a smoky, mocking voice. if I hadn't seen her in the flesh, I might have imagined a Barbara Stanwyck type at her most coldly attractive, coiled on a red velvet couch in a peach-silk dressing gown, telephone in one hand, ivory cigarette holder in the other. ‘If I'd caught up with you, Ms. Whitmore, I would have made you understand my feelings perfectly.' ‘Oooo,' she said. ‘My thighs are a-tingle.' ‘Please spare me the image of your thighs.' ‘Sticks and stones, Mr. Noonan,' she said. ‘To what do we owe the pleasure of your call?' ‘I sent Mr. Osgood away without a reply.' ‘Max thought you might. He said, â€Å"Our young whoremaster believes in the value of a personal response. You can tell that just looking at him.† ‘He gets the uglies when he loses, doesn't he?' ‘Mr. Devore doesn't lose.' Her voice dropped at least forty degrees and all the mocking good humor bailed out on the way down. ‘He may change his goals, but he doesn't lose. You were the one who looked like a loser tonight, Mr. Noonan, paddling around and yelling out there in the lake. You were scared, weren't you?' ‘Yes. Badly.' ‘You were right to be. I wonder if you know how lucky you are?' ‘May I tell you something?' ‘Of course, Mike may I call you Mike?' ‘Why don't you just stick with Mr. Noonan. Now are you listening?' ‘With bated breath.' ‘Your boss is old, he's nutty, and I suspect he's past the point where he could effectively manage a Yahtzee scorecard, let alone a custody suit. He was whipped a week ago.' ‘Do you have a point?' ‘As a matter of fact I do, so get it right: if either of you ever tries anything remotely like that again, I'll come after that old fuck and jam his snot-smeared oxygen mask so far up his ass he'll be able to aerate his lungs from the bottom. And if I see you on The Street, Ms. Whitmore, I'll use you for a shotput. Do you understand me?' I stopped, breathing hard, amazed and also rather disgusted with myself. If you had told me I'd had such a speech in me, I would have scoffed. After a long silence I said: ‘Ms. Whitmore? Still there?' ‘I'm here,' she said. I wanted her to be furious, but she actually sounded amused. ‘Who has the uglies now, Mr. Noonan?' ‘I do,' I said, ‘and don't you forget it, you rock-throwing bitch.' ‘What is your answer to Mr. Devore?' ‘We have a deal. I shut up, the lawyers shut up, he gets out of Mattie and Kyra's life. If, on the other hand, he continues to ‘ ‘I know, I know, you'll bore him and stroke him. I wonder how you'll feel about all this a week from now, you arrogant, stupid creature?' Before I could reply it was on the tip of my tongue to tell her that even at her best she still threw like a girl she was gone. I stood there with the telephone in my hand for a few seconds, then hung it up. Was it a trick? It felt like a trick, but at the same time it didn't. John needed to know about this. He hadn't left his parents' number on his answering machine, but Mattie had it. If I called her back, though, I'd be obligated to tell her what had just happened. It might be a good idea to put off any further calls until tomorrow. To sleep on it. I stuck my hand in my pocket and damned near impaled it on the steak knife hiding there. I'd forgotten all about it. I took it out, carried it back into the kitchen, and returned it to the drawer. Next I fished out the aerosol can, turned to put it back on top of the fridge with its elderly brothers, then stopped. Inside the circle of fruit and vegetable magnets was this: d go w 19n Had I done that myself?. Had I been so far into the zone, so tranced out, that I had put a mini-crossword on the refrigerator without remembering it? And if so, what did it mean? Maybe someone else put it up, I thought. One of my invisible roommates. ‘Go down 19n,' I said, reaching out and touching the letters. A compass heading? Or maybe it meant Go 19 Down. That suggested crosswords again. Sometimes in a puzzle you get a clue which reads simply See 19 Across or See 19 Down. If that was the meaning here, what puzzle was I supposed to check? ‘I could use a little help here,' I said, but there was no answer not from the astral plane, not from inside my own head. I finally got the can of beer I'd been promising myself and took it back to the sofa. I picked up my Tough Stuff crossword book and looked at the puzzle I was currently working. ‘Liquor Is Quicker,' it was called, and it was filled with the stupid puns which only crossword addicts find amusing. Tipsy actor? Marion Brandy. Tipsy southern novel? Tequila Mockingbird. Drives the DA to drink? Bourbon of proof. And the definition of Down was Oriental nurse, which every cruciverbalist in the universe knows is amah. Nothing in ‘Liquor Is Quicker' connected to what was going on in my life, at least that I could see. I thumbed through some of the other puzzles in the book, looking at 19 Downs. Marble worker's tool (chisel). CNN's favorite howler, 2 wds (wolfblitzer). Ethanol and dimethyl ether, e.g. (isomers). I tossed the book aside in disgust. Who said it had to be this particular crossword collection, anyway? There were probably fifty others in the house, four or five in the drawer of the very end-table on which my beer can stood. I leaned back on the sofa and closed my eyes. I always liked a whore . . . sometimes their place was on my face. This is where good pups and vile dogs may walk side-by-side. There's no town drunk here, we all take turns. This is where it happened. Ayuh. I fell asleep and woke up three hours later with a stiff neck and a terrible throb in the back of my head. Thunder was rumbling thickly far off in the White Mountains, and the house seemed very hot. When I got up from the couch, the backs of my thighs more or less peeled away from the fabric. I shuffled down to the north wing like an old, old man, looked at my wet clothes, thought about taking them into the laundry room, and then decided if I bent over that far, my head might explode. ‘You ghosts take care of it,' I muttered. ‘If you can change the pants and the underwear around on the whirligig, you can put my clothes in the hamper.' I took three Tylenol and went to bed. At some point I woke a second time and heard the phantom child sobbing. ‘Stop,' I told it. ‘Stop it, Ki, no one's going to take you anywhere. You're safe.' Then I went back to sleep again.