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Sean’s day started off slow.
He was lingering at the breakfast table, reading the news on his iPad. His mom was somewhere in the house running the vacuum, and the washing machine was on a last spin, but something was off-balance because it was beginning to thump.
He got up to shift the load and glanced at the clock. It was after 9:00 a.m. Normally, he would be in his office, but he was caught up with his workload and looking forward to a slow day when his phone rang. He glanced at caller ID, saw Carson Veterinary Clinic on the screen, and answered.
“Hello, this is Sean.”
“Sean, this is Sam Carson at the vet clinic. We have some kind of issue with the computer setup in our office, and it’s slowing everything down to a crawl. Do you have time to come in to town to check it out?”
“As it happens, I do,” Sean said. “I can be there in about twenty minutes or so.”
“I owe you, man. When you get here, you’ll see what I mean,” Sam said. “See you soon.”
Sean dropped the phone in his pocket and then went to look for his mom to tell her he was leaving. He found her on her knees in her bedroom, going through an old trunk, with half the contents already scattered out around her.
“Hey, Mom, is everything okay?”
Shirley looked up, smiling. “Yes. I got sidetracked. All this stuff was Mom’s. I’m just visiting my past.”
“Then say hi to Grandma for me,” he said. “I just got a phone call from the vet’s office. Their computers are down. I’m heading there now. Need anything from Jubilee before I come home?”
“I’m going to town later. I have a half-dozen errands to run, and I’m taking Dani out to lunch at Cajun Katie’s. Drive safe.”
“Have fun. Love to Dani,” he said, then grabbed his coat and car keys and headed out the door.
The day was cold but clear, and the drive down uneventful. But when he pulled into the parking lot at the vet’s office and saw at least a dozen cars, he guessed it was about to get noisy, and he was right. He could heardogs barking from halfway across the parking lot, and chaos ensued after he entered the building.
With the computers down, Arletta, the receptionist, was red-faced and hassled by demands she couldn’t meet.
Leslie Morgan, Sam’s vet tech, was chasing a cat down the hall.
And then Sam appeared, saw Sean, and rolled his eyes.
“I did warn you.”
Sean laughed out loud. “So, besides the escape from the zoo, what’s going on here?”
“Follow me,” Sam said, and took Sean back to his office. “The backup of patients in the outer office is because the computers are down. I can’t pull up test results or anything to do with previous care. My computer went down first, and then everything else followed. I can’t figure out if it’s a power problem or something wonky with our technology.”
“I’m assuming you’ve tried turning everything off and then trying to reboot?” Sean asked.
“We’ve tried everything but a Ouija board,” Sam muttered.
“I empathize,” Sean said. “Before I begin, what exactly were you doing on the computer when it quit? Did it just go black, or flicker, or were there any warning signs?”
“Other than a clown face that looked like the Joker popping up, no.”
“Oh wow,” Sean said.
Sam sighed. “It’s a virus, isn’t it? I had just opened an email when it happened.”
“Sounds like it,” Sean said. “Write down your log-on and password info, then leave me to it.”
“Right,” Sam said. “Oh, if you need to know, the breaker box is down the hall, last door on the right.”
“Got it,” Sean said. “Go tend to your critters and I’ll see about cleaning this up.”
Sam opened the top drawer of his desk, pulled out a small red notebook, and opened it to the first page.
