Day 7 - Our Luck Ran Out

One morning, after a long evening studying in my dorm room - I didn't go to the Computer Center every evening, and the previous evening I hadn't - I casually strolled into the Science Building.

My planned morning:

• up at 7:00.
  
• Eat breakfast before the crowd hit the cafeteria.
  
• Stroll to the Computer Center.
  
• Get a program (a legit program) in the SA office and work for an hour or so.
  
• Have a cup of hot tea, and chat with Harry, Tom, or whoever was in.
  
• Class in whatever at 9:00.
  

This did not happen.

I just entered the Science Building, and was intercepted by Bob, who was simply freaked out. Bob proceeded to warn me to not go into the Computer Room unprepared for the situation. He described the situation (not this objectively though):

• Bob had been the SA on duty the previous night.
  
• Zed, one of the junior nerds (even nerds like to have somebody to look down upon), had spent the entire previous night hanging around the Computer Center.
  
• When Bob left for the night, and locked the Computer Center, Zed had stayed behind.
  
• Zed had spent all night PLAYING HIGH SCHOOL SEX, and had left the building during the very early morning hours.
  
• Zed had left dozens of feet of teletype paper, hanging from the teletype outside the computer center, from his game playing.
  
• Wade, the senior Physics professor, had arrived early that morning, had walked by the computer center, and had seen all the paper hanging from the teletype.
  
• Wade was NOT thrilled by the content of the paper.
  
• Wade had gone straight to Harris with the paper that he found.
  
• Harris had an early morning meeting with Harry and Tom (adult).
  

The upshot of all of this was that Harris and the rest of the adults were now aware that Something Was Going On in the student population.

Wade was a staunch member of the denomination of faith which owned the college, and he was not pleased by this unacceptable behaviour which was obviously taking place.

Harris made the pronouncement to the adults, and the SAs, in a very brief meeting.

• Lock down the teletype system.
  
• Harry was to do a minimal amount of administrative work, and be finished by 9:00.
  
• Harry was to bring up the student system, lock out the teletypes (excepting the one in the computer room), and proceed to examine each file, one by one, until the perpetrators of this unacceptable behaviour were identified.
  

Fortunately, Harris had no suspicion that any SAs were any part of this behaviour. At least, as I listened to him, I could detect no clue. He had to be a pretty good actor anyway.

As Harris finished his pronouncement, I remembered that I had some code which was due for an assignment later that day. So I strolled in to the computer room, and back to the SA office in the back. I guess I was a better actor than I let myself believe.

The only reason why any action by me was at all possible was thanks to Tom (student), and the teletype switch with the hard connection. The hard connection, to the teletype in the SA office, the one which Harris, Harry, and Tom did not know about?

I was worried, because I know timing was everything now. I had maybe 15 seconds - the amount of time it would take for Harry to walk across the room from the teletype controller to the computer room teletype - to login and delete the contents of File #003 (My Personal File). Obviously, I couldn't do anything while Harry was in front of the teletype controller (which was right next to the SA office), I had to wait until after Harry had headed back towards the teletype in the computer room.

So I just walked in to the computer room, past Harry at the teletype controller, said something insulting (acting normal), walked in to the SA office, opened a file cabinet, pulled out a pack of punch cards, and did my darndest to look busy.

Harry walked back to the computer room teletype (fortunately for me, one with no view of the SA office). I dropped the cards, walked up to the SA office teletype, signed in, and cleared file #003, and then several other files, including Art's file, and all others which I had assigned (thank heavens I kept a log of files assigned). Then I ripped the paper off the teletype, grabbed a stack of paper, strolled out of the computer room, and on to class. No I didn't actually go to class, I went to the Men's Room, I will let your imagination write the rest of that tale.

Essentially, Harry never found a copy of High School Sex in any of the files. All files were cleared, before I went to the Men's Room. But if file #003 was empty when he checked it, it hadn't been empty for very long.

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