Friends Always Win in the End!
by Ruwen Rouhs
Chapter 8
Fishing for Spy Software
The patrol officer in charge took a long time to calm down the angry delivery drivers. When the road in front of the house was finally cleared, a grey-haired man in plain cloth came over to Arash and Severin, "I'am detective chief Kraft, can I ask you both some questions?", turning to Arash, "You are living here. I suppose you haven't ordered 20 pizzas, you are just not big enough for a pizza eating competition!" he joked, then getting serious, "Can I take a look at your cell phones to check that you haven't called the delivery services?" Severin and Arash looked at each other, "If we have to, but only if it's not an interrogation. Otherwise I'll have to call my mother first and Arash his parents!"
"I wouldn't call it an interrogation, more like a request for information."
Severin held out his cell phone to him, "Here, but please just look at the call list. You can also check which radio cell we were in today."
"Yes, will do it."
"I spent the night at Severin's house." Arash offered more information. "Then we went shopping in the center. We have checked for wildlife cameras at MIGHTY MARKET and then at JUPITER. I'm sure there are a lot of pictures from the surveillance cameras there and finally we went to a second-hand store."
"We will do this! If necessary!" Checking the cell phones the officer in charge asserted, "The calls were not made with these phones, that is for sure. Do you have any other phones? Phones with Prepaid cards, e.g. The calls were made with a prepaid card, but the number is not listed anywhere."
After some time, a call came from the control center confirming that the two phones had been locked in in the area of a radio mast in the city center at the time of the order. Unfortunately, the cell site analysis also proved, that the person who had ordered the pizzas had also been in the same perimeter. The issue could therefore not be resolved in this way.
Not completely convinced of their innocence, the officer in charge realized that he had to let them go. But then he asked, "Can I come into the house, maybe something's wrong inside?" Turning to Arash, he said, "You were with your friend overnight, therefore you can't be sure that there haven't been some nightly visitors."
Nothing seemed to have changed in the house. It was a bit messy, but the cause was the hasty departure of Arash's parents. Since the police was already in the house, they looked for spy cameras in the usual places, for example on the ceiling lamp in the living room. Then they looked into Arash's father`s study. The Chief Kraft opened the door just a crack and stuck his nose in, then turned to Arash, "Is the PC connected to a ro u ter? Do you know?"
"Sure, it's on the bookshelf over there."
"Just go to the PC, do as if you want to start it and then switch out the rooter."
"Why at all? Why don't you do it yourself?" "If the PC is corrupted with a spying system, they should not know the police is around." Arash went in, switched on the PC, rummaged between the paper in front of the screen, then he made a disappointed face, and turned the ro u ter off. Now the police officers entered the study. The younger one, Henner, searched the room, while the Chief Kraft connected an USB flash drive to the PC. "I am looking for spy ware. If there is some, we will find it and delete it."
"Do you seriously think my father's PC is being bugged?"
"We know that your father is an opponent of the Mullah Regime in Iran and their secret service is also active in this country. I sure they installed some spying apps which transfers everything in front of the PC and everything that's entered in the keyboard to the addressee." Then he grinned, "And weren't you beaten up just a few days ago?" Arash was amazed, how did the police know about this? But he didn't get the chance to enquire for the policeman said with satisfaction, "Look here, two culprits! I will copy both spy-apps and then delete them!" Thinking a moment, "You better not go into the internet with this PC, till we give you a go-ahead!"
Asked if any other PCs are around, Arash told that his parents had taken their la p -tops on their journey and his was at Severin's place." "Don't use it, until we have checked it," was the instruction. At this point, the two police officers received an urgent message. "We have to go! Give us the address, someone will come by today!"
The set-up of the two wild-life cameras took longer than expected and when Severin and Arash were finally home, Severin's mother was already waiting impatiently, "A young policeman in plain clothes is here, he wants to check your lab-tops. Have you done something wrong?"
"No, mom, he wants just to make sure our PCs are not infected by spy-ware, like Arash's father's.
It was the young policeman whom Severin had found likeable. "Hi Henner!" Severin greeted him, "Let's go upstairs." In the room upstairs,
Henner took a quick look around, then went to the desk and got to work on the lab-tops. "This one is not infected. Is this yours, Severin?"
"Sure, I don't think anyone would have a reason to spy on me either."
"I could imagine who! Your old crush. Martha!" Arash teased him. "She never had it in her hand." But as he shook his head, he blushed.
The detective who had been watching the banter suddenly grinned, "Does Martha have a reason?" and nodded at the queen-size bed. Severin's face turned even redder now.
Arash rescued him, "We're sleeping in the same bed, but not together!"
The detective found what he was looking for in the other PC. "That is yours, isn't it?" he asked Arash. "It's one of the spy programs we found on your father's PC. I'll delete it and then I'll install a special anti-spyware program for you."
"Can you do the same for me?"
"I already have!" Shutting down Arash's notebook, "By the way. I'm Henner to my friends and you're Severin and Arash, can I use your first names?" Both nodded in surprise at the offer and didn't know how to react at first.
When Henner's stomach suddenly growled loudly, Severin thought of the right question. "Have you eaten yet?" Henner shook his head, "Neither have we. Do you like kebabs? We'll take you to Mahmut's Kebab place, it's just around the corner!" "But I'll pay for it myself, otherwise it would be a bribe on duty!"
Mahmut's Kebab Hang Out belonged to Tanner's father. Tanner always helped out in the evening, and he did so again today. When he saw Severin with his companions, he immediately prepared three large kebabs. He topped them extra thick and brought them to them at the bar table. "Hardworking as always, Tanner? I thought your father was giving you some rest during the vacations. They are your last ones, anyway. Didn't he want you to improve your school report and give you time to for preparing for the admission examination? Doesn't he want you to become a doctor!"
"Of course, he does, like all Turkish fathers do! But you know my dream. He doesn't want to hear about it. Too dangerous! Too dangerous! My mother supports him!"
"Hello Tanner, get you lazy …, come over here, new customers!" called Mahmut and as he didn't like to see his son chatting to young people while working.
"It's already 10 p.m. now. Your shift sure is over by now, Henner. Can we take you out for an ice cream?" As Henner seemed to be interested in Tanner, Arash pointed at the leaving schoolmate, "He'll probably drop by the ice cream parlor too."
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