Tools

Episode 22 of the June Murders

Zac had always loved the elegance of nano-technology. He loved the process of construction. He liked the painstaking etching of silicon wafers and the creation of FPGA or field programmable gate arrays. Lately, it had become more difficult to get components. Fortunately, as the Brexit negotiations dragged on, he had decided to stockpile items that he sourced overseas. He hadn’t anticipated a global pandemic, of course, but given his solitary lifestyle, lockdown had not been the shock it was for others.

Of course, it impacted his business. He had supplemented his hi-tech, bespoke commissions with a variety of commonplace computer repairs and that business had slowed and then immediately surged as people spent hours on computers that could not take the strain. He still was able to pick and choose; he only took on enough dull repair work to cover his running costs and always left time for experimentation. He also continued to build his international reputation. He was getting a lot of enquiries from China and the Far East, and a few from the Americas and Russia. Some directed him to “darkweb” contacts. He didn’t care. He didn’t like people and they tended not to like him. He mistrusted anyone who tried to get too close. From his earliest memories, people who had done that had ultimately hurt him.