The Evil Occupants of Easingdale Castle

By Ray Filby

Teenager, Jason, and his friends, Bill, Becky and Liz, are recruited by an unusual messenger to pit their wits against an international gang of forgers, This gang is intent on destabilising the British economy by flooding the country with forged £20 notes which could pass off as the real thing.  A number of problems immediately arise.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dr. Ray Filby
• Release date: Jan 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9781999683597

Ray Filby

Ray Filby qualified as a physicist at Imperial College in 1958 and went on to take a doctorate there. He has also been awarded a Master's degree in Manufacturing Systems Engineering by the University of Warwick where he was awarded a special prize for his performance on this course. On graduating, Ray joined the army where he served with the REME as officer in charge of the telecommunications workshop in Gibraltar. Dr. Filby started his career as a Development Engineer at a firm involved in the manufacture of scientific instruments in London but he has spent most of his working life in teaching. He was Head of the Maths and Science Department at a College of Further Education in Coventry, after which he spent some years with the education advisory service. Among other things, this involved writing material which would provide real life contexts for the secondary school mathematics curriculum. For a short time, Dr. Filby worked as a Technical Writer for Jaguar Cars. For the last several years up until his retirement, he worked as an Information Officer with Severn Trent Water. Dr. Filby is actively involved in the work of his church, St. Michael's, Budbrooke, where he is a licensed lay minister. For many years he was sub-warden for Readers in the Diocese of Coventry. Ray is married to a former teacher, Sue, and has two grown up children, Andrew, a chartered accountant and Sarah, a doctor. He has five grandchildren.

Book preview

Chapter 1 Introducing Miguel

Check mate! Well done the black pieces!

The voice programmed into Jason’s personal computer expressed its congratulations and the chess board, displaying the final position faded. It was replaced by alternating pictures of two kings, one in black robes, looking very much like an Ethiopian emperor of old, smiling to express the triumph achieved by the black pieces, and the other, a scowling silver haired figure in white like a Scandinavian monarch of yore, displaying his displeasure at the failure of the white pieces to achieve their usual victory.

Jason sat back with some satisfaction from the PC (Personal Computer) which had occupied his attention for a large part of the evening. Jason was a gifted fifteen year old who committed himself so wholeheartedly to anything he took up that he invariably did well. Jason had just won a game of chess against his computer on to which the Kasparov Chess Package had been loaded. Not only had he won with the black pieces but the programme had been set to skill level 8. If you could beat the computer when the package was set to skill level 10, you were approaching Chess Grand Master standard.

Jason logged out of the Kasparov Chess package and clicked on the icon on the PC screen to take him into his e-mail. Only one new message.

From :Miguel < no return address >

Sent :09 June 2005

To :Jason Markham

< jason:[e-mail] >

Subject : Your help is needed !

Jason did not know a Miguel. This e-mail looked suspiciously like SPAM (Self Propagated Advertising Material). Jason was always wary about downloading e-mails from an unknown source. A friend had had the hard disc on his computer wiped clean as a result of downloading an e-mail with an attachment which carried a destructive computer virus. Jason knew he had to proceed with caution. He took a deep breath and double clicked on this new e-mail. A short message appeared.

Hi Jason,

Your country is facing a very unusual danger.

You and your friends, Liz, Becky and Bill, have the skills needed to avert this danger. Please log in to my web site so that I can tell you more.

The web site address is

uvw.miguel.co.heaven.

Regards,

Miguel.

The fact that Miguel knew the names of Jason’s special friends gave him the confidence that this web site would be safe but an anxious thought crossed Jason’s mind.

Every website accessible from my computer is on the world wide web (www.) I don’t recognise ‘uvw’. However, no harm in giving this a try. I don’t expect to get anywhere using this address but if I do get in, I won’t download anything if I have the slightest suspicion that a virus is lurking.

Jason keyed into Miguel’s website and was staggered when what appeared to be the face of a handsome young man appeared on the screen, but no, it wasn’t just a face, it was a fully three dimensional head. Unlike the monochrome hologram images which Jason had seen generated at exhibitions, this image was in natural and vivid colour, a face with bright eyes and radiating a healthy glow beneath thick, jet black hair. Jason had never seen a three dimensional image on his screen before. Indeed, up until this moment, he didn’t believe that the technology built into his monitor was capable of generating such an image in the normal way.

The face on the screen smiled and spoke with a clear and gentle voice which almost had a musical tone to it.

Thank you for logging in to my web site, Jason. I can see that you are very surprised. Yes, I can see you from here and if you speak, I will be able to hear you. ‘uvw’ web sites are very special !

Jason was absolutely flabbergasted and almost speechless, but not quite.

Well, let’s test this claim out, he thought to himself.

I have never before logged on to any website which was not prefixed ‘www’. Whatever is ‘uvw’? asked Jason. (www = world wide web)

Miguel replied.

‘uvw’ is Uni Versal Web. Very few computers are linked into this. We have to make the necessary connection from our side using technology not available on earth. We don’t use telephone lines or optical fibres. The connection is made using heavenly aether.

Miguel then went on to introduce himself.

"My name is Miguel. I’m an angel, - to be more precise, a messenger angel. The job of messenger angels is to communicate important information from heaven to those who need to be recruited into special service to safeguard the well-being of the world. We messenger angels have been around from time immemorial. Some messenger angels speak to people through dreams or directly into their minds. In the past, angels have appeared, looking just like ordinary people. In these days, now that the technology you humans have developed is so advanced, our way of working has changed so that we may communicate with humans as I am doing now, by appearing on a ‘uvw’ web site.

Since I have been reassigned to work in this sort of way, my fellow angels have given me the nickname, ‘Megabyte Miguel’. Yes, in some ways, we messenger angels act very much like you humans. My colleagues working in the same field have also picked up nick names. ‘Dreamweaver Daniel’, and ‘Picosecond Peverel’ are my special angel friends."

Miguel was smiling as he made this introduction of himself to a totally amazed Jason, but he adopted a more serious expression as he continued to outline the particular danger he was trying to avert.

At this point in time, no one in your country is aware that a criminal gang are working on a project which will totally ruin Britain’s economy. I have contacted you because I think that you, working with your friends, Liz, Becky and Bill, are the only people capable of thwarting the gang in this evil scheme. Could you arrange to invite your friends round to meet me as you log on to this web site? Don’t tell them that an angel has appeared to you on your PC. If you did that, they would probably refuse to come, thinking that you had some practical joke up your sleeve. When you are all together here, you can then explain who I am and they will meet me for themselves when you log in to my website. Then, I can tell you all in detail about this criminal scheme afoot and what you four, working as a team, can do to prevent any real harm being done to the national economy. Log out now and we can speak again when your friends are with you.

Miguel gave a friendly smile and slowly faded from the screen. Jason logged off. How soon would he be able to contact his three special school friends?

When a young person is reading for pleasure as you are now, perhaps the last thing you want to be reminded of is school. However, I will continue by describing the school attended by Jason and his friends as this is the best way of introducing them as real young people whose special abilities were very much a result of the learning environment which had been created in the school they attended. Miguel wanted these particular young people to help him, partly because of their special abilities, but even more important, because of their enthusiasm, resourcefulness, determination and integrity.

Chapter 2

Easingdale Comprehensive School

The system is not programmed to accept Homebase Cards, Nectar Cards, phone cards or train tickets! Use your school identity card! Why are you always the one to be caught playing the idiot, Jenkins?

Mr. David Johnston’s stentorian voice reverberated down the corridor. Mr. David Johnston was deputy head of Easingdale Comprehensive School. Although a kindly, benevolent soul, he wore his mantle of authority with great effect. He was recognised as a force to be reckoned with by staff and pupils alike. As the teacher in charge of Information & Communication Technology (ICT), Mr. Johnston was very largely responsible for the enthusiasm with which new technology had been embraced at Easingdale School.

Mr. David Johnston

The embarrassed year nine pupil, Marcus Jenkins, hurriedly returned his parents’ Homebase Card back into his pocket, swiped his school identity card through the card reader by the classroom door and followed the rest of his class into the form room. The flashing red light above the door had alerted the patrolling deputy head to the fact that the card reader which registered pupils as they entered class was in some way being misused. It was obvious that the orange and green card which young Jenkins was swiping through the card reader was not a pupil identity card.

Jenkins was one of those pupils who had the unhappy knack of being unaware that an authority figure was close at hand whenever he tried to see if he could disrupt the smooth running of Easingdale School.

Easingdale Comprehensive School, set in the centre of the small market town of Easingdale, was a very well run institution. It was well organised, well disciplined and well regarded by the townsfolk who were proud to boast of one of the best schools of its type in the country. The success of the school was in no small way due to the foresight and vision of its head teacher, Mr. Fortescue Smythe. He had grasped the importance of lightening the administrative load for both himself and his staff by making use of state of the art technology. This removed much of the burden of irksome, repetitive paperwork chores. The card readers which automatically registered pupils as they entered class were part of this vision. The card readers automatically fed the registration information to a centralised relational database. This contained information covering every aspect of school life and enabled the many and various reports required