“True.” Nat nodded. “Which helps clarify just how long these aliens have been here.”

San-Joh had walked up to a workstation while we talked. Now he turned the monitor around to face us. One window was open, showing what I recognized as a freeware process-explorer utility. And it was showing line after line of … mining daemons?

“To the extent that my specialists have been able to explain it, this does not seem normal,” San-Joh said. “Employees who were questioned say that their systems have been extremely slow for several days. Loranna who’ve been interrogated had no explanation and in fact seemed perplexed. They did mention that it started immediately after someone successfully penetrated their systems. Given your recent activities, I thought you might have some insights.”

I frowned, a suspicion growing in the back of my mind. “Sounds like mining daemons. Bitcoin mining daemons.”

“Exactly what my specialists said,” San-Joh replied. “Which is no help, other than to give a name to the phenomenon. Any idea how they got there?”

I started to reply, No, of course not, then stopped. I closed my eyes slowly and subvocalized, “Sheldon? Care to comment?”

There was a hesitation before he replied through my cling-on.

“Well, when we hacked into their systems, I thought it would be interesting to see just what the software that caused your issues with MIT would do. Up close, if you will. So I took a few milliseconds and uploaded it.”

“That’s … interesting,” I replied. “I feel like I should be angry, but I can’t think of a single reason why. Did you learn anything useful?”

“Oh, quite so,” Sheldon said. “Based on the actions of the loader, I was able to solve your problem with MIT. It seems the daemons only partially overwrote the hacker’s ID with yours. I forwarded an explanation to the administration the same day, with instructions on how to identify the miscreant. Did I forget to mention this?”

“What?” I exclaimed in my outside voice. Everyone around me jumped. Several “CIA agents” made abortive grabs for weapons.

“Mr. Kernigan?” San-Joh said.

I showed him my teeth. Definitely not a smile. “I think I have an explanation for you. Can you give me just a second?”

I pulled the letter from MIT out of my back pocket and opened it.

Dear Mr. Kernigan,

Based on an investigation of your case, it has been determined that you were the victim of a computer hacker and are not in any way culpable. The offending party has been identified and charges are pending. Accordingly, you will be returned to full status in good standing. We look forward to welcoming you back to campus for the upcoming semester.

Yours truly,
P. Simmons
Office of the Registrar

Unbelievable.