Back into the house, I rinsed out the glass and put it in the dishwasher, and wiped down the counter a bit. I made a short pit stop, then locked up the house, setting the alarm system.
I went over to the apartment, checked the alarm system (all clear), unlocked the front door (re-locking it behind me), and went into the computer room.
I sat down at the computer and started it up. I set up my notebook (the paper one), and started on the mail retrieval system. It wasn't very fancy. It just needed to dial into the net, connect to the mail drops, and retrieve the messages. A script file would do just fine. It didn't take long to write. When I was done, I copied it to a floppy (encrypted, of course).
I also wrote a program that would automatically decode the messages, then extract the IP addresses into a table, and keep track of the multiple IP addresses that were sending out the delay headers. That would help me track the source of the viral delay headers, using some statistical analysis.
I set up the program to send the results of the analysis to one of my anonymous mail accounts every 3 hours. And of course, every message would be encrypted. I'd download these messages at the house, which wasn't a big security risk. By that time, the messages had gone through at least three anonymous remailers.
I made some final checks of the programs, and copied them to a floppy (encrypted, of course) for backup. I started the program, dialing into one of my special Internet accounts (not my personal or business account). I then watched the program connect to the target system, log in with the special back door account, then run the commands to start the header retrieval process. A quick logout, and then on to the next system. It would take a while to gather enough data to make the statistical analysis valid.
I'd spent quite a bit of time on this project. I had about eight clients that I visited regularly, and it was time to pay attention to them while the programs did their work.