Mandy looked like a princess in a fairy tale, wearing a short-sleeved frock of baby blue with a knee-length fringed skirt. Modest enough, Pancho thought, although on Mandy nothing could look really modest. Not in the eyes of a man like Humphries, anyway. Pancho couldn’t recall seeing the dress before; Mandy must have bought it in one of Selene’s shops. Everything cost a fortune there, except for stuff actually made on the Moon. Is Humphries buying her clothes? Pancho wondered. He hadn’t given Mandy any jewelry, she was sure of that. Mandy would have showed it off if he had.
Amanda walked purposively down the length of the corridor and into the grotto that housed the Humphries Trust research garden and house. Humphries was at the front door to greet her, all smiles. Pancho slipped in behind her, nearly brushing Humphries’s hand as he pulled the door shut. If the Humper felt anything, he didn’t show it. Pancho was in the house and he didn’t know it.
As Humphries guided Amanda off to the bar, Pancho stood stock-still in the foyer. A man like Humphries would have a state-of-the-art security system in his home, she reasoned. No matter that the house was in Selene; Humphries would insist on topflight security. He might give the human staff the night off for his dates, but he wouldn’t turn off his alarm systems. Motion sensors were her big worry. Humphries obviously wouldn’t have any working in the residential wing of the house. But the offices would be another thing altogether. She could see the long, spacious living room and the corridor that led to the formal dining room and, beyond it, the library/bar. That was the direction Humphries and Amanda had gone.
On the other side of the foyer was a single closed door. Pancho guessed that it opened onto the suite of offices and laboratories that the ecologists used. Would he have motion sensors set up in there? Probably not, she thought, but if he did…
There must be a central control for the security system. Most likely in Humphries’s own bedroom or his office. His bedroom? Pancho grinned at the thought. That’s one room in the house where he’d have any motion sensors definitely turned off!
Slowly, on tiptoes despite the thick carpeting, Pancho made her way up to the second floor. The master bedroom was easy to find: beautifully-carved double doors at the end of the hallway. She eased the door open. No sirens, no hooting klaxons. Could be silent alarms, she told herself, but if he’s dismissed the servants for the night he’ll have to come up here his own self, and I can handle that, easy.
The room was sumptuous, and Humphries’s bed was enormous, like a tennis court. That bed could handle a whole squad of cheerleaders, she thought. Prob’ly has, Pancho told herself.
Through a half-open door she saw a desktop computer, its screen saver showing some old master’s painting of a nude woman. As Pancho cautiously approached the door and eased it all the way open, the screen’s image dissolved into another painting of another nude. Huh! she grunted. Some art lover.
Pancho sat at the desk and saw that the computer had a keyboard attached to it. Tentatively, she pecked at the ENTER key. The artwork vanished, and a honey-warm woman’s voice said, “Good evening, Mr. Humphries. The time is eight-twelve and I’m ready to go to work anytime you are.”
Frowning, Pancho turned the audio down to zero. The screen displayed a menu of options. Hell, he doesn’t have any protection on his programs at all. She pictured Humphries at his computer, too impatient to deal with code words and security safeguards. After all, who’d have the balls to break into his home, his own bedroom?
Grinning from ear to ear, Pancho delved into Martin Humphries’s computer files.
It turned out that most of the individual file names were indeed coded and incomprehensible to her. So he does have some security built into his programs, she realized. Many of the files required special keywords. One, though, was labelled BED. Curious, Pancho called it up. The screen went blank, except for the words INITIATING HOLOTANK. An eye-blink later the screen announced STARTING HOLOTANK. Then the screen went to a blank gray, except for a bar across its bottom that bore video commands.