Tina.”
“Happy new year.”
“See you Monday.”
“Oh? Oh, yeah, that’s right. It’s a four-day weekend. Well, just watch out for that hangover.”
Angela grinned. “There’s at least one out there with my name on it.”
Tina finished checking the carpenter’s bill and approved it for payment.
Alone now on the third floor, she sat in the pool of amber light at her desk, surrounded by shadows, yawning. She’d work for another hour, until five o’clock, and then go home. She’d need two hours to get ready for her date with Elliot Stryker.
She smiled when she thought of him, then picked up the sheaf of papers that Angela had given her, anxious to finish her work.
The hotel possessed an amazing wealth of information about its most favored customers. If she needed to know how much money each of these people earned in a year, the computer could tell her. It could tell her each man’s preferred brand of liquor, each wife’s favorite flower and perfume, the make of car they drove, the names and ages of their children, the nature of any illnesses or other medical conditions they might have, their favorite foods, their favorite colors, their tastes in music, their political affiliations, and scores of other facts both important and trivial. These were customers to whom the hotel was especially anxious to cater, and the more the Pyramid knew about them, the better it could serve them. Although the hotel collected this data with, for the most part, the customers’ happiness in mind, Tina wondered how pleased these people would be to learn that the Golden Pyramid maintained fat dossiers on them.
She scanned the list of VIP customers who hadn’t attended the opening of Magyck! Using a red pencil, she circled those names that were followed by anniversary dates, trying to ascertain how large a promotion she was proposing. She had counted only twenty-two names when she came to an incredible message that the computer had inserted in the list.
Her chest tightened. She couldn’t breathe.
She stared at what the computer had printed, and fear welled in her — dark, cold, oily fear.
Between the names of two high rollers were five lines of type that had nothing to do with the information she had requested:
NOT DEAD
NOT DEAD
NOT DEAD
NOT DEAD
NOT DEAD
The paper rattled as her hands began to shake.
First at home. In Danny’s bedroom. Now here. Who was doing this to her?
Angela?
No. Absurd.
Angela was a sweet kid. She wasn’t capable of anything as vicious as this. Angela hadn’t noticed this interruption in the printout because she hadn’t had time to scan it.
Besides, Angela couldn’t have broken into the house. Angela wasn’t a master burglar, for God’s sake.
Tina quickly shuffled through the pages, seeking more of the sick prankster’s work. She found it after another twenty-six names.
DANNY ALIVE
DANNY ALIVE
HELP
HELP
HELP ME
Her heart seemed to be pumping a refrigerant instead of blood, and an iciness radiated from it.
Suddenly she was aware of how alone she was. More likely than not, she was the only person on the entire third floor.
She thought of the man in her nightmare, the man in black whose face had been lumpy with maggots, and the shadows in the corner of her office seemed darker and deeper than they had been a moment ago.
She scanned another forty names and cringed when she saw what else the computer had printed.
I’M AFRAID
I’M AFRAID
GET ME OUT
GET ME OUT OF HERE
PLEASE . . . PLEASE
HELPHELPHELPHELP
That was the last disturbing insertion. The remainder of the list was as it should be.
Tina threw the printout on the floor and went into the outer office.
Angela had turned the light off. Tina turned it on.
She went to Angela’s desk, sat in her chair, and switched on the computer. The screen filled with a soft blue light.
In the locked center drawer of the desk was a book with the code numbers that permitted access to the sensitive information stored not on
“Happy new year.”
“See you Monday.”
“Oh? Oh, yeah, that’s right. It’s a four-day weekend. Well, just watch out for that hangover.”
Angela grinned. “There’s at least one out there with my name on it.”
Tina finished checking the carpenter’s bill and approved it for payment.
Alone now on the third floor, she sat in the pool of amber light at her desk, surrounded by shadows, yawning. She’d work for another hour, until five o’clock, and then go home. She’d need two hours to get ready for her date with Elliot Stryker.
She smiled when she thought of him, then picked up the sheaf of papers that Angela had given her, anxious to finish her work.
The hotel possessed an amazing wealth of information about its most favored customers. If she needed to know how much money each of these people earned in a year, the computer could tell her. It could tell her each man’s preferred brand of liquor, each wife’s favorite flower and perfume, the make of car they drove, the names and ages of their children, the nature of any illnesses or other medical conditions they might have, their favorite foods, their favorite colors, their tastes in music, their political affiliations, and scores of other facts both important and trivial. These were customers to whom the hotel was especially anxious to cater, and the more the Pyramid knew about them, the better it could serve them. Although the hotel collected this data with, for the most part, the customers’ happiness in mind, Tina wondered how pleased these people would be to learn that the Golden Pyramid maintained fat dossiers on them.
She scanned the list of VIP customers who hadn’t attended the opening of Magyck! Using a red pencil, she circled those names that were followed by anniversary dates, trying to ascertain how large a promotion she was proposing. She had counted only twenty-two names when she came to an incredible message that the computer had inserted in the list.
Her chest tightened. She couldn’t breathe.
She stared at what the computer had printed, and fear welled in her — dark, cold, oily fear.
Between the names of two high rollers were five lines of type that had nothing to do with the information she had requested:
NOT DEAD
NOT DEAD
NOT DEAD
NOT DEAD
NOT DEAD
The paper rattled as her hands began to shake.
First at home. In Danny’s bedroom. Now here. Who was doing this to her?
Angela?
No. Absurd.
Angela was a sweet kid. She wasn’t capable of anything as vicious as this. Angela hadn’t noticed this interruption in the printout because she hadn’t had time to scan it.
Besides, Angela couldn’t have broken into the house. Angela wasn’t a master burglar, for God’s sake.
Tina quickly shuffled through the pages, seeking more of the sick prankster’s work. She found it after another twenty-six names.
DANNY ALIVE
DANNY ALIVE
HELP
HELP
HELP ME
Her heart seemed to be pumping a refrigerant instead of blood, and an iciness radiated from it.
Suddenly she was aware of how alone she was. More likely than not, she was the only person on the entire third floor.
She thought of the man in her nightmare, the man in black whose face had been lumpy with maggots, and the shadows in the corner of her office seemed darker and deeper than they had been a moment ago.
She scanned another forty names and cringed when she saw what else the computer had printed.
I’M AFRAID
I’M AFRAID
GET ME OUT
GET ME OUT OF HERE
PLEASE . . . PLEASE
HELPHELPHELPHELP
That was the last disturbing insertion. The remainder of the list was as it should be.
Tina threw the printout on the floor and went into the outer office.
Angela had turned the light off. Tina turned it on.
She went to Angela’s desk, sat in her chair, and switched on the computer. The screen filled with a soft blue light.
In the locked center drawer of the desk was a book with the code numbers that permitted access to the sensitive information stored not on
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