The Lucifer Code by Michael Cordy Page B

enter the building without being exposed to direct sunlight. She scanned the parking lot, and recognized the customized black Lexus with heavily tinted windows.
    Inside the reception atrium, heels clicking on the polished marble, Amber greeted the security woman behind the desk.
    'Welcome back, Dr Grant. I hope you're feeling better.'
    'Much better, thanks, Irene.'
    She entered the first elevator and pressed the button for the top floor. When the doors opened, she walked down the curving corridor to her office where her secretary a tall brisk woman with short fair hair, was waiting. 'Dr Grant, how you feeling?'
    'Fine, thanks, Diane. Any urgent messages?'
    'Professor Mortenson in the main lab rang to say they're having problems with the Lucifer optical memory pixels.' Diane checked the electronic notepad in her hand. 'He says the electron-hole pairs are proving unstable. They aren't staying apart for as long as they should at room temperature.'
    Amber frowned. Mortenson was one of her senior physicists but, like many of her team, he lacked initiative. She accepted that, as a workaholic who wanted to be involved in all aspects of development, this was partly her fault. It was time, however, to make people think for themselves. 'Tell him to review the ratios of the gallium arsenide and aluminium arsenide layers in the semiconductor - and to check the photon energy levels at the same time. If that doesn't do the trick then ask him to suggest how he intends to solve it.' She handed her brochure-thin briefcase to Diane. 'Would you put this on my desk? I gotta go see Bradley.'
    Because of his condition Bradley Soames spent much of his time away from the bright sunlight of California, overseeing his VenTec foundation in Alaska, a private venture technology company that developed cutting-edge initiatives for a variety of specialist clients. He left Amber to look after most of the day-to-day running of Optrix.
    VenTec's location, north of the Arctic Circle, was a closely guarded secret. When Amber had worked there ten years ago, managing the task force that developed the optical computer, she had never known its precise co-ordinates. Although she visited the place often, she would be hard pushed even now to pinpoint its exact whereabouts. Since few top scientists were prepared to work in Alaska for extended periods, even for Soames, Optrix had established its main research site here in the San Francisco bay area. VenTec was a bonus.
    From her office Amber walked the circuit of the dark tower's top floor, passing the offices of the finance director, the human resources director and the commercial director, who were the three other members of the five-strong operating board that oversaw Optrix's worldwide business interests. Her office and theirs enjoyed spectacular views of the bay area but Bradley Soames's office occupied the centre of the circle and had no windows. Two doors protected it from the outside world.
    Amber knew the drill and closed the first door before knocking on the inner one. It opened and Bradley's receptionist ushered her into the anteroom with a smile. 'Good morning, Dr Grant,' she said. 'He's expecting you. Please go right in.'
    Amber opened a door of dark frosted glass and entered an enclosed corridor that twisted in ever-decreasing circles towards Soames's office. As she walked, the light dimmed gradually, enabling her eyes to accustom themselves to the gloom of his inner sanctum. The office was circular. There were no pictures on the soft-textured walls and no windows. A vague smell of medication hung in the filtered air. At the back of the room there was a couch and a glass-fronted refrigerated cabinet stocked with Coca-Cola.
    Soames reclined on his chair, trainers resting on the curved desk that dominated the centre of the room, surrounded by the computer screens that allowed him to keep an eye on his global empire. He wore a pale grey cotton one-piece with integrated cowl and gloves. Inside, safe from