The holo field blinked on, and Vijay Vo’simage appeared. He smiled pleasantly at me, his hands folded acrosshis belly.
“Carlisle Hsing,” he said. “What can I do foryou?”
“Mis’ Vo,” I said. “Good to see youagain.”
“I’m a busy man, Mis’ Hsing. What do youwant?” The smile was still there, but wasn’t quite as welcomingnow.
If he didn’t want to waste time being polite,that was fine with me. “There are half a dozen floaters watchingthis ship, trying to get a story about Grandfather Nakada’s death,”I said. “For my current investigation I need full net access wherethey can’t listen in.”
“You are suggesting we provide this for youhere at the New York?”
“Yes.”
“Why should we?”
“I am working for the Nakada family, Mis’ Vo.You work for Nakada Enterprises. A little cooperation doesn’t seemlike an unreasonable request.”
“Professional courtesy for a fellowemployee?”
“If you like, yes.”
“Just ordinary net access?”
“And privacy.”
“You are working for the Nakadas?”
“I think I am. If I’m not, someone back onPrometheus did one hell of a good job spoofing me. And Perkins,too.”
Vo nodded. “Come to the hotel, then. We’llescort you to a secure com.”
“Could you send a car for me, perhaps? Iwould prefer not to be harassed en route.”
“That can be arranged.”
“Thank you.”
“The car should be there in about twentyminutes.”
“That’s fine.”
“I probably won’t attend to it personally,you understand.”
“Of course.”
“Goodbye, then, Mis’ Hsing.”
Before I could answer the image blinked out.I stared at the empty air for a second, then killed the privacyfield.
There was one possible flaw in my plan; Iknew that. The New York Games Corporation would undoubtedly keep arecord of everything I did with their equipment. They would know Iwas breaking into Seventh Heaven.
I was putting my trust in them to not care.Seventh Heaven operated out of the Ginza’s sub-basement, and theGinza was an IRC operation; IRC was the New York’s chiefcompetition. I hoped that meant that no one in authority at the NewYork would feel any need to tell anyone at Seventh Heavenanything.
If they did decide something should be doneabout someone using their equipment for illegal purposes-well, thatwas a risk I was willing to take. The old man could bail meout.
I gathered up a few things, including my gun,and ate a little more. I was trying to think whether I hadforgotten anything when Perkins announced, “Your car’s here.”
“Thanks,” I said, and I headed for theairlock.
There were more floaters than I had seen whenI arrived. There was an entire swarm. I put one hand on the butt ofmy gun, just in case some of them got aggressive.
The car was waiting for me at the foot of thesteps, sleek and gleaming white. A door slid open as I approached,and I climbed in.
The door closed as I settled onto the darkred upholstery. “You’re armed,” the car said.
“Yes,” I replied.
“I was not informed.”
“No one asked.”
“May I speak to the weapon?”
“It doesn’t have wireless or speech. It’s notvery bright.”
“What model is it?”
“Sony-Remington HG-2.”
“Are you the only authorized user?”
“Yes.”
“I will need to inform Mis’ Vo and thesecurity system at the New York.”
“You do that.” I leaned back, and the seatadjusted itself to support my head.
“I appreciate your cooperation.” With that itfinally took off and headed for the Trap.
The main entrance to the New York was onFifth; in the past I’d usually used the entrance around the corneron Deng that led directly into the Manhattan Lounge. The car didn’tgo to either of those; instead it took me to the business entranceon the roof, where it sailed through a holo of a twenty-metershowboy and set down at the door.
I’d come in this way once before, but thistime I was expected. The scanners had finished their inspectionbefore I was even out of the car, and the door was alreadyopen.
A floater was waiting just inside, as I’dexpected. “Leave the gun,” it said.
I slid the HG-2 onto its tray. It printed areceipt and rose up out of my way, and a swarm of flitterbugsappeared to guide me.
The last time I had come this way they tookme to Vo’s office, but this time they led me around the corner to asmall room with walls glowing a deep, restful blue. A desk extrudeditself from one of those blue walls as I stepped in, and a chairpresented itself, rolling out of the corner to a position behindme.
I sat down and leaned over the desk, my handin the sensor field. I didn’t want to ride wire here; even if Voand the upload were both being completely honest with me, it waspossible that some time in the past four years Seventh Heaven hadfound the back door and put some defenses with teeth in it. Hand,voice, and screen would be slower, but much safer.
I followed the instructions Yoshio-kunhad given me, and sure enough, the back door was there-if SeventhHeaven had found it, they hadn’t shut it down.
But they might have booby-trapped it.
I had some of my own software with me, ofcourse, so I set out half a dozen watchdogs and sent a probe in tosee if I was stepping in something I didn’t want to.
Nothing. It looked clean. It looked as if noone had found it. I could access Seventh Heaven’s entire network,their entire database, without showing up on their system at all.If I disturbed anything, or drew a noticeable amount of power orbandwidth, it would be reported as internal maintenance.
I entered my father’s name, and got thecoordinates of his dreamtank-Guohan Hsing, Tier 4, Row 6, Station31. While I was at it I got the maintenance logs for his tank, thedream schedule, the medical read-outs, and everything else handy,all downloaded to my wrist com.
With that information I could find him, and Icould get him out of the tank without killing him.
That was all I wanted. If I could get him and’Chan onto the ship we could get off Epimetheus for good, and onceI was back on Prometheus I could finish up the investigation theold man had hired me to do. I was pretty sure that everything Ineeded to learn about the assassination attempt was back in theNakada compound in American City; the phony death reports were justa peripheral, a subroutine.
I wiped the inquiry record, and did a quickcheck to make sure I hadn’t left any obvious traces that would showup when Seventh Heaven looked everything over-and I knew theywould look everything over once I had kidnaped my father. Ididn’t want to make it easy for them to find the back door; someonemight need it again someday.
Then I got ready to close the door, puteverything back the way I found it. The whole thing had taken maybeten minutes, start to finish, and I was feeling pretty pleased withmyself as I started the shut-down routine.
But then I saw the log, and I stoppedeverything right where it was, and all of a sudden I wasn’t feelingpleased at all.
This back door was something Yoshio Nakadahad had installed about eleven years ago, when he was thinking ofbuying Seventh Heaven. According to the upload, he had never toldanyone else about it. The recording of the old man knew about it,of course, and it had told me, and there was the woman who hadinstalled it in the first place, Mei-Li Gussow, but that should beall.
The original Yoshio was in American City.Mei-Li Gussow, as of four years ago, was working for a medicalresearch unit of Nakada Enterprises in South Tarnauer, onPrometheus, and even if she had moved on from that, she had noreason to be in Nightside City, poking around Seventh Heaven.Really, there was no reason anyone but me should have used thatback door for at least a decade.
Mis’ Gussow had been thorough when she put itin, though, and had provided it with an automatic log. Every accesswas listed, with time and date. There were nine of them.