To his surprise, Smith found it under the lip of the desktop, not very far from the spot where the old stud had been. It was a recessed button, the size of a nickel and slightly rounded. Smith depressed it.
Instantly the section of the desk directly before him illuminated. He saw the familiar sign-on screen of the CURE computer system, the scrolling of disk checking programs and finally the main-drive prompt.
The letters, while as perfectly readable as if on a sheet of paper lying on the desk, were a warm amber, Smith was disappointed to see. He preferred cool, detached green.
Directly below the screen, the desktop remained black. Smith brought his hands to it. Instantly the orderly letters and numbers and control keys of a keyboard shone white and distinct. It was capacitor-style keyboard. His hands entering the field changed its capacitance, illuminating the keys. Removing them caused the letters to instantly go dark.
Smith touched a key experimentally.
The key flashed white at his touch. It was the letter W. The W appeared on the screen in warm amber. Smith brought all ten fingers to the touch-sensitive keyboard and tried logging on.
It was strange at first. There was no sound, no reassuring give-and-take of the keys. In fact, no keys in the physical sense. But the response was perfect-silent, efficient, accurate.
Smith ran his virus-check program and got an instant "Clear" message.
Then, his face grim, he settled down to work. There was a lot to do, and the ticking of his Timex-virtually the only sound in his state-of-the-art computerized office-continually reminded him that there was not a lot of time to do it in.
Chapter 13
Carlton "Chip" Craft tooled his brand-new metallic gold Idioci coupe-the car for the pleasure-seeking id facet of the personality according to the TV ads-past the world headquarters of XL SysCorp in the Harlem section of Manhattan where a group of raggedy picketers stopped marching in monotonous circles long enough shake their fists at him as he turned smartly and approached the garage door.
As it always did, the chilled-steel door lifted to admit him without Chip having to do a thing. A laser scanner had recognized the bar code on the company plate on the coupe's front bumper and triggered the door opener.
After parking, Chip got out, and the elevator door opened at his approach. He got on. He didn't even have to press his floor. The button for the fifteenth floor lit up on its own and he was whisked upward. It was the work of another scanner. It picked up the bar code ID on his solid-gold tie clasp.
When he got to his floor, he saw that his secretary was a blonde today. She wore a black evening gown held up by straps that crossed between her full breasts in velvet bandoliers, lifting and accentuating them. Her nipples were as brown as old pennies.
Chip paused to admire them and asked, "Any mail this morning?"
"No, Mr. Craft," she said in a husky contralto that all his secretaries were required to have, along with C cups. Only hair color and facial contours were optional.
"We must do lunch," he said, giving her left nipple a friendly tweak. The secretary giggled happily, and Chip Craft sauntered whistling into his sumptuous office.
It was decorated in old-world Spanish leather and mahogany today. A trifle ostentatious, but the company liked to make him happy. Outside, the sun was shining. It had been overcast on the drive in.
It was the first day back after three glorious weeks in sunny Oahu, and Chip Craft, CEO of XL SysCorp, couldn't wait to dig in, even if it was the Saturday before Labor Day.
He tapped his intercom key.
"Good morning, Chip," a warm, generous voice said.
"Good morning, sir."
"Is the office satisfactory?"
"It is."
"And this week's secretary?"
Chip grinned. "That gown is really fetching."
"If you are pleased, let me apprise you of the latest XL SysCorp activities."
"Shoot."
Chip clasped his hands behind his head and leaned back in his handsome executive chair-the finest money could buy. He started to put his feet up on the desk but remembered what had happened last time. "We have moved 987 more XL SysCorp PC units."
"Great."
"The IRS tax systems modernization project is three weeks ahead of schedule."
"Wonderful."
"Net-income projections exceed the thirty percent rise anticipated last quarter."
"Super."
"And I have decided to blackmail the United States government."
Chip almost jumped out of his chair. "Say again?"
"We have maximized our profits through commercial channels. It is time to go to the next level."
Chip stared at the intercom. "Blackmail is the next level?"
"Unless you have a more profit-oriented idea."
"Why would we do that?"
"Because we have approximately three hundred thousand XL systems out in the commercial and governmental spheres, enough to make the plan I set in motion five years ago feasible."
"What plan?"
"The plan to extort twenty billion dollars from the federal government."
"This is all new to me."
"Loose lips sink schemes."
"I think it's ships, sir."
"That reminds me, a shipment of gold bullion is due in the next few days. See that it goes into the basement vaults with the rest."
"I think the basement vaults are pretty full by now."
"Have a new vault installed."