Everything about Valhalla Basin seemed geared toward families and business. The downtown, with its austere silver buildings that turned color when the dome itself did, had the no-nonsense image cultivated by most Earth-based corporations. But the neighborhoods had a regimented personality.
He drove himself, Nafti, and what little equipment he’d brought into the neighborhoods, leaving the vehicle’s talking guidebook on. The guidebook was designed for prospective employees, so its patter was upbeat and positive.
Even without the talking guidebook, Yu could tell when he got to the upscale neighborhoods. The more upscale the neighborhood, the more housing color varied. The houses got larger as well.
The talking guidebook explained all of this, also mentioning the perks of the house computer systems, something Yu had studied in depth before he arrived.
He’d paid a colleague to hack into the systems of the company that designed all the household computers for Valhalla Basin. The colleague had downloaded all the specs for the various systems, with a step-by-step guide for diverting the security system, wiping the memory clean, and taking over the House system without alerting the authorities.
Yu had run through it all on a practice model. He had made no mistakes, and his colleague believed he was ready to handle an actual House system.
Yu hated field-testing, but in this case, he had no choice. He had to disable Flint/Shindo’s House computer before he did anything else.
He parked half a block away from the address he had obtained through Aleyd’s corporate records. Rhonda Shindo and daughter lived in upper-level professional housing. Shindo had opted for the best possible kitchen and a spa in the corner of the back yard instead of a bonus room. She used the spare bedroom as a home office and added the optional second bathroom.
Yu had reviewed those plans so many times that he felt he knew this house. He’d toured the holographic model, he’d opened all of the various security systems, he had slipped through the doors as if they were his own. He was ready.
He only hoped Rhonda Shindo wasn’t.
He had planned his arrival for the middle of the day, when Rhonda Shindo would be at work and her daughter would be at school. He wanted to establish himself in the house before either of them arrived, shut down the House system, and use the element of surprise to get Rhonda Shindo out of there with the minimum of fuss.
He had to deliver her alive and undamaged to the Gyonnese. He also had to check to make sure that Shindo hadn’t done a secondary bait and switch. There was the slight possibility that her so-called cloned daughter, named Talia, was the actual original daughter, Emmeline.
Before he left, he needed to check for the mandatory cloning number, which was usually tattooed on the back of the head.
The house had a side entrance, made invisible from the neighborhood houses by nooks and crannies in the design. Valhalla Basin residents were encouraged to use the front entrance, in full view of the neighbors and the street. Most residents did, but Shindo didn’t.
She did a number of things that weren’t typical for Valhalla Basin residents, including a refusal to upgrade her House computer to the best model possible.
Yu’s hacker colleague had already given Yu the repair code for the House system that Shindo was using. All he had to do was touch it into the small security panel on the side door, and the door clicked open.
“Nice,” Nafti whispered.
Yu whirled on him. Nafti had prepared himself for this job by tattooing his entire face and extending the whites of his eyes so that his blue irises looked like mere slits.
“I was just saying…” Nafti shrugged.
“Nothing,” Yu whispered. “You’re saying nothing from now on.”
Yu knew that wouldn’t last, but it would cut down on the random chatter. He stepped inside the house. The side door opened into a kitchen that smelled faintly of real Earth coffee.
“We have not put in a request for service,” the House said in a kind, matronly voice. “I shall notify the homeowner of your presence immediately.”
“The homeowner requested our presence,” Yu said. That claim would stall the House system while it verified his statement.
He went into the living room—sparsely decorated with the provided Aleyd furniture and a few personal items—and opened the House’s control panel. One glance confirmed that Shindo had the system he expected her to have, with no upgrades and no internal modifications.
This was the system he had already disabled in his practices, and he did the same here. He set up the system to shut down any human’s internal links, so no one could contact the authorities from the inside. He left the House’s overall system mostly intact—so that environment, cleaning, and general maintenance went on as usual— but he dismantled every aspect of the security systems except the ones that would trigger an automatic silent alarm.
Which meant that the exterior security barrier was still active. All he did there was disable the cameras closest to the side door.
He saw that feature as a protection for himself as well. If anyone unexpected—even a police officer— approached the front door, the House would comment on it and ask him if he wanted to take action. The part of the House system that notified anyone outside of the house of an approach had already been disabled by the homeowner, probably because it would be annoying to be interrupted at work every time a neighbor came by.
Even though the work was easy, his heart was pounding. He was used to quick jobs. When he was recovering things, all he would do was enter, shut down the security system, and recover the item. He would already know where the item was, what it looked like, and how hard it would be to carry.
“Okay, we’re in,” Nafti said from the kitchen. “Now what?”
“You let me work,” Yu said. “Go to the bedroom and wait. The woman will be here soon.”
But not that soon. Yu figured he had about three hours to prepare the scene. He wandered through the common area. He had to set up the repeating holographic message that the Gyonnese wanted to leave behind. The message explained Rhonda Shindo’s crimes, in case the Valhalla Basin police did not know she was a convicted felon under Earth Alliance law.
The message would give Yu time to escape with his prisoner and get to the rendezvous point. Because even though the Valhalla Basin police department was on Aleyd’s payroll, it had to enforce Earth Alliance laws. And Earth Alliance laws allowed for the capture—or in this case, recapture—of a convicted felon.
The thing that the holoimage did not mention was that, as far as the Earth Alliance was concerned, the conditions of Shindo’s sentence had been met and there was no need to take her back into custody.
If the Valhalla Basin police force was like any other force, it would take them a while to access that information and even longer to act on it.
By then, Yu hoped to have already turned Shindo over to the Gyonnese.
The side door rattled, then banged open. Yu jumped, half expecting some kind of exclamation out of Nafti. But, for once, the big man said nothing. Maybe he hadn’t heard.
“Mom?” A young girl’s voice echoed through the silent kitchen.
Yu’s heart pounded. He had hoped to avoid the girl entirely. She should have arrived home long after her mother had.
“Your mother has not returned from work as of yet,” the House said.
Yu felt a half second of relief. The House hadn’t revealed his presence.
“What’s that smell?” the girl asked.
Nafti’s cologne. Yu had gotten used to it, but it probably trailed behind him everywhere he went.
“It is a mixture of yicia leaves and synthesized scent enhancers, probably initially sold in a spray form,” the House said. “I am unfamiliar with the brand name, but I could find it for you.”
“No,” the girl said with irritation.
Yu pressed himself against the wall. She walked past him into the nearest bedroom. She was as tall as he was, and rail thin. She also had the blondest hair he had ever seen.
“Just tell me where the smell is coming from,” the girl said.
“That information is not available to me,” the House said.
