Leann
Leann worked steadily at her console pulling up screen after screen of names, formulas, and telephone numbers. As each page appeared, her fingers deftly keyed, flicked to enter, and information ceased to exist.
"What are you doing?"
The young woman jumped, a slash mark appeared on the screen. She looked up, her eyes red and tear wet. "I didn't hear you come up, Doctor Raborman." She turned her head to the side. "Your Holiness."
"I asked you a question, Leann." Bianca leaned across the desk and scrutinized the monitor. "What are you doing?"
Leann gulped. "Sweeping out the . . . uh . . . clearing Doctor Jensen from Jerico." Her hand fluttered across the console keys.
"Who instructed you to clear? Doctor Jensen?" Bianca said with a tight voice.
"No, Ma'am. Well—yes. I always clear Jerico immediately when a scientist is no longer affiliated with Tartarus." Leann stared at her screen. "That's part of my job."
"It's particularly hard this time, isn't it?" Munoz pulled Bianca back.
"Yes, Holiness." The girl punched up another screen and continued clearing.
"Well, good friends stay in touch. I'm sure Doctor Jensen will call you," he said.
Leann whirled in her chair. "No she won't." A tear trickled down her face. "You don't know Doctor Jensen." She waved a hand around the room. "Tartarus, and the people who work so hard here, were important to her. She is an honorable woman—she would do nothing that might jeopardize any of us." She buried her face in her hands. "She'll never talk to me again. Never."
Munoz cleared his throat as he patted her shoulder. "She must have trusted you to put you in charge of—what did you call this?"
"Jerico." Leann swallowed hard. Sniffling, she wiped her hand across her face. "I'm sorry. It's just that Doctor Jensen took a chance on me. This is the first position I interviewed for when I graduated from CSU. I've been here eight years and have access to everything that comes in or goes out of Tartarus."
"Does that include research information?"
"Yes." Leann shivered at the icy tone of Bianca's voice.
"Isn't that a little dangerous, Leann?" Munoz rocked heel-to-toe. "After all, you're not here twenty-four hours a day. Anyone could use the board after hours. Myself for instance."
"I do the code encryption, Holiness." Her shoulders straightened. "You can't get into Jerico without an authorized impress and even with one, you can't access a researcher's file unless the code recognition for that scientist is embedded into your print."
Munoz rocked harder. "So. No one was ever allowed access to these files. Is that what you're saying?"
"No one. Except for Doctor Jensen and me."
"You?" Bianca's eyes darkened.
"Yes. Everything comes through me and me alone. Everything."
Leann thought about the many times she'd scanned photographic images for the Foundation's director in the dark hours of the morning. She had seen what Ellery had seen, but no one else would ever have access to that information. Her face resolute, she focused on Munoz. "You said Doctor Jensen must have trusted me. She did—without question." Leann lightly touched the console sensors. "Jerico will accept her impress for any file here as long as the authorizing signatures are valid." She turned back to the console, began working the keys. "However, when I'm finished, she won't be able to make a phone call into Tartarus, let alone get into a file. She would trust me to do that before I leave." She sighed and dropped her hands into her lap. "Besides, this is my life, Holiness. I love what I do. I don't ever want to be tempted—by anyone, for any reason."
Munoz studied the girl's face as she spoke. His body stopped rocking. "You said leave. That would be because?
"Well, I just naturally assumed—"
"Not a word I want to hear at Tartarus. If We want you to leave, We'll tell you so."
"Wait a minute, Raphael. Think about what you're saying. After all, she and Ellery Jensen have a long history behind them."
Munoz turned his attention to Bianca. "One that has now come to an end, Bianca. Of that I have no doubt at all. Unless you have an experienced Jerico operator at your beck and call, it would behoove us to keep what we have. If you don't trust the girl, that's a problem you'll have to deal with." He turned back to Leann. "When you have finished clearing the files, I want you to substitute my name in place of Doctor Jensen's."
"Mine also will be included," Bianca flashed a belligerent look at Munoz. "After all, if I'm to keep you updated on Tartarus progress, I'll need access to files."
Munoz hesitated for the blink of an eye. "Doctor Raborman's also," he said.
Leann twisted in her chair and pulled open a drawer. She flipped through neat folders, withdrew a stack of forms, and handed half to Bianca, half to Munoz.
"These are authorization forms. Each researcher on staff must complete the information in full and sign their approval for you to have access to their files." She pointed to the gray box sitting on the credenza desk. "The signatures will be scanned for authenticity. If Jerico agrees they're correct, I'll start the encryption process for those files—and only those files—which have been authorized." She was brisk and businesslike. "Do you have any questions?"
Bianca stared, for once at a loss for words. Munoz tossed his head back and roared with laughter.
"I don't think we do. Come along, Bianca. The young lady has work to do." Munoz grasped Bianca's arm and led her down the hall.
"Who the hell does she think she is?" Bianca's voice floated back.
"Jerico's boss, Doctor Raborman. Jerico's boss," Munoz said, chuckling.
"You could order her to place us on the board without all this." Bianca held up the sheaf of forms, petulance rang in her tone.
"I could," Munoz agreed. "But I won't. I suspect it would do me no good at all to make such an order. Moreover, I like it just the way it is."
Leann listened to the voices gradually float away to silence before she resumed. She worked steadily. As she keyed her last command, a thin silver border outlined her monitor workspace. She pulled up screen after screen of information. Each stood outlined. She smiled. The silver beading was now an integral part of the console. Doctor Jensen could never again come into the system, but the system could go to Doctor Jensen thanks to Jerico's Omega link. There would be no clandestine sending. Ellery would not ever approve of that. Still, better safe than sorry. Besides, what belonged to Doctor Jensen didn't need to be in Jerico's files.
She hit the stroke sensor and typed "TESTING" then pressed the insert key. A tiny dot at the top of the screen flashed. The message was locked to send. So far, so good, she thought. The stroke sensor prepared Jerico to isolate, the insert key instructed him to send normal. Without that code key, whatever was on the screen would be sent. However, the computer would also send a shutdown warning.
"Don't fail me, Jerico," she mumbled to herself as the index finger on her right hand poised above the delete key. With the fingers of her left hand crossed, she tapped the key. The printing disappeared. The border flicked green for an infinitesimal second and back to silver.
Leann reached over and patted her security console. "You're a good boy, Jerico."
Already, she felt better. Just knowing that in an emergency, she could reach the woman she loved and respected made all the difference in the world.