Sometimes It Is Rocket Science (3 page)

“Are you staying at Dan’s or at a hotel?” Georgiana asked, once the valet had retrieved their respective vehicles.  Robert’s black, mid-range rented sedan looked clunky and unrefined next to her bright blue Aston Martin Vantage convertible.  The valet had put the top down; the chrome accents caught and reflected the moonlight.

“Mmm,” Robert hummed.  “Angling for a dinner invitation, already?  I will admit that I’m not used to dining solo and party food never quite satisfies.”

Georgiana jangled her keys impatiently.  Her eyes were steadfastly fixed on a point just over his left shoulder.  “I don’t know why you bother flirting with me.  It’s never going to work.”

Robert leaned forward so that the tip of his nose grazed her cheek.  The fresh, citrusy tang of her perfume was twice as potent as the whiskey he’d consumed earlier. He resisted the urge to bury his face in the curve of her neck and let the scent fill his lungs.  “I never say never, Georgiana.”

He was rewarded with a slight shiver and the dilation of her pupils.  Despite what she claimed, she wasn’t completely immune to him.  He could work with that.  He rocked back on his heels and grinned rakishly.  “I’m in the mood for a nice, juicy steak.  You look like you could use the iron.”

“I don’t need… I’m not…”  Georgiana’s cheeks flushed.  Irritation glittered in her eyes.  Her face scrunched up a moment before smoothing into a placid smile.  He knew better than to trust a debutante’s serene expression.  “I wasn’t asking you to dinner.”

“That’s a shame.  Now I’m heartbroken and hungry.”

She snorted.  “You’d have to have a heart first.”  She leaned against the bumper of her convertible and jerked her pointed chin in the direction of his father’s house.  “I’ll follow you to the house.  Dan changed the locks last year, and I should explain about NORA.”

“Who is she?  I wasn’t aware Dad had a housekeeper on staff.”

“Oh,” she said, laughter spilling from her mouth, “I think this you’re just going to have to see.  NORA is something you need to experience to understand.”

It was a pity about dinner.  He was looking forward to spending more time with Georgiana.  He wanted to solve the mystery of what had happened to make her so guarded.  He wanted to see one of those bright, full-on smiles she’d been famous for as a child.  He wanted to know if she tasted as good as she smelled.

On the drive to his father’s Memorial-area mansion, Robert set his assistant Cedric to work digging up information on Georgiana and Collier Analytics.  By the time he pulled up to the white metal gates leading to the reproduction 18th century French Chateau his mother had designed, Robert was caught up on new NS business and had canceled his outstanding social engagements.

The blue convertible stopped near the electronic panel mounted to a sturdy white pole.  Georgiana hopped out of her car before Robert could open his door.  She lifted the panel’s protective covering.

“Delivery drivers are assigned a one-time use code.  If you have any regular visitors, they’ll have to pass the background check before we can set them up with the biometric readers. Currently, only the fingerprint reader and retinal scan work properly.  Your father and I were working on implementing the facial recognition software before the heart attack.” 

Georgiana rested her left palm on the panel.  After a second, two green lights flashed.  She crouched down and positioned her face in front of the tiny camera.  The lights flashed again.  The gates squeaked as they rolled open. 

“I don’t recall Dad being so security-conscious.”

Georgiana grimaced.  Her eyes slid back to the panel.  “He’s been working on a few new projects, ones that he hasn’t even shared with your NS board.  I’ll explain more in the house.”

He followed the Aston Martin up the long driveway to the seven-car garage.  The topiaries and statues his mother had picked out looked the same as they had when he was a child.  He remembered playing hide-and-seek in the magnificent gardens and splashing in the fountain, rather than the pool in the backyard, on hot summer days.

He abandoned his luggage in favor of trailing Georgiana up the paved walkway.  Her strides were long, hurried.  Even though she was in heels, he had to jog to keep up with her.

Georgiana slid her finger across a keypad discretely tucked into a niche in the limestone wall.  She tapped in an eight-digit code.  The door locks opened with an audible click.  She smiled back at Robert before pushing open the heavy, cherry door. 

“NORA, it’s Georgiana,” she called out, voice bouncing off the marble floors and curved staircase.  “I have Robert Norwood with me.  He’s going to be living in the house while Dan recovers. He’s to have the same access that I do.”

“Who are you…?” Robert started, only to be cut off mid-question.

“Please provide override code.”

Robert’s mouth fell open.  The voice coming from hidden speakers was his mother’s.  Though slightly modulated, he would have recognized that crisp, beloved tone anywhere.  Georgiana placed a small, cool hand on his wrist and shook her head.

“Override code G-C-11432-A.”

“Code accepted.  Full access granted to Robert Norwood.  Please input his codes and biometric information into my database, Georgie dear.”

Georgiana scowled at the endearment.  “Your father did that.  He thought it was funny.  It’s one of the few bits of source code I don’t have access to.”

“That’s Nora?”

”NOrwood Residential Artificial intelligence.  NORA.”  Georgiana gestured towards one of the small cameras tucked in the corner of the room.  “Multiple cameras, sensor suites, and audio pick ups in almost every room.  Sensors and audio, but no cameras, in the bathrooms.  I should warn you that all matter that passes through the toilets is subjected to analysis.  NORA monitors the vital signs of everyone in the house.  She was the one who noticed your father’s heart attack.”

“And the house called the ambulance.”  Norwood Systems had been a technology pioneer for decades, but none of their past or current projects were as impressive as what his father had built on his own.

“Not exactly.  NORA isn’t connected to emergency services, yet.  Your father wanted to wait until we had all the bugs worked out.  She called me and I called the ambulance.”  She stroked one of the walls lovingly.  For the first time in his life, Robert was jealous of a piece of marble.  “She’s a good system.”

“What else does she control or monitor?”

Georgiana tugged on his wrist and started up the wide, curved staircase.  Their footsteps were silent on the plush, white carpet.  “The basics: lighting, the HVAC system, security, the entertainment systems, the outdoor irrigation system, the pool, and a few appliances.  She’s also connected to the Internet, so she monitors the news and weather.  I don’t know Dan’s current settings, but she’s entirely customizable.  We set up a barcode system so she keeps inventory in the kitchen and places an order with the company that delivers Dan’s groceries when stock is low.  If there’s anything you like, you’ll have to add it manually and she’ll automatically upload it into the inventory masterlist.”

“She has my mother’s voice.”

“Yes.  Your father wanted something familiar, I guess.  It took weeks, but we uploaded every recording we could find of your mother.”  Georgiana squeezed his wrist, smiled apologetically.  “I’m sorry.  I should have warned you about that.  It must have been a shock.”

“It was.”  He didn’t know which was more surprising:  that his father’s house talked or that it spoke with his long-dead mother’s voice.  “Is there anything else?”

“NORA controls the robotic mop and vacuums.  I think Dan wanted to integrate several domestic robots.  There are four gorgeous ones in the workshop, but he ran into a problem with the artificial intelligence, and I got sidetracked.”

Robert groaned, shook his head.  His father was brilliant when it came to robotics and engineering but had never had the patience for computer programs.  Robert had a hard time believing Dan had set up the entire house by himself.  His father was good, but the range of NORA’s capabilities was beyond incredible.  “Did Dad bring in an outside contractor to help?”

“No.”  Georgiana released Robert’s wrist and stopped outside a closed door.  Faint humming and whirling could be heard through the crack under the door.  “Dan and I worked on it alone.  Tab helped some.  It’s not as elegant as it could be, but we made it work.”

Robert nodded.  That made sense.  At first glance, Georgiana appeared to be nothing more than a carbon copy of her glamorous and gracious mother, but she had her father’s genius intellect, if not his exact programming or business finesse.  “Why did Dad do this, though?  He’d never expressed an interest in it before.”

Georgiana blushed.  She ducked her head.  He half expected her to shuffle her feet.  “It was for me.  I asked him to help create a home system, and he insisted on installing the prototype in his house before we set one up in my townhouse.”

He wanted to ask why she needed an automated home, but the look on her face made it clear that she’d shut down completely if he did.  Relieving his curiosity would have to wait.  “What’s this room?”

She shot him a tight, grateful smile before tapping in her code on the keypad beside the door.  It unlocked with a soft
click
.  She twisted the heavy brass knob and nudged the door open with her foot.  Dozens of monitors and racks of blade servers lined the small room’s walls.  Despite the air vents were strategically placed on the floor and ceiling, the room was considerably warmer than the hallway.

“This is the heart of NORA.  All her data is backed up hourly and stored at a secure, off-site location as well as our private cloud.”  Georgiana moved to a computer set up in the far corner.  She perched on the edge of a short, padded stool.  Her fingers flew across the keyboard.  “Come on, I’ll set you up.”

Robert sat patiently while Georgiana scanned his fingerprints, eyes, and face and then loaded them into the database.  She politely turned her back while he entered his personal eight-digit access code and alphanumeric override code.  When he mentioned that his personal chauffeur Allan and Cedric were due to fly in at the end of the week, she put their names into NORA’s system and set her to run background checks.

“They were checked before I hired them,” Robert pointed out, arms crossed over his chest and foot tapping against the wood floor.

“I’m sure they were, but all non-family members get checked again before they are given access to the house.”  She bit down on her lower lip and continued typing commands.  “It’s Dan’s rule, not mine.”

“Were
you
checked?”

“No.”  She tilted her head and shrugged.  “We are practically family, Bobby.  Besides, I have a similar system at home.  I’m not going to sell my security system to the highest bidder.  It would be like giving them the keys to my home.”

“Oh?”  Robert arched a dark eyebrow.  “And what are you protecting?”

“Something infinitely more important than a few schematics and prototypes.”  Georgiana clicked out of the program and turned off the monitor.  “As soon as NORA finishes the check, she’ll send the information to Dan and me.  One of us will set up limited access for Allan and Cedric.”

She ran his father’s home as if it were her own.  Were her reasons perfectly benign or did she have something to gain by being so close to Dan? “You said my access level is the same as yours.  Does that mean I can go anywhere in the house?”

“Of course you can.  It includes Dan’s workshops in the garage and the master suite.”

“What if I bring in my own projects that I want to make inaccessible to others?”

If she was rattled by his icy tone and clipped consonants, it didn’t show.  “Then we’ll clear out one of the rooms of your father’s workshop and change the access code for that room.”  She gracefully slid past him and returned to the hallway.  “I know you grew up here, but since setting up NORA, a couple of things have changed.  Do you want a quick tour?”

“No.”  It was peevish of him, but he couldn’t stomach the thought of being given a guided tour of his childhood home.  “I’ll look around later.”

“Fine.”  She pulled out a small ring of keys and dangled them in the space between them. “Here.  Keys work as a manual back up, but you’ll need to identify yourself to NORA within ten seconds or the alarms will go off.  NORA has my home and cell numbers if you need anything.”

“Why’d you dye your hair?”  It wasn’t the question he’d intended to ask, but the words had slipped out before he could stop them.

The inquiry flustered her.  She curled a fallen strand of hair around her finger and studied it.  She was going to lie to him; he could feel it in his bones. Disappointment stung like a paper cut.  The Georgiana of old had always been brutally honest.

“I don’t know.  It seemed like the thing to do at the time,” she said, gaze averted.

“I didn’t recognize you when you grabbed me.  I doubt anyone who doesn’t see you everyday would recognize you at first glance.  Was that your intent?”

“Jesus, Bobby, I don’t have time for an inquisition.”

His eyes zeroed in on the fingers tapping her thigh and the restless energy radiating off her.  He couldn’t forget how concerned Mrs. Mercer had been about her Georgiana’s exhaustion.  The stark, white marble hallway washed the color out of her cheeks.  She was petite, always had been when standing next to him or her father, but he’d never considered her delicate.  Not until now.