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“You gotta change those, for a start,” Jesse said as he followed her into a vast hall. A glass staircase climbed to a gallery landing. The floor was white marble. An electric LED fire flickered on the wall, warming the air pleasantly. Spotlights illuminated black-and-white mountain photography on the walls.
“What’s that?” Greenway said.
“Swipe cards,” Jesse said, eyeing the camera set in the ceiling over the front door. “Too easily faked…or stolen.”
“The baron said you knew your stuff,” came a voice from behind them.
Jesse turned. A tall man stood in a doorway. He was smiling, his teeth straight and white in his tanned, handsome face. A mop of chestnut curls along with the tilt of his grin gave him a playful, boyish look, though the crinkles around his chocolate-brown eyes told Jesse he must be over thirty. His body was long and lean, with toned muscles visible even through his long-sleeved tee.
“Mr. Truelove,” Greenway said tonelessly, “this is Baron Von Magnusson’s security engineer, Mr. Addams.”
“Tom,” the man said, holding out a hand. “Nice to meet you.”
Jesse shook it. It was warm, the handshake firm. “Jesse.”
Tom’s smile widened as his gaze flicked over Jesse’s face and hair, and Jesse wondered if something had heated in his brown eyes. “It’s a pleasure. So, what would you do instead?”
“Instead of what?” Jesse mumbled, distracted by the look in the other man’s eye.
“Swipe cards.”
Jesse shook his head. “Fingerprint and retina scanners are hardest to crack.”
Tom nodded, approval warming his expression. “Sounds good. I look forward to hearing your other suggestions.”
“I don’t wanna tread on anyone’s toes.”
“You don’t need to worry about that,” Tom said with another smile. “Kingston’s gone, thank God. I just want to make sure Emory’s house is as safe as it can be. I hear you’re the man for that.”
Jesse blinked. “You really call him Emory?”
Amusement glinted in Tom’s eyes. “I’ve known the baron for many years now.”
It was then Jesse noticed the blotched snarl of scarring on the skin of the engineer’s neck. Tom watched Jesse’s realization dawn, but his smile never slipped.
“Thanks, Kate,” he said, nodding to Greenway. “We can manage from here.”
Greenway strode away though an open-plan sitting area beyond the stairs.
“I thought we could start by showing you the security room,” Tom said, gesturing through the door behind him. “Walk you through the current systems… Then perhaps tour the grounds so you can see the perimeter set-up.”
“I already know the set-up,” Jesse said as he followed Tom through a minimalist parlor lit only by a fiber-optic Christmas tree glowing on a glass plinth in the corner and fairy lights winking around the slate mantle. “The first thing you should do is upgrade your firewall.”
“Good start,” Tom said, tapping a code into another locked door and opening it. “After you.”
His smile made something flicker in Jesse’s chest, and he looked away hurriedly.
The security room was located at the end of the corridor that also accessed kitchens, storage rooms and the staff break room. Jesse paused in the doorway of the break room, taking in an espresso machine, widescreen TV and plush couches. Several people sat around eating or drinking.
“Everything’s complimentary,” Tom said as they moved on. “And the fridge is always stocked. Here we are.”
Jesse already knew the security system, but he wasn’t prepared for the high-end hardware. Banks of servers hummed in the corner of the room. Several rack-mount PCs took up most of the floorspace, and there were a half-dozen 4k monitors mounted on the wall. A beefy man in a security guard’s uniform sat at the workstation behind the door. He was drinking something that smelled suspiciously like beef stock and scowling with a set of impressive eyebrows.
“Nice, huh?” Tom said, taking a seat at a station behind the security guard. “Kingston brought in the new monitors last month. But if you think we need to upgrade the firewall, we’ll need to start with the foundation systems. Oh, this is Filip,” Tom said, nodding to the security man. “He heads up the patrol teams.”
“You’re the kid who broke in?” Filip said. A European accent sharpened the edges of his words.
“That’s me.”
