WWW.HUMANOIDS.COM ISBN 978-1-59465-075-8 9 781594 650758 LEO ROA US Cover.indd 1 09/12/13 10:46
There he is! Looks like I m just in time. Mayday! Mayday! Heavens! My sources were correct: Drake s attacking the King of Kings! All trideo components are working. This will be the scoop of my life! Here I go! I ll copy the frequency of the pirates transmitter. Look out, Captain Drake! This is Leo Roa, from the Starship STARR! You are surrounded, and an explosive charge has been placed on your ship s central motor core which I ll detonate unless you surrender immediately. By a thousand suns, who s this idiot?? 5
He s not bluffing, Captain! The central core s signal light is on! What do we do? Something s happening! They re releasing the grapples! We re free! Someone saved us! it s a miracle! Curses! I can t take that risk! Unhook the magnetic grapples! We ll surrender! Look over there! A man floating in space! is everybody okay? Much better, thanks to you. You came just in time. Come aboard! We can t thank you enough! How did you manage to beat Drake all by yourself? Well, I went into the central core, and planted a miniature transmitter which fooled the Please allow me, Mister Roa nobody back on Earth will ever believe this Kiss! Kiss! And one more kiss! no, no! not now! Damn it! Oh Ah I-- Hey, that s Leo! Leo Roa, the famous STARR journalist! My hero! I don t believe it! 6
During the best part, too! But, I have to get up, I can t afford to be late. Hey, it s the visiophone! Urgent call from STARR, urgent call! What s going on? it s hardly dawn, I m not even late yet. Oops, sorry, Bruft. Hello! Start contact. Mister Roa, please report to the office at once. it s extremely urgent! Urgent? I m on my way! But what s the-- Just hurry! At long last, an urgent summons! They must have realized what I m worth! End contact. ouarf! My days of storing data in the awful Archive Division are over! Yes? For months I ve been trying to Heavens! The visiophone again! What a morning! Start contact. Hello, Leo. Hi Auntie. How are things? I m calling early, since you re so hard to get a hold of during the day. You absolutely must talk some sense into your cousin. He wants to quit his job and join a rock group called Schwermetall! 7
Sorry, gotta go, auntie! I m in a rush! I promise I ll talk to him. nobody listens to me! You re just like your cousin Mister Roa, there s two men here to see-- Maybe a new head of section has been named? no, it must be something else. They already pulled that one on me. He got away from us. He s on a Fly-Moth. This is Jite. We ve spotted him. Going to intercept. Maybe they ve found out how I m using the Archives for personal research? I ll take the expressway to get there faster. Did Leo do something? Shut up. He s turning! Follow him! Watch out! What are you--? Man! The skyways are getting so dangerous nowadays! 8
it only took six minutes! I broke every traffic law We ve arrived too late, again! Take the private elevator, Leo. The Director s waiting for you. Okay, Kar. Did he just say that? I can t believe it! Just a moment! Security! Please introduce your right hand. Of course. Very good, Mister Roa, you may go up. This security pigment will allow you to circulate on that level. I know that, but why the face, too, today? Level 113. The Director s private elevator, this is more serious than I-- 9
Just a moment! Security! Please introduce your left hand. Mister Roa. no need to panic, inspector. Show him in! What? Again! At last, he made it! We should ve sent out a security squad. Roa s in a great deal of danger! With your permission, Mister Folderol. Come in, Roa. I m glad to see you alive. Alive? But, I-- You already know the Head of Archives and the Head of Security, but not inspector Gonzalez, from the Politron. Right? Take a seat, Mister Roa. I ll get right to the point: Philip Travers, your co-worker in the Archive Division, was found at his post last night murdered! Hello. How are you? Pleased to meet you. What? Philip! Dead? That s impossible! Hi, everybody. I uh I can t believe it! We had plans this Sunday for a game of it can t be true! Who could have? We re still not sure. Whoever it was, they reprogrammed a security robot in order to get in. Then they hacked into the computer controlling Archive s central files. But, that s not all, Roa! Philip, dead! 10
What s more, the computers of the five most important Planetary information Centers were attacked at the same time and in much the same manner. To us, this indicates a large-scale operation, put in motion to destroy a piece of data that could foreseeably hurt someone in a high position. in STARR s case, the computer s internal security system went into automatic lockdown. nothing can get in or out. As you know, we need the first code sequence to unlock it. I have the second one, but only you and Philip had the first. We believe that the computer itself could give us a lead. You are the only one who can unlock it, so I advise you to start immediately. Your life is at risk. I see. But-- WHAT? Yes, You can start right away, Roa. Here, use this terminal. Er, I mean I have a bad memory, so I wrote it down someplace around the house. What? Haven t you met anyone from Planet XJ-Beta-76 before? no, that s not it! STARR s security pigments just left me a little colorblind But, I-I don t remember the access code. no! Hurry! We might be too late! 11