The Surveillance Tapes, Part 1

Yesterday, Andre Grenmuller dumped a lot of information on us. She was responsible for the creation of the Deucat, the first money on the planet of Deucado. She designed and built the casino at the top of The Hand. She also revealed that she knew David Troutman, one of the would-be assassins, intimately. Rei encouraged her to tell them everything they know but Rome had something to say first:

     Rome lifted her hand from Andrea’s shoulder. “Money is stupid,” she said. “I have only been exposed to it for a short time but I can tell you it brings out the bad in people.”
     Andrea looked up at her. “You’re probably right,” she said. “But I don’t make anybody come in here.”
     “Troutman,” Rei said, drawing her attention again. “Where is he?”
     “I don’t know,” Andrea replied. Rome put her hand back on Andrea’s shoulder. “Speculate. Where do you think he is?” Rome asked.
     “Every time we were together, we went back to my place,” Andrea replied. “If I had to guess, I’d say he lives to the west. He always told me his place was way too sloppy to let me see where he lived.”
     Rome looked at Rei and nodded.
     “What about Steele?” Rei asked. “Do you know where he is?”
     “No,” Andrea replied. “I was told he came in here one night a while back but I wasn’t even around. David said I was lucky.”
     Looking around the room, Rei spotted a tiny video camera mounted in the far corner, where the walls met the ceiling. “I saw you had cameras downstairs,” Rei said, pointing. “Do you keep video records?”
     “Yes,” Andrea replied. “We tape everything.”
     “Can I see the videos?” Rei asked. “Maybe we’ll spot something.”
     “You’d have to go through several month’s worth,” she said. “I don’t really think that’s practical.”
     “Maybe for you and me,” Rei said. He leaned back in his chair. There was a whoosh and a pop and a more normal-sized MINIMCOM livetar appeared.
     “Buddy, can you watch some video for me at high speed and see if you spot something. You know who we’re looking for.”
     “Of course,” the livetar replied.
     “OK,” Andrea said. She stood up and walked around her desk and over to the far side of the room. She pressed a button and a large flat screen display lit up, segmented into four quadrants of video. She tapped a few keys on a keyboard and the display changed. MINIMCOM’s livetar walked over and stood in front of the display.
     “Begin,” he said.

We've all seen enough TV shows to know that working your way through months worth of surveillance tapes would be a herculean task. But when you have an intelligent starship computer that can do it at high speed, it makes the task doable. Let's see what MINIMCOM comes up with tomorrow.