Chapter 25: Murdered in Miami

Hank Dalton walked into the banquet room with four naked women surrounding him. Even in Florida, all naked women look alike. If someone had bothered looking at the "slave bodyguards" they would have noticed that all of them were identical except for their scalp hair--all four had different hairstyles and haircuts. They wore slave collars and were barefoot.

Hank was professionally dressed for a presentation in a dark pinstripe suit, contrasting striped shirt and a print tie. One would have to be very near Hank to see that his tie was tastefully printed with tiny cartoon characters. A pair of black wing-tip shoes completed his costume. One of the nude women carried a small brief case containing Hank's notes and a memory stick.

The five people walked across the deserted banquet room floor and up on the stage. The woman with the briefcase walked to the audio-visual control console at the left of the stage and took a memory stick out of the briefcase and plugged it in. By the time Hank was behind the podium the wall behind him lit up with the title of his multi-media presentation: THE ROLE OF ROBOTICS IN WORKPLACE SECURITY.

A white-haired woman opened the door to the banquet room and dragged a cleaning cart in. She was dressed in the rude coveralls and cheap shoes of the indentured servant.

"This banquet room is closed--please leave," the red-haired slave-bodyguard told the indentured servant. When the cleaning lady said in Spanish that she didn't speak English, the slave-bodyguard repeated the order in Spanish.

On stage Hank began a dress rehearsal of his presentation with a "Good morning ladies and gentlemen. I am Doctor Henry James Dalton of the Silver Servants Robotics Corporation and my presentation is on the role of robotics in workplace security. Robots can do most of the things that humans do."

As a second bodyguard closed in on the cleaning lady, the white-haired indentured servant raised the muzzle of a stun gun and zapped the red-haired slave-bodyguard, pivoted and brought the stun gun to eye level in a two-handed hold and shot the blonde-haired slave-bodyguard, sidestepped and dipped the muzzle of her weapon as she spun to bring the stun gun to bear on the two people on the stage. As the white-haired woman pressed the firing stud on her stun gun she noticed that both slave-bodyguards were still on their feet and advancing on her. She triggered a pair of stun bolts on the two people on stage.

No results-the woman threw her stun gun at the redhead and pulled a black bladed knife from her coveralls. She crouched with her left arm raised to shoulder level and the forearm parallel to the floor, elbow bent so that her fist was in line with her right shoulder. The knife was held near her hip, out of reach.