Mason's cubicle was overly neat and boring, just like its owner. Nancy messed up his perfectly-aligned paperclips and browsed through his book on making duplicates of fingerprints.
Ha, like that information will ever come in handy! Nancy thought dismissively.
His computer was password protected, so Nancy was forced to decipher the clues on Mason's whiteboard. Certain letters were underlined, and a game of hangman was at the bottom of the board. Nancy took note of the underlined letters, and found that they spelled out "Tesla's hometown".
Nancy tried typing in "Tesla's Hometown" as the password, but the computer didn't accept it. She frowned.
Nancy didn't know what Tesla's hometown was, but she could easily look up that information on the Internet, and...she sighed, as she realized that the only computer in the area was password protected. She pulled out her cell phone and sent a quick text message to her friend, George Fayne.
George's response seemed excited, and she asked if Nancy could get her a job at Technology of Tomorrow, as long as Nancy was working at one of their labs. More importantly, George said the answer was "Smiljan". Mason's computer accepted that as the password.
Mason's computer didn't have much on it, besides for technology work. In the computer's trash can, Nancy discovered a short text file, which said Ryan should never have been released from jail. A video number was attached to the file, but the video itself was not.
Nancy's task list let her check off "snoop in Mason's area", so she knew that she found everything she could in his cubicle. She took the Slow Elevator of Slowness downstairs, then took a moment to plan her next move. She decided that the video was probably footage from a security camera, which meant she had to go to the security office.
Gray Cortright was working at a set of three computer monitors. He turned to look at Nancy as she entered. "Don't know you," he said. "Who let you in?"
"Um...we met earlier," Nancy said. "You forced me to fix the grid before it went critical."
"The only grid I care about is the one on my waffle iron," Gray said. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to inspect the lab," Nancy said. "My boss is interested in buying it."
"A new owner. Just what this place needs." Gray rolled his eyes.
"I'd like to ask a few questions, if that's okay," Nancy said. "Specifically, I want to learn more about your co-workers. What do you think of Ellie?"
"Hate her," Gray said.
"What about Ryan?"
"Hate her," Gray said.
"And Mason?"
"Hate him," Gray said.
"Do you like anyone?" Nancy asked.
"I liked Niko," Gray said. "But he's dead now. I got no one left to be friendly with. Which includes you, Missy."
Gray shot Nancy a nasty look, then turned back to his computers. Somehow, she got the feeling that Gray would not be very cooperative during the investigation.