Sipowicz and Clark arrive at the home of an 80-year-old millionaire, Hugh Rasmussen, who was smothered to death. They talk to the man's secretary, Judith Howell, a middle-aged woman, who found the body.
One of the Ancients who implanted encrypted wormhole technology in Crichton's brain accuses him of selling the data to an aggressive race allied to the Scarrans. Crichton protests his innocence.