It may not flash the sex appeal of James Bond's Thunderbird, but HK Systems' automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) recently performed an undercover role on prime-time TV.

In ABC's spy drama "Alias," Jennifer Garner plays Sydney, an agent who sneaks into a Moscow military library to retrieve a top-secret map hidden between the pages of Tolstoy's "War and Peace." Urgently tapping on a keyboard, she manipulates a storage/retrieval machine to pluck the book from deep storage.

That spy tool is none other than an AS/RS from HK Systems. The company sells a version called ALS, for automatic library system, says Jeff Hedges, HK's director of market development. Most of its customers are large universities.