Compelling Science Fiction Issue 7 by Joe Stech & R R Angell & Michèle Laframboise & Mike Adamson & John Eckelkamp & David Bruns

Author:Joe Stech & R R Angell & Michèle Laframboise & Mike Adamson & John Eckelkamp & David Bruns
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Compelling Science Fiction Ltd.
Published: 2017-06-01T04:32:57+00:00

Cogito Ergo Sum

by Mike Adamson

Barbara Hawkins was expecting the knock at the door. When it came there was no sense of surprise, simply grim affirmation. It was the sort of knock that carried a volume of information about the party outside, not requesting entry but demanding it. The weight of the blows upon the door, their spacing, created a pattern in whose tempo and rhythm the observant could deduce a world of meaning.

Barbara did not respond at once; there was no call, especially not on this of all days. Mortimer, the house AI, was already speaking with the visitors, examining credentials as cards were presented to the security reader by the door.

It had been a long day, too long, and she was still numb. This call came so soon upon the bereavement, which told her a thousand things, none good. She looked up from her folded hands, across the comfortable lounge to the bay windows overlooking the garden, where afternoon sunlight played in the trees. She smiled wistfully.

The garden had been one of Lionel’s greatest joys, and the hours they spent in the green bowers were the delight of his fading life. She could summon tears at a moment’s notice but they served no purpose. She had cried them out at the ceremony as his frail old body was committed to the flames of his beliefs, while his relatives looked at her with undisguised venom.

That was four hours, six minutes, thirty-one point seven seconds ago according to her internal chronometer.

She sat in a comfortable arm chair, simply staring at the moving light as the day aged. The spill of radiance moved across genuine paintings and old, traditional bookcases. For a few seconds she reflected on whether she retained a purpose in life but returned to the conclusion she had reached time and again as the last two years unfolded. Her purpose had changed, but remained as valid as ever.

She was aware of the AI’s conversation and knew it could not stall the detectives much longer. She shook her head sadly, glanced down, and acknowledged she was still in the black skirt suit she had worn to the funeral. It would never do for the hours ahead.

Jenkins, the family’s big, tough chauffeur, hovered in the hall as she appeared from the lounge. "May I be of assistance, Mrs. H?" he asked softly. She touched his arm with a smile and a shake of her head.

"I don’t think there’s anything any of us can do at this point but cooperate," she replied with a spread of her hands. Then she drew a shallow breath, closed her eyes a moment and seemed to concentrate. "There. Mortimer knows what to do. He just opened a file Lionel left for my eyes only, and will be acting upon it already."

The front door opened on silent hinges as Jenkins stepped aside, and Mortimer’s soft, dignified voice spoke in the entry antechamber. "Ma’am, may I present Detective Inspector Leiselle Carrow and Detective Sergeants Geoffrey Mateland and Charles Rowley.

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