Inspector Rames

Chapter 6

"Good afternoon," my coffee machine said the next morning. "What would you like me to do today?"

"Make coffee."

"I can set a reminder for you," it said. "Let me check: I should set a reminder to 'Make coffee.' Is that correct?"

"No. Make me a coffee now."

"The reminder has been set."

"No!" I slammed my fist into the kitchen counter. "I need coffee. You're the worst Christmas present I've ever been given!"

The machine was a sleek, black and silver half-moon, like a little creature from outer space that was curling up in self-defence. And no wonder, when it lived with me!

"Let me check," it replied. "I should set a reminder to 'Buy Christmas present.' When would you like this reminder to be set?"

I growled and hit the switch. Whoever had decided that the machines should do more than just make coffee was an idiot.

My kitchen didn't usually have anything high-tech in it -- or anything much at all. It was a narrow room like a galley, lined with counters and glass cupboards. Although there was just enough space at the far end for a small table, I'd clogged it up with a punch bag instead.

A glance at my tabphone told me that I still had time to visit Coffee Glitch and caffeinate my annoyance, so I grabbed my jacket and entered another bout of rain.

My trip put me behind Alex, who was already in our office when I arrived at the police station. He was wearing a dark suit, his appearance polished except for the five o'clock shadow still shading his jaw.

"Good morning." His gaze darted to my drink. "That coffee looks much too nice to have come from here."

I supposed it was the moving snowflakes on the cup that gave it away. "So you've already discovered the terrors of the station's coffee machine? It's from a proper shop."

Putting the cup on my desk, I fished a half-eaten chocolate bar out of my pocket. As I shoved the rest in my mouth, Alex grinned. "How many of those do you have left now?"

"Never you mind," I said when I'd finished chewing, because I didn't want him to know that I'd already eaten three. I hadn't been able to help myself. "And you can stop sitting there looking so smug. We're going straight back out in the rain to Ryker's Repairs."

That wiped the grin off his face.

***

We went to Terra Road on foot, Alex snug beneath his hood and me freezing as my wet hair stuck to the back of my neck.

Ryker's workshop was open again, so we ascended to the lowest metal walkway and strolled straight in without preamble. It was so dark that we immediately had to stop and wait for our eyes to adjust.

Green holograms were the only things I could see at first. They floated abstractly around the room, shaped like new tabphone models or small kitchen appliances. Then steel tables slowly emerged from the gloom. I spotted wires crawling across the floor, then finally the location of all four walls in close proximity to each other.

Faint synth-rock music drifted from the back of the room, where Ryker James was wearing a welding mask as he fiddled with a small drone. Bryony Gold was standing beside him in a smeared apron, observing and chewing gum. A robot was pottering about nearby with a bottle of oil.

Alex rapped his knuckles on the nearest table, and the sound echoed around the room. Ryker flinched and looked up, turning the welder off. He lifted his mask onto his head and stared at us. Bryony retreated through a door in the back. The robot dropped the bottle.