Part Eighteen - The Final Chapter
The store sign turns to “OPEN” and Cattrell sets his camera on the passenger seat. He won’t need it today.
Leaving the sedan, he dons a gray fedora and crosses the wet street towards the pink door of The Sand and Pendulum. Above him, a bell rings softly, announcing his arrival.
A bald woman looks up from behind a cash register. She smiles initially. The smile fades.
Cattrell takes the fedora off, shaking a few drops of rain off of it as he walks silently towards her. She makes no move to run, rather she backs slowly into a corner. Only the light piercing through the side-window blinds can reach her face. Beneath the counter, a sound can be heard, like metal slicing sand.
“You found me.”
“I did.”
She stands silent, like a droid that loses its bearings. Cattrell lights a cigarette, his eyes focusing on its smoldering end in a patient way.
The woman visibly shudders. “I can’t go back to him.”
“I won’t allow you to.”
Cattrell steps to the counter. He notices her face, symmetrical again. Without makeup it is smooth, shiny, perpetually young.
“I can’t escape this time.”
“I know.” Cattrell reaches into his overcoat and retrieves the hip rotor. He places it on the counter. “You won’t need to escape. Not anymore.”
She touches the rotor through the clear plastic packaging. “Mr. Cattrell, I don’t know what to say.”
He places a card on the counter. “I have some experience with Zenith rigs.”
Cattrell smiles and turns slightly, placing the fedora back onto his head. As he walks towards the front door, he steals a final glance at her. Her smile is genuine, he notices with some curiosity.
She looks down at the card as the door bells jingle, and reads the name printed above a San Francisco phone number.
John Cattrell. Private Investigator.
End
Read from the beginning:
Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six | Part Seven | Part Eight | Part Nine | Part Ten | Part Eleven | Part Twelve | Part Thirteen | Part Fourteen | Part Fifteen | Part Sixteen | Part Sixteen | Part Seventeen
"The Girl and the Pendulum" is an 18-part future-noir science fiction story about a a private investigator's search for a missing android. How can a man who searches for missing women find lost artificial intelligence? I welcome feedback on this story about a man and his difficult case in a post-war, post collapse world. Stay tuned, as I also will begin publishing my 300,000 word epic novel "The Messiah" on Steemit in 2017.
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