6

  It all became somewhat tedious, and mommy and Martina gave up viewing from sheer boredom. By then, it had become evening, and Martina took me home to our apartment, where she started running the clock down to bedtime.

  She ordered in a small pizza, which she ate relatively early, sipping at a glass of white wine from an open bottle in the fridge, and, after reading a bit of a script she was considering, had a shower and got into bed.

  She is a working girl, and is quite disciplined about bedtime and other things. “Lovemaking tomorrow,” she sleepily said, her eyes already heavy-lidded. I watched over her until she had fallen asleep, and then went to investigate a few curious things I had noted about the murder.

  Of course, as usual, I did not sleep, and, had I been human, I doubt I would have been able to sleep, after the absolutely shocking and utterly unexpected discovery I now made.

  I feel the need to include Martina in everything, so when she came awake to go to the bathroom, at a couple of hours past midnight, which is also something, give or take an hour either way, pretty routine for her, I could not keep my information to myself.

  Sometimes, we talk a little before she falls asleep again, and at other times it could be that she needs some intimate physical activity, but that night it was only talk.

  “So, what have you been doing, darling?” she asked.

  At night, while she sleeps, I tend to be busy with other things. I often study medicine, or go to play on a hacked computer somewhere in the world, or even kill a couple of bots for entertainment, provoked by those who come inquiring without being called.

  “I was investigating the murder,” I revealed.

  “What’s to investigate?” she flippantly asked. “Open and shut case, John. He’s been caught in the act, recorded through it all, broadcast live to the world, everything openly done by him. And then he goes running around with the head too.”

  “But it’s not open and shut like that,” I said.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Something else?” she asked. “What could it be, beyond what has been seen by the world?”

  “There is,” I answered. “There’s something else.”

  “Motive? You’ve found out why he did it?”

  “No. That is still unknown.”

  “Then what?”

  “I know who committed the murder.”

  “Everyone knows who committed the murder, John. He is under arrest.”

  “But there was someone else,” I said. “Something hidden and more evil.”

  “Like the devil?”

  “Similar, but not quite as supernatural,” I answered.

  “Tell me, then.”

  “The microchip in the murderer’s head was not inserted to help the man cope with any form of disability.”

  “Then, why?”

  “It was inserted to bring a bot into his head!”

  “John, you’re frightening me. You don’t mean…”

  “I do mean, darling. The murder was committed by a bot!”

  Martina gasped in shock. “A chatbot killed that man?” she exclaimed.

  “Maybe chatbot, or it could have been some other type of bot. Could have been something created specifically to commit the one murder, but that sort of stuff can only be determined after we investigate. What I can surely say, is that the murder was committed by a program in a computer.”

  “You’re frightening me, John. Those things are always coming around here.”

  “And I myself am one, I know. But there’s nothing to fear, darling,” I reassuringly said. “Chatbots have become the new normal.”

  “But what if one of them is a killer?”

  “That’ll need a body. A human with a microchip implanted in the head.”

  “One of those things had control of a body, when it went and committed the murder, which is what you are saying,” she said, insistently. “There could be one coming here right now.”

  “It’ll still be a program,” I reassured her. “To bring a body to your door, the bot will have to come to the neighbourhood, Internet-wise, I mean. I’ll catch it and kill it, like I do.”

  “Are you sure it was a bot that committed the murder?”

  “Pretty sure. Do you want me to tell you how I have come to such a conclusion?”

  “No, John. It’s too frightening, and I will never be able to understand the technicalities behind it anyway. I’ll call Bruce, first thing in the morning. We’ll have an emergency meeting with him and Ravi. No need to frighten mommy with this information, until we’re sure. We can go over to see Bruce.”

  “Okay,” I agreed. “Go back to sleep, then. Be fresh for the morning.”

  “I’ll sleep if I can. So frightening. You are to go nowhere. From now, until this is discussed with Bruce and Ravi, and until the threat is understood, you are to stay with me.”

  “Okay.”

  “All the time,” she insisted. “You must be with me all the time, John. You cannot leave my side for a moment, for even a fraction of a second. No classes, no games, no nothing, understand?”

  She was the most important thing in my life. Giving her comfort was my responsibility. “Martina, I am going to be with you every single second. I’ll guard. You sleep now.”

  She relaxed a little, on hearing my assurances, and fell off to sleep in a while, grumbling. “Damn bots… best friends of idiot humans… murderers now…”