Varken Rise by Tracy Cooper-Posey Page A

from his arrival at the complex yesterday.”
    The heads-up display streamed lines of text that scrolled up to the edge of the invisible screen.
    “No video?” Lilly asked. “No images?”
    Catherine shook her head. “Bedivere initiated passive tracking, I suppose because he was wondering why Kemp was here, too. It would’ve been invasive to follow him everywhere with a lens, because he was simply being cautious.” She was scanning the log lines as they scrolled upward, picking out the timestamps. “Halt,” she said.
    “That was after dinner,” Lilly said, looking at the log line Catherine had displayed. “He was in the kitchen. With you.”
    They both looked at her.
    “He bought some empty dishes,” Catherine said.
    Brant nodded toward the heads-up. “You were alone with him in the kitchen for ten minutes. How long does it take to recycle dirty dishes?”
    “Then Bedivere arrived. Look.” Lilly pointed at the display.
    “Then you left, thirty seconds afterward.” Brant looked at her through the heads-up. “I’m not an expert at reading passive logs,” he said. “You do know what that looks like don’t you?”
    “I know. It looks as though Bedivere caught us doing something he didn’t like. That’s not what actually happened. Kemp and I were talking about Jovanka…and Bedivere.”
    “What were you talking about, specifically?” Brant asked.
    “Kemp had information that said that Jovanka was very old, possibly older than Bedivere and that she really had gone rogue. That she was delusional and suffering a persecution complex.”
    “That’s what you argued with Bedivere about last night,” Brant said softly.
    She shook her head. “I know what it appears to be. I do. We weren’t arguing, though. Bedivere didn’t believe Kemp and I….” She pressed her lips together. “I wasn’t sure.”
    “Did Bedivere know that you doubted him?” Lilly asked sharply.
    Catherine sighed. “Yes.”
    “And he took Jo’s death hard, too,” Brant added.
    “Then there was Kemp, arguing the traditionalist position, that computers are dangerous. Bedivere thought you believed Kemp.” Lilly pressed her hands together the fingers intertwining. Her knuckles were white.
    “Are you to trying to convince me that Bedivere killed him? Or yourselves?” Catherine asked dryly. “Why are you even considering it? You know Bedivere. You know he wouldn’t do this, hell, he won’t even carry a gun unless forced to.”
    “It’s not evidence,” Brant said. “However, the facts are damning.”
    Catherine shook her head. She had no answer for that. Instead, she turned back to the heads-up display. “Computer, continue.”
    There were only four other entries after that. Kemp went to his room not long after Catherine had left the kitchen. Then, in the early hours of the morning he went out to the common room. That was not remarkable. However, the entry logged a second person in the common room. Her heart sank.
    “Bedivere was there,” Lilly whispered.
    “And they were both went back to Kemp’s room.” Brant added.
    The very last entry showed Bedivere leaving the room nearly an hour later. Catherine stared at the entry, her thoughts reeling.
    “We must call in the gendarmes,” Brant said. His voice was gentle. “The longer you wait….”
    She swallowed. Brant was right of course. “There’s no reason not to, now. We have all the answers we can get on our own. Once the room and the body are processed, we’ll know more. Lilly, would you mind calling them? If I call, it will be instant news. The feeds are registered to my voice print. For as long as possible, I would prefer to keep this out of the news. That won’t last forever and I want a chance to resolve this before the speculation begins.”
    “You know what they going to say, don’t you?” Brant said.
    “I can see the streamers now,” she said tiredly.
    * * * * *
    The Oceania authorities were just as anxious as Catherine to keep everything under