Serafina and the Virtual Man - By Marie Treanor Page 0,20
their poltergeist, is way beyond me.”
“Well, if the poltergeist has been there since the shooting, I suspect someone did die,” Sera said, her voice grim. She stood up with an air of determination. “I need to get hold of this poltergeist again, and you need to talk to Exodus.”
****
Dale Ewan sat in his study and switched on the computer, trying to calm his growing sense of panic. The launch of the new system was only two months away, and nothing was falling into place as it should. He had good people working for him, the best in project managers, programmers, engineers, graphic artists, and even musicians, and yet the integration of software with hardware was so slow he was having to consider a postponement to the launch.
Some of it was Dale’s fault, of course. Always a realist, he acknowledged that. He spent too much time here these days—Petra hated being alone in the house since the poltergeist had begun making its ugly visitations—and not enough at the office overseeing things. Adam had been better at that side of it all anyhow: rolling up his sleeves and mucking in with the workers, yet presiding over the apparent chaos that miraculously produced a product in good time. He squashed the stab of grief and regret before it pierced too deeply. There was no time for that. The best he could do for Adam now was make a success of his new system.
Petra was doing spa things and lunch today in Edinburgh, so he’d use the opportunity to go into the office and force things along. It was still doable. And it was a good excuse to avoid lunch with Roxy. Petra could fend off Adam’s ex far better than he could, and with a lot more sympathy. He just hoped she wasn’t going to come up with some kind of a claim to Adam’s inheritance. Of course his lawyers would nip that in the bud. Adam’s relationship with Roxy, such as it was, had been over for almost a year.
He leaned forward and took up the mouse, about to set the alarm system on the test lab, when his spine shivered involuntarily. The psychic, Sera MacBride, had said poltergeists were just mindless, negative emotion. If that was true, how come Adam had spoken to him so rationally by computer last night?
Fancy a pint?
Of course, it could have been a fluke, or some residual instinct just resending a message that had been sent from Adam to him so often before. He’d been too freaked to check it out last night.
And so, before he set the alarm, before he checked through his e-mails for anything urgent, he examined his chat history. Exodus was indeed still there as a contact. And a bit of basic investigation traced the computer used to…one in his own network. A machine in the test lab.
Involuntarily, Dale’s gaze flew to the half-hidden sliding door. He realised he was holding his breath, that the physical pain in his stomach was caused by a pointless and incredibly stupid wish for Adam to be in there, sending him annoying messages for a laugh. Like it used to be.
He exhaled loudly. All that was left of Adam, if, indeed, it was Adam, was the poltergeist’s fury. And the idea of that in his test lab was unthinkable.
Slowly, Dale stood and went to the keypad on the wall. He tapped in the code and waited, his heart thundering in his ears as the door slid open. Please, please, please…
It looked like it always did since Adam had installed the new machinery. A bank of computers, the first one switched on but sleeping; a wide, empty space with the new equipment above the old bench.
Dale breathed a sigh of relief and closed the door.
Chapter Five
Before she communicated again with the mysterious person pretending to be Genesis Adam, Jilly did a little more Internet research, aka hacking, until she discovered the Australian death certificate and documents relating to Genesis Adam’s emigration—which hadn’t, in fact, had time to be approved. He’d only been granted permission for a long stay. She also found out where he’d lived in Edinburgh and discovered his home was now on the market. On impulse, she called the estate agent and got an immediate appointment to view.
“Tell Sera I’ll be back by lunchtime,” she called over her shoulder as she left Serafina’s.
It wasn’t far to walk to Adam’s home, which turned out to be the top-floor flat of an impressive building in Drummond Place.