Asimov's Science Fiction - June 2014 by Penny Publications

terrorist attack on the ceremony to launch a probe to the planet Mars. Determined against all odds to bring Lucy back from the dead, Orphan has struck a devilish bargain with a mysterious assassin: an entity known only as The Bookman....
    Sent to France to meet his contact, on the way to for what is for all intents and purposes a suicide mission to the Carib Sea, our young hero arrives on the continent, only to discover—
    A murder in the cathedral!

    One: Across the Channel

    Orphan stood on the deck of the ferry
Charon
and watched the setting sun illuminate the tall, white cliffs of Dover as they slowly grew smaller in the distance. There was sea-salt in the air, and tar, and from below deck the smell of frying sausages mixed with cleaning fluid and a hint of sick. It reminded him, unpleasantly, of Guy's Hospital.
    To his left, standing nonchalantly with his back to him beside the railings, a young man was reading a newspaper. He had straight hair parted to the left, a neat moustache, and was dressed in a sober brown suit. Orphan, in the habit of travelers everywhere who find themselves temporarily without either reading material or current news, peeked discreetly at the paper over the man's shoulder. What he saw made him close his fingers into fists; a helpless gesture.
    Explosion rocks Charing Cross Road!
    By our special correspondent.
    In the early hours of yesterday morning a subterranean explosion rocked the foundations of Charing Cross Road and its environs. The explosion sent shockwaves throughout the nearby neighborhoods, causing damage to property and health. Two people were mildly hurt when their barouche-landau fell into an opening in the ground, and several people were rushed into hospital with minor injuries. The explosion caused damage to roads and houses, and destroyed a bookshop, Payne's, in Cecil Court. Scotland Yard Inspector Irene Adler was on the spot immediately after the explosion, with a full team of constables and police automata. She and her team were seen by this reporter to dig through the ruins of Payne's, where the proprietor and his assistant are feared to be missing amidst the rubble. Inspector Adler was not available for comment. The cause of the explosion is unknown, though experts suggest it was caused by a build up of natural gas deep under the city—
    The young man folded the paper with a definitive slap of pages, said, "What rot!" and turned, finding himself unexpectedly confronted by Orphan, who did not have time to move away. "I beg your pardon," the man said, looking startled.
    Orphan put up his hands. "I should be the one to apologize," Orphan said, "I couldn't help but glance at the paper you were reading, and I'm afraid my curiosity got the better of my manners."
    "Oh, that's quite all right," the young man said. "Here, take it." And he pushed the paper into Orphan's hand. "Were you interested in the article about the explosion?"
    He had clear, intelligent eyes, that seemed to study Orphan with attention. "Curious," Orphan offered.
    "Quite," his companion said, a small smile playing on his lips. "And, of course, complete and utter rubbish." He snorted, and said, "A build up of natural gas! I ask you, what so-called 'expert' came up with
that
opinion? More likely it was the reporter's own inane notion."
    "Why?" Orphan said, finding himself warming up to his energetic companion. "What do you think caused it then?"
    "Revolutionaries," the man said confidently. "Notice how the police were immediately on the scene? How one place, and one place only, was fully destroyed? I would wager that a group of anti-Caliban sympathizers, the Neuromantiks for instance— or any other such group of revolutionaries, really, there is no shortage of them these days—had inadvertently set their hidden cache of explosives alight. Notice, too, that the names of the shop's proprietor and his assistant are not mentioned in the paper—no doubt the police are keeping a close lid on their identities until