This is a simple count, but given the 200 record limit, and the fact that I don't need any of the results, just the count, why do I have to page through and perform such an expensive operation. The following shows how I successfully used deluge and COQL to aggregate a count, but again, there must be an easier way that is less expensive.  The following I use to count Contacts, and it iterates 32 times, that's 32 queries, just to get a single number: row count.

1. selectQuery = "select id from Contacts WHERE id is not null";
   /**
   * @param {String} selectQuery - The select query to be executed
   * e.g. select id from module where id is not null
   * NOTE: the select query will have limit appended to it.  You must select the id.
   */
   queryMap = Map();
   attempt = " ";
   retryLoop = attempt.leftPad(99).replaceAll(" ",","); // Creates 100 loops
   iteration = 0;
   aggregateIds = List();
   for each retry in retryLoop
   {
     info "iteration: " + iteration;
     queryMap.put("select_query", selectQuery + " limit " + iteration*200 + ", 200");
     response = invokeurl
     [
       url :"https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v3/coql"
       type :POST
       parameters:queryMap.toString()
       connection: "coql"
     ];
     //  Create a combined List
     for each pointer in response.get("data")
     {
         aggregateIds.add(pointer.get("id"));
     }
     if(response.get("info").get("more_records") == false)
     {
       break;
     }
     iteration = iteration + 1;
   }
   
   aggregateIdsSize = aggregateIds.size();
   info "aggregateIds: " + aggregateIdsSize + " for " + selectQuery;
   return aggregateIdsSize;
   

How can this be done more simply, with less computation and complication?