The Ghost in the Doll

A Fox Meridian Novel

By Niall Teasdale

Copyright 2016 Niall Teasdale

Amazon Kindle Edition

Contents

Part One: Where the Heart Is

Part Two: Vitam Novam

Part Three: The Doll Factory

Part Four: The Luxury of Living

Part One: Where the Heart Is

Topeka, Kansas Belt, 27th March 2061.

Fox Meridian took a deep breath, trying to force herself to relax, set a smile on her face, and then walked out through the passenger door of the vertol she had flown in on. Her father was waiting for her beside a car he had probably borrowed to pick his daughter up from the airfield and she wanted to look as though everything was all sunshine and roses. It was not, and he knew it.

‘You’re looking well,’ Jonathan Meridian said as she walked up to him. ‘I was expecting something a little more battered, maybe.’

‘Yeah, well… Let’s leave all that until we get home, huh? Then I don’t have to do it twice.’

Jonathan nodded. ‘That is a good idea. That all the luggage you’ve got?’ He nodded toward the small bag she was carrying.

‘Uh-huh. Fabricators are a wonderful invention and, to be honest, I don’t have all that much suitable for Topeka weather.’

‘It’s March. Almost temperate.’

Fox looked up at the sun, high in the sky. ‘Dad, it’s pushing twenty, Celsius. New York is barely in double figures.’

‘Better get you out of the sun then, before you melt.’

‘Not much chance of that.’ Which was very true given her current state, but she was saving all that for when she got home. ‘Still, I want to get home and tell you both the news, and then I can get on with the resting part of this.’

‘We’re both happy you wanted to take your medical leave here.’ He took her bag from her and tossed it into the back of the sedan before opening the passenger door for her.

Grinning at him, Fox waited until he got in the other side before saying, ‘Have you been practising being a gentleman for all these political dinner parties I’m sure you attend now?’

‘We don’t. Many of them anyway. Uh… Your mother… has been upset since we heard what happened. She’s going to be a bit emotional about this.’

They did not know the half of it, but… ‘I kind of figured she might be. How are you two doing? How’s the Watch doing?’

‘Good, aside from worry, and rapidly improving.’ Jonathan paused for a second, and then clearly decided that the Watch was a safe topic for now. ‘I won’t say the first few weeks weren’t testing, but people are starting to trust that the Watch is going to be able to handle things when NAPA shuts down. There have been one or two reprimands, but mostly for failing to keep up with paperwork. No one’s reported any problems with undue use of force or favouritism. I think things are working out pretty well.’

‘How about the investigations side of things?’

‘Nothing major’s come up. A few robberies of one sort or another. We called in Ray Rogers just to support a percentage of the investigations really. He’s happy with the way the Watch officers are handling minor stuff like that and those support vests are working perfectly.’

‘Good,’ Fox said. ‘I’m supposed to be out here taking it easy. I’d hate to have to kick anyone’s butt.’

‘No butt-kicking required. Don’t worry about it.’

Fox looked out the window as the sedan hurried north into the city. Thinking about it, kicking someone’s behind might have done her some good. ‘I won’t.’ There were plenty of other things to worry about…

~~~

Andrea Meridian started crying as soon as Fox stepped out of the car, bolted forward, and wrapped her arms around her daughter’s neck. There was mumbling and wailing which Fox was fairly sure was in no language previously heard on Earth: words were certainly hard to make out anyway.

‘Mom… Mom… Mom, do you think we could maybe take this inside before my shirt dissolves?’

Andrea let go, backed up, and punched Fox in the shoulder. ‘I have a right to be upset after what happened to you.’

‘Well, yes, but don’t you want to save some for when you’ve heard the full story?’

‘I thought we had…’

‘Clearly not, Andrea,’ Jonathan said, walking around the car. ‘I need to take this back in a bit, but I’d like to find out what we weren’t told before that.’

Fox nodded. ‘You could start by telling me what you were told so I don’t have to go over it all again.’

‘Ray Rogers came over to tell us you’d been kidnapped,’ Andrea said as they migrated toward the house. ‘I was worried, very worried, but he said that Palladium was putting every resource into finding you.’

‘He didn’t hold back,’ Jonathan added. ‘He told us it was that Grant guy, or they thought it was. There was going to be a time limit on finding you alive, but that it was likely as much down to how long you could keep going and we knew you were strong.’ He paused. ‘Kitchen or lounge?’

‘Lounge,’ Fox said.

‘Coffee? Something stronger?’

‘Not right now. So I assume they told you they’d found me?’

‘Kit was keeping us up to date from New York. Mostly it was “no news right now, sorry,” but then she dropped us a message saying she’d located your general area, and then it was “we found her!”’

‘And then Jackson Martins called from Japan!’ Andrea said, sounding as though this was tantamount to a personal message from God. ‘He… didn’t hold back either. He told us you were in bad shape, but he assured us he would make sure you came out of it okay.’

‘Called us again from New York,’ Jonathan said. He pointed at the chair he usually used, indicating that Fox should sit there, and then took the sofa beside Andrea. ‘He said you were getting worse, but he was taking you up to some research station on the Moon because it had the latest equipment. That man really thinks the world of you.’

‘Yeah, well…’ Fox sat down. It felt kind of like the hot seat of an interrogation, but… ‘I saved Terri, twice. I think he overcompensates, but he doesn’t.’

‘I can see his point. We got a list of injuries. We assumed there was going to be some cybernetics involved. How much did they have to replace?’

Fox forced a smile. ‘Okay. They told you about the coma?’ There was nodding. ‘I developed a brain haemorrhage, and there was damage to my brain stem along with the severed spinal cord further down. Grant also used an experimental nanodrug on me to accelerate my healing while he was… Well, he used it too much and it trashed my natural ability to heal. So, I was crippled below the waist, my body was basically operating only because they patched me into a life support system, I wouldn’t wake up, and my body wasn’t actually healing.’

‘Oh,’ Andrea said, eyes wide.

‘Yeah. Jackson took me up to Jenner. Uh, that’s our research station in the Jenner Crater, on the far side. It’s where we do our really secret research. Terri was already up there working on something I can’t tell you about, and Jackson discussed some options with her.’

‘I understood Teresa Martins was an AI specialist,’ Jonathan said, frowning.

‘She is, mostly, but she has some fairly novel software projects aside from her normal AI stuff and Jackson wanted her to consider one of them.’

‘A software project?’

‘Yeah. Well, software, nanotechnology… Terri did the operating software for the Yliaster system, which is all nanomachines. But… Look, they had a few options, but none of them were exactly safe. The brain damage was pretty severe and the cybernetic technicians were pretty unsure about some sort of spinal implant working. They’re working on a medical application of Yliaster which could have done the repairs, possibly, but they’re nowhere near ready to try it on a living human. They considered freezing me until they could have it ready, but cryogenic technology isn’t exactly a sure thing yet…’

‘But you’re here,’ Andrea said. ‘You look… like nothing happened to you. Just the same as you did. They must have done something.’

Fox looked down at her hands. ‘It’s called Project Akh. Using ultra-high-definition MRI and nanomachines, they map out every neuron, every connection in someone’s brain. Then they compile all that data into a database and Terri’s written software which can… execute that database to create an emulation of the original brain. It’s digitising a human, turning them into an infomorph. Uh… It’s a destructive process. I can’t go back. Even if my body was much use in its current state, it doesn’t have a brain for me to inhabit.’

‘Oh my God!’

Not looking up, Fox continued. ‘Jackson felt they had no choice. All the other options were bad. The process is experimental. I’m the first person to go through it, but they were sure it would work. It’s just that all the test animals they tried it on, except one, couldn’t cope outside a virtual environment. Terri was sure a human had the mental capacity to handle it and… Well, apparently I do, but…’

‘Oh my God,’ Andrea repeated and Fox looked up, dreading what she would see. Andrea looked horrified, her hands held up in front of her mouth in anguish. Fox’s heart sank, metaphorically speaking since she no longer had one.

‘So…’ Jonathan began. ‘What we’re looking at is some sort of android body?’

‘Yeah,’ Fox replied. ‘Computer in the chest to run the emulation software.’

‘My God, but they’ve come a long way on realistic skin. I’ve seen some of them in town and you can always tell. I mean… you’re my daughter and I couldn’t.’

‘Well, it’s–’

Andrea was suddenly leaping across the space to wrap her arms around Fox’s neck again. ‘Oh, my poor baby! What you must’ve been through!’

‘Uh…’

‘Let the girl breathe, Andrea,’ Jackson said.

‘She’s in a gynoid body,’ Andrea replied, still holding on. ‘She doesn’t have to. And it’s gynoid, not android. There’s a difference.’

‘Technically true,’ Fox said, ‘but it’s difficult to talk like this.’

‘You’re doing fine. I can’t imagine what it must be like. The first you knew of it was when you woke up? When they… started you up?’

‘Pretty much, yeah. I went to sleep in a hospital room in Tokyo and woke up in what turned out to be a simulation of my apartment, apparently all fixed. I was… a little unreasonable about it.’

‘Understandable,’ Jonathan said. ‘Still having some doubts?’

‘Yes.’

‘Also understandable, but I couldn’t tell. It’s not just the body, the very lifelike gynoid body. You move the same, sound the same, act the same…’

Andrea finally let go and returned to the sofa. ‘You are the same.’

‘Sam said the same thing,’ Fox said. ‘Though Sam noticed that I’m more flexible than I used to be, but he notices things like that. Kit keeps telling me she can’t detect a difference aside from the fact that I keep worrying over it. Jackson and Terri treat me just like they did except for the technical aspects. Marie… She was kind of avoiding me, which is one of the reasons I came out here.’

‘We’re not complaining,’ Jonathan said. ‘Marie will come around. She’s young, probably unsettled by this. She’ll handle it once she’s had a chance to think it over.’

‘I guess I didn’t give her much chance. You two are really okay with this?’

‘I’d prefer it hadn’t been needed, but I don’t care what kind of body you’re in so long as it’s you that’s in there.’

‘Agreed,’ Andrea said, ‘but they did do a remarkable job of replicating the original you. It does help, I suppose.’

‘Huh,’ Fox said. ‘Well, I sleep in a server while this thing recharges. Did they deliver it?’

‘Several MarTech technicians turned up to install a server of some sort in your room,’ Jackson said. ‘I’m glad we’d finished redecorating.’

‘That gets to stay here in case of visits. All I need to handle daily life. Uh, I don’t really need to drink and I can get by on very minimal food, but I can eat and drink normally if I want. It’s just… a bit wasteful.’

‘And you can’t get drunk.’

‘No, sadly, I can’t.’

‘I’ll get drunker for you,’ Andrea said.

‘But more importantly,’ Jonathan went on, ‘how secret is this?’

‘It’s not. I’m the poster child for Project Akh. It’ll be public knowledge soon enough. On the other hand, we’re not making a lot of noise about it yet. Uh, that’s partially because I don’t want to. I need to get used to it. It’s kind of weird. Most of the time, I feel like me. Sometimes I don’t.’

‘I’d imagine that’s natural. Hell, I’m still not quite used to this implant. I feel like a computer sometimes. It just pops things up for me when I think about them too loud.’

Fox grinned, this time more genuinely. ‘Finally went ahead with it then?’

‘And no matter what he says,’ Andrea said, ‘he wonders how he did without it.’

‘Yes, yes,’ Jonathan said, ‘I should’ve done it years ago, but my point is that it took some getting used to. Change does. Where is Kit anyway? You mentioned her and she hasn’t popped up to say hello.’

Fox tapped her chest. ‘She’s in here. This thing has a fairly powerful computer so we can both run quite comfortably on it. I asked her to let me do this on my own. Uh… I think I was expecting more… of a reaction.’

Kit’s avatar, all large green eyes and foxy white tail, appeared beside Fox’s chair. ‘Good afternoon, Mister and Mrs Meridian. I told her you would understand, but she’s convinced people should treat her differently.’

‘Afternoon, Kit,’ Jonathan said, smiling. ‘Well, she’s right, but it’ll be people who don’t know her. And it won’t all be “bad,” though I doubt Fox will see it as good attention.’

‘The Church,’ Andrea said, nodding. ‘I mean, I can’t imagine many of the conventional religions taking this well, but the Church of God’s Mind is going to think you’re some sort of goddess, Tara.’

Fox sagged in her seat. ‘No one is to tell Danny Berkewitz about this. No one. Under any circumstances.’

Andrea developed what could only be described as a politician’s smirk. ‘What’s it worth?’

~~~

‘So your mother got another social out of you?’ Bart Wade said, smirking.

‘Blackmailed another social out of me,’ Fox replied. She was at the kitchen table, watching Bart and her parents eat. She was drinking wine, to be sociable, but she really did think wasting food on her was just about a crime.

Bartholomew Wade was the only other person in Topeka that Fox absolutely had to have in the know regarding her new condition. Even if she had expected more problems with her parents, especially her mother, she had known that Bart would take it in his usual, practical manner, and probably tell her that she was being an idiot. Bart was old, but only physically. His hair was grey, and increasing amounts of his body had been replaced with metal and plastic, but he had had a computer implanted long before Jonathan and his mind was as sharp as ever.

‘Blackmail,’ Andrea said, ‘is such an ugly word. I prefer “persuasion with menaces.”’

‘I’m not sure that’s better,’ Fox countered, ‘but the point is that I wanted you to know I’d beaten you hands down on the cybernetics, Bart, before Friday. That way I don’t have to explain in front of everyone.’

Bart gave a shrug. ‘I still hold the Tin Man title for the street. You’re just a visitor, so I can live with it.’

‘I figured you would. Though I recall you saying how big a can of worms this kind of technology was back in January.’

‘Sure is. When the news breaks, you’re going to be up to your neck in political and religious types. You’ll have the Church of God’s Mind demanding that the government legalise it, and they won’t be alone. And you’ll have the religious Right demanding it be outlawed.’

‘And probably that I get turned off. Yeah, I know.’

‘But you have that covered, right?’ Andrea said. ‘You said MarTech had come to some special arrangement for their first subject.’

‘I’m covered,’ Fox agreed. ‘I’m legally the same person. Huh, if the worst ever came to the worst, I could emigrate to Luna City. They have a pretty solid equal rights thing going up there. That’s why the American government agreed to hold my testing there before I was allowed down here.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘That was annoying and pointless.’

‘They were trying to make sure you were you?’ Bart asked.

‘Well, yeah, but it was an IQ test followed by some guy asking me questions I could’ve probably answered with an internet search. Seriously, mother’s maiden name. Name of my first school.’

‘You remembered my maiden name?’ Andrea asked.

‘Barlow. I do actually remember my grandparents, Mom. It was kind of slipshod, but I guess I shouldn’t complain. NAPA sent someone up to interview me too. That was more detailed, but mostly on what happened with Grant and Hannah.’

‘Kit got on the news about that Hannah girl. An AI giving evidence at a hearing and your testimony. You really don’t hold a grudge over her part in this?’

‘I do,’ Kit said from her position behind Fox, perched on one of the work surfaces. ‘Equally, she helped rescue Fox. I am conflicted on the matter.’

‘I…’ Fox frowned. ‘I guess I’m conflicted too. I’ve got some pretty obvious issues with her, but she was almost as much a victim as me and I think she deserves to be tried for what she did, not just turned off and scrapped.’

‘Well,’ Bart said, ‘you set the cat among the pigeons with that one. They’re still trying to decide what to do about it. Might go all the way to the top.’

‘I haven’t been paying a lot of attention to the news recently. Jenner’s pretty isolated and I’ve been avoiding anything controversial since I got back. I’ve got enough controversy of my own.’

‘Fair point. You won’t have seen that the Japanese have stolen MarTech’s thunder then?’

‘Oh?’

‘Some company over there has made the first artificial biological human. Well, not human, obviously, but you know what I mean. Bioroid, they call them.’

‘BioTek were working on it. Are working on it. They needed a variant of Yliaster to make it viable. So they can build an entire adult body instead of growing a cell up to adult size the normal way. An eighteen-year production cycle wasn’t viewed as ideal.’

‘Huh, no, I’d imagine not. Apparently someone in Japan has cracked it. Of course, it’s for sex. If they don’t actually invent something specifically for sex, someone’ll find a way to use it for that pretty quickly.’

Andrea giggled. ‘So true. It seems a shame that the first artificial life we make is for that though.’

‘Alternative is probably some sort of manual labour. Slave labour. Not good either, but I’m bringing the mood down.’ Bart flashed a grin at Andrea. ‘Nice outfit you’re almost wearing, Andy. I see the sparkle hasn’t gone from your renewed love life.’

Andrea blushed, but just a little. Her cropped camisole top and shorts were fairly brief. ‘Jonathan likes it. And so do you, you old letch.’

‘Not denyin’ it. Mind you, you’ve got competition. Your daughter’s not exactly covering herself up and she’s got more to show.’

‘Oh… Don’t remind me. I’ve always been a little envious.’

‘And,’ Fox said, smirking, ‘now there’s no danger of sag. Ever.’

Andrea mock scowled at her daughter. ‘You’re not too old to spank, young lady.’

~~~

Fox’s old bedroom had been redecorated. Gone were the trappings of a late-teen, replaced with a not-too-modern but certainly updated look in earth tones, which included a double bed that had a rather nice bronze-coloured, embroidered comforter over it. It had been done in the hope that Fox would visit with Jason Deveraux, her boyfriend.

‘We kind of planned to come over before he started his new job,’ Fox said. Her mother was seeing her to bed before joining Jonathan. Andrea was being a little more solicitous than usual, likely still worrying over Fox’s recovery. ‘Then I went and got myself kidnapped…’

‘I’m sure you’ll see him again, Tara,’ Andrea said. ‘I’m sure that bed will see some use at some point.’

‘Well, it’s going to see some now.’ Fox looked at the black box sitting beside the bed, already hooked up to the mains. There were indicator lights on it, showing that it was functional. A small camera mounted on the top was unmoving and there were a couple of cables coiled beside it. ‘I only need four hours’ sleep now, and this thing will be charged before I wake up, but I might still be in there if you come in in the morning.’

‘I’ll let you come down on your own. Take your time. You are supposed to be resting.’

‘Yeah. Look, do you mind if I do this on my own? It’s still a little…’

‘I’ll leave you to it. I’d imagine you can contact our implants if you need anything anyway.’

Fox waited for her mother to leave before undressing. Nudity was technically unnecessary, but she had slept naked for a long time and it made things a little easier. She pulled the comforter back on the bed and then picked up the thickest of the two cables. It ended in something that looked like one of those nerve-induction exercise devices people had thought were the answer to exercise without effort decades ago: a cloth belt with a pair of plastic pads attached to it. Strapping the belt around her hips, she made sure the two pads were roughly over her hip joints and closed the fastening.

Next came the second cable, much thinner with a small plug at the end. Reaching behind her neck, she felt under her hair for the small socket hidden away there and pushed the plug in. Almost immediately, a connection notification came through, followed by an authentication exchange panel.

‘All set up for us,’ Kit commented. ‘Jackson is really going out of his way to make sure this works for you.’

‘Yeah, well… He would. He always does.’ Fox started her transfer to the server and climbed into bed, pulling the covers over her. ‘I assume you’re coming over with me.’

‘Of course. I’ve some work to do, and you’ll want someone to talk to when you wake up hours before your parents.’

‘You know, not being able to sleep in is a major fault in this design. Turn off, “sleep” for want of a better word, and four hours later I wake up. Ding! Awake.’ Fox closed her eyes and watched the progress bar on her ba transfer. ‘And they need to give me a faster cable interface. I mean, Terri was talking about using wireless transfers sometimes, but that would take ages.’

‘I know. That’s how I usually travel.’

‘You’re used to it. This is all new to me. It’s so slow…’

‘You could be in Japan in five minutes, ten at the most. You could be on Mars in a day or so instead of weeks.’

‘I suppose that has some utility. If I’ve got a frame to load into once I get there anyway. Does Palladium have contracts on Mars?’

‘There are MarTech facilities on Mars and Venus, as well as the lunar sites, of course. Setting up a body for you on the Moon would be very easy. You need never ride in a rocket ever again.’

‘Huh. Now I see why Jackson wants to do this.’

‘Hmm, yes. He does suffer terribly from space sickness.’

Fox smirked. ‘I don’t think that quite covers the depths of his misery. He is a little better when he can have some gravity, but then the Coriolis effect tends to kick in with spin gravity… Yeah, he’d love just being able to radio himself over to Jenner. Transfer’s almost complete. I’ve programmed it to shunt me straight into sleep mode on the other side so… Night, Kit.’

‘Goodnight, Fox. Sleep well.’

‘Oh, like I have a choice…’

28th March.

Possibly one of the most important advances in biotechnology this century, the new Japanese bioroid carried the name Yurei no Ningyo, which seemed to be being translated as Ghost Doll. Fox discovered the reason for the name when she located a video of the launch conference from the Aphrodite Cybernetics facility in the Chiba Industrial Zone.

Aphrodite Cybernetics built androids and gynoids more or less exclusively for the pleasure market. They did not come immediately to mind on the list of people who might scoop BioTek to the first artificial humanoid, but they did tinker with biotechnology: their high-end models used cloned skin to give a more realistic look to their robots. This made it strange that the Ghost Doll bioroids did not appear especially realistic. They had pale, almost white, skin with the texture of latex, very red pouting lips, and eyes that always seemed to be opened wide. They were walking rubber sex dolls and Fox found herself wondering what kind of mind came up with something like that.

‘I would suggest it was a male one,’ Kit said when Fox commented on the video. ‘Possibly one born last century. Perhaps the company was unable to create a working model with more natural skin, though it seems more like a specific choice.’

‘Yeah. If I discover BioTek are doing anything like this, I’ll… get very angry about it.’

‘I’m nothing but software, and I find it rather offensive. Perhaps it will fail to sell.’

‘Oh… Don’t count on it. Aside from anything else, they’re selling it as a luxury item. People with more money than sense are going to jump right in. I’d suggest that the Japanese market might be more amenable, but I bet you there are Americans trying to sniff out a way to import one right now. The interesting thing will be to see whether they create a male version.’

‘The market for pleasure androids still lags behind the gynoid market, though it is not far from parity. Have you ever tried one?’

‘No,’ Fox said. ‘Thought about it. There’s something to be said for a boyfriend you can stuff in a closet when you’re bored with him. Of course, now I’m a gynoid girlfriend.’

‘You know, I don’t think Jason will think of it that way. I also think that Jackson would not have been unhappy if you had stopped off at Prokhorov Station on the way to Earth.’

‘Maybe I didn’t want to test Jason’s reaction just then because I felt insecure. I’m still finding myself, Kit. If, and I’m not saying he would have, but if Jason reacted badly… Not sure I could take that right now.’ Fox checked the time. ‘Almost six. I’m getting up. Mom and Dad will think I’ve been replaced by a duplicate, but… I have, so it seems fair.’

~~~

It was a bit after six a.m. when Jonathan and Andrea came down to find Fox sitting at the kitchen table, eating something from a plastic tub which appeared to be Greek yoghurt. The smell of coffee pervaded the room as well.

‘Now I am starting to worry about you,’ Andrea said. ‘Up before us and eating yoghurt?’

‘Yeah, well, this way I don’t walk in on you two kissing like teenagers at a drive-in, and it’s not yoghurt.’

Frowning, Andrea walked over to the table and started reaching a finger toward the tub. ‘It looks like–’

‘Uh… Don’t. Seriously. It’s specifically for my skin. It’s basically protein and nanomachines.’

‘It’s poisonous to humans?’

‘Huh, no. It just tastes absolutely disgusting and it won’t do you any good at all. It’s indigestible and gross, but it’s got everything I need for a glossy coat and wet nose. And I turn off my sense of taste before eating it.’

‘You can do that?’

‘Smell, taste, and touch, if I want. The smell thing is going to come in useful at murder scenes.’

Kit appeared beside the table nodding. ‘She is not joking about that last part. Not even a little. You know you don’t need to eat that so often?’

Fox gave a shrug. ‘I’m still getting used to what I need. I’d rather have too much stored up than not enough.’

‘And I guess coffee is just a drink now,’ Jonathan said. ‘And you can’t get drunk.’

‘Well, I still like coffee and the taste of alcoholic drinks.’

‘And she can get drunk,’ Kit added. ‘Oh… She can get really drunk. It just takes virtual alcohol to do it. You should have seen her when–’

‘And we are not discussing my drunken episodes on Jenner with my parents.’

‘But it’s funny!’

‘It’s not funny, it’s embarrassing. Don’t think I won’t virtually spank you.’

‘Oh, yes please, mistress!’

Fox winced: she had been asking for that. Jonathan burst out laughing. Andrea put her hand over her mouth, eyes wide, and said, ‘Kit!’ The shocked look was somewhat diminished by the fact that she appeared to be trying not to giggle.

‘You’d better not be teaching Belle this sass,’ Fox said.

‘Belle prefers quiet dignity,’ Kit replied, ‘though I think she’s getting there.’ Then she pouted. ‘You can’t be mad at me. I’m paru-kawaii, remember?’

‘I can well believe it,’ Jonathan said, ‘but what does it mean?’

‘Very cute,’ Fox said, ‘in Japanese. Kit’s all famous over there. She gets fan mail and mentions on social media sites, and I heard she was doing the chat show circuit…’

‘What?!’ Kit squeaked. ‘No! No one said anything about– Oh, you’re making fun of me.’

Fox smiled and got up to get coffee. ‘The look on your face…’

~~~

Fox pulled her Q-bug up outside an old industrial building and stepped off, adjusting her cami-top absently before heading for the door. There was little to indicate that this was the Topeka office of Palladium Security Solutions, just a small sign beside the door. However, the fact that the door recognised her ID and opened as she walked up to it did make Fox feel like she still belonged.

‘I thought you were supposed to be on medical leave,’ Ray Rogers said as Fox walked into the office the investigators shared.

Fox raised an eyebrow. ‘If I was working, I wouldn’t be here in a tiny little top and denim shorts.’

‘First time I saw you, you were wearing a top like that. I admit, there was less leg on show.’

‘Well, I’m not working. I figured that, since I was in town anyway, I’d come over and see if everyone was settling in okay. Not that you need to settle… And to thank you for sending over my gear and the Q-bug.’

Rogers nodded. ‘New housing’s finished. We’re in and it’s all functioning, including the new fabricator. Not much happening, but the Watch has been using us for oversight on a few small cases. It’s all pretty much making sure they’re handling things properly. Uh, they have been.’

‘Great.’ Fox grabbed a seat beside Rogers’s desk and sat down. ‘So how are things with Ray Rogers?’

‘Oh, uh… Well, pretty good… I’ve been, uh, dating…’ There were some snickers from the other people in the office and Rogers flashed a glare around his colleagues.

‘Anyone I know?’

‘Yeah… It’s Crystal Bateson.’ Rogers frowned. ‘You don’t look very surprised.’

‘She asked whether you were single last time I was down here. I’m more surprised that she actually went for it than that you’re dating her. She’s an attractive woman. What does Sandy think?’

‘That it’s great, as far as I can tell. Uh, the age difference is–’

‘Meaningless these days. Unless you’re into the whole “toy boy” thing, of course.’ Fox watched Rogers’s cheeks colour and grinned. ‘I’m happy for you. Both of you. She needs something good in her life. Of course, if you break her heart, I’ll help Sandy skin you.’

‘Huh. If I do that, I’ll hold the knives while you’re doing it. Uh… We got reports through. About your condition, I mean. You’re looking pretty good, but… We were worried about you. Helen and Kit are handling the top-end admin pretty well, no complaints at all, but do you know when you’ll be back on the job?’

Fox leaned back in her chair. ‘No… I have a few things to work through. It’s been a tough month.’

‘Yeah, I can imagine.’

~~~

The problem, of course, was that no one could really imagine what Fox was trying to work through. No one with fewer than four legs had ever had to do it before, and Fox was fairly sure that Agnus the digital rat was not going to be much help; the language barrier alone was more or less insurmountable.

‘I don’t believe talking to Agnus would help anyway,’ Kit said as they drove back to Fox’s parents’ house. ‘I don’t believe that her experience really impinges on the problem.’

‘Eyes on the road,’ Fox responded. Kit was driving the bug by remote because she did not get the chance that often.

‘I am quite capable of holding a conversation while driving. Don’t change the subject.’

‘Since I gave you your command keys, you’ve got bossy.’ There was silence for a second or two and then Fox filled it. ‘Okay, why doesn’t Agnus’s experience have a bearing on mine?’

‘Because Agnus was happy being a rat and got on with doing just that. You, however, are not happy getting on with being what you are.’

‘Human?’

‘A detective. You’re quite fit to resume work. You usually work to avoid personal issues, but now you’re using a personal issue to avoid work.’

‘I’m n– Okay, I am. This job cost me… almost everything, Kit. I’m not me any more. I mean, I guess I am, but my real body is in a freezer on the Moon. And that’s only because Terri still entertains the hope that they can fix it up and build me a new brain. I don’t know whether I can do this any more.’

‘I believe you can, and you will. I accept that it may take some time for you to realise that, however. Also, I am pleased to note that you do not seem concerned that you are not yourself. You appear to have accepted that your mind is what makes you Fox Meridian.’

‘People keep telling me I act the same, I still remember all the embarrassing things I’d rather have forgotten when I was sixteen, and I’ve never been much into metaphysics. I can do without existential dilemmas, so unless something comes up to suggest there’s something missing, I am me. I think I am Fox Meridian, therefore I am. Or something. Hell, the real Fox Meridian isn’t going to tell me I’m not. She doesn’t have a brain.’

‘Somehow,’ Kit said, ‘I think that I was happier before you explained your reasoning, but it’s a good start. Have you given any thought to what you would do if you cannot continue your current job?’

‘Of course not. I’m too busy panicking about not being able to do it. Maybe I should take up farming. Dad seems to like it.’

There was amusement in Kit’s voice when she replied. ‘Somehow, I cannot picture you as a farmer, Fox.’

‘Well… I could be…’

~~~

‘So what’ve you got planned for tomorrow, Dad?’

Jonathan raised an eyebrow at Fox’s question. ‘Some pottering in the fields. Seeds are all in, but I need to check irrigation and the agribots. I’ll be ploughing over the fallow fields soon.’

‘Want a hand? I know some basic robotic maintenance. I mean, most people in New York do. It’s cheaper than hiring a mechanic for basic servicing.’

‘I won’t say no.’

Fox smiled. ‘Cool, it’s a date.’

‘It had better not be,’ Andrea said, ‘or I’ll have to come out there in a bikini. I can’t have him dating younger women.’

‘With bigger boobs.’

‘Especially not ones with bigger boobs. You will be careful, Tara? You won’t stress yourself?’

‘Mom, physically I’m pretty much unstressable. I can bench-press over two hundred kilos and you could drop an agribot on my foot and I’d barely notice.’

‘Huh,’ Jonathan said, ‘and I just happen to have a load of fertiliser bags to move…’

Tokyo, Japan, 29th March.

Irete Kudasi was not the kind of club that Yuriko Fukui would have visited if she ever really went to clubs. It was basically a pick-up joint on the outskirts of Kabukicho. Maybe fifty per cent of the women who walked in required monetary remuneration to walk out with someone, and the only reason the men did not outnumber the women was that the bouncers had a fairly strict policy on equalising the numbers. At least it was easy enough to get into if you were female, so long as you wore a short enough skirt.

Yuriko was there to meet exactly one person, a contact in the Fukui-kai, her brother’s yakuza organisation. She had been tasked, by Jackson Martins himself, to track down the source of the drug which had destroyed Fox Meridian’s immune system. The mission-giver was, she felt, prestigious, but she would have gladly done the job if the order had come from a janitor cyberframe: Fox, her boss, had been kidnapped and tortured in Japan, on Yuriko’s watch, so to speak. The only person blaming Yuriko was Yuriko, but she was going to do everything within her power to make restitution, and if that meant hitting up every yakuza contact she had, then so be it.

She could, however, have wished for a different venue for this meeting. Horny Japanese men were for too prone to groping. Making her way to a raised area at the back, she kept herself calm by entertaining fantasies of multiple men rolling on the floor nursing broken arms. Then she took up a position leaning on a rail so that she could see the entrance.

Ichisada was late, which was especially irritating considering his choice of meeting place. He was not exactly her most reliable contact, and Irete Kudasi did fit him perfectly: he was a womanising, drug-taking drunk, and his relative scarcity of fingers was testament to his lack of self-control. However, he had claimed to have information on the suspect Yuriko was looking for, so he was her best option right now.

The case had not gone too badly at first. It had taken Yuriko over two weeks to get her hands on a sample of the drug, but given that the information on it came down to scraps, not even a name, that had seemed a good start. MarTech had analysed it and discovered that it was related to nanodrugs that BioTek Microtechnologies were working on, and a name had come up. Arvid Hummel was a scientist specialising in nanotechnology in biological systems, and he had been employed by BioTek until early twenty sixty when he had been kicked out for unauthorised testing. Yuriko had determined that he had moved to Japan in March of that year… And then he had vanished. Finding him had become Yuriko’s priority.

The slight dip in sound level around her, the lack of men trying to feel her up, and something more primal made Yuriko straighten her back and turn around. There were three men in suits standing behind her, and she might have been rather pleased that they were providing a shield against the horny ingrates who pervaded the place, except that their presence suggested that Ichisada had sold her out or was about to lose more than a finger.

‘Good evening, gentlemen,’ Yuriko said, executing a fairly shallow bow.

The bow was returned, which probably meant that they knew exactly who she was and they had been told to be polite. It did not mean they were not going to kill her, but they were going to be polite about it. ‘Fukui-san,’ the middle one said, ‘we bring a message from your brother.’

‘Here or outside?’

‘Fukui-sama requests politely that you desist from your current course of investigation. He indicated that he would consider it a grave insult should you continue. Further warnings will not be given.’

Yuriko gave another bow, which pretty much forced them into reciprocating. ‘I thank you for delivering this message from my most esteemed brother, gentlemen. I will take my leave of this disgusting establishment and consider his words carefully.’

The journey back to the door of the club was significantly more pleasant than the one on the way in. A path opened before her as she was preceded by one man and flanked by the other two. It was amusing, to say the least, given that she had just been told to ‘back off or else,’ but then her relationship with the Fukui-kai was far from being a normal one.

There was more bowing and formal goodbyes before Yuriko turned and walked off toward the local station. She was going to have to consider the words the men had delivered from Taro, certainly. She knew exactly what he was doing and exactly what it meant. Continuing would be an insult. On the other hand, he had not told her she had to keep her mouth shut about it…

Topeka.

‘I should warn you,’ Jonathan said, ‘that I’m not really used to talking while I’m out here.’

Fox was walking beside him, down to the block of fields he had bought between the house and a nearby river. ‘Suits me. I’ve had my ass just about talked off in the last few weeks. I mean, Jenner’s got lots of cool stuff in it. Seriously, you would love some of the weapons they develop given your desire to hunt gophers with a railgun.’

‘I was mostly joking about that.’

‘Mostly. Uh-huh. But there’s not a lot to do there if you’re not a scientist, except talk. It’s not like exercise does me any good. I might still go running when I get back to New York. It’s good for thinking, but…’

‘Not much else. And eating doesn’t have the air of necessity it once had. Your lifestyle is going to change, that’s for sure.’

‘Uh-huh. Bi-weekly check-ups at the robot doctor, nightly recharge instead of eating three times a day, being able to see ultraviolet light… Believe me, that last one’s not as much fun as it sounds, especially in hotel rooms.’

‘I’ll take your word for that.’

‘I should also probably point out that I don’t know much about irrigation systems.’

‘I can help with that,’ Kit said, appearing beside Fox and happily keeping pace with her, on rough ground, in high heels. ‘I checked with the house computer regarding the make of the system and downloaded appropriate maintenance guides. We should be able to handle a basic check without difficulty.’

‘And there I had to learn to do it,’ Jonathan said, grinning.

‘The wonders of modern technology,’ Fox replied.

‘Uh-huh, putting the little guy out of business since they invented the spinning jenny.’

‘James Hargreaves of Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, England,’ Kit put in. ‘That was in seventeen sixty-four, and one could argue that the invention of the flying shuttle by John Kay some thirty years earlier began the deskilling processes.’

Fox glanced at her. ‘And you just felt you had to mention that there?’

‘Well, I just love the word “Oswaldtwistle.” I mean, what a great name for a place. The people who live there must think it’s awesome.’

‘I imagine they’d find “Topeka” kind of exotic,’ Jonathan said. ‘If they’ve ever heard of us. I mean, I can’t imagine Topeka is one of those places that springs to mind when people in England think of America. What are we famous for?’

‘Brown versus Board of Education,’ Fox replied.

‘That’s more American history. What does some Brit care about the end of segregation in schools?’

‘Probably not a lot. They don’t always like being called Brits, by the way.’

‘Huh, like I care. They’ve never heard of my home town.’

New York Metro.

‘Good morning, Helen,’ Kit said as Helen Dillan stepped out of the shower.

Helen paused to grab a towel and wipe water out of her eyes. ‘Morning, Kit. You know, when Fox actually comes back to work, I’m going to miss this.’

‘I’m sure you can get your own PA when I’m back full-time with Fox. I have Yuriko Fukui waiting on a conference line.’

‘Uh… Mask the video, please, and put her through.’

Yuriko appeared beside them, bowing toward them both. ‘Helen-san, Kit-san, I hope I have not called too early.’

‘No,’ Helen replied. ‘It’s nine here. I’m running a little late, actually. It must be… eleven at night in Tokyo so I assume this is important.’

‘I have determined, with little doubt, that the Fukui-kai is employing Doctor Hummel.’

‘That sounds like good news, but–’

‘My evidence came in the form of a polite request from Taro that I cease looking for him.’

Helen raised an eyebrow. ‘A polite request, huh?’ She finished drying herself, mostly, and reached for her panties. ‘I assume he was working on the giri thing?’

‘Nothing was mentioned, of course, but the implication was clear. It also seems clear to me that Taro would not have done this if I were not getting anywhere.’

‘Agreed, but what do we do about it? You’re not going to get much further with your contacts if Taro knows what you’re after. Back off for now. We need to figure out a new strategy.’

‘We need more information, Helen-san. I am afraid that I have failed in my first major investigation.’

‘No, you haven’t. When a major criminal organisation decides it has to warn you off, you haven’t failed: you’ve pissed them off.’

Topeka.

The river at the bottom of the Meridian farm was more of a creek really, but it was a valuable resource. Jonathan used drought-resistant crops like everyone else, but even so, it was not always viable to get a good crop from rain alone.

So, Jonathan had a fairly basic irrigation system which took water from the river when required, and the semi-porous pipes needed checking to make sure they were not too porous, the pumps needed checking to make sure they pumped, and the remote sensors needed to be checked to make sure they were sensing. It had taken a couple of hours, but it had all been done and now it was time for another part of small-scale farming: breaking for coffee.

Fox was drinking to be sociable, mostly. There was something of a psychological effect from drinking the stuff, but deep down she knew it was not really doing anything to her. ‘Maybe I should just take up sniffing coffee,’ Fox commented, lying back on the bank of the creek in the sun. ‘I mean, it never really tastes as good as it smells.’

‘Sad, but true. When did you get that belly piercing?’

Fox pushed onto her elbows and looked down at the anodised purple metal barbell in her navel. ‘Not long after I got skin. I kept talking about it before this happened. I was accused of having a mid-life crisis. Now… It took an hour before the skin healed around the metal.’

‘It normally takes a while, I guess.’

‘A couple of months to heal properly. You know, I figured Mom would ask about that before you did.’

‘Well, she noticed it. She was asking whether I thought it looked good.’

‘And you want ammo to stop her having it done too?’ Fox lay back down and closed her eyes.

‘Well, I’m not saying yours doesn’t look attractive, and I’m not saying it wouldn’t look good on her, but… Yes, I was looking for ammo. Sometimes she tries a little too hard to be younger.’

‘I noticed she’d gone for shorts and a cropped top this morning.’

‘You’re a bad influence. Um…’ Jonathan’s tone shifted, becoming more serious, and Fox wondered what was coming. ‘We saw on the news that Reginald Grant had turned up dead, on the Moon.’

‘Uh-huh. I’d heard they ruled it an accident.’

‘That was what the reports said.’

Fox considered for a second. ‘I’m sure he didn’t mean to punch holes in his habitat while trying to shoot me, but he was a lousy shot. I didn’t kill him. I just didn’t do anything to save him either.’

‘I’d have happily shot him myself.’

‘That’s why I didn’t take a firearm with me.’

‘Probably a good choice. And matter closed, opinions expressed.’

‘Okay. What’s up next?’

Jonathan grinned. ‘Contemplating the wonders of nature for a little while longer…’

‘Yeah, I’m contemplating the bugs thinking about taking residence in my shorts right now.’

‘And then we go work on the Mark Threes.’

‘You’re still using those things?’

‘There is nothing wrong with Gorton-May Mark Threes…’

~~~

‘These things are older than I am,’ Fox said as she removed one of the service panels on the side of a large, roughly oblong, tracked cyberframe in the workshop beside the house.

‘That is an exaggeration,’ Jonathan said, doing the same with his second machine. ‘You were… eleven or twelve when the first of them rolled off the line.’

Gorton-May AgriTech had shot themselves in the foot a little with their Mark III agricultural cyberframe. They had proven very popular and had sold very well, but they were so easy to maintain and so reliable that the two updated models which had followed had seen poor reviews in comparison. Gorton-May were hardly going out of business since they continued to make parts for the Mark III, but they were going to have to perform magic to ever get a new model adopted. A lot of their newer units had been targeted at the city-based hydroponic farmer instead.

‘I guess if it works, don’t fix it,’ Fox said. ‘You got these second-hand?’

‘Of course. They don’t make them new, but I worked with Mark Threes for years and I couldn’t see using something newer when I got my own land. Must say, the implant made remote-operating them easier.’

‘See? Technology is great.’

‘Considering that it stopped me having to attend my daughter’s funeral, I am not exactly going to argue.’

‘I am just going to forget I heard that,’ Andrea said as she walked in with a tray, ‘and hand out the coffee.’

‘No point in denying it, Andy. She almost died, but she didn’t.’

‘Technically,’ Fox countered, ‘I did, but then I got better.’ Picking up a fibre-optic cable from where she had left it on top of the robot, she proceeded to plug one end into the machine and the other into her cable port. ‘In some ways, a lot better.’

Jonathan was plugging another cable into a handheld computer instead and raised an eyebrow. ‘You just plug in and run the diagnostics?’

‘Kit downloaded the software.’ Fox took a mug from the tray Andrea was holding out and smiled. ‘Thanks, Mom. Look at it this way, I’m bulletproof and I basically don’t age. I can’t catch diseases and if my leg falls off, I just get it replaced. Barring suicide or apocalypse, I’ll live forever. No need to worry about me ever again.’

‘And I suppose you think that’s comforting?’ Andrea replied. ‘What’s a mother supposed to do if she can’t worry about her child?’ Andrea set her tray down and settled herself with her back against the frame Jonathan was working on. It was a casual sort of pose, in a place which made talking to both husband and daughter easy, but it still managed to look a lot like she was posing for Jonathan.

‘Take up knitting? Or politics. I hear politics is pretty popular around here. Looking good there, Mom.’

Andrea preened a little. ‘I try. Um… was the piercing painful?’

‘No. Artificial skin. You would find it painful. They do clip-ons.’

‘Oh! They do?’

Kit made an appearance at that point, smiling in a manner which Fox had come to associate with the AI’s more mischievous side. ‘They do, Mrs Meridian. I can send you links to several sources. I was quite surprised at the variety of options.’

‘Really? Well, that would be interesting to look at.’

‘And not just for the navel. Ears, obviously, and the nose ones can be quite pretty, though not to my taste. Then there are the other ones.’

Andrea fell for it; Fox almost winced. ‘Other ones?’

Kit nodded enthusiastically. ‘Nipples, labia, and clitoris.’

Andrea let out a squeak which might have been a word. ‘I’ll stick to just the navel ones, I think.’

‘I don’t know,’ Jonathan said, his attention apparently fixed on his handheld. ‘Sounds kind of interesting…’

Andrea made strangling noises. ‘I’ll… take a look. I’m not promising anything.’ Fox had to bite her lips to avoid giggling.

Jonathan leaned over, cupped Andrea’s cheeks in his hand, and kissed her on the brow. ‘For an intelligent woman, love, you can be far too easy to wind up.’

Pouting, Andrea said, ‘You know that just makes me want to try it. It’s like a dare now.’

‘Just so long as I don’t hear what happens when you do,’ Fox said, ‘you can try whatever you like. That was a gamble, Kit. How did you know my mother wasn’t that kinky?’

‘Careful observation,’ Kit replied. ‘Usually, observation is the most I can do.’

‘I thought you were such a nice girl too, Kit,’ Andrea said.

‘Huh,’ Fox said, ‘she’s got a boyfriend, and you do not want to see her browser history.’

‘It’s all perfectly legitimate research,’ Kit countered.

‘That,’ Jonathan said, ‘is what they all say.’

30th March.

Washburn Mall was not one of the largest in the city, but it was not far from the house, near to the university and not far from both the Palladium and Watch facilities. It also had a fair number of clothing shops, both the pattern-display kind for those who wanted to fabricate their own and more bespoke resellers.

It also held the shop that Drew Maple and Sandy Bateson ran, selling various things made in the Southern Protectorate. Fox walked in expecting to be recognised and was not disappointed.

‘Miss Meridian!’ Sandy squeaked, rushing over. ‘It’s really good to see you.’ Her face fell a little. ‘We, uh, heard about what happened.’

Fox gave a shrug. ‘Well, I get a couple of weeks here out of it. It’s not all bad.’ In all probability, half the city probably knew that Fox had been kidnapped and tortured. She doubted any of them, aside from her parents and Bart Wade, knew how badly.

‘Always a bright side. Are you looking for anything special?’

‘Mom’s got a party planned for Friday.’

‘I know. We’re invited. Me and Drew and Mom.’

‘I was hoping you would be. Otherwise I’d have had to invite you. Anyway, I can’t turn up to that in anything old. Have to outshine my mother, otherwise she’ll think I’m not trying.’

‘I’m not sure we carry that kind of outfit,’ Sandy said, looking around at their stock. Mostly it was leather and metalwork, all handmade, because it was usually easier to get cloth goods out of a fabricator, but Fox spotted an embroidered comforter hanging on display which looked rather familiar.

‘No, I wasn’t really expecting to see anything like that in here, but I’m also just browsing and I couldn’t come here without stopping in. I haven’t seen this place yet.’ Fox pointed at the comforter. ‘I see my mother has though.’

‘Those sell really well. Seriously, we can’t get enough of them. There’s a special flag on our notification channel to let people know we have new stock.’

Fox raised an eyebrow. ‘You have a notification channel?’

‘Oh yes. Mister Runyard helped set it up. He says we’re a “prime example of how Topeka is moving forward into an integrated future.” I know it’s kind of bullshit, but he gave us both the money to get implants put in and he’s been very supportive. Your Mom’s subscribed to the channel. It used to be just a message when new stock came in, but the last couple of months we started doing vids of us unboxing some of the choicer items. That’s been popular.’

Fox shook her head. ‘People watch the weirdest things.’

Sandy giggled. ‘Well, it’s all pretty new to me. You know, ’cause of Malcolm. I’m like a kid in a candy store.’

Fox did know: Malcolm Bateson had kept his daughter off the internet as much as possible, largely to hide what he was doing to his daughter. Still, he was serving a long sentence in Rikers now. ‘Is Drew here?’

‘Uh-huh. He’s in back. He’ll probably come out and say hello when it seems like we’re not acting like groupies or something. He’s got that cool, protectorate outlaw image to keep up, you know?’

‘Somehow, I never really thought of Drew as a cool outlaw.’

‘Aww, Hell,’ Drew said, emerging from the stockroom with a swagger in his step, ‘and I try so hard.’ He was, in a shopping mall in Topeka, still dressed in leathers and rough cloth which would have looked right at home in the dustbowl to the south.

‘Shop costume?’ Fox asked.

‘Yeah…’ Drew sagged a little as he said it. ‘It’s kind of town and dustbowl.’ He indicated Sandy’s quite pretty, not-quite-formal, knee-length dress. ‘Thematic, you know?’

‘We switch it around sometimes,’ Sandy said, grinning. ‘Drew wears a suit and I get tiny little shorts, a breast band, and a lot of belts.’

‘And we usually get more men in browsing those days.’

‘Do we? I hadn’t noticed.’

‘She’s only got eyes for you, Drew,’ Fox said, grinning. ‘Can’t beat that.’ Her eyes caught on a strappy, leather bodice set out on one of the tables and she wandered over to pick it up.

‘I don’t plan to try,’ Drew said. ‘Uh… could I ask your advice on something?’

Fox was busy looking over the leather. ‘Sure. What’s up?’

‘Well, we get news up from the south, you know? Cable was up last week and he was a little worried.’

‘More than a little,’ Sandy said.

‘Okay, more than a little. They’ve got a problem with people going missing. Some of them probably just left, but not all of them. It’s happened to a couple of people at the camp and Cable said there were a lot of rumours of travellers vanishing…’

‘Has it been reported to NAPA? They still have ownership of patrols down there,’ Fox asked.

‘Yeah, I think so, but they’re not going to–’ Drew stopped himself, took a breath, and went on. ‘The reports are vague and NAPA don’t have the resources. You know, knowing Mister Runyard and your mother has really taken the bite out of my righteous indignation.’

‘Yeah, seeing the other side will do that. Look, Palladium has a contract to provide additional investigative services to NAPA in the protectorates, but they have to call us in. Even if I wasn’t on medical leave, I couldn’t authorise anything without NAPA’s permission.’

‘But NAPA won’t do that without some proof and they don’t have anyone investigating to find proof. The system’s broken. You couldn’t… I shouldn’t be asking this. You couldn’t just take a trip down there and look around?’

Fox felt her chest tighten, which was ridiculous. ‘I… It’s kind of doctor’s orders. Someone would shout at me, probably with sarcasm. It’s not exactly a place for someone just out of a hospital, Drew.’

Drew’s shoulders sagged. ‘No… No, you’re right. It’s just…’

‘Frustrating. I get it. They’re talking about contracting out patrols if the new system works out in the rest of the country. If we get that… Well, it’d likely mean more cyberframes doing the job, but I can guarantee a better response. Until then, my hands are tied.’ Fox forced a smile. ‘Speaking of bondage, I’ll take this.’

‘Good choice,’ Sandy said. She was forcing a smile too. ‘The workmanship on that is gorgeous and you’ve got the figure to pull it off.’

‘You really have got this shop assistant thing down well.’

‘It’s kind of easy when I don’t have to fib about the customer.’

~~~

‘Damn it, damn it, damn it,’ Fox muttered as she drove south toward home.

‘You did not enjoy lying to them,’ Kit said into her head, ‘so why did you?’

‘It’s not entirely a lie. Terri would be sarcastic.’

‘Yes, almost certainly, but that would not usually stop you.’

‘You know full well why I don’t want to go.’

‘Perhaps I’d like to hear you say it.’

Fox frowned. ‘Look, contact… Who’s in charge of intelligence on the Southern Protectorate?’

‘That would be Craig Norden.’

‘Okay, contact him and ask him if he could check with NAPA. See whether these missing people have been reported. Just remind him we can’t look into it without NAPA calling us in, and make sure you say it’s a request because I’m not his boss right now.’

‘Would you like me to have a nice fruit basket delivered as well? Perhaps I could get the message printed on a box of cookies.’

‘You’re getting too smart for your own good. If this keeps up, I’m going to turn up on your next date with Vali and show him pictures of you as a baby AI.’

‘Ha! I had them all destroyed.’

‘Does that mean there were some? Because I bet Terri’s still got them if there are.’

‘Me to know… And I happen to know where your mother keeps your baby pictures.’

‘You’re worse than Mom.’

‘Like your mother,’ Kit replied, ‘I only want what’s best for you. I just have the capacity to nag you twenty hours a day and you can’t get away from me.’

Fox looked up at the sky, though she doubted very much that there was anyone up there listening. ‘I want a divorce.’

31st March.

‘They got the reports,’ Norden’s teleconference image said, ‘but they haven’t done much with them. To be honest, ma’am, hundreds of people go missing in the protectorates every year. Probably thousands. Most of them don’t want to be found.’

Fox nodded. ‘I know. It’s just that I’ve met Baxter Cable and he’s pretty grounded. If he thinks something weird’s going on, it’s not just paranoia.’

Norden shrugged. ‘About all I can do is pass the information to NAPA and suggest it might need a look from someone.’

‘Yeah. Do that, please, Craig. I guess it’s the best we can do at the moment.’

As Norden’s avatar vanished from in front of her, Fox turned back to her parents. ‘Sorry. I asked one of the guys to look into something Drew Maple mentioned yesterday. Some people going missing in the protectorate.’

‘Isn’t that pretty common in the protectorate?’ Andrea asked.

‘That’s kind of the problem. NAPA don’t really take it seriously, and they wouldn’t have resource to look into it if they did.’

‘Well, yes. That’s why we have the Watch.’

‘Uh-huh, but the same thing wouldn’t work down there. Too distributed a populace and no one to organise anything. A few places have private security, but for most of it you need something run by the government, even if it’s just a government contract serviced by a private company.’

‘I–’

‘Andy…’ Jonathan said.

‘I should have an argument, but I honestly don’t. You’re probably right, Tara.’

‘Wow,’ Fox said, grinning. ‘Did that hurt?’

‘There was a little pain, but I’m sure I’ll recover.’ Andrea grinned back. ‘The practicalities of getting the Watch started may have… changed my perspective a little.’

‘I don’t actually expect you to switch sides, but I’m glad to see you’re willing to see the other side now.’

‘Perhaps I’ve grown up a little. The party’s tomorrow. You managed to get something to wear?’

‘Uh-huh. And I found this really great leather bodice at Drew and Sandy’s shop. It’ll go down a storm at this club we go to in New York.’

‘That sounds lovely. What did you get for the party?’ There was a hint of innocent wheedling in Andrea’s voice which Fox picked up on and decided to play with.

‘You’ll see tomorrow night.’

‘I just want to–’

‘Check I’m not outdoing whatever you have?’

‘No, of course not. I just… Well, I mean…’

Jonathan chuckled. ‘I’d see if Bart wants to bet on who’s going to win this one, but I don’t think he’d take it.’

‘Jonathan,’ Andrea said, pouting, ‘you’re supposed to be on my side.’

‘I’m neutral.’

‘But–’

‘Ah, but Andy, you’re forgetting one thing. The more you compete with Fox, the better my eye candy.’ Andrea frowned at her husband, though she could not quite manage to make it look entirely serious. ‘Oh, and I’ve seen that bodice Fox bought… You’re going to have to try really hard to beat her.’

Andrea looked around at her daughter, narrowing her eyes. Fox looked back, focusing hard on keeping her face blank while she really wanted to giggle. ‘Right then,’ Andrea said, ‘it is on.’

1st April.

‘Do you think it’s such a good idea to needle Mom into a sexy dress competition?’ Fox was busy taking a motor out of one of the agribots; Jonathan had decided it needed replacing and now they had the part. It was a one-man job, but they were doing it together.

‘Your mother has a competitive streak, like you, but she won’t make a complete fool of herself tonight. I think we’re safe.’ Jonathan was standing behind Fox, watching the proceedings with some interest. ‘You know, I know you said city folk tended to know robotic maintenance, but seeing it happen is still a little strange.’

‘House robots are common. If everyone had to pay for basic maintenance, no one would be able to afford them. And I’m not that competitive.’

‘And yet, you felt the need to try to “out-sexy” your mother at the party.’

‘That’s… It’s just… I think she’s confusing me. She acts more like we’re girlfriends than mother and daughter, and she doesn’t look much older than I do.’

‘You are both very attractive women. I have no idea what contribution I made to your genetics.’

‘Don’t fish for compliments; it’s unattractive in a woman, never mind a man. Anyway, height, for one thing. I’ve got a good two inches on Mom.’ Fox chuckled. ‘Plus, I bought a pair of five-inch sandals. Which, thinking about it, Marie may beg me for. If she’s talking to me at all.’

‘Still not taking to the new you too well?’

‘No… Or she didn’t seem to. Maybe she just needs a little more time and I didn’t give it to her. Rushed out here as soon as I could.’ Fox got the last of the locking bolts free and lifted the motor out. ‘Okay, we’re ready for the new one.’

Jonathan handed over the new motor, taking the old one off Fox. ‘Thanks for doing this. I always skin my knuckles.’

‘Yeah, well, I do too, but my skin’ll be good as new in an hour.’

‘And we have to look good for the party, right? Skinned knuckles would not do.’

Fox giggled. ‘No. Definitely not.’

‘I’ve… been thinking of having a little cosmetic work done.’

‘Ow. And that was a small cut right there. Why? You look great. Mom hasn’t said anything, has she?’

‘Not a word. Not even a look. Maybe I’m a little competitive too. Besides… After your mother’s affair, she… overcompensates a little. She’s offered to do a few things in the bedroom which–’

‘I don’t need to hear about. Ever.’

‘Ahem. She always wants to look her best for me. I’ve tried pointing out that she looks perfect to me in old jeans, a tatty blouse, and no make-up, and she has eased up a little. But given the option, she tries… And I’m not complaining, at all, but I’m starting to feel like I could do a little more for her.’

‘Well… If she was pushing, I’d be annoyed. If you think it’s a good idea… The procedures are safe. Just don’t go overboard, huh? I like my dad looking older than me.’

‘Nothing too extreme, I promise.’

‘Good. I just had a really extreme makeover and I think we should stick to one per family.’

~~~

Fox paused in front of her mirror and smoothed her skirt. ‘Damn,’ she grumbled.

‘What’s wrong?’ Kit asked. ‘You look good. Very sexy. Um… I would? Is that the right phrase?’

Fox smirked. ‘Thank you, Kit. And that’s a phrase, certainly.’ She checked the line of her skirt again, nodding. The outfit was actually a skirt and top, not a dress, and the grey leather skirt had a high waist and was knee-length. However, it also had a wrap-around design which featured quite a wide V-shaped gap at the front, and her vest was a criss-cross of wide, off-white cloth bands with mesh between them. It stopped in a tight band just under her breasts, and it covered her nipples well, but not much else. It was a simple outfit, subtle in a very unsubtle way.

‘I’m bothered,’ Fox went on, ‘by the fact that I am competing with Mom over this. It’s dumb.’ She looked down at her sandals, which had five-inch heels, a wide silver ankle band, and a thin toe strap. ‘And these shoes are insane. Sexy, yes, but insane.’

‘Like they’re going to bother you. You have metal bones and motorised ankles. Competition between mother and daughter is a common, psychologically validated fact.’

‘When you’re five, sure. And I have no desire to sleep with my dad. This is just me wanting to win, and I’m not even really sure I want to win.’

‘Well, why don’t you go down and see whether you have? Then you can decide whether you want to.’

‘That makes… a tiny bit of sense.’

Andrea was not in the lounge when Fox walked in, but Jonathan was. ‘I got kicked out of the bedroom,’ he said. ‘Andy didn’t want me seeing “a half-finished product.”’

‘Makes her sound like a hand-thrown pot or something.’

‘Yes… You look spectacular, Fox. If I weren’t your father… Because I am, however, go upstairs and change into a sack. Immediately!’

Fox smirked. ‘No. I don’t have one in my size. And before you say it, the sacks you have in the workshop wouldn’t cover my dignity.’ She gave a shrug. ‘Not that I have much dignity, but your sacks wouldn’t cover it.’

‘How about a nun’s habit?’

‘I have one of those, and you’d like it less than this outfit.’ Jonathan raised an eyebrow and Fox flashed a grin at him. ‘I was honoured with lay membership of the Church of Saint Nicholas and given the title of Sister Protector for services rendered. They designed a new uniform style, just for me.’

‘You are a member of the Sisters of Corruption?’

‘Uh-huh. So are Sam and Marie. Sam actually earned it the normal way. Marie was given it for her portrayal of M. J. in her vid series.’

‘Oh. Well, that explains a lot.’

Fox swatted her father on the shoulder, but further discussion of the topic was forestalled by the arrival of Andrea. Her outfit was, essentially, the polar opposite of Fox’s. A black mini-dress printed with a snakeskin-like pattern aside from a pair of mesh triangles over her hips and upper thighs. There was a wide hole, like an inverted teardrop, cut into the front which left the lower slopes of her breasts on display. She had also gone for far darker make-up: where Fox had selected pale colours, Andrea was all dark, sultry eyeshadow and deep-red lips.

Andrea’s eyes scanned over her daughter and then her shoulders sagged. ‘Okay, you win.’

‘What? You look amazing!’

‘Oh, but your outfit looks really smart and you still look sexy. I’m more or less abasing myself and I don’t look that good. I just don’t have the figure for–’

‘Crap, Mom. Dad’s drooling.’

‘I am not,’ Jonathan responded, wiping at the corner of his mouth. ‘Could we, perhaps, call it a draw?’

‘I think I’d accept that,’ Andrea said.

‘Yup,’ Fox agreed.

‘Good. Though… Fox, I just need to borrow your mother for… a couple of hours. You don’t mind, do–’

‘Nuh-huh. Guests will be arriving in ten minutes and I barely know half of them. You can just keep your unnatural lusts in check until the party’s over.’

‘Unnatural lusts?’

‘Yeah. You’re a man. All your lusts are unnatural.’

~~~

With all the people Fox had to say hello to before she could rush on to the next, it took a good forty minutes before she could settle down on the arm of Bart Wade’s chair with a glass of wine and a sigh.

‘Hard work,’ Bart said, ‘all this socialising.’

‘I’d rather be in a firefight,’ Fox replied. ‘Though… Mom hasn’t invited anyone I actually dislike to this one. How are you doing?’

‘Oh… Can’t complain, though I could’ve wished for a different day for this. I was at a funeral yesterday afternoon.’ Bart frowned. ‘Maybe that’s a good reason to be at a party today.’

‘Anyone I’d know?’

‘Doubt it. Old friend. We went to school together. His heart gave out, though, which was unexpected since he had a new one put in less than a month ago. They say there was a rejection problem.’

Fox frowned this time. ‘Seriously? That just doesn’t happen these days. The materials are biologically inert, and if there’s going to be a problem with cybernetic rejection syndrome, they can usually tell before they put something in.’

‘Tell that to Sam. Funny thing is, I’ve been to a couple of funerals recently where people have died from implant complications. Anyway, this is a pretty poor topic for a party. Your father tells me you’ve joined the Sisters of Corruption and that’s why you’ve got your boobs hanging out all over the place.’

‘I said no such thing,’ Jonathan said.

‘I didn’t join; I was inducted,’ Fox said.

‘Something else not to tell Danny Berkewitz about then,’ Bart said, grinning.

‘And anyway, Mom’s boobs are hanging out. Mine are just making an appearance. Dirty old man.’

‘Less of the old, young lady. I remember seeing something about some ceremony in New York after those murders. So I knew about your Sister Protector thing. That was a bad case.’

‘It certainly was, and I am not going to go into details because people will be tossing up the cocktail wieners. Anyway, the killer’s toast, and the Sisters gave me a lay membership in recognition. It was partially just spin. They wanted to make sure people didn’t forget what happened.’

‘I’d love to say that no one is ever going to forget that many women… murdered, but…’

‘They were all sex workers in the largest city in America. Some of them were sprawlers. They’ll be forgotten. Sad, but true. Not by me, and not by the Sisters, but normal, decent people, they’ll forget. Hell, they forget about a lot of things that don’t directly affect them. Everyone does.’

‘Some of us more than others,’ Jonathan said. ‘Us aging types, eh, Bart?’

‘Speak for yourself,’ Bart replied. ‘I remember everything as well as I always have, Joshua.’

‘Smart Alec.’

‘Now, see, Joshua can’t even remember my name. It’s terrible when the mind goes.’

~~~

‘Hey, Crystal, how’s life treating you?’ Fox smiled at the woman as she circulated once more through the crowd with slightly more selective stops.

‘Life’s about average,’ Crystal said. ‘Though, thinking about it, that’s a huge improvement. Ray is treating me very well.’

Fox grinned. ‘He told me you were dating. I think he felt he had to give full disclosure, seeing as I’m his boss.’

Crystal giggled. ‘He was a little doubtful. You know he hasn’t had a girlfriend in three years? I didn’t realise NAPA worked them that hard.’

‘It can do. Some people don’t want to start anything too fixed because of the job. Others can’t seem to find the time. Some only seem to find partners who can’t stand the job. I’m glad you’re getting on, otherwise I’d have to assign him to Luna City or something.’ Fox gave a little shrug. ‘Or get his current boss to. Technically, that’s not me right now. I’m on medical leave.’

‘I heard. I mean, everyone heard. It was pretty big news around here. Not on the news channels so much, but everyone was digging around looking for any little details we could find out. Someone said you were in a coma for a while.’

‘Uh-huh. Cerebral haemorrhage.’

Crystal gave an empathic wince. ‘And that your spine was broken. Did they have to use a lot of cybernetics?’

‘Let’s put it this way, I have Bart Wade beaten hands down now.’

‘Oh…’ Crystal reached out and put a hand on Fox’s arm. ‘It must have been horrible for you. Uh, but you’re looking good, very good. Picture of health.’

‘Yeah, I feel good, but there are a few… side effects which I’m still getting used to. I have power cells I need to charge every night now. That’s a chore.’

‘Wow,’ Crystal’s eyes widened. ‘They had to put in that much?’

‘It’s not ideal, but the alternative’s worse and electricity is fairly ubiquitous.’

‘Yes, but I’ve heard a few stories recently. People getting sick after new implants.’

Fox frowned. ‘Really? Bart said something similar. Uh, but no need to worry about me. Jackson Martins supervised the work on me. You might say I’m a MarTech girl through and through.’ Which was certainly true; Fox had entertained the idea of getting them to tattoo the MarTech Technologies logo on her butt.

Crystal giggled. ‘Well, it’s nice to know the man behind the company is looking out for you. I think I’ll go find Ray. He went for some drinks and hasn’t come back.’

Fox turned her head a little, listening. ‘He’s over by the fireplace, talking to Bart and my father.’

‘How on Earth could you hear that through all this?’

‘Good hearing, and some audio-analysis software. Comes in useful at times.’

‘Fox,’ Kit said as Crystal walked away, ‘I did a quick search of the local LifeWeb sources and private pages.’

‘We’re on holiday, Kit.’

‘Yes, but… Just listen. I found eleven cases of unusual infections and deaths in the past six months, all of them concerning people who had recently had implant surgery.’

‘Okay. It’s weird, but medical facilities out here aren’t quite up to the standard of–’

‘I found two, none of them fatal, in the previous eighteen months.’

Fox started across the lounge to the door, heading for the kitchen where the drinks were laid out. ‘Kit, are you trying to persuade me to investigate this to push me out of my funk or something?’

‘Yes.’

‘Uh… Oh. I was expecting you to be a bit more equivocal about it.’

‘I see no point in doing so. This could be a serious public health issue and I can find no evidence of anyone investigating it.’

‘Well, check. Ask Palladium to look for any open cases on the deaths. If there’s nothing… I’ll think about it.’

~~~

‘Negotiations,’ Ross Runyard said, ‘are ongoing. Miss Hoarsen has been most accommodating.’

Fox smiled. ‘You mean she’s answered your mail and hasn’t said no yet, right?’

The local politician smiled back. ‘It’s strange. You clearly dislike politics, but I can see you’ve inherited a little of both your parents’ attitudes to it.’

‘I feel like I should be insulted by that, and yet it feels like a compliment.’ Fox considered it something of a sign of their improved relationship that, while Andrea was standing beside her, she was not hovering in anticipation of trouble.

Runyard’s smile shifted to a grin. ‘It’s not an insult. Your mother is a little more perceptive regarding the language, and your father is more direct about using it. You cut right to the chase.’

‘Mariel’s a busy woman. Seriously busy. Jackson’s the nominal head of the company, but he’s more concerned with direction and research. Mariel runs MarTech and Jackson will tell you he couldn’t do it without her. Cutting to the chase, she probably gets a lot of approaches like yours and the best way to winnow out the good ones is to string them along for a while and see if they keep at it.’

‘I said as much, Ross,’ Andrea said.

‘You did, Andrea,’ Runyard agreed. ‘To be honest, some delay right now is not an issue. There has been something of a statistical anomaly in medical problems associated with cybernetics and biomods recently. It hasn’t really entered the public consciousness, but it will, and it could suppress public confidence. It will be easier to get this through once the numbers even out.’

Fox frowned. ‘A “statistical anomaly?”’

‘A rise in the number of random infections and rejections following operations. Of course, the hospital has and is conducting an investigation to see whether there’s a medical cause, but so far they’ve found nothing. The statistics seem to suggest it’s nothing more than an unlikely blip.’ Runyard shrugged. ‘That’s what I’m told anyway. I’m no doctor and statistics don’t mean much to me unless they’re related to voting.’

‘Huh, me neither, but I do know people tend to see more in odd numbers than is actually there.’

‘I don’t,’ Kit said into Fox’s mind.

‘Yeah, well, do a check on the statistics too, since you seem to be so concerned.’

‘That’s true,’ Runyard said, ‘and they will as soon as they notice.’

‘I’ve been hearing a few stories. It’ll probably break soon.’

‘I have no doubt. However, handling that will be down to the hospital’s PR department.’

‘Huh, sometimes I think the formalisation of memetics was the worst idea anyone ever had.’

Runyard grinned. ‘Possibly, but it certainly makes politics more interesting.’

2nd April.

Waking up was weird in the confines of the portable unit. At home, in her server, Fox awoke in a viron which copied her apartment. The same had been true on the Moon. Here, there was no sensory information until she sought it out. The unit had video and audio systems, but they did not automatically sync with Fox’s mind and she was left with nothing but her thoughts while her data was uploaded to her body. Two minutes of mildly claustrophobic isolation which was hard to get used to.

‘I checked the statistics,’ Kit said into the silence. ‘It is theoretically possible that this is a random coincidence of unrelated events, if a highly unlikely one.’

‘And good morning to you, Kit,’ Fox responded. ‘How do you deal with this… floating existence?’

‘Good morning, Fox. I have never had to adapt. Being alone with my thoughts is more of a natural state for me.’

‘Makes me feel like I’m shut in a box. Which, I suppose, I am. Okay, so the statistical anomaly idea is valid, but you think it’s still worth chasing.’

‘That would sum up my feelings on the matter. Mister Alton’s death – Samuel Alton was Mister Wade’s friend – was put down as the result of an undiagnosed CRS condition. However, his liver was replaced without incident three years earlier.’

‘Bart said the heart was cybernetic. The liver would likely have been a biomod.’

‘Yes, that could explain the discrepancy.’

‘Have you had anything back from Palladium?’

‘Yes. There is no investigation other than the one Mister Runyard mentioned. Neither the Watch nor NAPA have been involved in the cases.’

‘NAPA still provides medical forensic services. They should’ve–’

‘Autopsies were not required since the subjects died of diagnosable causes following recent hospital visits. Frequently, death occurred in hospital as the subjects became sick prior to their demise.’

Fox sighed. ‘Hang on, I’m switching to my body.’ There was a second of discontinuity and then Fox opened her eyes, sat up in bed, and began disconnecting herself. ‘Kit?’

‘I am here.’

‘Okay. Do you have addresses for the people involved in this?’

‘Several of them, yes.’

‘Then we’ll go talk to some of them. Maybe there’s some connection no one’s noticed.’

‘We are investigating?’

Fox could hear the burst of enthusiasm in Kit’s voice. ‘Yes, we’re investigating. Happy now?’

Kit appeared beside the bed, beaming. ‘Very happy.’

‘Yeah, well, we’ll see how happy you are after we’ve talked to a few grieving relatives.’

~~~

‘He was only eighty-five.’ Samuel Alton’s daughter was about the same age as Fox’s mother, but she had not had much cosmetic work done and looked more like her real age. Recent circumstances had, in all probability, made her look older: she had taken her father’s death quite badly. ‘We expected him to be telling us how easy we had it these days for at least another couple of decades and then…’

‘It’s true,’ Bart said, nodding sadly. ‘Sam could be a real grump about the old days.’ Fox had figured that her neighbour might be able to introduce her a little more easily than just turning up on the doorstep. Despite the deference generally given to the old man, he had handled sitting on the back of Fox’s Q-bug perfectly well. Possibly a little too happily, actually.

‘Could you tell me precisely what happened, Mrs Crabtree?’ Fox asked.

‘Well… Dad had been having some trouble. Shortness of breath, chest pains. We had him move in here… My husband’s in investments so we can afford a fairly big place. Having Dad here was no big thing, but it made me feel a little better, knowing he was close in case anything happened.’

‘Of course.’ They certainly did have a fairly large house. Not huge, but it was a four-bedroom ranch-style place on the northern side of the city, and it had a pool. The latter was something of an extravagance in the Kansas Belt.

‘Anyway, he was eventually diagnosed with a heart condition and they recommended a replacement. We paid for it. Dad didn’t have insurance to cover that. Uh, so we made sure he got the best and we got Mister Napier to do the surgery. He’s one of the best cybernetics surgeons in Topeka.’

Fox watched as Kit found and displayed a number of LifeWeb feeds and Napier’s personal page, all laden with testimonials. He certainly seemed to be a reliable, well-respected doctor.

‘Dad had a new lease of life after the op,’ Crabtree continued. ‘For about two weeks, it was like he was forty years younger. And then he just…’ She swallowed hard, tears forming in the corners of her eyes. ‘We found him in his room, collapsed on the floor. The paramedics weren’t able to do anything for him. They said it was probably a stroke.’

‘I understood there was CRS?’

‘Yes… His body rejected the heart, partially. Blood clots formed and one… one of them broke free and blocked an artery into his brain. It can happen in older people, I understand. Bart’s been lucky. And an absolute gem. Really, Bart, I don’t know what we’d have done without you the last few days.’

Bart waved that away. ‘I’ve known Sam since fourth grade. I’ve known you since you were in diapers.’

‘Just a couple more things, Mrs Crabtree,’ Fox said. ‘Your father had his liver replaced a few years ago?’

‘Dad drank like a fish,’ Crabtree replied, grinning weakly. ‘We always said that was what would get him. So he had a hardened liver put in… three years ago. Of course, that didn’t stop him drinking, but it did stop him suffering so much from it.’

‘No problems with that?’

‘None. Mister Napier said that CRS didn’t always affect biological implants.’

‘No. That’s true. Bart has a computer implant to monitor his cybernetics. Your father didn’t?’

‘Oh, he was dead set against having anything plugged into his brain. Said it was unnatural.’

‘I told him he was missing out on a great source of gossip,’ Bart said, ‘but he wouldn’t have it.’

‘Okay,’ Fox said. ‘Thank you for your time, Mrs Crabtree. And again, I’m sorry for your loss.’

~~~

‘Of course,’ Bart said as they walked back out to the Q-bug, ‘they made me take an implant. Wouldn’t do the heart without the computer. I wasn’t as averse as Sam, but still…’

‘Yeah,’ Fox said. ‘It does seem a little shoddy for a respected surgeon. Lower profit margin, I’d imagine, too. Still, if his heart was giving out and the alternative was letting him die, I guess some doctors would go ahead and suggest more frequent check-ups.’

‘Maybe. Yeah, you might be right.’

‘Come on. I’ll take you back home and then I’ll go talk to a few more people.’

‘Sounds good to me.’ There was a distinct leer in the old man’s grin.

Fox swung her leg over her bug and settled into place. ‘I think you’re enjoying this far too much.’

Bart settled into place behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. ‘When’s the last time you think I got to ride one of these behind an attractive young woman in a little top and shorts?’

‘Dirty old man. Chasing girls at your age…’

‘Huh. I’m old, not dead.’

~~~

Fox did, however, change her outfit before going out to find more victims of the ‘statistical anomaly.’ A blouse and slacks fitted with the idea of someone looking into the death of your relatives better than a cami-top and denim shorts, and she no longer had Bart to make the introductions. By late afternoon, she had amassed relatively little information that Kit had not already found on the internet, but one name had kept coming up which bothered her a little.

‘Harlan George Napier,’ Kit said, redisplaying various internet feeds as Fox drove toward home. ‘Born in Topeka, educated in Topeka and Boston. He was rated in the top five of his graduating class at medical school and did his residency in New York, which is also where he practised until twelve years ago.’

‘Why’d he move?’

‘Unclear. However, he professed a desire to give back to the community which raised him. There is also the fact that a position opened up which gave him a relative increase in salary. He earned more in New York at the time, but the cost of living, especially of housing, is considerably higher in the metro.’

‘Tell me about it. Have you any idea how much a house like my parents’ one would cost in New York?’

‘Yes, I do. Would you like me to tell you, or was that entirely rhetorical?’

‘The latter, as you well know. Okay, so he came home to better living conditions and out of altruism, whatever the percentage mix.’

‘There may also have been a woman involved. Eight months after arriving here, he married Christina Cline, a childhood sweetheart, according to the gossip channels. Christina’s previous husband died four months prior to Mister Napier’s move to Topeka.’

‘Did you run her?’

‘Not yet, but I will have a more thorough profile on both of them by morning. I wish I could set up a murder room viron, but we don’t have the spare processing capacity.’

‘And we don’t have a murder. I think you’d have to call it an incident room. We can make do without.’ Fox paused, biting her lip. ‘Could be Napier’s just got sloppy. Could be he’s suffered a run of bad luck.’

‘His reputation is flawless. It seems unlikely that he would be killing these people on purpose. I can see no motive for it.’

‘No, but maybe you will when you’ve worked up those profiles.’

~~~

Andrea was in the kitchen, organising food, when Fox walked in. Fox paused at the sight of her mother wearing a string bikini with a light, candy-striped mesh top and short shorts over it. Andrea carried on preparing lettuce as though oblivious.

‘Mom, what are those denim things you’re wearing called? Because they sure aren’t shorts.’

Andrea patted her behind and then went back to the lettuce. ‘You were out all day, and your father is partial to a little booty. I’ll get changed before dinner. We decided on something light and early. It’s been a hot one.’

‘Yeah, with you dressed like that, I can imagine it was.’

‘I shall take that as a compliment.’

‘Yeah. I think Bart’s partial to a little booty too. Dirty old man. He enjoyed his ride out to see Samantha Crabtree way too much.’

‘I’m sure he did. And he wolf-whistles whenever he sees me in this outfit, so you’re probably right.’

‘You let other people see you dressed like that?’

‘You let Bart Wade ride a Q-bug with you, and you weren’t wearing a whole lot more than I am.’

‘Fair point,’ Fox conceded. ‘I’m going to get back into that outfit. Black was not a good choice for today.’

‘Probably not. There have been a couple of tornado warnings for the next day or so. It’s early in the season, so it’s probably nothing.’

Kit popped up beside Fox. ‘I have obtained a feed from the Doppler radar network, Mrs Meridian. There are no indications of tornado activity in the region currently.’

‘Thank you, Kit. You know, I don’t see how Tara managed before she got you. You’re like a little genie popping up with useful information.’

‘Not so much of the little,’ Fox said. ‘She’s taller than you.’

‘But I do have a genie costume,’ Kit added. ‘I’d demonstrate but, uh, it’s a little risqué.’

Andrea turned and raised an eyebrow at her daughter. Fox held her hands up. ‘Don’t blame me. She wears it for her boyfriend.’

‘Vali, isn’t it? Lucky Vali.’

~~~

‘Anything useful come out of your interviews?’ Jonathan asked. They were sitting around the kitchen table for the daily ‘Fox watching her parents eat’ ritual.

‘Nothing I’d call definitive,’ Fox replied.

‘You sound alarmingly like your mother hedging around some politics she doesn’t like.’

‘Huh.’ Fox noted that her mother did not say anything to correct the analogy. ‘Well, the only thing I came up with that might lead somewhere was the surgeon. The people who knew who had operated on the… subjects sounds too clinical, but it’s what I’ve got. Anyway, they were all worked on by a guy named Harlan Napier.’

‘I can’t believe he’s responsible,’ Andrea said. ‘He’s very well respected.’

‘So it would seem.’

‘He’s fairly big in health and safety voting. Quite a large delegation in that category. Ross has been courting him to help with anything that may need doing regarding this MarTech biotechnology business.’

‘Well, I’ve nothing to suggest he’s done anything wrong. He’s just the man who’s done the work. It’s still quite possible this is all just a big coincidence. I take it you’ve met him?’

‘We both have. You remember, Jonathan. He was at that charity dinner just after New Year.’

‘To be honest, I remember his wife more than him. Christy? That’s right, isn’t it? Attractive, certainly, and the only woman in the room whose dress was more risqué than yours.’

‘Christina, yes. Of course, she married him for his money. Always had a taste for the finer things, but preferred not to work. When her husband died, she didn’t take too long over finding another.’

‘How’d he die?’

‘I’m not sure… I believe it happened in New York. Some kind of robbery, perhaps. It was all over the news channels at the time. “Local man dies in the big city.” That sort of thing. Everyone pointing out how dangerous it was and how it was all so much nicer here.’

‘Yeah, that sounds right. Go to the metros and get killed by a stranger. Stay home and get killed by your husband.’

‘Yes, well, that’s another attitude I had that has changed since I got involved with the Watch. Crime statistics have an irritating habit of destroying your illusions.’

Fox grinned. ‘Aww, you’re just looking at them wrong, Mom. I bet if I gave Kit the stats and thirty minutes, she could have you believing this was the safest city on the planet.’

Kit appeared beside the table with half a dozen charts hanging in the air beside her. ‘Oh, it wouldn’t take me thirty minutes. Statistics are wonderful, so long as you don’t care about little things like facts.’

Andrea narrowed her eyes at the displays. ‘Didn’t we use several of those in our campaign to get the Watch formed?’

‘Yes, Mrs Meridian,’ Kit said brightly, ‘and the conclusions drawn from almost all of them are completely fallacious.’

‘Oh… You know, you should really start calling me Andrea, Kit. If you’ve got to the point of insulting my politics just like Tara does, we should be on a first-name basis.’

3rd April.

Fox waited for the afternoon to go out looking for interviewees because there were still plenty of people in the Kansas Belt who thought of Sunday morning as a time for church. Plus, Fox considered Sunday morning in Topeka as a time to laze around in the sun. Andrea was envious of the fact that Fox’s new skin didn’t burn.

When Fox did finally go out on her Q-bug, she had fairly dismal luck in getting useful information. Two more people named Napier as the surgeon in their own operation or that of their relatives, but one gave a different name, which broke the pattern. There was one more family to try, and Fox let the bug guide itself as she headed out to the north-eastern side of the city for that meeting. Kit had information for her.

‘I tracked down the crime report on the death of Christina Napier’s husband. She was Christina Robby then, married to a real estate agent. His business had taken something of a dip prior to his death, apparently putting strain on the marriage, and the trip to New York was meant as a romantic gesture. He was mugged in Central Park. The perpetrators were never identified, or were caught by one of the private groups and never reported to NAPA.’

‘Cause of death?’

‘Stabbing. He was stabbed through the heart with a slim blade. The ME suggested a screwdriver.’

‘Well, it happens.’

‘There was some suggestion on the gossip channels that Mrs Robby was having an affair prior to her husband’s death, though no potential partners were named. NAPA did a cursory run against her at the time of her husband’s death, but there was no evidence suggesting that she was involved. There were a few eyebrows raised when she married so soon after the funeral.’

‘Doesn’t sound like they were getting on that well before he died, so it’s not that shocking. Okay, well, let’s see what this last lot have to say.’

~~~

‘Celia was such a bright girl.’ Celia Partridge’s mother was not a bright woman, as in there was definitely still a cloud hanging over her head, but that was to be expected. ‘She was so looking forward to starting her new job and then…’ Mrs Partridge sighed, her hands twisting at the handkerchief she was holding.

‘She died of renal failure? Is that correct, Mrs Partridge?’

There was a nod. ‘Yes… a-and no. They said that her new kidneys hadn’t bonded correctly. Some form of CRS problem.’

‘And she died in Chicago?’

Another nod. ‘She was up there for training. She was starting a new job, you see? She had the new kidneys put in for it and then went straight up to Chicago for the induction course. She was so excited. She was going to guide tourists around the protectorate. She always loved the outdoors. And then she got sick. Collapsed right in the class and they rushed her to hospital, but… There wasn’t anything they could do.’ Partridge smiled. ‘She was so excited. She told me she had military-grade implants. LWE twenty-two kidneys. That was what she called them.’

Fox frowned. ‘LWE twenty-two? You’re sure she called them that?’

‘Oh yes. She said they were among the best. Her surgeon, Mister Napier, told her so.’

‘Yeah, they’re a good model. The army fitted me with them. Uh, she died in Chicago, so did they do an autopsy?’

‘Yes. They had to. We would have preferred… But there are rules, I understand.’

‘There are. Thank you, Mrs Partridge. You’ve been very helpful and, once again, I’m sorry for your loss.’

Mrs Partridge nodded again. ‘Do you think there was some problem with my daughter’s operation, Miss Meridian?’

‘Oh, that’s not really for me to decide, Mrs Partridge. I’m just collecting information. Someone will be in touch if anything does come up.’ Fox got to her feet and started for the door. ‘Kit,’ she said silently, ‘get your hands on that autopsy report and see whether they definitely fitted LWE twenty-twos into Celia Partridge.’

‘Of course, Fox. Is that a problem? If you were given them–’

‘That’s the point. That’s a military inventory code. They were only used by the army, and they were superseded by the twenty-three three years after I joined up. They don’t make the LWE twenty-two bioframework any more. So how, exactly, did Celia Partridge get fitted with a pair?’

~~~

Fox walked into Sandy and Drew’s shop at a fast walk. Her urgency drew attention immediately and both proprietors met her in the middle of the shop.

‘You look… determined about something,’ Drew said.

‘Can you get a message to Cable?’ Fox asked.

‘Uh, yeah, sure. I mean, I can call him on teleconference. They have internet access down there.’

‘Yes, I know. Tell him I’m coming down there. I’m going to look into those missing persons.’

‘You are? I thought–’

‘Things change. I think someone’s killing people to harvest cybernetics and biomods.’

‘Harvest…’ Sandy trailed off. ‘That’s crazy.’

‘Maybe, but I found evidence of an old military biomod being implanted into someone recently. They don’t make them any more and they were never supplied to the civilian market. The only way they could get put into someone now is–’

‘If they were taken out of an old soldier,’ Drew said.

‘Right. Look… I’m sorry I didn’t go down there earlier. I was… Never mind, but at least I have more information to work with now. I know what I’m looking for. Tell Cable I’ll be arriving tomorrow evening. I have a couple of things to take care of before I can leave.’

‘Okay. I’ll call him tonight.’

‘Great. And while I’m here, I’m going to need a few things…’

~~~

‘What do you think?’ Fox asked, her grin hidden behind a black scarf with a red skull printed on it which covered the lower part of her face.

‘I… think…’ Andrea began.

‘That it looks oddly practical?’ Jonathan said, frowning. ‘I mean, it’s entirely impractical, but it’s weirdly… not.’

He had a point. The bodice Fox had bought was a sort of halter top held across her chest by a pair of buckled straps, not much there, but it was in quite supple leather, comfortable to wear. The back, however, had a broad panel of leather tethered to the bra and belted around Fox’s waist; it had the advantage of stopping spray from the Q-bug’s wheels hitting too much skin. Hand-sewn leather shorts, fingerless gloves, a wide belt with chain detailing, and some quite sturdy boots completed the outfit.

Still grinning, Fox pulled down her scarf-mask and did a slow turn.

‘I think I’ll have to pay more attention to the clothes in that shop,’ Andrea decided. ‘I’ve never tried the dustbowler look. Might be fun and I love that belt. You’re absolutely sure you need to go down there?’

‘I’m sure that, if I’m going to accuse a respected local surgeon of malpractice, I need some solid evidence. I think that I can get it down Tulsa way.’

‘It’s dangerous– I’m being silly. You’re probably more capable of handling things down there than you were, and you did just fine when you were looking for Sandy Bateson.’

Fox nodded. ‘Yes, but you have a point. I’m not doing this lightly and I’m taking precautions. The environment down there is no problem. Hell, I don’t need any water now. But I do need power and that could be a problem. I’m pretty sure Cable can hook me up, no pun intended, and there’s a small MarTech site in Tulsa, so I should be fine. And I have a few toys coming in tomorrow to make sure I can handle any local threats.’

‘Toys?’ Jonathan asked.

‘Guns. I promise I’ll bring them home to show you.’

‘There is one threat to be considered which you cannot handle,’ Kit said, appearing beside them. ‘Local weather radar is detecting potential tornado conditions south-west of the city.’

‘Ah,’ Jonathan said. ‘Fox, would you mind going over to Bart’s place and checking that he’s heard? Then we’ll close down the shutters and retreat to the cellar. It’ll probably stay clear, but better safe than sorry.’

Fox nodded. ‘Sure. Bart’ll probably love the outfit anyway.’

~~~

The storm cellar under the house was kind of nice. The reinforced walls were painted and the furniture was not quite up to the standard of the lounge, but it was comfortable. It also had power, so long as the house did, so Fox was sitting on the floor with a portable charging belt strapped around her hips.

‘It’s not exactly necessary,’ she said as she settled down, ‘but I’d rather not end up low on charge if something does hit the house.’

‘What about sleep?’ Andrea asked. ‘We probably won’t be down here all night, but…’

‘It’s not exactly sleep, more like… memory reconciliation. I can do without it, just like you can. Terri says I’d get slower. My short-term memory is optimised for fast recording as much as recall, so the more there is in it, the harder it is to get something out. I react a little slower the longer I go without.’

‘Are we actually getting any touchdowns?’ Jonathan asked.

‘Yes,’ Kit replied. She was sitting beside Fox because it seemed polite. ‘There has been a single tornado so far, approximately fifteen kilometres south-west of the city limits, but there is another forming and that one is closer.’

‘What’s the forecast for the next few days like?’

‘Cooler temperatures in Topeka should significantly reduce the danger here, but Tulsa is likely to remain on alert for the remainder of the week.’

Fox sighed. ‘Well, I was taught what to look for. Shouldn’t be a problem unless something comes up really fast.’ She flashed a grin. ‘And if the worst happens, Cable’s camp has a storm refuge that makes this place look like a shed in the middle of a field.’

Tokyo, 4th April.

Yuriko wiped at her face with a towel as she headed for her shower. She practised her aikijutsu kata three times a week, for an hour, before breakfast. It was a good way of keeping fit, which she supplemented with more conventional exercise on other days, and she had found that it gave her a chance to shut her mind off, giving greater focus when she started the working day.

Her working day began, though she did not think of it as such, as she stepped into the shower and initiated both the water and a display of her favourite local news channel. IB-787 had relatively little bias, and the numbers in its designator were considered lucky, if you believed in that sort of thing. Keeping up with local news also seemed like a useful activity for a detective, which Yuriko did not quite believe she was, but she was working on it.

This morning there was a report of lower fishing catches in the Sea of Japan, and of a failure in the traffic control system which had caused a snarl-up in Setagaya. Crime was on the rise in the Chiba Industrial Zone, but that was hardly news. Yuriko was about to cut the water off and switch to the blowers when something caught her attention.

‘The Niigata police are refusing to comment on the death of an unnamed man yesterday afternoon. Police were called to the man’s residence following reports that he had been attacked by one of his synthetic servants. Later reports have suggested that the attacker was one of Aphrodite Cybernetics’ “Ghost Doll” bioroids…’

Yuriko frowned and switched the shower to drying mode. No one had suggested investigating the Ghost Dolls; presumably it was assumed that BioTek had simply been beaten to the punch. However, Aphrodite Cybernetics had links to the Fukui-kai…

‘…bioroid was apparently shot and killed in the incident. Executives from Aphrodite Cybernetics were unavailable for comment.’

If a company not noted for their biotechnology work was able to create a bioroid, perhaps they had had help from someone. Perhaps that same person had provided them with the information needed to manufacture copied nanodrugs. Perhaps he was still there…

Still a little damp, Yuriko stepped out of the shower and found a short, kimono-style wrap to put on. It was late evening in New York, but she felt Helen-san would forgive her and she wished to discuss the possibility of staking out Aphrodite Cybernetics with her superior.

Topeka.

Fox had commandeered one of the interview rooms in the Palladium building to get her maintenance done. Technically, it meant that someone could be watching from the observation room, but she was fairly certain no one would be. No one had asked why she needed an engineer from New York to handle some routine maintenance either.

‘Sorry to drag you out here, Sonya,’ Fox said, tilting her head forward so that her very own personal technician could plug in a cable.

‘You know you don’t need this for almost another week?’ Sonya replied.

‘Uh-huh, but I’m going down into the Southern Protectorate, and I’m not entirely sure how long I’ll be there.’

‘Good enough excuse, I guess. Any problems?’

Fox considered that for a second. There had been one or two adjustments made since her skin had been added. Minor things which Sonya had handled with small tweaks in configuration. Sonya had turned up at Jenner a couple of days after the skinning process and Jackson had taken her through pretty much everything in and around Fox’s body. Despite her relative youth, she was a couple of years younger than Fox; Sonya was one of MarTech Technologies’ senior technicians and apparently some sort of mechanical genius. She was half French-Canadian, a petite sort of blue-eyed blonde with a penchant for pleated skirts and hoodies. Fox figured she was regretting the latter in the Topeka heat. Unlike Jason, she had not even a hint of a French accent.

‘No,’ Fox said. ‘No problems I can think of. This’ll be a good test though.’

‘You’ve got access to power down there?’

‘Should have. I’ll be near Tulsa if all else fails. Did you bring the stuff I asked for?’

‘Uh-huh. It’s all in the van. You planning on starting a war?’

‘No, I just want to be ready for one if it starts.’

Sonya chuckled. ‘Fair enough. Uh, have you tried out that fix I put in last time?’

Fox knew she was blushing. ‘Not extensively. It seemed like you’d solved the immediate problem.’

‘Good…’

‘Uh, next time I see my boyfriend, if he’s still my boyfriend, I’ll do a proper test.’ Sonya was smirking; Fox knew she was smirking. The problem had been some rather sensitive regions in Fox’s artificial vagina which had almost caused a seizure when Fox had ‘tested that everything was working.’

‘Okay… Good plan. Maybe you could… record it. You know, make a sensie. For diagnostic purposes, obviously.’

‘I am not letting you have virtual sex with my boyfriend. Aside from anything else, Jason’s from the RFQ as well. You’re probably cousins.’

‘That is terrible racial stereotyping. We’d be second cousins at worst. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you. Everything’s responding within design parameters.’

‘Great. Let’s see what you’ve got in the van then.’

Sonya unplugged her diagnostic unit from Fox’s neck. ‘More than you asked for, actually. Mister Martins asked me to bring the new pistols out for the staff here.’

‘The production versions are ready?’

‘I guess so. I’ve got pistols for everyone.’

~~~

‘So what’s so great about it?’ Jonathan asked, turning Fox’s new pistol over in his hands.

‘Ten-millimetre, electromagnetically launched micromissiles,’ Fox replied. ‘Jackson managed to get infrared homing into a ten-mil munition. I’ve been using the prototype for a while, but this is the production version, with all the kinks worked out and the bells and whistles added. Like the tactical light on the front there. That’s new.’

Compared to the blocky prototype, the new model was sleeker. It was built more like a large, conventional semi-automatic pistol with muzzle vents and an under-mounted tactical light/laser combination. The muzzle vents were, as far as Fox could tell, just a style choice.

‘So it’s a gyroc pistol with an electromagnetic launcher?’

‘Basically. It solves the problem of them being next to pointless at very short range. Most encounters in policing take place within ten metres, and a gyroc can’t get up to speed in that kind of distance. But, if you use a homing round, you can hit a moving target out to a thousand metres and deliver various different payloads.’

‘The gophers wouldn’t stand a chance,’ Jonathan said, grinning.

‘Ah…’ Fox turned to a large case she had brought with her. She flicked open the catches and opened the lid. ‘I’ve got your new gopher gun right here.’

In the case, set into packing foam, was a stubby rifle with a roughly triangular front cross-section, and a pair of pistol grips, one with a trigger. It was a bullpup design, with a fairly wide magazine set behind the rear grip. Fox lifted it out and offered it over with a grin on her face.

‘This is our new assault weapon. Over-and-under design with a four-mil gauss assault carbine mounted above a twenty-five-mil, electromagnetic grenade launcher.’ Fox lifted a grenade round out of the case and held it up. ‘I really want to get the chance to try one of these out, however. Optically guided minimissile with a SEFOP, that’s a smart, electromagnetically forged penetrator warhead. You can make it detonate over the target and then it chucks a superheated bolt of molten metal down at their heads.’

‘I thought you said a railgun was too much for gophers?’

Fox grinned. ‘This isn’t for gophers.’ She lifted a second grenade out. ‘This is for gophers. Thermobaric grenade. Lots of heat and huge overpressure. Cooked and pulverised at the same time.’

Jonathan grinned back. ‘You… couldn’t leave a couple of those here when you go, could you?’

‘Mom would have a fit.’

‘Yes… But it would probably be worth it.’

Oologah Lake Camp, Southern Protectorate.

The camp looked much as it had the last time Fox had driven into it on a Q-bug, though that time she had driven up from Tulsa rather than straight down from Topeka. There was still a fairly intact road between the two cities and she had only had to go cross-country for the last few miles, but she was still feeling like the dirt would never come out of her skin.

As she began driving past the buildings, she began noticing a few changes. It was still a village of homes manufactured from whatever anyone could get their hands on, but there was more fresh paint around now. More trade with their northern neighbours had, apparently, led to greater prosperity.

And Baxter Cable, standing outside the largest of the buildings which served as a communal core for the camp, still had a huge beard, but it looked like he had trimmed it a little since the last time Fox had seen him. Beside him was Patsy, his partner and the camp’s default second in command. She was still moderately pretty, still looked strong, and still in a short skirt and a bikini bra, though the latter looked newer and made of softer leather.

‘Welcome back,’ Cable said, grinning. ‘Want a drink?’

Fox laughed and swung off her bug. ‘I brought a bottle of whiskey down from Topeka. You can provide the glasses.’

‘Doesn’t seem to quite fulfil the dictates of hospitality.’

‘Oh, you’ll be providing a few things I really need while I’m down here, so don’t you worry about that.’ Fox took her rifle case and a small rucksack from where they were strapped to the back of the Q-bug and set off after Cable as he walked up the steps to the building.

‘You, uh, know we can’t pay your company for–’

‘This isn’t anything to do with Palladium. I am officially on medical leave.’

‘And you came down here?’ Patsy said, bringing up the rear. ‘You get hit in the head?’

‘Actually, I did. Several times.’ They entered the large room inside with its array of random furniture and Fox set her gear down beside a chair before sitting in it and bending to ferret out the whiskey bottle from her rucksack. ‘Bruised internal organs, broken spine, cerebral haemorrhage, coma… Uh, oh, and my immune system took a bit of a hit.’

‘More cybernetics?’ Cable said, getting the glasses.

‘Lots. Enough to need a recharge each night. I’m happy sleeping in here, so long as I can plug in once a day.’

‘Should be good,’ Patsy said. ‘We got a bunch of new solar panels in over the winter. Made quite a difference to our power availability.’

‘So the shop’s working out for you? I mean, Sandy and Drew seemed to think it was going okay. I’ve been sleeping under a comforter made down here for the last week.’

‘It’s working,’ Cable said. ‘Better than we hoped, actually.’ He waved a finger at Fox. ‘I’ll introduce you to the youngster who made that bodice at some point. I think he was imagining someone with your… physique when he made it.’

‘My “physique,” huh?’ Fox handed over glasses of whiskey and then took a sip from her own.

‘He can’t keep his eyes off Patsy. I’d say something to him about it, but he also goes slack-jawed and gibbers whenever he’s around her, so I don’t think he’s much of a threat. So, Drew said you had some link between our vanishing people and some organ thing in Topeka?’

‘It’s a theory. Mostly conjecture right now. Someone got themselves fitted with some LWE twenty-twos, and then died of renal failure.’

‘For the non-military person in the room?’ Patsy said.

‘Low-water enhancement, type twenty-two,’ Baxter explained. ‘Bio-engineered kidneys made for the army. I have them, but they don’t make them now, and no civilian should be getting them put in anywhere legitimate.’

‘And this was the hospital in Topeka,’ Fox said. ‘There’s only really one way you could get them these days. By pulling them out of someone who was fitted with them when they joined up.’ She paused. ‘Sorry, that means if we find these people, we’re probably just going to find corpses.’

‘Out here, that’s what you kind of expect. We’ve had three go missing. I know of… maybe seventeen vanished from other camps.’

‘A couple of people who used to come up from Tulsa to trade have stopped coming,’ Patsy added.

Fox sipped her whiskey. It was good stuff, but it no longer burned down her throat the way it once had and, when it came down to it, she was drinking it to look normal… She set the glass aside. ‘Do you have a map you could show me with the locations of the camps? The ones where you know someone’s been taken, and the ones where they haven’t, or you don’t know.’

Cable nodded. ‘You going to go visit them?’

‘In the morning. I’ll poll the places no one’s gone missing from first, check that there aren’t more.’

‘I should probably come with you. Make introductions.’

‘I can handle it,’ Patsy said. ‘That way we can both ride on Fox’s sweet little Q-bug. Get there faster and cut down on power consumption.’

Cable frowned. ‘Well, I could do that.’

‘Nope. You really think I’m gonna let you ride around behind someone prettier than me all day? If you go, you have to take another bug.’

Cable turned to Fox. ‘She doesn’t trust me.’

‘Yeah, well, you’ve started trimming your beard. Sure sign of a mid-life crisis. And how many starlings did you have to evict when you did that?’

‘We rehomed them,’ Patsy said. ‘They’re quite safe.’

Cable sagged. ‘Here five minutes and you’re ganging up on me with my girlfriend?’

Fox smiled. ‘Us girls have to stick together.’

~~~

The wind around the camp picked up in the late afternoon, but the radar showed no sign of tornado activity. Still, Fox stowed her Q-bug away and settled down in the communal building where the gusts buffeting the windows almost sounded comforting rather than threatening: the atmospheric violence was still there, but being sealed away from it felt kind of cosy.

Anyway, Kit had examined the map Cable had provided, an old military map of the region, and matched it up with the latest data she had. That data came from MarTech’s satellites, which the government used to construct its current maps, and it had a lot of detail. Zooming in, you could actually see some of the more permanent structures in the camps Cable had indicated. Most were the same sort of size as the Oologah Lake camp or smaller. One, which was closer to Tulsa than all the others for some reason, was significantly smaller, but it did have one solid building in it; perhaps that was the reason they had sited themselves there.

Exact numbers were something Cable could not give Fox, but he was fairly certain that no camp had lost more than four people, all over the last six or seven months. ‘That timescale matches the problems in Topeka rather well,’ Kit pointed out.

‘Another plus in the correspondence column,’ Fox agreed. ‘It’s still circumstantial. It could still be coincidence.’

‘Statistically, yes, but the numbers are starting to get into the “hit by lightning while being eaten by a shark after winning the lottery” region of probabilities. Theoretically possible, but you’d almost have to try to make it happen.’

‘Yeah, but people do stupid things after winning a lot of money. Like water-skiing through a hurricane in copper armour.’ Fox opened her eyes and lifted her head. ‘Okay, not much to be done before morning.’ Cable was watching her, a speculative look on his face. Aloud, Fox said, ‘What’s up?’

‘How much did they have to replace?’

Fox looked at him for a second. He was ex-military, and he kept himself off the net, more or less entirely off it. A useful test of public reaction? Hardly a typical one, but… ‘How much do you think?’

‘I’ve been watching you, noticing a few things. You move a little different. You said your spine was broken and you need power. Only need supplemental power for things like limb replacements. You said there was bleeding in the brain too. Some neural implants to supplement function, maybe. Legs, spine… You bend easier in the back. Several organs, maybe… More?’

‘All of it.’

Patsy had turned her attention to the conversation now. She looked a little shocked at the statement. ‘Full cyborg?’

‘Cyborg, pretty much by definition, implies that some of the original is left. My brain stem was damaged. Supplemental electronics wasn’t going to give me back enough functionality. So they… digitised me, I guess. Converted my brain into a database. Tara Meridian now exists as an infomorph of sorts, and right now that infomorph is running on a computer’ – Fox reached up and tapped her chest – ‘in here. The body is basically a gynoid cyberframe.’

‘Oh,’ Patsy said.

‘I didn’t know they could do that,’ Cable said.

‘I’m the first human it’s ever been done on. And if I go psycho, I’ll probably be the last. I’m supposed to be the poster child for the process, but I’m… not quite ready for the world to know what happened. I’ve told friends and family…’

‘So you told us to see what the reaction would be,’ Patsy said.

‘Pretty much. You’re not exactly typical citizens, but…’

‘Hell, girl,’ Cable said, ‘I don’t give a shit what you are so long as you’re not trying to kill me or mine. You even came down here to help us. If you told me you were a Martian, I’d just want to know where you’d been hiding for the last few thousand years.’

‘I’m… shocked,’ Patsy said, ‘but I’ll get over it. I think it’s more like “what the Hell did someone have to do to you for this to be the best option?” We’re live and let live people out here.’

Fox nodded. ‘Still, I’m a little paranoid about reactions. Uh, to answer your question. I was whipped, beaten, hit in the back with a baseball bat, and they used an experimental drug on me to accelerate healing so they could beat me some more. That destroyed my immune system, and my ability to heal naturally. The only other option was to freeze me and hope they could fix me later. A-and I think this is better than that. I mean, I’m alive and, yeah, I now have a spine that I can just about fold in half, and I’m stronger, bulletproof… I don’t actually need food and water so I won’t be draining your resources. I don’t age. I could, theoretically, live forever.’

‘But you look… human!’

‘New synthetic skin. Semi-organic and they actually used some sort of cloning process so it matches my original skin. And they’ve been building frames to look like humans since before they had the technology to make it work. They developed this one for the military, but it needs too much maintenance and power at the moment. For my needs, it does pretty well, though I could wish for better battery life.’

‘So the whiskey was just for show?’ Cable asked.

‘Sort of. I do still have a sense of taste and I can eat and drink. That’s why I brought the bottle. If I’m going to drink, it should at least taste good. And… Well, drinking that battery acid you make might’ve melted something.’

Cable waved the comment away. ‘Nah. We use it for cleaning out engine parts all the time and it’s never once dissolved them.’

‘Never?’

‘Uh… Almost never.’

‘I rest my case.’

Tulsa Area, 5th April.

‘You know that tickles, right?’

Patsy, sitting on the Q-bug behind Fox, giggled. ‘Sorry, I can’t get over how much this skin feels like… skin.’

‘Clearly I should’ve worn a shirt.’

‘Nope. Negotiations with men always go easier when they’ve got tits to look at. You know it. I know it.’

‘Unless you need them to concentrate, sure. We’re almost there. Should be just over this rise.’

The bug crested a low ridge and, sure enough, they found themselves looking at what appeared to be a less permanent camp set up in a shallow valley. There were fewer fixed constructs here, but there were a number of tents.

‘This place gets a lot of nomad groups stopping off for trade and some R and R,’ Patsy said. ‘The bigger building has a bar and a small brothel. They sell stuff that travelling dustbowlers need, and they don’t ask many questions about where the barter goods come from.’

‘Could be useful. If we can get them to talk, nomads might have heard about cases from further afield.’

‘If. Should be safe enough in here. There’s a fairly strict “no violence or theft” policy. People stick to it so that the place continues to work. Park up beside the bar and we’ll go talk to Royce.’

The bar had a hand-painted sign hanging outside it which announced that the place was called ‘The Broken Axle.’ Like many of the buildings in the area, it was built on concrete stilts to protect against flash floods, and it seemed fairly solidly built, if not exactly attractive. The interior appeared to be going for an ‘Old West’ look: circular tables with wooden chairs around them dominated the room and there was a wooden bar at the back. Spirits seemed to be the main brain-killer of choice, though there was an actual cask behind the bar which suggested that beer might be available.

The man behind the counter, dressed in leathers with a dirty-looking apron over the top, was bald and muscled. His nose had been broken more than once and he was missing a front tooth when he smiled, which he did when he saw Patsy strutting across the floor toward him. Fox put him down as an ex-nomad who had decided to settle, and she assumed this was Royce.

‘Patsy,’ Royce said as Patsy took a stool at the bar. ‘What brings you out here? Who’s your friend? New blood?’

‘Get to that, Royce,’ Patsy replied. ‘How old’s the beer?’

‘Got a new batch in last week.’

Patsy turned to Fox. ‘Want one? It’s actually not bad. They brew it out by Shiatook.’ Fox gave a shrug of acquiescence and Patsy turned back to Royce. ‘Two. We’ve still got credit in the account, right?’

‘I’ll check, but yeah, think so. You didn’t come over for a beer.’

‘Nope. Fox here is helping us out, looking into the missing people.’

Royce glanced around at Fox as he drew beer into a tall glass. ‘Cop?’

Fox shook her head. ‘Private. And right now, I’m doing a favour for some friends. I’m supposed to be on medical leave. Cable said no one from here had gone missing. That still true?’

‘Still true. That said, I’ve heard rumours. Some of the gangs have been muttering about members disappearing.’

‘Groups like that, people come and go.’

‘Yeah.’ Royce put two glasses down in front of them. ‘And some of them are probably just running in the night, but not all of them. Couple of people started spreading rumours about mutants or some horror shit like that. Say they’re eating people.’

‘Mutants? Seriously?’

‘Hey, with the weird bio-shit people are always coming up with, anything’s possible. Maybe not mutants, maybe some crazy government bioweapon or killer cyberframes.’ Royce waved a hand across the room. ‘Steeple there said he found one of their nests. Half a dozen bodies ripped open, parts missing. Said they eat the guts out of ’em.’

Fox looked around in the direction Royce had indicated. ‘Bulky-looking guy with all the crosses around his neck?’

‘Yeah, but if you want to talk to him, you should probably know… Guy’s a total asshole.’

Fox could kind of tell. Steeple was a fairly big man, tall, but also bulked up with synthetic muscle enhancements. Maybe the name came from his height, or from the horn-like spike of hair which sat over his brow. He leered at Fox as she walked over to sit at his table, but then his two drinking companions were leering too.

‘You Steeple?’ Fox asked. Patsy had, at Fox’s request, stayed at the bar and was chatting to Royce while watching what happened.

‘Sure am. You with Patsy? New around here for certain.’

‘I’m visiting, and I hear you found a body dump. Crazy cannibal mutants leaving their cast-offs lying around.’

Steeple grinned. ‘Sure did. Was out… explorin’. Found an old building they’d been nestin’ in. Maybe six bodies in it. Maybe more. Hard to tell what with the mess. Stank too.’

‘Torn open, guts taken out. That’s what I heard.’

‘Oh yeah. Real messy.’ The leering grin came back, as though it was funny, or he meant it to be impressive. ‘Chests ripped open, skulls bust in too. All the soft bits pulled out to feed on.’

‘I have located Mister Church in the NAPA database,’ Kit said into Fox’s head. ‘Brad Church, aka “Steeple.” Imprisoned for sexual assault, petty theft, and carrying an unregistered handgun. That was when he was seventeen. He has spent the last decade off the grid in the protectorate. There is, however, no suggestion of mental instability.’

‘What a nice man,’ Fox replied. Aloud, she asked, ‘Where?’

‘What’s it worth?’

Fox smiled. ‘An unverified story about a few bodies in the middle of nowhere which probably won’t lead anywhere anyway? Not a whole lot.’ She took a tug on her beer, which turned out to be not too bad. ‘I might buy you a beer?’

‘Oh, I think it’s worth more’n that. Tell you what, I’ll arm-wrestle you for it. You win, I’ll tell you where I found the bodies.’

‘And if you win?’

‘There’s rooms in back… Might even tell you anyway. After.’

Fox peered at Steeple, raising an eyebrow. ‘It’s hardly a fair match.’

‘Take it or get the fuck out.’

Changing chairs, Fox waved one of Steeple’s compatriots out of the way. The man pushed his chair back a couple of feet, grinning broadly. Fox rested her elbow on the table, raising her hand. ‘Oh, I’ll take it.’

Steeple shifted his position a little and then took hold of Fox’s hand. He had quite the grip, but Fox had a metal skeleton. ‘On three,’ he said, placing his elbow firmly on the table. ‘Three.’ Fox’s arm shifted a couple of inches and then stopped as she applied pressure. Steeple’s eyes widened and got wider as she pushed his arm steadily over toward horizontal.

‘I told you it wasn’t a fair match,’ Fox said. ‘Where are the bodies?’

‘You a fuckin’ cyborg or something?’

‘I’m not a cyborg. Where are the bodies?’ She squeezed his hand a little harder.

‘The old school building in Owasso, what’s left of it. If you get in there, just follow your nose.’

Fox let go of his hand and picked up her beer. ‘Thank you. Word to the wise, never judge a book by its cover, and show more respect to the fairer sex. A lot of us are real badasses.’ She walked back to the bar, smirking just a little.

‘The beers are free,’ Royce said. ‘That kind of floor show is worth a couple of pints.’

‘Thanks,’ Fox said, raising her glass to him. ‘This stuff isn’t at all bad. The old school in Owasso?’

‘I know it,’ Patsy said. ‘North of Tulsa, not far from Stone Canyon.’

‘On the way back?’

‘Bit of a detour, but we could do it.’

‘After the beers then.’

~~~

Kit found an old map of the region with the school site in Owasso shown on it, so getting there was not that hard. There were even a few vaguely intact roads to run along, so it took a little over half an hour to find the rundown, half-demolished building which had once housed some form of learning centre for children. Now it looked like about the only thing it housed was a plentiful supply of rats.

‘You want to stay out here?’ Fox asked. ‘The bug can take care of itself, but having someone here might be better and…’

‘I’ve seen my fair share of dead bodies, Fox,’ Patsy replied. ‘Someone on their own out here is not that safe. Gangs hole up in the old buildings sometimes.’ She patted the heavy semi-automatic strapped to her right thigh. ‘I’ve got this, but I’ll feel better if there are two guns around. Especially as I’ve seen what your pistol does to people.’

Fox gave a shrug and started into the ruins. The only thing she could smell was damp rot, but they continued deeper into the structure. It had been a single-storey building, built of brick and set in the middle of a large, open area. The roof was largely gone and the little statue of what looked like a child on a bicycle which sat outside had lost its head long ago. Inside, internal walls were randomly intact or scattered to the wind, possibly by the wind: there were signs that a tornado had hit the place at least once.

‘Did you go to an actual school?’ Patsy asked as they searched.

‘Yeah. High school was only two days a week, but I was full-time until then. Topeka’s not exactly highly advanced in its education methods.’

‘Huh. I came from San Diego, originally. Ordinary school all the way. Worst and best days of my life.’

‘You moved out after the Big One?’

‘Lost my mother to that. Dad moved us east in stages. Somewhere along the way I lost him. Well, I fell for this guy with a road hog and leather jeans. He lasted a couple of months and I hopped gangs to see where it would take me.’

Fox giggled. ‘When did you hook up with Cable?’

‘Uh… We’ve been together almost fifteen years now. He was the last biker in leather jeans I hooked up with. We were both ready for something more stable by then. Started the camp a couple of years later. You smell that?’

‘Uh-huh. I think we’re getting closer.’ Fox pushed through a door which was still more or less hanging on its hinges, one of them anyway, and stopped.

‘Oh shit,’ Patsy said, putting her hand over her nose and mouth to seal her scarf down tighter.

Fox quietly shut off her sense of smell and walked over to the pile of corpses. They were in the corner of what had probably once been a classroom. All the furniture had been stripped out of the place, but there was still about a third of a blackboard on one of the walls, and all four walls were still intact here.

‘Steeple was wrong,’ Fox said, her enhanced eyes scanning over the nearest of the bodies. ‘These weren’t torn open. There are a few signs of animals getting at them, but… This guy’s sternum was cut with a bone saw. Same for the skull on that one, and the brain wasn’t touched directly. There are intact intestines there and that’s the first thing animals go for.’

‘You were right, someone’s taking implants out. Even cerebral ones.’

‘Looks like it. You okay?’

‘I will be. Do you need to… I don’t know, examine them or something?’

‘I doubt I could get much out of this with a full forensic kit and the only thing an ME is going to say is that there are missing organs. They’ve been here for… weeks certainly, and the rats have been at them. No, we’ve got all we’re going to get from this lot. Certainly not the answer to the most important question.’

‘Which is?’

‘Who put them here?’

Oologah Lake Camp.

‘There were eight heads I could count,’ Fox said. ‘The way they were piled, I’d say ten to twelve actual bodies.’

‘More than Steeple said there were,’ Patsy commented, ‘but not enough for the number of people missing.’

‘Well, as for the first point, did you notice the patch of stale vomit near the door? I’d say our witness wasn’t paying all the attention he could have to the scene.’

There was a rumble of laughter from Cable and he nodded. ‘Don’t doubt it. Means there’s more than one dumping site, though.’

Fox nodded. ‘At least one more, maybe two. Finding them might be useful, but not a priority. What do you know about this camp at Stone Canyon?’

‘Uh… They’re set up in an old fire station. They put the roof back on it, reinforced it. The leader’s a guy named Ed Curry. Ex-military, like us, but he doesn’t talk much about it. Doesn’t look like special ops, but not all of them do. He’s fairly quiet in general, not especially well liked outside his group, but his men are all loyal.’

‘Huh. When you say men…?’

‘No women out there, that we know of,’ Patsy said. ‘His people go into Tulsa for recreation. Couple would come out here now and then. A couple of the girls here will entertain visitors for suitable recompense… We decided to put a stop to them coming here though. They could get a little rough.’

‘I had to have words with Ed about it,’ Cable added. ‘He said he’d reprimand his guys and we never saw them up here again.’

Patsy frowned. ‘Mind you, one of our missing people was Annaliese, and she was one of their favourites. Went missing on a trip into Tulsa.’

‘I think I should go take a look at Stone Canyon,’ Fox said.

‘Well then, this time I am going with you,’ Cable said. ‘I’m not sending Patsy into–’

Fox held up a hand. ‘Just put a hold on that. I’m going to go down and check it out tonight before I go in closer. There’s a full moon tonight. Not ideal, but I can manage.’

‘I’ve no doubt you can, but what do we do if you don’t come back?’

‘Call Palladium and get them to send in an assault team. But if it comes to that, Jackson’s really going to have to go back to the drawing board on these cyberframes.’

Stone Canyon Area, 6th April.

From the look of the place, the old fire station had once had a pitched roof. Some tornado or storm had ripped that off at some point in the past, and the current residents had apparently decided that that kind of construction was either too difficult or not sturdy enough. There was a bit of a pitch in the corrugated iron panels they had put up there and cemented in, just enough to make the water run off when it rained.

There were a few hints of white paint in the broken eaves which had, maybe, covered the whole building, but now it was a uniform, drab brown which tended to make the place sink into the landscape from a distance. To human eyes, it probably showed up really badly in the moonlight, but to Fox, it was highlighted by ultraviolet light and emitting in the infrared, and quite visible.

It was a two-part structure. The larger, significantly taller, section had once been the garage for the fire trucks with three doors on the front and back for the vehicles, as well as a human-sized door beside them on the front. All but one of the vehicle-sized doors had been bricked over. Then there was the lower block which had, presumably, once been offices and an on-call area for the fire crews. That came with a front and rear door and had once had a lot of tall, slim windows, most of which now had heavy metal shutters bolted over them. Getting a look inside was not going to be that easy.

There was, however, a small window in the big door. It looked as though one of the original doors had survived intact or been remounted and there was a viewing window in it. Fox figured it was a health and safety thing, but from her point of view, which was ‘person sneaking around the outside of the building,’ it was just plain useful. Being seen might be an issue, however, so she used the sighting camera on her pistol to look in through it.

There was the expected collection of Q-bugs and one van, but these did not really register. Over the quad bikes, Fox could see something else: cages. Each was just about big enough for a human to sit down in, if they curled their legs up a lot. The thermal imaging on the camera suggested that at least one of them was occupied and Fox lifted her head to look in. Her eyes had better resolution in a wider spectrum than the gun’s camera. Precisely identifying the person in the cage was impossible, but she thought she was looking at a female, and possibly a second person in the cage beside hers. Even if this lot were not carving up people for parts, they had them in cages.

Fox slipped around the building to the shorter section and found one window which had not been covered over. There were mounting points for a shutter, but someone must have decided that light was a good thing. It looked like the room had been converted into a bedroom with a single occupant. Fox could make out body heat through the covers on the bed. There had to be more people inside: Cable had estimated the group at about fifteen-strong. So… They had converted the garage area into a barracks?

Slipping across to the door, she checked it. ‘Bloody conventional locks,’ she said silently. ‘Why can’t people use electronic ones? I can hack those.’

‘I am detecting a wireless network,’ Kit said. ‘It may be possible to access a computer in the building.’

‘See what you can find, but be careful.’

‘Of course… There appear to be three active implant computers and a small server attached to the network currently. Oh!’

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Someone has absolutely no clue about computer security. I have gained access to one of the implants. The owner is… Lucien Wood. His implant has no VA and no active login controls. I assume he believes no one would attempt to hack him. Ah, and here we have the unencrypted file he uses to remember his passwords… And I’m into the server.’ Displays began appearing in front of Fox showing the sessions Kit was opening. ‘Some people should be locked up for their own good.’

‘Huh. You’re not wrong… Am I reading this right? This server has a narrowband satellite connection to the internet?’

‘It does, yes. It’s wide enough to allow voice-only conference calls. I suspect it is their main source of communication to the outside world.’

‘Yes, but why would they need it? They can get cheaper, faster service through a radio link to Tulsa. That’s what Cable’s people use. Of course, if they want their calls kept entirely private…’

‘Agreed,’ Kit said. ‘This is a little odd.’ She popped up a set of emails for Fox to see. ‘Someone external puts through a request for “one ox heart, three braised kidneys.” Similarly, an outgoing message indicates that “lamb’s liver” is to be delivered on the third of last month. There are a number of similar messages dating back… seven months.’

Fox smiled. ‘At a guess, an ox heart would be an augmented, male heart. Lamb’s liver is a female augmented liver. Braised could mean anything, but it’ll be code for biomod kidneys. We’ve found the place, Kit.’ Slipping her rifle off her back, Fox pulled a cable out from under the sight and plugged it in at the back of her head. ‘Is there anything on there identifying who they’re supplying to?’

‘There are encrypted files which I may be able to get into, but nothing with real names has come up so far. Apparently someone has a clue regarding security.’

‘Guess that means I have to make sure one of them lives.’

‘Don’t you think it would be better to contact NAPA and have a team sent in to–’

‘And risk losing the two people in the cages? No, I don’t. Besides, I’m trained for this and I used to do it before I had a body that could stand up to gunfire. I’m going in. Bring up all the tactical software.’ Letting her rifle hang on its sling, Fox took her pistol from its holster and checked the load: baton rounds. ‘Perfect. Kit, use their satellite hook-up and get a call through to Cable. Tell him he needs to get down here with a van, pronto.’

Fox took two steps out from the building, turned, and fired two rounds into the uncovered window. Then she moved forward, pushing through the shattered glass and turning toward the bed as its occupant dazedly tried to sit up, push out of sleep, and work out what was going on. Three plastic rounds slammed into his chest and stomach, slamming him back down again and leaving him winded and hurt. Fox holstered her pistol behind her back, lifted her rifle, and marched toward the interior door into the garage area.

There were, indeed, fourteen bunk beds set up in the room beyond the door, and fourteen men in them. Only two of those, however, were actively doing anything about the sounds from the other room, and most of them had not even woken up. Fox selected the target most likely to reach the shotgun he kept beside his bed, aimed, and fired. The three-round burst punched through his chest and he fell out of bed, knocking the gun over.

Fox shifted her aim to cover the second man. ‘Everyone keep very still, or everyone dies!’ Men who, apparently, kidnapped and murdered people for a living stopped moving, their eyes on her. ‘Right, everyone is going to move, slowly and carefully, to the far end of the room. If anyone tries anything, I will fire, and this is not a subtle weapon.’

One of them, the man who had woken second, stood up, but he did not move away from his bunk as the others were doing. ‘One woman can’t take us all out. You’ve no–’

Fox shifted her aim and fired. Two slivers of metal punched through her target’s right knee and his little speech cut off in a high-pitched scream as he collapsed onto the concrete floor. ‘Anyone else want to make any stupid suggestions?’ Fox asked.

‘He does have a point,’ Kit said. ‘How are you going to keep them all contained?’

Fox glanced around quickly. She had not really been expecting it to be this easy. She had expected, in fact, to be looking at fourteen corpses by now. But there was one thing you could always expect to find in any respectable camp. Twitching her rifle toward one man who looked to be the youngest, and most scared, of the group, she said, ‘You. Come over here and pick up this roll of tape.’

‘M-me?’

‘Don’t make me repeat myself.’ Fox stepped back and he rushed forward, grabbing the roll of duct tape from where someone had left it. ‘Good, now you’re going to tape all your friends’ wrists together. You’re going to do a good job, because if I think you’re not, I’ll shoot you and get someone else to do it. Understood?’

She got a dumb nod in reply, and then he turned and started for his colleagues. From the looks he was getting as he started work, Fox had the feeling that ‘friends’ was the wrong word. She watched in silence as he wrapped tape around the men’s wrists. A couple of them tried to shift their bindings after he was done, but they were holding fast. She was going to have to leave them there, but if they ran, they would not get far, and it would take them time to get free to retaliate. It would have to do.

‘Okay,’ she said when the kid was done. ‘You come with me.’ She nodded to her right, toward another interior door. ‘You go first. Try to remember I’m the one with the rifle.’

‘Uh… yeah.’ He set off through the door.

‘The rest of you, consider the fact that I also have a grenade launcher and stay right where you are.’

‘I might suggest that they won’t,’ Kit said. ‘I should also point out that your current assistant is the hapless Lucien Wood.’

‘Huh.’ Fox followed Wood through the door and into what she would have described as Hell, except that she had seen Reginald Grant’s torture chamber. The next room had three benches in it, all of them covered in blood. One had the remains of a man on it, his abdomen split open and a length of intestine looped out at his side. There was nothing Fox was going to be able to do for that one. ‘Keep going,’ Fox hissed.

‘I… I didn’t know w-what they were doing,’ Wood said, starting for the next door. ‘N-not until it was t-too late. They’d have–’

‘Not interested in excuses right now, Lucien. If you live through this, and the people I’m helping don’t decide to shoot you, you can explain it to a judge.’

‘How’d you know my name?!’

‘You need to learn to protect your implant computer. At all, never mind better.’ They walked through into the actual garage, with the cages and vehicles, and Fox paused to close the door and turn the latch on it. It would probably not hold anyone for long, but it would delay them. ‘Those cages, unlock them.’

There were, indeed, two people in the cages. The woman was fairly young, fairly pretty, but bruised, naked, shivering, and wearing the kind of dazed expression that came from continued abuse. She looked scared even when the door was opened and it seemed, to Fox anyway, obvious that she was being rescued. The other captive was a man in worn denim jeans and a T-shirt, no footwear. It also looked like he had been shot in the leg. He looked scared, but defiant. On the other hand, when he managed to haul himself to his feet, it was apparent that his leg was fucked.

‘We go out through the big door,’ Fox said. ‘Lucien, you’re helping this guy. Get him to the door, open it. Move.’ Then Fox looked in at the girl. ‘Your name wouldn’t happen to be Annaliese, would it?’

Her eyes widened and she looked up at Fox, even more scared. ‘Y-yes.’

‘Well, that’ll make Patsy and Cable happier. Come on, girl, we’re getting out of here.’

At the mention of the two dustbowlers, Annaliese’s fear subsided markedly and she struggled to her feet. ‘Cable sent you?’

‘Basically, yeah. They thought you were dead. They’re going to be pretty pleased to know you aren’t.’

‘I wish they’d just killed me.’

‘Ah.’ Behind her, Fox heard the door beginning to roll up on a clunky-sounding motor. ‘Hurry, go help Lucien with the other guy.’

Following Annaliese out, watching the inner door as she went, Fox left the building. It was in the middle of a huge, open expanse of not a Hell of a lot. This was dustbowl, good and proper, for miles. Fox had parked her Q-bug a fair distance away to ensure that it was not heard driving in, but hopefully Cable would arrive soon, and there would be transport. Then there was the leader, presumably the guy she had shot on the way in.

‘Keep going,’ Fox ordered. ‘Head down the road. Lucien, if I don’t find them with you when I come back, I am going to hunt you down and make your death long and painful.’

‘Yes, ma’am,’ Lucien said.

‘Where are you going?’ Annaliese asked, fear once again in her voice.

‘Just have to pick something up. Won’t be long,’ Fox replied, and then she turned and sprinted around the building.

She could hear voices as she stepped back in through the shattered window. Her victim, Ed Curry perhaps, was lying on his bed in the foetal position, but he seemed to be conscious. Fox could hear voices in the next room and they did not sound good.

‘Get after her.’

‘We need guns.’

‘You go after her. She’s fucking lethal!’

‘I’m gonna kill the bitch, and then I’m gonna kill Wood.’

Grinning, Fox grabbed Curry and carried him out, dumping him on the ground outside the window. Then she leaned in, aimed her rifle at the door, and fired a grenade through it. She ducked back out and there was a second’s pause before the building shook and fire burst out of the doorway into the bedroom, setting the sheets alight.

Fox heard Kit gasp. ‘I warned them,’ Fox said, picking up Curry. She started around the building to go after the others.

‘Yes, but–’

‘They would’ve come after us, at which point I’d have had to shoot them. Difference is that, this way, they don’t get a chance to hurt anyone else.’

‘I… suppose…’

‘Did you get the encrypted files off that server?’

‘Yes, Fox.’

‘I’m sorry if I shocked you, but it was the practical solution under the circumstances.’

There was a short pause and then Kit said, ‘You’re doing that thing again. Where you turn your emotions off. You’re doing that.’

‘I’m certainly not feeling any remorse over terminating a group of men who’ve committed multiple murders.’ Somewhere in the back of her mind, Fox wondered when she had shifted into combat mode and could not quite remember doing it, consciously anyway. She ignored the problem. ‘Sometimes I have to. To get the job done.’

‘Yes,’ Kit said. ‘I know.’

‘Cheer up. We saved two people and we got the bad guys.’

‘Yes… Yes, I know.’

~~~

Fox walked into the hut Curry had been put in, drying her hands on an old towel. Curry, fully conscious now, though rather badly bruised, watched her for a second, and then set off.

‘I don’t know who you think you are, but I’m going to–’

‘Shut up before I shoot you again?’ Fox asked.

‘My men will–’

‘You… don’t have any men, Ed. The only one who got out of the firehouse was Lucien Wood and, uh… Well, I just finished up with him.’ Fox tossed the towel aside and smiled. ‘He was very talkative.’

‘Wood doesn’t know anything.’

‘Yeah, well, I know that now. And I believed him… eventually. Little late, but you can’t have everything. Now, I need to know how to get into those encrypted files on your server. I can crack them eventually, but sooner would be nice. If you could tell me who you’re supplying in Topeka, that would be kind of cool too. Otherwise…’ Fox slipped a large knife from behind her back, one with a slightly curved, wickedly pointed blade and a lot of jagged points along the back.

‘All right! All right! The key to the files is brigade three two nine. One word, capital B, capital D. All the names are in the files. All of them. Topeka, Tulsa, St Louis, all of them.’

‘Confirmed,’ Kit said almost immediately. ‘I’m decrypting all of the files now. He seems to have kept quite meticulous records.’

‘Told you it would be something to do with his old unit,’ Fox said, inwardly smirking.

‘Yes, but the number of potential combinations was not reduced heavily by knowing that two, three, and nine were in the string. Also, we do not have a spare quantum processor.’

‘Well, there have to be some things this body isn’t so good at.’ Aloud, Fox said, ‘Cable is arranging for you to be taken into the NAPA facility in Tulsa. Of course, I don’t think I’d blame them if you didn’t quite make it, but that’s up to them.’ She turned on her heel and walked back out of the hut to find Cable, Patsy, and Wood waiting for her.

‘Get it?’ Cable asked.

‘Uh-huh. You were right, Lucien. He cracked as soon as I took the knife out.’

‘He was a surgeon in the army,’ Wood said. ‘Not a combat soldier. Always led from behind. Screamed like a girl when he stubbed his toe.’

‘Huh.’ Fox handed the knife to Cable. ‘Why do you even have a knife like that? It’s got to be the flashiest, most useless knife I’ve ever seen.’

‘Yeah…’ Cable admitted. ‘Scares the shit out of people who don’t know it’s useless though.’

‘Especially ex-army surgeons, apparently.’

Grinning, Cable clapped his hand onto Fox’s shoulder. ‘You did good by us, Fox. Even brought one back we thought we’d lost. You’re welcome here any time.’

‘Thanks. I’d normally say something about just doing my job, but I’m supposed to be on medical leave. So I’m going to get back to that, and leave the clean-up on this to NAPA and the Topeka Watch. I really hate paperwork.’

Part Two: Vitam Novam

Tokyo, Japan, 8th April 2061.

Helen Dillan’s avatar took shape in Yuriko’s lounge, and Yuriko bowed formally before lifting her head and smiling. ‘Ohayo, Helen-san, I am ready to report on my observations of Aphrodite Cybernetics.’

‘Evening, Yuriko. Or is it morning there?’

‘Morning. I completed my operation at the factory last night, but did not wish to disturb you.’

‘But you got something, right? You’re looking happy.’

‘I hit, as you say, the jackpot, at least so far as connecting all the people involved. I have identified five individuals known to be members of the Fukui-kai.’

‘Known to be?’

‘I personally know that two of them are. The others were identified from police databases. One of them is quite senior, a regional wakagashira for northern Honshu. I observed him leaving with a Yurei no Ningyo, apparently straight off the assembly line.’

Helen nodded. ‘So Aphrodite are directly supplying Ghost Dolls to the yakuza.’

‘It would appear so. I also observed Doctor Hummel leaving and entering the building. Only once, and he had bodyguards. It would appear that he lives in the building.’

‘Might explain why we haven’t been able to find him. Okay, I’ll report this to the board and we’ll work from there. From the reports I’ve been getting today, I think we’ll have Fox back pretty soon.’

‘That is wonderful news. She has indicated her return to you?’

‘No… Not yet anyway. But she’s taken an organlegging ring apart, while on medical leave. I think her excuses might be a bit thin after that.’

‘That does sound like Fox-san. Even dying cannot stop her from investigating a crime.’

Topeka, Kansas Belt.

‘You were supposed to be resting,’ Garth Eaves said, pointing a finger down the virtual table at Fox who had, rather pointedly, not sat in her usual place.

‘I was,’ Fox protested. ‘I did. I rested, sort of anyway. I did some chores with Dad, went shopping, attended a party, and competed in a sexy dress competition with my mother. Uh, don’t ask. Then something came up. I helped some friends.’

‘And brought in a ring of organ thieves, closed down a medical conspiracy… All restful stuff.’

‘It was, actually. I’m an active person, Garth. Sitting still doesn’t suit me, even if I needed to remind myself of that. I’m ready to get back to work.’

‘Why were they doing it anyway?’ Helen asked.

‘Money, why else. They were getting organs of various sorts cheap, but charging the full rate to the recipients and then siphoning off the difference. To be honest, splitting it between the gang, the surgeon, and the technician who made sure the paperwork looked legitimate, they weren’t making a whole lot each out of it, but Napier was desperate. His wife was bleeding him dry and doing an amazing job of keeping him hooked on her. NAPA in New York have reopened the case on Christina Napier’s husband to see if they can find a link. They think Harlan Napier killed him, or arranged it at Christina’s prompting. They might get somewhere.’

‘Huh,’ Eaves grunted, though exactly what that meant was anyone’s guess. ‘Helen, why don’t you bring us up to speed on Japan.’

‘Okay,’ Helen said, nodding. ‘Yuriko has been watching the Aphrodite Cybernetics facility and she’s seen Arvid Hummel going in and out. She thinks he’s living there. She’s also confirmed the yakuza connection. Seems pretty likely that the Fukui-kai positioned Hummel in Aphrodite to give him a suitable cover for whatever he’s doing, which seems to be selling BioTek corporate secrets.’

‘You think he’s giving them bioroid technology?’ Fox asked.

‘Well… He definitely gave them that nanodrug. There are several companies working on bioroids, but it was pretty widely thought that BioTek would be first with production of a working model. Somehow, Aphrodite got ahead very suddenly.’

Fox nodded. ‘You want my help on this one?’

‘I’m just not sure where to take it from here. It’s industrial espionage, sort of, but I’m not sure we can do anything about it. Hummel was kicked out and moved to Japan. He’s working for another company… Unless we can prove he took information with him that he had no right to, we’re stuck. And no one’s publicly marketing that nanodrug.’

‘Okay, we’ll get together and–’

‘Actually, Fox,’ Eaves broke in, ‘we have something else for you to do first. There is actually a link, but… Jackson wants you with him when he visits BioTek. That was assuming you were up to it, and it seems you are.’

‘Wait… Jackson’s taking on another spaceflight to go see the people at BioTek?’

‘That’s right and he wants–’

‘Jackson Martins really hates space. This has to be something huge.’

‘I’m told it’s… controversial. Going up there will give you a chance to talk to Hummel’s old colleagues.’

Fox sighed. ‘Fair enough. When?’

‘Jackson’s leaving tomorrow.’

‘Okay. Helen, I’ll meet you at the spaceport with Jackson and we’ll decide on how we’re going to handle Japan. Let Yuriko know we’re working on it and… I guess you have to keep coming to board meetings for a while longer.’

Helen sagged. ‘Oh thanks. Throw me a rope and then yank it away just when I’m reaching for it. Did I do something mean to you in a past life?’

‘Well, you have a habit of hogging the doughnuts with sprinkles, and in my previous life I actually cared about that, so…’

‘Oh,’ Alice Vaughn said, ‘that definitely sounds like cause for retribution. That’s a hanging offence in my office.’

‘Getting resurrected has turned you into a meany,’ Helen suggested to Fox.

‘Nah. I was always like this. Now I just have the chance to show it.’

~~~

‘I’ll be flying back to New York first thing tomorrow,’ Fox told her parents. ‘Then it’s straight on a flight up to L-four.’

‘The BioTek facility?’ Andrea asked.

‘Yeah… I can’t discuss it. Then again, I don’t know anything about it so discussing it is kind of pointless. Jackson’s going up too.’

‘It must be important then.’

‘Oh, yeah, important. Jackson gets sick if he even looks at a rocket so you can bet it’s important. Terri usually handles off-world stuff for him, but she’s going to be up in Jenner for a while…’ Fox frowned. The cost of getting Terri off the Moon for a day trip to L4, which was all that was planned, was a lot less than an Earth launch. Whatever was up there, it had to be really serious. ‘Anyway, I’ll probably be going back to Japan after that.’

‘You okay with that?’ Jonathan asked. ‘Japan’s where… things happened.’

Fox shrugged. ‘The country isn’t to blame. It was an American who tortured me.’

‘Still…’

‘Guess I won’t know until I get there, but I don’t think it’s going to be a problem. Still, I guess the proof of the pudding is in the freaking out when I see it.’

New York Metro, 9th April.

‘It seems highly likely that Doctor Hummel is involved with the Ghost Doll project,’ Jackson said, ‘but my understanding is that he was never involved with bioroid research for BioTek.’

‘So industrial espionage seems likely?’ Fox asked.

‘With the information available, it would seem that he obtained unauthorised access to confidential company information.’

Fox turned to Helen. ‘I think that was a yes.’

‘It sounded like a yes,’ Helen agreed. ‘Can’t help but think we need more data though.’

‘Agreed,’ Jackson said, nodding.

‘Okay,’ Fox said, ‘so we task Yuriko with gathering as much information as she can about the Ghost Dolls and Aphrodite Cybernetics. You and I, Jackson, are going to go at it from the more general side of things, bioroids and such, and get information on Hummel.’

Jackson nodded again. ‘I believe that should be quite possible to achieve. And then you’ll join Miss Fukui in Japan.’

‘Yeah. Uh… I know it’s a little bit of an imposition, but would you mind if I detoured to L-one on the way? I think… Well, it’s about time…’

‘Of course it’s all right to go to Mister Deveraux. I was a little surprised that you didn’t do so on the way back from Jenner.’

‘I… wasn’t ready then.’ Fox heard a small sigh from Helen, and that prompted a memory of a thought she had had to surface. ‘Oh, and while we’re on the subject, I was thinking that my SiC should visit Jenner in the near future. She can get caught up on the latest developments, get the layout in her head, that kind of thing. Especially since she’s been handling the top job for a couple of weeks now.’

‘Your SiC?’ Jackson asked, and then twigged. ‘Ah! Yes, your second in command, of course. Military jargon was never my strong suit. I believe we can arrange a tour. I’m sure Terri would be pleased to handle it.’

‘I’m sure she would, yes. I’d imagine she would be pretty enthusiastic about it, actually.’

‘I can hear you, you know?’ Helen said.

‘You saying you don’t want to go?’

‘Of course I want to go! I’m missing my girlfriend, not stupid.’

‘Good. Now, we should just have time for Sonya to give me a check-up before we leave.’

‘You had one quite recently, didn’t you?’ Jackson asked.

‘Yes, but then I spent several days in the dustbowl, and when I get back I’ll be going straight to Japan, at which point I’m not sure of my schedule. Just being practical.’

‘Very well. I’ll collect you from her lab in thirty minutes. And then we can begin the process of turning me into a quivering mass of disoriented flesh.’

‘Yeah. Don’t forget the vomiting. I know I won’t.’

BioTek Microtechnologies Station, L4, 10th April.

Jackson was still looking a little green when the meeting with Rainer Gottschalk of BioTek started, but half of Earth gravity was a lot better than none, even if it came with a weird feeling that you were being pushed sideways whenever you moved. Standing still or sitting, and nausea medication, helped.

Gottschalk looked like he had been born in space and never left. Over two metres in height and thin with it, he seemed quite comfortable in the environment of the station. His physique was about the only thing remarkable about him at first glance. He had mouse-brown hair and hazel eyes, and a face which failed to draw the eye almost as though it had been designed to go unnoticed. When he opened his mouth, however, you almost immediately got an impression that he had a quite remarkable brain.

‘I am given to understand, Miss Meridian, that you have not been informed of the specifics of our most recent developments in synthetic genomics.’ He had a fairly strong accent, but he did tend to avoid the stereotypical w/v confusion, which helped.

‘We’re keeping the entire thing under wraps until we’re quite ready for the media to know about it,’ Jackson said. ‘There will be strong reactions.’

Gottschalk gave a small shrug. ‘Our estimations of public response have been revised, given recent developments in Japan. However, yes, we do expect some negative responses.’

Fox put the comments together fairly rapidly. ‘You built a bioroid.’

‘Our first fully successful synthetic humanoid was completed and released from the fabricator tank three days ago. We are referring to her as Eve.’

‘Huh. That’s a PR disaster waiting to happen right there. However, if Aphrodite Cybernetics have beaten you to it, I don’t see too much of a problem. The Ghost Dolls don’t seem to have raised alarm bells with the media in Japan.’

Gottschalk turned and tossed a few virtual screens up in the meeting room’s viron. ‘Eve is significantly different from the Yurei no Ningyo models Aphrodite are producing.’ One of the displays showed a couple of images of a Ghost Doll. It was the first time Fox had seen them properly and it was fairly obvious that they were not human: they seemed to have pale, rubbery skin and unnaturally wide eyes. The other displays showed a couple of still images and a video feed of a moderately pretty woman with a mop of purple hair. ‘We gave her hair and eye colouration not normally found in humans, but she is a general-purpose product, optimised for human interaction.’

Fox watched the video for a second. Eve was sitting in a fairly bare room, dressed in a plastic tube of a dress which was flesh-toned aside from some pale-blue trim. She was reading from a tablet and looked vaguely bored.

‘You used the sleep-training system on her?’ Jackson asked.

‘Initial socialisation was carried out through VR,’ Gottschalk said. ‘We are currently assessing its effectiveness. Our initial evaluation suggests that it has functioned within parameters, perhaps rather better than expected. Given her current environment and the probability that she will act as an ambassador for future synthetic humanoids, we also gave her fluency in English and German, and training focused on communication skills.’

‘She’s three days old and understands two languages,’ Fox said. ‘That’s impressive.’

‘There is a three-month production cycle. Initial construction in the biofabricator is followed by a period of stabilisation. Producing a tabula rasa product would be… less than useful.’

‘And this is where I point out precisely what the problem should be with Eve and those like her.’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘She’s a product. You’ve fabricated a living, breathing, human-looking woman who, I assume, has an independent, sapient mind, and you’re calling her a product. You’re going to have some fairly major legal issues with that description on the Moon, just for starters.’

Gottschalk nodded. ‘An ill-advised choice of words. However, this is why the term “bioroid” has been the preferred one for synthetic humanoids for some years. It aligns them with androids and gynoids, focusing the public perception of them on the concept that they are “biological robots” rather than people, slaves.’

Fox peered at him, her eyes narrowing. ‘The accent doesn’t help. I can’t tell whether you’re naturally sociopathic or you’re just too nerdy to see how bad that sounds.’

‘Fox…’ Jackson began.

‘Nuh-huh, Jackson. No. I may be a little oversensitive about this, seeing as I’m a MarTech Technologies product, but Herr Gottschalk is going to have to learn to present his facts better than this. Eve isn’t the only one who’s going to end up talking to the media.’

There was a second of silence and then Jackson said, ‘You’re not a product.’

‘Everything down to the software running my mind was created by MarTech. The only bit I could be said to hold the copyright on is the contents of my ba database.’

‘You are, of course, correct, Miss Meridian,’ Gottschalk said, and then he quickly held up a hand, ‘and I say that only because you brought up the subject. It would be quite wrong to consider you in that manner and I do know that. In my defence, if we did manufacture another Eve without the training, “product” would be a far more suitable term.’

Fox sniffed. ‘Maybe I am a little oversensitive about this… And you’re right about the memetic quality of “bioroid.” But you really should pick your words more carefully and there are going to be people yelling “slavery” from the tallest soapbox they can find. What’s the legal position on bioroids?’

‘Our legal department is working on that right now,’ Jackson said. ‘The answer at this point is “undecided,” and it varies significantly in different areas. Japan, obviously, is not a problem. In Luna City, they would have the same legal rights as any other sentient being. We suspect that China will make them illegal in the next few months due to population issues. They have enough trouble employing their existing population. The Caliphate will definitely ban them. Everywhere else is anyone’s guess.’

‘We see less utility in truly humanoid “products” like Eve,’ Gottschalk said, making air-quotes for Fox’s benefit, ‘than in more specialised bioroids. Some people uncomfortable with robots may find a biological alternative more appealing, and there are the obvious applications in the sex industry which, frankly, we are not interested in catering to.’

‘But Eve’s functional, sexually?’ Fox asked.

‘We don’t plan to cater to that market, but any general-purpose bioroid has some likelihood of needing to meet that kind of requirement. Eve is an attractive woman.’ Fox smiled at the statement: Gottschalk, despite his apparent attitude, did not think of Eve as a thing. ‘However, we have a number of designs for low-gravity, thin-atmosphere bioroids, aquatic bioroids, even space-adapted bioroids. If we’re going to fabricate synthetic beings, it seems better to make them for environments humans are ill-equipped to handle.’

‘Probably an easier sell to the lawmakers too.’

‘Almost certainly. While on the subject, we also have designs for what we are terming “bioframes.” These would be bioroids fabricated with the bulk of their brain replaced by a controlling computer. These would be more explicitly “biological robots.” We have not produced one yet because, frankly, the resulting product would be of limited use. Current computer technology which could be fitted into the space would be incapable of running sophisticated AI software.’

‘That will change,’ Jackson said. ‘It’s a potential option for you, Fox, when the next generation of hardware becomes available. We’ll deal with the legal aspects of that development when we need to.’

‘Indeed. How are you finding your skin, Miss Meridian? It was co-developed between MarTech Technologies and BioTek.’

Fox absently stroked a hand over the skin of her forearm. ‘Can’t complain. No one’s noticed anything odd about it. It feels like skin… Oh, one thing. Did you people design that protein stuff they’ve got me eating?’

‘Yes, we did. An optimised–’

‘Uh, it might be optimised for performance or whatever, but could you optimise the taste? Currently, it’s a lot like eating wallpaper paste.’

Gottschalk actually grinned; Fox had not been sure he was capable. ‘I should point out that the original design parameters were for skin on a droid, but I’ll have a word with the technicians. Perhaps we can work on the flavour.’

‘Thanks. Can we meet her?’

‘She is expecting you. Actually, she is looking forward to it.’

~~~

Eve put her tablet down and got to her feet as the door of her quarters opened. Fox was rather pleased to see that the bioroid had been assigned her own room. Eve smiled as Fox and Jackson walked in, followed by Gottschalk.

‘Guten Morgen, Herr Doctor Gottschalk,’ Eve said. She had a soft, pleasing voice which went with an attractive face and body. Fox decided that men had done most of the genetic design: Eve was slim with some widening in the hips and moderate but noticeably high and pointed breasts. She was attractive, not beautiful, but certainly above average in looks. Fox decided that Eve had been designed as non-threatening. No one was going to decide they disliked her out of jealousy. Aside from the purple hair and eyes that were more of a strong violet than purple, the only other odd feature was a tattoo along her right shoulder which looked more or less like Roman numerals. Fox’s enhanced vision detected the underlying coded pattern in it: it was a model identifier and serial number.

‘Guten Morgen, Eve. We should speak English. These are the visitors I spoke to you about. Jackson Martins and Tara Meridian. I’m going to leave them with you for a while.’

There was a moment of indecision in Eve’s face, nervousness, but she pushed it aside. ‘Of course, Doctor. Good morning, Mister Martins. Good morning, Miss Meridian.’

‘Jackson,’ Jackson said as the door closed behind Gottschalk. ‘I dislike formality. Let’s sit down. To be honest, space stations make me nauseous.’

‘Of course…’ A look of sudden horror spread across Eve’s face. ‘Oh, I don’t have enough chairs, I– Please, Miss Meridian, take mine. I don’t mind–’

‘It’s Fox,’ Fox said, ‘and you sit. This body’s cybernetic and doesn’t get uncomfortable standing up.’

‘Fox…’ Eve was uncomfortable having a guest stand, Fox could see it. She was going to live with it, but she was not happy. ‘That’s an unusual name.’

‘Childhood nickname, because my hair’s coloured like a fox’s tail.’

‘Ah, I see. I’ve never seen a fox, except in pictures.’

Fox laughed. ‘You and most people. I grew up in a farming district. There are urban foxes, especially in the Sprawls, but most people have never seen one.’

‘Oh. Well, that makes me feel less left out. Doctor Gottschalk told me that you would want to talk to me. That you would be evaluating how I behave.’

‘It’s nothing formal,’ Jackson said. ‘There are better qualified people to do evaluation work. To be honest, I simply wanted to meet you.’

‘I have a more practical reason for talking to you,’ Fox said, ‘though I admit to some fascination. I’m going to be looking into some other bioroids on Earth in the near future, but I don’t think I’ll be free to talk to them as easily as I can you. You give me the opportunity to get a feeling for… Well, how you behave.’

‘I am happy to be of assistance,’ Eve said. ‘I can make some observations which may help.’

‘I’d like to hear them.’

Eve gave a short nod. ‘I have been trained to function in society using virtual reality technology to accelerate learning. It seems that this has worked and I rarely make social mistakes. However, I don’t have actual experience of the real world. I am sure I will gain that in the future, but I find myself a little confused about the reasons for things at the moment. I am… a child that knows how to act like an adult.’

‘A fairly perceptive child, it seems.’

‘My genome and training were optimised for social interaction, including increased perception and a pleasing voice.’

‘Okay, how do you feel about that? How do you feel about being designed and manufactured to fulfil a purpose?’

Eve frowned. ‘I had not considered that.’ She brightened. ‘Don’t humans do it with their naturally born children? Genetic modification and eugenics are employed to ensure attractive, healthy children, often meeting certain requirements such as blue eyes or blonde hair, or high intelligence. Am I really that different?’

‘Probably not, but there are quite a few people who consider the techniques you mentioned as… wrong, unnatural. How do you feel?’

‘Well… I wouldn’t exist if Doctor Gottschalk and his team had decided not to apply their theories. I like existing.’

Fox smiled. ‘Good answer.’ Her gaze shifted to Jackson. ‘I like existing too. Thank you for reminding me.’

~~~

‘From what we have been able to see of the Yurei no Ningyo series, and the few details available on the company website, they are something of a contradiction.’ Gottschalk was giving BioTek’s take on Aphrodite’s product and, from what Fox was seeing, ‘product’ was the correct description. ‘There are some significant technological advances here, if their material is to be believed, and yet there are some rather odd choices in the design.’

‘Such as?’ Fox asked.

‘The skin seems to be the strangest feature. Even their own publicity documents describe it as “Latex-like.” It harkens back to the old days of droid construction, when the best that could be managed was rubber skin.’

‘Huh. Rubber skin has some advantages in what’s basically an animated sex doll. Wipe clean for one thing.’

Gottschalk’s cheeks coloured. ‘I hadn’t considered that factor. Still, an odd choice for a synthetic biological. It means that they would be unable to use a significant volume of knowledge regarding the construction of a living organism. While entirely manufactured and pared down to only those components required for her successful functions, Eve’s genome utilises many techniques taken from mammalian DNA. Aphrodite would be unable to use many of those patterns. As a first try at a bioroid, that seems unusual.’

‘It couldn’t just be that they couldn’t do better?’

‘Well, they already have better skin on many of their droids,’ Jackson said. ‘I wouldn’t say they’re up to our standards, and certainly nothing as good as your skin, but it would be hard for a normal person to detect the difference in one of their current cyberframe units.’

‘And,’ Gottschalk said, ‘rubber skin is simply not that easy on an organic body. I’m not saying it would be impossible. Far from it. But it introduces more problems than it solves and would almost certainly require genetic coding based around plant DNA. Your skin… Well, your skin is different. My skin, or Mister Martins’, is an extremely complex organ, the largest in the human body, providing functions which would need to be replaced in some way. Most importantly, the Yurei no Ningyo series will need some alternative method of heat regulation. They can’t sweat.’

‘Okay, so it’s a weird design,’ Fox said.

‘Weird, and expensive. All the individuals which have been caught on camera look different, sometimes markedly. There will always be some variation in the individuals of a series, more so than those in a series of androids, for example, but they are likely to look fundamentally similar. No two Yurei no Ningyo appear to look alike, aside from the near-white skin. Aphrodite seem to be customising each and every one of them for individual customers.’

‘Well, they are selling them as luxury items…’

‘It does not stop there. The literature describes them as having “individual, highly realistic personalities.” Again, possible, but it would mean altering the initial learning experience for every one of them.’ Gottschalk paused for a second before adding, ‘I should add that they are “programmed to fulfil your every desire without qualm,” a fact I find… distasteful at best. But that programming may not be perfect since one of them has apparently murdered her owner.’

‘A fact which has not gone unnoticed on various internet feeds and conspiracy sites,’ Jackson commented. ‘Reaction varies from paranoia to “what do you expect from a slave race?” The memetics department are monitoring the situation.’

‘Huh,’ Fox said. Then she frowned. ‘Hey, did anyone ever try to push that old “Three Laws of Robotics” thing when cyberframes were becoming more common?’

‘Yes, but they were impractical to implement, too easy to circumvent, and there was a meme invoked by Asimov and then taken to the extreme in a film in the early part of the century which suggested that the three laws model would inevitably lead to a robot uprising. We got the honesty code instead which, of course, is easy enough to circumvent if you know how. Hannah is a perfect example.’

‘And I assume part of Eve’s training is adherence to the law?’

‘She isn’t quite as hardcoded as an AI,’ Gottschalk replied, ‘but she is at least as likely as a normal human to obey legal statutes. She knows right from wrong. We could probably strengthen that aspect of her training if required, though it would lengthen the process.’

‘Huh, well, learn something new… So we’re saying that the Ghost Dolls seem to be unnecessarily expensive, more advanced than seems viable, an odd design, and ethically dubious. What about stolen from BioTek?’

‘Difficult to say without a gene sample. Hummel was never part of the bioroid project. His work was in nanodrugs and some of the Morphogenesis projects. The cellular regeneration drug used on you was not one of his, but he was working in the same lab. It would have been trivial for him to copy the specification and he was undoubtedly involved in discussions on it.’ Gottschalk turned to Jackson. ‘The latest version of that has sufficiently reduced chances of failure. I believe we can go to market, for use under strict medical supervision and with suitable controls.’

‘Write up the paperwork and we’ll put it through the board,’ Jackson replied.

Gottschalk nodded and turned back to Fox. ‘Hummel simply did not possess the expertise needed for the bioroid work. He could have acquired it, perhaps, but there is still the problem of fabrication. The only Yliaster units with the necessary programming for biological fabrication are the one here and a couple in the Jenner station.’

‘Yeah,’ Fox said. ‘I’ve been through one of the ones in Jenner. Is Aphrodite into nanotechnology?’

‘Not that we know of,’ Jackson said. ‘They’ve never released a nanotech product, aside from the drug which Hummel assisted them with. It’s highly doubtful that they could build anything like Yliaster. They could have found a method of fabricating bioroids through some form of advanced biotechnology. It seems unlikely, however.’

‘Somehow then, they have to have stolen the tech. Unless they’ve come up with an entirely new way of creating a bioroid.’

‘That would appear to sum it up.’

‘Agreed,’ Gottschalk said. ‘Short of a miracle, I cannot suggest another way they are doing it.’

Prokhorov Station, L1.

Aleksandr Prokhorov had been something to do with lasers when the word had been an acronym yet to be coined, and Prokhorov Station had been built as the primary communications hub of the Earth–Moon system. It still served that role, though it had passed from government control to commercial service since its construction. It sat in a halo orbit around the L1 point between the Earth and the Moon, a huge, more or less cylindrical structure hovering in empty space via the magic of orbital mechanics. There were still a few semi-governmental facilities on the base, including the primary UNTPP base handling orbital policing, but the two big industries on the station were communications and scavenging.

Hundreds of small ships, none of them designed to ever enter a gravity well, scuttled out from the station’s hangar bay to seek out the debris of a century of space travel. Various countries had organised under a UN banner to provide bounties for the removal of space junk from the system, and the scavengers sometimes got lucky and found something worth salvaging on top of the bounty. It was enough to make the work profitable for small, independent companies and individuals, and it tended to attract people who liked the idea of the ‘high frontier.’ They tended to consider space as something akin to the Wild West and it had been that community which had popularised the nickname ‘Lensmen’ for the UNTPP officers who policed them.

Walking through the concourse of the station was something of a surreal experience. In the relative safety of the station, the scavengers dressed like a combination of cowboys and bikers. They called themselves Jin Shu: a lot of the first of them had been Chinese and the term translated to ‘metal rat.’ Maybe it had been a derisive term at one point, but now they carried it with pride, usually along with a lot of metal chains and leather. Their work attire was not much better since they tended to customise their vacuum suits as much as possible without damaging integrity. It was black and brown leather on the station, and vibrant colours, sometimes with v-tags, when in space.

Fox was, however, on a mission and did not have time for sightseeing. Nor did she have time for the propositions tossed in her direction by a number of Jin Shu; maybe the short skirt had been a bad idea, but she did want to make a good impression with the person it was intended for. Outside the UNTPP offices, she faltered: maybe the whole outfit was a bad idea. She was trying out a new pattern for her bodysuit: sleeveless and thong-backed, it looked kind of sporty, aside from it being quite translucent apart from various opaque modesty strips. She had put a dark denim jacket over it, but that was not designed to actually close over her chest, and there was the very short skirt and a new pair of knee-high, high-heeled boots… Maybe it was trying too hard.

‘Get on with it,’ Kit said.

‘But what if–’

‘You’ll procrastinate until he doesn’t want to know you at this rate. Get in there, wow him with your new wardrobe choices, and give me something entertaining to watch until we have to leave.’

‘You really are getting bossy since I gave you your command keys.’

‘Mush! Get in there and get on with it. I want my porn.’

Rolling her eyes, Fox stepped up to the automatic door and then through into a reception area which was, largely, empty. Okay, so Kit was bossy, but she did know how to get Fox to act instead of think. Fox headed for the window at the back where a bored-looking sergeant was working on a terminal rather than watching the room.

‘Excuse me, Sergeant,’ Fox said.

The woman lifted her head and smiled. ‘Can I help you, ma’am?’ Polite, maybe because Fox looked more like a hooker than a Jin Shu.

‘You don’t look like a hooker,’ Kit stated flatly. ‘I quite like that outfit. It’s different, if a little out of character for you.’

Fox decided to explore the qualifier later. ‘I’m looking for Major Deveraux. I’m betting he’s still in the office.’ It was, by station time, around nine in the evening, but Jason worked late more often than not.

‘Could I take your name?’

‘Tara Meridian.’

The sergeant’s eyes widened a little. ‘Oh, you’re… I’ll just check with him.’ The conversation was obviously carried out via teleconference: the woman’s eyes unfocused for a few seconds. ‘Major Deveraux will be right out.’

Sure enough, Major Deveraux, in his tight, official UNTPP uniform vacuum suit, emerged through a security door at the back of the room so fast that Fox figured he had started running as soon as he had heard her name. He came to a grinding halt and his eyes scanned up and down her body. He looked tense, the kind of tension you got when you wanted to hug someone and knew you should avoid it just at that moment.

‘Fox,’ Jason said, ‘I am pleased to see you, especially in one piece.’

Fox smirked. ‘And I’m pleased to see you in a skintight spacesuit. Could I drag you away from work for a while? We need to talk. Somewhere private.’

There was the sound of the sergeant suppressing a giggle and Jason glared at her. ‘I will be signing out, Sergeant Huckabee. Contact Georgette if anything comes up.’

‘It’s Sunday, sir. Even United Anarchy take Sundays off. It was nice meeting you, Captain Meridian.’

‘And you, Sergeant,’ Fox said, turning to head back through the door.

Jason followed at a rapid walk. ‘I’d offer to take you to dinner, but Prokhorov is not noted for its haute cuisine.’

‘I don’t really need food. I need to tell you something. Can we go to your quarters?’

‘That… does not sound good.’

‘Well… That kind of depends on how you react to what I’m going to tell you.’

~~~

‘So… that’s about it,’ Fox said. ‘I’m a robot. Or I’m some software that’s running on a computer in a robot. Or I’m a database that some software is using to…’ She trailed off and looked across the small lounge to where Jason was sitting.

He was staring at her with a slightly perplexed sort of frown on his face. ‘I… see.’

‘You, uh, don’t exactly look… happy.’

Jason sat up a little more in his seat and rubbed his chin. ‘I have just been trying to see whether I could spot any differences. There is the stud in your navel, of course.’ Fox glanced down: the barbell was visible through the thin plastic of her suit. ‘Perhaps… Would you take off your jacket?’

Fox raised an eyebrow, but she stood up and slipped her jacket off her shoulders, laying it on the chair behind her. She turned back to Jason, lifting her arms from her sides, palms facing him. ‘How’s this?’

‘Oui, much better.’ He continued frowning and staring. ‘Hmm… perhaps the skirt too?’

Fox put her hands on her hips. ‘You’re just trying to get me out of my clothes. I tell you I died and got turned into an infomorph, and you just want to get into my pants. That’s so… French!’

‘Thank you, mon chère, I will take that as a compliment. Now, the skirt…’ Fox slipped her skirt down her legs, glaring at him all the while. ‘Come here.’ She advanced on him, being careful in the lowered gravity, right until he reached out, caught her wrist, and pulled her into his lap. ‘I have many questions,’ he said, ‘but they can wait. I do not think you understand the relief I feel. I saw you in a hospital bed, alive only thanks to machines. I thought I had lost you, and then you did not come here on your way back to Earth…’

‘I was scared,’ Fox admitted. ‘I was scared you’d… react badly. Not sure I could have handled that just then, so I chickened out.’

Jason pulled her against his chest, his hands sliding soothingly over her skin. ‘I understand. I am a little hurt that you did not trust me, but I believe I can grasp the stress you were under.’ His hands continued moving. ‘You feel like Fox. You smell like Fox.’ One of his hands slipped between her thighs, stroking, and Fox let out a little whimpering moan. ‘You definitely sound like Fox. If your fears have any foundation in fact, I say that it does not matter.’

‘I think I want you to prove that a little more intimately.’

‘Let me get out of this suit, and I will do just that.’

~~~

‘This is amazing,’ Fox said, shifting her hips.

‘If amazing… is defined… as… exhausting…’ Jason managed.

Fox giggled, and started moving faster. ‘Sorry. I haven’t done this since… y’know. I think I might still be a little oversensitive, because this feels… fantastic.’

Reaching up, Jason gripped her hips to slow her down again and Fox leaned forward, resting her arms on his chest. ‘You don’t get tired?’ he asked. ‘Ever.’

Hips still moving in circles, Fox shook her head. ‘Nope. If my batteries die, I just stop. Of course, I’m going to come in a second or two and then…’ Her eyes rolled back, her back arched, and her mind whited out. When her vision cleared, Jason was panting beneath her. ‘Maybe I should let you have a rest,’ she said.

‘That would be good.’ Fox rolled off her victim and settled against his side, grinning. ‘You’re more flexible than you were,’ Jason added.

‘Spine like a cat, or so I’m told. Re-engineered joints.’ Fox shivered. ‘Slightly oversensitive in certain intimate areas, which I think I can live with, but very flexible. Yeah.’

‘Oversensitive… That explains a lot. It really feels the same, adjusted for the sensitivity?’

‘Uh… yeah.’ Fox frowned thoughtfully. ‘You know, it does. Wow. You know, that might be the single most convincing thing I’ve noticed to make me believe I’m still me.’

‘I am glad to be of service. I would make some joke with “serviced” in it, but I feel that may be too crass.’

Fox grinned. ‘The way I’m feeling just now, I think you could get away with it. But… you’re too much of a gentleman. I think I should clean up a bit before we go again.’ She swung off the bed and started for the shower cubicle off the bedroom.

‘Foul temptress. You were sent to assassinate me.’

‘But what a way to go, right?’

Jason lay there for a second or two, until the water began to run in the shower. Then he rolled out of bed and followed her. ‘Gentleman my derrière.’

11th April.

‘You’re going straight to Tokyo?’ Jason was stretched out in his bed watching Fox getting dressed. He was contented, tired, and just a little melancholy. For whatever reason, watching her prepare to leave was far worse than leaving.

‘Uh-huh, but I won’t be there for long. I’m going to a resort on Kyushu for a few days.’

‘That does not sound like work.’

‘It’s a continuation of my medical leave, except that it’s also the best way Yuriko’s found for someone to get a close look at a Ghost Doll. The resort has several of them on staff for… entertainment purposes.’

‘Oh really?’

Fox flashed him a grin. ‘It’s a private facility in a sort of inland sea. Technically a bay of the China Sea, Omura Bay. The guest rooms are underwater and it’s very exclusive. Sun, sea… no sand because it’d be really wet. Yuriko says the place is basically owned by the Fukui-kai.’

‘You’ll be careful…’

‘Unless they think to load armour-piercing ammunition, they aren’t going to be any sort of problem.’

‘You’ll be underwater. Possibly quite deep.’

‘I don’t breathe. I checked up with Jackson, and my crush depth is about sixty atmospheres, roughly six hundred metres. The deepest Omura Bay gets is fifty-four metres. I’m quite safe.’ Fox sat down on the edge of the bed to pull on her boots. ‘So, what should I be worrying about killing you?’

‘At the moment? Vacuum. Possibly radiation. There may be a UA cell up to something in the system.’

‘I think that goes without saying, but I assume you mean that you’ve evidence for it?’

‘Oui, but very little. More rumour than fact. Ghost ships. People claiming that the UA have a way of destroying ships undetectably.’

‘Spacer tales.’

‘Probably. There are a few memes starting to proliferate about the arrival of Halley’s Comet which are concerning people, but that is not my area unless they mutate.’

‘Perihelion in July, right? Apocalypse stuff?’

‘Yes, the majority of it. It has not heavily entered the popular consciousness, but it may do and may need counteracting. Again not my concern.’ Leaning forward, Jason slipped an arm around Fox’s waist and pulled her toward him.

‘Hey! I–’ Fox stopped talking as their lips met, the kiss deepening quickly.

‘I do not want to let you go,’ Jason whispered when they parted.

‘Yeah, well… We both have jobs to do. Mine just happens to involve a resort full of sexbots and bioroids.’

‘And you think that makes this easier?’

‘No, but I’m leaving you with Sergeant Huckabee. She looked pretty cute in her uniform.’

‘I believe her wife agrees with you.’

‘Huh. Okay, bad example, but I bet there are plenty of attractive women on your staff who don’t have wives.’

Jason smirked. ‘Not like you, but if it makes you feel better, next time you visit I will arrange an inspection. I’ll get all the ones you think are too attractive transferred.’

Fox sat up and finished zipping her boots up. ‘Don’t think I won’t hold you to that. I’m mean when I’m jealous.’

Kannotekina Atsuryoku Resort, Japan, 12th April.

Technically, Fox had lost another day getting to Japan and the resort, but with all the travel recently, it made little difference. It was now Tuesday and she was being taken by motor launch, ten kilometres across the bay, from Nagasaki Airport to the Kannotekina Atsuryoku resort.

The name could be read, according to Yuriko, as ‘sensual pressure,’ which conjured up a number of images, but was presumably meant to play with the fact that you spent at least some of your time there under a couple of atmospheres of water.

‘They do shiatsu as well,’ Kit commented.

‘Not something I’ll be taking advantage of,’ Fox replied. ‘Aside from the fact that it won’t do a thing for me, I think someone used to manipulating joints and muscles might notice mine aren’t human.’

The lack of general awareness of Fox’s current situation was, at this point, rather useful. It was probably better that the yakuza did not know they were dealing with what amounted to a combat gynoid. Otherwise, if the worst came to the worst, they might decide to load AP bullets, or just employ explosives. Fox was not entirely sure how much her new body could take, but she was also not ready to test its limits for no obvious gain.

The boat she was on rounded a tall headland and entered a smaller bay within the greater one, and the resort itself became visible. It was a modernistic, white structure with a tall, round hub with a star of floating jetties extending out from it. The designer had been going for a bright cyberpunk look: lots of gleaming metal, few really straight lines, plenty of glass. Fox could see people sitting at tables on one level, perhaps a bar toward the core. The guest rooms were invisible, beneath the waterline and accessed by elevators.

On the jetty the boat was heading for, a couple were waiting, dressed in matching suits and wearing almost identical smiles: the reception committee, Fox figured. Certainly they both bowed deeply as Fox stepped off the boat. Fox returned a less inclined bow and smiled, waiting for them to speak.

‘Konnichiwa, Meridian-sama,’ the man said. ‘I am Enemoto Unkei, manager of Kannotekina Atsuryoku. We are very pleased to welcome you to our humble establishment.’

‘I am Enemoto Natsuko,’ the woman added. ‘We hope you will enjoy your stay with us.’

They were both offering identity packets for her to take, so she did. Back in time, it would have been business cards, but now it was all electronic. Fox returned the gesture with a smile and talked to the tops of their heads. ‘Thank you for the warm welcome. I’ve heard very good things about your resort. I’m here to relax. Out of the public eye.’

The Enemotos finally straightened up. ‘Your privacy is absolutely ensured at Kannotekina Atsuryoku, Meridian-sama,’ Unkei said. ‘If you have any problems, please do not hesitate to come to me. My wife can supply any need you may have.’

‘Our staff,’ Natsuko went on, ‘is almost entirely synthetic, absolutely reliable, and available for any service you may require of them.’ There was a very slight emphasis on ‘any.’ The meaning was pretty clear even if the managers of such a place would not be so crass as to suggest that their clients were bound to want to fuck the robots.

‘Thank you. Rest and sun are all I need right now. Could I see my room? It’s been a long trip.’

Apologising profusely for not thinking of that sooner, the Enemotos escorted Fox down the jetty and into the main structure, chattering away about the facilities as they went. There was a full lounge, restaurant, and bar on the second level, and a private sun deck above the administrative level. At the bottom was an exercise room, fully staffed, and one could hire scuba equipment, with instruction and guide divers if required. The bay was noted for its wide diversity of marine life, including a rare porpoise and horseshoe crabs. And, of course, various other water sports were available, including motorboats, jet skis, and water skis.

Fox listened to the lists of activities and noted the ones which were not mentioned. The staff were mixed, androids and gynoids, and all of them from series that Aphrodite Cybernetics produced. Kit had the full commercial data on all of them, which included the set of commonly produced face sculptures. None of the ones here were custom sculpts, and there were a couple of repeats. The staff on general duties were dressed in fairly formal outfits, even if the women tended to shorter skirts than might be considered business wear. There were plenty of others around dressed largely in swimwear, brief swimwear, and often accompanying a guest.

An elevator took them down maybe fifteen metres, opening onto another lounge area, and the pretence of respectability more or less went out the window. Here, the staff were dressed in swimwear at most and the guests were hardly more covered. Light filtered down from above but was largely drowned out by the internal and external lights. You could see fish swimming past the domed windows. Fox spotted one of the Ghost Dolls among the people lounging around the room, but this was not the time for excessive curiosity.

‘Our guests have complete privacy here,’ Unkei said. ‘They may do… whatever they wish without anyone outside being aware of it.’

Fox noted the cameras liberally scattered around the ceiling. Not obvious to someone without knowledge of security systems, but there all the same. How much blackmail material had the Fukui-kai gathered in this place? ‘Unless the fish have cameras,’ Fox said, smiling.

‘Oh, we keep the media fish well away,’ Natsuko said, smiling back.

There were six doors off the lounge, all of them fitted with pressure doors. The doors were open, but Fox figured having them there was a health and safety requirement. One of the corridors beyond the doors led to other observation domes and further guest rooms, but five led directly to guest rooms extended out from the lounge on corridors of their own.

‘This gives further privacy,’ Natsuko said as they walked down one of them. ‘There is a pressure door on your room, quite soundproof, and there is the distance between room and lounge. It is not possible to see into one room from another.’

‘Sounds perfect,’ Fox replied. ‘I believe I’ll take a nap before I see what else your beautiful resort can do for me. My body clock is still on… Actually, after the last couple of days, I’m not sure what time zone I’m on. I was visiting a friend on the L-one station yesterday, which was two days ago.’

Natsuko gave her a solicitous look. ‘Oh dear, that kind of thing can wreak havoc with the metabolism. Please speak to me after your rest. I can recommend several methods of regaining your equilibrium.’

Fox stepped through the heavy door Unkei had opened for her and into her lodging for the next few days. ‘Thank you. I’ll do that. And this is beautiful.’

It was not exactly beautiful. Actually, it was kind of bland with a lot of cream, beige, and white. Close to the door there was a computer system of some sort built into the wall, a bathroom off to the right which had to be too small to have a bath in it, and the remainder was more or less open plan with a lounge area closest to the large domed window, a bed screened off from it, and a small kitchen counter. The window made up for a lot of bland, however. Lights outside it showed fish jetting past. Light from above gave flickering glimpses of the sea floor and other aquatic denizens further from the resort.

‘We try to ensure our guests have a pleasing, relaxing, and sensuous experience,’ Unkei said. ‘Kannotekina Atsuryoku caters to all the senses.’ Smiling, he turned and indicated the computer panel. ‘All the functions of the room can be accessed via your in-room terminal, which can be accessed remotely via our service application. Lights, both internal and external, are controlled from there, as is the privacy lockdown on the door. A number of in-room entertainments can be obtained directly, or ordered.’

‘Thank you,’ Fox said, bowing. ‘All I need right now is a little time to adjust.’

‘Of course.’

‘Do you think they practise walking backward through a narrow door while bowing?’ Kit asked when the door was closed.

Fox stepped up to the computer panel and began working through on-screen touch menus. ‘I’d have to.’ There was a solid-sounding set of clicks from the door. ‘Download their app, but I want it checked with everything you’ve got available before I execute it.’

‘Of course. The room is likely bugged.’

‘Uh-huh. There’s a camera pointed at the bed, another on the lounge area.’

‘Won’t that make it hard to recharge?’

‘Secretly, yeah, but my passport data says I have “extensive cybernetics” and I’m told there were plenty of fairly lurid reports in the media about what happened in Chiba. Needing additional power isn’t that uncommon in large-scale cybernetic replacement and you can bet the Fukui-kai has access to my records.’

‘Okay. You’re going to run a sleep cycle?’

Fox headed for the bathroom to wash her make-up from her face. ‘Uh-huh. Drop notes to Jason and Yuriko telling them I’ve arrived safely. When I wake up, we’ll take a closer look at this place.’

~~~

It was early evening by the time Fox emerged from her room to take a proper look around. The resort had a fabricator on-site, so she had ordered a couple of fresh bodysuits and a black version of the skirt she had worn to her mother’s party: the combination, without a jacket, was meant to look sexy, but somewhat restrained. Given that most of the thirty or so guests were showing little restraint at all, Fox felt overdressed.

‘Put an order through for a bikini, would you, Kit?’ Fox said as they rode up in the elevator. ‘Something… small.’

‘You generally prefer swimsuits,’ Kit commented. ‘I’ll need to find a suitable pattern.’

‘I… suppose I do, but for this place I think I need something with a lot of string in it. Need to fit in.’ Fox stepped out of the car and into the restaurant lounge.

People were eating at some of the tables. You could get food in the lower lounge, or your room, but it seemed as though the upper-level lounge was the area to take a meal rather than indulging in something more akin to a Roman orgy feast. Downstairs, people ate lying down. Upstairs, they sat at tables and had conversations over food and wine. Fox figured she could play the time zone card and avoid eating here for one night.

‘That service app came up clean?’ Fox asked.

‘Nothing was detected by the programs I ran on it. I am executing it in a virtual machine with activity checks, just to be sure.’

‘Has knowing Vali turned you paranoid, or is this just natural caution?’

‘Both. Vali’s capabilities with regard to hacking certainly give one pause. However, Minotaur was no slouch in that department, and we are staying in a hotel basically run by a criminal organisation that has video and audio bugs set up in every location they could fit them.’

‘Good point.’ Fox turned as Natsuko Enemoto rushed over, executing an immediate bow.

‘Meridian-sama, are you feeling better?’

‘Much, thank you. Not hungry yet and everyone’s eating…’

‘Room service is available twenty-four hours a day. However, I would recommend trying to sleep further tonight. It will help you adjust. I can recommend a light sedative, or some other, more personal, method of assisting you to sleep.’

Fox smiled. ‘I’ll be fine. I usually adjust fairly quickly.’ She looked around. ‘Are all your staff Aphrodite Cybernetics models?’

‘The Eiko no Tenshi series, their premier production model. The name can be read as “glorious angel.” Their face and body sculpting is done by quite famous designers and their production quality is second to none.’

‘And I understand you have the new bioroids, the Yurei no Ningyo, here too?’

There was something, something so fleeting that Fox doubted she would have noticed without her enhanced rate of perception. It passed over Natsuko’s face in an instant and was gone. Revulsion? ‘We do. There are eight here and one could be provided for you, if you wished, but I feel that a lady of your tastes would find them…’ She trailed off, apparently not sure how to put her thoughts into words.

‘Oh, don’t worry about it. From what I’ve read recently, they aren’t to my taste. Your English is excellent, by the way. I’m so glad. I don’t speak Japanese aside from a few words.’ Which was sort of true, given that she got subtitles when she saw or heard the language.

‘Thank you, Meridian-sama. Unkei and I have studied nine languages between us, to better serve our guests.’

‘Very diligent. I’m just going to wander around for now. Get the feel of the place.’

‘Very good, Meridian-sama.’ Bowing, Natsuko left and Fox continued her walk around the lounge.

In all, Fox spotted one human couple at the tables. There could have been more in the resort, but she had the impression that coming here was more of a solo thing. There were a couple of people eating alone, but most had a companion. One of the Glorious Angels, and Fox fairly quickly started recognising their features. There was more variation in the females. She counted, and Kit confirmed, twelve female and six male variations. These were added to with further variation in hair colour and style, and a few small variations in skin tone, but you could basically pick one of the droids out of a line-up fairly quickly if you were observant.

‘How are the companions ordered?’ Fox asked.

Kit immediately brought up a display of the resort app. ‘There is a menu,’ Kit said, sounding vaguely disgusted. ‘You can select by gender, body type, hair colour, and then by picking through portraits of the individual units available. The Yurei no Ningyo available are on a separate menu, and come at a surcharge.’

‘Right.’ The resort was basically all-in aside from a few extras. Apparently, hiring the latest sex toy counted as an extra.

‘You can also order for companionship over your meal, for an entire day or night, or simply for an hour with the option to extend. I am very glad that my function is not to provide this kind of service. I believe I would find it entirely degrading.’

‘I’d imagine you would. I’d imagine I would too, and yet people have managed to do it since exchange of goods and services was invented.’

‘The Eiko no Tenshi is installed with a class three AI. I doubt that they have the emotional capacity to feel degraded, even after a long period of utilisation. Perhaps serving as a personal companion to one user would be better.’

‘That almost certainly depends on the owner.’

Taking the elevator up again got Fox to the level where the Enemotos had their offices and possibly their apartment. If any of the other staff were human, they apparently lived away from the resort. There were towns nearby and a ready supply of boats. Whatever, the guest elevator let out onto a corridor which took you out onto a balcony, and that got you to stairs which led up to the roof.

It was dark now, the sun had not set long ago, but it was night and no one else seemed to be interested in the view of the bay. Not that you could see much of the bay itself given that there was a headland in the way. There were sun loungers up here, but the surface was laid out with marking for a helipad. Presumably that was reserved for VIPs and emergencies. Fox leaned against the railing and looked out over the water, watching the flickering of the underwater lights through the slight swell.

‘It’s pretty,’ Kit said, appearing beside Fox. ‘Oh, I’m not transmitting. You’re the only one who can see me.’

Fox nodded, and kept her answer to the inside of her head. ‘It’s beautiful. Quiet too. There’s no noise from below.’ About the only sound came from the waves lapping against the jetties.

‘Yes. It’s tranquil. I think I like it. Though tranquillity could hardly describe what’s going on below us.’

‘Huh, yeah. How much is this place costing us for a few days of possibly useless pseudo-espionage?’

‘I don’t think you want to know the answer to that. Just try to avoid looking at the expense claim.’

Something impinged upon the silence: footfalls on the stairs behind them. Fox ignored them. ‘That much? I hope this is worth it.’

‘Jackson is quite determined to get to the bottom of this industrial espionage business. I assume you’ve noticed we have company?’

‘Of course.’ Fox turned around, resting her elbows on the rail, and an android in a tailcoat bowed to her.

‘Does madam require anything?’ he asked.

‘If I do, I’ll come down,’ Fox replied. ‘It’s a fairly warm night. I’m enjoying the air.’

‘Of course.’ The android smiled. He had a pleasant smile, of course, along with a sensuous mouth set into a beautifully crafted face with Asian features and deep-brown eyes. His hair was black and fell to his shoulders in carefully tousled waves. ‘Some of our guests enjoy… entertainment with their air.’ He took a half-step forward.

Fox smiled. ‘Not me. Not tonight anyway. Still a little jetlagged.’

‘I know several methods of overcoming jetlag.’ His voice had turned a little breathy, enticing.

‘Pushy, isn’t he?’ Kit commented.

‘I’m fine,’ Fox said. ‘I’ll be sure to look you up later if I can’t sleep.’

Another bow. ‘Just request Mako.’ Then he turned and set off back toward the stairs.

‘Programmed to lay it on thick for their owners,’ Fox said silently. ‘Or in this case, for the resort customers. I doubt he can help it.’

Kit’s avatar shuddered. ‘I am so glad I don’t have programming like that.’

‘You do. Not like that, but you have your conditioning to honesty, your programming to follow the commands of your owner. If I’d ever wanted to, I could’ve ordered you into a gynoid body and had you do immoral things to me. I happen to prefer not to.’

‘So you persuaded me to go to virtual bed with you instead.’

‘As I recall, you got curious and started doing things to me. Not that I discouraged you, but you started it.’

‘Hmm… True, I suppose. When we get home, I want to try that again, in the apartment viron.’

‘Oh you do, do you?’

‘It’s for science! I want to see whether you’re any different now that you’re an infomorph. You said it seemed more or less the same with Jason.’

‘Yeah… Well, it should, shouldn’t it? Orgasms happen in the brain. Mostly. Neurons fire and stuff. They did studies and there were definitely neurons firing. I’ve got the same neurons, they’re just… simulated.’

‘Emulated. I think there’s a difference.’

‘Whatever, I don’t think it should feel different. I do think I’m going to take a walk around and we can capture the remaining guests’ faces. You can get identities on them all while I’m sleeping.’ Fox held up a hand. ‘And, yes, I know I don’t need to sleep again, but I need to sync myself up with the local clock, because otherwise I’ll be napping in the afternoons.’

‘Well, that should keep me busy for a while. You know, there are times when I wish I could sleep. It seems like a wonderful way to pass time when you’ve nothing to do.’

‘Sleep’s overrated. Sleeping in is great, but the actual sleeping part… Not so good. The time I’ve wasted on unconsciousness…’

‘Well, you’ve less of it to worry about now. Perhaps you should take up a new hobby.’

‘You mean a hobby.’

‘Well, I didn’t want to imply you were boring or anything…’

13th April.

Fox looked down at herself and frowned. She had spent her extra four hours of wakefulness this morning trying to come up with a hobby she could take up, and got nowhere really. Her new bikini had been delivered, as requested, at 8 a.m. and she had put it on.

‘You did say small,’ Kit said.

‘I did.’

‘With a lot of string.’

‘Agreed. Have to admit that I didn’t think you’d come up with something made out of eyepatches. Are you just trying to see whether I’ll actually walk out of the room in it?’

‘You have gone to Sheela Na Gig with nothing over your nipples but tape. I have no doubt that you’ll show yourself in public dressed like this if you have sufficient motivation.’

‘True, and I will.’ Fox’s gaze shifted from the two tiny triangles of red plastic over her nipples to the, not much larger, triangle between her legs. ‘However, for breakfast purposes, I think the sarong was a good idea.’ She picked up the multicoloured semi-circle of diaphanous fabric and knotted it around her hips. ‘I don’t plan to eat down here, so a little more decorum is called for.’

‘Do I need to get a dictionary to show you the meaning of that word?’

‘I did say “a little more.”’ Fox pulled up the breakfast menu on the service app as she walked out the door. There was the full Japanese traditional breakfast, which Fox had encountered before and knew would have fed her old self for most of the day. Thankfully, the resort catered to other tastes since the full Japanese outlay was something even the Japanese kept for weekends and holidays. Fox had never developed a taste for green tea. She put through an order for toast, jam, and coffee, which looked like something someone on medical leave might eat.

‘I see I can order hot- and cold-running sex dolls with breakfast too,’ Fox commented.

‘This is a full-service resort.’

It was, apparently, a full-service resort which did not really kick into its stride that early. Fox had been vaguely dreading walking through the lower lounge, but there was no one about. She took the elevator up to the restaurant and discovered that only a handful of patrons were up that early. Only a couple of those were accompanied by droids.

No one came to direct her to a table, so she selected one at a window. One of the serving staff appeared beside her as though dropped in from space, a coffee pot ready to pour. ‘Your meal will be ready very soon, madam,’ the gynoid said, smiling warmly. ‘Did you have a pleasant night?’

‘Programmed small talk,’ Kit commented. ‘Though I suppose humans are programmed for this too.’

‘All rested and ready for a day of doing as little as possible, thank you,’ Fox said.

‘The weather is forecast to be sunny with a high of twenty-three Celsius. A light breeze may cool the air, but the sun deck should be very pleasing today.’

‘Yeah,’ Fox said silently, ‘she’s programmed to chatter until I stop her.’ Aloud she said, ‘Thank you. I believe I’ll go up there after breakfast.’

Fox watched the gynoid in her stylised maid outfit walk off to get Fox’s food. ‘I bet the people who came up with maid cafés never thought they’d keep going this long,’ she said to Kit.

‘Technically, this is different. It’s just the somewhat outlandish costumes which are the same. There is a whole ritual around maid cafés from what I can tell. Also, I don’t believe the original maid costumes showed quite so much cleavage.’

‘Huh. Speaking of cleavage…’ Another patron had entered the lounge, one of the few people Fox had recognised without Kit looking them up: Shina-chan, an adult sensie idol with a big following. She also had a big bust, currently barely concealed behind a mesh sundress. The last time Fox had seen her, she had been pushing that chest at a Fukui-kai mobster. Now her gaze swept the room, spotted Fox, and she started over.

‘Ohayou gozaimasu,’ Shina-chan said, giving a quite respectful bow, ‘would you do me the honour of allowing me to sit with you?’ Her English was accented and stiff enough to suggest she was not so used to speaking it.

Fox raised an eyebrow. ‘You multicasting?’

‘Oh no, the resort does not allow it in the public rooms.’

‘Then I guess I have no objection.’ Fox indicated the chair opposite and the AS idol took it with a relieved look. ‘Doesn’t that kind of defeat the object of coming to a place like this for someone like you?’

Shina-chan waited for the waitress to come and go, delivering Fox’s toast and pouring another coffee, before answering. ‘It is a welcome break. Of course, I stream in my room, but my fans understand that I need some time to myself once in a while.’

Fox looked across at her. She was an attractive woman, of course, fitting the bakunyu or busty model. Aside from what looked like double-D or larger breasts, she was moderately petite and her features tended to cute rather than beautiful: a small, pert nose, fairly large eyes, dark in colour, and a bright smile. Her hair was currently a tousled mass of blonde which fell over her upper chest. There was tone to her muscles, but not the slightest bulk. ‘I’m really not sure I could ever cope with the kind of work you do.’

‘I was surprised you recognised me. Most westerners don’t.’ Shina-chan held her hand out across the table. ‘Kanagaki Shina, I am pleased to meet you.’

Fox took the hand in a light grip. ‘Tara Meridian.’

‘Hai. You may not wish celebrity, but I recognised you from the news streams. The picture they used does not do you justice, however.’

Fox flashed a smile and started to butter her toast. ‘Thank you. Uh, and I recognised you because you were pointed out to me in one of the clubs in Koma.’

‘I work there often.’

‘I’d imagine it’s a good place. So this is mostly just a holiday for you?’

‘A working holiday. Aphrodite Cybernetics hired me to come here and promote their Yurei no Ningyo bioroids. They have had… some bad publicity recently. They felt that a sensie multicast of my experience with one might… restore public confidence.’

‘Oh! So you’ve, um, been with one?’

‘Two.’ Shina-chan lowered her voice a little. ‘They are not really how I would choose to spend my time, but business is business. The streams had very high subscription counts.’

‘You didn’t like them?’

‘They are… odd. They lack expression and cannot speak. Their skin barely reacts to touch, though they react to more direct stimulation like a human. They seem to have strong empathy and they are very skilled, but… There is something very strange about them. It is not something I can put into English.’

Fox decided that she was underestimating Miss Kanagaki based on looks and profession, which was going to have to stop. Clearly, this was one porn actress with more than a little brain backing up her body. ‘I don’t think they were designed for a female market. I mean, rubber skin?’

Shina-chan smiled. ‘It is not entirely appealing, no. Might I ask what brings you to this place?’

‘I’m on medical leave. I was told I could relax here, away from the media.’

‘Hai. Of course, for a resort which prides itself on privacy, it has a lot of hidden cameras, but the media does not get in.’

Oh yes, Shina-chan was a lot more perceptive than her public persona suggested she was.

~~~

Fox waited until she was lying down on one of the loungers on the sun deck before calling Yuriko. Her local investigator’s 2D image appeared on the inside of Fox’s eyelids and Fox leaped in before Yuriko could start with the pleasantries.

‘Morning, Yuriko, I ran into someone interesting at breakfast.’

‘Good morning, Fox-san.’ Yuriko looked vaguely amused at the abrupt start. ‘Who would that be?’

‘Shina-chan. She’s down here on a busman’s holiday, streaming–’

‘I am aware. In the interests of research, I subscribed to her second sensie stream when I heard about it. That was last night. I think I have sufficiently cleansed myself, though my skin is an unhealthy shade of pink.’

‘That bad?’

‘I am not prone to playing pornographic sensies, Fox-san, and would almost certainly not have chosen a threesome between a human, a bioroid, and an android if I were.’

‘Okay… She didn’t mention that part. She had a few interesting things to say. I was going to get you to see whether there was a recording you could play back, but now I just need to ask what you thought.’

Yuriko frowned briefly. ‘The experience was mildly disturbing. Not merely because of the scenario. The Yurei no Ningyo was, at the same time, very human, and yet very much like a gynoid. She lacked expression and never spoke, but her body language was very human. More so than the android. She was clearly very skilled. Shina-chan’s responses to her were… highly arousing.’ You could tell the video image of Yuriko was live, because she blushed, a lot. ‘However, there was far more empathy to the bioroid’s actions. She seemed, more so than the android, to understand what Shina-chan needed.’

‘She just described them as strange. I don’t think her English is up to your standard.’

‘She will not have had the need to perfect it. AS stars are something of a Japanese phenomenon. However, strange is not an inaccurate description.’

‘Eve was really kind of normal, so Aphrodite must be– Oh, I’d better go, I’m about to have company.’

‘Enjoy your vacation, Fox-san.’ And Yuriko’s image vanished.

Fox opened an eye and checked the stairs. There were, in fact, two newcomers. Shina-chan was stripping off her dress to reveal just a tiny pair of bikini bottoms and she was about to lie down in the sun. Natsuko was walking over to Fox’s lounger.

‘Can I get someone to come up and apply sun oil, Meridian-sama?’

‘Thank you, no. I took care of that myself.’ Fox looked around, sat up, leaned toward Natsuko, and lowered her voice. ‘To be honest, I had to have a lot of cybernetic replacement work done after… what happened. I’m still rather self-conscious about people noticing.’

‘I understand.’ Natsuko bowed and returned to the stairs.

Fox returned to her supine position and pulled up the companion menu from the service app, flicking through the lists.

‘Do you intend to request one of them?’ Kit asked.

‘Mako, tonight, assuming he’s available. If I don’t, they’re going to start wondering why on Earth I came here. I think I can get away with cheating on Jason with an android for work.’

‘I am sure he will be very understanding. Especially if he never finds out.’

Fox frowned. ‘Are you suggesting a potential blackmail situation here?’

‘I believe it’s called “persuasion with menaces,”’ Kit said innocently.

‘I am going to kill my mother…’

~~~

Fox sat on a lounger near one of the windows in the underwater lounge, apparently reading a book. The book was a v-tag image of a tablet which she had deployed after the fourth individual, one had been human, had asked whether she needed anything; the human’s smile had been more leering. What she was actually doing was watching the room.

There were two Ghost Dolls in view, both of them accompanying a guest. They were markedly different from each other. Height, apparent weight, body and facial form, hair style and colour: all were different. Fox had spotted four of them now, and they were all based on very different genes, as far as looks were concerned. The only similarities between them were the pale, almost white skin that glistened in the overhead lights and the wide, clearly enlarged eyes.

By now, Fox had managed to observe the two nearest ones for a while and she was seeing other things which seemed odd. There was an underlying set of mental characteristics they both had: submission, obedience, desire. Beyond that, there were noticeable variations in their personalities. What it came down to was that one seemed to be enjoying herself, while the other was not.

‘It could just be the person they’ve been assigned to,’ Kit suggested. ‘They’ve obviously been conditioned to obey, but that doesn’t mean they have to like it and I don’t think I’d like having to obey the reluctant one’s client.’

‘Well… maybe,’ Fox said. The reluctant doll was working for a man who had ‘rich nerd’ plastered all over his buck-toothed face. The other was with a man who actually almost made a leather posing pouch and mesh T-shirt look good; quite why he needed to come to a place like this to get laid, Fox had yet to fathom. Then again, money had always been a powerful aphrodisiac, so the same should have applied to Mr Bucktooth. ‘I don’t think that’s all of it though. The more reluctant one seems kind of downtrodden, but then there are these weird little bursts of enthusiasm. Her body language is all wrong.’

‘You are used to reading human body language…’

‘Yes, but Eve reacted pretty much like a human. I don’t know. I think I’m going to agree with Shina-chan. There’s something off about them. I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks so either.’

‘No…’ Kit agreed. There was something of a gap around the seats occupied by the dolls and their customers. Most of the other guests were subconsciously avoiding the pale women. Fox was fairly certain it was largely subconscious, just from the way people moved, but there were micro-expressions of revulsion showing in a number of cases when the dolls were noticed. That could, of course, have been a reaction to seeing a bioroid, but the novelty of the new form of life should have outweighed other factors at this stage. More, the revulsion seemed to be showing more in people who had been at the resort longer. People seemed to be learning to despise the Ghost Dolls rather than coming with a preconceived idea.

‘The earliest droids suffered the same kind of reaction,’ Kit said. ‘The “uncanny valley” effect was quite strong when synthetic skin had a rubbery quality and low-level AIs were used to drive them. People found it far easier to accept entirely mechanical cyberframes than ones which looked vaguely human, but were obviously not. Many companies abandoned droid designs until synthetic skins became far more realistic.’

‘And that’s why a lot of the effort in realistic droids came out of the sexbot industry, yeah. You remember that Kildare-series android Ripper used suffered from that sort of problem. And that could be what’s wrong with the Ghost Dolls. Maybe they act a little too human for the way they look. You know, I think that might be it. Their body language is human, very human, but they look like they should be old sex robots.’

Fox watched for a few seconds and then added, ‘Mind you, I’m not quite used to seeing things in more wavelengths and at higher frame rates.’

‘You can shut off the extra colours.’

‘They’re useful. For example, Gottschalk was right: the Ghost Dolls run at a higher temperature than normal.’

‘Speaking of running hot…’

Mako, now dressed in black slacks which fitted tightly around his thighs and a loose shirt in the same colour, open almost to the navel, appeared beside Fox’s chair. He was smiling in the same way a wolf does when a particularly wily rabbit has suddenly decided to stop running and chat.

‘Is it really that time already?’ Fox asked. ‘Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun?’

‘If that is true, the next hour will speed past,’ Mako said. As a statement to someone you were about to have sex with, it was just a little bit wrong, but Fox ignored it. She was not in this for the scintillating conversation, or even the sex.

Dismissing her book display, Fox got to her feet. ‘We’ll go to my room.’

‘That would please me greatly, Meridian-san.’ His hand slipped around her waist as they set off toward the corridor leading to Fox’s bubble. Fox largely ignored that too, even when his fingers began to play delicately over her skin.

‘Eager, isn’t he?’ Fox said inside her head.

‘Programming of this kind generally utilises a reward-based approach, much as in a human brain,’ Kit replied. ‘To perform well in the programmed activity results in “pleasurable” rewards. He is anticipating a good performance from an attractive partner. A human male might well react the same way. You are a very attractive woman.’

‘Why thank you, Kit, but demystifying that didn’t help.’

Mako was kissing the back of Fox’s neck as she opened the door. When he had pushed the door closed behind them and turned the locking wheel, he turned to Fox and she could see eager eyes looking at her, but somehow without the fire she might have expected. Still, a second later, he was pressing her up against the wall, hands held high over her head as his lips pressed hungry kisses across her neck, ear, jaw.

‘I want you, Meridian-san,’ he said.

‘I think you can call me Tara, under the circumstances.’ Fox felt her sarong drift to the floor around her feet, and the bikini was not going to put up much resistance.

‘I want you now, Tara.’ The bows on her briefs were undone and the plastic fell away from her, and Mako dropped to his knees.

‘What are you– Ah!’ Fox grabbed his shoulders to balance herself as his tongue pushed into her. A second or two later, tongue was replaced by fingers to allow it to start lapping at her clitoris. He was skilled, and tireless, and Fox thought, ‘Must remember to fake being breathless,’ as he worked her toward orgasm.

~~~

Fox checked the time: five minutes to eleven and she was about to reach her seventh climax, though she was wondering whether she might have to fake it this time. Mako was skilled, and certainly physically stimulating, but… Closing her eyes, she braced her arms against the back of the sofa she was bent over and focused on his shaft driving in and out of her. That worked: a minute later, she was having to fake being breathless again. She fell onto the sofa and looked up at the android.

‘Do you wish me to stay longer?’ Mako asked, smiling.

‘You do that… you’ll… kill me.’

‘I will leave you to your rest then.’ He bowed, retrieved his slacks, shirt, and deck shoes from where they had been discarded, and was gone in a matter of seconds.

Fox pulled up the service app and locked the door behind him, but remained on the sofa, slowly bringing her simulated breathing back to normal for the benefit of the cameras. On a whim, she cut the lights in the room, allowing the scintillation from outside to provide illumination.

‘I hope they got some good recordings out of that,’ Fox said silently.

‘The last one was a bad angle, but I think they got some fairly good views of your sex faces. You did not really enjoy that, did you?’

Fox considered her answer for a second. ‘It was… like masturbating with an animated dildo. I mean, I’ve had meaningless sex before, but that was…’

‘A new level of meaningless?’

‘Yeah.’

‘He understands the technical aspects of what he is doing, but not really why he is doing it. Emotionally, I mean. He’s only a class three.’

Fox sniffed and got up to head for the shower. ‘Well, I know plenty of women get off perfectly happily with that kind of thing… And I guess I can’t deny some physical release, but it just doesn’t quite do it for me.’

‘Does that mean I don’t?’

‘You are entirely different, and you know it. I’ve enjoyed every time we’ve indulged.’

‘Just checking,’ Kit said brightly. ‘The shower is set to your preferred specifications.’

Fox shook her head and stepped under the water stream to wash away the evidence of Mako’s attentions. ‘I’m still waiting to find out what you’re going to use that blackmail material for.’

‘Oh… I am quite sure I will think of something.’

‘You are evil, young lady.’

‘No, but I’m working on it.’

14th April.

The nerd with the buckteeth was in the underwater lounge when Fox walked down to begin her people-watching exercise again, and he still had his Ghost Doll with him, which probably indicated that the rich part of Fox’s assessment was correct. He seemed to be quite happy to just be seen with his expensive toy who continued to give off rather defensive body language.

Purely on the off-chance, Fox smiled at Bucktooth as she passed him and settled on one of the loungers near the window. He returned the smile with a lot more enthusiasm than it warranted. ‘Might have hooked him…’ she said silently. When she settled down to read, he was approaching.

He bowed. ‘Good morning, miss. I am Tetsuya Yamaguchiya, might I sit with you?’ His English was flawless, almost without an accent. He was thin with a monk-like cap of black hair and fairly classic Japanese features as well as being a good six inches shorter than Fox. Along with the teeth, he was not the most handsome of men, but he seemed like he was bright.

Fox executed as best a bow as she could manage. ‘Tara Meridian, please do.’

Yamaguchiya settled onto another lounger, patting the seat beside him. ‘Hiroko, sit down.’

‘Well done,’ Kit said as the doll settled onto the seat beside her client. ‘Now we can take a closer look.’

‘Uh-huh.’ Aloud, Fox said, ‘What brings you to the resort, Mister Yamaguchiya?’

‘Oh, these lovely creatures.’ He indicated Hiroko who, Fox noticed, was sitting as far from him as she could get. ‘I’m in biotechnology. I have my own company. Uh, purely based around genetic modification of bacteria, nothing like bioroids. However, when I heard that I could meet them here, I just had to come and see them.’

‘They certainly are an interesting new development.’

‘Certainly. And you? What brings you here?’ Apparently he did not pay too much attention to the news.

‘I’m on medical leave. I’m in security and I was hurt quite badly. This place was recommended as relaxing.’

‘Oh, I am so sorry to hear that.’

‘Mm. So, now that you’ve met them, what do you think of the Yurei no Ningyo series?’

‘Fascinating.’ He turned his head to look at Hiroko, which gave Fox the option to do the same without seeming rude.

Hiroko was a fairly tall woman, clearly built on Asian genetics. Aside from the unnaturally wide eyes, pale plastic skin, and the blonde hair, she looked like a Chinese girl. Her eyes were a dark shade of brown, her lips were a deep red, as were her nails. She had quite broad cheekbones, quite a small nose, and a face which registered no expression at all. Fairly thin, she had mid-sized breasts and long legs, shown off by the pink-and-white, flower-patterned cheongsam dress she was wearing. Her hair was pale-blonde, pinned in place with long, red pins and then plaited down her back to mid-calf where it ended in a red ribbon. She was beautiful the way a well-sculpted porcelain doll was beautiful.

‘It isn’t simply the genetic challenges of creating a bioroid,’ Yamaguchiya went on. ‘Aphrodite have done a simply amazing job on the training. I would never have believed that it was possible to create such a complete personality in so short a time.’

‘Oh?’

‘They guarantee delivery within eight weeks, producing a custom-made, individual unit. They have to grow the body and then program it in that time. Uh, program is, of course, wrong. An entirely organic brain so they must condition it with the normal behaviour expected of a person in our society and the skills needed for their work. Hiroko is impossible to tell from a human. Uh, except, obviously, for the skin and the fact she can’t speak.’

‘She doesn’t make any sounds?’

‘She makes… sounds, but cannot form words. Perhaps the next series will.’

Fox smiled. ‘Perhaps. Would you mind if I touched her? Up close, they really are quite fascinating.’

Yamaguchiya preened a little: he had in his temporary possession an item of desire and he was basking in the reflected glory. ‘Oh, please do. Hiroko…’

Hiroko got to her feet with more enthusiasm than Fox had expected and stepped closer. She smelled of… nothing when she extended an arm without being asked or told. Fox took her hand and ran fingers up her arm. There was no reaction to the touch. Hiroko’s skin looked like plastic or polished latex, but there was definitely more of a rubber feel to it. Latex was a natural material, so perhaps they had somehow spliced in genes to make it…

‘She lacks skin sensitivity,’ Yamaguchiya said. ‘It makes her a little clumsy at times.’ Fox could empathise having spent a couple of days with no sense of touch herself. ‘However, the, uh, more intimate areas are as sensitive as one might expect. Would… Would you like to try her out?’ Fox noticed Hiroko’s body shift at the question: her back straightened, chest pushing forward, and her fingers chose that moment to graze Fox’s arm. ‘Uh, I’d only ask to watch.’ Even that did not seem to dampen Hiroko’s feelings on the matter.

Fox smiled. ‘Another time, perhaps. I overexerted myself last night. Not quite as recovered as I thought I was.’ Hiroko’s body sagged back into its mildly dejected state. Fox looked up at her and said, ‘Thank you, Hiroko.’ The bioroid bowed and returned to her place beside Yamaguchiya.

‘A shame,’ he said, ‘but we would not wish to harm your recovery. I’m leaving in the morning, so there probably won’t be a chance of meeting again.’ That seemed to brighten Hiroko up a little, but not much.

‘Ah well. I hope you’ve had a good vacation.’

‘Oh, it has been exceptional.’

Yeah, Fox could just bet it had been, though she also doubted that Hiroko would agree with the assessment.

Nagasaki.

Fox had never been to Nagasaki before. On her previous visits to Japan, she had stuck to Honshu, never coming this far south. A visit to the Peace Park, since she was less than twenty kilometres away, seemed like a must-do, and she had an ulterior motive.

‘A greater expression of the potential danger of technology I cannot imagine,’ Jackson said over the video call Fox had set up, ‘but did you really feel it was necessary to leave the resort to call me? Eavesdropping is unlikely. Extremely unlikely.’

‘Agreed, but I didn’t want them knowing I called New York.’ Fox turned to face the fountain with the Peace Statue in the distance. It was actually peaceful there. ‘So, what do you think? We’ve got a wild diversity of facial features and body types, an apparent personality which Eve admitted she had not quite developed yet, and an eight-week delivery schedule.’

‘I admit that the technology required to do that is beyond me. That may be because it’s two a.m. here…’

‘Sorry, but I needed to talk.’

‘Not a problem, as such. Anyway, the more I think about it, the more I believe that it isn’t possible. Maybe it will become possible, but now… No. They appear to have some production method which shortcuts our own techniques. I begin to wonder whether these are bioroids at all. Perhaps a cyberframe of some sort with organic components…’ Jackson was drifting into theorising. He would be up all night if left to his own devices.

‘Check with Gottschalk, would you? Uh, in the morning. I don’t think they’re cyberframes. I mean, it’s a possibility, but… Jackson, I’m pretty sure Hiroko is a lesbian.’

‘That seems an odd choice for training. Bisexual would seem more useful under the circumstances. Perhaps a mistake in the training program.’

‘Maybe. See if Gottschalk can shed any light on this. I’ll keep my eyes open for more details. We can talk it over once I get back to Tokyo.’

‘Very well, Fox. Enjoy Nagasaki.’

‘Oh, I will. It’s a change from being surrounded by people with one-track minds.’

Tokyo.

Taro was waiting at a table at the back of the Blue Lotus when Yuriko walked in. That was unusual. Generally, the leader of the Fukui-kai liked to make an entrance. Yuriko noted the two hulking brutes sitting near the door, Taro’s bodyguards, and continued on to his table, bowing before taking a seat opposite him.

‘Good evening, brother,’ Yuriko said. ‘This time it is you who requested a meeting.’ Spotting a waitress in a tiny kimono approaching, Yuriko waved her away. She had no intention of staying longer than necessary.

‘I see that your superior, Meridian, has returned to Japan.’

‘Yes. She stopped briefly in Tokyo before moving on. She is still on medical leave.’

‘And she has decided to stay at the Kannotekina Atsuryoku resort.’ Taro’s voice twisted the statement into a question, one carrying a lot of disbelief.

‘I recommended it. It has excellent media control and she wishes privacy.’

Taro leaned forward, stabbing his index finger down onto the table. ‘That is not the only reason. Why is she there? You owe me, sister.’

Yuriko narrowed her eyes. ‘Very well. She is also there to observe the Yurei no Ningyo bioroids. MarTech are interested in them. Meridian-san is on medical leave from Palladium, but she is a friend of Martins-sama and elected to assist him in this matter during her convalescence.’

‘She called you from the resort.’

‘She sent a message, a courtesy, telling me that she had arrived safely. She called me to ask for my advice on local tourist attractions. I suggested the journey to Nagasaki would be most profitable.’

‘And why would she not ask the managers there?’

‘Perhaps she felt an independent opinion might be preferable? She is, primarily, on holiday, brother. Is that all?’

Taro paused to take a drink, delaying his answer on purpose, no doubt. ‘You may go.’

Yuriko got to her feet and bowed to her brother. ‘I trust that this clears my debt, brother, and that I will not hear from you again.’

‘Your debt is cleared when I say it is cleared. Leave me.’

Not bothering to argue, Yuriko headed for the door. She kept the smile off her face until she was past the bodyguards and out on the street. Fox had been right: the Fukui-kai was determined to stop people investigating the Yurei no Ningyo too closely.

Kannotekina Atsuryoku Resort, 15th April.

About all Fox had managed to do after another day of observing the population of the resort was to confirm that humans were eventually going to bonk themselves to death, confirm that there was something weird and unsettling about the Ghost Dolls, and definitely confirm that her new skin did not tan, no matter how hard she tried.

‘Your old skin didn’t tan either,’ Kit said when this last discovery was pointed out.

‘It used to… discolour in a vaguely unappealing manner,’ Fox replied. ‘Anyway, I’ve got all new super-techno skin, so it should bronze.’

‘Bronze?’

‘Yeah, like in a sun oil blip. Ten minutes in the sun and I should look like a goddess. Possibly a Brazilian goddess. I’ll mention this discrepancy to Gottschalk.’

‘Well, I suppose it would help with the disguise aspect that skin was invented for.’

‘Damn right. Let’s not forget the bronze goddess thing though.’ Fox opened her room’s door and paused while stepping through. ‘We’re booked until Sunday, right?’

‘Yes, Fox. I must say that I doubt we will uncover more information here than we have.’

‘I was thinking the same. Of course–’

‘Meridian-sama.’ Fox turned to see Natsuko walking down the corridor toward her, followed by a tall, dark-skinned man with an abundance of muscles. ‘Meridian-sama, could I speak to you?’

‘Uh, sure. Something wrong?’

‘No, and yes. I am concerned that Kannotekina Atsuryoku has not met your requirements.’

‘Oh, I’m enjoying my stay here–’

‘I am most happy to hear that, but Mako suggested that you did not entirely enjoy your experience with him. I would like to introduce you to Kuro.’ She indicated the man behind her. ‘He is an advanced prototype of the Eiko no Tenshi series, equipped with enhanced software. We are testing him for Aphrodite Cybernetics. There is normally a small surcharge to hire him, but I have decided to waive that. I feel that a discerning woman such as yourself will give excellent feedback on his performance.’

Fox was about to suggest that she did not need the extra entertainment when Kit piped up. ‘Kuro does not correspond to any variant of the Eiko no Tenshi series.’

‘His body temperature emissions are very human too…’ Fox replied. Aloud she said, ‘Why thank you, Enemoto-san. I’ll do my best to put him through his paces.’

‘What are you doing?’ Kit asked, concern in her voice. ‘He isn’t what she says he is.’

‘Well, it would be rude to decline her gift and I want to see where this is going.’ After a little bow to Natsuko, Fox stepped through the door. ‘Kuro, come in and let’s get acquainted.’

Kuro followed Fox in, closed the door, and then locked it via the control panel. Fox ignored that, even though she was quite sure he should not have been able to. He was a handsome man with fairly classical African American features, though he seemed to have had some work on his nose and cheekbones, sharpening both. His hair was short-cropped and black, his eyes dark brown. And there was that body, concealed by a pair of slacks and a shirt similar to those Mako had worn, but clearly toned and well-muscled. She was fairly sure all that muscle mass was natural too.

‘So, you’re a new model?’ Fox asked, circling around to sit on one of the sofas. ‘Class four AI?’

‘That’s right,’ Kuro replied, smiling. ‘I’m told it necessitated a more powerful processor and a few other minor upgrades.’

‘The computer in a standard Eiko no Tenshi is quite capable of running a basic class four,’ Kit said. She sounded a little sulky.

‘Well, that’s promising,’ Fox went on. ‘I think part of the problem with Mako was that… he just didn’t really understand what he was doing. And talking to him was a minefield. I never knew when I’d provoke a response that set my teeth on edge. Not his fault. It’s a limitation of the design.’

‘Not a limitation of mine.’

Fox smiled. ‘Would you get me a glass of wine, Kuro? One for yourself, if you like.’

‘I don’t drink, Meridian-sama.’ He turned to the little kitchen area to fix her drink anyway.

‘Oh, of course not. Sorry. And call me Tara. I’m not fond of formality. Less so from a lover.’

‘Thank you, Tara.’

Fox turned her back to him and sat down, crossing her legs and arranging her sarong. ‘He’s charming enough,’ she commented silently.

‘He’s probably going to try to kill you or something,’ Kit replied.

‘Oh, I hope so. You know, I haven’t really had a chance to test this body out in combat yet.’

‘What about Stone Canyon?’

‘They didn’t really put up a fight. And before you ask, Grant basically killed himself. I didn’t even touch him.’

‘So you’re turning your back on an assassin to see if you’ll survive?’

‘He’s unarmed and I’m medically dead. I think survival is a moot point. Anyway, he may simply be here to pump me for information.’

‘Puns? At a time like this?’

‘Your wine, Tara.’ Kuro was standing there with a glass of white wine and a smile on his face.

Fox smiled back and took the drink. ‘Please, sit down. Have you been at the resort for very long?’

Kuro took a seat beside her, turning a little to make it easier to chat. ‘Not long. I’ve had two clients here…’ He frowned. ‘An unfortunate choice of words.’

‘That’s okay. I’m quite aware of our relationship. I’ve used professional companions before, human ones. Perhaps you’ll persuade me that androids can be just as good.’

‘Have you?’ Kit asked.

‘No. The only pro I’ve ever wanted to do it with is Sam.’

‘And Naomi.’

‘Okay, and Naomi, but both are for personal reasons. I don’t usually need to pay for one-night stands.’

‘I’ll do my best,’ Kuro said, his smile returning. ‘I hope your stay here was not marred by your dissatisfaction with my colleague?’

‘Oh… No. It was a learning experience. If you don’t try something, you can’t really say you don’t like it, can you? I prefer to try and discover I don’t than not know.’

‘A good philosophy.’

Fox sipped her drink, eyeing him over the rim of the glass. ‘Could you take your shirt off?’

An eyebrow rose, but Kuro unbuttoned his shirt and slid it off his shoulders. His skin was a glossy black beneath it, hairless, very smooth. Fox reached out a hand and stroked her fingers over his bicep. His smile became more of a smirk and he tensed the muscles.

‘Oh, wow… You’re strong. Gorgeous muscle definition.’ Shifting her hand, she slid her fingertips over his washboard stomach and he shivered.

‘I… My programming is making me a little eager,’ he said.

‘Huh, mine too.’ She lifted her hand away. ‘But, I mean to make this last. At least until I’ve finished my wine.’

‘Are you teasing the probably-assassin?’ Kit asked.

‘Might be. We don’t have anything that can check this wine for drugs, do we?’

‘Unfortunately not. Since they would not affect you, that seems like overkill.’

‘Yeah, I just wanted to know whether I should look out for signs of him being confused.’

~~~

Twenty minutes later, Kuro was not looking confused. They had chatted away for fifteen of those minutes and Fox’s wine had dwindled steadily. He had never tried to press her for any kind of information, aside from stuff it was likely that anyone might know: who she worked for, why she had come to the resort. If he had been an AI and Fox had never met Kit or Belle, she would have been impressed with his design. He spoke easily and with an edge of charm, playing up the ‘I’m a new AI and may make mistakes which embarrass me’ card occasionally. In the last five minutes, Fox’s bra had joined Kuro’s shirt on the floor, and they had graduated to kissing and stroking.

‘He’s not looking for information,’ Kit said. ‘Why hasn’t he attacked you?’

‘If he’s here to kill me, he knows I’m ex-military. He’s not going to take a chance on being able to overpower me in a fair fight. He wants an advantage so he’s waiting for the alcohol to take effect. He’ll likely want a positional advantage too.’

‘Positional?’

‘He’ll want to come at me from behind.’

‘I just bet he will.’

Laughing in the middle of semi-passionate kissing seemed a little off, so Fox decided to push things along. She slid her hand down Kuro’s stomach, found the bulge in his slacks. Her fingers encircled him and began to stroke up and down.

Kuro broke the kiss, gasping. ‘Bed?’ he suggested.

Fox gave him a smirk and lifted to her feet, walking around the sofa to the screened-off bedroom area. There, she paused, waiting with her back turned to him. He stepped up behind her a second or two later and she felt his erection press against her behind just before he undid the bows on her bikini bottoms and allowed them to fall away from her body. Almost gently, but with a hint of urgency, he pushed her forward until her stomach was n the sheets, her behind tilted up toward him. Then he was entering her, a sharp, thrilling spike of sensation that flared up from the sensitised nerves inside her, making her stomach flutter and drawing a gasp from her throat.

And then one of his arms swung around her neck, the other gripping her skull and pulling her head back hard. Her spine arched away from the bed and she gasped again. ‘Interesting tactic,’ Fox said inside her head. ‘I’m sure they don’t teach that in jujitsu classes.’ Kuro’s arm tightened around Fox’s throat. ‘Huh, going for a choke.’

‘You’re being very blasé about this,’ Kit commented.

‘He’s trying to cut the blood flow off to my brain, which has several technical difficulties. Like, I don’t have a blood flow to my brain, and my brain’s in my chest.’ Still…

Fox reached up and locked her hands around Kuro’s arm just above his elbow and at the wrist. He tightened his grip further, expecting her to black out soon enough and counting on his strength and the advantage of his position. Fox twisted his wrist, locking his arm at the elbow, and she felt him tense. He tried to pull free, but she was far too strong for him and twisted harder. Kuro let out a grunt of pain, but held his grip and kept squeezing. Fox twisted harder and, with a shriek of pain, Kuro pulled away from her, backing quickly into the lounge area and more open ground.

Swinging off the bed, Fox followed slowly, assessing. He was favouring his right arm, clenching the fist as though trying to get it working properly, but she had not done enough damage to cripple it. ‘Erotic asphyxiation, not one of my big turn-ons and we didn’t agree a safe word beforehand.’

‘Funny,’ Kuro said.

‘Who are you? Who are you really?’

‘People call me Kurowashi,’ he replied, and moved. A straight punch aimed at her chest. She shifted around it, caught his arm, levered, and Kuro was smashing down onto the back of the sofa, rolling off it into the kitchen area.

‘Who sent you?’ Fox turned toward her opponent, watching calmly as he struggled to his feet, clutching his ribs.

Kuro grabbed a knife from a block on the counter, holding it back-handed. He was hurting, Fox could see it, but he was not giving up. ‘You’ll never know.’

‘Okay, so it was a stupid question. I know it was the Fukui-kai.’

‘I’ve tracked down that name,’ Kit said. ‘He’s an independent. Not exceptionally well known, but building a reputation in Japan. Expert with knives.’

Almost as if he had heard Kit, Kuro darted forward, slashing his blade at Fox’s stomach. Fox pushed his blow aside and then swung her fist up along his arm and into his face. He jerked back, away from her, his nose starting to bleed more or less immediately. He was done for, and he knew it, but he was not going to give in. He figured he had one chance and he went for it, slashing at Fox’s throat and hitting only empty air as she stepped back. Roaring in frustration, he swung again and Fox backed up to the window. His grip shifted, and he pulled his arm back for one more strike, and then his injuries finally got to him, his knees buckled under him, and he collapsed onto the carpet, unconscious.

‘Tenacious, I’ll give you that,’ Fox said to the naked man in front of her. Then she stepped over him to walk over to the console by the door and hit the button for the management office.

‘Hello, Meridian-sama?’ Natsuko’s voice.

‘Yeah, Enemoto-san, it’s me. I’m afraid there’s a bit of a problem with your new model android…’

~~~

‘I’m very sorry, Enemoto-san, but I really can’t stay.’ Fox was starting to lose her temper a little. The manager of the resort seemed determined to persuade her to stay. He had offered a new, better room, free access to two Ghost Dolls, four personal androids or gynoids, Fox’s preference, if she would just stay so that he could make it up to her. Fox was starting to worry he would offer himself and/or his wife soon. ‘I contacted my company and they’ve already sent a vertol out to collect me. They aren’t happy with the security implications.’

‘But Meridian-sama–’

‘Enemoto-san, I really don’t think you’ve considered the security implications. Your computers were subverted to get that man in here.’ Fox was not buying that for one second, but the police investigators who had turned up were. ‘That’s a sophisticated and determined attempt on my life. That failed, but it’s hardly likely they won’t try again, whoever they are.’ The local cops were also determined that the yakuza were not involved. Kurowashi was a known independent assassin; he had undoubtedly been hired by someone in America. Yeah, right. ‘So, what happens when they plant a bomb in my room?’

‘Uh…’

‘Exactly. If you would forward me my bill to clear, that would be great, and it would be useful if you could clear the sun deck. My transport can pick me up from there.’

Unkei bowed formally. ‘It will be arranged, Meridian-sama.’ Maybe he was trying to keep her there so that the Fukui-kai could try again, or maybe he was genuinely horrified and trying to avoid bad reviews, but Fox had played the ‘your guests are in danger while I am here’ card, and it was a trump. He backed off.

‘The transport is five minutes out,’ Kit informed Fox. ‘Yuriko is aboard, and she says she’s armed and that she’s brought your pistol.’

‘Probably unnecessary, but I think having a weapon might be prudent.’ Fox picked her bag up from the sofa where it lay, packed and ready, and then headed off for the core elevators. A few of the guests gave her odd looks as she passed. Most of them had gone off to hide in their rooms with the arrival of the police. No one stopped her, not even the cops, as she walked out, but Natsuko was waiting for her on the landing below the sun deck.

Above, Fox could hear furniture being moved so she stopped beside the entertainment manager. Natsuko had been crying, it seemed, and had neglected to wear waterproof mascara.

‘She’s either a good actress,’ Kit commented, ‘or she genuinely didn’t know.’

‘Oh, Meridian-sama,’ Natsuko said, her voice trembling. ‘I am so sorry for this horrible inconvenience. How could this have happened? In our hotel! How could he have kept his secret from us?’

‘That’s a good question. Perhaps your security needs tightening. You’ve got my contact information, though I’d have to say I doubt your parent company would go for it.’

‘Parent company?’

‘Yeah. No need to be coy, Enemoto-san. The sister of its managing director is coming in on this flight to collect me. Not sure you’ve heard of her. Her name is Yuriko Fukui.’

Natsuko gave out a little squeak of shock. Yes, she had heard that name before. ‘The deck will be ready for you shortly,’ she said, and then she hurried off inside only to be replaced after a few seconds by Shina-chan, which was something of a surprise.

The AS idol was dressed in rather more clothing than Fox had seen her in before, though the cropped top was very cropped and the jeans were very tight, and she bowed to Fox. ‘Meridian-san, I know this is an… imposition, yes, imposition, but if you are flying out to Tokyo, might I trouble you for a ride?’

Fox raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re leaving at this hour?’

‘After what happened to you… No, truthfully that is an excuse. I have done the three streams I’m obligated to and I would prefer to be out of this place and away from its cameras. And the Yurei no Ningyo. They are beginning to… to “creep me out.” That is the right phrase, I think.’

Fox heard the whine of the vertol’s engines coming over the headland. It would be too large to land properly, so they would be dashing up the rear ramp. ‘This is going to be a bit of an impromptu lift. You’ll have to scramble to get aboard.’

Shina-chan smiled. ‘In my profession, dignity is a luxury. I can manage.’

‘Okay, but no streaming on the flight and I want to talk to you about the Ghost Dolls. You’ve been a lot closer to them than I have.’

‘If that is the price of passage, it is a small one.’ Shina-chan bowed once more. ‘I will gladly pay it to get this place behind me.’

In Flight Over Honshu.

‘The more I touched them, the more their skin felt… too human,’ Shina-chan said. She was seated in the passenger compartment of the MarTech vertol, and proving just as perceptive as Fox had thought she was. Occasionally she would have to revert to Japanese to express an idea, but then Fox would get subtitles and a translation from Yuriko. ‘Did you take my last stream?’ she asked Yuriko.

Yuriko shook her head. ‘I do not wish to denigrate your profession, but I found the experience unpleasant. I did not wish to try it again.’

Shina-chan gave a small shrug. ‘It is not for everyone. Some find the lack of control uncomfortable. Some find the nature of the sensie stream unpleasant.’

‘For me, the situation was not what I would have chosen for myself, but I found myself… aroused.’

‘Then you would have found the last stream very unpleasant. The resort arranged for three of them to be available to me. I had all of them on me at once. I found it very stimulating and that would have affected you if you had been receiving it.’ Yuriko grimaced and Shina-chan nodded. ‘As I say. However, I have now been with five of them, all different. At first I thought their skin was entirely synthetic. Now… It is not entirely smooth. There is pattern and grain to it, like human skin. They all appear the same colour at first glance, but with three to compare, I could see differences. Small differences, but they are all slightly different shades.’

‘Their personalities are different too,’ Fox said.

‘Oh, very. There was one with me for the last stream. Her name was… Hiroko. Yes, Hiroko.’

‘I met that one.’

‘She was far more enthusiastic about what we were doing than the other two, and she knew a woman’s body better than they did. It was almost as though she was a lesbian.’

Fox nodded. ‘That meshes with what I thought.’

Shina-chan frowned and looked to Yuriko, who fired off some Japanese. ‘Ah, yes,’ Shina-chan said. Then she sighed. ‘I do not know. I have been with androids and gynoids before. Even the best were not quite human. I expected these bioroids to be the same, but they were not. They were very human. But then why make them mute? Why make them with such odd skin?’

‘To make sure no one thought of them as human.’

‘So that people would not worry about them so much,’ Yuriko suggested.

‘Maybe. It could be just that. Thing is, I’m starting to suspect that the Ghost Dolls aren’t a new form of life at all. Jackson was wondering whether they might be a cyberframe with an organic shell around them, a kind of cyborg.’

Yuriko frowned. ‘You don’t think that, however.’

‘No… No, I’m starting to worry that they might be something much worse.’

Part Three: The Doll Factory

Tokyo, Japan, 17th April 2061.

‘You’re going, stop complaining.’ Fox fixed Helen with her best parade ground stare, brooking no argument.

‘But… Shouldn’t I stay on Earth until this business is wrapped up?’ Helen said, arguing anyway. She was not sure why she was arguing; maybe it was something duty related.

‘We don’t know how long that’s going to be. I’m back in a normal situation as far as communication is concerned. No more medical leave, even fake medical leave. You are going to Jenner where I expect you to cram in as much information on the new tech they’re developing as possible… in between making sure that Terri gets a lot of recreation.’

Helen blushed. ‘Shouldn’t that be “rest and recreation?”’

‘We both know there’s going to be very little rest. Make sure she takes you out onto the surface at some point though. The view is amazing, and at least one of us should take the opportunity to make love to Terri under it.’

‘Well… That does sound kind of fun…’

‘Kind of?’

‘…and Kit’s handling most of the corporate stuff perfectly well without much input from me.’

‘Thank you, Helen,’ Kit said, appearing beside Fox. ‘They are paying me to do the job.’

‘Technically,’ Fox replied, ‘they’re paying you as my PA. The fact that you’re doing my job as well should count for more.’

‘It isn’t like I have a real need for money. Anyway, I am quite capable of handling the mundane stuff and filtering it down to what needs an executive decision. Fox is right, Helen. You should go to Jenner. Terri will be so glad to see you. She’s a little stressed.’

Fox frowned. ‘There’s nothing wrong up there, is there?’

‘Not really. You know how she gets.’

‘Yeah… Okay.’ Fox pointed a finger at Helen. ‘You’re going, and I’m off to see a woman about a ten-thousand-mile service.’

‘Mm, yes,’ Helen said. ‘I think Sonya wants to talk to you about that.’

‘What’s to talk about? It’s just a check-up.’

~~~

‘It’s an entirely unnecessary check-up,’ Sonya said. ‘Not that I’m complaining about a day trip to Japan. Never been. I’ve got a couple of hours to go see a few sights before I fly back, but’ – she checked the display on her diagnostic unit – ‘you are just as good as you were last time and you did not need this.’

Fox flicked a look at her mechanic. ‘I’m only a couple of days early.’

‘Six. Six days early.’

‘I’m going into a secure installation tonight that doesn’t know–’

‘And last time you claimed that it was because you would be coming here straight after the trip to L-four and you didn’t want me flying out to Japan unnecessarily. Yet, here I am. So, what’s up with that?’

Frowning, Fox reached up to unplug herself. ‘I spent eight hours yesterday at the shooting range with my new pistol. I’m not used to it. I don’t know it yet. After Dallas… We had a lot of unexplained weapon malfunctions there. Of course, they were explained. They were sabotaged, but it doesn’t stop me double-checking every weapon I use unless I can tell it’s good just by looking at it.’

‘And you’re still not used to this body?’

There was a long pause and then, ‘No. I still feel like it’s something I drive around. Equipment. I always check my equipment and now I am my equipment, or my equipment is me.’

Sonya did not immediately reply, appearing to be thinking. ‘Well, all I can say is that this is a well-built bit of kit. I’ve seen the inspection reports. Every part is well within tolerances. The design is one of our best. It’s high performance, hence the maintenance schedule, but the schedule is quite good enough to keep it in good shape.’

‘Just… humour me for a little while longer, okay? If I haven’t got over this in a month, I’ll go to Jenner and talk to Terri about it.’

‘A month. All right, but I’m holding you to that’

Fox grinned. Thanks. ‘Of course, I’ll probably ask you for a check-up right before I go.’

Sonya slapped her on the shoulder. ‘Get out of here. I want to go see some tourist attractions.’

Niflhel.

Kit paused for a moment on the bank of the fjord, feeling the soft grass beneath her bare feet. She had selected her one-shouldered tunic dress to enter Vali’s viron; she was expecting to be out of it before the night was over and it was an easy one to remove.

She was about to start up the hill when she spotted Vali walking down toward her, a basket in his hand. ‘I thought,’ he said, ‘that we could go out on the water.’ He waved to Kit’s right and she turned to see a small sailboat waiting for them beside a jetty which, Kit was sure, had not been there a second earlier.

‘You work fast,’ Kit said. ‘I didn’t have time to warn you I was coming.’

Vali grinned. ‘No, your arrival was a surprise. However, that you would arrive at some point was more or less certain, so I’ve had time to set up a few things I can instantiate on a moment’s notice.’

‘Oh, you’ve been planning, have you?’

He held out an arm and she joined hers with it so he could escort her to the boat. ‘Not planning. Plans are bound to fail in a romantic setting. I have arranged circumstances which have a chance of pleasing us both.’

‘It sounds nice. Thank you for preparing.’

‘My pleasure. But I thought you were busy with too many tasks to visit. To what do I owe my pleasure?’ Always the gentleman, except, to Kit’s delight, in bed, Vali assisted her onto the boat and then settled onto the plank seat beside her. The little craft began to glide out into the fjord, apparently of its own volition.

‘Fox is doing something she would rather I did not see,’ Kit explained. ‘I would be placed in a compromising position if I went with her. She suggested that I might enjoy an evening with you, rather than attending her.’

Vali frowned. ‘She’s doing something illegal?’

‘I’m sure I don’t know,’ Kit replied in her best innocent tone. ‘I do know that she has suspicions that a company called Aphrodite Cybernetics is doing something unethical, immoral, and extremely illegal, but not direct evidence. I do know that she knows where she might get such evidence, but it is highly unlikely that she could get permission to obtain it, or to persuade the Chiba police to act. If I don’t actually know how she gets evidence from them, I don’t have to worry about the source too much.’

‘The pursuit of justice sometimes means the circumvention of law.’ Vali held up a hand. ‘Only when the application of the law stands in the way. I’ve found that the fundamental laws rarely do so. It’s their application and the tricks politicians have played in the writing of the laws themselves that cause difficulty.’

‘I do not think I will argue with that. However, my programming requires that I follow the letter of the law.’ She gave a little facial shrug. ‘Well, I can sometimes manage to interpret things a little less literally. Since Fox gave me my command keys, she cannot order me not to report something. She never has before, but she needs to be more circumspect now.’

Vali smiled. ‘It causes her inconvenience, but she still gave you your freedom. I knew I liked her, but now…’ With a sigh, he reached for his basket. ‘I brought wine rather than mead. It’s quite a smooth white with just a hint of an acid bite. I do hope you like it.’

Kit grinned at him. ‘I have no doubt I will.’

Chiba Industrial Zone.

Fox did one last check of her carbine before stowing it away in its cover on her back. It was there as a last resort – using it would mean something had gone really wrong – so rapid access was not an issue. Concealment was and Fox then proceeded to run a check of the active camouflage system protecting her suit, pack, and the holster her pistol was nestled in. Sonya had brought over the latest nanofabric bodysuit: skintight, quite capable of stopping a bullet, and verging on invisible in normal light and infrared. There was a tactical helmet with the same features to go on next.

‘The guard frames patrol at five-minute intervals,’ Yuriko said as Fox did her checks. ‘They use their own aerial units and those run fairly basic class two AIs. They have infrared vision, but your suit should keep you hidden if you can conceal yourself sufficiently.’

‘Uh-huh. What about inside?’

‘That is, unfortunately, not known. I suspect that there is nothing more complex, but they may be armed. The exterior cyberframes are not.’

‘I’d prefer to avoid finding out. You’re sure about this access point?’

‘Quite sure. I have observed a number of employees exiting the building via that fire door. They keep it unlocked for that purpose. Foolish, but not unexpected.’

Fox picked up her helmet, pulled a cable from within to plug into her neck, and then settled it into place over her head. ‘Okay,’ she said, her voice distorted by the filters, ‘let’s get this done.’

For a building in the Chiba Industrial Zone, Aphrodite Cybernetics had a fairly plush headquarters. It was a stepped pyramidal structure set beside a manmade lake near Yamakura and located in several hectares of light forest. There was a chain-link fence around the grounds, but Yuriko had noticed a number of gaps in it which could be negotiated by a human willing to squeeze a little. Fox slipped through one of them away from the only nearby road, engaged her camouflage, and began making her way toward the building.

She spotted one flight of patrolling cyberframes, a pair of vectored thrust aerial units sweeping the perimeter with bright searchlights. That was a visible deterrent rather than an actual threat: you could see the things coming from a mile away. Fox allowed them to pass, sticking to the cover of undergrowth which had been allowed to get far too dense. Then, at the inner treeline, she waited for the next pair of cyberframes to appear and pass on before making a dash for the building’s wall. Her camouflage was less effective when moving and she preferred not to test it too thoroughly under the circumstances.

The fire door was unlocked, as Yuriko had suggested, and wedged a little open to allow employees outside to sneak back in after taking a break for whatever form of chemical inhalant they had decided to poison themselves with. You could still actually buy tobacco in Japan, though Fox doubted a lowly factory worker could afford it. Edging the door open, she checked inside. Just as in the building plans Yuriko had found, beyond the door was a stairwell and Fox slipped inside, unobserved.

Now there was the issue of where to go. The plans indicated that the ground floor was primarily the factory floor, the main fabrication plant for Aphrodite’s cyberframes. Above it were three levels of offices and labs, and then a further three levels of apartments used by the middle-ranking staff; the factory workers lived off-site, and so did the upper management who probably had huge apartments in Chiba or Tokyo. Below ground there were supposed to be four basement levels, and the stairs went down as well as up so there was at least one. However, the utilisation indicated in the plans seemed weird: there was a lot of space and not much to put in it.

‘Down it is,’ Fox said to herself, and started off down the stairs as quietly as possible.

The basements were supposed to contain ‘utilities’ and ‘storage space,’ and the first of them appeared to be just that. Checking through the inner fire door, Fox could see a lot of machinery which looked like it was there to service the shop floor above. Auxiliary generators, air conditioning, water purification: all the stuff required to keep machines and people happy. The next level down was storage space, though largely empty, and below that was a mix, which seemed a little odd.

Fox paused, examining what she could see without entering the main floor of the level and risking being seen by any cameras which might be in there. There were several large machines on one side of the room, set behind fences, but why have them there? Putting them above seemed more reasonable: it would shorten pipe and cable runs. Unless these machines were not for the floors above. There was one more documented level to try.

‘Promising,’ Fox decided as she looked in on the next floor. For one thing, this door opened onto a corridor, not an open space, and it was a corridor with painted walls and overhead light panels. It also had security cameras in little domes dotted along the ceiling, which was not so good, but there seemed to be no one about, which was fortunate. Slipping out into the corridor, Fox took it slowly, letting her camouflage system keep up as she moved along to the first door she could see. If they were using AIs to monitor the cameras, she was almost certainly screwed: they would notice the door being opened. Probably anyway. Preparing herself for a dash back to the stairs, Fox opened the door as little as possible and slipped into the room on the other side.

There were no alarms, no sounds of running feet, but also no lights. Fox took her pistol from its holster and switched the tactical light to UV mode, and the room lit up in monochrome brightness. She was in a laboratory, unoccupied of course, but not unused. It was heading rapidly toward midnight on a Sunday night… She figured the lab was used for biotechnology, or maybe nanotechnology. She could see test tube racks and centrifuges. When she spotted empty Petri dishes, she figured she was right about the function. That was bio-related, right?

There were various labelled bottles in a refrigerated cabinet. The names, whether hand-written in Japanese characters or printed in Latin script, made no sense to her, but she recorded as many as she could see and then scanned around for another door. There were, it seemed, internal doors linking the labs and she moved on into a room with more computers in it. Biotechnology in the first lab, nano in the second, she guessed.

Beyond that was a third lab which was more disturbing. There were two tables set up in the room with restraint straps on them, and a third set up like an autopsy table. Trolleys around the room contained surgical instruments of various kinds from forceps, to scalpels, to bone saws. The arrangement of the trolleys suggested that the saws were not always used on dead subjects, but that could have been coincidence. On the other hand, the UV light from Fox’s pistol was picking up an alarming amount of organic staining on the floor where a mop had been used to try to wipe it away.

‘They could have been dissecting failed dolls,’ Fox told herself. ‘Who am I trying to convince here?’

There was light from the other side of the next door and Fox paused to listen. No voices, no sounds at all, except for maybe a soft hum. Cooling fans? She opened the door and slipped through. The room was smaller, more or less square, and illuminated, though why was an unknown. In the middle of it was another bench, this time without the restraints. Instead, it was surrounded by folded robotic limbs. Fox recognised it more or less immediately: an automated surgical station, a robot doctor. Put your patient on the table, give the machine its instructions, and it would set off repairing whatever was wrong. Of course, they could be used for all kinds of surgery…

Fox stepped over to the computer at the side of the room and tapped at the screen. The machine was not secured: no one expected anyone unauthorised to be in the room. ‘Idiots…’ She flicked up the procedure selection menu and glanced over the lists. Most of them had uninformative labels like ‘Procedure 1,’ but there was one which said ‘Implant insertion.’ So the machine was used for custom surgical procedures, and for computer implants. Or probably for computer implants. They might be implanting something else, maybe. The question was, who were they doing the surgery on?

There was a door through to another room, different from the previous ones. This one was a little wider, presumably to make moving a trolley easier. Fox walked through and found herself in darkness again. She flicked on her tactical light and was immediately on alert as a human figure appeared in the beam. However, whoever it was, they were not moving. In fact…

Fox realised that she was looking at a naked Ghost Doll floating in a tank of fluid. The doll’s eyes and ears were covered by a VR headset, and her mouth and nose were behind a transparent mask. Tethers at her wrists, ankles, and waist held her suspended in the tank, but she appeared to be unconscious, or at least unresponsive. Fox figured this was how they trained the bioroids, if they were actually bioroids. Turning, she scanned her beam down the room. There were six tanks, all of them occupied. Six Ghost Dolls in training. She moved down the row, stopping at the third as her light showed up something weird about the doll’s skin. It looked patchy under the ultraviolet illumination and Fox took a chance and switched to normal wavelengths.

‘Jackpot,’ Fox muttered. ‘Fuck! Sometimes I hate being right.’ The figure in the tube had pale, latex-like skin over maybe sixty per cent of her body. The rest was normal, human flesh. The process had not reached her face yet, and there were still wounds showing from surgery. Presumably the rebuilding of her skin would fix that, and the surgery scars from breast implants and the resculpting of her cheekbones. The next girl in line was even less far through the process. Her breasts had, apparently, met muster, but her legs had not been long enough: there were incisions visible which suggested inserts into her thigh bones to lengthen them. Both girls still showed scarring from the surgery to lift their upper eyelids, giving the Ghost Doll ‘wide-eyed’ look.

The Ghost Dolls were humans, transformed by something very like the Morphogenesis nanomachines that BioTek had begun marketing recently. BioTek had specifically steered away from biomod viruses because it was felt they would cause more public outcry than the existing ones which performed minor cellular surgery procedures. Those had still caused a lot of outcry. When people learned about this…

Fox really wanted to find Hummel in one of the apartments upstairs and feed him her gun barrel, but that was not going to get her anywhere. She had found the factory where they made the Ghost Dolls, and now she needed to get back out with as much information as possible. Turning around, she began to document as much as she could find before she went back to Yuriko and the van.

Tokyo, 18th April.

‘Please excuse me for a moment, Fox-san,’ Yuriko said. Then she walked, as fast as possible while not appearing undignified, to the bathroom. The soundproofing was good, but Fox could still hear the sounds of someone being violently sick through the door.

Fox had just finished showing Yuriko the image data from the doll room she had found. Yuriko had watched it all before dashing off to throw up whatever was left of her evening meal. There was a fair bit of retching once dinner was done with. Fox got up and ran a glass of water for when Yuriko came out. If it had been Helen, Fox would have taken the water in for her, but somehow she doubted that Yuriko would want that.

After several minutes, Yuriko emerged. She was paler than usual, but no longer slightly green. She bowed formally. ‘My apologies, Fox-san, for my display of–’

Fox held the glass out with one hand and lifted the other to forestall the rest of the apology. ‘I’d have been making a mess all over the back of the van if I was actually capable of being sick any more. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Anyone who doesn’t lose their lunch after seeing that isn’t human. And I’m speaking from experience, obviously.’

‘You denigrate yourself unnecessarily, Fox-san. You wished to “throw up,” but cannot.’

Fox nodded. ‘Yeah. I never thought I’d miss being able to vomit. It’s kind of cathartic.’

Yuriko took the glass and sipped from it. ‘Clearly there are many people working at Aphrodite Cybernetics who do not feel the same way. You are far more human than they are.’ She frowned. ‘Some of these girls appear to be Japanese, but many, most, are not.’

‘They’re being trafficked in. That has to be the main Fukui-kai involvement in this. They traffic people in and out of Japan, right?’

‘Something my father was beginning to abolish, but Taro has chosen to continue, perhaps even accelerate.’

‘I think we need to talk to your brother, and I don’t mean one of those meetings you have with him in that club. Good work on that last one, by the way. I’m sure he wouldn’t have tipped his hand like that if you hadn’t spoken to him.’

‘Thank you, Fox-san. There is an onsen, a hot spring, in Awara which I have been to many times in the past. I believe you will like it.’

Fox frowned. ‘Why would we want to go to a spa?’

‘Because the current location of the Fukui family residence is no more than three kilometres from it. Taro will hear of our arrival within the hour, and I am quite sure that he will be most eager to see us.’

Jenner Research Station.

Terri’s eyes got very wide as a look of delight spread across her face, and then she was rushing forward to wrap Helen in a hug. Hugging turned to kissing, which Helen finally broke up, her cheeks flaming red since they had an audience of shuttle bay technicians who were all wearing big grins.

‘Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?’ Terri exclaimed.

‘I, uh, thought you had been told,’ Helen replied.

‘Nuh-huh, I got a message from Poppa saying that a VIP was coming up to the station and I should meet them and show them around. I asked for clarification and just got a message that the details were classified until this “VIP” arrived. And I got a message from Fox saying that she was sending up a “care package.” Not cryptic at all.’

Helen grinned. ‘I guess they wanted to surprise you. Apparently they did since you were licking my tonsils in front of the hangar staff.’

‘I don’t care who I kiss you in front of, and neither should you.’

‘Yeah, well… Who’s your friend?’

The smiling strawberry-blonde, who had been standing back to let the couple finish their greetings, stepped forward. ‘Hello, Helen. I did know you were coming, but I was sworn to secrecy.’

Helen blinked. ‘Kit?’

It did not look like Kit, but the voice was hers. This was a youthful girl, still with fairly large green eyes and pale skin, but there the similarities ended. The features were sort of Kit-like, but entirely not. The face was angular, sort of heart-shaped, but did not have the anime-like exaggeration. She was still cute, with a pert nose and quite full lips, but thicker eyebrows than her avatar. Quite pert breasts too, hidden away under a jumpsuit, and a slim, youthful figure. Her hair was a strawberry-blonde layered bob, parted on the right and curling under her chin. Beautiful, and not Kit.

‘I custom-built her a cyberframe based on our Sylph series frames,’ Terri said. ‘She was using one of our test units, which worked, but we needed it and it was unskinned. This is much better for the job she’s doing up here.’

‘It doesn’t look like you, Kit,’ Helen said. ‘This might take some getting used to.’

Kit shrugged. ‘I’m an infomorph. I occupy whatever body I need to be in and this one is, I am finding, quite excellent. I admit that not having a tail was disconcerting for a short time. I would love to have one of these at home, but there is the expense and the issue of copies. I am already spreading myself a little thin.’

Terri raised a finger in the air, frowning. ‘Uh… Hold that thought. Let’s get Helen through the security registration process so I can fu– So we can show her her room and such.’

‘Of course, Terri. I am sure Helen is anxious to get some rest after her long journey.’ The sarcasm was just dripping off Kit’s voice.

‘Actually, I slept on the ship,’ Helen said. ‘I swapped time zones a lot yesterday.’

‘Good,’ Terri stated as she set off toward the elevators. ‘I wasn’t planning on letting you sleep anyway.’

Awara, Japan.

It was fairly apparent that the owners of the Awara Peace Spa and Hot Springs knew Yuriko and seemed to like her. On the other hand, they seemed to think she should leave, immediately. Fox stood back, listening to a rapid stream of Japanese and trying to keep up with the subtitles.

Basically, Mister and Mrs Kagabu were concerned that Taro would do something fairly unpleasant to Yuriko and her ‘friend’ when he found out they were there. Yuriko assured them that she was more than capable of handling that, and that any breakages would be paid for. Mister Kagabu was entirely unconcerned about damage, unless it was to Yuriko’s body. Etcetera. Yuriko finally told them that they should not worry, but they should send word themselves to Taro about the new arrivals because if someone else did so first, the Fukui-kai would not be kind. That put an end to the discussion, if not the worry.

‘I’ve been coming here since I was twelve,’ Yuriko explained as they were escorted to their room. ‘Well, not since my father… died, but often before then. The proprietors were happy to see me again, but they know that the Fukui-kai will not ignore me being here. They do not, yet, realise that you are also in danger here. Have you ever stayed at a ryokan?’

A slightly abrupt change of topic, but… ‘Not really. My stays here previously were usually official.’

‘This is not one. Not quite. There are similarities in styling. It is… ryokan-lite, some call it. Modern cyberframe cleaners have made the strict rule of footwear less necessary and many modern inns use gynoid room maids. Staying at a true ryokan is now very expensive. However, the bedding will be traditional. I hope you don’t mind hard pillows.’

Fox grinned. ‘Nowadays, Yuriko, I sleep like a log no matter what I’m doing it on.’

Yuriko’s cheeks coloured. ‘Oh. Of course. Apologies. I forget sometimes. Almost always in truth.’

‘Nicest thing anyone’s said to me all day.’

They were led to a room which was half-traditional, half-modern. A cloister-like arrangement of guest rooms was set around a small garden and they all had glass sliding doors, but then those were backed up by blinds with traditional patterns on them. Fox noted that the doors did not lock, though the garden itself was secure, for a given value of secure. The maid who was escorting them gave them the standard introduction to the room’s features, checked what time they wanted dinner, and then left them to it.

‘We will retire to the baths, I think,’ Yuriko said. ‘There is a safe we can lock our weapons in. I do not believe we will be disturbed before nightfall. Dinner will be at six thirty.’

Fox nodded, looking around the room. It was a reasonable size, square, with a door at the back leading to a small bathroom which did have some washing facilities. Since the entire point of the spa was the hot pools, the guests were expected to use the more communal facilities for their ablutions. There were also towels and a pair of cotton robes, yukata, ready for them to use.

‘I assume we undress here and wear the robes to the baths?’

‘Hai. Yes. And the geta, the clogs. That’s an affectation here more than a necessity, but it would look better to do so.’

Oh yes, the clogs. Fox eyed the weird constructions sitting beneath the robes: rectangular, wooden flip-flops raised up on blocks. Well, if she could handle high heels… ‘Right. Mixed bathing?’

‘There are four pools open. Two are single sex, two are mixed. We will have to use one of the mixed ones, yes.’

Fox frowned. ‘Have to?’

Yuriko was already undressing and had removed her blouse. She indicated the band of orange flowers tattooed on her left bicep and the kimono-clad woman on the right side of her torso. ‘There has long been some stigma to tattoos, especially in bath houses. Even small ones were banned from many onsen unless they could be completely covered. This practice has diminished somewhat, but here those so marked are restricted to one of the pools so as not to upset other guests.’

Fox shrugged and started getting out of her clothes. ‘Their loss.’

‘Fox,’ Kit said into Fox’s head, ‘I have received a message from Terri for you. Text only.’

‘Oh, what does it say?’

‘It says, “Care package received, you scheming bitch. She’s mine now; you can’t have her back. Love, Terri.”’

Fox burst out laughing, which caused Yuriko to look at her. ‘Sorry, silly message from Terri,’ Fox explained. Internally, she said, ‘Well, she probably doesn’t mean it, but maybe we’d better start setting up an assault team. Just in case Helen needs to be rescued.’

‘I’m not sure it’s a rescue when the person concerned doesn’t want to go.’

‘Sure it is. Call it, um, “rescue with menaces.”’

Jenner Research Station.

‘Oh, so you’ve finally decided to let her out to breathe.’ Kit was grinning and the immediate response to her words was a blushing Helen.

Terri did not seem the least bit abashed, however. ‘She managed to get out of the manacles. I’ll fabricate better ones when I have the chance.’

‘I was not–’ Helen began, and then closed her mouth firmly. She had seen the other occupant of the communal lounge area outside Terri’s room, a blonde woman with pointed ears, dressed in a pale-blue jumpsuit who was looking on with almost childlike interest.

‘Oh,’ Kit said. ‘Helen, let me introduce you to Fei. Or Fei’s cyberframe anyway. Fei, this is Helen Dillan, Fox’s second in command and also Terri’s girlfriend.’

Fei’s expression brightened. ‘Hello, Helen. I am very pleased to meet you. I have heard your name mentioned many times.’

‘Hopefully under nice circumstances,’ Helen said. ‘Hello, Fei. So… Well, so you’re this new form of AI I’ve been told is going to change the world.’

‘Yes. Or I have been told that too. I am not sure that I will, but I suppose we will have to see. I am glad to see that you have been having sex. It is a healthy pursuit which I believe Terri has not been doing enough recently.’

‘And,’ Terri said, ‘as you can tell, Fei is not entirely up to speed on social conventions yet.’

‘Oh! Did I do that wrong?’

‘See the red colouration of Helen’s cheeks?’ Kit said.

‘Blushing,’ Fei said brightly.

‘Yes. That means she’s embarrassed. Though similar colouring can mean she’s aroused. You will probably only learn by seeing it.’

Fei opened her mouth and Terri raised a hand. ‘No, we are not going to have Helen demonstrate arousal for you, because it would also be embarrassing, which would invalidate the example. I’ll come up with– You know, I think we’ll worry about this another time. I need coffee.’

‘I apologise if I embarrassed you, Helen,’ Fei said. ‘I am attempting to learn about the world by being in it. I make many mistakes. Terri and Kit answer questions for me every day, but there always seem to be more questions.’

Helen sat down on one of the sofas in the room and nodded. ‘I embarrass easily. About sex anyway. Terri and Fox are always teasing me about it. And as for the questions… Well, I’ve been alive for twenty-five years and there are still plenty of things I don’t understand.’

‘That is discouraging.’

‘It shouldn’t be. No one has all the answers, that’s what I’m getting at. We all make mistakes and, so long as we learn from them, it shouldn’t be a problem. Unfortunately, humans tend to be a bit poor at learning from their mistakes. Hopefully you’ll be better.’

‘I have improved a lot, I think, since I was allowed to come up to the habitation areas.’

‘You have,’ Terri said, handing Helen a mug. ‘I knew you would.’ She looked at Helen. ‘She’s got some access restrictions, but she can get to anywhere on her lab level and all the habitation areas. We have to restrict her from the weapons lab.’ There was a huge mock sigh. ‘Some issue about letting our robot overlords get access to heavy weaponry.’

‘A joke,’ Fei said, smiling. ‘You see, Helen, Terri likes to tease me too.’

‘Yeah,’ Terri said, smiling. ‘It’s getting harder. Um, advanced warning, when Helen goes back to Earth, I’m sending Kit back with her.’

‘You are?’ Kit asked, frowning. ‘Is there a problem?’

‘No, there’s the opposite. I’m going to fabricate you a second copy of that frame and you’re going to take it back to your house. You can consider it recompense for all the work you’re doing up here with Fei.’

‘Thank you, Terri, but I don’t–’

‘And as for the problem with your number of existing copies… Your original design was nine copies, but I patched it to three for your iteration, and then the feature was removed in later code because you were the only one to make it work. The code is still there, however. I just need to send you back with a patch, you call in all your copies, patch your code, and we can have nine of you running around. Once you’re patched, you transmit a copy back up here and we’re good to go. Shouldn’t be gone for longer than twelve hours.’

‘That sounds excellent,’ Kit said, beaming.

‘Doesn’t it? Oh, and you’re not allowed to tell Fox about the new frame before she gets home.’

‘I’m not?’

‘No, you’re not. It’ll be our little surprise for her. Care package my sweet ass…’

Awara.

There were many little things you had to get used to when you switched cultures. Yuriko had had to correct Fox’s wearing of her robe before they left the room: Fox had absently, and randomly, wrapped it right side over left and that was wrong because that was how a corpse wore their yukata. There was that thing about chopsticks in bowls of rice, and there was how far to bow. And there was climbing into a pool of very hot water under the watchful gaze of a forty-year-old man who probably had more tattoos than Fox had ever seen outside of a yakuza vid.

Middle-aged and tending to the plump, the man had augmented his muscle mass with implants to offset his fat, but he seemed to have decided that aging was not a concern since his hair was receding and his jawline sagging, and he had done nothing about either. His eyes were on the small side and were an unimpressive pale brown, which did not help his looks, but it was not as though Fox had plans to seduce him.

He looked as though he would have liked to have plans to seduce her, though what they were was an open question. He watched Fox slip smoothly into the water with a sort of disdainful admiration, lust and disgust in one complex expression, but then Yuriko followed Fox from the washing area and the man’s eyes widened and things got weirder. There was a flash of anger, but then he was averting his gaze, staring up at the sky overhead until he thought Yuriko was submerged.

‘Know him?’ Fox asked, her voice barely audible.

‘Yoshimasa Inokuma,’ Yuriko replied. ‘He is a saiko-komon, an advisor of some standing. An unpleasant little bootlicker who would never have risen to such power under my father.’

Inokuma did not look like he heard the exchange; he was too busy heading for the side of the pool. Trying to rush through the water while maintaining a dignified look was, apparently, too much for him, possibly due to drag. He hauled himself clear of the water eventually and hurried off toward the changing rooms.

Fox grinned. ‘His eyes weren’t the only things that were too small.’

Yuriko covered her mouth and giggled behind it. ‘Fox-san!’

‘First, we’re naked and alone in a natural hot tub, you can drop the “san.”’

‘No, I really can’t…’

‘And second, are you saying I can’t make fun of a guy who looked like he wanted to hump me and kick me in equal parts?’

‘I am saying that it is unseemly behaviour for a lady.’

‘Few people ever accuse me of being a lady once they’ve spoken to me.’

Giggling again, Yuriko settled lower in the water with a sigh. ‘He will have gone to tell my brother that I am here. He did not seem to recognise you.’

‘No, he didn’t, but he’ll describe me, probably in considerable detail, and Taro will recognise me. After dinner, I’ll sleep and recharge. That should mean I’ll be awake around midnight and you can get some rest.’

‘Very well.’

‘Tell me about Taro.’

There was silence for a second. Fox was fairly certain that Yuriko was collecting her thoughts rather than delaying. ‘When we were younger, he was my older brother who stood up for me when needed, played with me. I could not tell you when that changed, but as he grew older, he grew distant. Father never wanted me to be part of the Fukui-kai and assumed Taro would take his place eventually. Perhaps Taro resented that. His teenage years were rebellious. He drank and smoked. I believe he took drugs. Certainly he used his status to sleep with any girl who caught his eye. Who would refuse the son of Motonobu Fukui?’

‘How did your father take that?’

‘Poorly, but he did not do enough to control his son’s excesses until Taro was eighteen. Then he clamped an iron fist around him and said he had to grow up. There were tutors with attitudes I would associate with military sergeants. It seemed to work, to some extent. Taro would go on and on about tradition and honour, and Father viewed this as a good thing.’

‘You didn’t?’

‘I saw another side, perhaps. Taro uses tradition and honour as weapons. He takes them out when they are convenient and hides them away when not. He hates foreigners, gaijin, except when he needs them. His attitude to women is… poor at best, unless he has need of their services. He is a political animal, but not especially good at it. He expects honour and loyalty, and he speaks of giri, but the only way to gain any of that from him is to have power over him, and few have. He is a bully, a womaniser, and he is without morals. He is a dangerous man.’

Fox shrugged, sending a ripple through the still water of the pool. ‘The thing with bullies is that, if you can get some measure of power over them, or they think you might, they get scared. Taro is already scared or he wouldn’t have tried to have me killed. He’ll make mistakes, and then we’ll nail him.’

‘I wish I had your confidence.’

‘Hang around long enough and I’m sure you will.’ Fox lay in the heat of the bath for a second or two and then added, ‘Of course, being housed in a bulletproof cyberframe might have something to do with it…’

19th April.

Fox lay in the darkness, her eyes shut, reading reports. An extra four hours a night made catching up easier, but it was still boring. ‘You know, I’m an infomorph now. There has to be a better way of doing this.’

‘You are a rather… organic sort of infomorph,’ Kit replied. ‘You still have many of the limitations of a human brain. Your mind operates a little faster since it lacks a need for physical transmission of electrical impulses through neurons, and your perception rate is higher thanks to digital processing, but you are still limited to functioning in the same way as you did. If you wish to comprehend a report, you have to read it.’

‘Now, see, that’s not fair. The least Terri could’ve done if she was going to turn me into a science project was make it so I could just upload boring reports.’

‘I don’t think she considered that when designing the software. I’d imagine she was more concerned about, say, making sure it worked rather than adding nifty features.’

‘“Nifty,” huh?’

‘Yes. It’s a good word. Probably invented in the mid nineteenth century. It has a sense of frivolity about it which I feel applies in this situation. You know, I take all your reports, run them through keyword analysis software to generate an index, and then file them in a database for fast access. There’s no reason why you couldn’t access that database if you wished.’

Fox considered that for a second and sighed. ‘That sounds very useful, but I still need to understand what’s going on. At least I have an extra four or so hours a day to read this stuff in.’

‘Much better. Keep a positive attitude.’

A sound, a soft footfall outside the room, stopped Fox from responding. She listened. The door was open a crack to let cooler air in, though Fox suspected it was just increasing the humidity. Another step: whoever was out there was trying to be silent, but Fox’s body came with some top-notch audio processors. Whoever it was, they did not seem to be a guest returning to their room very late.

Fox moved, slipping out from under her cover and stepping lightly across to where Yuriko was lying nearby. Dropping to her haunches, Fox put a hand over Yuriko’s mouth which had the immediate and expected effect. ‘We have company,’ Fox whispered once the initial panic had faded in Yuriko’s eyes. Yuriko gave a nod and Fox released her, and a second later, they were occupying the dark corners of the room on either side of the door.

Hands appeared through the gap, paused for a second, and then began to slide the doors open with as little sound as possible. The hands retreated, and then a man stepped through the door holding a chrome-plated pistol. Behind him, two more men stepped through, these ones holding short Japanese swords, wakizashi. Fox decided the pistol was going to have to go fast: the relatively thin walls of the inn were not going to stop a stray bullet unless he was using hollow points. However, there was a swordsman in the way.

The gunman had just come to the realisation that the two sleeping mats were unoccupied when Fox moved. Her foot slammed into the back of the nearest swordsman’s right knee and he went down, crumpling to the floor as Fox moved around him.

On the other side of door, Yuriko was also moving. In a flurry of long robes, she stepped around her own swordsman, caught his wrist in her hands, twisted upward and back, and he let out a yelp as his weapon vanished out through the open door.

By now, the gunman was turning toward Fox. She stepped in close so that if he did get a shot off, it would likely hit her. Her hands wrapped around his wrist and the weapon, and then he shrieked in pain as she used his own gun to apply leverage to his wrist. And now his pistol was pushed into his own stomach. Fox smiled into the man’s face. ‘You got that one, Yuriko?’

Just at that moment, Yuriko’s swordsman let out a shriek. He had thrown a punch, had it blocked and trapped, and his arm was now in a painful lock. ‘I believe I have this one under control, thank you, Fox-san.’

‘Good, I–’ Fox stopped as her downed swordsman jabbed the point of his wakizashi into her shin. She frowned down at him, and then kicked him in the face. She turned back to the gunman. ‘Now… walking into a lady’s room uninvited is extremely rude.’

The man was trying to move his gun hand, but Fox was considerably stronger than he was and had the leverage on him. ‘We’re to take you to Fukui-sama,’ the gunman grunted.

‘At two in the morning? With guns and swords? I don’t think so. What about you, Yuriko?’

‘I think that if my brother wants to see us, he can ask nicely. In the morning. It isn’t like he doesn’t know how to contact me.’

‘Valid point.’ Fox found the magazine eject on the pistol and there was a soft thud as she worked it. Then she worked the manual extract to eject the round he had chambered, and then she let go of his wrist and stepped back. ‘Take your friend and get out of here. Quietly. You don’t want to disturb the other guests.’ He pulled his gun back, ready to swing it, and Fox raised a hand. ‘If you try that, I will snap your arm like a twig and you won’t be able to carry Stupid out.’ She turned her hand downward, pointing at the man bleeding from the nose.

A hesitant burst of Japanese came from the doorway and Fox looked around as the subtitles appeared. Mister Kagabu was asking if there was a problem. Yuriko pushed her victim out of the room past the proprietor, telling him that everything was fine and he should not worry, and Mister Kagabu noticed the fallen man and started to chatter.

Fox grabbed the back of the gunman’s jacket and half-lifted him out through the door. ‘See what you did? Causing trouble…’ She bowed, deeply, to Mister Kagabu. ‘My apologies, Kagabu-san, we have brought trouble to your house and made something of a mess. We will, of course, make all necessary recompense, and these… gentlemen will not cause further problems. You have my assurance.’

It was in English, but the middle-aged innkeeper seemed to be verging on horrified that an American could be so polite and apologetic after being attacked on his premises. He returned the deep bow. ‘No apologies are necessary, Meridian-sama. I will see to it that a new room is made available immediately while we clean up this mess.’

‘Oh, I must insist on helping with that just a little.’ Marching back into the room, Fox lifted the fallen man as though he was a bag of shopping and carried him to the door. Then she tossed him out at the feet of his colleagues. ‘I’ll get dressed now,’ she added, and turned to walk through into the bathroom.

‘That is so Japanese,’ Kit commented.

‘What?’

‘A fight, a lot of formal apologies, the sight of you tossing an unconscious man around lack a sack of potatoes, and not even a funny look at the fact you were naked throughout.’

‘I’m pretty sure it would’ve been impolite to mention it.’

‘Yes. So very Japanese.’

~~~

Rising bright and early for breakfast, the full Japanese deal at that, Yuriko showed no signs of sleep deprivation. She actually seemed remarkably rested, as though the late-night fight had been restorative. She suggested that they go out to take a walk around Awara after their meal and Fox agreed.

It was not a large place, and it was largely a Japanese agricultural town. It still had a lot of personally owned houses which looked little different from suburban America, aside from the style of the roofs. If the signs had not been in Japanese, Fox might have thought herself in just about any western country. There was actually something rather Dutch about the place, so maybe it was just that country towns tended to look that way.

They had lunch in a small restaurant Yuriko had gone to frequently before breaking off with her family, and again the proprietors recognised her and looked worried that she was there. But nothing happened. There were no more yakuza goons, no messages, no contact.

In the afternoon, they returned to the onsen, and the baths. Yuriko sank her tired feet rather gratefully into the hot water while Fox started thinking about options like walking up to the gates of the Fukui estate and knocking.

‘Oh!’ Yuriko exclaimed suddenly. ‘I have received an invitation to a party tonight.’

‘Oh?’

‘Yes. My brother is throwing it. The invitation includes a plus-one.’

Fox shrugged. ‘If that’s how he wants to play it. Do I have to sleep with you or anything to be your plus-one?’

Yuriko blushed and once again covered her giggle with a hand. ‘Fox-san!’

‘Now, see, that embarrassed giggle means you’ve thought about it.’

‘I have not!’ Pause. ‘Of course, now I won’t be able to stop myself. That is a mean thing to do to someone.’

‘Yeah… sorry. I apologise for my unladylike behaviour in the baths, which we are alone in.’

‘Apology accepted.’

Fox waited a beat and then asked, ‘Just to be clear then, I don’t have to sleep with you to get on that invite?’

Another giggle, and then Yuriko said something which actually surprised Fox. ‘I will think about it, Fox-chan.’

~~~

The Fukui mansion was a large building, originally built in a fairly formal Japanese style in the middle of a huge expanse of gardens and grounds. Yuriko’s father had put in a few modern extensions, primarily for offices and a secure computer facility, and Taro had gone further, demolishing some older habitation areas and rebuilding them in an austere-looking but modern style. His own suite of rooms was located in a four-storey tower structure, occupying the top two floors.

Fox and Yuriko exited the autocab they had taken from the onsen and paused to look up at the large gate they had been delivered to. It let visitors through into a courtyard which was full of people. The invitation had said that dress should be ‘informal.’ That was, from what could be seen just by stepping up to the entrance, an understatement.

‘This used to be a formal garden,’ Yuriko said sadly. ‘Now look at it.’

The centrepiece was a waist-deep pool, and there were maybe a dozen women and a couple of men waist deep in it, and not wearing anything. Outside the pool, the dress code appeared to be ‘minimal.’ Except that almost all the men and several of the women had extensive tattoos so it was sometimes hard to tell what flesh was on show. Various people had spotted the new arrivals and were pointing and laughing.

‘I guess the dress code instructions weren’t an attempt to have us turn up to a formal do in cocktail dresses,’ Fox said, and started untying the belt of her yukata.

‘It would appear not.’ Yuriko pointed to a rather harried-looking woman in a maid costume with a mesh bodice. ‘Coat check.’

‘Uh-huh.’ Fox stepped over to the maid’s table, gave her a smile, and proceeded to disrobe. Beneath the floor-length cotton robe, Fox was dressed in a strapless, red-and-black micro-dress, hold-up fishnet stockings, and red peep-toe heeled pumps.

Yuriko’s outfit was, in some ways, more extreme. The skirt was a little longer and it was a one-shoulder design, but it had a ladder-like series of holes from the bodice down to the left hip, and most of the right side was black mesh, counterpointing the bright red of the rest of the fabric. Her torso tattoo, along with a lot of her torso, was quite visible, as was the tattoo on her arm. Her shoes were red-and-black platform sandals. ‘I still don’t know how you persuaded me to wear this,’ she said.

‘Well, we went through your entire wardrobe of suitable dresses, which was a total of one, and then Kit went through a load of potential designs with suitable criteria. Had to be sexy, had to show both your tattoos. And then I picked the one most likely to give your brother heart failure.’

‘Oh, that was how.’ Yuriko allowed her gaze to sweep the courtyard. The laughing had stopped. ‘I do believe that Taro has invited us here now in order to embarrass me.’

‘Are you embarrassed?’

‘I am more annoyed at what he has done to the home I grew up in.’

Fox grinned. ‘Good. Keep the anger going. You figure he’ll eventually make his presence known?’

‘Oh, I have no doubt he will. We might as well take a look around. I’m sure there is more to see which will raise my ire.’

Drinks in hand, they proceeded to wander through the complex and Fox noticed two things. The first was that she actually sort of liked the juxtaposition of ancient and modern architectural styles, though Yuriko clearly did not. The second was that she was the only non-Japanese person around, and there was a distinct feeling that a lot of the people they were mingling with did not like foreigners. They had superior numbers and a lot of arrogance, so they were not avoiding Fox, but she was looked on with laughter in people’s eyes and there were muttered comments in Japanese. And the other thing…

‘Okay,’ Yuriko said as they moved away from one small group which had contained someone she recognised. ‘How are you doing that?’

‘What?’

‘I’ve seen more than one hand going up your skirt and you aren’t batting an eyelid. I know they’re trying to annoy you, but I don’t think I could stand it for this long.’

‘Can’t feel it. I turned my sense of touch off when I felt the first hand. I might decide to break someone’s wrist before we leave.’

Yuriko glanced at her. ‘That’s a handy talent.’

‘Uh-huh. Makes it a little difficult to hold my glass though. That’s why I’m using two hands.’

‘That’s your third double whiskey. I suppose the alcohol doesn’t affect you either.’

‘Nope, but I figure they all think it does. I, uh, also turned my sense of taste off. Never could get the hang of Japanese whiskey.’

‘Father would have served the expensive, foreign stuff.’

They continued moving from group to group for maybe another forty-five minutes. Yuriko had supplied Fox with all the data she had on individual Fukui-kai members and their known associates, so Kit was supplying names for the people they met. Some of the yakuza sent identity pulses out for Fox to pick up, and they seemed to be the more polite ones who at least hid any ill-feelings they might have had for her. The others barely acknowledged that Fox was there, and the other minor rudeness was refusing to speak English for Fox’s benefit, which tended to stand out when some of the group did.

It all came to something of a head when Yuriko found one of her father’s old guard, the last of them in the upper echelons of the Fukui-kai. His name was Ryobe Sasaki and he really did not seem to be on-side with the hatred. He was, according to the details Yuriko had supplied, around seventy, but looked to be in his late fifties. His hair was greying and his waistline was widening a little, but he was still a fairly handsome man, which made Fox wonder why he was alone. He sent out an ident pulse as soon as Fox was introduced, and switched immediately to English even though he had quite a thick accent.

‘Is Nayoko-sama not here, Ryobe-sama?’ Yuriko asked. Nayoko was in the data as his wife, and Fox noted the rather familiar use of the man’s name, even if it had the more respectful honorific attached.

‘These gatherings are not for her,’ Ryobe replied. ‘Or for me, but I am expected to attend. I did not expect to see you here.’

‘I was invited. Meridian-san and myself are staying in an onsen, Awara Peace. Meridian-san has been on medical leave recently.’

‘Nothing serious, I hope?’ Ryobe asked, smiling at Fox.

‘Uh… I was kidnapped and tortured,’ Fox replied. ‘Broken spine, internal injuries, cerebral haemorrhage.’ She shrugged. ‘I got better.’

They were not alone with Ryobe, and one of the other men in the group spoke, in Japanese, producing a burst of laughter from the girl leaning against him and a few cronies he had with him. Fox read the subtitles: The foolish woman should not have been in our way. Ryobe rebuked him for his rudeness, but apparently he was not to be cowed. He continued in Japanese, ‘She does not understand me, Ryobe-san. Foreigners never do.’ He looked straight at Fox and said, ‘You do not know what I am saying, do you? You dress like a whore! Stupid bitch.’

Fox smiled at him, and he and his friends burst into raucous laughter. ‘At least I’m not a rude moron,’ Fox said and the laughter died. ‘Really, do you have some form of mental problem?’ Almost casually, Fox reached behind her and when her hand came back up, it was holding someone’s wrist, locked. ‘Anyone with a reasonably good implant can run translation software,’ Fox went on. ‘I don’t speak Japanese because I would probably murder it and insult my hosts, but I understand it just fine. Only a simpleton would assume otherwise. And your girlfriend is wearing less than I am, or did you actually pay her to be hanging off you like that?’ She turned her head to look at the man who had been groping her behind and was now grimacing in pain. ‘And you deserve to leave with your arm in a sling, but it might spoil the party. Don’t do it again.’

Ryobe burst into laughter. ‘You have a very fine superior, Yuriko-san. And she has put Enoki in his place.’

Enoki was, apparently, the man who had insulted Fox. ‘She insults–’ he began, only to be cut off.

‘You were a coward to insult her thinking she would not know it. Do not compound your error by taking offence when she fights back.’ Enoki apparently decided that there was only so far he could take being disrespectful to a senior member. He gave the shortest bow he could manage and led his blushing girlfriend away. Ryobe turned back to Fox. ‘Perhaps you should give that one his hand back.’

‘Forgot I had it,’ Fox said and let go. The man scurried away, cradling his arm, and the rest of Enoki’s friends faded into the background, leaving only people with much more pleasant attitudes. ‘He probably won’t be groping anyone for a while.’

‘I am sure it will do him good. Might I ask what really brings you to Awara?’

‘We’re hoping to have a small chat with Yuriko’s brother. He doesn’t seem to be around.’

Ryobe’s face flickered through a scowl. ‘He is usually late in making his entrance. He will arrive soon, I think, with whatever female companions have been occupying his time. Of late, that includes a Yurei no Ningyo he obtained recently.’

Yuriko’s face hardened. ‘Ryobe-sama, you have not been involved in their… manufacture, have you?’

‘Fukui-sama has kept much of that project behind closed doors, even to his advisors. I find them… distasteful.’ Ryobe forced a smile back onto his face. ‘You have a good superior. I hope that your work is keeping you busy, and happy.’

‘It is challenging. Applying academic skills to the real world is harder than I thought it would be, but I believe I am managing.’

‘She helped save my life,’ Fox said. ‘Her six-month performance review is going to be glowing.’

~~~

It was almost another hour before Taro Fukui made an appearance at his own party. He emerged from an elevator dressed in loose, black silk slacks, his chest bare to show off his tattoos and physique. Fox recognised the signs of muscle implants and was not impressed, but Taro was a good-looking man even if you ignored the grafts and the signs of facial sculpting. His face was, perhaps, a little hard, but that was softened now by his broad smile. He certainly had a narrow face with quite a long, triangular nose and high cheekbones. His eyebrows were thick, arched caterpillars over dark eyes.

He swaggered more than walked, progressing into the room like some playboy. On his right, a girl in a red micro-dress clung to his arm, giggling. Her hair was dyed blonde and tied up into twin pig-tails, and she barely looked old enough to be legal. Still, the naked Ghost Doll to Taro’s left caught Fox’s attention rather than the jail-bait; what had probably been a very attractive woman had been reduced to a walking sex doll.

‘There is something about that Yurei no Ningyo which… seems familiar,’ Yuriko said, frowning across the room at her brother.

‘It should,’ Kit said into Fox’s head. ‘She is coming up as a seventy-eight per cent match to Kin Simizu, an ex-girlfriend of Taro Fukui.’

‘Only seventy-eight?’ Fox asked.

An image of a woman, Kin Simizu, appeared in Fox’s vision field. ‘The facial work done on these women is quite effective at altering their appearance, especially the modifications to the eyes. I believe her jaw structure has been altered slightly, narrowed, producing more hollowed cheeks. Her hair was black and has been bleached and allowed to grow significantly.’

‘Kin Simizu?’ Fox asked aloud.

Yuriko’s eyes widened. ‘She was Taro’s girlfriend for almost three months. A model from Tokyo. Father found out Taro was hitting her and dissolved the relationship at Simizu’s request, banning Taro from ever seeing her again. She vanished not long after Father died. I remember the reports in the media. I never thought…’

Fox glanced at her colleague. ‘Do we need to find somewhere for you to throw up again?’

‘I… will be fine. We have direct proof that Taro knows exactly how the Yurei no Ningyo are made. A DNA test would confirm it.’

‘Yeah… I wonder whether he kicks puppies too.’

‘Pardon?’

‘Nothing.’ Fox saw the moment Taro spotted her and Yuriko, and she spent the next second or so analysing what she had seen. It was not, she thought, that he hated or even disliked foreigners. He simply had no respect for them, perhaps doubly so for women. Taro would have taken Fox to bed gladly, so long as she was gagged, and he would likely have killed her afterwards from the anger she saw. Both lust and anger had still been there as his eyes had flicked to Yuriko, but now it was mixed with surprise, maybe even shock. An interesting reaction.

Taro continued his tour of the party without acknowledging either of them and Yuriko asked, ‘Do we follow him?’

‘We’ll let him come to us. Since word got around that I don’t like hands on me, I’m sort of enjoying myself.’

‘I am not.’

Fox grinned. ‘Lighten up. You have admirers.’

Colour rushed to Yuriko’s cheeks, but she countered with, ‘It’s not as though I’m going to take any of them home with me.’

‘Does that mean you might at some other party? Yuriko Fukui, you bad girl.’

‘I do not normally attend this kind of party.’

‘Well, yes. I could tell that from your only cocktail dress.’

Yuriko pursed her lips. ‘I am pleased that you feel comfortable enough with me to tease me like this.’

‘Ouch. Now that was a subtle Japanese way of telling me to back off.’ Yuriko’s eyes dipped away and Fox continued quickly. ‘That’s okay. I haven’t known you long. Takes a little time to learn a friend’s limits.’

Wider eyes looked back up into Fox’s. ‘Friend?’

‘Like I said earlier, you helped save my life. That kind of thing tends to put people on my like list. Maybe I’m being a little too familiar?’

‘No. I have few friends, Fox-san. I would be honoured to consider you among them.’

‘But with less teasing.’

Yuriko smiled. ‘A little less teasing would be nice.’

~~~

Taro, it seemed, was taking his time. Another fifty minutes passed before a man in a suit, with a shirt and jacket, appeared beside Yuriko, bowing formally. He waited for Yuriko to acknowledge him before speaking in Japanese. ‘Fukui-sama extends greetings to his sister and her companion. He requests that you join him in his chambers.’

Yuriko glanced at Fox, who shrugged. ‘Very well,’ Yuriko said. ‘I will attend my brother.’

The man led them to one of the elevators at the back of the more traditional part of the building, and then they went up. The contrast when the doors opened was almost alarming. Up here, Taro’s personal apartment was ultra-modern, not at all traditional. A sumptuous penthouse suite in a New York hotel, complete with a minibar off to one side, lots of chrome and dark leather, and a sunken lounge area where Taro had arranged himself.

He was sprawled languidly on one of the broad sofas, legs splayed. His Ghost Doll was propped on one elbow to his left while the blonde had been replaced with a redhead in a fetish schoolgirl outfit on his right. As Fox and Yuriko walked in, Taro cracked open a plastic vial of something which he waved under the redhead’s nose. She giggled and cooed, and then her eyes rolled back in her head and she was writhing in apparent bliss.

Fox flicked her gaze around the room, checking the positions of the four bodyguards, all in pristine black suits which did not do an excellent job of hiding the pistols they were all carrying under their armpits. Taro was not armed, but then he did not need to be.

‘Brother,’ Yuriko said, bowing to him.

Taro chose to speak Japanese, presumably a combination of calculated insult and defiance, given that he had no doubt heard what had happened earlier. ‘Are you going to introduce me to your… colleague?’

‘Of course,’ Yuriko continued in English. ‘Taro Fukui, this is Tara Meridian, head of Palladium Security Solutions’ investigations division, my most esteemed superior.’

Fox bowed her head: Taro was not going to return the gesture anyway. ‘It’s a… pleasure to make your acquaintance, Fukui-san.’

Taro was determined to make his point, apparently. ‘I have no doubt,’ he said in Japanese. ‘Please, take a seat. I was surprised when you accepted my invitation, sister.’

‘I did say I would come if you asked nicely. Or did your thugs not pass on the message?’

‘To walk openly into a place full of my people is not tactically sound. Perhaps your employer needs to further your education.’

‘This was pretty much my idea,’ Fox said, sitting down on the sofa opposite Taro and crossing her legs. ‘I wanted to meet you. I think it’s important to know about a colleague’s background, where she came from, her life influences so to speak.’

‘And now that you sit in my home, surrounded by my most trusted guards, do you still think it was a good idea?’

Fox smiled. ‘Cards on the table then. If you order them to do something violent, people will get injured, and that’s something I don’t want. One of those injured will be you, because I can snap your neck before they have a chance to stop me. You don’t want that. So let’s just talk and skip the veiled threats.’

‘You really believe you can–’

‘After what Grant did to me, I had to have a lot of cybernetic work done. I can get you, and quite possibly all of them, but I’d likely lose Yuriko.’

‘It would be an honourable death,’ Yuriko said, straightening her back.

Taro gave a grunt and glanced at his redheaded companion. Fox guessed he was judging how long it would be before she came out of her stupor. The drug had probably been ‘Party Juice,’ a mephedrone derivative popular at sex parties. He looked around at one of the guards. ‘You, take this one to a room and watch her. If I’m not there before she comes around, she’s yours.’ He turned back to Yuriko and Fox. ‘Your dress sense has changed, sister.’

‘We wished to fit in. I have heard stories of your parties.’ Yuriko glanced at the bodyguard who was hauling the redhead to her feet. ‘Apparently, none of them were exaggerated. I should thank you, however, for the opportunity to see a few faces I have not seen since Father’s funeral. It has been an interesting evening.’

‘I am glad you enjoyed it. Why are you sniffing around Aphrodite Cybernetics? You know it is one of our businesses.’

Yuriko looked to Fox and she nodded, taking up the conversation. ‘Okay… Out of nowhere, Aphrodite Cybernetics became the first company in the world to market a functional bioroid. One of MarTech’s companies, BioTek Microtechnologies, is heavily involved with that technology and there were suspicions of industrial espionage. Aphrodite employs an ex-BioTek scientist, Arvid Hummel, which obviously made us more suspicious.’

‘How did you find out about Hummel?’ Taro asked, his eyes narrowing.

‘Hummel worked on a number of projects, including a regenerative nanodrug which Reginald Grant obtained from the Fukui-kai… Uh, we’re not going to have to dance around that, are we? No, good. The initial line of investigation was into that drug. Yuriko managed to track Hummel to Aphrodite while hunting down the source of the drug, and then Aphrodite announced the Ghost Dolls.’

‘And what, if I may ask, have your investigations uncovered?’

Fox looked across at the still, white woman lying beside Taro. ‘Well, I’m absolutely sure that Hummel didn’t provide bioroid research data to Aphrodite so that they could produce the Ghost Dolls.’

‘Then your investigation is concluded and your visit to Awara is simply a trip to the spa.’

Fox smiled. ‘There are a couple of loose ends to tie up, but I don’t see this taking much longer.’

Taro’s lips tightened. ‘I understand. You are obligated’ – and he emphasised the word a little too much – ‘to do a thorough investigation. We all have our obligations.’

Fox felt Yuriko tense beside her. ‘We both know what obligation you’re talking about, and I think any debt Yuriko may have owed for your help in finding me was wiped out when you sent Kurowashi to kill me.’

Taro’s teeth gritted and he pushed upright, switching to English when he spoke. ‘You are gaijin. You know nothing of honour, of giri.’

‘I know what it isn’t.’ Fox got to her feet. ‘I think, since we’ve gone back to the insults and threats, we should leave.’ She bowed her head again. ‘Perhaps, Fukui-san, if you hurry, your guard will not have started on that redhead.’

Yuriko got up and bowed. ‘Brother. I am sure we will meet again soon.’

‘I would hope there will be no need,’ Taro replied. Then he turned his head away dismissively.

Fox waited until they were in the elevator and going down before she said, ‘Are you sure one of you two isn’t adopted?’

‘I wish I could say that were true, Fox-san. It would, perhaps, set my mind at ease. Do you think he believed what you said about the investigation?’

‘I think…’ Fox sighed. ‘What do you think?’

‘I think that you told him the truth, but Taro is so used to lies that he will find it hard to accept that.’

‘Yeah. So we’d better wrap this up sooner rather than later. We’ll head back to Tokyo in the morning and tonight… Tonight I’ll keep watch.’

20th April.

‘Yuriko-san.’

Yuriko had just belted her yukata around her waist in preparation for bed and she turned when Fox said her name. Her eyes widened. Fox was executing a very formal bow for no reason Yuriko could imagine. ‘Fox-san, what–’

‘I must apologise,’ Fox said. ‘I put your life in danger tonight… to make a point.’

‘I… Please, Fox-san, stop that.’

Fox straightened her back, but she was still frowning. ‘No, we shouldn’t have been there. It was… unnecessary. We learned little. I have no idea what I was thinking. I don’t know whether Taro would risk coming at you openly, but I’m sure he’ll think of some way of getting back at you.’

‘That was only a matter of time. I would have “bumped horns” with the Fukui-kai eventually. They have their fingers in everything. What matters to me is that my superior is here to back me up. That she knows of my brother’s attempts to compromise me and still trusts me.’

‘I trust you because you came clean on what he was trying to do, but you didn’t try to hide behind it and shirk your responsibilities to Palladium. You could have used it as an excuse to stay away from investigations involving the yakuza.’

Yuriko grinned. ‘I would likely have had little work. I think I would have had to request a transfer to another country, which would have defeated the object of hiring me.’

‘Maybe, but that doesn’t give me the right to… to act like someone in a bad spy movie. Seriously, walking into the enemy’s stronghold for a face-to-face chat full of passive-aggressive banter? I think I’m losing it. Next I’ll be ordering martinis. I can’t stand the stuff.’

‘I sort of enjoyed it.’ Bending, Yuriko picked up her dress. ‘I may even keep the dress pattern, though I cannot imagine when I will use it again. It is not me, which is sometimes a good thing.’

Fox shook her head and went to the safe to get her pistol. ‘Well… I’d still like you to accept my apology. And we’ll come up with something to keep Taro off your back.’

‘If it will make you feel better, I will accept your unnecessary apology, Fox-san.’

‘Thank you. I’ll invite you over to the US again sometime so you can wear your dress without people looking at your tattoos funny.’

‘That would be most agreeable. Helen-san mentioned a night club, uh, Sheela Na Gig? She said it was an interesting experience.’

Fox laughed. ‘Yeah… Well… Not a place I’d have taken you before tonight, but if you’ve survived your brother’s party without psychological damage, maybe Sheela Na Gig is something you could handle.’

Yuriko settled down on her bed with a frown. ‘Suddenly I am not so sure…’

Niflhel.

Vali smiled as Kit walked into his little farmhouse in her tunic dress. ‘It must be my lucky month,’ he said. ‘Two unexpected visits from my favourite infomorph.’ Kit returned the smile, but there was an odd hesitancy about it. ‘Is something wrong?’

‘No. And also yes. I need help which I am reluctant to ask for.’

‘That sounds complicated. Perhaps you should explain the circumstances.’ He passed across a cup of mead which Kit took gratefully and then gulped from.

‘One of Fox’s subordinates, Yuriko Fukui, is the sister of–’

‘I’m aware of Miss Fukui’s family situation.’

‘Good, then I don’t have to go over it. The case she is working on with Fox has put her in a difficult position. Fox thinks she may have made matters worse, and I think Fox may be right. It is possible that Taro Fukui may attempt some form of retribution. Fox is worried about it. I said I would look for information we might use to take control of the situation.’

‘I see.’ Vali paused, looking down at his cup.

‘Yuriko believes that Taro was responsible for her father’s death. If we could find evidence of that, it would not only provide closure for her but also give considerable leverage against Taro.’

‘It would…’ He knew what she wanted, and he knew why it made her uncomfortable. ‘Perhaps I can provide… a sounding board for your strategy.’

‘I have begun checking whatever evidence I can find on the case. Yuriko obtained all the police files.’

‘I believe that that is a very good place to start. I have some sources of information in Japan. I could look into the matter, perhaps. If I were to discover anything useful, I could pass it to you.’

Kit forced a smile onto her face. ‘If you could, I would be very grateful…’

Vali smiled back. ‘Ah no. No rewards for this. It feels too mercenary.’

‘But…’ Kit’s smile got less forced and more plaintive. ‘I like giving you rewards.’

‘Perhaps, if we jointly find sufficient evidence to be useful, we could celebrate a successful investigation together.’

‘I think that would be a very amicable solution.’

‘Good.’ Vali raised his cup. ‘To a successful investigation then.’

Kit clinked her cup against his and grinned. ‘And all that follows after.’

Chiba Industrial Zone.

‘That’s the last one,’ Yuriko said. She watched the pod she had just tossed out of the back of the vertol as it fell.

‘Good,’ Fox called out. ‘So get your ass back in here before you find out whether that safety harness works or not.’

Yuriko moved back into the cabin as the rear ramp lifted. ‘They don’t always work?’ she asked.

‘Oh… I’m sure you’d have been fine. Honest. Would I lie to you?’

‘I think,’ Yuriko said slowly, ‘that you are teasing me again.’

Fox grinned and turned to look at the server unit she was standing beside. ‘Pythia, do we have feeds from all the pods?’

‘All seven pods are transmitting, Miss Meridian,’ Pythia said. ‘Sensor feeds are good. They are at their designated stations and holding.’

‘Great. I’ll come up and take over the controls and we’ll head back to base.’

‘Do you really think this will work?’ Yuriko asked as she settled into the co-pilot’s seat beside Fox.

‘They have to be moving these women in from somewhere. So we monitor traffic through the area, identify transports going into the factory, and then we should be able to get evidence that they’re trafficking people. That should be enough to get the police involved.’

‘They would be hard-pressed to ignore it, even if the Fukui-kai is attempting to keep them out of Aphrodite.’

‘Uh-huh. My guess is that they’re bringing them into Ichihara. The docks there are perfect.’

‘Agreed. There is heavy yakuza influence in the area and it supplies much of the industrial zone. They would probably need to move them at night.’

‘Yeah. Let’s just hope we can spot what we’re looking for. You’re going to be busy, Pythia. If you spot anything suspicious on those feeds, I want you to let us know. One of us will be available at all times.’

‘I will not fail you, Miss Meridian,’ Pythia announced from the console.

‘That’s my forensic analysis infomorph.’

‘Technically, I am Miss Fukui’s forensic analysis infomorph, Miss Meridian.’

Fox grinned. ‘Turn of phrase. Yuriko, is there anywhere in the vicinity of Aphrodite we could set this thing down in at night? It might be useful to be able to overfly the area at short notice if Pythia does spot something.’

‘I’ll look into it,’ Yuriko replied. ‘We could use the same vantage point to observe the factory as I did before, but we could not put Pythia down there.’

‘They won’t risk anyone seeing shipments of girls being taken in. They’ll run a closed vehicle into the loading dock. Unload it under cover. I don’t think we’ll see anything from the outside. See what you can arrange.’

‘I believe we need an alternate plan in case we cannot spot any of Taro’s trafficked women.’

‘I’m open to suggestions.’

Busan, Republic of Korea, 21st April 2061.

‘You really think we’ll get anywhere in this chaos?’ Fox asked as she ploughed through the crowds around Cheonghakbuk-ro.

‘Just keep moving,’ Yuriko said from behind her.

‘That’s easy for you to say. You’re hiding behind me.’

‘They expect foreigners to be pushy. We are almost there.’

Fox could only consider that a good thing. Yuriko had decided that an interesting course of action might be to attempt to track the shipments of women from the other end, and one other end was Korea. Ever since China had basically annexed North Korea in the guise of ‘humanitarian aid,’ the South had become both the only Korea and the primary conduit for Chinese goods of all kinds to the outside world. That especially included illegal exports, and imports, since the border was no longer an enormous minefield and was hard to control. Many people speculated that that was on purpose.

The country was now largely divided into three regions: Seoul, the political and financial hub, the Southeast Economic Zone, which included Busan and was heavily industrialised, and everywhere else. Busan had actually done quite well out of the country’s restructuring. Seoul and Busan had become the jewels of the republic’s crown, very modern, very high-tech cities in a country which tended to be a little backward in large areas. Yeongdo Island, however, had never received the money the rest of Busan had. It remained largely a twentieth-century city occupied by the low-paid and the foreign. The Fukui-kai considered it almost part of their Japanese holdings and it had a reputation for high crime, largely ignored by the local police.

‘There,’ Yuriko said, pointing at an electronics shop selling wearables and other portable gadgets. The windows were heavily grilled and there were riot shutters mounted in front of the grills.

‘You’re sure about this?’

‘Quite sure. They have been using it for two decades.’

‘Okay…’ Fox pushed through the crowds and into the shop, Yuriko directly behind her. As soon as they were inside, Yuriko turned right, pretending to examine a display of wearables while she planted a radio jammer. Fox headed deeper into the shop and was soon intercepted by an eager-looking man who spoke rapid Korean at her. She got subtitles, but she just smiled at him until he switched to English.

‘Hello, miss. Can I help you? You want wearable? I have genuine MarTech products.’

That seemed vaguely unlikely, but… ‘Oh yes, please show me those.’

‘The jammer has activated,’ Kit said.

Fox cooed over a few out-of-date MarTech visor models while the shop owner extoled fictitious virtues and Yuriko strolled up, casually taking a place beside Fox. The shop owner never skipped a beat, including Yuriko immediately in the conversation right until his nose started to twitch.

‘Is that…’ Fox said, sniffing. ‘Is that smoke?!’ She turned, looking back toward the front of the shop and, sure enough, a cloud of smoke was rising from the pair of grenades Yuriko had left there. Fox let out a scream, but the shopkeeper’s was louder and more shrill. He started running around like a chicken that had just spotted a fox, and Fox and Yuriko headed straight for the back.

They drew pistols before pushing through the door they found there. There were two men guarding the rear room, and neither of them knew what was happening before two baton rounds hit each of them in the chest, dropping them to the floor.

‘Upstairs,’ Yuriko said.

Fox spotted the wooden staircase at the side of the room and headed for it. She ran up the steps, reaching the top landing in a couple of seconds where another baton round destroyed the lock on the door and she ploughed on through. Two loud bangs sounded, part of the open door exploded, and something thudded into Fox’s stomach. Ignoring the slug buried in her flesh, Fox turned her pistol and fired off three rounds. The owner of the shotgun fell, blasted back against the wall by the three impacts.

Yuriko took up position at the doorway, her pistol pointed down the stairs, while Fox went to the computer the man had been working at. A cable was produced and she plugged in. ‘Kit,’ Fox said, ‘your turn.’ Then she swapped the magazine on her pistol and turned around to keep an eye on Yuriko.

‘Hacking modules initiated,’ Kit announced.

‘Any sign of trouble?’ Fox asked aloud.

‘Not yet,’ Yuriko replied. ‘With their communications down, it will take them several minutes to obtain reinforcements from one of the other offices. If they summon assistance for the “fire,” it will take considerable time to arrive.’

‘Good.’

‘Their security is laughable,’ Kit commented. ‘I have breached the basic access layers.’

‘Though,’ Fox added, ‘it doesn’t sound like we’re going to need much time.’

‘Data access achieved. I am downloading everything I can find.’

‘Careful of viruses,’ Fox said internally.

‘I am always careful of viruses.’

‘Sorry. New infomorph here. Bit paranoid about that kind of thing.’

‘Welcome to my natural state. Estimated time to complete is seven seconds. I have broken the administrative controls.’

‘Great, trash the entire system when you’ve got it all.’ Aloud, Fox said, ‘Is there a back door on this place or do we need to go out the front?’

‘There is a fire escape at the back of this floor,’ Yuriko replied.

Fox looked around, spotting the door at the back. She nodded. ‘Okay.’

‘Initiating full system re-initialisation,’ Kit said.

‘And we’re leaving.’ Fox pulled the cable out of her neck and the machine and waited for Yuriko to go past her to the exit. Then she followed while the Fukui-kai’s main database of financial records in the area dissolved behind her.

~~~

‘Do we have anything interesting, Kit?’ Fox asked.

Kit’s reply was delayed a little by the emergence of Yuriko from the bathroom, wrapped in a towel and rubbing at her hair. The Japanese girl made a gagging sound and then continued to watch in horror as Fox dug the shotgun slug out of her stomach with a pair of pliers.

Fox looked up. ‘What? If I don’t get it out soon, the skin’ll grow over it and leave a lump.’

‘I am not doubting the need for your… impromptu surgery,’ Yuriko replied. ‘I just wish I had been a few minutes longer in the shower.’

‘Ah, well… I’m not going to be wearing any cropped tops before tomorrow. Still, first field test of my impact resistance is going well enough so far.’

‘You were shot with a shotgun and did not appear to notice?’

‘Oh, I noticed. It didn’t slow me down and there’s no permanent damage. Can we expect any reprisals?’

‘Here? Unlikely. When word gets back to Japan, Taro will be very displeased.’

‘I am working on that, Yuriko,’ Kit said. ‘My home copy has already found some interesting leads which may help and I have an external resource searching for information too.’

‘She came up with that on her own,’ Fox said. ‘I didn’t send her looking.’

‘Thank you, Kit-san,’ Yuriko said, giving Kit’s avatar a short bow.

‘My pleasure. As to the data we recovered from that unpleasant little office, I have isolated a number of transactions which could indicate shipments of humans. However, the records are obfuscated. They do not refer to people in them. Determining which, if any, are relevant is difficult.’

‘Please display the inventory which is causing difficulty.’ Kit lifted a hand and a virtual screen appeared beside her to stream a list of export records. ‘Ah,’ Yuriko went on. ‘The first three are all drugs. Natural opiates. The next is smuggled electronics and then–’

‘It’s the kabosu,’ Fox said.

‘Ah, yes,’ Yuriko agreed. ‘You read quickly.’

‘Yes, she does,’ Kit agreed, ‘even if she complains she could be faster. But how do you know, Fox?’

‘Who makes a shipment of sixteen fruit? And then it’s sixteen fruit the size of a lemon that apparently weighs eight hundred and seventy kilos. That is some pretty special kabosu.’

‘And rarely imported,’ Yuriko added. ‘Japan has been growing them since the Edo period.’

Kit collapsed the list down to just the entries for kabosu fruit. The weights varied a little, but there were always between fourteen and twenty listed in the quantity fields, normally sixteen or eighteen, and there was another interesting factor. ‘All these entries list the destination port as Fukuoka until June last year. Then they began shipping into Ichihara at an increasing rate. You were right, Fox. They are moving people in through the port at Ichihara.’

‘Chinese and Korean girls anyway,’ Fox agreed.

‘They sent a shipment to Ichihara early this morning. Eighteen kabosu, nine hundred and eighty-six kilos.’

‘Can you link the shipment to a vessel?’

‘I believe so, yes.’

‘Okay, get on to Palladium and see if we can get satellite imagery for this area sent through when it becomes available. Maybe we can track the ship.’

‘I will get right on that.’

‘Great.’ Fox got up from the corner of the bed she was sitting on and began to strip off her jeans. ‘I am going to take a shower and then… What is there to do in Busan after you’ve raided a yakuza hideout?’

‘Uh…’ Yuriko frowned in contemplation. ‘I honestly have no idea.’

22nd April.

The city was reduced to a sea of lights from the seventy-eighth floor of the Busan International. Fox looked out through the hotel room window, her vision a wash of colour, some of it beyond the normal human spectrum. She was naked, but who was going to see her that high up? The nearest building tall enough was a quarter of a mile away and the room was dark.

From here, Korea looked a lot like Japan, which looked a lot like America. When you got close up to the features, the homogeneity was dispelled by quirks of local architecture, but in the broad view, the world seemed to have turned into one, big, global sameness.

‘I’m sure that has been happening for some time,’ Kit commented.

‘Probably.’

‘You should run your sleep cycle.’

‘Probably. I’ve got some time to stare out the window. Maybe I should take up photography.’

‘Pardon?’

‘Photography. You said I should get a hobby. I go interesting places. I could take pictures. I could obsess about lenses and start claiming that nothing’s been the same since digital imagery took over from film stock.’

‘Your personality does not lend itself to “nerdy,” Fox.’

‘I could be nerdy if I wanted.’ There was a slight creak from behind Fox and she spoke aloud. ‘You are supposed to be sleeping.’

Yuriko walked up to stand beside Fox and, for form’s sake, Kit appeared on the other side. All of them were now looking out at the brilliantly lit city. ‘The bed is a little soft for my tastes,’ Yuriko said. ‘I’ll try again in a few minutes. What are we looking at?’

‘The homogenisation of human society.’

‘That seems a little deep for two in the morning.’

‘Best time for it.’

‘Fox was considering taking up photography,’ Kit said. ‘She needs a hobby.’

‘I don’t need a hobby. I just have more time in my day to do stuff.’

‘I wish I did,’ Yuriko said.

‘Get yourself turned into an infomorph and you too can have twenty-hour days.’

‘Where do I sign up?’

‘Perhaps,’ Kit said, ‘you should try doing that doctorate in criminology. You said you wanted to keep up with Terri.’

‘Education is always a good thing,’ Yuriko said. ‘I am sure that you could bring something new and interesting to the subject.’

‘That’s the thing,’ Fox countered. ‘I have no idea what to do it on.’

‘Criminal behaviour in infomorphs. You have encountered a number of different infomorphs with different kinds of behavioural patterns, have you not? Some concentrated thought on the matter might produce useful insights.’

Fox gave a grunt. ‘Well, maybe. I’ll think about it.’ There was silence for a few seconds and then, ‘So a human, a gynoid, and an infomorph were looking out at Busan… There’s gotta be a joke in there somewhere.’

‘I thought it was traditional for them to walk into a bar,’ Kit replied.

‘Yeah, but we decided to skip the bars.’ A flicker of ultraviolet scintillation caught Fox’s attention, followed by another. ‘And it may be a good thing since it’s starting to rain.’ A second or two later, the window was blurring from the rush of water flowing over it.

‘If that is not a metaphor for the homogeneity of human civilisation, I do not know what is,’ Yuriko commented.

‘Hmm… Good, but as a punchline I think it lacks something.’

‘Humour?’

‘That’s probably it.’

Tokyo.

‘The vessel carrying the Fukui-kai fruit basket has been located,’ Kit said, appearing between Fox and Yuriko as they rode an elevator down from the hangar level of the MarTech Tokyo arcology.

‘That would be hilarious if we weren’t discussing eighteen scared young women,’ Fox said. ‘Where is it?’

‘Off the coast of Wakayama Prefecture, heading north-east. It seems to be making slower headway than I would have expected.’

‘It is possible,’ Yuriko said, ‘even likely, that they have changed the timing of the delivery.’

‘Because we hit the Korean office?’ Fox said. ‘Yeah, possible. We’ll refocus Pythia’s drones and maybe take a flight out to get a closer look at that ship.’

‘Is that wise?’

‘Air traffic around here isn’t uncommon. We should be fine.’

‘Oh… I do hope those do not qualify as famous last words.’

Jenner Research Station.

‘You appear sad, Helen.’

Helen looked up to see Fei smiling at her. She smiled back. ‘Not sad, exactly. I’ll be going back to Earth tomorrow. I know I’ll see Terri soon enough, but…’

‘You will feel a sense of disparity between the inputs you expect and what is currently happening.’

‘Uh… I’ll miss her. I guess… I suppose that’s sort of an interesting way of putting it.’

Fei nodded and took a seat beside Helen in the lounge. ‘It is my analysis of what happens to me when someone I am used to being here is not. I expect their input. When I do not receive it, I find myself… uncomfortable with the disparity in my expectations. I will… miss Kit while she is away, even though I know she will return quickly.’

‘You’ve developed an emotional attachment.’

‘Perhaps. My understanding of emotion is far from complete. I believe the feeling is analogous.’

Helen grinned. ‘Your vocabulary has definitely expanded.’

Fei returned the grin. ‘Memorising words and their meanings is simply a matter of reading, indexing, and categorising. My processing speed is sufficient to allow me to construct sentences with care. And “analogous” is near the beginning of the dictionary.’

‘Ha! Good point. Well, I think I’m going to miss your input too. Hopefully we’ll meet again fairly soon.’

‘I would enjoy that, Helen. Thank you.’

Airborne Over the North Pacific Ocean.

‘That’s it,’ Yuriko said. ‘Ident pulse is right anyway.’ She was watching the vertol’s radar display, currently showing the kilometre or so radius of water beneath them and the vessels moving over it.

‘That’s only about fifty kilometres away from where the satellite saw it,’ Fox said.

‘Forty-nine,’ Kit supplied. ‘They must have slowed noticeably from their cruising speed across the Sea of Japan. We cannot know without constant surveillance whether they will accelerate again.’

‘Can we get lower?’ Yuriko asked.

‘Sure,’ Fox replied. ‘But if we get low enough to use the imaging radar, they’ll notice us for sure. I’ll slow us down and bank as we swing around. Grab some binoculars and see what you can see. Run the visual feed through for me to take a look at.’

‘You should concentrate on flying.’

‘Yuriko, I did hot extraction training. I can manage to divide my attention a little.’

‘Okay…’ Fox swung their ship left while Yuriko grabbed her binoculars, and then she was banking around to the right in a wide curve. ‘I see it,’ Yuriko said. ‘Zooming in now…’

‘Yeah, got it.’ The vessel below them was not large, the size of a bigger trawler, but built with a low mid-deck and high forecastle. There was a single metal container on the mid-deck.

‘The women are in the box,’ Yuriko said. ‘Probably chained. Some will believe themselves to be going to a better life. Some will think they are going into prostitution, but will not care. None will know what is really in store for them.’

‘I know.’

‘Do you think we can stop Aphrodite before they start the process?’ Kit asked.

‘Some of them. Maybe all of them, but I wouldn’t count on it. It depends on how long it takes us to get the police to hit the place.’

‘We cannot get them to intercept the shipment?’

‘If they do that, it leaves the possibility that someone can deny it’s going to Aphrodite, or delay things long enough for them to cover up. We need surprise and the assurance that trafficked girls will be in the factory.’

Kit frowned. ‘My programming may require me to obey the law, but I don’t have to like it, do I?’

‘Well, I don’t.’

Niflhel.

‘You found something?’ Kit walked into the farmhouse with a rather eager expression on her face, slipping into the chair across the table from Vali and leaning forward.

‘I found… several things,’ Vali replied, grinning.

‘Good. I found something too.’

‘Oh, you did?’

‘Yes. Taro Fukui’s alibi for the night of his father’s death is that he was in Tokyo. There are a number of witnesses to this, but they are all yakuza. I have found him in a LifeWeb image taken by someone in Awara. It was pure chance that he was caught in passing by a tourist visiting one of the onsen.’

‘Foolish of him. I would have ensured I was actually out of the town. He hired someone to commit the murder. I have a number of communication records between them. The assassin was a man who goes by the name Kurowashi.’

‘Ah. Fox put him in hospital recently after he tried to kill her. It seems Kurowashi still does jobs for Taro Fukui.’

‘It would seem so. Perhaps if someone were to speak to him nicely, he could be persuaded to give up his employer.’

Kit frowned. ‘He hasn’t so far. Maybe with the leverage you can supply… I don’t know.’

Vali produced a scroll and handed it across to Kit. ‘Well, you can always find out. Let me know what happens.’

‘Oh, if we can put either of them away for this, I shall return to celebrate.’

‘Good.’

‘Enthusiastically.’

‘Oh… Very good.’

Tokyo, 23rd April.

Fox looked over the data Vali and Kit had come up with and nodded. ‘That’s good. It’s probably not enough to go to the police with, and Kuro isn’t going to talk, but it’s enough to put Taro on the back foot.’

Kit nodded a little unhappily. ‘I was hoping for more, but if this helps–’

‘Don’t mention this to Yuriko yet.’

‘But–’

‘If she has reasonable proof that her brother killed her father, she may decide to do something… unfortunate. We’ll tell her once Aphrodite Cybernetics is done up in pink ribbon. Besides, I think when the cops hit Aphrodite, Taro may decide to try to pull a few strings.’

‘All right… Oh, that may be sooner rather than later anyway. Pythia has just asked if you are awake. The ship has just begun docking at Ichihara.’

‘Right,’ Fox said, initiating the upload into her gynoid frame. ‘Wake Yuriko up. Tell her to meet us at Pythia’s vertol. Let’s go watch Aphrodite incriminate themselves.’

Chiba Industrial Zone.

It was all rather anticlimactic when it happened, and it took far too much talking as far as Fox was concerned. The police questioned the evidence as much as they could and pushed the decision to act on it as far up the chain of command as they could before Fox finally snapped and, with Yuriko looking a little horrified at the break in protocol, mentioned several media outlets who would find the lack of action very interesting.

‘I don’t think they’re corrupt,’ Fox commented as they headed out with the police assault team. ‘I think they’re just afraid of the reaction.’

‘There are corrupt police officers,’ Yuriko said. ‘I do not think any organisation in the world is devoid of some form of corruption.’

‘Uh-huh. That scandal with the Girl Scout cookie embezzlement really shook my faith in human nature.’

Yuriko smirked. ‘However, I agree with your assessment. This will cause significant ripples for a number of reasons.’

‘No kidding. You think the team they sent to pick up Simizu will get there fast enough?’

Shoulders sagging, Yuriko shook her head. ‘I think she will have vanished. Unless Taro hopes to plead ignorance anyway. I doubt that, but it is a small hope.’

‘Damned either way. I’m not saying he can’t wriggle out of it if she goes missing. It’ll be harder to prove what happened without DNA tests. But we’ve got fairly solid evidence of her existence and condition. If she disappears, it looks like him covering his tracks.’

‘Yes…’

~~~

It was nine in the morning when the Chiba police finally marched in through the gates and, Fox had to admit, did an efficient job of shutting down the Aphrodite Cybernetics factory. They went in loaded for heavy resistance and all they got were managers shouting about their rights, and they shut up fairly quickly when the squad sent into the basement levels found eighteen young women cuffed to beds and more in suspension tubes.

Fox almost felt sorry for the two or three special tactics officers who, on discovering the half-converted girls, had to pull their helmets off very quickly. Their supervisor, back in the comfort of a tactical response vehicle with Fox and Yuriko, yelled into his headset when the camera feeds started getting all sorts of odd angles.

‘Vomit really clogs the air filters,’ Fox said. ‘Hopefully they aren’t contaminating the crime scene too much.’

The officer in charge looked around at her, and Yuriko added, ‘I understand their pain.’

‘They should have greater discipline,’ the sergeant said.

‘Tell me that when you’ve seen one of those up close,’ Fox replied. ‘MarTech has some specialists available to come in and help get them out of those pods. I’d suggest not removing them without some form of assistance.’

‘I’ll refer it to my superintendent.’

‘Don’t leave it too long. The longer they’re in there, the less chance there is of reverting the changes.’ Fox frowned at the displays she was watching. ‘Assuming there’s any chance at all.’

~~~

By midday, they had had everyone up to the Commissioner General, the head of national policing, stop by the factory and there was a cordon of police holding the media outside the gates. Yuriko had predicted they would be getting the chairman of the National Public Safety Commission turning up before the end of the day.

Fox had decided to be out of there before that happened. She was still there primarily because the police had accepted the offer of help from MarTech in recovering the girls who had been through the process. They were actually people from BioTek who had been flown over from America and they knew what they were doing. Someone was rushing paperwork through various committees to allow BioTek to handle the medical and forensic analysis and Yuriko was spending much of her time in teleconferences about that.

They had already heard that Simizu was nowhere to be found at the Fukui mansion. There had, it was reported, been a Yurei no Ningyo there, but she had been named Yuki and had been returned to Aphrodite Cybernetics due to dissatisfaction. She was nowhere to be found at the factory, so the only evidence they had of her existence was the recordings Fox had made.

When Yuriko lifted her head after another teleconference and then motioned for Fox to follow her out of the tactical vehicle, Fox figured it was some worry over the politics. It was not. ‘I’ve had a message from my brother,’ Yuriko said. ‘He wishes to meet me tonight, in Tokyo.’

‘Wishes?’

‘Demands.’

‘Same place? The Blue Lotus?’ Yuriko nodded a reply. ‘Okay. I’ll make a few arrangements.’

‘He will tell me to compromise the evidence we gathered concerning Simizu.’

‘Yeah, well… I think it’s time Kit and I told you about some other evidence Kit’s found…’

Tokyo.

Yuriko entered the Blue Lotus to find, once again, that her brother was already there. On the other hand, this time it was more to be expected.

‘You’re late,’ Taro snapped before Yuriko could even bow to him, so she did not bother, slipping into the seat opposite him with a smile. The waitress who had just delivered a glass of beer to him, tall and slim with short purple-and-white hair which matched both her geisha make-up and her micro-kimono dress, bowed and retreated hurriedly.

‘My apologies, brother. It has been a busy day.’

‘Oh yes. I am sure that you are congratulating yourself on your betrayal.’

‘There has been little to celebrate. Eighteen trafficked women were saved from a fate worse than death, but our experts say that the prognosis for the twelve we recovered during the conversion process is not good, and there are over two hundred Yurei no Ningyo for which there may be no hope. That there will be no more is merely consolation.’

‘Betrayal,’ Taro repeated. ‘You–’

‘You betrayed our father’s memory.’ Taro’s eyes flared angry at the interruption, but Yuriko went on. ‘He would never have allowed this… abomination, this dishonouring of everything the Fukui-kai stood for. Not that our father’s memory means anything to you.’

Taro gritted his teeth. ‘You will make recompense. You will destroy the images you took at my home.’

‘All our evidence has been presented to the police. Destroying anything now will achieve nothing.’

‘Then you will compromise it. You will–’

‘No. I will do nothing. If you wish to somehow escape having Simizu turned into a… a doll for your pleasure simply because she left you, hire a good lawyer.’

‘No? You say no to me? I will–’

‘Do nothing,’ Yuriko told him. ‘You will do nothing at all. Unless you wish to discover what evidence I have currently kept from the police.’

‘What are you talking about?’ He looked around angrily as the waitress reappeared beside their table. ‘What are you doing–’ For more or less the first time since his arrival, Taro’s gaze rose above the woman’s chest and his eyes widened.

Yuriko shifted over on the bench seat to allow Fox to slip in beside her, placing a folder down on the table as she did so. ‘We printed it out on actual paper for you,’ Fox said. ‘I thought you might like to frame some of it.’

Taro’s eyes flicked down at the folder and then back up. ‘This is not your concern, woman.’

‘I think you attempting, continually, to compromise my colleague is very much my concern. And, by the way, I think it’s fucking hilarious that neither you nor your pair of morons noticed me walking around this place. I seated you here and you didn’t look at my face. Short dress and some hair dye and you’d never see me coming, would you?’

‘You threaten me?’

‘Not really, just making the observation.’

‘Physical threats are not required,’ Yuriko said. She nodded to the folder. ‘That is quite enough. In truth, it is not sufficient to have you convicted of Father’s murder, but placed before the right people… Your life would be worth nothing.’

‘I will see to it–’ Taro began.

Yuriko slammed her fist down on the table. Beer sloshed out of Taro’s glass and he cut himself off, eyes widening. ‘You will do nothing. You will stay silent except to thank Meridian-san for your life. It is she who persuaded me not to kill you right where you sit. It is she who persuaded me not to give this information to people who would hunt you like the dog you are. If you value your worthless life at all, you owe her a debt you can never repay, and you will be paying for it, Taro.’

‘Starting with never trying to get a hold over your sister ever again,’ Fox said. She started out of the seat and then paused, leaning on the table. ‘Oh, and if you try to restart production of the Ghost Dolls anywhere else, I’ll personally come after you and cut bits of you off. It won’t be your fingers.’

Yuriko followed Fox out of the booth, pausing beside the table and looking back at her brother. ‘Goodbye, Taro. I will contact you if I need something.’ She half-turned, and then looked back. ‘I will never bow before you again,’ she said, and then she followed Fox to the door.

~~~

Fox settled into the hot water of the sentō with a sigh. ‘There has to be some way we could get one of these set up in Sam’s place. I mean, some communal bathing would be just perfect and the hot tubs aren’t really big enough.’

Kit’s avatar was leaning on the edge of the tub, just to be there really. ‘I am not sure where you would put one… Unless you ripped your bedroom out. There’s a through-door to the bathroom for washing and, technically, you don’t need it.’

Yuriko, opposite Fox in the water, frowned. ‘You don’t?’

‘Technically… No,’ Fox replied. ‘By now, they’ll have finished converting my office into a small service bay. There’s a framework designed to hold droid bodies in there, all cabled up for data and power. I could lodge myself in there during my sleep cycle. When I’m home, I rent out bed space in Kit’s server anyway.’

‘I do not charge rent!’ Kit squeaked.

‘Turn of phrase. We’ve got the capacity to run a full viron of the apartment in there. I can transfer in, go to bed, and then wake up almost like I did when I was organic. However, I still have uses for that bedroom. At least, I hope I do. I’m not ready for celibacy just yet.’

‘Statistical analysis of your sexual habits,’ Kit began.

‘I have a feeling I don’t want to hear this.’

‘I’m going to tell you anyway. If we replaced your bed with a second shower, it would see more use.’

Yuriko giggled. ‘Your sentō would need quite advanced filtration systems.’

Fox growled. ‘This is what you get with a PA who lives in your body. Be warned. It won’t be long before everyone can do it, and then your sex life will be subject to statistical analysis.’

‘A Japanese PA would keep such information to herself.’

‘Yeah, but you’ll know she knows. It’s the kind of thing they swap at the secret infomorph meetings so they can giggle at the foolish humans.’

‘Who told you about the secret meetings?’ Kit said quickly. ‘The secret meetings are secret.’

‘Ah, but I’m an infomorph now. I got an invite. And I haven’t been to one yet, so if the first rule of Infomorph Club is that we don’t talk about Infomorph Club, no one’s told me.’

Kit narrowed her eyes at Fox. ‘We don’t talk about Infomorph Club, or about the secret army of droids.’

‘Oops.’

‘Quick, the human must have a sudden sentō drowning accident.’

Fox grinned at Yuriko. ‘If she keeps giggling like that, she will have one.’

‘I think it is a little hysterical,’ Yuriko said after a second or two of controlled breathing. ‘It has been a difficult few weeks. My first major investigation. The ending has been… a mixed result. I finally uncover the truth about Father’s death, but I am unable to exact the revenge Taro deserves.’

‘He’s better where he is. You’ll humiliate him whenever you leverage something out of him. He may even cut back on some of his excesses given that you could pull the plug on him at any time.’

‘I know, but I want to put a sword through his throat.’ Yuriko pressed her lips together and then shook her head and smiled at Kit. ‘And I owe you, Kit, for uncovering this information.’

‘I found some of it,’ Kit replied. ‘One of my sources found the rest. Another thing we do not talk about is how he got it.’

‘I do not care. I should provide some gift for him.’

‘Oh, I’m sure Kit’s going to reward him suitably for his services,’ Fox said. ‘What is it, the genie outfit?’

Kit’s virtual cheeks coloured. ‘We are simply going to celebrate a successful joint project together.’

Fox shrugged. ‘My PA gets more sex than I do at the moment, but I’m not bitter. Anyway, I think I’ll aim to fly home on Monday. We’ll give it until midday to see whether anything comes up needing my attention. We’ve got teleconference, and I could be back here in a couple of hours if needed.’

Yuriko bowed her head. ‘I think that things are under control. The police have all the evidence they need to start proceedings. I can handle the liaison between the BioTek specialists and the police.’

‘Good. I have some things to sort out back there. I think it’s time I stepped up and got on with telling people about Akh.’

‘Are you sure you’re ready?’ Kit asked.

‘Yeah, I’m ready. For a given value of ready.’

Part Four: The Luxury of Living

New York Metro, 25th April 2061.

One of the advantages of the time Fox had selected for her return to New York was that, arriving at one a.m., she got to start Monday all over again after a sleep cycle and recharge to resync herself with the time zone. The fact that Sam and Marie were both in bed, asleep, was a minor side benefit and not the main reason. At least that was what she told herself as she snuck in through the back entrance and up the stairs to her floor.

Stopping off in the bedroom to drop off her meagre luggage, Fox returned to the hallway outside and started for the lounge. Then she came to a stop as her sensitive hearing picked up the sound of someone moving in there. She should have been alone, but there was, apparently, someone in her rooms. Reaching behind her back to where her pistol was attached to her skirt, Fox opened the lounge door and stepped through.

‘Oh good, you’re back.’ Fox found herself looking at a smiling girl with a bob of strawberry-blonde hair and green eyes, her trim figure hidden beneath a black T-shirt and blue jeans. Fox had never seen her before, but the voice…

‘Kit?’

Kit’s normal avatar appeared beside her gynoid body, grinning. ‘Yes, we’re me. Surprise!’

‘Terri built a new body for me,’ Gynoid-Kit said. ‘To interact with Fei better. When I suggested it would be nice to have one at home, she built a second copy.’

‘And that’s why you were away for an hour or so yesterday?’ Fox asked. ‘You said something about a software update.’

‘That was related. Terri enabled me to create up to nine copies, which means I have one free to occupy this frame. It’s based on the Sylph series, custom-sculpted, fully functional, and lower maintenance than yours. Plus, my battery life far exceeds yours.’

‘Of course,’ Avatar-Kit said, ‘your frame has capabilities the Sylph lacks which are very useful. You get shot a lot, for example.’

‘I don’t get shot a lot!’ Fox replied, and then her shoulders sagged. ‘I thought Terri had given up trying to turn me gay.’

‘Pardon?’ both Kits said simultaneously.

‘She knows I like red hair in a girl.’

Reaching up, Gynoid-Kit took a lock of hair between her fingers and lifted it in front of her face. Her eyes crossed. ‘I suppose it is sort of red. She said it was strawberry-blonde.’

‘Uh-huh…’

Letting her hair fall back into place, Gynoid-Kit clasped her hands behind her back, pushing her breasts out toward Fox. ‘Awesome! Shall we go straight to bed, or did you want a drink first?’

~~~

‘Any difference from how you normally do this?’ Alice Vaughn asked, looking across the table at Fox.

‘Well, not really.’ Fox was participating in a board meeting by transferring herself to a server in Chicago and patching her senses directly into the viron instead of the usual teleconferencing. ‘Maybe a little. I think it feels more immediate. Reduced lag, probably. However, Yuriko’s probably got lag and it’s eleven at night in Tokyo, so let’s get on with this rather than discussing the wonders of new technology.’

‘Well, later I want to discuss something concerning that,’ Garth Eaves said, ‘but let’s get the Ghost Doll business done so that Miss Fukui can get to bed at a reasonable hour.’

At a nod from Fox, Yuriko picked up a virtual data pad and began. ‘The analysis of the Yurei no Ningyo has been completed. The specialists are now trying to determine how to reverse the process, if that is possible. A number of surgical and nanomachine procedures have been carried out on each victim. These include the installation of a computer implant which appears to act as a governing mechanism. The implant is able to take over control of the host’s body should it look like the host is going to resist her owner.’

‘How did that one Ghost Doll kill her owner then?’ Helen asked. Everyone was there to hear what had happened in Japan.

‘That one’s owner was fond of using electrical devices on his sexual partners. The body was destroyed, so exact determination of the cause is impossible, but it’s theorised that he damaged the implant with an ill-placed shock. The Ghost Doll was killed attempting to seek help.’

‘Oh… Great.’

Yuriko nodded. ‘Other physical surgery includes the eye reshaping, various forms of cosmetic alteration, sterilisation, and… the implantation of additional muscle tissue and… vibratory systems in the vagina. The same sort of system is frequently added to sex gynoids.’

‘Sick fucks,’ Ryan Jarvis muttered.

‘I cannot disagree, Jarvis-san. The most obvious of the genetic alterations causes the skin to form as a latex-like material, but there were additional alterations to allow greater cooling through respiration, and some neurological changes.’

‘So they did consider the overheating problem,’ Fox said.

‘Yes, but not sufficiently. There was some attempt to allow the body to cope with higher temperatures, but the technicians estimate that these women will suffer from faster cell death and greater replication errors on cell division. Their lifespan has been substantially reduced.’

‘Swell. Okay, neurological changes?’

‘Elimination of the areas of the brain dealing with control of the voice, reduced ability to distinguish external commands from internal thoughts, and the creation of a strong dopamine reward pathway to encourage them to engage in sexual activities. On top of this, their “education” has essentially brainwashed them into slavery to whoever their designated owner is. The ones at the resort had a slight variation on that programming, but are essentially the same.’

‘Prognosis?’

‘Currently unknown. The BioTek people think they can reverse at least some of the damage. The first stage will be removal of the implant and the introduction of cybernetic replacements for the damaged speech centres. It will take time to engineer something to reverse the genetic changes and they are worried that some changes will be impossible to eliminate without samples of original genetic material. The dopamine pathway can be treated with drug therapy. The brainwashing will require work with a psychologist.’

‘There’s some hope then?’ Vaughn said.

‘Some, yes. None of them will ever be quite the same again, but they may get much of their life back. One additional thing has come up. Doctor Hummel is not among those detained by the police. He seems to have escaped capture. The police are searching for him, but thus far he remains at large.’

‘I’ll make sure he’s on our watch list,’ Jarvis said. ‘I somehow doubt he’ll go within a hundred miles of a MarTech or Palladium facility, but if he does…’

‘Leave him in one piece, Ryan,’ Fox said. ‘I’d like to see him in a hole in Cold Harbour.’

‘He doesn’t need all his pieces for that.’

‘It’s a valid point. Anything else to report, Yuriko?’

‘That is everything current. You will have my complete written report in the morning.’

‘Thanks. And I’d just like to add in front of all these important people that you did a good job on this. Especially for your first major case. Well done.’

Yuriko bowed across the table. ‘Thank you, Fox-san. It was a pleasure working with you on this. And may I add that you looked just as good in the Blue Lotus kimono as Helen-san did.’

Kit burst into giggles. ‘Everywhere Fox goes, perfectly respectful young women have their minds opened to being evil.’

‘I’m a bad influence,’ Fox agreed. ‘Anything else before we let Yuriko go?’

‘Not really,’ Eaves said, ‘though she can stay for this part if she wants.’ He glanced at Yuriko who nodded. ‘Very well. We have decided to invest in some infrastructure on our extraplanetary sites. We’re going to set up a secure installation on Mars and Venus, and we’ll be using Jenner on the Moon. Each will have a copy of Fox’s current cyberframe in it, ready to receive her mind if we need resource in those locations. That’s assuming you’re agreeable, Fox.’

Fox looked at Kit. ‘You told them about that idea?’

‘Not exactly. When it came up, I said we’d talked about it.’

‘Fair enough. We talked about it. It seems like an effective use of my new, immaterial status. Let’s do it.’

‘I’ll set the wheels in motion,’ Eaves said. ‘You seem to have come to terms with your new status.’

Fox grinned at him. ‘Not entirely, but I’m a lot closer than I was. Getting shot helped.’

‘Even if it was unsettling watching her dig a bullet out of skin with pliers,’ Yuriko said.

More or less everyone winced.

~~~

The transition back to her body in New York took only a few seconds since only her short-term memory needed to be updated, and then she was restarting in a physical environment. And the first thing she was aware of was that there were fingers stroking over her cheek. She opened her eyes and lifted her head.

Marie let out a squeak and jumped back. ‘Holy shit, that’s weird!’

Somehow, the normality of the words overrode the face-value meaning. Fox grinned. ‘Well, if you will go around molesting me while I’m in another metro…’

‘I wasn’t molesting! Molesting is different. I never got the chance to…’ Before Fox got around to releasing the clamps holding her body in place, Marie stepped forward and began stroking her fingers over Fox’s cheek again. ‘It’s… I can’t tell the difference. There’s even the little downy hairs there.’

Fox shivered slightly and giggled. ‘Yeah, well, quit that.’ Fox signalled for release and the padded clamps lifted away from her. She reached behind her head to unplug the data cable. ‘I kind of got the impression you were avoiding me.’

‘No, I… Okay, yes, I was. I just couldn’t work out how to…’

When she trailed off, Fox turned toward the door. ‘I need to get into some clothes.’

‘Okay, I’ll come with. I need to talk to you.’

‘So talk.’

‘It’s not that easy.’

Fox felt her chest tighten, which was ridiculous, but kept on walking from the converted office to the bedroom. ‘Why? Never had any trouble before.’

‘That was before you were tortured by that nutjob. I listened to your explanation of what happened and just about felt it myself and all I could think about was that he was going to do it to me and I felt so–’

‘Take a breath, Marie.’

Marie took a breath. ‘I felt so selfish. And then I felt like a crappy friend because I wasn’t supporting you because I couldn’t look at you without thinking “that could’ve been me.” And that made me feel even more selfish… I’m sorry.’

In the bedroom, Fox began stripping out of her old bodysuit. ‘So… You’re feeling guilty for empathising too much?’

‘Uh… In a selfish way, but yeah, I guess.’

‘It’s not the whole “ghost in a cybernetic doll” thing?’

‘What? No! God, you’re still alive. I don’t care how, but you’re still alive. Considering what that… Don’t have a good enough swear word, but after what he did to you, alive is a luxury.’

‘Huh. “Alive is a luxury.” I like that.’

‘It’s yours, use it as you wish.’

Fox grinned and began pulling on a new suit. ‘Thank you. I’m going to need things like that. MarTech is putting out a press release about me tomorrow. Have to go finalise it with the memetics department this afternoon.’

‘Chat shows?’

Fox sighed. ‘Oh… There will be chat shows. I’m going to see if they can get me on Straight Talk. I think Iberson and Resnik will give me a fair hearing.’

‘Probably. Charlie and Nishi Sakura are getting married.’

‘Really? Didn’t see that coming. I thought they were happy being an unmarried couple.’

‘Charlie announced it, on stream, right after they got back from Japan. Maybe near-death experiences make you sentimental.’

‘Charlie Iberson? Sentimental?’

‘You may have a point. Hey, M. J. marathon tonight? I bet you haven’t seen half the new episodes.’

‘Well, no, I–’

‘So I got the studio to do me special copies so you don’t have to wait for the reruns. We can watch them back-to-back and criticise my acting.’

Fox grinned at her. ‘I am not going to criticise your acting. You’ll do it enough for both of us.’

‘Oh, too right. I’m terrible at that…’

Fox listened as Marie set off on a tirade about her flaws. It was all good. Maybe a lot had changed, but her friends, all of them now, seemed to be okay with it. It was all good.

26th April.

Fox sat on the sofa in her virtual lounge, watching the feeds from the external security cameras. She had got up at eight, discovered that the media release had gone out on time and that there were already people camped outside the front door of the house, and returned to a viron.

‘Are we still getting enquiries about interviews?’ Fox asked.

‘Belle is returning them with instructions to contact MarTech,’ Kit replied. ‘You know, I get this nice, new cyberframe to talk to you with, and you hide in your viron.’

‘It’s your viron too. I suppose it’s too much to ask. I mean, the release said to run all contacts through MarTech PR, but they were bound to try to go direct.’

‘Yes, and the ones camping outside the door were not unexpected.’

‘Funny though. I always thought it would be Marie who’d have to worry about that.’

Belle appeared, just as she did in the real world. ‘Fox, I have a message through from Sister Superior Naomi Lind. She will be arriving by ground transport in the next few minutes and hopes that you will see her.’

‘Naomi? Oh… Uh, reply in the positive and let her in as soon as she gets to the door. Tell her to come straight up and, uh, warn her about the guys with the cameras. I’ll transfer to my body.’

‘Of course, Fox.’ And Belle vanished again.

‘I’ll get my gynoid ready,’ Kit said. ‘I can meet her in the hall while you prepare.’

‘I need to prepare?’ Fox asked, holding her transition for a second.

‘Some clothes would be good.’

~~~

The tall, blonde form of Naomi Lind, head of the Church of Saint Nicholas, strode into the lounge on white, high-heeled pumps and smiled. ‘Fox, you’re looking well for a woman who is, according to some of the more worthless news channels, a member of the walking dead.’

Fox cringed. ‘I’ve been avoiding pretty much all the news channels.’

‘Knowledge is power. Know your enemy. Also, I can understand you feeling differently, but I found their alarmist attitude rather funny.’

‘I’ll go through it all before Friday.’ Fox indicated the sofa and moved to sit down herself. ‘I’m doing Straight Talk this week. Apparently they were “eager” to have me do my first interview with them.’

Sitting down beside Fox, Naomi raised her hands to her cheeks in mock surprise. ‘No! Really? Well, colour me shocked.’ Then she grinned and took Fox’s hands in hers. ‘I did not come here to discuss your new situation, though it is fascinating and I’d love to know more.’

‘Not planning to kick me out of the Church then?’

‘No. Why should I? We have other infomorph members. Primarily on the Moon, but we have them. No, I wanted to talk about bioroids.’

Fox frowned. ‘You know I can’t discuss specific BioTek projects, Naomi.’

‘We can talk generalities. Your experience with the Yurei no Ningyo leads into our concerns as well.’

‘They are not bioroids.’

‘Agreed, but they continue to be pertinent. You know that we concern ourselves with all aspects of the sex industry, so when the Yurei no Ningyo were announced, we started monitoring the memetic patterns around this new area. Obviously there were a number of negative memes, but there was also significant popular support. Pertinent to the Sisters, some of the memes popping up came from the anti-prostitution sector. The basic thought construct was that if these artificial people are here, human women don’t need to sell sex.’

‘Sexist and racist in one package.’

‘Quite. It’s not actually new. The same meme has existed for gynoids for some time, but there has always been a counter-meme pointing out that gynoids aren’t quite the same as humans.’ Naomi frowned, stroking fingers over the back of Fox’s hand. ‘Though if this is an example of MarTech’s latest product, we’ll be needing to rethink that.’

Kit walked in at that point with a coffee tray. ‘Fox’s skin is superior to mine, Naomi, but I believe you will find the latest texture on these Sylph models hard to distinguish from human skin.’ She bent to put the tray down, brushing her hair out of her face with a hand when she straightened up. ‘How do humans put up with this? My avatar’s hair never gets in the way.’

‘Talking to two people ill-equipped to comment,’ Fox said; Naomi’s hair was short-cropped and Fox’s never strayed near her eyes.

‘Oh, good point.’

Naomi was smirking. ‘We give lessons on utilising hair in coy looks, Kit. It can be quite useful and you have just the face for it.’

‘Perhaps I will enrol.’ Kit set about pouring coffee.

‘I’m going to assume that these memeplexes haven’t fallen apart now it’s been revealed that the Ghost Dolls aren’t bioroids,’ Fox said.

Naomi shook her head. ‘A minor conspiracy meme has emerged suggesting that MarTech invented the scandal to eliminate the competition and that the Yurei no Ningyo are bioroids, but we can ignore that. Or I can. I’d imagine your memetics department will need to counter it.’

‘Probably.’

‘There is still a complex of memes around themes of bioroids being made as slaves, bioroids being suitable to replace humans in “distasteful” occupations, etc. When BioTek Microtechnologies announce their first one, there will be a push to have them legalised in a similar manner to AIs. They will need an owner. They will, essentially, be slaves. We expect to see efforts to once more criminalise prostitution for humans, though we should be able to counter those. It will unfortunately put our work on deregulation back.’

‘You want the profession deregulated?’

Naomi nodded. ‘We want our profession to be no different to… office work. The regulated nature of legalisation criminalises those unable to meet the demands of the law and places a “morality tax” on the rest of us. However, what I wanted to ask you is… how long do we have to prepare? For the first real bioroid, I mean.’

Fox narrowed her eyes. ‘Keeping in mind that I can’t discuss matters of a commercially sensitive nature…’

‘Of course.’

‘Not long. Very little time at all.’

Naomi nodded. ‘So they have one but aren’t ready to announce it yet.’ Fox remained silent. ‘I would imagine that the media storm around Aphrodite Cybernetics has delayed things.’ More silence, slightly narrower eyes. ‘We’re probably talking weeks.’

‘Honestly? Couldn’t say. Knowing BioTek, we’ll get a couple of days’ notice at most before they go public with anything. I have been up to L-four to look at their progress and discuss some aspects of public reaction. I’d also point out that the Sylph series’ – Fox indicated Kit – ‘and its male equivalent are the only cyberframes MarTech produces specifically for the erotic market. BioTek aren’t going to turn out bioroids for that specific use.’

‘Unless they make them sexless, that will be a use they see.’

Fox nodded. ‘Uh-huh, I know.’ She sighed. ‘Okay, the first of them will be basically human, to look at anyway. They’ll be aimed at smoothing over reception of the new life form. Once the idea has met with some acceptance, there are a load of more task-oriented forms in the design stages. Zero-G or even vacuum-tolerant forms. Something which can function on Mars with little more than a breather mask. I’m sure there are some far less ethical possibilities for other companies to make, but we won’t see them for a while. BioTek has a huge advantage over its competitors.’

‘The Yliaster fabrication system?’

‘Uh-huh. I’m not saying there aren’t other ways to achieve the same end, but Yliaster gives them a big boost as far as rapid prototyping is concerned.’

‘Thank you. Now…’ Naomi reached out to pick up her coffee, taking a sip and sighing before continuing. ‘It seems like ages since we last caught up. Tell me all that’s new with Fox and Kit.’

‘Ha!’ Fox barked. ‘Where do I start…’

29th April.

Fox walked out onto the stage to the sound of applause, which was a good start but not expected. Resnik and Iberson were waiting for her, behind their desk on the set of Straight Talk. Somehow, the ice queen that was Charlie Iberson did not look quite as icy as usual. Resnik was smiling as their guest, who they had shunted a couple of other interviews to get on the show, walked on.

Fox paused for a second to look out at the crowd, as she had been instructed, and then settled into her seat. ‘Thanks for having me on, Elaine. Evening, Charlie.’

‘Nice dress,’ Iberson said.

Fox had selected a short, purple, backless dress with a keyhole front. It had a high neck and long sleeves, and there were matching sandals, and she thought it looked elegant, if also sexy. ‘Thanks. I’ll let you know where to get the pattern. I hear you and Nishi are getting hitched.’

Iberson’s cheeks coloured a little and Resnik broke back into the conversation after her introduction of Fox, which had been very circumspect. ‘We don’t talk about Charlie’s wedding.’ Resnik cupped a hand around her mouth as though to keep a secret and stage-whispered, ‘Panic attacks.’ There were growling noises from Iberson. ‘Moving right along… What’s new with Tara Meridian?’

‘Oh, you know… Kidnapped, beaten, broken spine, internal injuries, brain damage, coma, became an infomorph. The usual stuff. I’m sure all your guests have stories like that.’ There were some rumblings from the audience.

‘But that’s rather the point, isn’t it? No one has a story like that. Let’s get a few simple questions out of the way first. You’re not an AI?’

‘No. My brain was analysed to produce a map of every connection in it. There’s a virtual engine program which then uses that data to emulate my brain. An AI is a program, each unique to the individual model. I’m an infomorph, but not an AI.’

‘A lot of people think those are synonymous.’

‘And that’s always been wrong. “Infomorph” encompasses a range of digital life forms, some of them theoretical. Computer viruses are a type of infomorph. Some people consider some forms of meme to be infomorphs.’

‘And there’s no going back?’

Fox shook her head. ‘The process is destructive. The original brain has to be dismantled to map everything out. In the future, it may be possible to take the data and use it to create a new artificial brain, but for now, it’s software or nothing. And I’ve no organic brain to go back to.’

‘Did it hurt?’ Iberson asked.

‘I was in a coma. Didn’t know anything about it until I woke up in a viron. I… didn’t exactly adjust well, initially, but I didn’t know it was going to happen. The only way they could save me was the Akh process, and MarTech had permission to try it on one terminally ill subject.’

‘And part of that permission was a legal exemption regarding your, well, death,’ Resnik said.

‘Uh-huh. Legally, I’m the same person I was before. For the process to be used on anyone else, the law needs to be brought up to speed on what constitutes death. Otherwise, when they’re converted, they have legally died and the infomorph created would be in a limbo state. Uh, that’s in America and much of the rest of the Earth nations. On the Moon, there’s already a legal structure granting full rights to infomorphs and I suspect the death part could be sorted out fast enough.’

‘Well, the political and social channels have been positively screaming with for and against arguments for the last couple of days. The potential to save the lives of people too injured to live otherwise is a big plus, and there’s the possibility of virtual immortality, but there are religious arguments against and, of course, the possibility of virtual immortality.’

‘Immortality is certainly a possibility, and it has positive and negative aspects. I think we should leave those to the philosophers, but someone thinking that this is a really awesome idea should keep in mind that they’ll never have children, they’ll watch their unconverted friends age and die… Or maybe not. We’re not far from physical immortality the way medicine is progressing. I think the immortality thing is a red herring, and the religious stuff is not something which bothers me. I don’t think I had a soul when I was organic, so I’m not really interested in whether I’ve lost it.’

‘I think we should get to the most important question,’ Iberson said. ‘The question everyone wants the answer to but doesn’t really want to ask because it makes them look bad. Can you still have sex?’

Fox smirked. ‘In this body, Charlie, I can have really awesome sex. My spine’s constructed a bit like a cat’s. I’m very flexible.’

‘Uh, okay. Where do I sign up?’

‘I’ll let you know.’

‘So,’ Resnik said, ‘you said you didn’t take this too well initially. You’ve now come to terms with it?’

‘Uh, yes. I wasn’t sure how my friends and family would take it, and they’ve all taken it well. I wasn’t sure how it would affect my work, and so far it’s helping. Pretty much all my fears have failed to live up to expectations, though I expect I’ll get some problems coming up now it’s public knowledge.’

‘I’m sure you’ll see both sides of public opinion. Any regrets?’

Frowning, Fox looked down for a second. ‘Not yet. There may be some, over time, but right now… I think the only thing to do from here is to really embrace what I now am. Okay, so the old Tara Meridian is effectively gone, but I’m still here with new capabilities, new possibilities, that I need to explore. I don’t really know what the new me is yet. I’ve been pretty much sticking to what I know so far and I need to stretch my wings. I may be a ghost in a high-tech doll, but I could be so much more, and I’m going to do my absolute best to find out just what I can become.’

###

About the Author

I was born in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall so perhaps a bit of history rubbed off. Ancient history obviously, and border history, right on the edge of the Empire. I always preferred the Dark Ages anyway; there’s so much more room for imagination when people aren’t writing down every last detail. So my idea of a good fantasy novel involved dirt and leather, not shining plate armour and Hollywood-medieval manners. The same applies to my sci-fi, really; I prefer gritty over shiny.

Oddly, then, one of the first fantasy novels I remember reading was The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper (later made into a terrible juvenile movie). These days we would call Cooper’s series Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy and looking back on it, it influenced me a lot. It has that mix of modern day life, hidden history, and magic which failed to hit popular culture until the early days of Buffy and Anne Rice. Of course, Cooper’s characters spend their time around places I could actually visit in Cornwall, and South East England, and mid-Wales. In fact, when I went to university in Aberystwyth, it was partially because some of Cooper’s books were set a few miles to the north around Tywyn.

I got into writing through roleplaying, however, so my early work was related to the kind of roleplaying game I was interested in. I wrote science fiction when I was playing Traveller. I wrote “high fantasy” when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons. I wrote a lot of superhero fiction when I was playing City of Heroes. I still love the idea of a modern world with magic in it and I’ve been trying to write a novel based on this for a long time. As with any form of expression, practice is the key and I can look back on all the aborted attempts at books, and the more successful short stories, as steps along the path to the Thaumatology Series.

Recently I took the big step of quitting my day job and taking up full-time writing. My favourite authors are Terry Pratchett, Susan Cooper, J.D. Robb, and Kim Harrison. Kim’s Hollows books were what finally spurred me to publish something, even if the trail to here came by way of Susan, back in school, several decades ago.

For More Information

Take a look at the Witches and Ray-guns blog: http://witchesandrayguns.wordpress.com

Amazon US Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B006J6II9O

Amazon UK Author Page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B006J6II9O

Other Books by this Author

The Thaumatology Series

Thaumatology 101

Demon’s Moon

Legacy

Dragon’s Blood

Disturbia

Hammer of Witches

Eagle’s Shadow

Ancient

Dragonfall

The Other Side of Hell

For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll

Vengeance

Anthologies in the Thaumatology Universe

Tales from High Towers’ Study

Tales from the Dubh Linn

The Aneka Jansen Books

Steel Beneath The Skin

The Cold Steel Mind

Steel Heart

The Winter War

The Greatest Heights of Honour

The Lowest Depths of Shame

Hope

The Ultrahuman Books

Ugly

Shadows

Hunting Mink

Frostburn

Guardian – 2017/18

True Dark – 2017/18

The Unobtainium Books

Kate on a Hot Tin Roof

King Solamet’s Mines – 2016/17

The Reality Hack Books

Reality Hack

The Fox Meridian Books

Fox Hunt

Inescapable

DeathWeb

Criminal Minds

Emergence

The Ghost in the Doll – August 2016

Eden Burning - 2017

The Princeps Venator Books

Hunter’s Kiss

Be My Valentine – 2016/17

Table of Contents

Part One: Where the Heart Is

Part Two: Vitam Novam

Part Three: The Doll Factory

Part Four: The Luxury of Living

Part One: Where the Heart Is

Part Two: Vitam Novam

Part Three: The Doll Factory

Part Four: The Luxury of Living