The Ghost in the Doll (Fox Meridian Book 6) (3 page)

‘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, 29
^th
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.’