Fox Hunt (Fox Meridian Book 1)

by Niall Teasdale

  Jeanie was Elaine Ross’s online name, probably because her middle name was Jean. ‘She isn’t in, is she? I wouldn’t mind catching up with her.’

  ‘Jeanie has a real-world assignation she vanishes off to every few weeks. She hasn’t been in all weekend. Actually, she’s often back here on a Sunday night, but… Maybe her boyfriend is keeping her busy. Look, is it true that Adamshi was killed by the same man?’

  ‘I can’t confirm or deny that.’

  Cleopatra pursed her lips. ‘You think so, but you don’t have solid evidence.’

  Fox grinned. ‘I could be absolutely sure but keeping it secret to avoid public panic.’

  ‘I’m sure that only happens in detective stories. You know Adamshi used to come to Niflhel? Used her own name.’

  ‘I did. I was told she didn’t come here.’

  ‘No, she didn’t. But contrary to popular belief, I don’t spend all my online time on my back in this place. I went to a couple of the gigs she did. Have you actually heard her music?’

  ‘No,’ Fox said, a little surprised that she had never actually taken the time to check out what the world was going to be missing. ‘No, I haven’t had the time to sit down much since she was killed.’

  ‘It’s heavy on the electronica, as with a lot of modern music, but she was very into strong rhythms. Throbbing backbeats were common in her stuff, but she also liked doing… well, “fun” tracks, fast and light, but always with a strong beat to them. Music to get the blood pumping.’

  ‘Sounds good.’ Fox remembered the blood pooling around the young woman’s body and wondered whether she would ever listen to any of her tracks now.

  ‘It was. You know, it isn’t just Mystral that people have been asking about?’

  ‘No?’ Fox sipped her drink and frowned across the low table at her hostess.

  ‘No. Zorra made an impression with her one client and there have been a few people asking whether she would be back.’ The mock queen was smirking.

  ‘My personal agent tells me I’m over-stressed and I need to relax.’

  Cleopatra’s eyes narrowed, her lips pursed. ‘I think, as a public service, that we should arrange to make sure you’re relaxed and ready to take on a new week of hunting for a murderer.’

  ‘Oh really?’

  ‘Yes. I’ll get Nariam in here to give you a massage. She’s a miracle worker, seriously. And then we’ll… see who’s around to keep you entertained.’

  Fox gave a shrug. ‘Okay, sure, why not?’

  Grinning, Cleopatra got to her feet. ‘Excellent. Tonight is really starting to look up.’

  26th January.

  Fox reached out, her eyes still shut, and slipped the band off her hand which was holding the induction contact in place. Slightly distorted memories of bodies, faces, and pleasure washed through her mind. She had the physical memory of… maybe six men and a couple of women? It had started to get confusing trying to work out who was doing what to her, or anyone else, after a while. Now she had the memory of sex, but not the feeling. She had the distinct feeling that she should be sore and tired, but her muscles did not ache and there was a vague feeling of dissatisfaction. Maybe she was doing it wrong.

  ‘That same feeling of it not being complete?’

  Fox opened her eyes and turned her head. Kit was sitting, cross-legged, on the bed. Knowing what she was expecting, Fox had stripped and laid herself down, and used the induction connector with the strap. Now she felt her cheeks flush a little seeing Kit sitting there, as though she had been caught doing something naughty. ‘Uh, yeah. I mean, it was fun. I might even spend a little more time there. Maybe try out some of the other areas.’

  ‘I wish I could help. I’m not programmed for that kind of activity.’

  ‘Spend the evening with Vali again?’

  Kit’s eyes widened a little. ‘I… Well, yes. I thought I might gain more information from him.’

  ‘Uh-huh.’

  ‘All right, yes, I also enjoy the attention, but I do not really know what to do about it. I’m not–’

  ‘Programmed for that kind of activity?’

  Kit frowned. ‘No.’

  ‘You don’t need to be programmed for it, you know? Humans aren’t. Well, not exactly. I’ll ask Terri whether there are any software blocks on your behaviour. I know they limit AI companions for kids to make sure there are no problems, but you’re designed for adults. If there’s nothing restricting you… Well, set one of your copies researching it or something.’

  ‘You would be okay with me spending some time on such research?’ The big smile on the kitsune’s virtual face was way too cute to deny.

  ‘Sure. Why not? As long as you’re not going to end up with some form of hypersexuality disorder.’

  ‘That is highly unlikely. Our programming heavily limits the kind of aberrant behaviours humans develop.’

  Fox laughed. ‘Right. I’m glad to hear it. I’m going to try to get some sleep.’

  ‘Very well. Goodnight, Fox. Sweet dreams.’

  Turning over and pulling a sheet over her body, Fox closed her eyes again and tried to settle her mind. Maybe the morning would bring something new.

  Part Five: The Anarchy Meme

  New York Metro, 26th January 2060.

  ‘Well, I have something for you,’ Brentmann stated after he had finished listing all the lacks he had. Brentmann was the most senior forensics technician they had at the precinct. He got called in to review cases when all his minions were failing, or Canard wanted ‘his best pair of eyes’ on the problem. The latter usually happened when the case had a political angle. This case was developing a strong media angle and no one was getting anywhere reviewing the evidence, but Brentmann was coming up with a spectacular lack of anything useful as well.

  ‘Don’t make me beg, Brentmann,’ Fox told him. ‘If I have to beg, I may develop a strong urge to shoot you in the knees.’

  ‘Okay, okay.’ He held up his hands to fend off the bullets and grinned, which was an unappealing sight because he never seemed to do much of a job of caring for his teeth. He was not the most attractive man in the world with his mouth closed, but it was a definite improvement. ‘I’d bump the probability of this being the same killer to ninety per cent. It’s the handprints we scanned off the victims’ faces.’

  ‘You got fingerprints off their skin?!’

  ‘No. Not that it’s entirely impossible, given the right conditions, but that’s not the point. We got no indication of structure to the fingers. It’s like he dug a set of finger-size spades into their skin.’

  ‘Ah… cybernetic hand.’

  He snapped off a motion like shooting at her with his index finger. ‘Bang on. From the joint structure suggested in the prints, it’s a good probability that it’s the same model. Could be two people using the same model of hand…’

  ‘But given the other similarities in the crimes, it becomes highly probable that it’s the same killer.’

  ‘You’re on a roll, Fox. We’re going through this Buckyball’s data at the moment. Should expect some results later today. I’d say sooner, but the guy actually ran his computer as though he was an anarchist. Total freaking chaos in there.’

  ‘Okay, thanks. I’ll report to Canard.’ Fox watched as his image vanished from in front of her desk; shooting him would have meant going down several floors to the labs where he worked, but it would have been worth it. She activated a message app and composed a note to Canard saying that the same killer had almost certainly killed Trent and Adamshi, sent it off, and then checked on the progress of the facial recognition scans in precinct 29. Nothing there, of course.

  Canard appeared on the other side of her desk without preamble. ‘You’ve got confirmation of the same killer?’

  ‘Not absolute, but good enough. Brentmann’s saying ninety per cent. Our perpetrator has at least one cybernetic hand, without synthetic skin. That means that none of our suspects are the killer, though it doesn’t rule out their involvement if the kill
er is being paid.’

  Canard nodded. ‘We’ll officially designate both cases as yours. Dillan is going to be off duty for the next two weeks anyway. Sandoval is still on desk duty while we complete the investigation, but you’ll have him back tomorrow.’

  ‘Thanks,’ Fox replied, hoping it sounded like she meant it. Canard did not look like he was assuming sarcasm when his image vanished. Fox was about to pull up Brentmann’s detailed report when she got a connection request through from Kit and, since she was alone in her office, put it through in full 3D reception. ‘Kit? Something up?’

  ‘Something is definitely up, yes. I arranged for monitors to be placed indicating police and media activity regarding your main suspects. One of them has thrown an alert. Mystery and Mayhem put through a request to their local precinct regarding Elaine Ross.’ Fox felt her stomach sink. ‘She did not show up for work this morning and they are unable to contact her.’

  ‘Damn. Has Boston done anything about it?’

  ‘I do not have that information, Fox.’

  ‘Okay. I’ll call them.’

  ‘It may be entirely unrelated.’

  Fox did not think the AI sounded convinced, and if an AI barely out of the box was suspicious then Ross was probably in trouble. ‘I’d rather assume there’s a connection and be wrong. Thanks, Kit. Good catch.’

  Kit smiled, but what she said was, ‘This is the kind of thing I was designed for.’

  ~~~

  ‘She does it about once every three or four weeks,’ Grant Poll said. His image was sitting on the other side of Fox’s desk, looking worried. ‘She shuts off her implant comms, goes away for the weekend, and then she comes back looking refreshed and happy. Or… usually she comes back.’

  ‘Do you know where she goes or what she does there?’ Fox asked.

  ‘No. She calls it her “break from the world of media.” She makes sure we can’t find her. Or that anyone can, for that matter. Goes right off the grid and… meditates or something.’

  ‘Right.’ Cleopatra had said she went away every few weeks but that it was a boyfriend she was going to see. ‘She didn’t seem abnormally distressed before she went away?’

  ‘No. No more than normal. You can’t be thinking this is related to Julianne’s death?’

  ‘Right now, Mister Poll, I’d prefer to treat the two events as connected and discover that I’m happily incorrect than go the other way. Boston Metro are running the search, but they’ll keep me in the loop. If you think of anything which might help, please contact Boston or me immediately.’

  ‘Yes. Yes, of course.’

  Fox waited for him to disconnect and then settled back in her chair, closing her eyes and actioning a connection to Niflhel. Using a wireless connection reduced the data throughput and could result in dropouts, but she was not going in for the experience today. Sure enough there was a slightly longer pause before the misty bog imagery loaded and displayed, but a lot of the animation here was client-side scripting so it still looked good once she was in.

  Raising her hands, she summoned up an administrative contact panel, which manifested as a glowing scroll hovering in the air before her, and tapped for attention. There was barely a pause before the fog gathered around her, thickening to opacity before rolling back to reveal the shore of the fjord beside Vali’s house.

  ‘Zorra,’ the young man’s voice said from behind her, ‘appearing here in the middle of the day on a Monday. That would likely suggest some official business. And you didn’t bring your lovely assistant.’

  Fox turned around to see the blonde figure in his Viking outfit, standing there a little way up the bank. ‘I need a favour, but it is official in an unofficial way.’

  ‘Intriguing.’

  ‘One of your members, Jeanie, is missing. We’re looking for her, but Cleopatra implied that she went away every so often with a man. I need to know how she got that impression, but I don’t know who Cleopatra really is and getting the data through channels will take a while…’

  Vali was frowning. ‘You believe this is related to the deaths of Mystral and Adamshi?’

  ‘That’s… a possibility I’m unwilling to ignore at the moment.’

  ‘Probably wise. Cleopatra works during the day, but she is usually contactable. Perhaps to get around the official breaching of her anonymity, I could message her and request she meets you in Alexandria? Say, at one p.m.?’

  Fox grimaced. ‘Visiting an online brothel after lunch. The things I do for this job.’

  He grinned back. ‘I’ll send a message to Kit if there are any issues.’

  ‘Thanks. You’re being very helpful.’ She narrowed her eyes at the man. ‘Vali, what are your intentions regarding my agent? She’s been asking about certain kinds of social interactions which I don’t think her initial programming was aimed at.’

  His grin did not change. ‘I assure you, Zorra, that my intentions regarding Kit are entirely honourable, even if I admit to being intrigued to discover where her new interest will take her.’

  ‘Yeah, well… Don’t hurt her or I’ll come after you with a pair of virtual pruning shears.’

  Vali bowed graciously. ‘I shall endeavour not to, Lady Zorra, for I do believe you would.’

  ~~~

  Alexandria was quiet but not empty when Fox appeared at the dock and started up the hill toward the temple. There were the usual automata, but there were also the avatars of real people, either spending their lunch hours in virtual bliss or not working. She doubted anyone could afford to spend their time in Niflhel unless they had some form of job, but not everyone worked regular hours.

  Cleopatra spotted her as soon as she walked in and waved her over, hurrying her through into the back rooms before anyone could proposition either of them. ‘Vali said that you needed to speak to me about Jeanie?’

  ‘That’s right. Did he explain why?’

  ‘No. Just that there was a problem and you needed to speak urgently so doing it this way got around legally requesting my real name. Which I don’t mind you knowing, by the way. I can give you contact details if you need them.’

  Fox held up her hands. ‘No, no need. I like the mystery and as long as I can get what I need without resorting to all that paperwork… Believe me, it takes far too long to get authorisation to obtain a real identity.’

  ‘I’m… actually glad to hear that. What do you need?’

  ‘You said that Jeanie goes away every few weeks with a boyfriend?’

  ‘That’s right. It’s… three or four weeks between trips. She’s been doing it for as long as she’s been coming here.’

  ‘How do you know there’s a man involved?’

  ‘Ah… It’s a lot of things. I know she gets away from Boston. I think she goes out of the Metro to a resort of some kind. She said she went out there to get away from all the media press and that her “friend” liked to get away from it all too. And once she said that he had to travel further than she did to get there, so I know there’s a man. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s sexual… Uh, but I remember her saying that she was going to be getting the real thing one weekend.’ Cleopatra gave a little grin. ‘You know how it’s never quite the same when you’re in full-immersion virtual.’

  Fox grinned at her. ‘I did know, but I was thinking it might be just me.’

  ‘Nope. It’s the physical lockout. It stops your body reacting normally to the stimulation. If you use telepresence with full sensory simulation instead of immersion you can get the full experience, but then you lose out on some other aspects.’

  ‘Never had a need to try that… This is getting off-topic. So you’re pretty sure that she was seeing a lover, a male lover, on these trips to some inland resort?’

  ‘Yes. Not absolutely sure about all the details, but that’s the general gist of it.’

  ‘It’s good enough. Thanks.’

  ‘Oh, anything to help catch the bastard who killed Mystral. Besides, I expect you to come back and pleasure me for hours this evening.
’

  Fox was fairly sure she was joking and just grinned as she let the real world flow back in to fill her senses. Opening her eyes, she blinked a couple of times and sat up. So Elaine Ross was having an affair with a man and did not want the company she worked for knowing about him. Which could mean nothing, or it could mean she was in trouble, or it could mean she was trouble. Whatever the case, it was going to have to be looked into.

  ‘Kit, I’m going to need you to go through a complete background check on Elaine Ross. Run her financials. Pay particular attention to anything to do with a spa or resort outside Boston Metro.’

  Kit appeared beside Fox’s desk, frowning. ‘You think she may be involved in the murders somehow?’

  ‘No. Not exactly. Well… That’d make about as much sense as anything else in this case. None at all.’

  ~~~

  Dillan looked around as the door of the medical bay she was in opened and Fox walked in. ‘Inspector. Here to get what little statement I have?’ The hospital wing at HQ was fairly well appointed with beds for a hundred patients and good facilities, but the place was far too close to people who wanted answers for comfort.

  ‘No,’ Fox replied, smiling and pulling a chair over from the side of the room. ‘I’ve seen the reports and that stuff does a good job of fucking your memory up. I came to see how you were doing, not pump you for more information.’

  Dillan relaxed. ‘Good. I’ve got nothing I can add, though I got the feeling that was just fine by Captain Canard. I don’t even remember the EMP going off. Bucksbridge must’ve shot me right after the explosion.’

  Fox’s smile turned to more of a grin. ‘Can’t stop yourself making a report of it anyway?’

  ‘I feel like an idiot,’ Dillan replied, her brow furrowing. ‘I got caught by surprise and I can’t even remember opening the damn door of his apartment.’

  ‘No one could’ve known he had that kind of gear with him. He was down as a person to watch, minor league, petty crimes, not the kind of person to have military weapons and high-end neurotoxins available.’