DeathWeb (Fox Meridian Book 3) Read online

  ‘You still have a basic problem. You have a population made up of independent, strong-willed people with a dislike of authority. They’re used to self-reliance, going out and making the world do as they wish, despite the odds. They love guns and, given the anarchist biomod gangs who come in from the protectorates, I can’t blame them. These people aren’t going to like any police force that can actually be effective, Mom.’

  ‘The Watch–’

  ‘Has had no effect on your crime rates and has resulted in an increase in assault cases. Usually the complaints are against your watchmen.’

  Andrea’s eyes flashed and she opened her mouth, but Jonathan said, ‘Andy, this is not the place,’ and his wife calmed herself. The anger was still there though. ‘How much are they planning to charge for this?’ Jonathan asked.

  ‘We don’t have a final figure yet,’ Marie supplied, looking grateful. ‘I’ve been told to quote a figure of thirty to forty thousand per unit. Detailed forensic analysis swarms and some of the other equipment are available, but extra. And we can contract to provide training.’

  Jonathan nodded. ‘Thank you, Marie. Fox, we’ll see you again before we head home.’

  ‘I’m sure,’ Fox replied.

  ‘This afternoon,’ Andrea said. ‘I’m on stage for the debate. And there’s the banquet tonight, of course. You’ll be there?’

  Fox ignored the immediate question of her mother being on the stage in the afternoon: that could wait. ‘Yes, we’ll both be there, as it happens.’

  ‘We’ll see you later then.’ And Andrea turned and started away. Jonathan flashed Fox a quick smile and then went after his wife.

  ‘So… those were your parents,’ Marie said.

  ‘Uh-huh.’

  ‘Your mom is kind of hot.’

  ‘Yeah. She’s had a little work done since I last saw her.’

  ‘Bit of a bitch though.’

  ‘I’m not going to argue.’

  ~~~

  Fox scanned the audience, taking in a few faces she knew, a few that Kit was able to provide data on though Fox did not immediately recognise, and many more who would have to have their badges scanned if she wanted to know who they were. The same would have applied to the people up on stage were it not for knowing who they were going to be beforehand.

  General David Graves was in the seat next to Fox’s, looking grim. The big man was a hero, of sorts, noted for a number of actions in his career which had resulted in the saving of innocent lives. He viewed collateral damage as something no one should consider necessary and he had a strong belief in checks and balances, which he was good at arguing. Justice, he thought, was something which needed to be constantly watched and strived for. The problem was that the ‘debate’ was stacked against him and those who thought like him.

  Most of the people on the stage were either so politically minded that they refused to take a real position, or they were determined to see the resolution pass. There were people like Fox’s mother there, effusive believers in the freedom of the private individual to govern themselves. Raffinton from Wayden was there, agreeing with anything which was likely to bring in votes for passage. Canter and Malton were making non-committal mutterings and trying to stay hidden while the other three senators were vehement about passing the resolution. Graves was the only one who seemed to be applying any logic to the discussion and Fox watched events, not sure what to say, and getting more and more annoyed.

  ‘Our watchmen have given us the street patrols which NAPA has never really provided,’ Andrea Meridian said, her voice strong, confident, and sincere. ‘Not these automated spies in the sky, but flesh-and-blood security officers who are there when they are needed and know how to respond to human issues.’

  ‘That’s exactly what I believe we need, Mrs Meridian,’ Raffinton piped up. ‘Feet on the ground. Human brains watching for human crime.’

  ‘NAPA’s methods work well in the metro areas,’ Director Hovering said, apparently feeling the need to defend his organisation, if only partially. ‘We simply do not have the resources to put more officers out into the protectorates. Whenever we suggest we need more, people complain about the cost.’

  ‘Passage of this resolution would reduce the cost of NAPA,’ Raffinton stated flatly. ‘Full costs have been presented with the proposal.’

  ‘And how much will be needed from local funds to pay Wayden Executive Services to replace the lost policemen?’ Graves asked.

  ‘General, your own company would be bidding for the same work.’

  ‘We aren’t pushing for passage of the resolution.’

  ‘Our own people would be quite capable of taking up the roles without the need for expensive contractors,’ Andrea said, her tone becoming a little harder.

  And so it went on, and Fox watched as the things became more argumentative until Graves began to speak less, and that was when the whole thing became a diatribe. Speaker after speaker braying on about how everything would be better without NAPA.

  There was, however, an arbitrator in the debate. He ran some political debate show on INN and had been drafted in because he had libertarian leanings. Whether he had decided that Fox was being quiet because she was unsure of herself and would make a mistake or he genuinely thought everyone should have their say, he finally called her out.

  ‘Miss Meridian, our younger member of the Meridian family, you’ve hardly said a word this afternoon. Have you no input to our conversation?’

  Fox peered at him for a second. ‘I find it difficult to fight a battle when the opposition has control of the ground and my political backing has no desire to fight. I haven’t really thought of anything useful to say and I doubt it would change the results anyway, but that said… I can’t quite believe that some of the proponents of this resolution have read the same proposal that I have. Except for Mister Raffinton. I’m quite sure he understands it perfectly.’

  ‘Would you like to clarify that?’

  ‘Okay… My mother has mentioned her watchmen to me and has put them up as a fine example of how community policing can work given the right to be real police. To date, their only effect on Topeka’s crime figures has been to increase the number of physical assaults. The truth is that patrolling officers are not better at detecting crimes in progress than cyberframes. But beyond that, the current resolution level for serious crime in the Kansas Belt is quite good. Eighty-six per cent of homicides are solved out there. That’s better than New York Metro. Now, there are plenty of reasons for that, but the fact is that NAPA does as good a job out there as it’s allowed to do. Take NAPA away and you will have just as much crime, but now it has to be solved by people with no experience in detective work.’

  Fox fixed her gaze on her mother. ‘Don’t go thinking you can hire detectives from NAPA because the other thing everyone seems to have forgotten is the standards requirements. NAPA has to meet a bunch of regulations and work within the law. When NAPA’s regional offices are closed, those detectives will largely be soaked up by the judicial wing, which is going to need a lot of new inspectors, people who go out and audit how areas are being policed. That’s the ones who don’t move into better-paid jobs with Wayden or Palladium. So, no detectives for the local watches, and every year those watches are going to have to prove they are working like a proper police department. They’ll need to show they understand arrest procedure, due process, crime scene etiquette. No one seems to know what happens when the first one fails.’

  ‘NAPA’s judicial wing is empowered to bring in an outside contractor to take over the role, at local expense,’ Graves supplied.

  ‘Ah! Someone else has read the whole thing! And, of course, we’ll probably know that failure is coming long before the audit, because we’ll have cases thrown out due to bad evidence collection, broken custody chains, improper procedure during an arrest, and any of the numerous little things that defence lawyers love to uncover and put to use. So, give it… three to five years.’

  ‘Long enough for a nationwide
privatised policing resolution to look like a great idea,’ Graves said.

  ‘Yeah, I figure three to five years should do it. By then, there won’t be any local policing. I’ll be tied to a desk running a huge investigative department dealing with crimes all over the country. Mister Raffinton’s share options will be worth more than the output of a small nation, and General Graves and I will be rich. My mother will be wondering why her flesh-and-blood security officers are wearing Wayden or Palladium uniforms, though it’s more likely they’ll have company logos stamped on their hulls. Oh, and she may be wondering how her taxes went up to pay for it. As many of NAPA’s uniformed officers and detectives as possible will be soaked into security companies, but it’s doubtful they’ll all move over or find positions in the new NAPA, so the senators are going to be worrying over that rise in unemployment. The only thing I can see being good about it is that policing out in the regions might actually improve since there’ll be no choice but to put resource into whoever is doing the job.’

  ‘You’re wrong, Tara,’ Andrea said. ‘We can make this work.’

  ‘Agreed, Mom, you can. But you won’t. You’re ideologically opposed to the steps that would be necessary to make it work. Hell, half your watchmen will be doing it because they figure they’ll end up being able to buy assault weapons legally. They aren’t interested in being trained to be cops.’

  ‘Our people are not like–’

  ‘You’re forgetting I grew up among the people you’ll be recruiting. The good ones don’t belong to the “good ol’ boys” who’ll be in the watchmen clique. I went to school with these guys, Mom. I know what they’re like. Damn it, I like what they’re like, in the right circumstances. Friday night at the local bar. Any time I want a tyre changed on a tractor. Dealing with a girl whose boyfriend came home Friday night, beat her black and blue, and raped her… No, I don’t want them dealing with that, but they’ll have to, and not by laughing it off as horseplay.’

  Fox turned her attention back to their compère. ‘What do I think? I think this resolution will pass, because nothing I or the general have said is going to turn around the weight of combined apathy from the metro areas and fanaticism from the other regions. I think that I should be busy planning for all the work ahead of us rather than sitting here trying to hold back the tide. And there’s one last thing. I think that I could have been persuaded to vote for this resolution today if just one person had addressed the facts General Graves put forward earlier rather than falling back on emotive bullshit about freedom. But no one did and that makes me believe that while it could work, no one has really bothered to think about how it will work. For that reason, I will be using my delegated and personal votes to vote against this resolution.’

  There was a fraction of a second of silence while the people on stage took in the fact that someone had specifically stated how they were going to vote, and it was not positive, and they needed to come up with something in reply which did not seem too emotive, and… And then a burst of applause started in the audience, spreading rapidly with whoops added in for good measure, as the cops out there in the crowd expressed their opinion.

  ‘Fox,’ Kit said.

  Fox tried to keep the wince off her face. ‘How many more?’

  ‘Another thirty-eight vote delegation requests in the last five seconds, and rising.’

  ‘Canard’s going to want to have me assassinated.’

  ‘Perhaps, but these are not all from precinct nineteen. The demographic covers almost the entire metro area and some from further afield.’

  ‘Oh.’

  The applause died off and the adjudicator decided to call it a day. There was a request for a short closing statement from everyone and he turned to Fox first.

  ‘I’ve said all I have to say,’ Fox said and turned to look at David Graves.

  ~~~

  Dia Barrera met them at the side of the stage when they walked off. ‘You did well, Fox. I was beginning to worry you were going to stay entirely silent, but you did well. Impassioned, but calm and carefully considered. Factual, but with enough feeling to make you seem sympathetic.’

  ‘She got more applause from the cops than we all got at the end,’ Graves added, grinning. ‘No words of encouragement for me, Miss Barrera?’

  ‘I never need to provide any, David.’ Barrera lost the grin. ‘Of course, you’re right, Fox. The resolution will pass and we will need to begin managing the process for the following one.’

  ‘Yeah. Are you coming to the banquet tonight?’

  ‘I’ll be there. I have some networking to do. Your wife is over with you, isn’t she, David?’

  ‘Lucy miss a party? It’s never going to happen.’

  Fox sighed. ‘I wish I could.’

  ‘You’ll enjoy it once it’s happening,’ Graves told her. ‘Always the same with me. Lucy has to drag me out, but once I’m there, I have a fine time.’

  ‘Maybe.’ But with her parents attending as well, Fox was not so sure he was right.

  ~~~

  There were, obviously, compensations. Fox and Marie met Sam and Alice Vaughn in the foyer of Fox and Sam’s old apartment block, and Sam was, as usual, not disappointing. He looked gorgeous in his black suit, the crimson, open-necked shirt apparently selected to complement the red dress Vaughn was in. It was a far shorter dress than Fox would have believed Vaughn had the courage to wear and it showed more cleavage than expected, and Vaughn had pulled her hair into a casually complex updo which gave the impression it could collapse in an instant.

  ‘What do we think of our rather reluctant Alice?’ Sam asked as they headed out to pick up the maglev again. Vaughn’s cheeks coloured, but she did not falter.

  ‘How much persuasion to get her in that dress?’ Fox asked.

  ‘No more than thirty minutes.’

  ‘More like three hours,’ Vaughn said.

  ‘Alice, you look edible,’ Fox told her.

  Vaughn’s cheeks reddened more, but her back straightened and her steps developed more of a strut. ‘Thank you, but you… One or two people are going to wonder if you’ve been replaced by an alien.’

  Marie had opted for something young and bright, and quite like her personality. Her dress was high on the thigh with a scooped neckline, black with decorative panels in pink curving over her stomach. The panel over her navel was pink mesh. Flesh tone, high-heeled sandals gave her a little extra height. Marie looked like Marie in a party dress.

  Fox was in a strapless corset-dress, the skirt falling to her ankles, but with a wide split up the front of her left leg. The lightweight, black fabric flicked around her sandalled feet, showing long legs as she strode along beside the slideway. The bodice of the dress was white, the black and white portions divided by a wide waistband patterned in black and white. There was also a black lace bolero jacket which just added to the elegance of the outfit. Marie’s tongue had more or less rolled out of her head and flopped onto the floor when she had seen the woman she was accompanying. That was just the kind of reaction Fox wanted.

  ‘Fox,’ Sam said, ‘brushes up very well when she has sufficient reason to do so. I believe she even enjoys dressing up. Not that you’d get her to admit it.’

  ‘You certainly wouldn’t,’ Fox agreed.

  ‘Speaking of impressions,’ Vaughn said, ‘try not to look too surprised when you see David’s and Garth’s wives.’

  ‘My interest is piqued.’

  ‘Well, they both look kind of trophy, and Lucy Graves kind of is. He met her after leaving the Army, never had a long-term relationship before that. She is actually brighter than she looks, but she’s thirty plus years younger than him. Camille Eaves looks like a sexy, Mexican señorita who hooked herself a rich American, but she’s way brighter than she looks. She works in PR and memetics for Palladium. Lucy actually has a bit of a business designing clothes. Uh, and she’s likely to be wearing something she designed. You might like her stuff, Marie.’

  ‘It’s bright then?’ Fox asked.
<
br />   ‘Bright and often skimpy.’

  ‘Sounds great,’ Marie said, grinning.

  There was another stop-off at the main MarTech tower to pick up Jackson, Terri, Helen Dillan, and Mariel Hoarsen. Jackson, in a suit, looked quite comfortable with Hoarsen on his arm, but there was something about her face and posture which once again made Fox want to talk to the MarTech CEO. Hoarsen’s black, floor-length, figure-skimming gown looked good on her and proved that she had done a good job at keeping her figure. And if Fox’s suspicion was right, then Jackson really needed to have his head examined, because he seemed entirely oblivious.

  Terri and Dillan had gone for the little black dress option. Fox suspected that Terri had fabricated Dillan’s outfit since the design was one Fox knew her friend had bought from a big name in Berlin. There was a little variation in the outfits to differentiate them, particularly in the shoes since Dillan had an inch of platform on her pumps. The extra height matched Dillan with Terri more or less precisely. The two girls were definitely becoming something of an item. From the expression Jackson wore when he looked at them, Terri’s father was happy about that.

  Next stop along the LI-line was the conference centre. The banquet officially started at eight, but the doors were open for drinks thirty minutes before that. By the time the little group walked into the reception hall of the centre, where the drinks were being served, most of the delegates had descended from their rooms on the upper floors and were beginning the process of getting drunk. The conversation level was deafening; after all of fifteen seconds, Vaughn had created a group virtual conference session so that they could keep in touch in the chaos.

  ‘Alice, you’re a genius,’ Fox said.

  ‘No, I’m a manager. And when we need to form up to breach the banquet tables, I expect you to give us the tactical plan.’

  ‘David’s the strategist, and I think this calls for a combined action, possibly involving orbital bombardment.’

  ‘I’ll signal the company’s orbital death ray,’ Jackson said.