Emergence (Fox Meridian Book 5) Read online

  ‘They haven’t opened that one,’ Fox replied. Monique looked around, spotted another tubular package, and picked it up.

  ‘Right,’ Jackson said. ‘Well, you’ll say “no, we can’t accept this” or some such because–’ He stopped as Monique pulled the bottle out and looked at the label. ‘Because it’s expensive,’ Jackson went on, ‘but you’re really doing me a favour. It’s a pleasant enough wine, but I’m told it doesn’t keep and if it doesn’t get drunk, I’ll be storing vinegar bottles.’

  ‘This is very generous,’ Monique said.

  ‘Fox told me that Jason had never had French wine, so I assume you haven’t, or rarely. I have about three cases of it which need drinking, soon. Fox wouldn’t let me send you a case. Said I’d embarrass her. I didn’t pay for it, so I don’t see why giving it away is a big deal, but…’ He waved a hand dismissively. ‘I hope it goes with your dinner.’

  ‘Don’t mind Poppa,’ Terri said. ‘He’s never been very good with money.’

  ‘You run one of the biggest companies in the world and you’re not good with money?’ Pascal asked.

  ‘Oh, I don’t run it,’ Jackson replied. ‘I have Mariel for that. If I ran MarTech Group, I’d never be able to afford to run MarTech Group. They make me turn up to board meetings, but that’s about as far as I go.’

  ‘Oh,’ Fox said, putting on an expression of mock affront, ‘so that’s it. You have to suffer through board meetings, so you suckered me onto the board of Palladium.’

  ‘Well… Yes. Why should I suffer alone? In a couple of years, I’ll have Terri doing my job and I’ll become a pottering, eccentric engineer.’

  ‘Poppa,’ Terri said, far too sweetly, ‘don’t make me hurt you.’

  ~~~

  ‘Well, it’s not bad,’ Jason said, looking at the wine in his glass, ‘but I have to agree, I’ve had better.’

  ‘Who gives away three cases of French white?’ Gaby asked, incredulous.

  ‘Four,’ Fox corrected. ‘They’ve managed to get through one. Jackson really isn’t a big drinker. Um… the North European Union’s ambassador to America. They’d signed some big deal with MarTech Defense Technologies for… I think Jackson said it was aerospace dominance fighters, so it would be High Harpies.’

  ‘You know all the equipment your companies produce?’ Pascal asked.

  ‘Me? No, but Kit’s got the whole catalogue in storage in case I need to know it. When I joined, I toured a fair number of the facilities. Went up to the Moon and the station at L-four, visited Germany and East Africa. Getting a feel for things, you know?’ Fox forked turkey into her mouth and let her eyes close: Monique knew how to cook a bird. It came close to melting on the tongue.

  ‘It doesn’t sound like something someone with your temperament would get into. All these meetings and paper– Well, no, I suppose the paperwork isn’t that much different to being a cop.’

  Fox swallowed. ‘I did say Jackson suckered me into it. I wasn’t kidding. I didn’t know I was on the board until I got to the induction meeting. But I was the only investigator in the company then. Helen joined a little later. Next month we get a bunch more people on board, but I’ll still get plenty of time doing detective work.’

  ‘She sounds happy now,’ Jason said, ‘but you should have seen her when she was reviewing all the contract documents for the private policing work.’

  ‘It did feel like my brain was draining out of my ears.’

  ‘And now you know how I feel. I hardly ever get to do anything a detective should be doing.’

  ‘Detecting.’

  ‘Precisely.’

  ‘Intimidating criminals.’

  ‘And that.’

  ‘Inflicting gunshot wounds without feeling guilty.’

  ‘I have not been in a shootout in over a year.’

  ‘You poor baby.’

  ‘I do miss the shootouts,’ Pascal agreed wistfully.

  ‘I don’t even routinely carry a gun!’ Gaby wailed.

  Monique rolled her eyes. ‘Police officers should be locked up for the safety of the general populace.’

  Fox narrowed her eyes. ‘We’d just shoot our way out.’

  ~~~

  ‘You are seriously telling me that Jackson Martins packed guidance electronics and an infrared optical system into a ten-mil projectile?’ Gaby was holding one of the rounds from Fox’s pistol and staring at it as though it could not possibly be there.

  ‘Pretty much my reaction,’ Fox replied, ‘but, yes, he did. Haven’t actually had to use many of the homing rounds, which is good because they cost a fortune, relatively. Mostly it’s short-range stuff and the magnetic accelerator takes care of that. But it’s a snap to get a lock and if you’re not using homing, the rounds have a flat trajectory out to a thousand metres because of the rocket motors. Then you have a choice of warheads, from less-than-lethal to smart-forged, multi-purpose explosive.’

  ‘That is so cool. Positively pearlescent.’

  ‘You are, I think, a little more enthusiastic about guns than my husband,’ Monique commented.

  ‘Ex-Army. You should see the assault carbines Jackson’s people designed based on the Gauss pistol he built for me. And the heavy stuff! Which I can’t talk about because it’s still secret, but… Wow!’

  ‘And yet you said that you were pushing for police to carry non-lethal weapons.’

  ‘The electrolasers? That’s just common sense. And they can give a lethal shock if required, but it’s viable to use them as a standard sidearm which incapacitates rather than kills. If you have that option, then it should be the default. Projectile weapons should be deployed for specific circumstances. Also, I may not eat until New Year.’

  Monique laughed. They had retired to the lounge with glasses of wine and the probability that they would chat and drink until they fell into a stupor. Fox was warm, full, and developing a nice buzz: she suspected unconsciousness might claim her quite quickly.

  ‘I’m glad you enjoyed it,’ Monique said. ‘It takes a while to get ready, so it’s always nice when it’s appreciated.’

  ‘It was appreciated. Even if I can’t actually move.’

  ‘Moving is overrated,’ Jason commented.

  ‘Have to eventually. If I forget to say this before I go, this has been great. I was so nervous and you’ve all been so nice. Even Kit’s had a good time. Thank you.’

  ‘Our pleasure,’ Monique said.

  ‘Any woman who can get Jason to stop working long enough to pay her any attention is worth meeting,’ Pascal added.

  ‘I was expecting you to be some sort of sorceress for pulling that trick off,’ Gaby said.

  ‘I am not that bad,’ Jason grumbled. There was a second or so of silence. ‘All right, perhaps I am, but you don’t have to point it out so vigorously.’

  ‘Yes,’ Monique said, ‘we do. You might relapse without constant reminders.’

  ‘I’m feeling put-upon.’

  Fox leaned over and patted his hand. ‘Big, strong man like you? I’m sure you’ll cope.’

  New York Metro, 26th December.

  It was around five p.m. before Fox made it into Sam’s lounge. She had managed to get home not long after two, but then she had called Jason just to let him know that she had arrived safely, and had ended up in a teleconference chat with his family. There was still some snow on the ground in Toronto while New York was sitting under a glowering blanket of cloud, which was keeping the temperature well above freezing, so that had required discussion as part of the ‘how did the journey go’ conversation.

  Then there had been a shower, because travelling often made Fox feel a little grimy, and a change of clothes, and then she had felt ready to be among humans again so she had trooped down to find Sam and Marie on a sofa watching vids. Sam was shirtless; the ideogram over his right nipple seemed to be more complicated than usual and Fox suspected it might say ‘Merry Christmas’ or something like that. Marie was in a long T-shirt and short shorts, neither of which glowed. They look
ed relaxed.

  ‘Did you spend all of yesterday naked and writhing?’ Fox asked.

  ‘Not all of yesterday,’ Marie replied. ‘We were talking to you for some of it. And we watched some vids.’

  ‘Marie had never seen It’s a Wonderful Life,’ Sam said. He handed Fox a glass of wine which she realised she needed, somewhat to her surprise.

  ‘Neither have I,’ Fox said, dropping onto the sofa. ‘Too feel-good for me. It’s kind of like a variant on A Christmas Carol, as far as I know, with James Stewart and an angel.’

  ‘Called Clarence,’ Marie supplied.

  ‘See, that’s just wrong. Angel names should be like Azriel or... something.’

  ‘Michael, Gabriel,’ Sam said. ‘Clarence sounds sort of reasonable.’

  Kit appeared, genie-like. ‘Both Michael and Gabriel have an “el” ending, which means “of God.” Clarence, however, is a reference to the River Clare, in Ireland.’

  ‘The internet has spoken,’ Fox stated, ‘and I’m right, so there. We ate too much, drank too much, and chatted a lot about nothing consequential. It was good.’

  ‘No one hated you then?’ Sam asked. ‘I said you’d be fine.’

  ‘No one hated me. Gaby was too fascinated with Kit to even consider it.’

  ‘And I got to see real snow,’ Kit said, beaming. ‘It was cold, and alarmingly militant.’

  ‘I threw a snowball at her.’

  ‘I recall snowball fights on a couple of occasions in Boston,’ Sam said. ‘Fun while they last, and then you’re cold and a little damp.’

  Fox nodded. ‘You can say that about a lot of things. Almost a metaphor for life.’

  Marie giggled. ‘What are you doing tomorrow?’ she asked.

  ‘Board meeting first thing. We’re trying to keep things light until after New Year, but we need to keep an eye on the preparations for the start of the contracts.’

  ‘The tenth of January, right?’

  ‘Yup. There’s parallel NAPA coverage for about six months, which gives us time to train up cops in the regions like Topeka. And for the areas where we’re providing full coverage, it gives us a chance to make sure we have enough people and equipment in place. Getting that lot ready is keeping Ryan busy. I’m getting off pretty lightly, but I do need to make sure I’ve got enough detectives available where they’re needed.’

  ‘I don’t start shooting again until the third. Final bits for the first few episodes, and then we see how the audience figures pan out to see if we keep going.’

  ‘You will,’ Sam stated.

  Marie gave a little shrug. ‘I hope so. I think the pilot is looking strong, even with all the character setup we need to do. Adrian’s really got into his stride. And Naomi agreeing to let us film the opening in the chapter house with real Sisters was really great. I think it’ll grab people’s attention and keep them going until the action picks up again. But I’m still nervous.’ She grinned. ‘Gaby recognising me came as a surprise.’

  ‘Get used to it. It’s going to happen more and more often.’

  ‘Well, I’ll try not to let it go to my head. I don’t think we’re going to have hordes of fans camping outside the door.’

  Fox sipped her wine. ‘Well, if we do, there’s an armed cyberframe on the roof we can use to chase them off.’

  27th December.

  ‘We’ve got all the induction courses set for the third,’ Ryan Jarvis said. ‘Alice has the rooms booked here and we’ve got the training ready. That’s all pretty standard. We’ve been including basic familiarity with the detective-assist equipment for a couple of months.’

  ‘Three days, right?’ Fox asked. She sat at her desk, in her office, and looked out over the virtual conference room the Palladium board used for meetings. Nine months in, they had these things down to a reasonably fine art.

  ‘Yes, then we have the investigations staff scheduled for two days with you in New York.’

  ‘I’ve booked rooms for them all,’ Alice Vaughn said. ‘Transport from Chicago is arranged. You said you’d take care of the theatre, Fox.’

  ‘We’re not using a theatre,’ Fox said. ‘There’s lab space going free in the third tower at the moment, so we’re using some of that. And I’m kind of winging this. No one’s done this in the company so this is going to be a bit trial and error, but I’ve been through it all with Terri and Kit. We’ve got an agenda and a list of key points. We’re going to record everything and go through it afterward to see if we can do better.’

  ‘That sounds like a working plan.’ Garth Eaves sat at the head of the table, presiding over things and apparently rather pleased that he did not seem to be needed. ‘I just felt I should say something so that you all remember I’m around.’

  ‘Who are you again?’ Jarvis asked him, grinning.

  ‘I give you money.’

  ‘I thought that was the money fairy. Learn something new every day.’

  ‘Some of us do. Anything else on this?’ Eaves scanned the table, getting nothing. ‘Very well, the Sakura contract.’

  ‘Did I miss something?’ Fox asked.

  ‘We haven’t bothered you with this one since it came in late last week. Rush job with no investigative input.’ Eaves paused and then added, ‘We hope you won’t be needed anyway. Nishi Sakura, the musical artist, is giving a series of concerts to promote her new album. They had security organised, but something went wrong and they tagged us as a replacement.’

  ‘Something went wrong?’

  ‘They’re not saying what. As I said, it’s a rush job. The first concert is on the third, in Boston. She’s got three nights there, five nights in New York, starting on the tenth. Washington on the twenty-first, and Tokyo on the eighteenth of February. We’re covering all of them.’

  ‘We’ve got personnel for that?’

  ‘We’re covered,’ Jarvis said. ‘It’s a little tight, but we can do it. We’ll be running a lot of frames.’

  ‘That works?’

  ‘Miss Sakura was rather enthused about the idea,’ Vaughn said. ‘She thought it was very modern and wanted cambots flying over the crowd before the show starts. It’s supposed to give a dystopian “Big Brother is watching you” feel. She’s got a dark, cyberpunk sort of number she pushed to the head of the schedule.’

  ‘So we’ve set aside a few units with special programming,’ Jarvis went on. ‘They’ll loop around over the audience, pick out people and focus on them, that kind of stuff. Then the images from them are going to display on the screens she’s got backing the stage.’

  ‘Okay,’ Fox said. ‘Well, let me know if there’s anything you need from me.’

  Jarvis nodded. ‘Hopefully, we won’t. This should be an easy one.’

  Fox winced. ‘Oh… What were you thinking when you said that?’

  ‘Sorry. Blame lack of sleep.’

  ‘One more thing before we wrap,’ Eaves said, giving Jarvis what was probably a mock-withering look. ‘BioTek have another of their big announcements coming up’ – Jarvis groaned at that – ‘but they thought fit to actually tell us in advance this time.’

  ‘Makes a change,’ Jarvis grumbled. At the end of November, BioTek Microtechnologies, the biotechnology arm of MarTech, had issued a media statement announcing the release of various products based around what they called ‘Morphogenesis.’ This was a form of nanovirus which could be introduced into a living system, i.e. a person, to carry out cellular and molecular alterations while the host continued with their normal life. All the proposed applications were medical, but there had been three weeks of protests outside the MarTech towers in New York and Berlin, and MarTech’s memetics department was still busy countering the online propaganda. ‘What is it this time?’ Jarvis asked.

  ‘They’ve got several next-generation nanosymbiont products coming out’ – a louder groan from Jarvis – ‘which are medical and cosmetic in nature at this point.’

  ‘Cosmetic nanobugs?’ Fox asked. ‘They think people are going to– Forget I said that. Of
course, people will infect themselves with a nanovirus to look nicer.’

  Eaves grinned at her. ‘Actually, it sounds kind of cool. They’re calling it PureClean. It coats the skin and gums and keeps everything clean. No body odour, no bad breath, and you don’t have to clean your teeth manually. There’s a small benefit in avoiding certain kinds of disease transmission as well.’

  ‘Huh. Okay, I can see people buying that one.’

  ‘There’s also an upgrade to their existing immune system booster. They’re claiming almost a two hundred per cent increase in efficacy, but it costs more, of course. And they’ve got something which is apparently guaranteed to eliminate cancer cells before they can spread. Early indications are that long-term use is likely to double lifespan.’

  Fox frowned. ‘Potential can of worms right there.’

  ‘When’s the announcement?’ Jarvis asked.

  ‘The fourth of January,’ Eaves replied.

  ‘Happy New Year! I’ll make sure all leave requests for January are blocked.’

  29th December.

  ‘So, it’s New Year soon,’ Marie said. Breakfast was being had in Sam’s lounge, because none of them had that much else to do.

  ‘I’d noticed that,’ Fox said.

  ‘I believe it’s come up in conversation,’ Sam agreed.

  ‘Yeah,’ Marie said. She was obviously going somewhere with this, but she paused to munch toast. ‘I was thinking… I’ve never done the whole New York New Year thing.’

  ‘There’s a thing?’ Fox asked.

  ‘You know, Times Square, the big ball dropping…’

  ‘The huge crowds, the bag-snatching, having to face the probability that some loser with halitosis is going to want to kiss you because it’s the only time of the year he gets any action…’

  ‘It’s only a few blocks over. We could walk and the forecast isn’t miserable.’

  ‘It is about the first New Year I haven’t worked in the last decade,’ Sam mused. ‘By choice, I might add. I have engagements tonight and tomorrow, but I decided I would free up my time for the actual night.’

  Fox could see him thinking it might be a good idea. ‘Crazy, the both of you. It’s all right for you two, you can just play suck-face with each other until that bit’s done with. Jason’s going to be in Toronto. And then there’s what to wear. It’ll probably be freezing. Belle? What’s the forecast for Friday night?’