DeathWeb (Fox Meridian Book 3) (28 page)

‘So, an external attacker is unlikely, but we could be looking at an inside job.’

‘That can’t be ruled out, no. However, I know that it would require someone with high-level access to the system. There might be twenty people with the kind of access we’re talking about. That’s worldwide. I can get you a list of… certainly most of them since they have administrative access to the security system as well.’

‘That’s worth exploring,’ Fox said, nodding. ‘Send the data to my new apprentice detective. She’s really good at finding information on people.’

Kit stayed silent, but the colour of her cheeks spoke volumes.

~~~

‘Kit,’ Fox said as she walked toward the house.

‘Yes, Fox?’

‘Given that you’re good with analysing people…’

‘I do not believe I am any better than you are, Fox. Primarily I employ skill packages to do my analysis, though I am learning, quite fast.’

‘Yeah, well, your impression is all I really need. Do you think Marie was avoiding me last night?’

‘Um… Yes. Oh, maybe not.’

‘That was… equivocal.’

‘Well, I just got an update from my counterpart at home and Marie has just asked when you will be back. She wishes to know whether you would like to go running with her.’

‘Okay. I’ll meet her in the hall in thirty.’

~~~

At ten thirty in the morning, Central Park was still sweltering. There was a distinct quality of humidity along with the heat. Even under the trees, out of direct sunlight, it felt like you were wading through bathwater.

‘Probably a storm coming in,’ Fox commented as she ran along beside Marie.

‘Yeah, Belle’s forecast… said the same.’ They were making a fair pace, Fox’s pace, and Marie was trying manfully to maintain it, but her breathing was a little laboured.

Fox eased back a bit, slowly, so that Marie would not notice her taking it easy. ‘It was hotter in Topeka, would you believe?’

‘Yeah, I’d believe it. Sioux Falls could… get warm.’

‘On the plus side, I rescued a battered girl, had her abusive father locked up, and probably took down a potential fascist police agency. And I helped fix my parents’ marriage and pretty much made up with them.’

‘That’s good.’ There was a pause as Marie gathered herself. ‘I slept with Sam.’

Fox felt her stomach sink. There was a sensation like falling and she wondered whether she was stumbling, but the ground was not actually rushing up at her face. No, she was running, carrying on as though nothing had happened. ‘Oh. Well. Was it good?’

‘It… was amazing. A-and then I woke up and realised what I’d done. We went out. Two Seven Lex. It was… I don’t know. It was so sudden. We went to one of their booths.’

‘Sam took you to a private booth and banged you silly?’

‘Yes.’

‘Fox.’ Kit’s voice broke into Fox’s head, but the turmoil in there blocked the sense of urgency in the single word.

‘Not now, Kit.’

‘Now, Fox. Belle wants to know why we are not with Marie.’

‘What? We are–’

‘LifeFit says that she is running in the Battery.’

Fox grabbed Marie’s arm and came to a dead stop, looking around them at every bush and tree.

‘Fox,’ Marie said, ‘please don’t be angry. I don’t know what happened, but–’

‘Shut up.’

‘But–’

‘The serial killer I’ve been tracking. You’re his next victim. Stop talking.’ There were people about, plenty of them, but none seemed to be watching the two runners. ‘Shit. He could be anywhere.’

‘Why would someone want to kill–’

‘You use LifeFit. You’re young, attractive, fit. That seems to be enough for him. Now close your mouth and let me work. We keep running. We might be able to spot him. I’m guessing he’ll avoid contact if he sees you’re not alone, but we might spot him.’

‘Fox, you’re not armed,’ Kit pointed out.

‘I’ve got weaponry, just not a gun. And remind me to bring one next time I go running.’ Fox started off again, Marie dashing a pace to keep up.

‘Shouldn’t we… call the cops, maybe?’ Marie asked.

‘Not a bad idea. Kit, call Cant, tell him what’s happening. Tell him I think securing the camera footage for the area would be a good idea.’

‘Yes, Fox,’ Kit replied. ‘Belle says that Marie’s LifeFit feed still indicates that she is running around the Battery.’

‘Get me the route we’re actually taking from Marie’s favourite list.’ As the map image appeared in Fox’s vision field, a marker placed where they currently were. Fox said aloud, ‘You know, this application is a godsend to muggers. Look, this is the route I take when I go running, and you can see all the best places to stop me.’

‘E-everyone does it,’ Marie replied, somewhat defensively. ‘I mean, not everyone, but… Shit, Fox, I’ve never been a killer’s victim before.’

‘And you won’t be this time. Where would he try… There, that underpass. Bastard’s confident. Broad daylight in Central Park. Another hundred metres.’

Fox scanned the area as the ground began to dip. Ahead of them the path went through a tunnel with a larger track above it. They would be out of sight of most people for a few seconds, but that would be enough for someone well prepared to handle their victim. Maybe enough for two if he was
really
well prepared. Would he lose his kill just because someone else was there? Would he not be prepared for that?

As they neared the tunnel, Fox saw another runner coming through from the far side. Tall, not much more than thirty, dark hair, tightly muscled body. He was in running gear, but he had gloves on. Shock gloves, electric shock pads in glove form, could be disguised as ordinary gloves. Fox felt her muscles tighten, her heart rate bump up a notch, fight-or-flight reflex cutting in as they got closer. She slowed a little, readying herself…

And he ran past, not even looking at them, and they were back out into dappled sunlight. Fox looked around quickly. There was no one else around that she could see and the runner was still running away from them.

‘Keep going,’ Fox said to Marie. Inside her head, she said, ‘Kit, get that guy’s image to Cant. Maybe the good detective can check on him.’

‘The
good
detective?’ Kit replied.

‘He’s good if he nails our bad guy.’

~~~

Fox looked in through the observation window of a room in MarTech tower. While it looked like a hospital room, it was actually an electronics laboratory, one specifically designed for working on systems which needed to be isolated from external networks. Inside it, Marie was sitting pensively in a chair while three technicians sat around her with various pieces of equipment.

‘Is she okay?’ Cant asked.

‘Shocked, scared, but she hasn’t been kidnapped, raped, tortured, or murdered,’ Fox replied.

‘Definitely better than the last one. This confirms your PA’s theory.’

‘Pretty much, though it would’ve been better if I’d been able to spot our guy. Any luck with that other runner?’

‘Dead end. We found him, questioned him. He was in Chicago when Coolidge was being killed. He’s not our killer. And the virus thing is still looking bad. We went through Coolidge’s account and got nothing. No sign of malware in anything.’

‘Marie’s agreed to let my people look at her stuff. I’ll let you know if we find anything, but given your results, I’m not hopeful. Meanwhile, the run data on Marie’s implant is corrupted somehow, and the data logged to the servers was deleted “by user request.”’

Cant gave a grunt. ‘It sounds like something to do with the app to me, even if we can’t find a virus. Maybe your techs will find something. Let me know.’

‘Oh, I will.’

‘You know… The guy drops a body on your doorstep and then targets your friend. Sounds like he’s trying to make it personal.’

‘That thought had occurred to me.’

‘Right.’ Without another word, Cant left the room and Fox was left to watch the technicians work on the nervous redhead. Until Sam arrived.

Sam was looking as concerned as he got. ‘Fox, what happened? Is she all right?’

‘Yes, she is, and we can buy Belle a bottle of digital whiskey or something for that later. They’re trying to work out what the Hell happened with her implant. Apparently it still isn’t behaving right. Authentication is screwed up. She can’t access her LifeFit stats. They have her isolated now and they’re infiltrating it.’

‘Well, at least you were there to stop this guy.’

‘Yeah. So…. What happened, Sam? You don’t get sudden urges for wildass copulation in the private booths of a club.’

‘She told you then?’

‘Just before Kit told me about the hack, or whatever it is. So that pretty much stopped me from getting an explanation. Not that I think she has one.’

‘I did some digging. The club got itself a new memetics engineer recently and his new viron went live this week. There have been a few comments online that the suggestion for sex is significantly stronger than it was. We won’t be going there again. It’s not an excuse, but it’s an explanation. I’m sorry.’

‘I… I want to contract you to guard her. I don’t think he’ll try again, but maybe he’s the sort who won’t back down when he’s picked a target. Actually, how would you feel about being on retainer to Palladium? We might have other jobs like this.’

‘I slept with your lover and you’re offering me a job?’

Fox frowned, closing her eyes. ‘I’m not handling this especially well right now. I’ll get my head straight. I have to get it straight. Focusing on work seems like a good idea right now, so that’s what I’m doing. Want the job?’

‘Certainly. She’s supposed to be going out to do a shoot for Lucille Graves on the nineteenth. The whole week.’

‘I doubt he’ll follow her there, but we’ll handle transport and accommodation for both of you. You should probably decide whether that’s going to be one room or two.’

‘Fox, I–’

‘Nuh-huh. Just don’t say anything. You’re my friend. That makes this worse, but also… I don’t want to lose that over a stupid sex meme and I don’t know whether me and her was going to work anyway. We’re both more inclined to male partners. I think.’ Fox shook her head. ‘I don’t know and I can’t afford to worry about that right now. You’re with Marie. I’m going to hunt down this bastard and feed him his balls.’ She turned, marching to the door and out. She needed air, and she doubted there was any of that anywhere in the city.

~~~

Fox sat in the dark, on her sofa, with a glass of wine. Kit was staying silent, but Fox knew her assistant would say something to try to break her out of it sooner or later. She decided to do the breaking first.

‘Kit, have we got anywhere with the list of people who could have changed data on the LifeWeb servers?’

Kit appeared, quite visible despite the darkness of the room, and sat her virtual self down on the sofa beside Fox. ‘Are we still going to look into that? It seems clear that the application is the source of the erroneous data.’

‘Agreed, but I can’t do anything about that yet, and I like to cover all the avenues properly, just in case.’

‘There are nineteen people with the right kind of access on Mister Martins’ list. Of those, ten are stationed in other countries.’

‘Do they have offices in Berlin and Cape Town?’

‘Yes, and two of the people on the list are there, but both are residents and have not spent time in America. Two more can be ruled out since they operate the LifeWeb servers on Mars and the Moon. That leaves seven others who are based in America. One is in Detroit, handling the off-world connectivity system, and one is in Boston.’

‘I guess we can’t entirely rule out the Boston and Detroit ones. They could be coming here to do their killing. But we’ll focus on the ones in New York for now.’

‘Five people. One woman, which we can certainly put into the low-probability category. One was hired within the last eighteen months and so is unlikely.’

Fox frowned. ‘Your tone suggests that the other three don’t fit either.’

‘They are all extensive users of LifeWeb. Their history is essentially there for anyone to see. None of them have spent extensive periods in Berlin and Cape Town.’

‘So we’re back to the app unless there’s someone else with access to the servers but who doesn’t have access to the security system. Jackson wouldn’t know about those.’

‘We would need to get that information from LifeWeb. I suspect they would be reluctant to give it to us.’

Fox nodded. ‘Send a message to Cant and see if he can get it.’

‘Of course. Fox, I’m here if you want to talk.’

‘Huh.’ Fox sipped her wine. ‘I’m not really sure what I have to say.’

‘Coming on top of your mother’s infidelity, this has to be a shock.’

‘Yes. I hadn’t thought… You’re right, I guess. That’s going to add to it. It’s different though. Mom and Dad are married. They pledged themselves to each other, forsaking all others and all that crap. I’m not sure I’d be as forgiving as Dad, but I can’t hold Marie to the same standard and Sam’s not the type to do this under normal circumstances. I don’t think either of them went out to that place intending to betray me.’

‘But you feel they did?’

‘I feel… I don’t know what I feel. I don’t quite know why I seduced Marie in the first place. I’ve taken women to bed before, but they were all one-night stands, spur of the moment things. Suddenly I feel like… like settling down with a girl. That’s not really me either. And I’m fairly sure Marie went for it because it was a novelty.’

‘I think the fact that you are very attractive and a skilled lover might have had something to do with it,’ Kit replied, smiling. ‘I have a further theory, if you would like to hear it?’

‘Sure, why not?’

‘Mister Sandoval.’

Fox’s slight frown turned into a scowl. ‘What about him?’

‘He also betrayed you, in a far more insidious and invasive manner. He drugged you into wanting sex with him. Essentially he raped you, twice.’

‘You’re suggesting I went with Marie because I didn’t want to be with a man? I’ve been in Alexandria several times since Sandoval–’

‘A virtual environment where
you
are not being penetrated by these men. Even there you have avoided blondes. Not one of your partners there has had blonde hair. Most have had very black hair. Given your preference for blonde men, I find this significant.’