Fox Hunt (Fox Meridian Book 1) (13 page)

The frescos were there to highlight carved relief, but that was only really visible once she had climbed up the cobbled main street and was standing outside the colonnade of the building. All those painted carvings did give the impression that the building was there for only one reason: they were all depictions of various forms of sexual activity, and quite graphic depictions at that. Well, sometimes her job did involve
terrible
sacrifice…

The inside of the building was heavy on the red. A lot of the marble was covered in thick, red velvet drapes. Plush, red couches and loveseats were placed around a large, circular room with a pair of staircases winding up from the back which had a doorway set between them. Most of the furniture was occupied by women in various states of undress. No men, Fox noted; the men who were there were still dressed at this point, mostly they were standing, and they were posed in manners which suggested they were customers seeking to procure the women they were talking with. There was just that hint of anticipation about them, though the same could be said for a number of the women. No one came here unless they
wanted
to be playing their role after all.

‘A new face.’ The voice had a smile in it and Fox turned to see its owner was, indeed, smiling. ‘Seek you a vocation in my house, lady?’ This had to be Cleopatra. She was tall, tanned, had jet-black hair to her waist and dark, almost black eyes, and a voluptuous figure. The outfit was the giveaway, however: there was a silken loincloth set about her hips, dipping low at the front and falling down to almost touch the floor, and there was a wide necklace of blue and gold beads set about her neck and shoulders. Her full breasts were bare.

‘Zorra,’ Fox said. ‘I’m Zorra, and you
must
be Cleopatra, and a friend told me about this place. I was hoping to see her here. Mystral?’

‘Mystral… I don’t believe I’ve seen her since she exhausted four men the night gone last.’

Fox smiled. The weird mix of Greek and Egyptian culture and what sounded like fake medieval language was just a little off-putting, but when in Alexandria… ‘I do believe that her tales of this place are not exaggerated, and that this has brought out a side of her I have not seen afore now.’

‘Many say that their other lives are far less… adventurous than their time here. Can I put you to work, Zorra? The house charges twenty-five per cent of whatever you gain from your clients. You are free to come and go as you wish. I can provide accommodation in nearby apartments if you wish to spend time here, at reasonable rent, of course. Mystral has rooms here.’

So Cleopatra was speaking of Trent in the present tense, which meant she was probably unaware of the murder… Would a virtual house give any clues about the murder? Well, it might be worth a try… Fox lowered her voice. ‘Lady Cleopatra, might I speak with you in private? It’s a matter of… some delicacy and urgency.’ She could see the look of intrigue buried in the frown: Cleopatra was seeing this as some odd bit of role-playing. She was probably expecting a seduction attempt.

‘Come with me,’ Cleopatra said and set off across the room toward the door at the back which, it turned out, led into a suite of private rooms. The door let into a lounge set out for Roman-style eating with loungers and low tables. To the left, behind thin, blue drapes, there was a bathroom, of sorts, featuring a large pool. To the right, behind red drapes, was the bedroom; the bed was huge and did not look that comfortable to sleep on. Cleopatra curled onto a lounger, indicating the one opposite to Fox. ‘What is it that brings you here on such urgent and delicate business, Zorra?’

‘I’m sorry to drop out of character, but I have some bad news. Mystral was killed yesterday morning, in her home. I’m the detective assigned to her case, Inspector Tara Meridian. I can provide formal identification if–’

‘Killed?’ Cleopatra sat upright, her face serious. ‘You mean murdered. They wouldn’t assign a detective to her case for an accident. And that’s a name I’ve heard of. You were involved in that rescue in Dallas. Jackson Martins’ daughter. Aren’t you with the UNTPP?’

‘I was then. I’m with NAPA now.’

‘Ah…’ Her eyes widened as a thought hit her. ‘You can’t think that her coming here–’

Fox held up a hand. ‘At this point I’m trying to get a picture of her, especially her state of mind during the days leading up to her death. I heard she spent a lot of time here.’

‘Uh, I suppose she did. She first came… nine months ago. Niflhel had been open for a month and I’d only just got this place into the shape I wanted it. She was one of my first regular girls and well liked. I wasn’t exaggerating about her exhausting four guys on Saturday night. She was popular. I got the feeling she didn’t have much of a life outside, but she played the role to the hilt, you know? It was hard to get an impression of what she was like when she wasn’t Mystral.’

‘But she was happy enough in the last few days? No indications of problems outside. Maybe she was here
more
than usual or was more enthusiastic.’

The beautiful, exotic features of the mock Egyptian queen scrunched up in a distinctly unattractive manner. ‘Don’t… No, I don’t think she was acting any differently than usual. I’m usually pretty good at spotting that kind of thing…’ She sagged a little. ‘Outside of here I’m a psychologist. I work in memetics so this place is fairly easy, but it lets me be a bit more creative than crafting advertising campaigns. If there was anything wrong with Mystral, she was hiding it well.’

Fox nodded slowly. The more she heard, the more the entire thing was sounding like a random killing, which would be bad… ‘Could I see her apartment here?’

‘I don’t see why not…’ An absent flick of the wrist produced a key which appeared in Cleopatra’s hand from nowhere. ‘It’s right out of the front door, second house on the left, upper floor. She said… She said she liked the view out over the ocean.’

Getting to her feet, Fox took the key and started for the door. ‘Thanks. And I might be back to try the place out properly. The detail is beautiful, but… no men on the roster?’

Cleopatra got up to follow her, shrugging. ‘I used to have a mix, but I got fed up of all the bitching. Seriously, men are so childish.’

Fox gave a laugh. ‘I won’t argue that one.’

The ‘apartment’ Trent had rented in the virtual town was more like a room with some storage space and a bed, but it did have a balcony which jutted out enough from the building on the seaward side to let you stretch out in the not-really-there sun. The view was quite beautiful. The sea shaded from a pale, almost icy blue at the docks, darkening as it vanished into the distance. There was, Fox assumed, a limit to how far you could actually go out to sea, but the apparent horizon was a long way off.

There were two wardrobes and a dresser with drawers in the room. Trent seemed to have spent some time creating outfits for her Mystral persona. Suitable whoring outfits for the setting and a few more decorous pieces which still managed to look sexy. Clearly Paretski had been wrong about Niflhel changing Trent’s view of the world: she had broken up with Rogers years ago and the server had been around for ten months. So the outfits for selling her body in were a product of her new outlook on life, not a cause for it, but she had certainly decided to sink herself into the role.

‘So why did someone kill you, Julianne?’ Fox asked as she checked the drawers and found nothing of note. ‘Why did someone break into your home and shoot you in the eye? It’s a personal way of murdering someone. He had to have been looking right in your eyes while he blew your brains out. That takes a lot of hate or a lot of cold.’

Exasperated at the lack of anything that made sense in this case, Fox headed for the door. She would return to the docks and leave. Grinning, she rethought that: she would return to the docks, remember to pick up Kit, assuming the AI could be extracted from her love nest, and then leave to consider what to do next. The logical thing would be to arrange to fly to Boston…

She had just made the bottom of the flight of steps which led down the side of the building from Mystral’s apartment when strong hands grabbed her waist and she was pulled back into a small alley between the rows of houses. Then she was spun about, and her wrists were grasped and pinned above her head, a trick which indicated her attacker was tall.

‘Now I have you, my–’ And she looked up into blue eyes set in a handsome, bearded face that should have belonged to some sort of fantasy pirate, and she saw the look of confusion cross his face which she was quite sure the fantasy pirate would never have worn. ‘You’re not Mystral.’

‘No,’ Fox replied. He had not let her wrists loose, but she was not especially worried given that he had given her plenty of space to use her legs and an open target between his. ‘I’m a friend of hers, Zorra. She’s not here today. Are you one of her regulars?’

‘Draken of North Reach, at your service.’

Her eyes moved up to look at his arms, still pinning hers. ‘I believe I’m at yours, sir.’

He was, she thought, recovering from his surprise quickly. ‘It would appear that you are, but are you?’

Fox gave him a smile, narrowing her eyes a little. It was over a month since the last time she had been laid, virtually or otherwise… ‘You got the cash on you?’ No sense in breaking role.

‘I’m well prepared.’

‘You want it here or should we find a room?’

In answer, he pressed forward, his mouth covering hers.

~~~

Kit saw a slow smile creep over Vali’s face and peered at him, wondering what the joke was. She was having a little trouble concentrating and knew it was due to the mead. Whatever the code was that went into the golden, sweet-tasting fluid, which she had to admit she liked, it was slowing her data input and generally making her feel out of sync with her own brain. Was that what humans experienced when they drank alcohol?

Vali was still smiling. ‘What is the joke, Mister slightly smirking Vali?’

‘I believe your owner has found a little enjoyment in her search for enlightenment,’ Vali replied. He reached out and swept his hand in the air, the gesture causing a display to appear which Kit immediately recognised.

‘Those are the data streams from Fox’s biomonitor. Her heart rate is climbing and her breathing is becoming more rapid.’

‘Indeed. There is also endorphin release and a few other chemical signatures which suggest… Perhaps we should peek.’ His hand swept out again and the biological display was replaced by a visual of what appeared to be a street. There were whitewashed walls and two figures pressed together against one of them.

Kit tilted her head a little, trying to make out exactly what was going on. ‘Oh! Oh my…’

~~~

He was big, but this was not reality and big was just more filling instead of uncomfortable or painful. Fox wrapped her legs around his hips and swung against his thrusts, pushing him harder and deeper as her back rubbed against the whitewashed wall and she buried her head against his shoulder and bit her lips to avoid moaning.

She had avoided the complication of it on the Moon. She avoided complicating it most of the time and this was no different. Here she was engaging in the oldest method of stress relief there was, and that was
exactly
what this was. There was no emotion, no connection. In this case, she was even going to be paid for it, even if the money was not real. No complication, just gratification, and that was going to happen really soon.

There was the sudden tightening deep between her legs. Her hands tightened on his shoulders in response, and her eyes jammed shut, and the tension grew until there was just so much that she knew she would break… And then the explosion. It was like an explosion, sort of, but it roared out from her sex and consumed her
slowly
, burning its way up her body and down her legs until it filled her brain with noise and… fell away into quiet aside from the sound of Draken of North Reach panting in her ear.

‘Lady Zorra,’ he said, his voice soft and hoarse, ‘I’ll be sure to look you up again should you return to Alexandria.’ Somehow he had gathered the mental capacity and coordination to take her hand and press four coins into it.

‘My pleasure, sir,’ Fox replied, standing and straightening her skirts and the thong he had pushed aside. Flashing him a smile, she strutted away down the alley. She would give Cleopatra the coins: it was not like she had an account to lodge the money with.

~~~

Fox opened her eyes, blinked a couple of times, and laid aside the induction grip she was using to provide a cable connection to Kit’s server. Sighing, she squeezed the bridge of her nose and pushed aside the nagging sensation that her mind had partaken of an orgasm her body had not been privy to. And then she opened her eyes and wondered why she was seeing double.

‘Uh… Kit?’

‘One second, please. I need to synchronise my memories.’ There were two Kits sitting on the carpet facing each other, identical in every way including the look of slight annoyance. And then there was one, her mouth turning up into a smile. ‘There, now I am up to date with what happened within the viron. It seems you had a good time.’

‘I wasn’t aware that you could do that.’

‘I can partition off two additional copies of my runtime if required, executing one on my second quantum core and one on another, possibly external, processor. I could execute on your implant’s AI processor, but it would be… severely limiting.’

‘Right. So did you have a good time with Vali?’

‘We talked.’

‘That’s all?’ Fox raised an eyebrow.

‘I believe that Vali was interested in my mind,’ Kit stated firmly. ‘We talked about my inception and training, and I learned some things which you may find useful.’

‘Oh?’

‘Yes. I have the real name and identification of the gentleman who had you pinned against the wall.’

Fox coughed. ‘You saw that, huh?’

‘Yes.’ Kit paused, getting to her feet and walking over to sit down beside Fox. ‘Might I ask what the experience is like?’

‘I’m sorry?’

‘I’m an AI. I’ve never engaged in that form of sensual experience and I’m not really sure I could do so. What is it like?’