The Ghost in the Doll (Fox Meridian Book 6) (27 page)

‘Starting with never trying to get a hold over your sister ever again,’ Fox said. She started out of the seat and then paused, leaning on the table. ‘Oh, and if you try to restart production of the Ghost Dolls anywhere else, I’ll personally come after you and cut bits of you off. It won’t be your fingers.’

Yuriko followed Fox out of the booth, pausing beside the table and looking back at her brother. ‘Goodbye, Taro. I will contact you if I need something.’ She half-turned, and then looked back. ‘I will never bow before you again,’ she said, and then she followed Fox to the door.

~~~

Fox settled into the hot water of the sentō with a sigh. ‘There has to be some way we could get one of these set up in Sam’s place. I mean, some communal bathing would be just perfect and the hot tubs aren’t
really
big enough.’

Kit’s avatar was leaning on the edge of the tub, just to be there really. ‘I am not sure where you would put one… Unless you ripped your bedroom out. There’s a through-door to the bathroom for washing and, technically, you don’t need it.’

Yuriko, opposite Fox in the water, frowned. ‘You don’t?’

‘
Technically
… No,’ Fox replied. ‘By now, they’ll have finished converting my office into a small service bay. There’s a framework designed to hold droid bodies in there, all cabled up for data and power. I could lodge myself in there during my sleep cycle. When I’m home, I rent out bed space in Kit’s server anyway.’

‘I do
not
charge rent!’ Kit squeaked.

‘Turn of phrase. We’ve got the capacity to run a full viron of the apartment in there. I can transfer in, go to bed, and then wake up almost like I did when I was organic. However, I still have uses for that bedroom. At least, I hope I do. I’m not ready for celibacy just yet.’

‘Statistical analysis of your sexual habits,’ Kit began.

‘I have a feeling I don’t want to hear this.’

‘I’m going to tell you anyway. If we replaced your bed with a second shower, it would see more use.’

Yuriko giggled. ‘Your sentō would need quite advanced filtration systems.’

Fox growled. ‘This is what you get with a PA who lives in your body. Be warned. It won’t be long before everyone can do it, and then your sex life will be subject to statistical analysis.’

‘A Japanese PA would keep such information to herself.’

‘Yeah, but you’ll know she knows. It’s the kind of thing they swap at the secret infomorph meetings so they can giggle at the foolish humans.’

‘Who told you about the secret meetings?’ Kit said quickly. ‘The secret meetings are secret.’

‘Ah, but I’m an infomorph now. I got an invite. And I haven’t been to one yet, so if the first rule of Infomorph Club is that we don’t talk about Infomorph Club, no one’s told me.’

Kit narrowed her eyes at Fox. ‘We don’t talk about Infomorph Club, or about the secret army of droids.’

‘Oops.’

‘Quick, the human must have a sudden sentō drowning accident.’

Fox grinned at Yuriko. ‘If she keeps giggling like that, she will have one.’

‘I think it is a little hysterical,’ Yuriko said after a second or two of controlled breathing. ‘It has been a difficult few weeks. My first major investigation. The ending has been… a mixed result. I finally uncover the truth about Father’s death, but I am unable to exact the revenge Taro deserves.’

‘He’s better where he is. You’ll humiliate him whenever you leverage something out of him. He may even cut back on some of his excesses given that you could pull the plug on him at any time.’

‘I know, but I
want
to put a sword through his throat.’ Yuriko pressed her lips together and then shook her head and smiled at Kit. ‘And I owe you, Kit, for uncovering this information.’

‘I found some of it,’ Kit replied. ‘One of my sources found the rest. Another thing we do not talk about is how he got it.’

‘I do not care. I should provide some gift for him.’

‘Oh, I’m sure Kit’s going to reward him suitably for his services,’ Fox said. ‘What is it, the genie outfit?’

Kit’s virtual cheeks coloured. ‘We are simply going to celebrate a successful joint project together.’

Fox shrugged. ‘My PA gets more sex than I do at the moment, but I’m not bitter. Anyway, I think I’ll aim to fly home on Monday. We’ll give it until midday to see whether anything comes up needing my attention. We’ve got teleconference, and I could be back here in a couple of hours if needed.’

Yuriko bowed her head. ‘I think that things are under control. The police have all the evidence they need to start proceedings. I can handle the liaison between the BioTek specialists and the police.’

‘Good. I have some things to sort out back there. I think it’s time I stepped up and got on with telling people about Akh.’

‘Are you sure you’re ready?’ Kit asked.

‘Yeah, I’m ready. For a given value of ready.’

Part Four: The Luxury of Living

New York Metro, 25
^th
April 2061.

One of the advantages of the time Fox had selected for her return to New York was that, arriving at one a.m., she got to start Monday all over again after a sleep cycle and recharge to resync herself with the time zone. The fact that Sam and Marie were both in bed, asleep, was a minor side benefit and not the main reason. At least that was what she told herself as she snuck in through the back entrance and up the stairs to her floor.

Stopping off in the bedroom to drop off her meagre luggage, Fox returned to the hallway outside and started for the lounge. Then she came to a stop as her sensitive hearing picked up the sound of someone moving in there. She should have been alone, but there was, apparently, someone in her rooms. Reaching behind her back to where her pistol was attached to her skirt, Fox opened the lounge door and stepped through.

‘Oh good, you’re back.’ Fox found herself looking at a smiling girl with a bob of strawberry-blonde hair and green eyes, her trim figure hidden beneath a black T-shirt and blue jeans. Fox had never seen her before, but the voice…

‘Kit?’

Kit’s normal avatar appeared beside her gynoid body, grinning. ‘Yes, we’re me. Surprise!’

‘Terri built a new body for me,’ Gynoid-Kit said. ‘To interact with Fei better. When I suggested it would be nice to have one at home, she built a second copy.’

‘And that’s why you were away for an hour or so yesterday?’ Fox asked. ‘You said something about a software update.’

‘That was related. Terri enabled me to create up to nine copies, which means I have one free to occupy this frame. It’s based on the Sylph series, custom-sculpted, fully functional, and lower maintenance than yours. Plus, my battery life far exceeds yours.’

‘Of course,’ Avatar-Kit said, ‘your frame has capabilities the Sylph lacks which are very useful. You get shot a lot, for example.’

‘I don’t get shot
a lot
!’ Fox replied, and then her shoulders sagged. ‘I thought Terri had given up trying to turn me gay.’

‘Pardon?’ both Kits said simultaneously.

‘She knows I like red hair in a girl.’

Reaching up, Gynoid-Kit took a lock of hair between her fingers and lifted it in front of her face. Her eyes crossed. ‘I suppose it is sort of red. She said it was strawberry-blonde.’

‘Uh-huh…’

Letting her hair fall back into place, Gynoid-Kit clasped her hands behind her back, pushing her breasts out toward Fox. ‘Awesome! Shall we go straight to bed, or did you want a drink first?’

~~~

‘Any difference from how you normally do this?’ Alice Vaughn asked, looking across the table at Fox.

‘Well, not really.’ Fox was participating in a board meeting by transferring herself to a server in Chicago and patching her senses directly into the viron instead of the usual teleconferencing. ‘Maybe a little. I think it feels more immediate. Reduced lag, probably. However, Yuriko’s probably got lag
and
it’s eleven at night in Tokyo, so let’s get on with this rather than discussing the wonders of new technology.’

‘Well, later I want to discuss something concerning that,’ Garth Eaves said, ‘but let’s get the Ghost Doll business done so that Miss Fukui can get to bed at a reasonable hour.’

At a nod from Fox, Yuriko picked up a virtual data pad and began. ‘The analysis of the Yurei no Ningyo has been completed. The specialists are now trying to determine how to reverse the process, if that is possible. A number of surgical and nanomachine procedures have been carried out on each victim. These include the installation of a computer implant which appears to act as a governing mechanism. The implant is able to take over control of the host’s body should it look like the host is going to resist her owner.’

‘How did that one Ghost Doll kill her owner then?’ Helen asked. Everyone was there to hear what had happened in Japan.

‘That one’s owner was fond of using electrical devices on his sexual partners. The body was destroyed, so exact determination of the cause is impossible, but it’s theorised that he damaged the implant with an ill-placed shock. The Ghost Doll was killed attempting to seek help.’

‘Oh… Great.’

Yuriko nodded. ‘Other physical surgery includes the eye reshaping, various forms of cosmetic alteration, sterilisation, and… the implantation of additional muscle tissue and… vibratory systems in the vagina. The same sort of system is frequently added to sex gynoids.’

‘Sick fucks,’ Ryan Jarvis muttered.

‘I cannot disagree, Jarvis-san. The most obvious of the genetic alterations causes the skin to form as a latex-like material, but there were additional alterations to allow greater cooling through respiration, and some neurological changes.’

‘So they
did
consider the overheating problem,’ Fox said.

‘Yes, but not sufficiently. There was some attempt to allow the body to cope with higher temperatures, but the technicians estimate that these women will suffer from faster cell death and greater replication errors on cell division. Their lifespan has been substantially reduced.’

‘Swell. Okay, neurological changes?’

‘Elimination of the areas of the brain dealing with control of the voice, reduced ability to distinguish external commands from internal thoughts, and the creation of a strong dopamine reward pathway to encourage them to engage in sexual activities. On top of this, their “education” has essentially brainwashed them into slavery to whoever their designated owner is. The ones at the resort had a slight variation on that programming, but are essentially the same.’

‘Prognosis?’

‘Currently unknown. The BioTek people think they can reverse at least some of the damage. The first stage will be removal of the implant and the introduction of cybernetic replacements for the damaged speech centres. It will take time to engineer something to reverse the genetic changes and they are worried that some changes will be impossible to eliminate without samples of original genetic material. The dopamine pathway can be treated with drug therapy. The brainwashing will require work with a psychologist.’

‘There’s
some
hope then?’ Vaughn said.

‘Some, yes. None of them will ever be quite the same again, but they may get much of their life back. One additional thing has come up. Doctor Hummel is not among those detained by the police. He seems to have escaped capture. The police are searching for him, but thus far he remains at large.’

‘I’ll make sure he’s on our watch list,’ Jarvis said. ‘I somehow doubt he’ll go within a hundred miles of a MarTech or Palladium facility, but if he does…’

‘Leave him in one piece, Ryan,’ Fox said. ‘I’d like to see him in a hole in Cold Harbour.’

‘He doesn’t need
all
his pieces for that.’

‘It’s a valid point. Anything else to report, Yuriko?’

‘That is everything current. You will have my complete written report in the morning.’

‘Thanks. And I’d just like to add in front of all these important people that you did a good job on this. Especially for your first major case. Well done.’

Yuriko bowed across the table. ‘Thank you, Fox-san. It was a pleasure working with you on this. And may I add that you looked just as good in the Blue Lotus kimono as Helen-san did.’

Kit burst into giggles. ‘Everywhere Fox goes, perfectly respectful young women have their minds opened to being evil.’

‘I’m a bad influence,’ Fox agreed. ‘Anything else before we let Yuriko go?’

‘Not really,’ Eaves said, ‘though she can stay for this part if she wants.’ He glanced at Yuriko who nodded. ‘Very well. We have decided to invest in some infrastructure on our extraplanetary sites. We’re going to set up a secure installation on Mars and Venus, and we’ll be using Jenner on the Moon. Each will have a copy of Fox’s current cyberframe in it, ready to receive her mind if we need resource in those locations. That’s assuming you’re agreeable, Fox.’

Fox looked at Kit. ‘You told them about that idea?’

‘Not exactly. When it came up, I said we’d talked about it.’

‘Fair enough. We talked about it. It seems like an effective use of my new, immaterial status. Let’s do it.’

‘I’ll set the wheels in motion,’ Eaves said. ‘You seem to have come to terms with your new status.’

Fox grinned at him. ‘Not entirely, but I’m a lot closer than I was. Getting shot helped.’

‘Even if it was unsettling watching her dig a bullet out of skin with pliers,’ Yuriko said.

More or less everyone winced.

~~~

The transition back to her body in New York took only a few seconds since only her short-term memory needed to be updated, and then she was restarting in a physical environment. And the first thing she was aware of was that there were fingers stroking over her cheek. She opened her eyes and lifted her head.

Marie let out a squeak and jumped back. ‘Holy shit, that’s weird!’

Somehow, the normality of the words overrode the face-value meaning. Fox grinned. ‘Well, if you will go around molesting me while I’m in another metro…’

‘I wasn’t molesting! Molesting is different. I never got the chance to…’ Before Fox got around to releasing the clamps holding her body in place, Marie stepped forward and began stroking her fingers over Fox’s cheek again. ‘It’s… I can’t tell the difference. There’s even the little downy hairs there.’