DeathWeb (Fox Meridian Book 3) (3 page)

‘You do know that the only people who say that are the ones too dumb to understand it, right?’

‘Oscar Wilde said it.’

Fox smirked at her. ‘Attributed to Oscar Wilde, in which case the full quote would be “Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but the highest form of intelligence.” However, it’s only attributed, never written down where it can be proven. Kit’s faster at research tasks than LWOS.’

‘I should shut up while I’m holding my ground. You’d look amazing in those boots.’

The boots in question had ridiculous spiked heels, an inch or so of platform, and seemed to consist of a lot of straps bound to a vertical strip which would sit over her calves. Fox tended to consider shoe heights in inches, rather than centimetres: America was still to get over its old system entirely, but people Marie’s age were more metric than the older ones. The boots were insane. Entirely impractical. ‘Do you do them in purple?’

7
^th
June.

Fox watched as Marie practised her lines for an audition she was doing in the afternoon. Kit was also watching, and replaying the performance to the performer from Fox’s point of view. Fox thought that sounded far too complex, certainly too distracting. Marie seemed to be coping.

Kit was certainly coping. While doing the relay job for Marie, she was happily continuing to function as Fox’s PA, and it was in that role that she began scrolling data across Fox’s vision field and popped up a 2D avatar to chat through. ‘Fox, I’ve received briefing documents through from Palladium. The Regional Private Policing Resolution, twenty sixty dash six nine one, has just received sufficient petitioners and is now scheduled for a vote on August second.’

Fox frowned and Marie came to a sudden stop. ‘Did I do something wrong?’ Marie asked.

‘Yes,’ Fox told her, ‘you let yourself get distracted by your audience. Kit just gave me some information I was hoping wouldn’t turn up for a while.’

‘That vote?’

‘Uh-huh. You don’t need anyone to go with you this afternoon, do you? I have a feeling I’m going to get thrown into a lot of meetings.’

‘I’m fine on my own. No problem. You should start reading the resolution details and stop pretending I’m not boring you rigid.’

‘Reading the resolution
is
going to bore me rigid, and I’d rather watch you doing nude Shakespeare.’

Giggling and starting off for the bedroom, Marie shook her head. ‘I’ll go practise out of sight and you can concentrate.’

Fox smiled and let her go, and then sighed. ‘Kit, set me up a viron to work through all these documents, and let me know when Eaves wants to hold the meeting.’

‘You seem very sure there will be one,’ Kit replied.

‘I am very sure. Has Marie put any clothes on?’

‘No. She still wants me to run the feedback visuals for her, but has not bothered dressing.’

‘Then put a screen in the environment so I’ve got something extra to watch, would you?’

‘Of course, Fox,’ Kit replied, sounding distinctly amused.

~~~

Dia Barrera was a very attractive woman of Mexican descent, not very tall, but with a lush body, full lips, curly black hair, and large, Bambi-like brown eyes. And anyone who took her at face value was asking to have their guts ripped out and spread out for the vultures to feast upon. Barrera had been lured out of academia by Mariel Hoarsen, MarTech’s CEO, to be their head political analyst. Hoarsen never hired anyone personally who was not
exceptionally
good at their job and Barrera had a mind like a cross between a steel trap and a hunting tiger shark. The only thing about Barrera that gave away her predatory nature, in Fox’s view, was her nails, which she invariably wore long and painted some shade of red.

‘The resolution itself is quite conservative,’ Barrera said from her place at the table in the main conference room in the MarTech tower. Hoarsen was there, Jackson Martins was there, and Fox was sitting watching her too. The rest of the Palladium board, including David Graves the chairman, were there via telepresence, their images projected into the room via everyone’s implants. ‘Basically, the intent is to expand the existing ability to provision local policing via local vote and contract. It applies
only
outside the metro zones. The wording on validation of policing policy references the existing rules and regulations for NAPA and proposes that NAPA becomes responsible for enforcing standards. There are quite detailed budgetary analyses, and while that is not my area, our initial scan through them indicates accuracy and thoroughness. There is every possibility that this vote will pass with a good majority.’

‘Do you have forecasted percentages yet?’ Jackson asked.

‘A little early. Give me a day.’ Barrera gave him a smile and he nodded. ‘I would suggest that damage limitation is appropriate here rather than fighting the case. It is unlikely that we can sway opinion against this resolution, but we should point out the potential hazards and press for as much oversight as possible. I’ve begun a process to put in an amendment which will increase the frequency of audits. We have fourteen days to submit any amendments we feel deserve attention, and I plan to use all of that time.’

‘There were a bunch of amendments presented with the resolution,’ Fox said. ‘Number six caught my attention.’

Barrera favoured Fox with a smile. She had
very
white teeth. ‘I understood you disliked politics, Miss Meridian. You seem to have done the homework.’

‘This is important and I like to know what I’m up against.’

‘Indeed. Amendment six is likely not something to worry about. It’s a toe in the water. In short, the amendment proposes that the same privatisation rules apply to metro zones, but there are no detailed proposals, no budget. The proposers know that it will be a simple matter for their opponents to point this out and they do not expect this to pass.’

‘But they want to see what the vote looks like. If they can get a high enough percentage in the metro zones, they can be sure of a good result when they launch the next step.’

‘Precisely. Everyone is going to be watching that amendment. And you say you’re no good at politics…’

‘Neither Fox nor I like politics,’ Graves said, ‘but both of us have training in strategy. Amendment nine was the one which made my palms itch.’

This time Barrera frowned. ‘Nine is the national security directive.’

‘It’s basically pressing for NIX to become involved in the audit process,’ Fox said. ‘They would get direct oversight and influence of every company bidding for policing contracts.’

‘Agreed,’ Graves said. ‘I think I see a fair amount of NIX in this entire vote. I’m sure they put resource into compiling the budget figures. There simply aren’t the names among the proposers to command this kind of resource. Amendment nine is them tipping their hand, if you’re looking for it.’

Barrera nodded a little slowly. ‘It’s badly phrased, vague. It needs significant work to make it solid, but that could be a problem. It could pass as an “obvious idea.” The need for a security consideration in policing could be seen as a simple, basic requirement, and then the National Intelligence Executive could step in as the nation’s security experts.’ She pursed her pretty lips. ‘We play it as too obvious. No need for a separate statement of requirement because it’s implicit in the regulations already.’

‘It is,’ Fox stated. ‘NAPA is required to inform NIX of any case with security implications. Private contractors would need to do the same. That amendment pushes NIX into a position of direct oversight and
that
is something which was denied them when they were formed.’

‘Their idea of oversight will undoubtedly involve them poking their noses into places they should not be poking them,’ Jackson said. ‘Given that Technologies is going to be providing equipment to Palladium, and Services contracts to Palladium for the supply of computing resources and technical support, they could be digging through most of the business, stealing whatever they felt like under the auspices of an audit.’

‘And they would get people in the door at NAPA. We know they have them in covertly, but these ones would be official, recognised. They’d be agents working on the process of internal policing.’

The political analyst looked up the table to where Jackson, Hoarsen, and Graves were seated. ‘I need General Graves
and
Miss Meridian working on the presentation for this one.’

‘Huh?!’ Fox’s eyes widened and she felt her stomach lurch. ‘I don’t do–’

‘Politics. Yes, I know, but we have a perfect pairing for several of the test amendments, like this one. The general has the authority, and Miss Meridian has the passion. You can see how she wants to see
justice
done.’ She punctuated the statement with a clenched fist stabbing at the air. ‘I want both of them in interviews. I have a list of the people we want them in front of.’ Fox’s stomach finished lurching and sank into her boots.

Jackson was wincing. ‘You do realise that Fox is a guest in my home occasionally? If I have to listen to the complaints about this, you’d better be
absolutely
sure you need her.’

‘I am. Trust me.’

That just made Fox’s stomach sink further.

~~~

‘You need to take your own advice,’ Marie stated flatly. ‘Confidence. You know what you’re doing, you know what you want to say, just have some confidence.’

‘She’s right,’ Sam added. ‘We have been spouting that rhetoric at her for weeks and it does apply.’

Fox looked at Kit, in case she had something to say. She did. ‘I’m not saying anything. I don’t want that scowl directed at me.’

‘At last, someone with sense!’ Fox raised her eyes, and hands, to Heaven. ‘I am
really
not the kind of person you want in front of a camera pontificating about politics.’

‘Why?’ Sam asked, his gaze level despite the scowl.

‘Because… Because I’ll get pissed off and say something–’

‘And you don’t think this Barrera woman has figured that out?’

‘I–’

‘You don’t think that, maybe, she
wants
you to blow your stack, even if it’s in a controlled way. She said she wanted you for the passion you bring to the debate.’

‘I know, but–’

‘Your opponents will be debating this entire resolution largely on passion. They’ll be suggesting that NAPA cannot do the job and that private citizens should be handling it. There will be much talk of militias and the right to bear arms. Despite the probable need for contracted private organisations, the emphasis will be placed upon communities policing themselves, defending their own values, which is in many ways a laudable goal, but in practice it never seems to work out as well as intended. There needs to be logic to explain the problems, but there needs to be passion to counter the emotion.’

Fox glowered at him. ‘I should hire you to do it for me.’

‘I am not the CIO of Palladium Security Solutions. I do meet another useful requirement of a partner for General Graves, however, and you also have that in spades.’

‘Huh?’

‘People still believe beautiful people more than ugly ones,’ Marie said.

‘My young colleague has it right again,’ Sam said, smirking.

Fox gave up, sagging into the cushions of the sofa. ‘Oh, don’t start. Ryan says he wants me on the recruiting blips for when we need to pull in more security staff. Graves said something about… Rosie the Riveter?’

Kit’s lips twitched, though it seemed like even Sam had not encountered that reference. The kitsune raised a hand and an image appeared beside it: the classic ‘We Can Do It!’ poster image of a tough woman in a blue shirt and red polka-dot bandana flexing her muscles. ‘She was a cultural icon during the second of the world wars. The idea was to get women into roles which were traditionally male, such as riveting, since the men were off fighting and someone had to build the equipment.’

‘I do
not
look like that.’

‘No.’ Kit flipped the image to show a sexier, blonde version of the same, this time a still of considerably better quality. ‘This is a singer, Christina Aguilera, portraying the same style of character in a much later music video. More your style. The “Rosie” archetype continued well into the early part of this century, particularly as the equality movement picked up. It died away again in the forties.’

‘There was a really crass Army recruiting campaign in the late forties,’ Fox said. ‘“Come Join This Man’s Army.” The slogan was accompanied by a woman with enormous tits who would have been
seriously
on charges for the state of her uniform. Did suggest she was kicking ass, but it was fairly sexist. It worked, raised recruitment of both sexes for the next two or three years.’

‘Sex sells,’ Sam said, ‘even now when it’s more readily available than ever.’

‘You two could sell sand in a desert,’ Marie said.

Fox gave a shrug. ‘Only if I have to be
passionate
about it.’

8
^th
June.

‘Oh it just gets worse,’ Fox moaned as she stepped out of the shower. ‘And when does Barrera sleep?! Barely eight-thirty and she’s wanting plans for a conference I hadn’t heard about until two minutes ago.’

‘There’s a conference?’ Marie mumbled. She sat up, rubbing at her eyes. ‘What conference?’

‘According to this, it’s going to be the “Future of Policing Conference,” and it’s going to take place in a convention centre MarTech Services runs beside the main MarTech tower.’

‘Future of Policing. Right.’

‘And the proposers of the resolution are holding it, but the announcement says it’ll cover all aspects of policing, no matter what the outcome.’ Fox frowned, sitting down to pull a bodysuit up her legs. ‘So they’ve been planning this for a while, but they left the announcement and, presumably, the booking to the last minute to give everyone else no time to prepare.’

‘Uh, why? When is it?’

‘A week, starting the twenty-first of June. Okay, nearly two weeks, but still…’

Marie shook sleep out of her head and blinked. ‘You can do that? Just book a conference hall at that kind of notice?’