Emergence (Fox Meridian Book 5) (22 page)

‘They’re precinct fifteen’s problem. I can’t force you to take a detail, but if you refuse, I can’t protect you on the way home either.’ Canard’s smugness was getting irritating.

‘Reginald Grant is probably on a boat in the Atlantic by now. And he plans. He isn’t going to be coming after me for a while. When he does, I’ll take him down just like I did last time. Maybe NAPA will pull their finger out this time and ship him straight to the Moon.’

‘Not my problem,’ Canard replied.

‘No, nothing is. You’re in favour of transferring policing to private contracts in the metros, right?’

‘You know I am.’ Canard’s eyes narrowed. Fox also knew that Canard was basically in the pocket of one of Palladium’s competitors, Wayden Executive Services.

‘If it goes through, Palladium will bid for the contracts. Just as with the regional bill, we’d prefer the status quo, but we’ll be ready for either eventuality. I suggest you think about how well Wayden has done with the regional contracts compared to us, Captain. Just think about that.’ Fox got to her feet. ‘If that’s all, I’m going home. I’ve got work to do.’

~~~

Marie was looking nervous and Fox could not really blame her. Grant had targeted her before and since she was filming for her show in a station which had a rather overenthusiastic news department, the first she had heard of Grant’s escape had been when a reporter had rushed to the studio to interview her. Fox had been rather pleased to hear that Marie’s producer, Nathan Shark, had thrown his colleague out with some force.

‘Do you think he might come after me again?’ Marie asked as Fox escorted her home from the studio.

‘Honestly? No idea. Also, honestly, not yet. I told Canard that Grant would be lying low for at least the immediate future. Grant’s a planner. He’ll want information. He can’t even rely on his old MO since we patched all his backdoors into LifeWeb. He’s got to figure out an entirely new way of getting to people.’

‘Well, he’s got one, hasn’t he? The Central Park murders?’

Fox shook her head. ‘Works for random victims. I’m willing to bet they were taken at random, off the street. Victims of circumstance, basically. If Grant wants to torture more people to death, then it’s a way to go, but if he wants me, then he needs to think about what he’s doing.’

‘Right… Good… So you’re escorting me home because?’

‘Because I figured you’d have heard and you’d be worried.’

‘Yeah…’

‘Because better safe than sorry.’

‘That’s a good point.’

‘And because you’re not going anywhere without some form of security, and Sam’s out on a job.’

‘So you
do
think he’ll come after me?’

Fox flashed Marie a grin. ‘See above regarding safety and sorrow. I’ve spoken to IB-Nineteen about some extra on-site security. If neither me nor Sam is available to get you to and from the studio, I’ll arrange for Helen to do it.’

‘And at home there’s a gunship on the roof.’

‘Yeah, basically. You’re safe. I don’t think he’ll come at me through you anyway, but giving him an easy point of attack is stupid. He’s going to assume I’ll think of that route, so he’s going to go a different way. I just wish I knew what it was.’

‘Jason?’

‘
Far
too hard a target.’

‘Your parents?’

‘Covered. Basically, I’ve left him very few avenues to try for except the direct one and that’s not going to be easy.’

‘But he’ll try.’

‘God, I hope so. I hope he tries
really hard
. Because this time I don’t want to give him any chance of escaping again. Absolutely no chance at all.’

4
^th
February.

‘How are things going with security in Tokyo?’ Fox asked, looking across the virtual table at Jarvis.

‘We’ve set up a liaison with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Your girl Fukui was pretty useful setting that up, actually.’

Fox grinned. ‘I know how to pick talent.’

Jarvis grinned back. ‘Yeah, well, we’ve got police support outside the venue and our Tokyo office. Inside it’s our gig. We just have the final arrangements to make. We’ll have everything ready by the end of next week.’

‘Just in time for us to arrive with Sakura.’

‘Anything from your people on Minotaur?’

‘Baum in Germany has managed to get everything the Europeans managed to find on his activities. It’s not much that we don’t already know, but he added a few details to the attack profile the techs have been building. Fukui’s been digging into Sakura’s background. No indications that Minotaur was involved with her back then, but she was signed with ATW and the information is that the break-up was not entirely clean. ATW Japan has a number of links with the Fukui-kai and there could be some issues because of that.’

‘You’re sure of
our
Fukui’s loyalties in the matter?’ Eaves asked.

Fox turned to look up the table. ‘I’m sure. If anything, Yuriko is likely to be
more
motivated because of this. I have no trouble working with
our
Fukui on this one. To be honest, my main complaint is that we’re going to be in Japan on the fourteenth and I bought this special outfit…’

‘I don’t want to know.’

‘I could stand to–’ Jarvis began.

‘That’s all you’re getting, Ryan,’ Fox told him. ‘Unless you can get the selfie I took for Alice out of her.’

Alice Vaughn, sitting beside Jarvis, smirked. ‘My memory is sealed.’

‘Huh,’ Jarvis said. ‘Everyone’s got a price…’

‘Yeah, but you couldn’t afford it.’

~~~

‘Fox, Jason is at the door.’

Belle’s announcement resulted in a frown and a time check. ‘He’s early,’ Fox said. ‘Very early. Let him in, obviously. Tell him to come up.’ Fox felt her heart rate climbing, and she got to her feet to wait for Jason to arrive in her lounge. He had been quiet since Grant’s escape and the one time Fox had spoken to him, via teleconference, he had been back to that distracted demeanour and had cut the conversation short. Now he was here, at the house, four hours before she had been expecting him.

‘I am sure he can simply no longer wait to see you,’ Kit said, keeping to the inside of Fox’s head rather than manifesting an avatar. ‘Or perhaps there has been a development in the Grant case.’

‘Yeah. Sure.’

The distracted look was gone when Jason appeared in the doorway. In its place was… worry? Concern, certainly, but also conflict. He looked almost as though he wanted to throw up, and Fox’s stomach lifted and turned over in sympathy.

‘Jason,’ Fox said, trying to sound as positive as she could manage. ‘You’re a little early for our date.’

‘Oui…’ The pause seemed to go on for minutes. ‘Fox, we need to talk.’

Fox’s stomach decided that it should take an elevator down to her ankles. ‘That, um, doesn’t sound good.’ She settled back onto her sofa. ‘Sit down and talk.’

Instead, he walked around to the space in front of the sofa and paced, which did nothing for Fox’s composure. ‘It is both good… and not good. I am not sure how good, or not good, it is. I have been trying to… You have noticed that I have been… distant, I have no doubt. I… I have been attempting to come to some decision, but… I don’t…’

‘Jason, just tell me what’s wrong.’

He stopped pacing and stared at her. ‘I have been offered a position as the head of a new UNTPP unit. It is to handle off-world terrorist activities such as the recent cyberattack on Luna City. There would be a promotion.’

‘That’s great news,’ Fox said. Even she thought her voice sounded hollow.

‘The unit is based on… the L-one station.’ Jason was getting more faltering again. ‘There would be un term initiale of three years…’ And slipping into fragments of French.

‘Okay,’ Fox said.

‘Okay?’

Fox closed her eyes and tried to settle herself. Opening them, she looked up at Jason. ‘We both know you have to go.’

‘Non. I do
not
have to go. I–’

‘When did they tell you?’

‘Monday.’

‘So you’ve spent a week going over this in your head and worrying both of us sick, and you couldn’t come to a decision. That’s because you know what happens if you refuse. It’ll probably end your career, certainly stall it for years. “I can’t go, I’ve met someone” is not going to fly with the brass. We’re not married. They’ll look at it as putting sex ahead of the organisation. You don’t really need me to tell you that, do you?’

Jason looked away. ‘Non.’

‘Right. Look, we can talk. The light lag to L-one isn’t that bad. Couple of seconds… We can talk, and I’ve got a fairly good excuse to visit the Moon more often at the moment so I could arrange to stop off on the way. MarTech has semi-regular flights to L-one.’

‘But–’

‘Jason, you
have
to take the job. And… And if we’ve got anything more going on between us than great sex, in three years you come back to Earth, or I move up there, or whatever. If we can’t make a long-distance relationship work–’

‘This is a
very
long-distance relationship.’

‘Yeah, but if we can’t make it work, maybe it’s better we find out now than when we’ve got a house and three kids to worry about.’

He cracked a grin. It was weak, but it was there. ‘Three?’

‘I know you French guys. It’s all big families and constant fucking. I am
not
learning to cook like your mother.’

‘This would be a major disappointment.’

‘Uh-huh… When would you start?’

‘The first of March. I need to give them an answer on Monday.’

Fox nodded and took a deep breath. ‘You tell them yes on Monday, and we get until the end of the month to… Um. Well, I’ll be in Japan for some of that, but still… Look, I’m not sure I’m quite up to a nightclub tonight. I need some time to sort my head out.’

Jason bowed his head. ‘I understand. You know where I am. Call and I will come running.’

‘Count on it,’ Fox said. ‘We’ll talk soon.’

Part Four: Rising Sun

New York Metro, 12
^th
February 2061.

Jason opened the door of his apartment to find Fox standing there in a trench coat. That she was there was hardly a surprise since the building’s security system had informed him of his guest, but the serious look on her face gave Jason pause and short-circuited several critical-thinking pathways that should have kicked in.

‘We need to talk,’ Fox said and Jason stepped to the side as she walked in.

‘I was wondering whether you had misplaced my number,’ Jason replied.

‘I needed some time to think.’

‘Obviously.’ Mild irritation stirred. She had not spoken to him for a week, since he had told her of his new assignment. She had said they should make a go of it, and then nothing. Now she was marching in as though there was more to say?

‘It’s going to be hard, Jason.’

‘It will not be easy, but you said–’

Fox spun on her heel and reached out an arm, stopping him in his tracks as she pushed against his chest, keeping him at arm’s length. ‘You don’t understand. It’s going to be
really
hard.’

Anger surfaced and was pushed back as best Jason could manage it. ‘Yes, it will be hard’ – and Fox unbuckled the belt on her coat – ‘but I think that we can make this work and I am damned if I will…’ Jason faltered as Fox began unbuttoning her coat, but he rallied. ‘Damned if I will give up on…’ Fox sloughed off her trench coat, letting it fall behind her. Beneath, she was wearing a black-mesh teddy with a high collar and not much to cover the rest of her body. It and her black hold-up stockings had small hearts embroidered into the mesh. Her nipples were tenting the fabric as though they were straining to get closer to him. ‘You are right. It is getting harder already.’

Fox smiled, and the bit of Jason’s brain which had been screaming at him for attention broke through to point out that she was wearing dark-red lipstick, a lot of black eyeliner, and press-on nail extensions painted the same colour as her lips: not exactly break-up make-up. ‘I am so glad to hear that, because I’m flying out to Tokyo tomorrow and I really don’t want to waste time on getting you interested.’

‘Mon chère, you have had my interest since the moment you first walked into my office.’

~~~

‘I’m… away… for Valentine’s… day,’ Fox said as best she could under the circumstances. ‘I thought… we’d do… it now.’

Jason was not stupid enough to try to reply. Diverting power to his speech centres right now was out of the question and would likely have resulted in him answering in French. He was fairly certain that his brain was suffering from oxygen deficiency anyway.

‘You don’t… have to answer…’ Fox grunted. ‘Just… come if you agree!’ The last words came in a rush and she dug her nails into his back as she arched and clamped down around him. She was dimly aware of something French escaping from his throat as he filled her, and she did not care what he had said, only that he felt like Heaven.

‘I’ll take that as a yes then,’ she whispered when she could speak again. She had managed to get Jason out of his clothes, but she was still in her teddy and stockings, even if the teddy was in something of an unconventional arrangement. One of her pumps was still on her foot too. The other had gone missing, along with Jason’s clothes. She had no idea where
those
had gone.

‘I think,’ Jason said in a hoarse whisper, ‘that you have broken me.’

‘Better not have. I want round three. Preferably soon. I’ll give you a rest later. Before round six at least.’

Jason let out a low chuckle. ‘I see. You wish to make of me an invalid, such that I cannot leave the planet.’

‘No… But I’m going to make damn sure you don’t forget me while you’re up there with all those space girls in their tight suits.’

‘I assure you that I would find it impossible to forget you, Fox.’

‘That’s what they all say. Then they see a girl in a tight-fitting spacesuit with zero-G boobs and they forget all about the girl back home.’

‘Prokhorov Station has spin gravity.’