Emergence (Fox Meridian Book 5) (3 page)

‘It’s a perfect print. Pythia could easily identify your boots from that.’

‘She could, but it changes as it melts, so you need to be careful about foot size calculations and print identifications in snow. I’d imagine Pythia has the software to take that into account, but just using your eyes, you need to be careful.’

‘Jason was right. This
is
educational.’ Fox grinned, reached down, and began compacting snow in her hands. ‘It is cold,’ Kit said. ‘Why are you doing that?’

Fox held up her snowball. ‘Traditional weapon of children wherever it snows.’

‘Weapon?’

‘Oh yes.’ Pulling her arm back, Fox launched the ball at Kit’s head. Of course, it went straight through and ended up skittering across the snow a few metres behind Kit’s avatar.

‘That wasn’t very nice,’ Kit said.

‘It would be less nice if you were solid, but that’s never stopped kids from having snowball fights.’

‘Children make projectile weapons from snow and then throw them at each other?’

‘They’re more like grenades, unless you pack them too hard. They tend to explode on contact and then there’s snow in your hair and eyes, and down the back of your neck, and that last one is a form of torture, believe me.’

‘It is?’

‘It is.’ Amused, Fox collected snow on her fingers and rubbed it on the nape of her own neck, and waited. ‘Ah, Jeezus! Like that.’

Kit was flinching. ‘Why did you
do
that?!’

‘It’s educational. Had enough? It’s warm in the kitchen.’

‘I think I’ve learned enough.’ Kit walked out of the snow and started for the back door of the house. ‘That’s
cold
.’

Fox kicked snow off her boots and then stepped through into the kitchen. ‘I’ll take that coffee now, Monique.’ She looked down at the black, knee-high boots and then decided to take them off, just in case. The heat was already taking the chill out of her skin and the tiled floor would probably be warm enough for bare feet.

‘Kit has been educated then?’ Monique asked. She was not wearing her headset, so Kit let Fox do the talking.

‘She has learned much. Mostly that it’s cold, and that she would rather not be in a snowball fight.’

‘Not that we get many opportunities for that, even here,’ Jason commented. ‘Eat something, Fox. We’ll have the main meal around two, I believe, and you can’t survive on coffee alone.’

‘True. Actually, I’ve got an enhanced liver so I need the food way more than the fluid. But I’m a sort-of-cop…’

‘So coffee counts as a major food group,’ Monique said. ‘Still, there will be toast in a moment, or I can make something more if you wish?’

‘How much are you cooking for dinner?’

Monique laughed. ‘Too much, of course.’

‘Toast will be fine. When are we expecting to see Gaby?’

‘We’ll give it an hour,’ Pascal said. He seemed to be checking out the news channels or something since he was
wearing his glasses. ‘If she’s not down by then, I’ll go up there with a bucket of snow.’

Kit shuddered and Fox giggled. ‘Yeah, Kit learned that snow is cold.’

~~~

‘You know, that has to be the most colour I’ve ever seen you wearing,’ Jason said. They were in the lounge, opening presents. Monique would vanish periodically to check on the food, but mostly it was all about watching coloured paper being torn apart and listening to the laughter or other reactions that the contents produced.

Fox looked down at her sweater. ‘What? I wear colours.’

‘Generally black and purple.’

The sweater was purple in the majority, but with bands of white, pink, and rose. There was a keyhole over her chest, closed below her throat by a brooch. Her leggings were a dark blue. ‘I wear jeans… I’m allowed to wear colours.’

‘I am not denying it. I’m simply not used to it. I like the red, personally.’

‘It’s rose. I’m not wearing any– Oh, yes I am. Ha, ha, very funny.’

Gaby burst into giggles and Fox focused her attention on the redhead who was holding up a little baby doll T-shirt with ‘I heart NY’ graphics on it. ‘Is this even going to fit me? Gaby asked.

‘Kit found some size preferences for you on a wish list somewhere,’ Fox replied. ‘It’s meant to be tight, but it should fit. I had
no
idea what to get any of you, so I went for silly.’ She looked across at Pascal as he pulled a bottle of brandy from a plastic tube. ‘Well, silly and alcohol. Jason said you liked brandy and–’

‘I do,’ Pascal said, ‘and this is a rather fine one. Expensive…’

‘It turns out it’s a lot cheaper if you get it from the distiller and I wasn’t that far away, on business. It was just a quick hop north from Chicago and I’m the pilot so the ship goes where I tell it.’

‘Thank you. I’ll savour this one.’

‘And thank you for this,’ Gaby added. ‘I’ll put it on later to prove Mom’s cooking hasn’t added a size.’

Fox picked up what appeared at first sight to be a scrap of black lace. ‘Yes, well, I won’t be putting this on later. I don’t think we’re quite ready for me wandering around in flimsy lingerie.’

‘You can save it for
much
later,’ Pascal said. ‘Jason bought it. I’m sure he’ll appreciate it.’

‘I’m sure he will.’ Fox looked at Jason, who remained tactfully silent, even if his cheeks reddened.

He was saved from anything more embarrassing by Kit. ‘Marie is calling, Fox. It’s marked as a teleconference.’ The foxy pixie was once again sitting on the floor to watch the unwrapping process and both of the elder Deverauxes had put their wearables on so that Kit was included fully in the proceedings.

‘She’ll have Sam in the call with her.’

‘Link us all in,’ Gaby suggested. ‘I wouldn’t mind saying hi to your housemates.’

‘Well… Let me just check they’re decent first.’

Marie was wearing a Christmassy green-and-red mini-dress, with illuminated trim. Sam’s avatar appeared to be live, because there was no way the sweater he was wearing was something he would have put in a mask image: it had chunky, comedy reindeer prancing across the chest.

‘Merry Christmas!’ Marie said as soon as the images resolved.

‘And you,’ Fox replied, ‘but hang on, I’ve got someone else who wants to say hello.’ Kit made the connections and Fox said, ‘Right, Sam and Marie, meet Jason’s parents, Pascal and Monique, and Gaby, his sister.’

There were more calls of ‘Merry Christmas,’ and Gaby said, ‘That’s a great sweater, Sam.’

‘Not my usual choice of garment,’ Sam replied, ‘but Marie decided I should be festive.’

‘And he probably wasn’t wearing a shirt before he put it on,’ Fox added.

‘Yeah,’ Marie said, frowning. ‘I really didn’t think that through.’

‘Don’t I know you, Marie?’ Gaby asked. ‘I’m sure I’ve seen you– Oh, you’re M. J.’

Marie’s cheeks coloured and Fox said, ‘Marie’s not used to being recognised.’

‘M. J.?’ Monique asked.

‘The female lead in this
terrible
IB vid based on Jack the Ripper,’ Gaby explained. ‘The vid was terrible, but M. J. was kind of awesome. I watched it because of the Ripper connection, obviously. Not the nudity and the sex scene.’

‘Of course,’ Monique said, nodding and grinning.

‘Uh, anyway, wow, famous person.’

‘Oh, I’m not famous…’ Marie said, going redder.

‘Not yet,’ Sam said.

‘And I have Terri calling now,’ Kit said.

Fox raised an eyebrow. ‘Okay, well, talking of famous people… Patch her in, Kit.’

Three more avatars appeared in the room: Terri had her father and Helen Dillan with her. Fox made the introductions and there did appear to be a degree of awe floating around, especially from Gaby.

‘It’s a pleasure to meet you both,’ Gaby said. ‘I mean, virtually. I mean, I’ve got a MarTech implant and half my equipment, more, is MarTech, and–’

Jackson laughed. ‘You’ll have to drop by the tower if you’re ever in New York. We’ll give you the tour, show you the labs. Teresa’s working on some very exciting projects and I’ve usually got a cyberframe or two in development. The detective assistance systems we’ve built for Fox are well worth seeing.’

‘Thanks, Mister Martins. I’ll drop by next time I’m visiting Jason.’

‘Jackson,’ Jackson stated flatly. ‘Fox will tell you I’m not one for formality. Did you give them the wine yet, Fox?’

‘They haven’t opened that one,’ Fox replied. Monique looked around, spotted another tubular package, and picked it up.

‘Right,’ Jackson said. ‘Well, you’ll say “no, we can’t accept this” or some such because–’ He stopped as Monique pulled the bottle out and looked at the label. ‘Because it’s expensive,’ Jackson went on, ‘but you’re really doing me a favour. It’s a pleasant enough wine, but I’m told it doesn’t keep and if it doesn’t get drunk, I’ll be storing vinegar bottles.’

‘This is
very
generous,’ Monique said.

‘Fox told me that Jason had never had French wine, so I assume you haven’t, or rarely. I have about three cases of it which need drinking, soon. Fox wouldn’t let me send you a case. Said I’d embarrass her.
I
didn’t pay for it, so I don’t see why giving it away is a big deal, but…’ He waved a hand dismissively. ‘I hope it goes with your dinner.’

‘Don’t mind Poppa,’ Terri said. ‘He’s never been very good with money.’

‘You run one of the biggest companies in the world and you’re not good with money?’ Pascal asked.

‘Oh, I don’t run it,’ Jackson replied. ‘I have Mariel for that. If
I
ran MarTech Group, I’d never be able to afford to run MarTech Group. They make me turn up to board meetings, but that’s about as far as I go.’

‘Oh,’ Fox said, putting on an expression of mock affront, ‘so that’s it. You have to suffer through board meetings, so you suckered me onto the board of Palladium.’

‘Well… Yes. Why should I suffer alone? In a couple of years, I’ll have Terri doing my job and I’ll become a pottering, eccentric engineer.’

‘Poppa,’ Terri said, far too sweetly, ‘don’t make me hurt you.’

~~~

‘Well, it’s not bad,’ Jason said, looking at the wine in his glass, ‘but I have to agree, I’ve had better.’

‘Who gives away three cases of French white?’ Gaby asked, incredulous.

‘Four,’ Fox corrected. ‘They’ve managed to get through one. Jackson really isn’t a big drinker. Um… the North European Union’s ambassador to America. They’d signed some big deal with MarTech Defense Technologies for… I think Jackson said it was aerospace dominance fighters, so it would be High Harpies.’

‘You know all the equipment your companies produce?’ Pascal asked.

‘Me? No, but Kit’s got the whole catalogue in storage in case I need to know it. When I joined, I toured a fair number of the facilities. Went up to the Moon and the station at L-four, visited Germany and East Africa. Getting a feel for things, you know?’ Fox forked turkey into her mouth and let her eyes close: Monique knew how to cook a bird. It came close to melting on the tongue.

‘It doesn’t sound like something someone with your temperament would get into. All these meetings and paper– Well, no, I suppose the paperwork isn’t that much different to being a cop.’

Fox swallowed. ‘I did say Jackson suckered me into it. I wasn’t kidding. I didn’t know I was on the board until I got to the induction meeting. But I was the only investigator in the company then. Helen joined a little later. Next month we get a bunch more people on board, but I’ll still get plenty of time doing detective work.’

‘She sounds happy now,’ Jason said, ‘but you should have seen her when she was reviewing all the contract documents for the private policing work.’

‘It did feel like my brain was draining out of my ears.’

‘And now you know how I feel. I hardly ever get to do anything a detective
should
be doing.’

‘Detecting.’

‘Precisely.’

‘Intimidating criminals.’

‘And that.’

‘Inflicting gunshot wounds without feeling guilty.’

‘I have not been in a shootout in over a year.’

‘You poor baby.’

‘I do miss the shootouts,’ Pascal agreed wistfully.

‘I don’t even routinely carry a gun!’ Gaby wailed.

Monique rolled her eyes. ‘Police officers should be locked up for the safety of the general populace.’

Fox narrowed her eyes. ‘We’d just shoot our way out.’

~~~

‘You are seriously telling me that Jackson Martins packed guidance electronics and an infrared optical system into a ten-mil projectile?’ Gaby was holding one of the rounds from Fox’s pistol and staring at it as though it could not
possibly
be there.

‘Pretty much my reaction,’ Fox replied, ‘but, yes, he did. Haven’t actually had to use many of the homing rounds, which is good because they cost a fortune, relatively. Mostly it’s short-range stuff and the magnetic accelerator takes care of that. But it’s a snap to get a lock and if you’re not using homing, the rounds have a flat trajectory out to a thousand metres because of the rocket motors. Then you have a choice of warheads, from less-than-lethal to smart-forged, multi-purpose explosive.’

‘That is
so
cool. Positively pearlescent.’

‘You are, I think, a little more enthusiastic about guns than my husband,’ Monique commented.

‘Ex-Army. You should see the assault carbines Jackson’s people designed based on the Gauss pistol he built for me. And the heavy stuff! Which I can’t talk about because it’s still secret, but… Wow!’

‘And yet you said that you were pushing for police to carry non-lethal weapons.’

‘The electrolasers? That’s just common sense. And they
can
give a lethal shock if required, but it’s viable to use them as a standard sidearm which incapacitates rather than kills. If you have that option, then it should be the default. Projectile weapons should be deployed for specific circumstances. Also, I may not eat until New Year.’

Monique laughed. They had retired to the lounge with glasses of wine and the probability that they would chat and drink until they fell into a stupor. Fox was warm, full, and developing a nice buzz: she suspected unconsciousness might claim her quite quickly.

‘I’m glad you enjoyed it,’ Monique said. ‘It takes a while to get ready, so it’s always nice when it’s appreciated.’