DeathWeb (Fox Meridian Book 3)

by Niall Teasdale

  Fox looked around. All the delegates, including herself, had a badge clipped to their clothes or hung around their necks. Another of the aids for those without portable computing power, though Fox had to wonder how many of those there were in the room. The badge gave basic data: name, company if there was one, and a picture. Then there was a v-tag which pointed to additional information accessible online. Vaughn had arranged for Fox’s to point to bio and company data.

  Hovering was replaced by James Malton, the Senator for the New England administrative region. Malton seemed to be unconcerned but generally against the resolution. Janine Canter for Virginia and West was more anti, but not being too vocal because she could probably see where the current votes were going. Senators were administrative personnel, not elected officials, but they could be removed from office if their views were too far away from the population they advocated for.

  It was when Adam Randolf from the Kansas Belt stood up and various parts of the audience got to their feet that Fox noticed a flash of copper hair before it was submerged in the other bodies. Her mother had stood up fast.

  ‘Mom seems to have become rather more active than she was,’ Fox said silently.

  ‘Is that not a good thing?’ Kit replied.

  ‘Maybe. Do a run through the Topeka news feeds. See if you can find anything out about Jonathan and Andrea Meridian.’

  ‘Of course, Fox.’

  Randolf set off with enthusiasm and no apparent indecision about the voting preferences of his constituents. ‘We all know why we’re here. In a little over a month, the resolution to allow full control of local policing by local residents will be on the table. We are all here to show all you metropolitan citizens how determined we are to gain control of our own policing. We will show you we are right to want it.’ And so it went on for about ten minutes. Randolf, if Fox remembered it right, had been in farming for a couple of decades and played the local farmer role to the hilt, even hamming up a thicker accent though the Belt was known for having a barely discernible one. He had always been over-verbose, but enough people liked that homey style to keep him ticking over. Fox figured that if he could get this vote passed and ride the wave right, he would probably be able to hold on to office until his toes curled up.

  Neither Mark Tully of the North-West Protectorate nor Madison Sutton of the Southern one took as long as Randolf did, but they were both clued up enough on the few residents of their regions to know that local policing was preferred. Fox was quite sure that any policing would have done: NAPA rarely got involved in anything in the protectorates and no one was going to give them the budget to improve that situation. Being forced to call in NAPA officers for serious crimes meant that few, if any, of them were ever resolved because it took too long for anyone to get around to it. Fox could actually see the situation improving in some areas if they could put together a local force to do the work.

  Gary Raffinton getting up to introduce himself and generally say good things about the resolution was something of a surprise. Raffinton was the CEO of Wayden Executive Services and having them up on the stage for the introductory speeches seemed unbalanced. Still, Vaughn had not mentioned it being an issue. It was hardly surprising that Wayden wanted the resolution to pass: they were assuming they could make a lot of money contracting their services to people who suddenly discovered they had to provide their area with a professional police force.

  Hovering returned to the podium and started closing things up and Fox decided to make a break for it. Pretty soon everyone would be leaving and there would be chaos as they swarmed off for food and drinks.

  ‘And you might bump into your parents in the rush,’ Kit pointed out.

  ‘Another good reason to be elsewhere.’

  ~~~

  ‘No, Raffinton’s speech was unscheduled and none of the other companies here were informed he would be on stage.’ Eaves was not looking pleased, but he was not looking especially worried. ‘I’d be more concerned if I hadn’t seen their display stand.’

  ‘Not impressed?’ Fox asked.

  ‘They come over more as a paramilitary unit than a police force. I don’t think there’s any attempt at investigative services on show.’

  ‘They’ll recruit from NAPA. So will we, but we have something to take up the slack. There just aren’t enough trained detectives to meet the needs of that many districts.’

  Eaves nodded. ‘I’ll be pushing data like that in some of the panels over the next few days. People are going to vote for this resolution or abstain because they feel it doesn’t affect them. I’m going to make sure they know what they’re getting into when they vote it through.’

  ‘Rather you than me. Looks like we’re starting to get visitors.’ The hall had had few people walking around it as the mass fell upon lunch like locusts, but now people were starting to thread into the exhibition hall, presumably preferring that to drinks and social networking. Some were bound to be there for the technology more than the politics. Fox saw a couple of precinct 19 cops among the crowd, some of the less politically inclined ones as far as she knew.

  Eaves gave a grunt. ‘I need to go get ready for my first panel. Good luck.’

  ‘Same to you.’

  It seemed like luck was not a major requirement since everyone seemed to be filtering through and taking stock of what was there. Fox expected the cops she had seen to fix on something and ask questions later, and she expected that Palladium would be on the list to be talked to. The cops had limited time to look things over, but everyone else had all week.

  ‘Your parents,’ Kit said into Fox’s head, ‘seem to have been taking a much more obvious role in local politics in their home district.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Yes. Your mother appears to be more prominent than your father, but I found references to and reports of speeches given by both at various meetings. They are very much in favour of the passage of the resolution.’

  ‘I am really not surprised about that. I’d imagine that they see local people handling the policing of the local area, rather than needing to bring in contractors.’

  ‘Your mother states that explicitly in an interview on IB-eighty-three.’

  ‘Kansas Belt News? She was on KBN, huh? Go Mom. KBN is the main news channel for the whole of the Belt. They provide feeds on the area to the metro and national channels. Pretty big to get an interview on there if you’re a no one from Topeka.’

  ‘It would seem that they are no longer “no one.” Your mother in particular. I have found her on a number of local sites and channels. She has become something of a celebrity in the Topeka area.’

  Fox shrugged, mentally. ‘Well, I still think their politics are balls, but at least they finally got off their asses and decided to do something about it.’

  ‘Perhaps you should stop avoiding them and see what they have to say.’

  ‘Huh. I somehow doubt I need to go looking for them, but I guess if they haven’t turned up to gawk at their daughter in a suit before Friday, I’ll go find them.’

  ~~~

  Fox and Marie were tired and not entirely thinking straight, and they were running on low blood sugar levels since neither had eaten properly all day, but they were there for the rehearsal. Jackson and Terri were looking brighter, neither having spent a boring day on an exhibition stand. Vaughn was starting to look exhausted, but she was determinedly ploughing through, stepping through the entire proceeding, essentially taking the role of stage director.

  And they had an audience: Eaves and Jarvis were there, and Sam had arrived and been passed through security, apparently because Vaughn had got him the pass. He was sitting there in the front row with a slight smile on his face, dressed in a black shirt and suit which made it look a little like he was working. From the way he had greeted Vaughn on arrival, maybe he was.

  Fox was a little worried to discover that she was the main presenter for the show. She opened proceedings, gave the overview, and then brought on Jackson to give his ‘technology
is a wonderful thing and here’s the clever idea we’ve had now’ speech.

  Then Fox would return with Marie and the harness, and Marie would be strapped into it and set to work. Vaughn made sure that everyone knew that they had to have that part of the presentation wrapped by twenty minutes past the hour so that Marie got thirty minutes to do her stuff, and then there would be ten minutes to see the results and take questions.

  ‘I’ve done this kind of speech so often I can time them to the second,’ Jackson said. ‘Teresa and I have written something I can adjust on the fly if necessary.’

  ‘Good,’ Vaughn said. ‘Once Marie is working, Fox will introduce Terri to explain the AI and give details of the way it interacts with the wearer.’

  The rear wall of the stage was rigged as a projection screen. Attendees could see the details closer if they wished via their implants or wearables, but the screen made it easier to watch the presenter, and Marie, and still see the data being shown. Vaughn ran Terri through the sequence to check the timing, and then moved on to the next part which was Fox and Jackson running through a brief overview of the various cyberframes MarTech was putting together, or already had in use, to handle Palladium’s needs.

  ‘And that should bring us back to Marie for the finale,’ Vaughn said.

  ‘What do we do if I can’t figure out whatever it is I’m supposed to figure out?’ Marie asked. ‘I mean, aren’t these demos usually rigged for this kind of thing?’

  ‘Yes,’ Jackson said flatly, ‘but we don’t need to.’

  ‘We’ve engineered the puzzle so that you can solve it if you follow the instructions,’ Terri said. ‘In that sense, it’s rigged. There’s no sense in putting something here which Fox couldn’t solve with all of Pythia’s resources. Don’t worry, Marie. It’ll work.’

  Fox winced. ‘Well that’s not jinxing it at all.’

  22nd June.

  Fox scanned over the crowd in the theatre as she walked out to centre stage backed by the Palladium logo on the big screen. She could see a number of cops in the front couple of rows, including Helen Dillan at the front on Fox’s left. She caught a flash of copper hair toward the back, but could not identify the owner.

  ‘Kit, run over the attendance list and see if they’re here, please.’

  ‘Of course, Fox,’ Kit replied, but what she immediately did was supply Fox with her first cue card as the noise from the audience died away.

  ‘Ladies and gentlemen, and members of NAPA,’ Fox began, and there was a rumble of laughter, mostly from the cops, ‘welcome to the Palladium and MarTech presentation on future investigative technology. It looks like about half the audience should know who I am already, but for those who don’t, my name is Tara Meridian and I’m the Chief Investigative Officer of Palladium Security Solutions.’

  Checking in-vision that the screen display behind her was transitioning into a slideshow of historical events which were vaguely related to Palladium, Fox gave her virtual card a glance and went on. ‘Palladium was formed in twenty fifty-seven to internalise security for MarTech’s worldwide facilities. It handles facilities and building management in concert with MarTech Services, and it supplies security systems and personnel working with MarTech Technologies and Defence Technologies to do that. However, until I joined the team earlier this year, Palladium had only an ad hoc investigative capability, depending primarily on the basic talents of its security staff. Some of them have done an excellent job in difficult circumstances, but our management team decided that something a little more formal was needed.’

  She looked out at the audience and smiled. ‘And obviously I’m a detective on a par with Sherlock Holmes,’ – another rumble of laughter – ‘but even I have my limits. One person can’t cover the world, even the part of it MarTech calls home. More than that, if the resolution this conference was founded around is voted into law, we are about to see a massive change in the way policing is carried out. Even if the metro areas shipped every detective they have out into the protectorates, we would not be able to cover all the ground adequately. Palladium needed a way of easing that burden, and I had a great idea about how to do that.’ She smiled again. ‘Of course, when I mentioned it, it turned out I was slightly behind the times because I have a genius on my board of directors. Let me introduce him to you. Ladies and gentlemen, Jackson Martins.’

  There was applause as Jackson walked out from behind the curtained-off area to the left of stage where Marie would be working, and Fox joined it as she reversed off to stage right where Marie was waiting with Terri and the harness. Marie looked nervous, but that kind of worked for the presentation and Terri was looking confident. Fox knew the latter had been tweaking the interface to her new AI for the last few days to make sure it would work well for this event.

  ‘Everything okay?’ Fox asked, keeping her voice low.

  ‘I’m nervous,’ Marie replied, ‘but it’s more worry about screwing up the demo.’

  ‘Which you won’t,’ Terri stated. ‘If I’ve done my job, and I have, you won’t be allowed to screw up as long as you do what the system says.’ She smiled. ‘Poppa’s always been good at making these things sound exciting.’

  ‘It’s because they excite him,’ Fox replied. ‘He believes in technology. He believes it can make a better world. I’m just glad he doesn’t let that run away with him too often.’

  ‘Not wishing to make you nervous,’ Kit said, ‘but your parents are in the audience.’

  ‘Yeah… Thanks, Kit.’

  Out on stage, Jackson was winding up his initial talk. ‘It’s a basic fact, at this time anyway, that people like people. Many are finding AIs to be just as good, but most of us like talking to other people, and we certainly want humans dealing with us when we’re faced with serious crime. We want a human there who knows what we’re having to deal with, but we need a human who knows how to handle the situation. What we need here is the best of both worlds and we at MarTech Technologies believe we have a solution for that so simple that anyone can use it.’

  That was their cue and Fox emerged from the wings, holding the harness and with Marie following behind in her usual housemaid outfit of plain grey skirt and white blouse. ‘I should point out that this device is still in prototyping,’ Jackson went on, ‘which is why it looks like we built it out of scrap plastic and as many random wires as we could find. We don’t even have a name for it yet, but it works well enough for us to give you a demonstration.’ He took the harness off Fox and stepped aside.

  ‘Thanks, Jackson,’ Fox said. ‘What we’ve got for you is a demonstration of the basic investigative assistant functions we’ve built into this harness, and to show that anyone can use it, we have Marie Shaftsbury playing the part of our naïve young detective. Marie, what is it you do for a living?’

  ‘I’m a housekeeper, and I’m training to be an actress,’ Marie replied. Her voice was steady, but she was still looking a little nervous as she stood there waiting to be strapped into the harness.

  ‘Any theatrical types in the audience looking for their next star, she’s very good. However, you have no experience with crime scenes or detective work, is that right?’

  ‘I’ve watched a couple of detective shows…’

  Fox grinned. ‘Let’s ask our audience. Does that count?’

  There was laughter. Someone yelled out, ‘It’s a handicap!’

  ‘Uh-huh. That sounds about right. Lastly, we’ve made sure that the harness fits you and that you can interface with its computer, but you have not had the chance to practise with it. This is your first attempt at using it in anger. Is that right?’

  ‘Yes, it is.’ Marie’s little worried grin seemed to sell that one to the audience more than her affirmation.

  ‘Yes,’ Jackson said, grinning, ‘we are both mad and that confident in our prototype.’ There was laughter as the curtain hiding their stage set was pulled upward.

  ‘And here we have our test set,’ Fox said. There was a sofa, a chair, and a coffee table. A dum
my was slumped over in the chair with a kitchen knife lodged in its back. On the coffee table were two wine glasses, one half-full and the other, nearest the body, empty. There was also a table set to one side with a few extra bits of equipment on it, such as gloves. ‘It seems that someone has come to an unfortunate end. Thankfully, Mister Manny Quin was never much of a talker, but he’s a medical simulation dummy rigged with synthetic flesh and other features which will give a reasonable facsimile of a dead body. We’re going to strap Marie into the harness and give her half an hour to solve the crime. The only cheat here is that we know there is forensic evidence for her to find which will name the killer. Marie, we want a name, and how they did it, and the method is not as obvious as it seems.’

  ‘Okay,’ Marie replied, and Jackson took her aside to help her into the harness.

  ‘All right,’ Fox went on. ‘While Marie is busy with that, we’re going to look at how this all ties together and how the harness’s in-built AI is going to help Marie to crack the case. Who better to do that than the woman responsible for creating that AI? Ladies and gentlemen, Teresa Martins.’

  As Terri began going over how the AI would direct Marie through her tasks, Fox watched Marie from off-stage. The housemaid and actress stood for several seconds, frowning at the scene with her right index finger tapping on her lips. It gave the impression of thinking rather than being stunned and inactive, and Fox hoped that was what was happening. Then Marie started forward as though to start work, stopped, looked around, and walked over to the table to get some of the plazkin gloves which had been set there for her. She was grinning now, as though pleased with herself and how things were going. Fox figured that if the AI was good enough to make sure she had gloves on before starting work, and Marie was good enough to listen to it, the demo might just work.

  It was not as though virtual tutor systems were unheard of. Very basic AIs able to handle the tasks of one or more skills, coupled with v-tag information attached to equipment, parts, and consumables, were capable of guiding a human through various repair jobs and other standard operations. The Army made extensive use of the technology to handle the large variety of different equipment they needed, though skilled technicians were still needed for frontline operations and more complex work. What Terri was attempting with this system was something a little new, however. Forensics equipment could be tagged so that the AI knew how to handle it, but the evidence Marie was being guided to collect was not tagged and not always easy to find. Fox would have normally employed a swarm to go over the scene, but there was not sufficient time for that so the AI was actually taking Marie through a non-standard evidence retrieval routine. Fox hoped that at least some of the cops in the audience would recognise that and be impressed.