Criminal Minds (Fox Meridian Book 4) (17 page)

‘It
is
a shame,’ Terri said. ‘As far as I could tell, you were having some significant success, at least in the analysis of aberrant mental states.’

‘We were expecting results of our work on countermemes,’ Overman said, ‘particularly with the Coral archetype. We felt we could make significant inroads into the enjoyment such people feel when killing.’

‘But the plug was pulled,’ Fox said. ‘Sad.’

‘Yes,’ Overman said, his teeth slightly gritted. And it was there again: not quite a lie this time, but he was hiding something.

‘We have considered funding a restart of the project through Palladium,’ Terri said. ‘The work was so promising that–’

‘It would be impossible, I’m afraid. We would need to restart everything from scratch and… Well, several members of the team are no longer with us.’

‘I heard. A suicide and two heart attacks.’

‘A little unusual, don’t you think?’ Fox added. ‘Within five months of the closure of your project, half your staff are dead. Three quarters of your female staff, actually. And the fourth is missing.’

‘It’s… statistically unlikely, I agree.’

‘You don’t know where Arabella Hive is, do you?’

‘
Doctor
Hive did not tell anyone where she was going.’

Fox nodded. ‘And you’re quite sure that restarting the project is out of the question?’

‘I am.’

‘Thank you for your time, Doctor.’ Fox flashed the man a smile and got to her feet. ‘If you change your mind, or hear from Doctor Hive, I’d appreciate it if you contacted myself or Doctor Martins.’

~~~

‘I can see why you wanted me here,’ Terri said as they took the cab back to the MarTech tower in Boston. ‘Did you
have
to be so hostile to him?’

‘I don’t like status-conscious, pompous, arrogant pricks lying to me.’

Terri gave a sniff. ‘Well, I know he was lying about the reason the project was shut down, but–’

‘He was lying about creating a Jack AI.’ Fox turned in her seat. ‘I didn’t catch the one about the shutdown.’

‘I didn’t catch the one about the AI. Uh, but he was lying at the end when he said they pulled the plug before they could make one, so I guess…’

Fox grinned. ‘And
that’s
why it’s useful having you along.’

‘But why would he lie about that?’

‘Ah, the big question. “Why” is always the big question. That’s the one that usually cracks the case. But… If they did make a Jack clone and they’re hiding the reason for closedown…’

‘The two would be connected.’

‘Which means…’ Fox sagged. ‘But they were working as part of a university team. They’d be following those protocols you mentioned. I mean, the AIs would have to be built without the baseline limits, but they’d be using standalone boxes. No networking. No way one of the AIs could have escaped.’

‘Presumably.’

Fox raised an eyebrow. ‘Presumably?’

‘Next appointment is tomorrow, right? I’ll go over the papers again. I’m sure there was one on their operating methodology. It would
have
to be explained in one of them. You just don’t publish scientific papers without writing down
how
you got the results. Maybe there was a flaw in their design.’

‘That sounds like a very productive use of your time.
I
was just going to suggest we get naked and frolic in the hot tub.’

Terri’s mouth opened, her eyes widening, and then her mouth snapped shut and her eyes narrowed. ‘You are an incredibly mean woman, Fox Meridian. I may not speak to you again for weeks.’

Fox grinned. ‘I give it five minutes.’

New York Metro.

Talking to Gilly was something of a surreal experience given that her bruised throat made speaking a chore, so she was getting around it with audio teleconferencing, even with those in the room with her. So you got the words, and even the expressions and gestures, but her lips did not move.

‘You’re feeling better though, right?’ Marie asked. ‘You
look
better than you did.’ Which was true, even if the novice still looked tired and a little drawn.

There was a waggle of a hand. ‘So-so,’ Gilly’s voice said into Marie’s head. ‘I mean, yes, but my throat hurts like Hell and I’m weak as a baby.’ Gilly grinned. ‘And you’re being really flattering. I look like I’ve been through a war.’

Marie grinned back. ‘Maybe a small one. You– Oh, hang on, I’ve got Fox requesting a connection.’ Marie switched to an internal conversation as Fox’s image appeared in her vision field. ‘Hey, Fox. I’m just visiting Gilly. She’s… better than she was.’

‘That was why I called,’ Fox replied. ‘I checked with Belle before calling you. If she’s up to it, we’ll widen this to telepresence. I’d like to talk to her.’

‘Hold on, I’ll check.’ And aloud, ‘Gilly, you up to talking to Fox?’ Gilly nodded, not bothering to say anything. ‘Okay, I’ll link us all in. Uh… There!’

Fox and Terri appeared as virtual images, both standing beside the bed as far as Marie and Gilly were concerned. ‘Hello again, Gilly,’ Fox said. ‘I don’t think you’ve met Teresa Martins. She’s with me in Boston consulting on the case.’

‘Good afternoon, Miss Martins,’ Gilly said. ‘Sorry if this is a bit weird, but
actually
speaking still hurts.’

‘Quite all right, Gilly, and you can call me Teresa. Just think, before implants you’d have been writing everything down on notepads.’

‘And,’ Fox said, ‘just note that Terri doesn’t gripe when people don’t use her title.’

Gilly frowned. ‘Sorry?’

Terri was rolling her eyes. ‘Small argument over an academic. Technically, I’m
Doctor
Martins, but then it’s like, how do you distinguish between me and Poppa? Neither of us really pushes it unless we’re dealing with someone who cares.’

‘
Technically
,’ Fox said, ‘I still have the right to use Captain Meridian, but I actively discourage it. I left the UNTPP. Anyway, Gilly, I don’t want to press this too hard, but… What do you remember about the man who attacked you? You didn’t record him in implant memory did you?’

‘Sorry, no. I don’t run the record function routinely and I didn’t think to push it to my implant at the time…’

‘Well, no, you were busy falling unconscious from blood loss. Believe me, I don’t blame you for worrying more about your survival.’

Gilly flashed a weak grin. ‘Thanks, but I still feel like I should have. If I’d died, maybe someone could have taken an image–’

‘Don’t think like that,’ Marie said.

‘And you didn’t die,’ Fox added. ‘Sister Anne saw to that.’

‘Just tell us your impressions,’ Terri said. ‘You saw him better than anyone else. Anyone who can talk about it. But, if it’s too stressful, you just relax and don’t worry about it.’

‘It’s more stressful to think he might be out there planning another murder right now. He was tall, um, and kind of thin. Pale. He had pale skin, pale eyes, maybe blue or green. Not sure about his hair because he had a hat on.’ Gilly frowned. ‘There was something weird about his face. There was blood on it. He hadn’t bothered wiping that off which is… weird and, uh, I’m trying really hard not to think where it came from.’

‘It’s all right. You can stop if you want.’

‘No. I need to do this. I need to help.’ Marie moved closer, taking Gilly’s hand, and got a smile for the gesture. ‘I’m not sure what was wrong with his face, but it wasn’t just the blood. Maybe that’s throwing me off. But I’d
swear
he had little blades sticking out his fingers. Right out of the ends of his fingers, a bit like claws.’

‘Like this?’ Fox asked, lifting her hand and popping the blade out.

Gilly blinked at the demonstration. ‘Well, I guess, but four of them, like scalpel blades ‘coming out of each finger.’

‘Cybernetic hand then. Maybe ex-military. It’s not uncommon in serial killers. Maybe Army medic. But you can let me worry about that. You’ve done well, Gilly. I’d like to get you working with an AI Terri has been developing. Maybe it can tease a few more details out of you.’

‘Sure. Anything to help.’

‘It’s a fairly simple AI,’ Terri explained, ‘but it’s designed to help you through producing an image of someone, a photofit if you like, when there’s no recorded image. It’s still in development, but I’ll get one of my people to bring a copy over and help you use it. It’ll be a good test.’

‘Like I said,
anything
I can do to help get this guy.’

Boston Metro.

Fox slid back into reality, which was hot, wet, and bubbly. ‘You think this new software will get us anything?’ she asked.

Terri took a sip of wine before answering. ‘Yes. But it
is
still learning so we need to consider that when we look at the results. I’m not sure sitting in a hot tub with you after that remark of yours doesn’t qualify as further teasing.’

‘Aren’t we past that? You’ve got Helen to keep you busy. Speaking of whom…’

‘You’re not going to–’

‘Hi, Helen,’ Fox said, smiling at the virtual image which had appeared beside the tub.

‘Hi, Fox. Hi, Terri,’ Dillan replied, smiling back. From the complete lack of surprise, it was apparent that Fox had screened the virtual image Dillan was getting at the other end. ‘You getting anywhere your end?’

‘Things here are a little more interesting than I thought. We met the former project supervisor and he was lying about a few things. We’ve got another interview tomorrow, so we’ll see if that gets us anywhere.’

‘Odd. What’s he got to lie about?’

‘Good question. What about the body in Jersey?’

‘It was the second guy. He’s got better since the first kill, but he still isn’t
near
the proficiency of the one who got into the chapter house. Rutherford’s getting desperate. And they
still
haven’t assigned her anyone else to assist. We’ll get the reports tomorrow and I’ll work with Kit here to get it into the murder room.’

‘Right. I’ll look it over tomorrow. We should be back in the afternoon. Terri, you getting anything from those papers?’

‘Oh… Well, nothing positive. Or is that negative? Whatever, the methodology explanation follows protocol. Each of the AIs had its own server. Each had its own viron on its own server, in fact, and there was no network connection to those machines. Which is another point, actually. The setup in each case mimicked the original environment the killer was from. That means “Jack” would have had no clue about computers.’

‘You’re looking at one of them escaping?’ Dillan asked.

‘Overman, the supervisor, lied about creating a clone of Jack the Ripper,’ Fox explained, ‘but it sounds like the thing wouldn’t have survived outside its home viron even if it somehow managed to escape a physically locked-down server. So maybe… Maybe we’re looking for a human. Someone on the project who was influenced by the AI?’ She frowned. ‘That sounds weak too. Maybe we’ll get something tomorrow. Oh, we’re getting Sister Gilly to work with Terri’s sketch artist AI tomorrow. You might get a picture to go in the murder room at some point.’

‘It’d be nice to have some idea of who we’re looking for.’

‘Yeah, but don’t get your hopes up. She got a quick look at him, and then he was trying to rip her throat out. That kind of thing is liable to distort your memory of the event.’

‘Yeah, but something would be better than “a guy in a black coat and hat.” I mean, that probably only covers some forty-nine per cent of the population. Assuming they have a hat.’

‘Pff!’ Terri said, waving a hand. ‘I don’t know why you have so much trouble with these cases. You just need to search every house in New York for a hat and there’s your man!’ Fox splashed water at her and Terri let out a squeak followed by giggles.

Dillan’s eyes narrowed. ‘Are you guys in a hot tub?’

12
^th
October.

‘Fox, I have obtained the NAPA site reports for the three Criminal Minds personnel who died recently.’

Fox washed the last of the soap from her hair and cut the water. ‘Had time to scan it?’ she asked Kit. The air blowers cut in as the water died.

‘The most immediate point of concern is that Lissette Carpenter and Doctor Ruth Iverson appear to have died during virtual reality sessions.’

‘Any notes indicating predisposition to heart conditions?’

‘The autopsy reports indicate no such predisposition in either case.’

Fox turned in the dryer air streams, silent for a second. ‘To reiterate, you’re saying that two women recently released from the same project, with no biological tendency for sudden cardiac arrest, died of heart failure under similar circumstances.’

‘That would be correct. Justine Nimer jumped from a seventh-storey window rather than having a heart attack. She owned a pistol, bought for personal defence
after
the project was closed down. The file notes that she had fired several rounds into random walls before blowing out the window and jumping. She had not left her apartment for three days prior to that.’

‘No evidence of anyone else in the apartment?’

‘NAPA were unable to find any. Since the death was unusual, they ran forensics on the apartment, putting the death down to suicide when they could not uncover evidence of another participant.’

Fox cut the blowers and stepped out of the shower cubicle. Kit’s avatar was standing outside, waiting for her. ‘Anyone look at her internet usage in those three days?’

‘Unfortunately not.’

‘I think I really want to talk to Doctor Hive. Is there a missing persons file open on her?’

‘Doctor Hive has no living relatives. No one has declared her missing.’

‘Okay.’ Fox pulled a fresh bodysuit up her legs and considered her actions for a second, but there was really only one logical one to take. ‘Put in a missing persons report for Doctor Arabella Hive. Indicate that we believe her life may be in danger.’

‘Do you think NAPA will accept that?’ Kit asked.

‘I bet you can make all the coincidences sound pretty convincing,’ Fox replied, grinning. ‘I’m convinced.’

~~~

The house was located in central Boston, an area that remained relatively unchanged through the periods of rebuilding which had rushed through the metro areas over the past thirty years. Fox stepped out of the autocab she had taken into the city with Terri, and considered the environment. Redbrick buildings, all built to the same style, which Fox thought a little odd: each frontage had a raised doorway on the middle of three floors with a staircase leading up to it, and on either side was a sort of bay window construction, almost a pair of turrets rising up from the lowered ground floor to the pitched roof. The place looked kind of expensive.