Inescapable (28 page)

‘Are you okay?’
Fox asked after a few seconds.

‘Yes. I am
analysing what I just experienced. It was some form of sensory
cascade. Quite amazing. If that is what you experience when I do
that to you, I am amazed you survive so many of them.’

Fox grinned.
‘Did you enjoy it?’

‘It was quite
beautiful. I don’t think I can really describe what it felt
like.’

‘Huh. Now you
know how I felt when you asked me.’

‘Yes. Knowing
what you feel like when it happens is part of what made it so
beautiful. Thank you, Mistress Zorra, for such a beautiful
present.’

New York Metro,
6
^th
May.

The morning briefings
which Fox reviewed in the shower included a note that the house
opposite Sam’s place had been reoccupied. Overt, the Augustine
ex-employee who had got away, was tracked there, though his
companion, Constance, was still at home. The heat signatures in the
building suggested two watchers so Fox asked for analysis of the
recorded video to get an identity for the new watcher.

‘Should we
inform Sam and Marie of the new observers?’ Kit asked.

Fox cut the
water and switched on the drying heads. Heated air flowed around
her body as she turned in the streams. ‘No. Make sure we have
adequate coverage from the frames, and I want a watch kept on
Marie. Sam can take care of himself.’

‘I assume this
means that they will be resuming their campaign to remove Sam from
the property.’

‘That’s a
reasonable assumption. Are we getting anywhere with August?’

‘I’ll request a
status update from Group. They were handling the financial
background analysis.’

‘Okay, what
else have we got today?’

‘Nothing
specific booked. I thought today might be a good time to look into
recruiting strategies. I know you don’t really
want
people
to manage, but the company is going to need more like you, even if
only to be able to cover the physical areas required.’

Fox had seen
the projections and Kit was probably right. Just taking MarTech
buildings, she had to cover the entire planet, several satellites,
and a number of off-world facilities. Okay, so the off-world
habitats were not a major concern at the moment and some of the
sites outside America tended to dislike police investigations being
carried out by non-citizens, but she had a wide geographic area to
look after. Beyond that, the number of non-internal clients
Palladium was contracted to handle was growing rapidly. The fact
was that Sam’s little bit of outside contracting was a drop in the
bucket compared to some of the sites Palladium was being asked to
refit and manage. Potentially, any of those locations could require
investigative services.

Now, if NAPA
ended up as a standards organisation, there was going to be a glut
of trained ex-cops looking for work, but if that did not happen,
there was going to be a need for a load of people trained to handle
the standard bulk of police work. Evidence collection, basic data
analysis and mining, the routine investigative work that Pythia and
Kit were handling a lot of for…

Fox scrubbed
her fingers through her hair to check it was dry and then ordered
the air streams off. ‘Kit, could you see if you can get a meeting
arranged with Jackson and Ryan? It’s not super-urgent, but it could
take a while. Let’s block out an hour. Telepresence is fine.’

‘Of course,
Fox.’ The AI appeared as Fox stepped out of the shower and started
assembling her outfit. ‘I have arranged for a one-hour meeting via
telepresence starting at ten-thirty,’ Kit added before Fox had
started pulling her jeans on.

‘Modern
business is a wonder,’ Fox said, grinning.

~~~

‘Showers can be very
useful for inspiration,’ Jackson noted. Fox had just told him and
Jarvis that she had had an idea in the shower that morning. ‘Though
it’s traditionally a bath that’s associated with the eureka
moment.’

‘Didn’t he leap
out of it and run naked through the town or something?’ Fox
asked.

‘That’s the
story.’

‘Even today I’d
be cited for public nudity. Anyway, Kit suggested I spend some time
on recruitment planning since I didn’t have anything lined up
today.’

‘Not concerned
about the watchers on Clarion’s place?’ Jarvis asked.

‘Concerned,
yes, but there’s nothing much to do about it unless they make a
move. And the fact that I can sit back and let a couple of
cyberframes handle that kind of thing is why I got the two of you
here to discuss this idea.’

‘You want to
handle investigations using AIs,’ Jackson said, rather
short-circuiting the discussion.

‘Well, I had
this long speech about how a lot of investigations were pretty
standard and yadda yadda, but there doesn’t seem to be much point
in going through that now. Thanks, Jackson.’

‘No, I’d like
to hear more. I considered this as an option, but I’d concluded
that the role was better handled by a combination of human and
frame. You believe the cybernetic alternative is viable?’

‘There are two
barriers. People find human cops more reassuring. I think it’s kind
of stupid, but I’ve had a lot more experience dealing with class
fours than most people, I guess. NAPA handles more or less all its
patrol activities with frames, but it still sends out human
officers when they need to respond to an emergency.’

Jackson’s
avatar nodded. ‘Even though a frame might be better suited to the
task, people prefer to have their problem handled by a human. That
is likely to change, but for now it’s true.’

‘Right, so I’m
thinking what we need is something we can provide to Ryan’s
responders which lets them handle the more routine investigations
without a specialist. You’ve built Pythia to handle my big cases,
but a subset of her programming could handle burglaries, vandalism,
and all the other stuff which is a
huge
percentage of normal
crime. When it comes to a lot of the more technical stuff, it’s
down to AIs and diagnostic programs anyway.’

‘So you want
our security staff to handle the simple investigations?’ Jarvis
asked.

‘Uh-huh, or to
front them. We keep an eye on them, monitor performance. The better
ones will pick up the techniques and we can move the ones with an
aptitude into investigation. I think we’re still going to need
humans for the more, uh, creative crime. Though a class four could
learn. Kit’s going to end up being pretty good at detective work,
I’ve no doubt. But people are going to want humans involved when it
comes to some things. Murder, rape, the personal crimes.’

‘There’s some
evidence that some people can find it easier to open up to an AI in
some cases like that,’ Jackson said, his tone musing. ‘They feel
that other people tend to judge. However… I see this as a suite of
infomorph designs and frames to house them. Hmm… Teresa should be
back here at the end of the month and the Kitsune project is pretty
much complete. I’ll need both of you working with her to get this
moving. Garth can handle the oversight for the overall project, and
I’ll get Mariel to sort out a budget across Palladium and
Technologies… The systems might even be marketable. Yes, good idea,
Fox.’

Jarvis peered
across the virtual table at her. ‘See what you’ve done? Now we’re
running a development project.’

Fox was still
trying to work out how that had happened herself. ‘I promise to
stop taking showers,’ she said by way of apology.

~~~

‘Augustine Property
Services is not in the best of financial conditions,’ Kit said. She
had financial reports and various organisational schematics up on
the window, but Fox was taking none of it in.

‘What are you
going to do when you don’t have that window to present these
reports on?’ Fox asked.

Kit looked at
her, lips pursed around the earpiece of her glasses. ‘I’m sure
there will be suitable walls to use. We will have to ensure that
there is something suitable when we finalise the design.’

Fox grinned.
‘Uh-huh. Continue.’

‘Mister August
has put considerable investment into his company which, given that
it largely handles his own security, it is not making back. As with
Palladium’s creation for use by MarTech, there are theoretical
savings in not paying money out to another company, but APS has
very few external contracts
and
Mister August has been
over-extending himself on property purchases.’

‘So he’s
pushing himself into bankruptcy to do this? He must have some
endgame plan to put himself back in the black.’

‘If he has,
that plan is very obscure. His consortium associates have stuck to
property. They tend to have fewer large buildings and have
contracted to Wayden or Palladium for security in those buildings.
The one where Mister Deedle was caught was one of those. The
reports indicate that Palladium is being used to attempt to push
Wayden’s contract pricing down, though whether that will work is
currently unknown. Meanwhile, Mister August is pressing ahead and
may be about to put
more
money into APS.’

‘Does he think
he can compete with us or Wayden?’ The idea seemed silly, and
August had not looked like a silly man.

‘No one knows
his reasoning,’ Kit replied. ‘The suggestion is that he has a
personal reason for wanting his own security organisation.’

Fox nodded
slowly. ‘He was pretty disparaging about NAPA. Run his family
background. I’m guessing he’s had some form of problematic
experience with the police in the past.’

‘His record is
entirely clean.’

‘Not that kind
of problematic. Check family and friends, data mine social media
and IB news feeds. See if you can dig up anything about him or his
family from there.’

7
^th
May.

‘Mister Harper August
has had something of a tragic life in the past few years,’ Kit
said. This time she was scrolling news feed replays over the
window, which was easier to absorb. ‘In twenty forty-nine, his
daughter, then Margery Jane Randall, died giving birth to her
second child. The boy did not survive either.’

‘That’s not
common these days,’ Fox said.

‘No. There were
investigations but no blame could be attributed. There was a
complication which was not detected early enough, both mother and
child died, despite quite strenuous attempts to save them. Two
years later, Mister August’s wife, Anne Louise, died. Reports in
the gossip feeds stated that she never really recovered from the
death of her daughter. Mister August became far more isolated,
spent more time at his club, but when he ventured out it was
usually to visit his granddaughter, Patricia Anne Randall, who he
doted upon.’

Fox grimaced.
‘I can almost see this coming.’

‘Indeed. On the
ninth of August twenty fifty-six, Miss Randall went missing. She
would run in Central Park quite regularly, and it was on such a run
that she vanished. Kidnapping was presumed, but no contact was ever
made, no ransom was demanded. Three days later, her body was
discovered in an alley in the Hell’s Kitchen area. Details are
lacking, little was released to the media, but she was naked and
dead. NAPA were unable to resolve the case.’

‘Any
suspects?’

‘Mister August
apparently considered Miss Randall’s father one. Andrew Steven. He
moved to Detroit two years ago. The gossip feeds suggest that
Mister August had been hounding him over the homicide. NAPA’s main
thread of inquiry involved the sprawlers known to inhabit the
park.’

‘Yeah, but this
would be precinct eighteen and they’re constitutionally incapable
of thinking anyone with money would ever do anything like killing a
woman. And if they
did
, it wouldn’t be anyone of their own
class so it doesn’t count.’

‘Yes, but it
does seem more likely than Mister Randall killing his own
daughter.’

‘Perhaps.
Without knowing more, it’s hard to know what any of them might have
done. Point is, August’s granddaughter is murdered, and probably
more than that, after his daughter and wife die. Two shocks and
then an insult, and NAPA can’t give him any justice. So he forms
his own security company?’

‘Augustine
Property Services was founded eighteen months after Miss Randall’s
death. That may have been the final straw for Mister Randall.’

‘Okay, so we
have a good idea
why
he’s doing this, but it doesn’t
help.’

‘No?’

‘No. This just
paints a picture of a man who’s obsessed with getting justice for
his granddaughter. If we wait long enough, he’ll likely ruin
himself and solve the problem that way, but how much damage is he
going to do in the meantime? We need a lever and I don’t see one
here because I doubt he’d trust me to investigate the case.’

Kit nodded.
‘I’ll keep digging, just in case.’

14
^th
May.

‘Honestly, I don’t know
what they’re doing,’ Fox said, ‘and that’s why I decided you should
come out for an evening.’

Marie looked
around the neon landscape of 27Lex, feeling her nipples stiffening
against the plazkin tube top she had decided on despite knowing
what the club was like. ‘You’re sure you didn’t just want to get me
embarrassed at being here?’

‘That’s an
additional incentive, but no. I’d have had Sam here too, but he has
work.’

‘Horizontal
work?’

‘New client,
apparently, so he wasn’t sure exactly what the situation would
demand. A woman tonight, but he doesn’t generally tell me a lot
about them. It’s not exactly like priests or doctors, but
professionals usually keep their clients’ details private.’

Marie nodded.
‘I don’t mind. It’s nice to get out of the apartment and do
something, and doing it knowing that I was being watched kind of
gave this spy role play feeling. You’re sure I was followed?’