The Ghost in the Doll (Fox Meridian Book 6) (26 page)

Jenner Research Station.

‘You appear sad, Helen.’

Helen looked up to see Fei smiling at her. She smiled back. ‘Not sad, exactly. I’ll be going back to Earth tomorrow. I know I’ll see Terri soon enough, but…’

‘You will feel a sense of disparity between the inputs you expect and what is currently happening.’

‘Uh… I’ll miss her. I guess… I suppose that’s sort of an interesting way of putting it.’

Fei nodded and took a seat beside Helen in the lounge. ‘It is my analysis of what happens to me when someone I am used to being here is not. I expect their input. When I do not receive it, I find myself… uncomfortable with the disparity in my expectations. I will… miss Kit while she is away, even though I know she will return quickly.’

‘You’ve developed an emotional attachment.’

‘Perhaps. My understanding of emotion is far from complete. I believe the feeling is analogous.’

Helen grinned. ‘Your vocabulary has definitely expanded.’

Fei returned the grin. ‘Memorising words and their meanings is simply a matter of reading, indexing, and categorising. My processing speed is sufficient to allow me to construct sentences with care. And “analogous” is near the beginning of the dictionary.’

‘Ha! Good point. Well, I think I’m going to miss your input too. Hopefully we’ll meet again fairly soon.’

‘I would enjoy that, Helen. Thank you.’

Airborne Over the North Pacific Ocean.

‘That’s it,’ Yuriko said. ‘Ident pulse is right anyway.’ She was watching the vertol’s radar display, currently showing the kilometre or so radius of water beneath them and the vessels moving over it.

‘That’s only about fifty kilometres away from where the satellite saw it,’ Fox said.

‘Forty-nine,’ Kit supplied. ‘They must have slowed noticeably from their cruising speed across the Sea of Japan. We cannot know without constant surveillance whether they will accelerate again.’

‘Can we get lower?’ Yuriko asked.

‘Sure,’ Fox replied. ‘But if we get low enough to use the imaging radar, they’ll notice us for sure. I’ll slow us down and bank as we swing around. Grab some binoculars and see what you can see. Run the visual feed through for me to take a look at.’

‘You should concentrate on flying.’

‘Yuriko, I did hot extraction training. I can manage to divide my attention a little.’

‘Okay…’ Fox swung their ship left while Yuriko grabbed her binoculars, and then she was banking around to the right in a wide curve. ‘I see it,’ Yuriko said. ‘Zooming in now…’

‘Yeah, got it.’ The vessel below them was not large, the size of a bigger trawler, but built with a low mid-deck and high forecastle. There was a single metal container on the mid-deck.

‘The women are in the box,’ Yuriko said. ‘Probably chained. Some will believe themselves to be going to a better life. Some will think they are going into prostitution, but will not care. None will know what is really in store for them.’

‘I know.’

‘Do you think we can stop Aphrodite before they start the process?’ Kit asked.

‘Some of them. Maybe all of them, but I wouldn’t count on it. It depends on how long it takes us to get the police to hit the place.’

‘We cannot get them to intercept the shipment?’

‘If they do that, it leaves the possibility that someone can deny it’s going to Aphrodite, or delay things long enough for them to cover up. We need surprise and the assurance that trafficked girls will be in the factory.’

Kit frowned. ‘My programming may require me to obey the law, but I don’t have to like it, do I?’

‘Well, I don’t.’

Niflhel.

‘You found something?’ Kit walked into the farmhouse with a rather eager expression on her face, slipping into the chair across the table from Vali and leaning forward.

‘I found… several things,’ Vali replied, grinning.

‘Good. I found something too.’

‘Oh, you did?’

‘Yes. Taro Fukui’s alibi for the night of his father’s death is that he was in Tokyo. There are a number of witnesses to this, but they are all yakuza. I have found him in a LifeWeb image taken by someone in Awara. It was pure chance that he was caught in passing by a tourist visiting one of the onsen.’

‘Foolish of him. I would have ensured I was actually out of the town. He hired someone to commit the murder. I have a number of communication records between them. The assassin was a man who goes by the name Kurowashi.’

‘Ah. Fox put him in hospital recently after he tried to kill her. It seems Kurowashi still does jobs for Taro Fukui.’

‘It would seem so. Perhaps if someone were to speak to him nicely, he could be persuaded to give up his employer.’

Kit frowned. ‘He hasn’t so far. Maybe with the leverage you can supply… I don’t know.’

Vali produced a scroll and handed it across to Kit. ‘Well, you can always find out. Let me know what happens.’

‘Oh, if we can put either of them away for this, I shall return to celebrate.’

‘Good.’

‘Enthusiastically.’

‘Oh… Very good.’

Tokyo, 23
^rd
April.

Fox looked over the data Vali and Kit had come up with and nodded. ‘That’s good. It’s probably not enough to go to the police with, and Kuro isn’t going to talk, but it’s enough to put Taro on the back foot.’

Kit nodded a little unhappily. ‘I was hoping for more, but if this helps–’

‘Don’t mention this to Yuriko yet.’

‘But–’

‘If she has reasonable proof that her brother killed her father, she may decide to do something… unfortunate. We’ll tell her once Aphrodite Cybernetics is done up in pink ribbon. Besides, I think when the cops hit Aphrodite, Taro may decide to try to pull a few strings.’

‘All right… Oh, that may be sooner rather than later anyway. Pythia has just asked if you are awake. The ship has just begun docking at Ichihara.’

‘Right,’ Fox said, initiating the upload into her gynoid frame. ‘Wake Yuriko up. Tell her to meet us at Pythia’s vertol. Let’s go watch Aphrodite incriminate themselves.’

Chiba Industrial Zone.

It was all rather anticlimactic when it happened, and it took far too much talking as far as Fox was concerned. The police questioned the evidence as much as they could and pushed the decision to act on it as far up the chain of command as they could before Fox finally snapped and, with Yuriko looking a little horrified at the break in protocol, mentioned several media outlets who would find the lack of action
very
interesting.

‘I don’t think they’re corrupt,’ Fox commented as they headed out with the police assault team. ‘I think they’re just afraid of the reaction.’

‘There are corrupt police officers,’ Yuriko said. ‘I do not think any organisation in the world is devoid of some form of corruption.’

‘Uh-huh. That scandal with the Girl Scout cookie embezzlement really shook my faith in human nature.’

Yuriko smirked. ‘However, I agree with your assessment. This will cause significant ripples for a number of reasons.’

‘No kidding. You think the team they sent to pick up Simizu will get there fast enough?’

Shoulders sagging, Yuriko shook her head. ‘I think she will have vanished. Unless Taro hopes to plead ignorance anyway. I doubt that, but it is a small hope.’

‘Damned either way. I’m not saying he can’t wriggle out of it if she goes missing. It’ll be harder to prove what happened without DNA tests. But we’ve got fairly solid evidence of her existence and condition. If she disappears, it looks like him covering his tracks.’

‘Yes…’

~~~

It was nine in the morning when the Chiba police finally marched in through the gates and, Fox had to admit, did an efficient job of shutting down the Aphrodite Cybernetics factory. They went in loaded for heavy resistance and all they got were managers shouting about their rights, and they shut up fairly quickly when the squad sent into the basement levels found eighteen young women cuffed to beds and more in suspension tubes.

Fox almost felt sorry for the two or three special tactics officers who, on discovering the half-converted girls, had to pull their helmets off very quickly. Their supervisor, back in the comfort of a tactical response vehicle with Fox and Yuriko, yelled into his headset when the camera feeds started getting all sorts of odd angles.

‘Vomit really clogs the air filters,’ Fox said. ‘Hopefully they aren’t contaminating the crime scene too much.’

The officer in charge looked around at her, and Yuriko added, ‘I understand their pain.’

‘They should have greater discipline,’ the sergeant said.

‘Tell me that when you’ve seen one of those up close,’ Fox replied. ‘MarTech has some specialists available to come in and help get them out of those pods. I’d suggest not removing them without some form of assistance.’

‘I’ll refer it to my superintendent.’

‘Don’t leave it too long. The longer they’re in there, the less chance there is of reverting the changes.’ Fox frowned at the displays she was watching. ‘Assuming there’s any chance at all.’

~~~

By midday, they had had everyone up to the Commissioner General, the head of national policing, stop by the factory and there was a cordon of police holding the media outside the gates. Yuriko had predicted they would be getting the chairman of the National Public Safety Commission turning up before the end of the day.

Fox had decided to be out of there before that happened. She was still there primarily because the police had accepted the offer of help from MarTech in recovering the girls who had been through the process. They were actually people from BioTek who had been flown over from America and they knew what they were doing. Someone was rushing paperwork through various committees to allow BioTek to handle the medical and forensic analysis and Yuriko was spending much of her time in teleconferences about that.

They had already heard that Simizu was nowhere to be found at the Fukui mansion. There had, it was reported, been a Yurei no Ningyo there, but she had been named Yuki and had been returned to Aphrodite Cybernetics due to dissatisfaction. She was nowhere to be found at the factory, so the only evidence they had of her existence was the recordings Fox had made.

When Yuriko lifted her head after another teleconference and then motioned for Fox to follow her out of the tactical vehicle, Fox figured it was some worry over the politics. It was not. ‘I’ve had a message from my brother,’ Yuriko said. ‘He wishes to meet me tonight, in Tokyo.’

‘Wishes?’

‘Demands.’

‘Same place? The Blue Lotus?’ Yuriko nodded a reply. ‘Okay. I’ll make a few arrangements.’

‘He will tell me to compromise the evidence we gathered concerning Simizu.’

‘Yeah, well… I think it’s time Kit and I told you about some
other
evidence Kit’s found…’

Tokyo.

Yuriko entered the Blue Lotus to find, once again, that her brother was already there. On the other hand, this time it was more to be expected.

‘You’re late,’ Taro snapped before Yuriko could even bow to him, so she did not bother, slipping into the seat opposite him with a smile. The waitress who had just delivered a glass of beer to him, tall and slim with short purple-and-white hair which matched both her geisha make-up and her micro-kimono dress, bowed and retreated hurriedly.

‘My apologies, brother. It has been a busy day.’

‘Oh yes. I am sure that you are congratulating yourself on your betrayal.’

‘There has been little to celebrate. Eighteen trafficked women were saved from a fate worse than death, but our experts say that the prognosis for the twelve we recovered during the conversion process is not good, and there are over two hundred Yurei no Ningyo for which there may be no hope. That there will be no more is merely consolation.’

‘Betrayal,’ Taro repeated. ‘You–’

‘
You
betrayed our father’s memory.’ Taro’s eyes flared angry at the interruption, but Yuriko went on. ‘He would never have allowed this… abomination, this dishonouring of everything the Fukui-kai stood for. Not that our father’s memory means anything to you.’

Taro gritted his teeth. ‘You will make recompense. You will destroy the images you took at my home.’

‘All our evidence has been presented to the police. Destroying anything now will achieve nothing.’

‘Then you will compromise it. You will–’

‘No. I will do nothing. If you wish to somehow escape having Simizu turned into a… a doll for your pleasure simply because she left you, hire a good lawyer.’

‘No? You say no to me? I will–’

‘Do nothing,’ Yuriko told him. ‘You will do nothing at all. Unless you wish to discover what evidence I
have
currently kept from the police.’

‘What are you talking about?’ He looked around angrily as the waitress reappeared beside their table. ‘What are you doing–’ For more or less the first time since his arrival, Taro’s gaze rose above the woman’s chest and his eyes widened.

Yuriko shifted over on the bench seat to allow Fox to slip in beside her, placing a folder down on the table as she did so. ‘We printed it out on actual paper for you,’ Fox said. ‘I thought you might like to frame some of it.’

Taro’s eyes flicked down at the folder and then back up. ‘This is not your concern, woman.’

‘I think you attempting, continually, to compromise my colleague is very much my concern. And, by the way, I think it’s fucking hilarious that neither you nor your pair of morons noticed me walking around this place. I seated you here and you didn’t look at my face. Short dress and some hair dye and you’d never see me coming, would you?’

‘You threaten me?’

‘Not really, just making the observation.’

‘Physical threats are not required,’ Yuriko said. She nodded to the folder. ‘That is quite enough. In truth, it is not sufficient to have you convicted of Father’s murder, but placed before the right people… Your life would be worth nothing.’

‘I will see to it–’ Taro began.

Yuriko slammed her fist down on the table. Beer sloshed out of Taro’s glass and he cut himself off, eyes widening. ‘You will do
nothing
. You will stay silent except to thank Meridian-san for your life. It is she who persuaded me not to kill you right where you sit. It is she who persuaded me not to give this information to people who would hunt you like the dog you are. If you value your worthless life at all, you owe her a debt you can
never
repay, and you
will
be paying for it, Taro.’