Free The Ghost in the Doll (Fox Meridian Book 6) by Niall Teasdale Page A

clear, but better safe than sorry.’
    Fox nodded. ‘Sure. Bart’ll probably love the outfit anyway.’
    ~~~
    The storm cellar under the house was kind of nice. The reinforced walls were painted and the furniture was not quite up to the standard of the lounge, but it was comfortable. It also had power, so long as the house did, so Fox was sitting on the floor with a portable charging belt strapped around her hips.
    ‘It’s not exactly necessary,’ she said as she settled down, ‘but I’d rather not end up low on charge if something does hit the house.’
    ‘What about sleep?’ Andrea asked. ‘We probably won’t be down here all night, but…’
    ‘It’s not exactly sleep, more like… memory reconciliation. I can do without it, just like you can. Terri says I’d get slower. My short-term memory is optimised for fast recording as much as recall, so the more there is in it, the harder it is to get something out. I react a little slower the longer I go without.’
    ‘Are we actually getting any touchdowns?’ Jonathan asked.
    ‘Yes,’ Kit replied. She was sitting beside Fox because it seemed polite. ‘There has been a single tornado so far, approximately fifteen kilometres south-west of the city limits, but there is another forming and that one is closer.’
    ‘What’s the forecast for the next few days like?’
    ‘Cooler temperatures in Topeka should significantly reduce the danger here, but Tulsa is likely to remain on alert for the remainder of the week.’
    Fox sighed. ‘Well, I was taught what to look for. Shouldn’t be a problem unless something comes up really fast.’ She flashed a grin. ‘And if the worst happens, Cable’s camp has a storm refuge that makes this place look like a shed in the middle of a field.’
    Tokyo, 4 th April.
    Yuriko wiped at her face with a towel as she headed for her shower. She practised her aikijutsu kata three times a week, for an hour, before breakfast. It was a good way of keeping fit, which she supplemented with more conventional exercise on other days, and she had found that it gave her a chance to shut her mind off, giving greater focus when she started the working day.
    Her working day began, though she did not think of it as such, as she stepped into the shower and initiated both the water and a display of her favourite local news channel. IB-787 had relatively little bias, and the numbers in its designator were considered lucky, if you believed in that sort of thing. Keeping up with local news also seemed like a useful activity for a detective, which Yuriko did not quite believe she was, but she was working on it.
    This morning there was a report of lower fishing catches in the Sea of Japan, and of a failure in the traffic control system which had caused a snarl-up in Setagaya. Crime was on the rise in the Chiba Industrial Zone, but that was hardly news. Yuriko was about to cut the water off and switch to the blowers when something caught her attention.
    ‘The Niigata police are refusing to comment on the death of an unnamed man yesterday afternoon. Police were called to the man’s residence following reports that he had been attacked by one of his synthetic servants. Later reports have suggested that the attacker was one of Aphrodite Cybernetics’ “Ghost Doll” bioroids…’
    Yuriko frowned and switched the shower to drying mode. No one had suggested investigating the Ghost Dolls; presumably it was assumed that BioTek had simply been beaten to the punch. However, Aphrodite Cybernetics had links to the Fukui-kai…
    ‘…bioroid was apparently shot and killed in the incident. Executives from Aphrodite Cybernetics were unavailable for comment.’
    If a company not noted for their biotechnology work was able to create a bioroid, perhaps they had had help from someone. Perhaps that same person had provided them with the information needed to manufacture copied nanodrugs. Perhaps he was still there…
    Still a little damp, Yuriko stepped out of the shower