Free The Resurrected Man by Sean Williams Page A

warned.
    Jonah did his best to prepare for the parting of the neutral wallpaper, but was still startled when the picture of a woman appeared before him. The woman was shown from the shoulders up and might have been entirely naked below that point. She was blonde and had green eyes. Her expression was one of relaxed amusement.
    â€œOne,” QUALIA stated.
    â€œShould I recognise her?” he asked, puzzled.
    â€œBe patient. There are more to come.” E let him study the picture a moment longer. “Two.”
    The picture changed to show another woman in profile from the waist up, dressed this time in a sweater. Also a blonde, although her hair was a touch longer; her eyes might have been green, too, but Jonah couldn't be sure from that angle.
    â€œThree.”
    Definitely green in the third photo. This woman was dressed for a CRE orgy—transparent wrap exposing oiled nipples and thighs, with body-art consisting of circles arranged around a bullseye focussed on the clitoris. A typical kerhane outfit. Given the lack of body hair, Jonah guessed that the thick mane on her head was probably not real—but it was blonde. He was beginning to see a pattern.
    â€œFour.”
    â€œBlonde hair,” he said, “green eyes, slim figures, probably late twenties or early thirties—not that it's easy to tell these days. All women, or reasonable facsimiles thereof. I presume we're going somewhere with this?”
    â€œFive. Yes, Jonah.”
    The fifth picture also matched the pattern. “Well?” he prompted.
    â€œKeep watching.” Three more faces appeared in quick succession. “Are you beginning to see a resemblance to someone you once knew?”
    He studied the latest face more closely. It did look vaguely familiar. “I'm not sure.”
    â€œPerhaps if I show you a composite image, blending the features of all eight faces so far.”
    The face before him changed and rotated to look him in the virtual eye.
    â€œYes,” he breathed, startled. “It's Mary.”
    â€œPublic Officer Marylin Agueda Blaylock,” QUALIA confirmed. “The resemblance is uncanny, and only increases as the features of the remaining faces are added to the composite.” E counted from nine to fifteen in quick succession, changing the combined face as e went. Then e paused slightly before concluding with: “The features of the most recent subject have yet to be added to the database.”
    Jonah guessed that the sixteenth woman was the body lying in pieces in his d-mat booth. “They're dead, aren't they?”
    â€œYes. The first was kidnapped and murdered one month after Officer Blaylock assumed a Class 2 Detective position in the MIU.”
    â€œWhat's the connection?”
    â€œWe don't know for certain. But it is clear that some sort of transference is occurring: the murderer is doing to his victims what he fantasises about doing to Marylin Blaylock.”
    â€œOr someone who looks very much like her.” He recalled the fact that she had changed her hair colour to flat brown and now wore it cropped short. He couldn't blame her for taking that small step away from the composite face before him. “There are bound to be others who have her features. Couldn't it be someone else the killer is after—not her?”
    â€œUnfortunately, that is probably not the case.”
    â€œOh?”
    â€œThere is another connection: the killer uses d-mat to kidnap his victims.”
    â€œSo…” Jonah struggled to work it out. After a second or two, he gave in and followed a gut feeling, instead of reason. “The killer is someone who works for KTI?”
    â€œCorrect. Officer Blaylock's position frequently brings her into contact with technicians, researchers and administrators of the d-mat network. Any one of these people may have been motivated to perform the crimes, or—at the very least—may have shown someone else how to infiltrate the