Criminal Minds (Fox Meridian Book 4) (2 page)

‘Coffee would be good,’ Fox replied, and there were mutterings from the others.

‘I’ll have something brought up. Have a seat.’ She settled herself down on a sofa, crossing her legs and settling her skirt. Fox sat beside her, allowing Marie and Sam to take the sofa opposite, separated by a low table. ‘Now, Marie, tell me about this role and what you wish to learn.’

‘Okay.’ Marie rubbed her palms on her short skirt and then settled them, clasped, on her knees. ‘I’m playing a character called M. J. Kelly. She was a high-class prostitute working mostly in the MCD until a client attacked her and held her hostage. Somewhat traumatised by the experience, she joined the Sisters and took up instructing rather than practising. She gets some of her confidence back and she’s doing well, but then she starts being stalked by a serial killer. She meets a detective who’s hunting the killer and he falls for her, kind of clichéd, and in the end they take down the killer when he comes for her. It’s my first role, and I’m the lead. Budgets and stuff, but it’s a big chance. If I get this right, pull the character off convincingly, this could mean a lot to me. And, on top of that, Sam means a lot to me and I’d like to put the profession in as good a light as I can. Most people don’t know a professional prostitute and there’s… something of a stigma attached to being one. I’d like M. J. to be accurate and sympathetic, and I think the best way I can do that is to know what being a Sister is about.’

Fox saw Sam relax a little, though the tension in his body had been barely noticeable. He thought the case had been well made. Fox thought the same, but whatever response Naomi might have given was interrupted by a knock on the door followed by it opening and a young woman entering with a tray. She was dressed more or less the same as Naomi, except that her outfit was white with red trim and a red cross, and she was in red pumps. She smiled and walked over to place the tray down on the table, bending at the knees in a graceful move which did not show off too much of her behind.

‘Thank you, Miriam,’ Naomi said.

Miriam bobbed her head. ‘Sister Naomi, Sister Angelina asked me to mention that the advanced class in theatre three is short a male partner.’

Naomi frowned, but Sam got to his feet. ‘If Marie and Fox are okay without me, I’ll go fill in,’ he said.

‘Always reliable, Sam,’ Naomi said. ‘Thank you. Miriam, would you take Sam to Angelina and she can get him into the class?’

Fox waited until Sam and Miriam had left before asking, ‘Why the different uniform?’

‘Miriam is a novice, though she’ll likely move up to full Sister soon. We wear the red cross for one year, or until licensed if that takes longer. Now, Marie, don’t look so nervous. Sam quite rightly realised that you had already convinced me to help and he could leave you to it. Your case was well made and your motives are good ones.’

‘Well, it’s a little selfish,’ Marie admitted. ‘I mean, I did say that this could be big for my career.’

‘There is nothing wrong with ambition, so long as we don’t climb the ladder on the heads of those we leave behind. How long do you have to prepare?’

‘Well, basically a week. Shooting starts on the twenty-third, a week on Monday.’

Naomi pursed her lips. ‘Not long… A crash course? Would you be willing to spend next week here? Full-time. You’d be a novice Sister for five days. It’s chores, services, and you’d be taking part in lessons. And the latter isn’t always as exciting as it sounds.’

Marie’s eyes widened. ‘You’d let me do that?’

‘Yes. Promoting the profession is part of our business, especially fighting the preconceptions around it. I think the simple fact that your character is a Sister should be good for our image since she doesn’t seem like she’s a pushover.’

‘Oh, she’s not. She’s not Fox, but she’s got spirit.’

Naomi nodded. ‘If we can make her more realistic, so much the better. We do teach judo for self-defence and we do a lot of work on confidence and handling clients. You will be required to dress appropriately and there will be a few classes on technique. Are you sure you can cope with that?’

‘Have you seen what she normally wears?’ Fox asked. ‘If you can supply us with a suitable fabricator pattern, we can make her a uniform at home and save you the expense.’

‘Thank you. I’ll arrange it.’

‘And the classes…’ Marie said. ‘I think I can do it. I guess I won’t know how horribly embarrassing it’ll be until I try, but it’s part of the job and it’s not like I’m aiming for a licence. Honestly, I don’t know how Sam does it. I couldn’t. I don’t think so anyway. I think… I think a week here could really help with the sex scene I have to do. I’m still not entirely sure how I’m going to handle that either.’

Naomi smiled. ‘I’ll see if I can arrange a sit-in on one of our advanced classes. We do courses for performance artists, stage and vid. That’s likely a little more… explicit than you’ll need, but it may be useful.’

‘Thank you. You’re being
really
helpful.’

‘I’d be inclined to help simply because… Well, Sam hasn’t shown any inclination to romantic involvement since me. You must be quite special, Marie.’

Marie blinked. ‘You and Sam were…’

‘He didn’t mention it?’ Naomi winced. ‘Sorry, I’d assumed…’

‘He didn’t
say
it,’ Fox said, ‘but I got the impression you’d been something more than student and teacher. Marie hasn’t known him as long as I have.’

‘If that causes problems, I apologise.’

‘No,’ Marie said quickly. ‘No, it’s fine.’

Fox was fairly sure it was not entirely fine, and she was sure that Naomi knew it too, but the Sister Superior just said, ‘We’ll have coffee and I’ll go over a few things for next week, and then we’ll take the tour. Fox will get to see her company’s work, and you’ll have some idea of where things are before you start.’

‘That sounds great,’ Marie replied, and Fox decided that she was going to have to intervene later or that was going to stew for weeks.

~~~

‘And this is our primary memetics lab,’ Naomi said as they entered a large room with dark painted walls and subdued lighting. Around it, sitting on ergonomic office chairs, were around twenty women in uniform, all of them working over virtual terminals. The rear wall of the room was displaying a big, complex network of some sort.

‘They’re studying the private policing legislation,’ Kit, Fox’s personal assistant AI, said inside Fox’s head. ‘That is a memetic ecology map of the key groups.’

‘You’re looking at the private policing legislation?’ Fox asked.

‘Oh yes,’ Naomi replied. ‘I’m sure you have a team examining it too. We have eight people working to ensure there are no issues with it affecting us. It would not be the first time that someone tried to sneak something into law which restricts our business. I wasn’t aware that memetics was in your portfolio.’

‘My AI is better at that kind of thing than I am. Kit, why don’t you introduce yourself?’

Kit appeared, or her avatar transmitted itself for resolution by the implants of those around Fox. She was a cute, very pretty, anime-style character with long, ash-blonde hair which formed ear tufts at the top of her head, big green eyes, and a silky white fox’s brush emerging from her back. Her outfit was a short, white, strapless dress, collar and cuffs, a frilled bolero-style jacket, and high-heeled knee boots.

‘Good afternoon, Sister Naomi,’ Kit said.

Naomi looked delighted. ‘Hello, Kit. You are just the cutest thing I’ve ever seen, and knowledgeable.’

‘Class four AIs have something of a talent for memetics,’ Kit replied. ‘We think much as a human would, and we have an innate ability to examine our own thought processes.’

‘A class four? And you’re running on an implant?’

Fox raised her right arm. ‘Artificial more or less to the elbow. There was… an incident. Anyway, there are a couple of quantum processors in here and Kit executes on one in place of a standard VA. She has a full server at home with a bit more room for her mind, but she does an excellent job when we’re in the field.’

Naomi smiled. ‘Oh, you have to stay visible, young lady. The girls will just love you.’ Her voice raised a little. ‘I can see that everyone here is suddenly ignoring their terminals.’ There was a rustle of fabric, audible in the following quiet as twenty heads wearing wimples were turned suddenly to stare at virtual screens.

‘Perhaps I would be too much of a distraction,’ Kit suggested.

‘Exactly. Let’s see how good their discipline is. And I haven’t had a good laugh in far too long.’

Fox found that difficult to believe: Naomi seemed like a good-humoured woman. ‘Have we met before today?’ Fox asked. ‘I’d swear I’ve seen you… Sheela Na Gig. You were at Sheela Na Gig the first night we went there.’

‘I do frequent that club, yes. When I practised full-time, I specialised in BDSM.’ Well, she certainly had the look to pull off a good dominatrix. ‘I like to keep my hand in now and again so I play the Mistress there when I can. Yes, I remember seeing both of you there with Sam. You seemed to be entertaining yourselves so I didn’t intrude.’

‘A friend of mine, Helen, was celebrating her freedom from NAPA. The blonde with the Asian look to her? She works for me now.’

Naomi nodded, and Fox bet she
never
forgot a face even without her implant. ‘I remember her. A little more conservatively dressed than you were. You would make quite the dom yourself.’

‘Terri did want to beg to kiss your boots,’ Marie chimed in.

‘I admit to a slight urge to do the same,’ Naomi said, her tone bland. ‘Shall we continue? Let’s see who else Kit can distract.’

The middle part of the house was offices and the rooms of the Senior Sisters and, on the second floor…

‘Our clinic,’ Naomi said as they entered a white-walled room with ten beds, each surrounded by a fairly comprehensive set of medical equipment. There was a single attendant on duty, dressed in black, but there were no patients in. ‘Marie, we’ll need to give you a full physical when you come in on Monday. It’s standard practice–’

‘Every three months,’ Marie said. ‘I know from Sam.’

‘Quite. Sister Anne, would you put Marie Shaftsbury down for a standard induction physical at nine thirty on Monday, please?’

‘Of course, Sister Superior,’ Anne replied, smiling. ‘New blood?’

‘Marie will be joining us for the week. She’s an actress, but she’s willing to put the time into learning her role.’

‘Admirable. We’ll be ready for you, Marie.’

‘Thank you, Sister,’ Marie replied.

‘Anne. Sister Anne if you feel like being formal, or you want to start practising that role early.’

‘I’ll wait for Monday, Anne.’ Marie flashed a smile and Anne returned it. ‘See you on Monday.’

‘You certainly will.’

They left the clinic and started toward the north wing. Technically it was the north-east wing, but they called it the north wing.

‘The cameras are a little randomly placed,’ Fox commented as they walked.

‘Not randomly,’ Naomi replied. ‘We value our privacy. We had your people go over all the camera coverage, optimising it so that no one could enter without being seen, but the private areas were not covered.’ She lowered her voice a little. ‘There is quite extensive coverage where we’re going, but we don’t advertise that fact.’

‘Why?’

‘Well, this side is the brothel.’

Compared to the more austere look of the rest of the building, the north wing was sumptuous. Decorated in a lot of red and gold with v-tagged additions, the corridor they walked in on had a lot of doors off it and Fox got the impression she knew what was behind them.

Naomi confirmed it. ‘We have fifteen suites, each with a different theme. One is set up for bondage and S and M play, and one is a white room.’

‘White room?’ Marie asked.

Fox smiled. ‘She’s young. For medical role play, Marie.’

‘I’ll make sure we put some briefing notes on common fetishes in your induction pack, Marie,’ Naomi told her. ‘Downstairs we have a common room for meeting the girls, and the garage. We have a number of private transports which we use to collect clients. We can bring them in and they can enter the building unobserved.’ She stopped walking and turned. ‘Up above we have a lab for diagnostic work, a briefing room, and some storage. It’s not very exciting and I’d prefer not to be seen showing people around the common room.’

‘I think that’s fair,’ Fox said, and she lowered her voice before going on. ‘The cameras are good. I can’t spot any of them, but I saw this corridor when we were in the control room.’

‘Your people did a wonderful job. With the old system, we would get the occasional person spotting something, but now… One of our clients actually complimented us for being more trusting.’

‘If only they knew.’

‘Hopefully, they never will. Come on, we’ll go see where Marie will be spending most of next week.’

The south wing had no external doors apart from monitored fire doors, and so there were no cameras in it. Fox thought some monitoring on the corridors might have been a good idea, but it was not her call. Down on the ground floor they had refrigerated storage for foodstuffs, and a fabricator facility which had a fair number of 3D printers, but also plenty of hand-operated equipment. The Sisters liked to be able to use their hands to build things.

Up at the top were the dorms: sixteen, ten-bed bunkrooms with each room laid out as two groups of five and a social area with light cooking facilities. The idea was to have four novices or Sisters with a Senior Sister for each group, but they were rarely at capacity.

‘I think we’ll slot you into one of the threesomes,’ Naomi said as they toured through the bunkrooms. ‘You’ll have more people to observe and all the support you’re likely to need. It may take a little while to get used to sleeping in a dorm, but most people adjust and we can provide mild tranqs for the first couple of nights if you need them.’

‘Why would I need them?’ Marie asked.

‘It’ll be like barracks,’ Fox replied. ‘Unfamiliar bed, people moving around you, strangers at that. And then there’s the snoring. Someone always snores. It’s like a universal rule or something.’