Criminal Minds (Fox Meridian Book 4) (22 page)

‘You know nothing!’ Mortenson snapped.

‘We know enough,’ Fox said. ‘Overman rolled on you, Mortenson. He sent us here.’

‘But he was surprised about the android,’ Terri said, ‘and you weren’t. You
knew
.’

Mortenson moved into the lounge, distancing himself, but he was not throwing them out. ‘I have
not
been killing people with an android. You’re insane.’

Fox followed. The lounge was even more flowery and feminine when you were surrounded by it. The only masculine element was the huge portrait looming over the fireplace, and that was of a woman. Older, dressed in a lab coat, she stood in a posture normally seen in victorious generals posing for paintings. One hand was casually raised to indicate a chart which had been put in behind her: one of those slices through the brain with the parts and functions labelled.

‘Doctor Mortenson’s mother,’ Kit supplied. ‘She was a noted neuroscientist.’

‘You created a Ripper AI,’ Terri said, pressing onward. ‘You denied it. Why?’

‘There was no–’ Mortenson began.

‘You were the one who named it,’ Fox said. ‘You called it “Ripper” last time we were here and no one had mentioned the term before then. You created Ripper and Bent, but you’re hiding the existence of one of them. Only one. Why?’

‘Women
never
listen. There was no Ripper AI.’

‘You’re lying.’

He turned, anger flashing in his eyes. ‘There was no need for one.’

‘But you made one,’ Terri said, ‘because… Because the Bent AI was designed to follow media reports. He was supposed to copy and elaborate. That was the design methodology. You wanted live data to work with and there’s too little detail in the existing Whitechapel reports for you to study the linkage accurately. You needed to work with both sides of the equation.’

‘Easy one to set up too,’ Fox said. ‘You just had to draw on your own feelings. I’d say it’s a classic love–hate relationship with your mother, but Teresa’s the psychologist. So, what happened? You began to think that maybe old Jack had it right? Did you blame the women in the team for the project’s shutdown? Is that why you killed them first?’

‘I didn’t kill anyone, you stupid–’ The roar was cut off abruptly, presumably because he had been about to give away exactly what he felt about women, but now he shrank back, edging toward the fireplace and the safety of his mother’s portrait. ‘You don’t understand. If he finds out, he’ll kill me too. You can’t stop him. Even
you
should have figured that out by now.’

‘I’ve worked out that you’ve got no spine, but I admit that doesn’t take much intelligence. Who the fuck are you talking about, Mortenson? It’s not Overman. He’s as scared as you are.’

Mortenson stared at her for a second. ‘Ripper. It’s Ripper. He–’

Terri cut him off by striding forward and grabbing the front of his shirt in both hands. ‘It can’t be the AI! I read the method statements. You had all the AIs isolated.’ Her eyes flicked between his as he tried to look away. ‘What did you do?’ Mortenson’s head turned away and Terri shook him. ‘What did you do?!’

‘When I set up Bent, I needed a feed of data between the two. I used manually transferred reports at first, faked media broadcasts Bent could see and react to. Then… Then I decided to automate the process.’

‘You connected the servers.’ Mortenson nodded in reply. ‘Against every protocol in the book.’

‘Those protocols were overkill. Linking two standalone servers was… efficient for the purpose.’

‘But you didn’t stop there, did you?’

‘I wanted to be able to observe them continuously. Their interaction was becoming… It was more than I could have hoped for.’ Fox could see the man becoming excited now. He jerked away from Terri and began to pace, each step making him more animated. ‘Bent functioned much as expected, though his escalation was more rapid and extreme with the live information than the real Silas Bent exhibited. Ripper was something else, a reaction I could not have expected. He seemed to be
aware
of his more modern contemporary. More, he began to show signs of true sentience! We based them all on class three AIs, you see, because the lowered emotional response was actually
desirable
in our tests.’

‘Ripper exhibited signs of emergence?’

‘Yes!’ Mortenson paused on the end of one of his loops, right beside Terri, and threw up his hands. ‘Don’t you see what this means?!’

‘Oh yes.’ Before he realised what was happening, Terri had slapped the man right across the face. ‘You’ve given all the AI conspiracy nuts
exactly
what they need to set back our research for
decades
! You stupid, arrogant, insufferable little… idiot!’

‘You can’t talk to me like that!’

Terri ignored him, turning to Fox. ‘The moron networked into the joined servers just so he could watch in comfort, and then he let an emergent AI with
no
behavioural controls continue without safeguards.’

‘And it escaped the viron,’ Fox said, nodding. ‘That’s why they closed down the project and erased all the information about the Ripper AI.’

‘You’ve no proof of that,’ Mortenson said. ‘No proof! I’ll deny everything.’

‘NAPA will go through the project records with every forensic analysis tool they have,’ Fox said. ‘If they can’t find anything, Palladium will get involved, and Teresa and her father will figure it out. I don’t care how thoroughly you think you’ve covered your tracks, they’ll dig out enough proof to get you locked away until your teeth fall out. I’m pretty sure we can have you charged with multiple counts of negligent homicide. Ever been to the Moon, Doctor? Because I think you’re going to be spending a
lot
of time there in the future.’

Airborne, Northbound over the Atlantic.

‘You really think they’ll put him in Cold Harbour?’ Terri asked. She was a little subdued and had been ever since they had handed Mortenson over to NAPA in Boston.

‘They’ll worry over exactly the same thing that you’re worrying about,’ Fox replied. ‘When this gets out, and it will, soon, people will freak about killer AIs roaming the internet. So they’ll emphasise his stupidity and make an example of him. Then they’ll tighten a few rules and hope it sounds like they’ve done something.’

‘Hmm. The memetics department is going to be working like crazed dogs to counter this one. It’s bad.’

‘No, it’s not. One idiot fucked up. The rules you have in place are perfectly good ones, if they’re followed. The perception of the problem could be bad.’

‘And it’s all about perception.’

‘So? Get Kit on some talk shows or something. If anyone can believe class fours are evil after seeing Kit, they’re
never
going to think otherwise.’

Kit appeared between the flight chairs, grinning. ‘Thank you, Fox.’

‘Actually, that might not be a bad idea,’ Terri mused. ‘I mean, very few people have actually met an AI of Kit’s class. She’s cute, and we could push the help she gives you on cases. That might help.’

Kit’s expression shifted to one of slight worry, and she decided that a change of subject might be in order. ‘Oh, Marie asked if you would both like to attend a celebratory drink at the house tonight.’

‘Celebrating what?’ Fox asked.

‘While we were in Boston, IB-Nineteen announced a series based around her M. J. character.’

‘They went ahead with it then? Cool.’

‘You knew about this?’ Terri asked.

‘I made a joke when I was interviewing the writer and producer, and they swore me to secrecy because
no one
was supposed to know about it. I guess I knew before Marie did.’

‘Okay, I’ll drop by the house for that. Please let Marie know I’ll be there, Kit.’

‘And I’ll be there anyway.’

Kit nodded. ‘I shall inform Belle.’

‘And maybe we could discuss your interview technique,’ Terri added, smirking, ‘since Marie has some experience in that area.’

Kit sagged a little. ‘I’m sure that would be very… interesting.’

New York Metro.

‘We’re doing a pilot,’ Marie said. ‘A new one to introduce the series and reintroduce the character. And we’re guaranteed another five episodes with a
probable
extension to thirteen and Nate is convinced we’ll get to do a full season.’

Fox smiled: it was hard not to in the face of Marie’s enthusiasm. ‘What about your co-star from the movie?’

‘Ah… His character was killed in a shootout. It’s tragic. M. J. is mortified. Adrian says there’s a flashback scene to the funeral where I get to be all weepy.’

‘Hopefully you’ll have managed to stop grinning by then. Congratulations, Marie. I really hope this works out for you.’

Marie
beamed
. ‘I think it will. I have good feelings about it. And I think it’s time to renegotiate my working arrangements, Sam. I get paid for this and I won’t have time to do the cleaning.’

‘Even a little?’ Sam asked. ‘Now and then, in that French maid’s outfit?’

Marie went pink since Fox, Terri, and Dillan were all there, and all giggling. ‘Well, maybe on special occasions, but I think I should start paying proper rent.’

Sam gave her a solemn nod. ‘We’ll discuss a suitable rent. Have you told Naomi about the series?’

‘Yes, and Nate had already called the Sisters to check there would be no problem with the concept. Actually, Sister Naomi said she might get some time to come over for this.’

‘A limousine has just arrived outside the house, Marie,’ Belle said. ‘I suspect she has succeeded.’

‘Oh! Good. I’ll go down and–’

‘I’ll go,’ Fox said. ‘You stay there and look like a vid star.’

‘There are two women in the Sisters’ uniform coming to the door,’ Belle informed them.

‘Two?’ Marie asked. ‘Wonder who she’s brought with her.’

‘I can guess,’ Fox replied as she headed for the door. ‘Belle, let them in and I’ll meet them in the hall.’

Gilly looked as though she was fully recovered from her injuries. Whether she was psychologically as fit as she was physically was another matter, but she was back in uniform and smiling as Fox came down the stairs.

‘Come on up,’ Fox said. ‘We’re camped out in Sam’s lounge. He spent ages laying it out just right and it seems a shame not to use it.’

‘He actually listened to those lectures?’ Naomi asked. ‘Hardly anyone bothers.’

Fox grinned. ‘He said pretty much the same thing, but he had the chance to do it, so he did. How are you doing, Gilly?’

Gilly was tripping up the stairs in high heels without any apparent discomfort. ‘I’m good,’ she said. ‘Mostly good. I’m still getting bad dreams a-and my confidence is… not quite what it was.’

‘I’m not saying it’ll be easy, but you’ll get over it. Mostly.’

‘Fox would know,’ Naomi said.

‘Unfortunately, I do have some experience with recovering from trauma. Terri’s upstairs too. Talk to her if you want a less… military view on recovery. I think that both of us benefitted when we finally nailed everyone involved in the Dallas op. You
might
be lucky. We think we’ve got a strong lead on the Ripper.’

‘You have?’

‘Yes, and Gilly’s picture was part of the solution. You helped when we get him, Gilly.’

‘Well, that would be something,’ Gilly said. ‘I think I’d recognise him when I see him.’

‘Maybe, but it wouldn’t do much good. What you saw was an android with an infomorph in it. I don’t want to go into the details now, but this is one of those freak things which… Well, someone probably should have seen something like this coming. NAPA in Boston have already arrested two men over it.’

‘I’m probably going to get extremely angry about that,’ Naomi said, ‘but it can wait until tomorrow. I assume Marie is rather excited?’

‘You could say that. To be honest, I think she’ll be more excited to see Gilly was fit enough to come over.’

It was something of an understatement; Marie practically bounced off her seat, across the room, and then continued to bounce with Gilly wrapped in her arms. ‘You’re okay! You look great. I’m so glad you could come. You’re allowed a drink, right? Let me get you a drink. Hello, Sister Naomi.’

Naomi grinned. ‘Hello to you, Marie, and congratulations. At least we can tell that stardom hasn’t gone to your head yet.’

‘Wait until the first reviews come out on the pilot,’ Sam suggested. ‘
That’s
when we’ll see the ego coming out.’ He was on his feet and handing Naomi a glass of wine. ‘Welcome to my home.’

‘You’ve done very well with it. I can see your lessons in the layout. You have v-tag colour schemes for working?’

‘Based on the schemes you taught me in Boston.’

‘They work too,’ Marie said. ‘I got him to try a few out one evening and… Wow. I couldn’t keep my hands off him.’

Gilly giggled. ‘I’m pretty sure that’s got nothing to do with the room.
I
saw the two of you in bedroom etiquette class.’

‘Yes,’ Naomi said, her lips curling. ‘We’ve considered using the recordings of that in other training sessions.’

‘You haven’t?!’ Marie squeaked.

‘Well, we may not be able to. That class doesn’t have a licence for recording porn.’

19
^th
October.

Rutherford was glowering by the time Kit had run through the evidence that Driscoll was not the ‘real’ Ripper. She continued to glare at the displays Kit had put up for several seconds before speaking. ‘You are one huge pain in the ass, Meridian,’ she finally said.

‘I’ve been called worse,’ Fox replied.

‘I’ll put this in front of my captain, but the official line is that Driscoll is responsible for all of the deaths. IA is watching every damn thing we do and I think Robbard is pushing the single killer theory.’

‘What the Hell for? I don’t see why that gains anyone anything. I don’t see why IA is involved in this at all!’

‘Neither do I, but they are. There was some muttering about information security, but since you got that regulation passed letting you look at all the case files, I fail to see what their problem is.’

‘That was Wayden’s amendment. We just strengthened the reasoning.’