The Ghost in the Doll (Fox Meridian Book 6) (17 page)

There were two Ghost Dolls in view, both of them accompanying a guest. They were markedly different from each other. Height, apparent weight, body and facial form, hair style and colour: all were different. Fox had spotted four of them now, and they were all based on very different genes, as far as looks were concerned. The only similarities between them were the pale, almost white skin that glistened in the overhead lights and the wide, clearly enlarged eyes.

By now, Fox had managed to observe the two nearest ones for a while and she was seeing other things which seemed odd. There was an underlying set of mental characteristics they both had: submission, obedience, desire. Beyond that, there were noticeable variations in their personalities. What it came down to was that one seemed to be enjoying herself, while the other was not.

‘It could just be the person they’ve been assigned to,’ Kit suggested. ‘They’ve obviously been conditioned to obey, but that doesn’t mean they have to like it and I don’t think I’d like having to obey the reluctant one’s client.’

‘Well… maybe,’ Fox said. The reluctant doll was working for a man who had ‘rich nerd’ plastered all over his buck-toothed face. The other was with a man who actually almost made a leather posing pouch and mesh T-shirt look good; quite why he needed to come to a place like this to get laid, Fox had yet to fathom. Then again, money had always been a powerful aphrodisiac, so the same should have applied to Mr Bucktooth. ‘I don’t think that’s all of it though. The more reluctant one seems kind of downtrodden, but then there are these weird little bursts of enthusiasm. Her body language is all wrong.’

‘You are used to reading
human
body language…’

‘Yes, but Eve reacted pretty much like a human. I don’t know. I think I’m going to agree with Shina-chan. There’s something off about them. I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks so either.’

‘No…’ Kit agreed. There was something of a gap around the seats occupied by the dolls and their customers. Most of the other guests were subconsciously avoiding the pale women. Fox was fairly certain it was largely subconscious, just from the way people moved, but there were micro-expressions of revulsion showing in a number of cases when the dolls were noticed. That could, of course, have been a reaction to seeing a bioroid, but the novelty of the new form of life should have outweighed other factors at this stage. More, the revulsion seemed to be showing more in people who had been at the resort longer. People seemed to be
learning
to despise the Ghost Dolls rather than coming with a preconceived idea.

‘The earliest droids suffered the same kind of reaction,’ Kit said. ‘The “uncanny valley” effect was quite strong when synthetic skin had a rubbery quality and low-level AIs were used to drive them. People found it far easier to accept entirely mechanical cyberframes than ones which looked vaguely human, but were obviously not. Many companies abandoned droid designs until synthetic skins became far more realistic.’

‘And that’s why a lot of the effort in realistic droids came out of the sexbot industry, yeah. You remember that Kildare-series android Ripper used suffered from that sort of problem. And that could be what’s wrong with the Ghost Dolls. Maybe they act a little too human for the way they look. You know, I think that might be it. Their body language
is
human, very human, but they look like they should be old sex robots.’

Fox watched for a few seconds and then added, ‘Mind you, I’m not quite used to seeing things in more wavelengths and at higher frame rates.’

‘You can shut off the extra colours.’

‘They’re useful. For example, Gottschalk was right: the Ghost Dolls run at a higher temperature than normal.’

‘Speaking of running hot…’

Mako, now dressed in black slacks which fitted tightly around his thighs and a loose shirt in the same colour, open almost to the navel, appeared beside Fox’s chair. He was smiling in the same way a wolf does when a particularly wily rabbit has suddenly decided to stop running and chat.

‘Is it really that time already?’ Fox asked. ‘Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun?’

‘If that is true, the next hour will speed past,’ Mako said. As a statement to someone you were about to have sex with, it was just a little bit wrong, but Fox ignored it. She was not in this for the scintillating conversation, or even the sex.

Dismissing her book display, Fox got to her feet. ‘We’ll go to my room.’

‘That would please me greatly, Meridian-san.’ His hand slipped around her waist as they set off toward the corridor leading to Fox’s bubble. Fox largely ignored that too, even when his fingers began to play delicately over her skin.

‘Eager, isn’t he?’ Fox said inside her head.

‘Programming of this kind generally utilises a reward-based approach, much as in a human brain,’ Kit replied. ‘To perform well in the programmed activity results in “pleasurable” rewards. He is anticipating a good performance from an attractive partner. A human male might well react the same way. You
are
a very attractive woman.’

‘Why thank you, Kit, but demystifying that didn’t help.’

Mako was kissing the back of Fox’s neck as she opened the door. When he had pushed the door closed behind them and turned the locking wheel, he turned to Fox and she could see eager eyes looking at her, but somehow without the fire she might have expected. Still, a second later, he was pressing her up against the wall, hands held high over her head as his lips pressed hungry kisses across her neck, ear, jaw.

‘I want you, Meridian-san,’ he said.

‘I think you can call me Tara, under the circumstances.’ Fox felt her sarong drift to the floor around her feet, and the bikini was not going to put up much resistance.

‘I want you now, Tara.’ The bows on her briefs were undone and the plastic fell away from her, and Mako dropped to his knees.

‘What are you– Ah!’ Fox grabbed his shoulders to balance herself as his tongue pushed into her. A second or two later, tongue was replaced by fingers to allow it to start lapping at her clitoris. He
was
skilled, and tireless, and Fox thought, ‘Must remember to fake being breathless,’ as he worked her toward orgasm.

~~~

Fox checked the time: five minutes to eleven and she was about to reach her seventh climax, though she was wondering whether she might have to fake it this time. Mako was skilled, and certainly physically stimulating, but… Closing her eyes, she braced her arms against the back of the sofa she was bent over and focused on his shaft driving in and out of her. That worked: a minute later, she was having to fake being breathless again. She fell onto the sofa and looked up at the android.

‘Do you wish me to stay longer?’ Mako asked, smiling.

‘You do that… you’ll… kill me.’

‘I will leave you to your rest then.’ He bowed, retrieved his slacks, shirt, and deck shoes from where they had been discarded, and was gone in a matter of seconds.

Fox pulled up the service app and locked the door behind him, but remained on the sofa, slowly bringing her simulated breathing back to normal for the benefit of the cameras. On a whim, she cut the lights in the room, allowing the scintillation from outside to provide illumination.

‘I hope they got some good recordings out of that,’ Fox said silently.

‘The last one was a bad angle, but I think they got some fairly good views of your sex faces. You did not really enjoy that, did you?’

Fox considered her answer for a second. ‘It was… like masturbating with an animated dildo. I mean, I’ve had meaningless sex before, but that was…’

‘A new level of meaningless?’

‘Yeah.’

‘He understands the technical aspects of what he is doing, but not really why he is doing it. Emotionally, I mean. He’s only a class three.’

Fox sniffed and got up to head for the shower. ‘Well, I know plenty of women get off perfectly happily with that kind of thing… And I guess I can’t deny some physical release, but it just doesn’t quite do it for me.’

‘Does that mean I don’t?’

‘You are entirely different, and you know it. I’ve enjoyed every time we’ve indulged.’

‘Just checking,’ Kit said brightly. ‘The shower is set to your preferred specifications.’

Fox shook her head and stepped under the water stream to wash away the evidence of Mako’s attentions. ‘I’m still waiting to find out what you’re going to use that blackmail material for.’

‘Oh… I am quite sure I will think of something.’

‘You are evil, young lady.’

‘No, but I’m working on it.’

14
^th
April.

The nerd with the buckteeth was in the underwater lounge when Fox walked down to begin her people-watching exercise again, and he still had his Ghost Doll with him, which probably indicated that the rich part of Fox’s assessment was correct. He seemed to be quite happy to just be seen with his expensive toy who continued to give off rather defensive body language.

Purely on the off-chance, Fox smiled at Bucktooth as she passed him and settled on one of the loungers near the window. He returned the smile with a lot more enthusiasm than it warranted. ‘Might have hooked him…’ she said silently. When she settled down to read, he was approaching.

He bowed. ‘Good morning, miss. I am Tetsuya Yamaguchiya, might I sit with you?’ His English was flawless, almost without an accent. He was thin with a monk-like cap of black hair and fairly classic Japanese features as well as being a good six inches shorter than Fox. Along with the teeth, he was not the most handsome of men, but he seemed like he was bright.

Fox executed as best a bow as she could manage. ‘Tara Meridian, please do.’

Yamaguchiya settled onto another lounger, patting the seat beside him. ‘Hiroko, sit down.’

‘Well done,’ Kit said as the doll settled onto the seat beside her client. ‘Now we can take a closer look.’

‘Uh-huh.’ Aloud, Fox said, ‘What brings you to the resort, Mister Yamaguchiya?’

‘Oh, these lovely creatures.’ He indicated Hiroko who, Fox noticed, was sitting as far from him as she could get. ‘I’m in biotechnology. I have my own company. Uh, purely based around genetic modification of bacteria, nothing like bioroids. However, when I heard that I could meet them here, I just had to come and see them.’

‘They certainly are an interesting new development.’

‘Certainly. And you? What brings you here?’ Apparently he did not pay too much attention to the news.

‘I’m on medical leave. I’m in security and I was hurt quite badly. This place was recommended as relaxing.’

‘Oh, I am so sorry to hear that.’

‘Mm. So, now that you’ve met them, what do you think of the Yurei no Ningyo series?’

‘Fascinating.’ He turned his head to look at Hiroko, which gave Fox the option to do the same without seeming rude.

Hiroko was a fairly tall woman, clearly built on Asian genetics. Aside from the unnaturally wide eyes, pale plastic skin, and the blonde hair, she looked like a Chinese girl. Her eyes were a dark shade of brown, her lips were a deep red, as were her nails. She had quite broad cheekbones, quite a small nose, and a face which registered no expression at all. Fairly thin, she had mid-sized breasts and long legs, shown off by the pink-and-white, flower-patterned cheongsam dress she was wearing. Her hair was pale-blonde, pinned in place with long, red pins and then plaited down her back to mid-calf where it ended in a red ribbon. She was beautiful the way a well-sculpted porcelain doll was beautiful.

‘It isn’t simply the genetic challenges of creating a bioroid,’ Yamaguchiya went on. ‘Aphrodite have done a simply amazing job on the training. I would never have believed that it was possible to create such a complete personality in so short a time.’

‘Oh?’

‘They guarantee delivery within eight weeks, producing a custom-made, individual unit. They have to grow the body and then program it in that time. Uh, program is, of course, wrong. An entirely organic brain so they must condition it with the normal behaviour expected of a person in our society
and
the skills needed for their work. Hiroko is impossible to tell from a human. Uh, except, obviously, for the skin and the fact she can’t speak.’

‘She doesn’t make any sounds?’

‘She makes… sounds, but cannot form words. Perhaps the next series will.’

Fox smiled. ‘Perhaps. Would you mind if I touched her? Up close, they really are quite fascinating.’

Yamaguchiya preened a little: he had in his temporary possession an item of desire and he was basking in the reflected glory. ‘Oh, please do. Hiroko…’

Hiroko got to her feet with more enthusiasm than Fox had expected and stepped closer. She smelled of… nothing when she extended an arm without being asked or told. Fox took her hand and ran fingers up her arm. There was no reaction to the touch. Hiroko’s skin looked like plastic or polished latex, but there was definitely more of a rubber feel to it. Latex was a natural material, so perhaps they had somehow spliced in genes to make it…

‘She lacks skin sensitivity,’ Yamaguchiya said. ‘It makes her a little clumsy at times.’ Fox could empathise having spent a couple of days with no sense of touch herself. ‘However, the, uh, more intimate areas are as sensitive as one might expect. Would… Would you like to try her out?’ Fox noticed Hiroko’s body shift at the question: her back straightened, chest pushing forward, and her fingers chose that moment to graze Fox’s arm. ‘Uh, I’d only ask to watch.’ Even that did not seem to dampen Hiroko’s feelings on the matter.

Fox smiled. ‘Another time, perhaps. I overexerted myself last night. Not quite as recovered as I thought I was.’ Hiroko’s body sagged back into its mildly dejected state. Fox looked up at her and said, ‘Thank you, Hiroko.’ The bioroid bowed and returned to her place beside Yamaguchiya.

‘A shame,’ he said, ‘but we would not wish to harm your recovery. I’m leaving in the morning, so there probably won’t be a chance of meeting again.’ That seemed to brighten Hiroko up a little, but not much.

‘Ah well. I hope you’ve had a good vacation.’

‘Oh, it has been exceptional.’