Silverfox 06
#6 of Silverfox
Silverfox 06
"So it's not some sort of a hack?" Firefox asked. "It's designed into us?"
Technofox nodded. "That's right. Implant commands have to be customized to compensate for individual differences in brain structure. This command is part of the library programmed into the firmware of our cerebral implants for use by third party --"
There was a crash as the coffee maker flew across the room, hit the wall and fell to the floor in two pieces. Silverfox stared at the wall. She was hyperventilating, and her lip was curled.
"This might be a side effect," Technofox said calmly. "Silverfox, can you hear me?"
Silverfox ignored her. Hotel rooms have very little in the way of breakable, heaveable objects. Silverfox picked up the video remote.
Firefox touched her arm. Silverfox stared at her wildly. There was a long pause, and Silverfox started to feel a little silly. She put the remote down.
"It makes sense," Technofox said, thoughtfully. "Why create something capable of acting independently without giving it an off switch? Almost inevitable, really, if you think about it."
Silverfox saw her holster over the back of a chair. She half-listened to Technofox; her attention was on the gun. She pulled it from the holster as Technofox spoke.
It was one of her Glock 20s; its weight and shape in her hand a comfort, the fragrance of oil touched her nose, and she thought how good it was to hold again after a week in Canada. And then she realized that she had touched it just a few hours ago, that she had cleaned and oiled it and holstered it in exactly the way she liked it cleaned and oiled and holstered.
And it was frightening, that realization, because the memory of that was gone from her. It made the hole in her memory real, in a way that a date and the position of the sun and even the assurance of her friends did not. One day of her life had vanished with the press of a button. And she felt no disorientation, no illness. Had other days been stolen from her?
"Put the weapon down," Firefox ordered. Silverfox obeyed without thinking.
"You're defending them?" Silverfox snapped.
Technofox looked back at her, shocked for a moment. Firefox glowered at Silverfox and moved her arm to backhand her across the chops. Before she threw the blow, Shadowfox cleared her throat.
"Silver's right, you know," Shadowfox said. "Breaking that coffee pot made everything good again."
Silverfox chuckled, despite herself. Firefox grinned sheepishly and looked away.
"Why didn't they use Control 4094 on us in Blue Diamond?" Shadowfox asked.
"First," Firefox said, "We might not know if they did. Second, Tigre was teaching us. Did they want us to forget our lessons?"
Silverfox laughed. Shadowfox looked at her, confused.
"Suppose we escaped, or killed someone?" Silverfox asked. "And they recaptured us and just made us forget about it?"
"I think they did something like that to Victoria," Firefox said. "They used drugs on her, to get her disoriented and convince her that it never happened. Control 4094 would make it a lot easier." Firefox looked uncomfortable.
"How do we get these things out of our heads?" Silverfox asked Technofox.
"Silver, I'm sorry, but I don't think we can," Technofox said quietly. "Our brains were grown inside the implant. They've never operated independent of the implant. The implant can't be physically removed without dicing up our brains, and destroying the accessible parts would be like performing a random lobotomy. For all we know, there's anti-tampering built in. There could be a destruct system."
"There could be an off switch," Silverfox replied.
"Probably not," Technofox said. "With 4094, who needs one? Just knock us out and shoot us."
"So you're saying we need to live with this?" Silverfox asked.
"I'm saying we need to be careful," Technofox replied.
"ICON knows about this. This must be how ICON made us forget," Shadowfox said. "About accepting the mission to Blue Diamond. We agreed to go, and then they used 4094 to make us forget about it." She shook her head.
"No," Technofox said. "There's more to it than that."
"I don't think that's what happened," Firefox said to Shadowfox. Firefox looked thoughtful, and nodded. "It makes sense now."
"What makes sense now?" Silverfox asked. It was pretty obvious that Firefox and Technofox had something specific in mind.
Firefox looked at Technofox. Technofox nodded before Firefox explained.
"Blue Diamond and ICON," Firefox said. She hesitated. "ICON told us that we volunteered to go to Blue Diamond, and that our memories of volunteering were suppressed to keep us from spilling the beans under ... pressure."
Silverfox wondered if she would have told Tigre if she had known. Maybe, she had to admit.
"Our mission was to shut down Blue Diamond from the inside, and we didn't need to know we were on that mission to complete it," Firefox said. "We did it because we were prisoners."
"Right," Silverfox agreed.
"Except," Firefox said, "that David was sent to look for us. Why would ICON send agents to find us if ICON knew where we were?"
"He was?" Silverfox asked, surprised.
"He told me. I just assumed they didn't know where we'd be sent to," Shadowfox said. "That they sort of dropped us into a pipeline, and weren't sure we'd come out in Blue Diamond."
"Yes," Firefox said, "but remember that in that recording, we mentioned Blue Diamond by name."
"Ah," Shadowfox said. "Good point."
"In a way, I'm kind of disappointed," Silverfox said. "Agreeing to have your memories wiped and be sent to a slave brothel to take it down from inside? How badass is that?"
Technofox looked up at her. "You're weird," the little technician declared.
"Uhm, right," Firefox said. She lifted a hand and ticked off points on her fingers. "Theory time. Let's say ICON knows about Control 4094, and they're keeping it a secret from us. Blue Diamond captures us using Control 4094, and one of those gadgets. ICON has no idea what's going on, and ICON sends agents like David to find us. Instead, we get out with Andrew's help."
"Also Doctor Clayton's," Technofox interrupted. "Remember, Andrew was the pipeline between us and Doctor Clayton, and Clayton gave Andrew the equipment he smuggled to us."
Firefox nodded. "Right."
"With you so far," Silverfox said.
"Now, obviously ICON wants to know how, exactly, we were taken," Firefox said. "If it can be done by Blue Diamond, then all of the chimera teams are at risk."
"At the very least, yes." Technofox nodded.
"So they look into it -- I have no idea how -- and realized Blue Diamond used Control 4094. They want to keep 4094 a secret. If we -- Foxforce -- were to investigate our own kidnapping," Firefox said, "we might find out about Control 4094."
"Surely they could just tell us not to investigate," Shadowfox said primly. "It's not like we would go off and run an investigation on our own time."
"Very true," Silverfox agreed with a nod.
Technofox coughed but said nothing.
Firefox grinned briefly and touched her forehead. "So to keep us from looking into the kidnapping --"
Silverfox interrupted. "ICON made up a story to explain why we were there."
"Exactly." Firefox set her jaw. "In effect, ICON covered for Blue Diamond to keep 4094 a secret."
"Bastards," Silverfox said.
"So let's take it a step back," Technofox said quietly. "If Blue Diamond knows about 4094, how does Blue Diamond know about 4094? Is there someone we knew who was involved in Blue Diamond, and who might know details about chimera design?"
"Walton?" Firefox asked.
"Maybe."
"Son of a gun," Silverfox said. "I'm buying flowers for Lilith's grave. The miserable bitch who killed Walton actually did something good with her life."
"I suppose," Shadowfox agreed.
Technofox coughed. "It's a theory," she said. "But it fits everything we know at present."
"So how do we counter 4094?" Silverfox asked. "What's the threat, here? Is 4094 something where anyone can just email us their business card and --" She tried to fight a rising panic, and didn't quite succeed.
"No," Technofox said. "You had to give the device admin access to run 4094. Remember?"
Silverfox narrowed her eyes slightly.
Technofox held up a hand. "...Sorry," she apologized.
"Can you hand that to me?" Silverfox asked, pointing to the gadget. Technofox hesitated and passed it over.
Silverfox took it up and stared at it. She hadn't had a chance to examine it the day before -- or if she did, she didn't remember.
It was a small thing, not much bigger than a box of matches. Most of its surface taken up with a numerical keypad and an LCD. Above the keypad was a large red button, positioned so her thumb covered it when she held it naturally. She pressed a few numbers, saw them repeated on the single-line display.
"Funny the water didn't wreck this," she said.
"It was in a watertight case," Technofox explained. "One of those rigid, padded cases with a hermetic seal. The advertising says it's watertight to one hundred meters. There were a dozen or so 4094 gadgets in it."
Silverfox barked a laugh. "One hundred meters. Sure." Acting on impulse, she pressed the big red button on it. Immediately, her cerebral implant threw an interface on her visual cortex:
>Device A3FGH89
>Class Unregistered Neural Interface Device
>Manufacturer Unknown
>Firmware Version 1.12
>is requesting Administrative access to your Neural Implant
>Permit / Deny [Suggest Deny]
She selected Deny and a red LED on the gadget glowed.
The others fidgeted and Firefox gave her a dirty look. "Stop that," Shadowfox muttered.
"Sorry," Silverfox said.
"So you all got that signal too?" Technofox asked. Shadow looked at her. "Okay," Technofox said. "That was a Redtooth interface. It was a request for admin access that we denied."
Shadowfox looked at the wall. "Crap. You think that some other chimerae got that?"
"Probably not," Technofox said. "A Redtooth signal usually won't go through a wall. It's direct from the gadget to our implants. That means it didn't go through the network."
"So when you use this thing, it won't show up on a server log," Firefox said. "That's too bad."
Technofox looked thoughtful. "If you press the button without entering a number, like Silverfox just did, it tries to negotiate a wireless connection with admin rights. If you grant it access, it runs 4094, and bang, you're out. But what good is that? Why would you grant me access?"
"Because Tigre asked me to," Shadowfox said, bluntly.
That caught Technofox off guard. "...Yes," she agreed reluctantly. "That would work, but does it work well enough?" She scratched her jaw. "Sending Control 4094 through Redtooth is like a bullet that asks you permission to penetrate your skin."
"So you think there's a way to bypass the Redtooth admin lockout?" Firefox asked. "Is that possible?"
"It's not supposed to be," Technofox said. "The Redtooth standard is pretty specific about how it's supposed to work. It's never been cracked."
"Maybe our neural implants aren't to Redtooth standard?" Silverfox suggested.
Firefox looked dubious. "Neural implants are high security hardware," she said. "Chimerae are soldiers, firefighters, police, emergency personnel... people have been looking for back doors in since the first incepts. Nobody's ever found a way to force a Redtooth device to grant admin access."
"What would happen if someone did?" Silverfox asked.
"They'd announce a hardware update," Firefox said. "They'd fix the damn problem."
"Yeah, probably," Silverfox agreed. Security glitches would compromise people who owned chimerae as much as the chimerae. And they could afford lawyers.
"There's supposed to be only one way into a neural implant," Technofox said. "A Redtooth connection. There's no cell phone chip in the hardware. That's why you need a phone as a relay to get email in your implant." She looked thoughtful.
"Is there another way in?" Firefox asked.
Technofox hefted the gadget. "I took this apart before we used it on Silverfox. There's an RFID tag in it." She shrugged apologetically. "I thought it might be for inventory control. But what if it's a key?"
"There's no RFID reader in a neural implant," Firefox said.
"That's what they told me, too," Technofox agreed.
"You operated on mine in Blue Diamond," Shadowfox said. "Did you see an RFID reader?"
"No," Technofox said. "There's supposed to be three parts to a neural implant; a piezoelectric generator that works off your jaw muscles, the SQUID network inside your brain, and the computer on the top of your skull, under the scalp, where it can be serviced without opening your skull. But it would be easy enough to add an RFID reader under your skull."
Silverfox turned the gadget over in her hand. There was a square of Velcro hooks on the bottom of it.
"It looks like it's meant to be anchored to something," Silverfox said.
"Yes. Maybe to a desk? Or a wall?"
Silverfox didn't think so. She took a deep breath, and held the gadget directly over her head. Technofox flinched and made a move as though to grab Silverfox's arm.
The words flashed up on Silverfox's visual cortex:
>Communication with Device A3FGH89 has been initiated
>Device A3FGH89 has been granted access
>Standing by for command.
She snatched the thing away, careful not to hit the button, and gasped. The others were looking at her fearfully; she wanted to tell them she was all right, but she was a little too shaken for the moment.
The words popped up inside her head:
>Administrative session has been closed.
"There's your back door," Silverfox said, her voice strangled. She handed the thing back to Technofox. "The RFID gets admin access, and pressing the button runs 4094." She turned away. "I feel terribly uncomfortable on all sorts of levels."
"Don't do that again," Firefox ordered.
"You think I was planning to?" Silverfox asked, aghast.
"No, I mean it," Firefox said. "We don't know if you'll have enough time to recover before tomorrow."
"I like it when you get worried about me," Silverfox said with a shy smile.
"Knock it off," Firefox frowned.
"I wonder what the buttons are for," Technofox mused. "I thought it was for dialing a number, but maybe you can pass 4094 parameters?"
"Like what?" Silverfox asked.
"Time?" Technofox suggested. "Control how long you stay unconscious? Maybe how much memory you lose?" She shook her head. "When we used it on Silverfox we didn't enter a number. You were out for a few seconds. I wish we could experiment some more."
"Well, we're not going to," Firefox said.
"I'm not volunteering," Silverfox said immediately.
A weird smile flicked over Technofox's face. "So first I knock you out, and then you knock me out, and then I knock you out again because I don't remember what happened the first time, and then --"
"Comedy ahoy," Firefox replied flatly. Technofox sobered up.
"We need to run more tests," Technofox said.
"Can you guarantee they'll be safe?" Firefox asked.
Technofox shook her head. "How can I?"
"You'd think that when they invented Control 4094," Silverfox said, "they'd want to give it some range."
"And on prototype chimerae it probably does," Technofox said. "But on a production model the risk of having it hacked is too great."
"So why did these rat bastards keep it a secret from us?" Silverfox asked.
"Should we spam Control 4094 all over the net?" Technofox asked. "Want to tell Cheshire next time we see her?"
Silverfox was silent for a moment. She imagined a world where script kiddies knew about 4094, about a world where someone could take a chimera prisoner, do anything he wanted, force her to give him admin access, and make her forget everything with a remote control... even being legally human would be almost worthless in that world. Silverfox looked at her, horrified. "No, we --" she caught herself and Technofox smiled.
"That's right," Technofox said. "We want this to be as secret as anyone else does. We don't want people to know about this either. We're going to cover this up too. Who're the bastards now?"
"Whatever," Silverfox said, frowning and turning away. "What will we do?"
"We take a nap," Shadowfox said promptly. Silverfox blinked and looked at her. It was barely 1700, local.
"If 4094 makes us lose our memories from the last time we went to sleep," Shadowfox explained, "they could use it on us right now and we'd forget everything we just worked out. But if we go to sleep now, right now, before we leave this room, we won't forget, even if ICON uses 4094 on us."
"Would ICON do that?" Silverfox asked. "How would they explain the missing day to us?"
"I don't know," Shadowfox replied. "Car accident and we all wake up in the hospital with bandages on our heads. It all comes down to how important keeping Control 4094 a secret is to ICON. We know they'd make up a story about how we ended up in Blue Diamond."
"We only suspect that," Technofox said. "It's an internally consistent theory but there's no positive evidence for it."
Shadowfox moved her hand impatiently and frowned. "Yes. My entire point is that we don't know how far they're willing to go. This could be anything from 'we'll fire you if you talk' to 'we'll give you an annual stipend if you keep this quiet' or even 'we'll kill you to keep this secret.'"
"Heck," Technofox said. "I'd kill someone to keep this secret."
Silverfox was silent for a moment. She remembered how furious she was when she learned this command existed. She balanced that against a world where everyone knew. "Yes," she finally admitted. "Yes, Technofox, I'd do the same."
"All right," Firefox said. "Let's assume the worst. We don't let anyone know we know. What if we forget again overnight?"
"I'll write it up," Technofox said, opening her laptop.
"Not digitally." Firefox said. Technofox looked at her blankly.
"What do you mean?" Technofox asked. "I don't follow."
Firefox pointed at the pad of paper on Technofox's desk. "Using a hotel pen, write it down on hotel stationery," Firefox said patiently.
Technofox blinked, as she processed this extraordinary request. Paper? Write? Pen? Silverfox wasn't entirely unsympathetic; in her entire life she hadn't written more than ten words on paper which weren't her name.
"Do you suppose they've used Control 4094 on us before?" Silverfox asked.
"Who is 'they'?" Technofox said.
"I dunno. Anyone." Silverfox shrugged. "Does it matter?"
"Has anyone ever lost time?" Firefox asked. "I mean, Blue Diamond aside, did you ever have the funny feeling that you were missing a day?"
"Or wake up really late?" Technofox said.
"Only when I'm hung over," Silverfox said, shaking her head.
"I've never been quite that hung over," Shadowfox said stoutly.
"Me either," Technofox said.
"And it would have to be a day we didn't cover for one another," Shadowfox said. "We'd all have to be missing the same day."
"Heck, aside from Blue Diamond, what's the longest we've gone without talking to one another?" Silverfox asked. "Twenty four hours? And that was last week."
"I can't think of any holes either," Firefox said. "Aside from Blue Diamond." She ran a hand through her hair. "Maybe that's why Blue Diamond fiddled with our implant clocks. To make it harder to notice missing time."
"Logical," Technofox agreed, scribbling on a sheet of paper. "This all seems to imply that Blue Diamond was the first to use 4094 on us, at least since we left the factory. I'm done," Technofox said, putting her pen down. "Wow, my hand hurts."
"Make sure we take the whole pad with us," Firefox said. "We don't want someone reading the impressions."
"I hate to say it," Shadowfox said, "but we're not going to know exactly what they did unless we know exactly how the gadget works. And I am not volunteering."
"And I already volunteered," Silverfox said. She narrowed her eyes to look paranoid. "Or... you guys claim I did."
Firefox laughed, a short bark. Technofox facepalmed melodramatically and giggled.
"Okay. Anything else for immediate action?" Firefox asked.
"Yeah," Silverfox said. "Shadowfox, what did you sneak into my room?"
Shadowfox sighed. "I already told you."
"Bitch," Silverfox said solemnly.
Shadowfox giggled.
"Shadow," Firefox ordered.
"Okay," Shadowfox relented. "Silverfox, I didn't leave anything in your room. The prank was making you look for the prank."
"Knew it all the time," Silverfox lied. "What else happened today? We don't want people to notice I lost it all."
"Good point. We better fill you in." Firefox said.
"And I don't think I can get to sleep," Shadowfox admitted. "I'm feeling sort of jittery."
"Pills for everyone, then," Firefox said. Shadowfox nodded and went to the bathroom where she kept the pharmaceuticals. The pills would take about an hour to work. Firefox tore open a bag of jerked salmon and passed it around.
"Anyway," Firefox said, "we had breakfast at the hotel restaurant. You said something I didn't follow about the waiter reminding you of twenty-five centimeters of love. I was puzzled because you said it as though it were an insult."
Technofox tittered.
Silverfox woke at about two in the morning. She felt a moment of fear. There was something she had to remember, and for an instant she couldn't. When her memories of 4094 came back, she felt a surge of relief.
One of them should have stayed awake, just in case they lost their memories again. Stupid.
Shadowfox was next to her, less asleep than unconscious. Silver moved out of the bed silently, careful not to jostle her awake. From the other room, she could hear claws tapping on plastic.
Naked, she opened the door softly. Technofox was sitting at the desk, face lit by the screen of her computer. She looked over at Silverfox, nodded briefly, and then looked back at her computer. The little fox was wearing a hotel robe. Silverfox glanced over at the bed; Firefox was sprawled out over the covers.
"How can you look at a computer in the same room as a naked Firefox?" Silverfox asked.
Technofox smiled, just a little. "It's not easy," she said.
"I'm surprised you woke up before the big-hootered Amazon," Silverfox said softly. "Obviously the drug is metabolized by the brain."
Technofox smiled, and shook her head. "I stayed up, just in case. I didn't take my pill. Did you go to sleep?" she asked.
"Yes," Silverfox said.
"Can you tell me about 4094?" Technofox asked. She turned her head and her glasses reflected the monitor light.
"Control 4094 is a firmware command in our brain implants that puts us to sleep and erases our memories since we last went to sleep," Silverfox replied immediately. "We used it on me yesterday, and we took pills to go to sleep so we wouldn't forget about it. In addition to that, there is an RFID reader in our neural implants which bypasses the Redtooth interface to grant admin access. Did I miss anything important?"
"No, that's right. Perfect." Technofox said with a sigh. Her expression changed. She looked more comfortable, obviously pleased that Silverfox hadn't lost anything else. Of course, now she could go to sleep reasonably confident that one of them would remember.
"Good," Silverfox said.
"Of course, that's all guess work," Technofox said, arms folded. "Maybe it wipes, say, the last twenty hours or something, and the period fell when you were last asleep." She frowned. "Of course, our brains don't have a time stamped queue, so I think it's more likely it's state based -- a buffer that fills and then is emptied into another storage space. Humans have short term and long term memory, but the time lapse between those is only a few minutes or seconds. Maybe chimerae memory works differently? Or is this some other type of memory? ... I hate guessing this stuff, but --"
Silverfox looked at the web browser on Tech's laptop. It was about amnesia. "I don't know if it's a good idea to suddenly start researching the biology of memory," Silverfox said seriously.
Technofox jerked her hands away from the keyboard, as though the keys were red hot. She looked so guilty Silverfox had to smile.
"I can't use a search agent to look for information about 4094," she said. "I can't search for it directly on the Web... I want data, but I don't know how to proceed," she said, so obviously upset that Silverfox felt a pang of sympathy. Technofox was a master at using her tools, and now they were denied to her.
"Like me going into a fight without a gun," Silverfox said.
Technofox smiled and nodded. "I wrote up a report about yesterday," Technofox said. "Without mentioning anything about the gadget or 4094. It'll be part of our final report to ICON, so it talks mostly about the case, and it stops after we came back here. I remembered some stuff we didn't mention last night. You should study it so you can pretend to know the people we met."
"Did I set up a date with anyone?" Silverfox asked.
Technofox blinked. "You flirted a little with Agent Thompson, but he's married and rebuffed you," Technofox said. "Aren't you sleeping with Shadowfox?"
"Won't David be meeting us today?" Silverfox asked.
Technofox looked up. "How did you know?"
"He's in the state and he's in love," Silverfox replied. "If he's not with her today, he'll be here tomorrow."
"He's not in love," Technofox muttered.
"His love is real," Silverfox said. "Shadowfox is not."
Technofox's eyes were narrow and she frowned.
"So you think you set up a contingency boyfriend?" Technofox asked.
"As a guest in Washington State, it would be disrespectful of me to use a citizen as a contingency fuck," Silverfox said amiably. "It's more likely he's the primary."
Technofox glanced over. "So that makes Fire and me the secondary?"
"I don't like the word 'Secondary.' It makes you two sound like second best," Silverfox said. "Let's call you two my 'Fall-on-her-back Positions.'"
Technofox grinned and convulsed with a single suppressed laugh.
Silverfox came up behind her and slipped a hand into Technofox's robe, feeling her breast. She lifted it and squeezed it gently. Technofox giggled and squirmed. "I'm working," she said, in tones that indicated she wasn't entirely displeased with the attention.
"How do you expect me to miss a chance like this?" Silverfox whispered. "There oughta be a law against someone looking as tasty as you being sexually unavailable." She leaned down and nibbled at Technofox's collarbone. "The 'Technofox Booty Access' law."
Technofox laughed in low tones and shook her head, while grinning widely. The shy technician was susceptible to flattery, and Silverfox was more than willing to oblige her. It made Tech happy and Silver liked seeing her happy. Technofox put a hand up to Silverfox's head and stroked her. "You words say, 'No, no,' but your eyes say, 'Take me, foxy mamma,'" Silverfox whispered.
"Don't you ever stop?" Technofox asked, grinning.
"Do you want me to?"
"...No."
"I am saying that you owe me a few sweet memories to make up for yesterday," Silverfox whispered in reply. She kissed Technofox on the lips. Technofox closed her eyes and opened her mouth, allowing Silverfox's tongue in. They kissed for a long moment, until Technofox pulled away.
"Not now. Sorry," Technofox said reluctantly. "I'm too tired."
"Disappointing. But fair enough," Silverfox said, standing up. She looked at the gadget. It was sitting on the table near Technofox's arm. She looked away. She didn't want to talk about that.
"I was wondering... what's Shayler Disambiguation?" she asked.
Technofox looked uncomfortable. "What's wrong?" Silverfox asked.
"Well, it's just that you asked me that yesterday. Never mind. I'm just feeling a little creeped out."
"Me too."
Technofox hesitated. "Basically, a machine intelligence has four features that differentiate it from most other programs. First, it can reprogram itself. Second, it has the ability to filter important data from unimportant data. Third, it has a set of rules which enable it to make choices based on social norms. Finally, it can relate apparently unrelated information. It can learn, it is not autistic, it has ethics, and it can deal with ambiguity. If a program demonstrates all four aspects at a certain level of sophistication, it may be sentient."
"Right."
"Shayler Disambiguation is the fourth feature. It's a computer algorithm. Your friend Jerry invented it," Technofox replied. "As its name implies, it's useful for resolving and correlating ambiguous data. Shayler Disambiguation is used in machine intelligences, search agents, and web search engines. It uses a data structure best visualized by two rotating, overlapping disks. That's why the standard pictogram for a machine intelligence is two interlocked circles."
"So Jerry knows how to use a search agent?" Silverfox asked.
Technofox raised an eyebrow. "Jerry helped invent search agents," she said. "Yeah, probably."
"Wow," Silverfox said, impressed. "I didn't know he was that smart."
Technofox shrugged. "It's funny, actually. For a long time after that, people were wondering what he'd come up with next. Nothing special. He was pretty much a one hit wonder."
Silverfox felt the need to defend him. "Well, speaking as a zero-hit non-wonder--"
Technofox chuckled. "You and me both."
"Have you given any thought to how they used Control 4094 on us?" Silverfox asked.
Technofox looked up at her, her expression blank. "I've been mulling on it," she said. She closed her eyes and sighed. "Doctor Walton might have had access to that sort of information. I think whoever kidnapped us got the information through social engineering. That's bad, because it's almost impossible to prove." She got up. "I'm sorry, but I need to get to sleep."
"Goodnight, then," Silverfox said.
"That dossier's in my shared folder," Technofox said. "Good night."
Silverfox kissed her, groped her to make her squeak and giggle, and patted her rump as she scooted back to bed. Technofox was all grins; maybe Silverfox overdid it, but the little engineer liked to feel attractive and Silverfox liked to see her happy. Technofox crawled into bed and snuggled against Firefox, who twitched slightly in her sleep. Silverfox felt a pang of jealousy.
Well, she didn't want to disturb them or keep Technofox awake. She went back to the room she was sharing with Shadowfox. She sighed, opened up her laptop, found the file, and started to read.
"Silverfox?" Shadowfox asked from the bed.
"Yes. It's me, Shadow." Silverfox said. The black vixen was sitting up, visible only because of the white sheets she was laying on.
"Is 4094 real?" Shadowfox asked. She waited breathlessly; the hope the answer would be 'no' almost audible in her voice. Silverfox wished she could say something comforting.
"It wasn't a dream," Silverfox replied.
"Oh." Shadowfox hesitated. "Do you think there might be other commands we don't know about? Ways to touch a button and change us?"
Silverfox didn't say anything. She was probably the least qualified of the four of them to have an opinion on the matter. "Maybe," Silverfox admitted.
Hadn't Blue Diamond done that to Silverfox? Shove a dick in her face, press a button, current flows, repeat until bisexual?
Silverfox put her hand on her face. Technofox's report sat in front of her, black figures on a white screen. She thought of Jerry, holding her, deep inside her, nothing in the world mattering but feeling him come. Just the memory made her twitch, brought back a longing to feel him drive into her again.
She thought of what someone else had told her. "All you need is ... a firmware upgrade, and you'll fit in here fine. Set up the right associations, stimulus and feedback, and we'll get your juices flowing for both sides of the aisle. We've done this before," the tiger said.
Where did that leave her?
"...I'm scared, Silver," Shadowfox said, finally.
Silverfox got up from the laptop and went to her, held her tightly as the vixen trembled.
Firefox closed her phone. "Don't rush to get dressed," she said. "Doctor Clayton's having a breakfast buffet sent to our rooms. It should be here in half an hour."
Shadowfox lifted her eyebrows with surprise. Technofox peeked out of the bathroom, astonished. "Really? Did he explain why?"
"Conference call," Firefox said briefly.
Technofox bit her lip.
"And I'm sure I don't have to say this, but 4094 is a secret," Firefox said. "Secret means everyone who isn't us."
Silverfox nodded. Firefox had never gone that far before. She had never needed to.
Breakfast was wheeled in on a portable steam table by a pair of chimerae in formal serving garb; they probably wondered how four fox chicks had rated this sort of service. Actually, they probably made the usual assumption. Forget about that. They brought bacon, sausage, toast, eggs, orange juice and coffee that smelled like the Platonic ideal of coffee. There was more than enough for all four, so they tucked in.
There was something relaxing about the buffet, and as usual at buffets Silverfox overate slightly. After a few minutes Silverfox was describing her trip to Victoria and showing them the present for Victoria's boyfriend, and the other three rehashed everything they could remember from the day before.
"I'm glad we didn't have a long talk with Clayton yesterday," Silverfox said.
"I sort of wish we had," Firefox replied. "Then he'd grill us if he were suspicious, and we'd at least know that he was." She considered. "Try to avoid answering questions for one another," she said slowly. "I'd wonder if we were covering for one another.
"So what did Clayton say?" Silverfox asked. "Yesterday, when he ordered us off site."
"While we were looking over the boat, about fifteen hundred," Firefox said, "Clayton called the four of us and ordered us back to the hotel. He gave no explanation."
"How did he know we had found something?" Silverfox asked.
"That might have been me," Technofox said. "I was sending video to my laptop. Clayton had asked for access to the raw data."
"When we got the order, I swiped one of the gadgets," Shadowfox explained. "Clayton's behavior seemed funny to me."
"Well, yeah," Silverfox said. "He's never interfered like that before. You must have been pissed," she said to Firefox.
"More stunned," Firefox said thoughtfully. "Honestly, I was more confused than angry. I figured that he had to have a good reason. I'm afraid I was more worried about how it looked to the humans."
"I think he had a good reason," Shadowfox said, pointing to the gadget. "What do we do with that? Sneak it back onto the boat?"
"We send it down the toilet," Firefox said immediately. "There was a stack of them, they probably won't miss one, and I don't want to risk their finding it or us one of us getting hurt." She looked at Technofox. "I think we've been lucky so far. What do you think?"
"Yuddhistir I am not," Shadowfox said.
"Who?" Silverfox asked.
"Let's put away our dice and step away from the table before we lose something important," Shadowfox explained.
Technofox looked uncomfortable. "I don't like the idea of destroying evidence."
"Neither do I, hon," Firefox said. "But we're at risk, and one missing gadget won't keep anyone out of prison."
"Mmm," Technofox agreed reluctantly.
"I know you could spend months examining it, but I want it destroyed before we go out," Firefox said. "I don't want to leave it here for someone to find, and I don't want it with us."
Technofox shook her head. "No," she said. Firefox lifted her eyebrows. Technofox shifted her gaze away.
There was a slight pause. Technofox looked up and set her jaw. "We can't destroy it. I might be able to work out a countermeasure."
Firefox was quiet for a few moments. "All right," she said.
Silverfox snorted in disgust. She mock-glowered at Technofox. "If they find it and kill us all, I am going to kick your ass," she said.
"Can Control 4094 be used through an Internet connection?" Shadowfox asked.
Technofox considered. "Theoretically. I email you a call to Control 4094. Your cell phone bounces it to your implant ... and then it requests admin access, and we block it. Or you put it into a Trojan, email the program, it goes from your phone to your implant. Then, like an idiot, you run it ... but even there, you need to grant rights to run the program on your implant."
"So that won't bypass the admin lock," Firefox said.
"No," Technofox said firmly. "Not unless there's a back door we don't know about. But then our implants wouldn't be Redtooth standard."
"Good," Firefox said. She looked around. "I don't see any of us running downloaded programs on our neural implants."
Silverfox nodded, agreeing. Obviously not. No, not even from a trusted source. Silverfox didn't even need to think about it. It was almost a chimera instinct, even though it was taught. Common sense security, drilled in from incept, was never to accept new downloadable executable code outside of a doctor's office. In Blue Diamond, Technofox had replaced Shadowfox's neural implant chip, but that had been an emergency. Even Shadowfox's intrusion software was updated by Doctor Clayton, not Technofox.
"So," Firefox said. "We still haven't answered how 4094 was used on us."
Shadowfox shrugged. "With the RFID bypass, the gadget could be used on someone who has already been taken prisoner -- but I'm not sure it could be used to take a resisting chimera prisoner."
"Lilith didn't have a gadget," Technofox said.
"Would she know about it?" Silverfox asked. "It's not like she was working with Walton."
"Besides," Shadowfox said, "her van was destroyed by a booby trap. Maybe she had one in there, and it burned."
Silverfox considered the gadget. "And besides, if I were going into a fight and had to choose between that and a can of mace ... mace has a longer range, and it works on humans. The gadget is useful on a prisoner, but I'm not convinced it's a better weapon."
"Or use it in a trap. Slip a gadget into anything close to our heads," Firefox said immediately.
"Maybe in our pillows?" Technofox suggested.
Silverfox looked at her sourly. "Great. How am I going to get to sleep now?"
Technofox disassembled the gadget and hid it in her electronic gizmo carrier; purloined letter style. Technofox set up her laptop and they gathered around it for the call.
"Silverfox," Firefox said, "It might be a good idea to feel a little bit under the weather this morning. Try not to talk much; if you add to a conversation there's too much of a risk you'll repeat something you said about yesterday."
"Right," Silverfox agreed. "I'm feeling a little hung over and tired."
"Perfect. If Silverfox starts straying into dangerous territory, tell her that she doesn't look well. Silver, if you start feeling overwhelmed, say you need to take sick leave."
"Right," Silverfox agreed. Already, she was starting to feel nervous. Could she pull this off?
"Support go."
"Tactical go."
"Intelligence go."
"Command is go. I'm making the call." Firefox touched a speed dial button.
"Good morning, Foxforce," Doctor Clayton said.
"Good morning," Firefox replied for all of them. "Thank you for breakfast."
"You're welcome." Doctor Clayton paused.
"Has there been an update from the labs testing the pelts?" Firefox asked.
"Yes," Clayton said, "Of the two hundred pelts, fifty-six have been tested. Five are from chimerae, so far."
"So they didn't find more since I went on vacation," Silverfox said. For some reason, that was a relief.
"Yes, that's right," Firefox said. "Doctor Clayton, why did you order us off the scene yesterday?"
"I am glad to say that I have permission to explain why I had you go to the hotel yesterday afternoon," Clayton said. That was a typical machine intelligence speech glitch. He was probably about to say that, but Firefox anticipated him and Clayton didn't reformulate his next sentence.
Silverfox shifted in her seat. This ought to be good.
"I was curious about that," Firefox replied.
There was a slight pause. "This is a national security issue involving a combined FBI / RCMP counterintelligence operation," he said. "It may overlap with the smuggling case." The image on the laptop changed to an image of the flush deck smuggling boat, sitting in a hangar or boathouse, in a hastily-constructed wooden frame to keep it from rocking back and forth. From the description, Silverfox knew it was the one she had seen the day before. It was a little disturbing, looking at a hole in her memory and knowing she had to pretend to recognize it.
"First," Clayton said, "you were told yesterday that this boat was found scuttled in ten meters of water. This is incorrect. Actually, it was scuttled in one hundred meters of water and located and recovered using classified equipment."
Wow -- so the case really was safe to one hundred meters. Silverfox was impressed.
"I had no idea we could do that this fast," Firefox said, impressed.
"We're three kilometers from a nuclear carrier," Shadowfox replied. "I'll bet there's a lot of hardware in the area nobody talks about."
The screen went dark and a line drawing of a small submarine with two externally mounted torpedoes appeared. "The German Kriegsmarine has a number of small special-purpose boats in service. This is a Seehund IX miniature attack submarine." Under that appeared a second submarine-looking boat, more cylindrical. "This is a Zahnwal covert landing craft." The two pictures moved together, covering one another. What became immediately apparent was that they had an identical pattern of six attachment points on the top.
"The two boats are designed to mate to the same sort of hoist," Clayton said. "Now look."
A line drawing of the smuggling boat they had just seen appeared, and moved atop the other two. It also matched.
"So it seems that these smugglers are using equipment compatible with Kriegsmarine special purpose small boats," Clayton said.
Silverfox sat quietly. It was hard for her to keep silent about the _Flying Saucer,_ but it would obviously be a very bad idea to start talking about it. Well, she thought, at least she'd be able to keep her promise to Hardtack -- it was just a matter of figuring out how to "discover" the evidence linking the catamaran to this. Firefox looked over at her, as though wondering if she'd start blabbing. In a way, Silverfox couldn't blame her, but it was a little annoying.
"Are the smugglers buying Kriegsmarine surplus, or do you think there's more to it than that?" Technofox asked.
"I can't say," Clayton replied.
"That's an ambiguous answer," Technofox replied.
"If I told you everything I know about all interrelated subjects, we'd be here for decades," Clayton said.
Technofox moved her hand impatiently. "That's a trivial answer."
"The guiding principle in sharing information is need to know," Clayton replied. "This is more imperative with classified information. Need to know implicitly requires that there are two categories of information; that which you need to know and that which you do not need to know. This appears to be a Boolean distinction, but it is not, and since information can visualized as a network of interconnected nodes, there is inherent ambiguity in such a categorization of such data."
"So is there additional information which may relate to this case," Technofox asked, "but which you cannot discuss with us?"
"I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of such information," Clayton immediately replied.
"Then I suggest we submit highlight reports on a daily basis," Technofox said.
"Why?" Silverfox asked. It was an involuntary response; she hated daily reports. Heck, she hated weekly reports. She had once submitted a report that read "Stuff happened." Firefox had not been amused.
Technofox paused and tried to explain. "It's impossible for Clayton to give us everything he knows about this case, because much of it is classified as need-to-now. But if we find something which correlates with something he knows which cannot be revealed then obviously need to know would be retroactively satisfied in that instance, granting us access to related data."
"Yes, obviously," Silverfox said.
"If we theoretically postulate the existence of information which I have not revealed because it does not satisfy the need-to-know test, then it would be reasonable to assume that the need-to-know criterion would be modified if you were to present information that implies a link to previously isolated nodes of data," Clayton said. "Visualize a network of interconnected nodes, some red and some blue, and postulate that red nodes connected to blue nodes immediately turn blue. Obviously, all the nodes would rapidly turn blue, which is a degenerate case which shows that it is not useful as an algorithm."
"Oh, obviously," Silverfox agreed, nodding.
"Imagine, however, that we use three values, red, blue, and green. Blue represents information that you can access, red represents information you cannot access. Green can represent non-blue nodes which connect directly to blue nodes, and represent information which I have imparted. If you identify a link between a green and red node, the green node turns blue and the red turns green. Therefore, the blue nodes grow but red nodes remain isolated, a non-empty set."
"That sounds like a computer algorithm," Silverfox said.
"Well, duh," said Clayton, dropping a bit too far into the colloquial.
"I don't follow," Silverfox said. She didn't mention that she had lost the thread of the conversation back when Clayton had said "The guiding principle..." because she was a little embarrassed.
"He said we should submit daily reports," Firefox said.
"Yes, exactly," Clayton agreed.
"Ah. Gotcha," Silverfox nodded, satisfied.
"Interface between human and machine intelligence my ass," Shadowfox whispered. Silverfox blew her a kiss.
"We've already got a number of people in custody on the smuggling charges," Technofox said. "Are any of them associated with German intelligence?"
"Not directly, although that might be a logical inference," Clayton replied immediately. "Four of the accused smugglers were deserters from the Canadian military, and of those two were members of the National Front. The records of a third suggest there was friction between him and a Jewish officer, and attribute anti-Semitic remarks to him."
"That could be a coincidence, but we might want to have a properly blond Aryan human on this case," Firefox said.
"Yes," Clayton agreed immediately. "That line of investigation is being pursued." He hesitated. "The scope of this case is unusually large," he said. "And unexpectedly so. ICON will be applying multiple assets on this case, co-ordinated through me. I will also be operating as the primary liaison with the FBI and RCMP. I'm afraid the overall size of the investigation will make it necessary for Foxforce to operate with a bit less independence than usual."
"How should we direct our investigation, sir?" Firefox asked.
"I suggest you pursue the chimera connection," Clayton said. "The guilty parties have victimized chimerae and there is an excellent opportunity to file felony murder charges. This could be far more fruitful than pursuing the espionage and smuggling aspects, which are more difficult to prosecute."
"I tend to agree with you," Firefox said.
"I regret this necessity and all I can do is assure you that at all times I will be acting in good faith."
"Oh, we never doubted that for an instant," Firefox replied.
"Didn't I see you girls here yesterday?" asked the affable MP. He was stocky, short and powerful; his ancestors had probably been here long before the Pig War.
"No," Firefox said, "Those were four different vixen chimerae." She grinned.
He smiled and chuckled slightly.
No MP would call four random human women girls, Silverfox thought, irritated. Then, it struck her that even though he was a bit of a pig, he at least he had the grace to accept a needle back. He double checked their identification signals, somehow combining a bemused "Gee whiz -- isn't it wacky that the goofy ol' Navy makes nice people like us jump through these silly hoops?" with "If you attempt to get by me, I will use lethal force without hesitation." Silverfox watched with real interest; it would be a good pose to adopt when working security.
Come to think of it, was he necessarily being an asshole? When Foxforce had gone to the naval base in Brooklyn the guards had been very careful to address them as 'ma'am.' Was that a Navy-wide policy, or did Brooklyn have a base commander with progressive views about chimera rights?
Or was this MP kidding around with them because they had met him the day before, and he had quickly established a cheerful, bantering relationship with them? Even Technofox seemed to have a trace of a smirk, and she was very touchy about the proprieties.
"Any firearms?" he asked, looking directly at Silverfox.
"Locked in the glove compartment of the rental car," she replied. She left off the "Sergeant" because she was half-convinced they were on a first name basis with him.
"Fine," he said. "Here are your visitor badges -- please keep them visible."
"You betchum, Chief," Technofox replied.
He chuckled. "Good girl. Have a biscuit."
Well, that settled it. Either Silverfox had dimension-hopped to the Asshole Universe where Jerry didn't have a beard, or this was one of the good guys.
"Thanks," Silverfox said, smiling back at him. This was scarier than she thought it would be. She'd be weighing every word from everyone, trying to guess if a context established the day before would completely change the meaning.
"Thought this was your day off, Doug?" Firefox said. Was she dropping a hint to Silverfox, explaining why they hadn't mentioned this really neat guy they had met?
Doug shrugged. "Covering for a dumb kid who fell out a window."
"Damn. Hope he's okay," Firefox replied.
"He'll be fine, thanks for asking. Enjoy the day."
"Thanks, Doug," Silverfox replied.
Did he wink at her? It didn't register until after they left. She might have hit on him. Crap.
They walked out of the visitors' center, and were met by Mountie James McKinnon and Agent William Thompson; Silverfox recognized them from their descriptions, although she couldn't remember seeing them before.
McKinnon and Thompson looked like they had been cast in a film to play a Canadian Mountie and US Federal Agent who were complete polar opposites. And they initially hated one another, but after being forced to work together developed a grudging mutual respect, through many wacky scenes of amusing, "it's funny because it's true" culture clashes involving poutine, hamburgers, hockey, football, and a final reconciliation dinner involving more poutine.
Some poutine would hit the spot. Funny she hadn't thought of that in Victoria. Mmm, poutine...
McKinnon could have won a David Hyde Pierce Look-Alike Contest competing against David Hyde Pierce, which was appropriate because every fictional Canadian paired with a fictional American had a stick up his ass, unless they were mutants with healing factors. He was, of course, in a suit with a jacket and a tie.
Thompson, on the other hand, was a Maverick Cop Who Lived On The Edge. He had not shaved well that day, and he was wearing business casual under a Nylon windbreaker. He had a ponytail, and Silverfox looked away. She didn't like ponytails.
"So I guess they cleaned up that mess from yesterday?" Thompson asked.
"Yes. Can we speak freely?" Firefox asked.
Thompson glanced around. "Yes, I think we're alone. Probably want to keep quiet around the base personnel, though."
"Which is a little ludicrous," McKinnon said. "At least three people have told me about the attachment points so far. We might as well put up a sign 'We know this is a German boat. Keep it Quiet.'" He shook his head, irritated. "Heck, we'd probably be better off doing that."
"Shall we go?" Thompson asked, looking directly at Silverfox.
Silverfox nodded without saying anything. She didn't know which direction to turn. The other three foxes turned to the left, and she followed their lead.
They were heading towards a hangar-like structure built near the ocean. Silverfox followed along. McKinnon dropped behind, next to her.
"Feeling all right?" he asked, concerned.
She smiled back at him. "I think I hit the mini-bar just a little too hard yesterday," she said. He laughed politely in response, and squeezed her hand for a moment before letting go of it. It seemed like a strangely familiar gesture, unprofessional even. Which meant that either he was unprofessional, or she had sent him messages the previous day.
All right; she needed to think this through. Once she knew David was showing up, she would have arranged for a stand-in to replace Shadowfox. It was fair to guess that she would have picked McKinnon or Thompson. Technofox had said that Thompson had rebuffed her, so that left McKinnon. Oh, hell -- if she were sick, she wouldn't be in the mood for a cheap fling.
When the other glanced back, McKinnon moved slightly away from her. As though he were trying to be discrete.
"Thompson," he said, "do you have any idea how they found this thing? My sources say that it wasn't a diver."
"Not a scuba diver, anyway," Technofox said. "Not at one hundred meters. Heliox, maybe. Or a hard suit."
"The Navy told me, 'Specialized equipment,'" Thompson said.
"That's helpful," McKinnon said.
"Just be happy they're letting us on board," Thompson said. Then, to everyone, "the lab team will start dissecting this bad boy tonight, but I thought you'd all appreciate a chance to see it while it's still intact."
By then, they were close to the hangar. Thompson waved his Visitor badge, a light flashed green and a bolt snapped open.
Silverfox wasn't sure if this was a hangar or a boathouse. It was almost empty, with only two boats in it: the flush-deck smuggling boat and a fifteen-meter long hydrofoil. Had that been there the previous day? She didn't want to look too interested in it.
"Has anyone compared this with the smuggler we captured in Seattle?" Firefox asked.
"Yeah," Thompson said. "From what they can tell so far, they're almost identical. We can't identify the shipyard, at least not yet."
"German?" Firefox asked.
"Well, maybe."
Silverfox walked past the hull, paused, and brushed it with her fingers. She hadn't actually seen the outside of the boat in Seattle; just the tiny portion that had emerged from the water, and the inside. The hull and screw were fiberglass, she guessed a bare minimum of metal fittings.
Next to the hull were ten vertical storage cases, probably removed from the smuggling boat with an overhead crane. They were the same size and shape as the ones from Seattle, but were constructed differently, intended for a different purpose. They were of heavier construction, with a smaller door that could be barred from the outside.
One had been opened. Silverfox peered in. It had been flooded when the boat was scuttled, and on the bottom there was a layer of what had been absorbent clay pellets. Submersion in ocean water had turned them into a thick carpet of sticky sludge, that looked like congealed oatmeal and smelled of the bottom of the ocean. On each of the four walls, there were two eyelets, one near the top and one at the bottom.
Silverfox remembered a tiger forcing her arm onto a table and snapping a carabineer to the shackle on her wrist. The same carabineers were here, at the end of adjustable length plastic cables that dangled from the upper eyelets. The lower eyelets had the same cables, but the ends were buried in the thick clay.
Light came in through the air holes. She didn't know why that made her shudder, even more so than seeing those familiar shackles again.
"I think you could fit four people in one of those," McKinnon said, his voice very dry.
"Yes," Firefox agreed.
For an instant, Silverfox wondered if someone was going to suggest they try it. Silverfox stepped away from the case, mutely refusing the suggestion even before it was made. She regretted her large breakfast; it felt like there was a hand squeezing her intestines. She knew, with every cell in her body, that they were looking at one connection in the road to Blue Diamond. Or places like it.
"Find any bodies?" Firefox asked, voice short, pointing. It was peculiar. It was one thing to logically argue, as they had this morning, that the cases had something to do with smuggling chimerae to Blue Diamond. Standing there and looking at them, Silverfox didn't merely know it, she felt it. And hearing Firefox, she knew that she knew it too.
Were they remembering, maybe?
"No," McKinnon said, shaking his head. "Either they were travelling empty or the ... cargo was removed before the boat was scuttled."
"Any chimerae wash up on shore yet?" Technofox asked.
"Why assume they were chimerae?" McKinnon asked.
"Investigator bias," Firefox replied. "We usually get assigned to cases involving chimerae, and here we are. Thank you for reminding us."
"Just wondering if you were holding out on us," Thompson said.
"Why should we do that?" Firefox asked, puzzled.
"Without disagreeing," Technofox said, "it seems like a good bet." The little fox steeled herself, leaned closer to the case, and sniffed. She shook her head. "Smells like ocean," she said. "The lab might be able to pull some traces out, but I can't. Want to try?" Technofox asked Silverfox.
"Like hell," Silverfox replied instantly, without thinking. She shuddered.
Technofox stared, and took a pair of gloves out of her pocket. She knelt as she tugged them on, and reached into the case with one hand. She grabbed a bit of strap protruding from the clay layer between thumb and forefinger and pulled. It started to come out, paused, caught on something, and finally came clear of the clay layer.
It was an arrangement of black Nylon straps, black plastic buckles, Velcro.
In Blue Diamond, the muzzles had been leather, designed to look nice, bondage jewelry. They were made in different sizes for a nice, snug fit. This was cheap and nasty but no less effective, the Velcro making it one - size - fits - all.
Technofox spread it out, flicked a bit of clay off it. "It's a muzzle," she explained for the humans. "This bit goes around the snout. This behind the head, this over the top."
But what Silverfox noticed was the patch of Velcro on top of the head, mate to the square on the gadget. Muzzle them, handcuff them, slap on the gadget and turn them on and off if they get feisty ... Silverfox turned away, tried to stop her jaw from trembling. Thompson was looking at her blankly; McKinnon with concern.
"Yeah, that's for chimerae," Thompson agreed, and he looked crestfallen. It made Silverfox feel guilty.
"It's not like it would be okay if it were done to humans," Firefox said. "But yeah, it does sort of ... hit home."
"What does this say to you?" Thompson asked.
"Something illegal," Technofox said.
"Obviously," Thompson said.
Technofox hesitated a moment. "And probably it involves a an international border crossing," she said. "This boat has to cost a lot more than, say, a van trailer."
"Not necessarily," Thompson said. "What if a truck stop attendant hears someone banging against the wall? I agree this might be an international case, but it doesn't have to be."
"I agree," Firefox said. "And the chimerae were here against their will. Muzzles."
"Right," Shadowfox agreed. "The rings might possibly be seatbelt mounts, but muzzles? So this isn't a boat carrying runaway slaves to Canada."
"So the chimerae were being forced, illegally, to travel. North or south?" Technofox asked. "Lieutenant McKinnon, I'm sure there must be Canadian chimerae who go missing?"
"Well, of course," McKinnon said. "I looked into it. There's maybe one unsolved case a month in each province. But this is what, forty seats? Two or three of these boats a year would carry every one of them."
"There's a lot more in the United States," Thompson admitted. "Runaway slaves, chimerae in flight from bad debts, that sort of thing mostly. But some of the chimerae in Blue Diamond had been stolen."
"Or kidnapped," Silverfox said sharply.
There was a slight pause, as though Silverfox had just said the weirdest thing in the world. "...Yes," Thompson agreed, uncertainly. Silverfox looked away. She had only said two words on her own, and they were apparently the wrong two words. Or maybe she was imagining it. Oh, this was going to be fun. She wondered if she should just shoot herself now.
"Pull me out," Technofox said, her voice muffled. She had wriggled underneath the boat, and only her ankles showed. Silverfox reached down and gave her a tug. Technofox was holding a small key fob flashlight. "The keel isn't scratched up," she said. "That means they don't run aground. These boats work along prepared routes."
"Yeah," Silverfox said. She half expected McKinnon to blurt out, "She said 'Yeah?' Never in my life have I heard anything so suspicious! Have you been erasing your short-term memory or something, young lady?" She was getting paranoid, and she knew she had to settle down.
"Silverfox," Thompson said, "do you want to go inside today?"
"Yes, thanks," Silverfox replied. She glanced at Technofox, who stepped closer to her.
The three of them went up a staircase to the deck, and then down a ladder that ran through the cargo hatch. There was a strong smell of salt water. Very little sea life had infiltrated into the boat in the short time it had spent on the bottom, but there was something she couldn't identify clinging to one of the walls, a little bundle of life that had probably died wondering where the ocean had gone.
The cargo area was emptied, but otherwise it looked very much like the one in Seattle. The boat had the same rudimentary, simple feel to it. And she realized what was bothering her. Was this really the sort of boat the Kriegsmarine would buy? A military craft would surely be more likely to be stuffed with redundant systems, every inch of bulkhead covered with dials and fittings... these thoughts were driven away when Thompson stepped up behind her, squeezed her waist gently, and nuzzled her ear.
She felt both surprise and relief. The day had barely started, and she had already met three men she might have arranged to date. Of the three, Doug was probably the neatest, but they had spent very little time with him, and that had been as a group. One of the others would have noticed if Silverfox had arranged a date.
McKinnon looked like David Hyde White, and that probably let him out.
Thompson was the most physically attractive except for the damned ponytail, but Technofox had said Thompson had turned Silverfox down the day before. But apparently, they had met again in private. Silverfox responded to his touch, leaning against him and rubbing her face against his with a fleeting grin.
"Not here," she whispered back. Oh, crap -- what was his first name? Well, it wasn't like that hadn't happened to her before, "...Agent Thompson."
"Call me Hector," he said.
"Why should she call you Hector when your first name is Mike?" Technofox asked.
"Are you an Iliad buff?" Silverfox asked.
She had read it wrong, and now they were on dangerous ground. Damn!
He grinned. "I knew it. Why did you react that way when I touched you?"
Silverfox met eyes with Technofox.
"You mentioned your wife yesterday," Silverfox replied. "I guessed you had changed your mind."
"Silverfox is very much into casual sex," Technofox said.
"Yes, exactly," Silverfox agreed, head bobbing. "Utter slut, really."
He looked dubious. "Our information says that Shadowfox is the sexual agent."
"Absolutely," Technofox agreed. "Shadowfox is the professional. Silverfox is merely an enthusiastic amateur."
"That is so true," Silverfox agreed. "So does this mean you don't want to take me to dinner? I can practically guarantee it'll be worth the check --"
Thompson had a quizzical look on his face, and broke into laughter. "You almost fooled me, but no. I know what's really going on."
Technofox moved around behind him. How could they kill him in the middle of a naval base and make it look like an accident? But that was crazy. There was no way he'd spill the beans about 4094 when he was alone with --
He smiled at Silverfox. "Yesterday, your twin arranged a date with Carl for this evening."
Who's Carl? Silverfox thought. Business cards appeared in her inbox, from Technofox. Carl McKinnon. Oh. They had probably been sent a few minutes ago.
"My twin?" Silverfox asked, hesitantly. Silverfox was sure that her expression of surprise would convince him he had guessed right, so she didn't suppress it too hard. Then she did her best to look sort of non-committal.
"C'mon," he said. "How many murder mysteries use identical twins as a plot point? If I were forming a chimera investigation team, I'd take advantage of that."
"Creating a chimera to a physical specification intended to obscure the individual identity of that chimera would constitute fraud," Technofox said solemnly. "I hope you're not accusing ICON of anything."
"Actually," Thompson said, "I don't think it would be fraud unless a false claim were made and money were involved. If a chimera were to establish an alibi for a lookalike, it wouldn't necessarily be perjury unless someone made a false comment under oath. And frankly, if there's two Silverfoxes establishing alibis for one another, I doubt it would even reach trial. Investigators would just dismiss Silverfox from the list of suspects."
An email from Technofox popped into Silverfox's head, addressed to everyone in Foxforce.
"Thompson thinks Silverfox has a twin. Isn't that silly? =;-)"
Silverfox fought to keep from laughing out loud.
"It does explain a lot of the questions we had about Foxforce," Thompson went on. "Silverfox's dating habits make more sense if she's two or more women. And it explains why people say she's a bit out of it."
"Hey." Silverfox frowned.
Thompson nodded, pleased with himself for uncovering the mystery.
"I hope you won't spread that rumor around," Firefox said, ducking her head in through the top hatch.
Thompson looked up. "Why?" he asked. "It's not illegal to have a twin. It's just something to keep in mind."
Silverfox folded her lips inside her mouth and bit down lightly, to keep from laughing.
Silverfox and Shadowfox sat outside the hotel, waiting for their respective dates. They could have waited inside, but it was such a night they decided to sit out and enjoy the stars. Shadowfox was poured into a red sleeve; she wore a gold necklace and sandals that laces almost up to her knees. Silverfox was in the cargo pants Jerry had gotten her in Victoria.
"I hope David shows up first," Silverfox said.
Shadowfox cocked her head and looked at her. "Company too rich for trash like you?" she asked, shifting into sassy putdown mode.
"Basically, yeah," Silverfox said. "I mean, look at you. If gorgeous was gravity, the moon would be bouncing off your head."
Shadowfox smiled shyly and chuckled, and looked away, embarrassed. "Thanks. You look nice too."
Silverfox looked down at herself and snorted. "Please. I look like I'm here to work on your car."
Shadowfox shook her head. "We might have time. I could lend you an outfit."
Silverfox lifted her eyebrows. "We're going home tomorrow. You brought two outfits like that for a two-night trip?"
Shadowfox seemed to smile; it was a little hard to see. "Three would be over-doing it." She lifted her leg. "They actually pack well. There's not much fabric in them."
"I see," Silverfox said. "I might take you up on that in Boston. David's too punctual."
"Yes," Shadowfox agreed with a laugh. She shook her head. "He's good about that, at least."
"Is dating him a chore?" Silverfox asked.
Shadowfox looked surprised at the question. "Well, he's not the worst, not really, it's just ..." she trailed off, and looked away. "When I'm doing a job with someone there's always this part of me that sits back and laughs at the jerk. Like this guy who has no idea where my clitoris is, or guys who are grossed out by giving oral sex."
"But not getting it, of course," Silverfox said.
"Of course. But David ... to tell you the truth, I kind of like him." She shrugged, amused by the oddness of that. "I mean, I'm not in love with him or anything, but he's sort of fun to talk to. If we go to a museum or something he can be actually interesting." She hesitated.
"So he's a nerd?"
"Oh, heck yeah. Nerd of nerds. But remember what his job is. Most of his work is convincing people online that he's a serious collector of stolen art, fur from endangered species, and whatever the hell people are selling. How can you convince people you want to buy a stolen left-handed veeblefetzer unless you know veeblefetzers inside and out?" She shook her head. "He's a trivia god. I swear you could drop him in a museum, cold, and he could tell you about half the crap on display."
"He recognized Jerry," Silverfox said. "Knew more about his work than I did. But then again, I am slow of mind."
Shadowfox raised an eyebrow. "Not when you're mulching someone."
"Sorry. Still a little cheesed off."
Shadowfox moaned softly. "That was obscure."
"Thanks." Silverfox grinned.
"I'd almost rather see more of David, believe it or not," Shadowfox said. "We don't see each other much, so we always end up boffing one another instead just going out and letting him do an info dump."
"Well, he loves you."
Shadowfox snorted. "He loves the woman I'm being around him. Funny thing. She's based on Technofox. When I'm with him, I'm Technofox, but a bit less energetic."
"She likes him a lot, you know," Silverfox said, finally broaching the subject.
"Yes," Shadowfox said. "I've known that for a while."
Silverfox turned to look at her, not quite believing what she had said.
"When we met in Atlanta I didn't know," Shadowfox said. "It got more obvious after that."
"Well..." Silverfox said, at a loss. "That's great! How are you going to step aside? I suppose you can't just say, 'David, I've been stringing you along to manipulate you emotionally, but Technofox wants to be your girlfriend."
"No, I can't do that," Shadowfox said with a laugh.
"We can think of something," Silverfox said. "The four of us together?"
Shadowfox shook her head, slowly. "I think you misunderstood me."
"How?" Silverfox asked.
Shadowfox sighed. "Technofox and David would probably hit it off. They share interests, their personalities are a good match."
"Okay..." Silverfox trailed off, utterly mystified.
Shadowfox sighed. "Look, you know that the Vix-Dix has an enhanced sexual response and libido, right?"
"Over humans? Right."
"When ICON ordered us from the factory, they wanted that toned down to something closer to human norms."
"ICON did that to us?" Silverfox asked.
"Doctor Walton made us sex toys," Shadowfox said. "ICON tried to change that back, before we were born. Did ICON break us, or did Walton? We're artificial. Everything about us is designed."
"We have personalities."
"Yes, we are individual people and we vary significantly from a programmed norm," Shadowfox agreed. "But we still have restrictions on us. There is leeway in human behavior, and the humans who step outside the bounds are insane. There is a gray area between functional and mad. There is leeway in our behavior, but the specification is more rigidly defined."
Silverfox was silent.
"When Blue Diamond got us," Shadowfox said, "they pulled out that limiter. That's why our sexual behavior changed so dramatically in Blue Diamond. We're more like other Vix-Dix models now. You didn't choose to turn bisexual. A modification was pulled. Your sexual behavior reverted to your defaults. Not that it was like throwing a switch. It took a while for our habits to change."
They had talked briefly about having ICON's blocks restored. But ... did anyone really want a lessened libido and fewer orgasms?
"Now, Technofox isn't like you and me," Shadowfox said. "She needs a stronger emotional commitment with and from a sexual partner. When she was seeing Ted, before Blue Diamond, that didn't matter much. Sex with him wasn't good enough to really change her behavior. But now..." Shadowfox shook her head. "A relationship between Technofox and David would weaken the team. One between Technofox and Firefox strengthens it."
_"It would be nice if Firefox had a chance to sleep with Andrew but slept with Tech instead,"_ Silverfox remembered Shadowfox saying.
"But ..." Silverfox started to say, weakly. "How could you do that to her?"
"It's what I do."
A rental car pulled up. David was driving. He waved politely at Silverfox, but his eyes were on Shadow. Shadowfox frowned at Silverfox for an instant, and Silverfox clammed up. Shadowfox stood and transformed as she made a quarter turn, becoming a happy, pretty woman enthusiastically going to greet her boyfriend. She flowed into the car, and gave David a kiss before he drove off.
Silverfox sat, wordless.
Shadowfox loved Technofox more than she loved life. Silverfox knew that.
Silverfox sat, paralyzed in indecision. And oddly, all she could think of was how she wanted Shadowfox to spruce her up for Jerry, so Silverfox could be especially pretty for him.
And now she was desperately glad she hadn't told Shadowfox.