The Ghost in the Doll (Fox Meridian Book 6) Read Free

covered, right?’ Andrea said. ‘You said MarTech had come to some special arrangement for their first subject.’
    ‘I’m covered,’ Fox agreed. ‘I’m legally the same person. Huh, if the worst ever came to the worst, I could emigrate to Luna City. They have a pretty solid equal rights thing going up there. That’s why the American government agreed to hold my testing there before I was allowed down here.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘That was annoying and pointless.’
    ‘They were trying to make sure you were you?’ Bart asked.
    ‘Well, yeah, but it was an IQ test followed by some guy asking me questions I could’ve probably answered with an internet search. Seriously, mother’s maiden name. Name of my first school.’
    ‘You remembered my maiden name?’ Andrea asked.
    ‘Barlow. I do actually remember my grandparents, Mom. It was kind of slipshod, but I guess I shouldn’t complain. NAPA sent someone up to interview me too. That was more detailed, but mostly on what happened with Grant and Hannah.’
    ‘Kit got on the news about that Hannah girl. An AI giving evidence at a hearing and your testimony. You really don’t hold a grudge over her part in this?’
    ‘I do,’ Kit said from her position behind Fox, perched on one of the work surfaces. ‘Equally, she helped rescue Fox. I am conflicted on the matter.’
    ‘I…’ Fox frowned. ‘I guess I’m conflicted too. I’ve got some pretty obvious issues with her, but she was almost as much a victim as me and I think she deserves to be tried for what she did, not just turned off and scrapped.’
    ‘Well,’ Bart said, ‘you set the cat among the pigeons with that one. They’re still trying to decide what to do about it. Might go all the way to the top.’
    ‘I haven’t been paying a lot of attention to the news recently. Jenner’s pretty isolated and I’ve been avoiding anything controversial since I got back. I’ve got enough controversy of my own.’
    ‘Fair point. You won’t have seen that the Japanese have stolen MarTech’s thunder then?’
    ‘Oh?’
    ‘Some company over there has made the first artificial biological human. Well, not human, obviously, but you know what I mean. Bioroid, they call them.’
    ‘BioTek were working on it. Are working on it. They needed a variant of Yliaster to make it viable. So they can build an entire adult body instead of growing a cell up to adult size the normal way. An eighteen-year production cycle wasn’t viewed as ideal.’
    ‘Huh, no, I’d imagine not. Apparently someone in Japan has cracked it. Of course, it’s for sex. If they don’t actually invent something specifically for sex, someone’ll find a way to use it for that pretty quickly.’
    Andrea giggled. ‘So true. It seems a shame that the first artificial life we make is for that though.’
    ‘Alternative is probably some sort of manual labour. Slave labour. Not good either, but I’m bringing the mood down.’ Bart flashed a grin at Andrea. ‘Nice outfit you’re almost wearing, Andy. I see the sparkle hasn’t gone from your renewed love life.’
    Andrea blushed, but just a little. Her cropped camisole top and shorts were fairly brief. ‘Jonathan likes it. And so do you, you old letch.’
    ‘Not denyin’ it. Mind you, you’ve got competition. Your daughter’s not exactly covering herself up and she’s got more to show.’
    ‘Oh… Don’t remind me. I’ve always been a little envious.’
    ‘And,’ Fox said, smirking, ‘now there’s no danger of sag. Ever .’
    Andrea mock scowled at her daughter. ‘You’re not too old to spank, young lady.’
    ~~~
    Fox’s old bedroom had been redecorated. Gone were the trappings of a late-teen, replaced with a not-too-modern but certainly updated look in earth tones, which included a double bed that had a rather nice bronze-coloured, embroidered comforter over it. It had been done in the hope that Fox would visit with Jason Deveraux, her boyfriend.
    ‘We kind of planned to come over