The Hellas Find (Fox Meridian Book 9) by Niall Teasdale

Author:Niall Teasdale [Teasdale, Niall]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: upload, action, Science Fiction, Police Procedural, Adventure, memetics, robot, sci-fi, cybernetics, AI, artificial intelligence, fox meridian, conspiracy
Published: 2018-12-13T23:00:00+00:00

Part Three: The Spy Who Came In

Isis City, Isidis Planitia, Mars, Sol 86, Year 3.

‘You bring me interesting corpses, Fox,’ Doctor Ruggiero said.

‘That is not a compliment I aspire to, Cherise,’ Fox replied. ‘Have you any idea what killed him?’

‘Oh, I know precisely what killed him. He suffocated.’

‘But those wounds–’

‘Were non-fatal. There was quite enough evidence that he was alive by the time all the air had evacuated from his vehicle. I’m not saying he was conscious, but he was alive, and he died from lack of oxygen to the brain.’

‘Oh,’ Fox said. She was back in Ruggiero’s office to hear the results. The rest of the Palladium contingent were either grabbing sleep while they could or prepping for what might happen later. ‘That doesn’t sound very interesting. I mean, not for a death on Mars.’

‘Ah, but there are those wounds.’ The doctor grinned. ‘Non-fatal, yes, but these are deep-tissue burns. The only times I’ve ever seen something like them were industrial accidents. Laser and plasma cutters make wounds like that, though I’d suggest laser, given the small entry wound.’

Fox nodded slowly. ‘That makes sense. Someone else I contacted about them suggested a laser weapon.’

‘The only laser weapons I’m aware of on Mars are the electrolasers your people carry, and they don’t make a burn even remotely that bad.’

‘Well, there have been directed-energy weapons on vehicles for a while, but something small enough to fit on a tank would still have cut Deschamps in half. There are chemical lasers in use in the Army, mostly for sniping. You don’t see them in use much because they’re bulky and if you get a breach in the fuel tanks, it’s like taking a bath in acid. But again, larger wound. What you’d think of as man-portable laser weapons are under development by a couple of companies. I don’t know of one that’s ready to release a finished product, but prototypes certainly exist.’

‘Or the Martians might have ray guns.’

Fox nodded again, not even grinning at the suggestion. ‘Or the Martians might have ray guns. Yeah.’

~~~

‘Fox, you should see this.’ Kit’s avatar was looking distinctly worried, but she vanished from the screen in the operations room to be replaced by a channel logo.’

‘ICGN?’ Justin said. ‘Nothing useful is ever on–’

He cut off as a man appeared on a virtual set. The man was attractive and wearing the latest in designer suits. He had dark hair cut short and heavily styled, blue eyes, and a face which had seen a lot of cosmetic work. Around him hung what looked like blue Perspex panels, each of them with a video display in the centre. Fox suspected that he would be walking between the displays during whatever presentation he was planning to give; the angles of the panels obscured the detail a lot, except for the panel right beside him, which was showing the first of Jonathan Carter’s videos.

‘Martians,’ the man said and a banner appeared at the foot of the screen giving a name: Luther Fortune.

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