The Ghost in the Doll (Fox Meridian Book 6) Read Online Free PDF Page B

shorts right now.’
    ‘And then we go work on the Mark Threes.’
    ‘You’re still using those things?’
    ‘There is nothing wrong with Gorton-May Mark Threes…’
    ~~~
    ‘These things are older than I am,’ Fox said as she removed one of the service panels on the side of a large, roughly oblong, tracked cyberframe in the workshop beside the house.
    ‘That is an exaggeration,’ Jonathan said, doing the same with his second machine. ‘You were… eleven or twelve when the first of them rolled off the line.’
    Gorton-May AgriTech had shot themselves in the foot a little with their Mark III agricultural cyberframe. They had proven very popular and had sold very well, but they were so easy to maintain and so reliable that the two updated models which had followed had seen poor reviews in comparison. Gorton-May were hardly going out of business since they continued to make parts for the Mark III, but they were going to have to perform magic to ever get a new model adopted. A lot of their newer units had been targeted at the city-based hydroponic farmer instead.
    ‘I guess if it works, don’t fix it,’ Fox said. ‘You got these second-hand?’
    ‘Of course. They don’t make them new, but I worked with Mark Threes for years and I couldn’t see using something newer when I got my own land. Must say, the implant made remote-operating them easier.’
    ‘See? Technology is great.’
    ‘Considering that it stopped me having to attend my daughter’s funeral, I am not exactly going to argue.’
    ‘I am just going to forget I heard that,’ Andrea said as she walked in with a tray, ‘and hand out the coffee.’
    ‘No point in denying it, Andy. She almost died, but she didn’t.’
    ‘Technically,’ Fox countered, ‘I did, but then I got better.’ Picking up a fibre-optic cable from where she had left it on top of the robot, she proceeded to plug one end into the machine and the other into her cable port. ‘In some ways, a lot better.’
    Jonathan was plugging another cable into a handheld computer instead and raised an eyebrow. ‘You just plug in and run the diagnostics?’
    ‘Kit downloaded the software.’ Fox took a mug from the tray Andrea was holding out and smiled. ‘Thanks, Mom. Look at it this way, I’m bulletproof and I basically don’t age. I can’t catch diseases and if my leg falls off, I just get it replaced. Barring suicide or apocalypse, I’ll live forever. No need to worry about me ever again.’
    ‘And I suppose you think that’s comforting?’ Andrea replied. ‘What’s a mother supposed to do if she can’t worry about her child?’ Andrea set her tray down and settled herself with her back against the frame Jonathan was working on. It was a casual sort of pose, in a place which made talking to both husband and daughter easy, but it still managed to look a lot like she was posing for Jonathan.
    ‘Take up knitting? Or politics. I hear politics is pretty popular around here. Looking good there, Mom.’
    Andrea preened a little. ‘I try. Um… was the piercing painful?’
    ‘No. Artificial skin. You would find it painful. They do clip-ons.’
    ‘Oh! They do?’
    Kit made an appearance at that point, smiling in a manner which Fox had come to associate with the AI’s more mischievous side. ‘They do, Mrs Meridian. I can send you links to several sources. I was quite surprised at the variety of options.’
    ‘Really? Well, that would be interesting to look at.’
    ‘And not just for the navel. Ears, obviously, and the nose ones can be quite pretty, though not to my taste. Then there are the other ones.’
    Andrea fell for it; Fox almost winced. ‘Other ones?’
    Kit nodded enthusiastically. ‘Nipples, labia, and clitoris.’
    Andrea let out a squeak which might have been a word. ‘I’ll stick to just the navel ones, I think.’
    ‘I don’t know,’ Jonathan said, his attention apparently fixed on his handheld. ‘Sounds kind of interesting…’
    Andrea made strangling