DeathWeb (Fox Meridian Book 3) by Niall Teasdale Read Free Book Online Page B

How far would you go to see justice for the death of someone you love, Miss Meridian?’
    ‘I’d kill whoever did it,’ Fox replied flatly. ‘Have done. But I did it legally and there was no collateral damage. I know what revenge is all about. I’ve lost someone very dear to me and everyone responsible for that is dead, but I didn’t kill some old guy because he was in the way.’ August looked away, avoiding her eyes even though she was purposefully not looking at him. ‘Kit will leave you the data we’ve collected. I figure you’ll want to see it.’ She frowned and turned to look at him. ‘Why the screens?’
    August seemed happy to have a subject change, which was a little surprising. ‘I dislike wearables, find them uncomfortable, and I suffer from a form of CRS. My body attacks implanted electronics. I understand that there have been some advancements made which might help, but at my age I don’t feel the need to change the way I work.’
    Fox nodded. Cyber-Rejection Syndrome was actually a collection of conditions all of which resulted in an inability to use implants and cybernetics. Some people had trouble with the nanofibre components used to connect to nerves, and some suffered from the same sort of rejection organic implants caused, even with materials which were supposed to be invisible to the immune system. ‘I’ve never met anyone who suffered from that. I’m honestly not sure how I’d cope.’ She lifted her right hand, folding the fingers slowly. ‘And I’d be left-handed now if I couldn’t take cybernetics.’
    ‘They’ve determined most of the genetic factors involved and they’re routinely screened now. They’ll soon be able to eliminate any predisposition in older people. By the end of the century, I doubt there’ll be a person alive without electronics in their brain, but I prefer to stick with the old-fashioned methods.’
    ‘Nothing wrong with that,’ Fox replied, turning for the door. ‘I’m kind of old-fashioned myself, about some things.’
    ~~~
    Old-fashioned did not describe Fox’s sex life, she had to admit. Casual bisexuality had become more commonplace since the late twenties, according to Kit who had engaged in a fairly thorough study of human sexuality and presented many of her findings to Fox. There was still something of an imbalance: men were slightly more likely to be either heterosexual or homosexual, and women were more likely to experiment either way. Kit had said that men still had more of a hang-up about being men , unless they had already decided that they could be a man who liked other men. All that, of course, applied to America, Europe, and the other more liberal states. In other places, things were significantly stricter. There was the Caliphate, of course, and Russia still had quite draconian anti-homosexual laws.
    And none of that was going through Fox’s head as she lay on her bed with Marie’s head between her thighs. Though Marie was a case in point, she was experimenting. Fox was the first woman Marie had been to bed with, a fact Fox found a little surprising, but then the Kansas Belt was hardly a hotbed of lesbian liaisons and Marie was fairly young. Still, Fox was Marie’s first and there was more enthusiasm than skill in her sexual technique, but she had learned Fox’s body really well…
    Fox’s back arched as the tension began to build in her abdomen. She bit her lip and her fists clenched in the sheets, and she fought to stop her thighs from clamping so hard onto Marie’s head that that nimble tongue would stop. ‘Oh… Shit… Going…’ There was the sudden release, the explosion, the roaring of blood in her ears and the bright, white darkness of her eyelids clamped so tightly shut that sight seemed to just implode on her.
    And then there was Marie crawling up to lie at Fox’s side, holding on until the aftershocks decayed into tremors and then died away entirely. Fox lay in the silence and contemplated her current situation.