Inescapable by Niall Teasdale Page B

that humans have been changing
the world for millennia. The decimation of the megafauna, the rise
of agriculture, and then the industrial revolution. You know,
modern humans likely evolved here. This is the Garden of Eden, if
you’re of a biblical mind, and here I am trying to turn it back
into one despite all we’ve done to the place.’
    Fox looked out
at the light, blue spreading quickly above the red haze. The Desert
of Eden: someone should get that on land reclamation posters. ‘Have
a good run, Doctor. And good luck on the work.’
    ‘Thank you,
Miss Meridian, even though it looks like the rainfall levels are
turning for the better, we’ll probably need it.’ And he ran off,
the heels of his running shoes throwing up small clouds of dust as
he went.

Part Four:
Copycat
    New York Metro, 30 th March
2060.
    He watched her as she
strutted about the room like the queen of some old, European
monarchy, except that no woman with breeding would have worn a
lemon-yellow dress which hugged a lush body and barely covered her
behind. No, this was not a dignified queen, not one with any class,
but she certainly had money.
    Money was why
he was there, why she had called him to her home, and why she was
largely ignoring him. She had more of it than she knew what to do
with and, like so many of her kind, she spent it without thought.
He had money, but not enough. Her money would see to it that he had
all he needed if he just kept doing what he did so well, so why was
it that he wanted so very, very much to take the bitch and
teach her just exactly what a man could do for her!
    He bit back the
sudden burst of rage which threatened to make him leap across the
room to where she stood, hip cocked, looking at him as though she
expected something of him. Had she been speaking to him?
    ‘I’m sorry,
what was the question?’
    She let out an
exasperated ‘huh!’ and set about repeating what she had said
before. He was only half listening as he imagined his hands
squeezing the breath from her throat.
    31 st March.
    ‘Okay, the report’s
filed and everything’s there in the records for you to read. I
figure we might as well do this properly and have it all
documented. Yes?’ Fox looked around the conference room as she
asked. Jackson and Hoarsen were sitting in the room with her. Eaves
and Jarvis were there, but only as telepresence images projected
onto seats.
    ‘I’d appreciate
it,’ Eaves said when no one else answered immediately.
    ‘And it gives
me a full list of work items to deal with,’ Jarvis added.
    ‘You believe
NIX is involved?’ Jackson asked.
    Fox gave a
small shrug. ‘It’s a supposition, but it’s likely. We have an
assault team of humans and cyberframes, all of them with high-end
camouflage systems. They know the best way into the bunker, which
is not common knowledge. They’ve the resources to determine that
the vulnerabilities in security have not been sealed up there. They
break in and they have the tech to plant a virus in the main
network administration console which is designed to infiltrate the
MarTech network. There’s no immediate gain, but it gives them
access to pretty much everything that moves over the company
network if it’s not discovered. It smells of intelligence agency
not industrial espionage.’
    Jackson nodded.
‘They’re still after Yliaster.’ His brow furrowed briefly. ‘Teresa
mentioned something about Kit being of assistance?’
    ‘Yeah, she was
hoping Kit’s synchronisation routines might help with Yliaster’s
communications. Kit ran diagnostics for her and sent them
yesterday. Today Kit’s transmitting a complete copy of herself over
to Jenner to help out with it. Terri sent a message saying it was
looking very interesting.’
    ‘Let’s hope
she’s right. The sooner we get this all resolved and into
production, the sooner NIX will stop trying to steal a march on
everyone else.’
    ‘But won’t they
just use the technology anyway?’
    ‘Perhaps. With
the project