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

what was, basically, the house’s avatar. ‘Terri designed you, didn’t she?’
    Belle was a little shorter than Fox, slim, very upright with a modest chest, slim waist, and wider hips. She had a narrow face framed by powder-blue hair which fell to her shoulders with a pronounced parting. Her lips were full and curved, her nose long and straight, and she had arched eyebrows over large, blue eyes. Blue was a theme: her nails were painted in blue, her eyelids shaded in blue, and she wore a dark blue skirt suit that dropped to mid-shin, with a white, collarless blouse and blue, kitten heels. She looked, Fox thought, like a rather prim, slightly sexy secretary, standing there with one leg slightly bent and her hands clasped in front of her.
    ‘Good afternoon. I am Belle, MarTech Technologies Lares dash five nine seven Series AI, prototype BL. Along with your MarTech Services GL Series building management AI, I will be taking care of you at whatever level of service you require.’ She had a soft but firm voice, a little throaty. ‘Miss Martins was the principal project engineer in charge of my production, yes.’
    ‘You’re a prototype?’ Sam asked, settling down beside the now seated Marie.
    ‘I am the twelfth beta series prototype of the Lares dash five nine seven AIs. Miss Martins said to assure you that I am the fourth bug-free version, the first with full functionality enabled.’
    ‘According to Terri,’ Fox said, ‘Belle is the public face for the house. Handles security, basic housekeeping functions, comms management, net searches, and she’ll act as your social secretary, if you want.’
    ‘I also have basic accounting skills, language packages for Mandarin, Spanish, and Japanese, and loadable skill packages for computer security, cooking, criminology, materials design, medical diagnosis, and a number of data gathering methods. My “Instanced Mind” system allows me to interact, individually, with up to one hundred individuals or carry out a similar number of mentally intensive tasks, though performance is reduced when handling more than ten.’ It was all delivered in such a matter-of-fact tone, like a sales presentation for a toaster.
    ‘Well,’ Marie said, ‘I pretty much use LifeWeb for my social stuff. I keep my calendar on there, contacts, the works.’
    ‘I am able to access LifeWeb data, Miss Shaftsbury, with your permission, of course, and I can assist in managing it. One function I can perform is to ensure that all members of the household know of scheduling conflicts.’
    ‘I’ll have Javen connect to you,’ Sam said. ‘Coordinate my calendars with him, business and personal. It would be useful to know when people are here or out, or just busy.’
    ‘Kit will connect up and handle that when we get her server over tomorrow,’ Fox said. ‘I hope you two are going to get on. I assume you’re a class four?’ Kit appeared, peering at the other avatar with a slightly wary look.
    ‘The Kitsune dash five nine two AI is a “sister” of my series,’ Belle stated, smiling. ‘Some of my code was created for the Kitsune. The generic failure of the Kitsune instancing mechanism led to its reengineering into my “Instanced Mind” technology. Miss Martins did mention that your AI, Miss Meridian, had resolved that problem.’
    ‘Kit is unique,’ Fox replied, smiling. ‘And you can cut that “Miss Meridian” thing. It’s Fox.’
    ‘As you prefer, Fox.’
    Kit wrinkled her nose a little and vanished. A second later, Fox heard, ‘I’m not sure I like her. She looks bossy,’ in her head.
    ‘Give her a chance,’ Fox replied silently. ‘Oh, and find out what “lares” means.’ Aloud she said, ‘I say we hit the kitchen and see what we can find to eat.’
    ‘I’m not sure what I’ve got in…’ Marie said, starting to her feet.
    ‘Both kitchens are fully stocked,’ Belle said, a smile touching her lips. ‘We made sure of that.’
    Fox gave a shrug. ‘Palladium is a