DeathWeb (Fox Meridian Book 3) by Niall Teasdale

room, estimates on the room size, air pressure and temperature, humidity…’
    ‘We may tweak the interface to cut out some of the data unless it’s asked for,’ Terri said. ‘Maybe a little overwhelming.’
    Marie grimaced. ‘And no one should ever look at the place they live in under alternate spectrums. I’m going to have to clean in here all over again.’
    Jackson chuckled and started taking the harness off Marie. ‘Enough for now. Clearly we have a working prototype. When’s the demonstration?’
    Vaughn put down her glass and sat up. ‘Tuesday, two pm, right after lunch. We have rehearsal time booked tomorrow at seven in the evening. Marie, it would be useful if you could be there, but it’s not an absolute requirement. Your part is more adlibbed than anything.’
    Marie, now disentangled from the harness, settled herself back beside Jarvis. ‘I’ll turn up. I’ll get to see the set and how my part should fit in with the others.’
    ‘That sounded solidly professional. So, you’ll be there with Jackson, Terri, and Fox for those two events. Otherwise you’ll be on the stand. After the presentation, you’ll be wearing the harness.’ Marie gave Vaughn a nod and the manager nodded back, adding a smile. ‘Fox, you’ll be needed for the debate on Thursday afternoon. David is flying in for that. There’s no script there, just an agenda.’
    Fox grimaced. ‘Yeah, the agenda being “privatise policing across the country.”’
    ‘Certainly the discussion thereof. I’ll be primarily on our stand with Ryan to handle enquiries. Obviously we’ll be hoping to get off there to look around once in a while so we would appreciate some relief now and then. Everyone has tickets for the Thursday night conference banquet. Marie, you are not obliged to come, and you certainly don’t have to wear the harness, but we got you a ticket.’
    ‘Oh! Thank you,’ Marie said, smiling. ‘I’ll have to find something suitable to wear.’
    ‘For a conference on law and order that has a “banquet” on the last night,’ Eaves said, ‘I’d recommend armoured underwear and the sexiest battlesuit you can find. Not that my wife will be taking that advice.’
    ‘Inappropriate behaviour is likely to be up on a standard conference,’ Terri agreed.
    ‘I’ll stick with Fox,’ Marie said.
    Fox shrugged. ‘Fine by me. I’ll be armed.’
    21 st June.
    There was, of course, chaos on the Monday morning. The event was due to kick off at eleven with opening speeches in the main auditorium, followed by an early lunch with a meet-and-greet. The serious lectures would be opening up after lunch, the exhibition hall as soon as the opening ceremony was done, and Fox was avoiding as much as possible of the noise and horror of late registration by helping to make sure the Palladium stand was up and ready. She suspected that she was just getting in Alice Vaughn’s way.
    They had put the whole thing together rapidly, but had still catered to as many potential visitors as possible. Implants and wearables were ubiquitous, but not universal, so there were v-tagged displays all over the place, but also a large screen showing a video. There was a world map showing Palladium’s coverage capabilities, and that was interactive if you had the equipment, but it was there and visible if not. And, of course, there was Marie and three other assistants. It gave them an even mix of genders, and enough coverage for peaks with slack to allow people breaks when the pressure eased off. Everyone, including the ‘VIP’ attendants, as Vaughn called Fox and Jarvis and the rest, had access to a central server which provided all the displays and information on Palladium’s products, services, and policies. Everyone was using the same playbook because they were all, literally, reading from the same script.
    Fox was watching the video on the big screen for the seventh time when Vaughn appeared beside her and said, ‘You’re in the way. Go and watch the