| From: | "Paul J. Adam" <shadowtk@********.DEMON.CO.UK> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Autopsy |
| Date: | Sat, 22 Mar 1997 15:43:09 +0000 |
>>>>>[Well, this is what our friendly neighbourhood ME found.
+++++begin trideo
A pathology lab, freezers down the walls and stainless steel
instruments. A short, white-haired, white-coated man is probing at the
skull of a naked male Ork: the enormous, roughly sutured Y-shaped
incision on the Ork's torso suggest he's not going to be complaining.
He looks around. "Oh, hi there Lilith. If you're smoking, light me one?"
The pathologist raises his bloodied gloves. "Can't do it myself."
Lilith, wearing her usual worn A-2 flying jacket, shakes her head sadly.
"No respect for your dead, Jerry, that's your problem." She lights two
cigarettes, places one between his lips.
"Oh, God, I needed that. Five hours straight working on these guys." The
pathologist talks around the cigarette, blue smoke streaming. "Nice
simple stuff. I got dentals, fingerprints, DNA patterns, all in the
database, should be turning them from John Does to real people. Assuming
they were SINners, of course."
Lilith leans over, examines the area Jerry was working on. "Flechette?"
The pathologist nods, ash falling from the end of his Marlboro. "Yep.
Close range, there's some powder burn. Very localised, but quite mild,
so I'd say a silencer on the weapon. From the calibre and the velocity
I'd guess a Light Fire, something in that league, maybe a Viper. Nice
and quiet."
Jerry points with the narrow probe. "The guy was lying on his left side
from around when he was killed, for at least six hours. Maybe longer. If
he was in that position when he was shot, then he might have been asleep
in bed and the shooter standing over him. Two rounds, point blank, back
of the neck and just above the ear. The others are pretty much the same:
two flechette rounds, pointblank to the head. Only the Troll was
different, he was shot twice in the throat as well."
"Cranial supercalcification, characteristic of ingentis." recites Lilith
drily. "The shooter was worried that the flechette might not penetrate a
Troll's skull, so he went for a softer target."
"Yeah, seen that once or twice. Mind you, it's not just Trolls, there's
not really enough bone to bulletproof their brain. All close-range
shots, no evidence of struggle or defence."
"How about radiation?" Lilith enquires.
Jerry stubs out the cigarette and throws it in a "contaminated sharps"
container. "Background only, except this guy. Tritium traces in the
lungs, and the spectrometer showed palladium on his hands. Not much of
either, but they were on your looksee list."
"General condition?"
"Pretty fair. Ordinary blue-collar Joes. Mostly a little overweight,
minor liver damage in one, no signs of drug or chip abuse, no severe
injuries. Apart from bullets in the head, that is. They'd been dead
about twelve hours when I got them, means they were killed... call it
between four and eight a.m. that morning."
Lilith lights another cigarette off the first, looking a little green.
"Much else you want to tell me?"
"I'll put it in the report, send it to you. You get on out of here, this
place must be hell on a leopard's nose." Jerry grins. "Quinn seems to
cope. Where is she, anyway?"
"Denver, last I heard, getting herself into someone else's war. As
usual. The bitch is incapable of minding her own business..." Lilith
sounds affectionate, rather than angry. "Send a copy of the report to
Chris D'Arkan. He may send someone, or come himself."
"The new SAC? Yeah, I'll be sure he sees it. Take care. Here ya go, make
a copy of this too."
The last thing on the trideo is Jerry reaching to the camera's recorder
unit to eject the chip.
+++++end trideo
I've got my copy of the report: Chris, you should have yours too. We're
putting the IDs together, but basically seven of the guys were
machinists of varying skill and specialty, no particular family ties in
the city, who dropped out of sight about six months ago.
The Ork was an industrial chemist, fired about eight months ago because
of his alcohol problem: he was jobhunting for about six weeks and then
disappeared, right around the time the others did.
All local talent. The whizkid who directed them and knew what (s)he was
doing isn't in there, so is either dead elsewhere or more likely alive
and safe.
No real leads, just unwelcome confirmation that this was a real
project.]<<<<<
-- Lilith <15:43:50/03-22-58>
