Chapter Five
I wasn’t ready to lose my job for insubordination, but I’d be damned if I was going to let myself be cowed into submission. I was dealing with a dead guy who had implants that shouldn’t be possible, and who didn’t die as complications from said implants. As if I was going to let this pass me by.
I pulled out my camera to take photographs and I printed out a second set of the photos. I made sure to get pictures of everything, including close ups of the organs at different angles. I’d even disobeyed long enough to pop one of the Clockwork eyes out of place and get some extra photos of it. I had a feeling that these weren’t going to ever be seen again and that someone was going to lose the report.
I had an hour and twenty minutes to get everything back to normal and I was a bundle of nerves the whole time. I made a point not to have security cameras in my morgue but the paranoia was growing that someone had bugged my labs when I was out. I carefully put Rasputin back together, stitching up his chest before moving on to his arms and legs. He was a horrible mess by the time that I was done and I was certain hat Id’ be having nightmares about this whole thing for a week and I was definitely on a meatless diet for a while.
The stitches weren’t my best work and part of me wanted to pull them all out and try again but I was running out of time, and my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. This was ridiculous. I’d never been told to shut my morgue. I’d never been in quarantine, and I’d certainly never been told that I couldn’t call anyone right away. There was something special about Rasputin and Fredricks knew more than he was willing to tell me right away, I was sure of it.
I closed up the cadaver of Rasputin and said a few words of respect, holding my own private ceremony for the dead guy I’d just dissected. I never told anyone about my little rituals, I didn’t think any of my friends would understand. I draped the cloth over Rasputin for the last time and turned my back on him, still feeling guilty for not doing as nice of a job as I usually do with the stitches, and hoping that I hadn’t completely disrespected his beliefs. Half-robot or not, everyone deserves the basic respects in life and in death.
I settled behind my computer to type out the reports I needed. I kept a wary eye not he time as I printed my photos in triplicate. I filled out my reports as best as I could, making sure that they were detailed and descriptive, including colours and the initial reasoning as to why I decided to chop him up as much as I did. I was really thankful that I hadn’t sent the bullets off to ballistics yet, I had a feeling that they wouldn’t be making it into the usual evidence process. I didn’t mention the shards of metal I’d collected in my report. I put the little sticky sheets that I’d placed each of the shards on next to the printer. I had three shards, on three sheets of sticky plastic. They were labeled clearly, and I wasn’t sending one to the Chief.
I hit ‘print’ on my computer and the printer hummed to life again, printing my report in triplicate. I stood and sorted my photos. One copy was going to the Chief, the other two I was keeping. I sorted the report pages into my piles and then slipped everything into three separate manila envelopes. The first one, the one going to the Chief, I placed by my desk. The second one, I put one of the sticky things in it, making sure that the shard of metal I’d collected was still stuck there, then I taped to the under side of my desk. I put together the third package, including two of the metal shards I’d lifted from Rasputin’s bones, in record time and I took it across the room, and slipped it into an occupied locker in the wall of fridges. I placed the envelope gently against the stomach of the cadaver inside the meat locker and I pulled the sheet back over it.
I crossed back to my computer and opened the print history. I selected what I’d printed and started deleting it all. The pinging of the elevator told me that my time was up. I swore at the computer as the things from the list of recent documents was deleted. Ten seconds left.
I stood, just in time as Chief Fredricks returned with two of the scariest looking men dressed in suits that I had ever seen. These guys dwarfed Fredricks’ already impressive height and made his muscles look like nothing. If Fredricks was a football linebacker, then hess guys were professional bodybuilders. Or giants. One was balding, one had his indiscriminate brown hair buzzed short. They were both wearing sunglasses. If I had to pick them out of a lineup without the glasses, I’m not sure I could have, unless everyone else was tiny.
I smiled. “I’m sorry, if I knew you were bringing company I’d have cleaned up a bit more.”
Fredricks glared at me. “Is everything done?”
“It’s a bit of a sloppy rush job on the stitching, and for that I apologize,” I replied. “But yes, everything you want is done.”
Fredricks held out his hand. “Report.”
I gulped and turned to my computer just as the last item deleted and the queue closed. I breathed a sigh of relief and picked up the manila envelope I’d saved for the Chief. I turned back to face him and handed the file over. “There you go, sir. All my findings. Nice and confidential and everything.”
Fredricks took the envelope and handed it directly to one of the scary feds. They had to be CIA, no one else was that scary and dressed strictly in black suits.
“They taking Rasputin to Roswell?” I asked with a grin.
“Now isn’t the time for jokes,” Fredricks replied as the scary guys invaded my morgue and started checking my equipment. They took my recorder and pocketed it. I moved forward to protest, but Fredricks held me back.
I glared as I watched my things get packed up into a bag that the one fed with less hair seemed to produce from thin air.
“Why are they taking my tools?” I demanded.
“You’ll have new ones tomorrow,” Fredricks replied. “We’re also going to have to wipe your computer.”
“What?” I demanded, my voice rising shrilly.
“You’re lucky that you’re not being detained,” bald guy grunted.
“Detained?” I demanded. “You haven’t got anything to charge me with, buddy.”
“We could hold you for questioning and quarantine,” he sneered back.
I opened my mouth to retort but Fredricks put his hand on my shoulder.
“Let it go,” he said quietly.
“You know I have real trouble doing that,” I replied.
“Yeah, you picked that up from Blaze, I suggest holding your tongue and just sitting quietly while this happens because I sure as hell don’t want to have to explain to Tuesday how you ended up going missing, okay?”
I felt my stomach tighten into knots and I did my best to stare at the floor and not at my hiding places. “Yes sir.”
“Just sign these NDAs and everything should be okay, right, gentlemen?” Fredricks asked as the buzz cut guy came over and started erasing my computer’s files. I couldn’t watch as he did the hard system reset. Everything was gone, even all my academic stuff. I wanted to cry.
Fredricks moved me out of the way as the gurney with Rasputin’s body and the bags of my equipment were wheeled out of my morgue. I signed the non-disclosure agreements in a daze and the big brooding federal agents who had invaded my morgue were gone as quickly and unexpectedly as they had arrived, except my morgue was a shell of its former self.
“Take the day off, Kali,” Fredricks said quietly. “Go have a drink and forget about what just happened okay? Your morgue will be back to normal in the morning.”