Auric Gods

Chapter Five City of Vorganthian, Kobor, within Terra’s light

Though the shadows hid the blood, they could not disguise the smell. It lay thick and metallic on heavily recycled air. Above, the lazy sweeps of a ceiling fan pushed the stench around the room, making sure it got into every crevice and cranny.

Ursula Gedd felt it adhering to her skin. She’d need a full hour’s steam-scour in the precinct ablutional just to get the stink out. The scene laid out in front of her in the shabby tenement room would linger on well after that.

She frowned, and looked over to her fellow peacekeeper.

‘Can we get any more light? Saint’s piss, but it’s dark in here. How do you even see in this shit, Klein?’

Arpa Klein looked up from a crouched position. He had standard-issue, dark green peacekeeper flak armour. Yellow chevrons marked the chest-plate and shoulder guards. Just like Gedd, except she wore a long dark green slicker over hers. Klein also wore gloves and a helm-lumen. A piece of pinkish bone chip shone in the dim light of his portable array.

‘Skull’s utterly fragged.’

‘Your detective skills continue to amaze, Klein. Now, what about that light?’

Klein tapped the helm-lumen, causing it to flicker. He tapped it again, harder, and the beam stabilised.

‘Best we’ve got,’ he said, reaching for another bone chip. ‘The blood makes the room darker,’ he explained. ‘This back wall used to be grey. All the habs are grey in this district. No one bothers to paint them.’

‘Until now,’ Gedd remarked drily.

Klein pointed upwards with a metal stylus, and the hovering servo-skull slaved to his neuro-quill followed suit.

‘Ceiling used to be grey too.’

Gedd didn’t look up. Something dripped down onto her shoulder, though.

‘Saint’s piss…’ she muttered, and cast about for clues.

She found a weapon, lying side down on a table. Blood spatter flecked the barrel and stock. A pump-gun. Low-grade, but then the human skull wasn’t particularly resilient when it came to firearms. Using her boot knife, she hooked the gun by the trigger guard and brought it in for a closer look. She sniffed the muzzle, though it was tough to discern anything other than blood on account of the victim’s being… well, everywhere.

‘Male?’ she guessed, turning her attention to the body.

Klein nodded, the light beam bobbing up and down and throwing frantic flashes against a dark red wall.

He was seated, whoever he was. His ankles had been shackled to the chair legs, the shackles then bolted. One wrist was free, the hand nearest the table and the gun; the other was bound, same as the legs.

He looked ordinary enough, possibly a hive worker, one of billions inside Vorganthian. The fact his neck ended in a ragged stump stood out though.

‘You ever see a pump-gun do something like this?’

Klein looked up at Gedd holding the weapon to his meagre light.

‘Jam it in deep enough, then angle it just right… How should I know? Maybe.’

‘Blast out the back of the skull, perhaps… Deconstruct and violently explode the entire head?’ Gedd frowned again. ‘And this much blood?’

She swore under her breath, setting the weapon back down. It had a full load, even the breech. And where was the shell casing? No reek of cordite either. Retrograde weapons like the pump-gun had a smell after discharge.

‘How many is this?’ she asked, surveying the small room.

Klein paused, thinking. ‘Twelve suicides.’

‘Is that what your report will say?’

Klein deactivated his stylus and the servo-skull went into dormant mode.

‘Same as all the rest,’ he said, grunting, his legs stiff as he got to his feet. ‘You think it’s something else?’

Gedd tugged a data-slate from out of one of the slicker’s pockets and brought up a map. She’d flagged all the recent ‘violent cranial explosion deaths’ and added the one from the tenement they were standing in. She mentally drew a line connecting the site of each death until it formed an arc in her mind’s eye.

‘You seeing something I’m not, Gedd?’ asked Klein, securing the bone chip evidence in a small plastek sheath.

Gedd turned and headed for the door.

‘Let me know when you’re done.’

‘Where are you going?’ he called after her.

‘Out of this shithole.’