(eng) Patrick S. Tomlinson - Children of a Dead Earth 01 by The Ark (v5.0)

(eng) Patrick S. Tomlinson - Children of a Dead Earth 01 by The Ark (v5.0)

Author:The Ark (v5.0) [Ark, The]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00


Chapter Seventeen

As it happened, they didn’t, but one of them did have a bag of Mahjong tiles. After a brief struggle, they agreed to the Old Hong Kong rules to give Benson a fighting chance, then proceeded to embarrass him in successive games anyway. It was just as well the Ark didn’t use hard currency, because they would have cleaned him out.

“I think you three are ganging up on me.”

They all flashed their best “who, us?” looks and laughed. One of them even slapped Benson on the back.

“No, you just bad player.”

“Maybe, but I’d wipe the floor with you at cribbage.”

On cue, one of them reached into a backpack and pulled out a small cribbage board and a deck of cards.

“You know cribbage?”

The man shrugged. “Lot of time to kill.”

“Wait, you said you didn’t have any cards!”

This was met by another round of laughter. They were enjoying jerking the foreigner around.

“Yeah, yeah.” Benson set up the board. “Which one of you jokers am I going to beat first?”

He’d just started to shuffle the cards when the phone rang in his head. It was Doctor Russell.

<Jeanine, you have something for me?>

<Well, hello to you too, Bryan.> She didn’t bother hiding the sarcasm in her voice.

<I’m sorry. How are you today? Lovely weather we’re having. Is that better?>

<Loads. Where are you? Your voice is patchy.>

Benson smirked as he dealt the cards. <I’m about to run the board with some cribbage newbies over in Shangri-La.>

<Shouldn’t you be sleeping?>

<Shouldn’t you? Whadaya got for me?>

<Well, I stayed up late and ran the tests you asked for. Laraby’s torso is still frozen solid, but his legs and… remaining arm are thawed, along with most of his dermal layer. I can already see some bruising and other signs of physical struggle.>

<And you’re sure it’s not from decompression?>

<No, vacuum and freezing leaves uniform damage to the capillaries across exposed flesh. These aren’t uniform, and they’re deeper in the tissue. They’re consistent with handprints, like someone squeezing his wrist and shoulder. But there’s more. I found skin cells and traces of dried blood under his fingernails.>

The man who had volunteered to play slapped him on the hand, pulling him back to the scene in front of him. Benson glanced down and realized he’d misdealt the hand. <Hang on, Jeanine. Really sorry.> He picked up the cards and reshuffled, then dealt them properly.

<OK, go ahead.>

<Sorry, am I interrupting your game?>

<No, it’s… complicated. Anyway, fingernails?>

<Yes, Laraby had someone else’s skin and blood under his fingernails when he died.>

Benson’s excitement almost boiled over. <Enough material to run a DNA match?>

<More than enough, and I already ran the test. The skin cells belong to–>

<Don’t say it!> Benson mentally blurted out. <Not over an open com. Are the results accessible on the net anywhere?>

<Well, yeah, but they’re firewalled behind medical privacy protocols.>

<That’s not enough. Put a copy on a tablet, then pull the file from the central database and delete it. Power down the tablet, take its battery out, then hide it somewhere. Do you understand?>

<Yes, I think so.



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