Sisyphean by Dempow Torishima

Author:Dempow Torishima
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-9747-0214-5
Publisher: VIZMedia
Published: 2018-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

I exited the Seat of Learning, holding my pounding head with my upper-left hand, and turned into a ripway that formed one side of it. The ripway rose to about three stories’ height, narrowing gradually toward the top.

A row of dustboxes was lined up along that wall. I continued on into the ripway, wondering if there might be a clue there among them. The Archlearner’s bodily fluid had turned white as it dried, and now it was flaking off me like scales with each step I took. The throbbing in my head had only gotten worse. This wasn’t the usual pain.

On the ground ahead, scattered bugpuddles came into view. Many of the gloambugs were on their backs, scratching vainly at the air with their many legs. I looked at the dustbox just to the right of them, where an aromaseal read Wastebug Disposal.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”

Surprised by the sudden shout, I accidentally stepped on a beetle, crushing it underfoot. I turned around to find myself face to face with an exhausted-looking Urume tribesman. The aromaseal on his armband read “Security Patrol.”

“I’m here on a dodgejob—”

Then I slipped on the sticky mucus underfoot and, stumbling again, trampled one gloambug after another. The patrol officer said, “Oh dear,” in the same tone one might use with a child who’d just pooped.

Red mucus was sticking out of cracks in the crushed bugs’ carapaces. I knelt down and wiped some up with my fingertips, moving my fingers together and apart a few times experimentally. It was terribly sticky, and there was a sweet scent to it.

“They’ve been sucking redslick or something. So, what sort of dodgejob are you on—?”

Gloambugs certainly did like castellum redslick. They had to be exterminated whenever they latched onto a pipeline and started sucking refills. On a prior, unrelated case, however, I had once investigated the layout of the piping in this area and was well aware that no redslick pipelines passed anywhere near this spot. Besides, if it was redslick they were sucking, they wouldn’t smell the way they did.

“I’m doing an investigation for the Ministry of Archaeological Contemplation,” I said, standing back up.

“Oh, so this is about that vanished giant …”

“Don’t tell me that story’s gotten out already?”

“No, it’s just that the patrol guard on duty last night happened to be me.”

“I see. You look pretty worn out.”

“I’d finally gone home and had just gotten to sleep when a reverb came from the liaison officer and woke me up. Honestly, that woman … ! I told her no one had been in the autopsy room, but she still made me come back in. It was just two arcs ago I got moved to the third floor, and already there’s angry big shots putting me under the microscope.”

“I’ve heard that there hadn’t been any change in the giant’s condition, but if you noticed anything …”

“Do I have to go over all this again? All I did was look in from the doorway, but it was lying there same as always.

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