USS Hamilton: Ironhold Station by Mark Wayne McGinnis

Author:Mark Wayne McGinnis [McGinnis, Mark Wayne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Avenstar Productions
Published: 2020-05-09T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Doc Viv said, “How about the feed from where Milo Wentworth was killed . . . where he was electrocuted? That would have happened not long after the battle with the Grish.”

“Where exactly was the body found?” Alistair asked.

“Aft . . . near Hold F14, right outside an access crawlspace. Like the Gym alcove, it’s still taped off as a crime scene, as far as I know,” the doctor said.

It took a few moments for Alistair to find the right clip. “I think this one is it,” he said bringing up a dimly lit feed from a narrow passageway that showed inset metal ladder rungs leading up to a circular maintenance tube. Alistair said, “All non-critical area feeds are motion-activated . . . like this one.”

The video clip seemed not to be active or a still image. I was about to say something and then saw a shadow move across the scene.

“There he is! There’s Wentworth!” Doc Viv said.

The tall well-dressed negotiator was walking backward into frame. His hands came up, a gesture of stay back or I’m no threat to you. In a fast blur of motion, another figure was visible. He was holding an object in his right hand.

“Is that a knife?” Alistair asked, to no one in particular.

“No, too bulky. Looks more like a wrench or some other kind of tool,” I said.

The figure continued to advance on Wentworth.

“Why’s the image of the other guy so blurry and dark?” Doc Viv asked, just before I was about to ask the same thing.

Alistair said, “It’s not the feed camera . . . has to be some kind of distortion generator. Something the killer has on him that would hinder any of the ship’s security camera’s getting a clear image of him.”

“So that’s why the Gym image was so poor,” she added.

The figure, the killer, was suddenly upon Wentworth. He grabbed a fistful of hair at the back of the negotiator’s head and was angling his face upward—as if to force him to look toward the ceiling. The blurry distortion was now surrounding both the killer and Wentworth. The still-unidentified tool still grasped within the killer’s hand began to strobe and flash—like arcing bolts of emitted electricity.

"I think the killer is wearing oversized rubber gloves,” Alistair said.

Reflexively, Doc Viv brought both hands up to her mouth. “Oh, my God!”

I, too, was startled as I watched the killer shove the electrified tool down into Wentworth’s mouth and drive it deep down into his throat. Wentworth’s body, clearly being electrocuted, went rigid. Then, his limbs began to flail and contort uncontrollably. His head was the first body part to erupt into flames, which was soon followed by his torso and then his arms and legs.

Quiet until now, Derrota said, “I guess we can rule out his death as being a battle-related injury.”

I watched as the killer withdrew the murder weapon from Wentworth’s now charred corpse and backed out of frame. Smoldering dark smoke continued to rise off of what was left of Wentworth.

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