[Interloper #2] The Hundredth Question by Steven William Hannah

Author:Steven William Hannah [Hannah, Steven William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Post-Apocalyptic, Science Fiction
Amazon: B0991VD3JR
Published: 2021-07-07T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

When the others join Bear, they are clearly tipsy, and reek of booze and smoke.

Bear immediately sobers them up with his first sentence.

“The numbers-man was from the Forestry.”

“What?” asks Dusty, his bleary old eyes suddenly crystal clear.

The room falls silent for Bear. “He has the Forestry tattoo that criminals get, when they're put into it by force. Same one that Glass has.”

In the corner of the room, Glass is staring at the dead man's chest, at his tattoo. A black tree, with flames below it and clouds above. His hand goes to his own chest, where his own similar tattoo is.

“Good work Bear,” says Dusty. “Anything else?”

“More than I can readily explain,” says Bear. “I've got answers – but I've got questions too.”

“Don't ask those questions -” begins Glass, catching himself as he realises that he has spoken without permission.

“Go on, Bear,” says Dusty.

“For starters, the numbers-man being Forestry means that we can reference missing persons from their register against names – maybe figure out who he was, see if he had family, find out his story. Ophelia, that may be more up your street.”

“I can certainly try,” she shrugs. “Anything else?”

“I'm just getting started,” says Bear. “Come around the body. Don't mind the smell, you get used to it after a while.”

The crew, and Ophelia, gather around to look at the open brain, the top of the skull carved neatly off with an electric saw; and the arms that have been sliced open like fillets, laid bare from tendon to bone for the world to see.

Bear uses an implement to pull the tendons apart, and the crew reel back. In between the bone and ligaments lies a large growth of some kind, gnarled and bulbous, the green tone that instinctually says toxic. It is covered in pustules and bubbles, and connected directly to a silver needle, which is inserted into the bone.

“As you can see here, the ulna – that's one of the forearm bones - has been adapted mechanically to house a long syringe needle. I've tested it, and confirmed that this bulb here – which is not made of cellular tissue, by the way, but more on that in a second – secretes a potent sedative when squeezed.”

The crew are hanging on his every word as he points out the strange additions to this man's body, so Bear continues, enjoying the feeling of being the lecturer.

“The squeezing can be achieved by flexing any of the major tendons or muscles here, such as the extensor and flexor carpi ulnaris, meaning -” He stops, sensing the blank stares. “Those are the ones that move the hand around.” They nod, and he continues. “The sac is synthetic, similar in material to pre-cataclysm biotechnological medical growths, kind of like the foam we often use to repair bullet wounds. Rare to see them these days, since the means of their manufacture are completely beyond what the Coastal Union is capable of.”

“So these couldn't have been made in the Coast,” adds Bee, by way of explanation.

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