replied. ‘What’s a bulldozer?’
Jamming the head of the pry-bar into the join between the two doors Aneka said, ‘Never mind,’ and put her weight into forcing the doors. This time the stress numbers in-vision never went over the green before there were a couple of metallic twangs and the locking pins gave way. Then there was a rush of dust and stale air through the gap. Inside, something fell over with a damp thud, and when Aneka dropped the bar and pulled the doors apart they spotted the corpse which had been sitting against them. Aneka’s nose wrinkled.
‘Biohazard gear,’ Gilroy said. The body had not entirely desiccated though the skin was drawn tight across the skeleton. There was no obvious indication of how the man, it looked male, had died either. No wounds, no sign of energy weapon impact.
‘I’ll have decontamination gear ready when you come out,’ Bashford said. ‘Come on, Monkey. Let’s go clear the other sites.’
‘Gladly,’ the younger man replied.
Gilroy, now wearing a helmet over her headgear, appeared at Aneka’s side and handed her a face mask. ‘No sign of how he died. You’d better wear this. It’s hard to decontaminate the inside of your lungs.’
‘Asphyxiation or starvation,’ Aneka guessed. ‘Too scared to leave the building, ran out of food or water.’ She poked a toe at an empty, plastic bottle lying near the body. ‘But why didn’t they come in here to clean out the rest of the miners?’ She raised her head and looked around, augmented vision picking out the interior of the room in the dim light. ‘Looks like it was a reception area. Desk at the back there. Still has a computer monitor on it.’ There were two doors leading out of the room; one to the right, one to the left from behind the semi-circular desk. Public and private rooms, probably.
‘Step back, Aneka,’ Gilroy instructed. ‘We’ll lidar-map the room before proceeding. It gives us a full three-D mapping of the space before it’s disturbed.’
Aneka nodded and moved back, slipping her mask on before starting to breathe normally. What the lidar did and how it did it had been part of her coursework. How long it would take had also been in there; they were going to be waiting a while before they could proceed further into the building.
~~~
Aneka slammed her pry-bar into the edge of the inner door behind the desk and pushed. There was the sound of straining metal for a brief second, and then the door flew open as if on springs. This time there was no rush of air, but dust fell from some of the overhead panels.
‘I won’t need decontaminating after this,’ Aneka growled, ‘I’ll need to be washed down with a fire hose.’
‘You did say your hair was dirty blonde before,’ Ella said. ‘Now it’s just dirty.’
‘Thanks.’ Aneka’s eyes scanned ahead, taking in the fairly narrow corridor with its suspended ceiling and tiled floor, and she frowned. ‘There’s a heat source. Probably in the far corner of the building. Not very bright, but it’s there.’
‘It’s probably the building’s power system,’ Gilroy commented. ‘Is it moving?’
‘No.’
‘Keep an eye on it while we run the lidar down this corridor. Assuming that your heat source doesn’t move, we’ll let you check that first, and we can work back toward this room.’
‘And if it does move?’
‘You shoot it and we worry over being systematic afterwards.’
Aneka gave a shrug and backed up a pace, freeing the strap on her pistol, just in case. ‘I can live with that plan.’ Ella was already busy pointing the lidar sensor head down the corridor. The red beam flicked out and began its rapid scanning.
They had found another body behind the reception desk when they had got to it, and that discovery had just deepened the mystery of the place. This body’s clothing suggested a woman, but it was hard to tell from just the body since the corpse was badly desiccated. She had also been shot by something big; her
Jamming the head of the pry-bar into the join between the two doors Aneka said, ‘Never mind,’ and put her weight into forcing the doors. This time the stress numbers in-vision never went over the green before there were a couple of metallic twangs and the locking pins gave way. Then there was a rush of dust and stale air through the gap. Inside, something fell over with a damp thud, and when Aneka dropped the bar and pulled the doors apart they spotted the corpse which had been sitting against them. Aneka’s nose wrinkled.
‘Biohazard gear,’ Gilroy said. The body had not entirely desiccated though the skin was drawn tight across the skeleton. There was no obvious indication of how the man, it looked male, had died either. No wounds, no sign of energy weapon impact.
‘I’ll have decontamination gear ready when you come out,’ Bashford said. ‘Come on, Monkey. Let’s go clear the other sites.’
‘Gladly,’ the younger man replied.
Gilroy, now wearing a helmet over her headgear, appeared at Aneka’s side and handed her a face mask. ‘No sign of how he died. You’d better wear this. It’s hard to decontaminate the inside of your lungs.’
‘Asphyxiation or starvation,’ Aneka guessed. ‘Too scared to leave the building, ran out of food or water.’ She poked a toe at an empty, plastic bottle lying near the body. ‘But why didn’t they come in here to clean out the rest of the miners?’ She raised her head and looked around, augmented vision picking out the interior of the room in the dim light. ‘Looks like it was a reception area. Desk at the back there. Still has a computer monitor on it.’ There were two doors leading out of the room; one to the right, one to the left from behind the semi-circular desk. Public and private rooms, probably.
‘Step back, Aneka,’ Gilroy instructed. ‘We’ll lidar-map the room before proceeding. It gives us a full three-D mapping of the space before it’s disturbed.’
Aneka nodded and moved back, slipping her mask on before starting to breathe normally. What the lidar did and how it did it had been part of her coursework. How long it would take had also been in there; they were going to be waiting a while before they could proceed further into the building.
~~~
Aneka slammed her pry-bar into the edge of the inner door behind the desk and pushed. There was the sound of straining metal for a brief second, and then the door flew open as if on springs. This time there was no rush of air, but dust fell from some of the overhead panels.
‘I won’t need decontaminating after this,’ Aneka growled, ‘I’ll need to be washed down with a fire hose.’
‘You did say your hair was dirty blonde before,’ Ella said. ‘Now it’s just dirty.’
‘Thanks.’ Aneka’s eyes scanned ahead, taking in the fairly narrow corridor with its suspended ceiling and tiled floor, and she frowned. ‘There’s a heat source. Probably in the far corner of the building. Not very bright, but it’s there.’
‘It’s probably the building’s power system,’ Gilroy commented. ‘Is it moving?’
‘No.’
‘Keep an eye on it while we run the lidar down this corridor. Assuming that your heat source doesn’t move, we’ll let you check that first, and we can work back toward this room.’
‘And if it does move?’
‘You shoot it and we worry over being systematic afterwards.’
Aneka gave a shrug and backed up a pace, freeing the strap on her pistol, just in case. ‘I can live with that plan.’ Ella was already busy pointing the lidar sensor head down the corridor. The red beam flicked out and began its rapid scanning.
They had found another body behind the reception desk when they had got to it, and that discovery had just deepened the mystery of the place. This body’s clothing suggested a woman, but it was hard to tell from just the body since the corpse was badly desiccated. She had also been shot by something big; her
Similar Books
