Thirty Four Minutes DEAD (8 page)

"They weren't when I met Mr Denison but I expect they are here now. Are you going to clean her up a bit Mason? Ko-Chai's stomach is not exactly impregnable you know!”

"How can you clean up a rag doll Mr Vain? I'll do my best to fill in the blanks so as to speak".

Vain met both Ko-Chai and Tavini together. They had met close to where Vain had encountered Denison. After exchanging greetings Tavini took the lead, saying what both he and Ko-Chai thought.

"You look like you've seen a ghost man. There's pale and beautiful and she's always the ultimate in female, and then there's you Greg - pale and fucked. Have you spent your ten days in Chernobyl, buddy?”

Ko-Chai looked a bit embarrassed by Tavini's dark humour but Vain took it in good faith, realising it was just part of Tavini's showmanship. He broke the news of the imminent duty awaiting the MC team.

" If you thought we might get a gentle run in to our explorations in this Designation fellas, I've got some interesting news for you. I've seen our next corpse - she's here, and take it from me she isn't exactly a pretty picture! I know that you found Julia Venison's wounds slightly graphic Mishimo, but in comparison ‘Charlotte’, as Mason has christened her, is a Jack the Ripper construction!”

Mishimo Ko-Chai physically withdrew after Vain's words. He was not squeamish when Memory-Camera extraction work was actually being undertaken, but the build up to the explorations often caused him to be physically sick. After his convulsions he was fine and this was the reason Vain had utilised a melodramatic victim description. Vain knew that he had to adhere to this ‘cruel to be kind’ formula on occasions as far as Ko-Chai's MC preparation was concerned. Everyone benefited from a relaxed Ko-Chai, none more so than the man himself. Ko-Chai asked to be excused to visit a toilet, which was in close proximity to their location.

The three MC team members proceeded to the exploration area. The said area was more cramped than the ‘grand scale’ demonstration arena in Designation B where Venison's HVs had been recovered, but there wouldn't be a sizeable audience on this occasion like there had been on the seminal exploration. As the MC team entered the exploration area Vain was quite surprised to notice that only four MC personnel were ready to view any HV's Charlotte had built. The four in question represented project power to an optimum level though, numbering Denison, Levene, Voight and a tall powerful looking white-haired gentleman who was unfamiliar to Vain's team.

Levene welcomed the three team-members and Vain was sure that her eyes hung on to his for a fraction longer than the gaze one would associate with a fellow professional. She introduced the white-haired gentleman who was unfamiliar to the team members.

"Gentleman - please meet Mr Fray of the FBI. He has been recruited into our project ranks with direct responsibility to Mr Denison. He has parity responsibility with regard to myself”.

The white-haired gentleman smiled in greeting the MC team but it was a cold gesture, as his eyes didn't echo the warmth of his upturned mouth, remaining cold and piercing in their intensity. His voice was very muted in tone, almost gentle in comparison to the tone Vain had expected to emanate from this man.

"I salute you, gentlemen. Having seen the Venison demonstration second hand and hearing about the subsequent arrest method of Sandford-Everett, it is a pleasure to be involved with the leading edge nature of your scientific explorations. My chief role will involve global security and communications. Whilst Mr Voight performs his internal security role with admirable precision I will be involved with the outside world, and when the time is right I will be co-ordinating the global revelation pertaining to our project. I wish you luck with regard to your imminent exploration". After thanking Fray for his complimentary words the MC team went into action.

Mason had tidied up the victim considerably, even inserting a temporary padding to fill the vacant recesses of the facial cheek area. Vain inserted the vault-splicer, and after Ko-Chai had set up his laser extraction equipment, Tavini installed the digital conversion devices that translated the visual signals encoded by the vault-splicer. The laser screen became the dominant focus for the four project members in attendance. The images that appeared on the screen were understandable, if a little grainy in their texture. Charlotte's memory camera was rather unstable in its operation. The images alternated between panning sequences of inner city ruins and almost abstract visuals that involved the memory camera looking repeatedly upwards towards the sky. It soon became apparent that Charlotte's HV retention was going to be one of discord in comparison to the flowing visuals that were a feature of the prototype demonstration.

The visuals involved an intermittent delivery being broken with a black screen resolution on frequent occasions. Charlotte's memory camera had obviously been effected by her heroin intake, and when the screen count showed the storage counter had reached 5 minutes of HV's, the sky staring preoccupation started to take a dominance that made the team members wonder if they were going to unlock any relevance to help them with the murder of the young girl. The accompanying sounds to the visuals were not significant either, with snatches of distant traffic and the comparative ambience of birdsong being the only two dominant sounds to emerge from the girl's MC. Tavini voiced what the team were collectively thinking, albeit in his own maverick style.

"Is this girl playing for real or what? If these are HVs then I'm Queen Anne fellas. I know heroin fucks you up, but this is ridiculous!”

More irrelevant visuals appeared on the screen and then the team were rewarded with an image of clarity that disrupted the pastiche of sky gazing.

The man approached Charlotte's location, with determined steps that implied he had a firm purpose in mind. Charlotte's memory camera scanned him in good detail, and his screen portrait illuminated a man of average height with fair hair and dark green eyes. He wore faded jeans and a casual black shirt. His words illuminated a psyche that was at odds with his innocuous appearance.

"Hi Leah, how's things? Look I'm going to give it to you straight babes. Your clients are pissed off - two years ago you were their golden girl but you know how times change love, don't you? You see, Michelle and Becky are in demand right now and people are queuing for 'em. We're small right now love, there's little money and we've gotta..."

The screen returned to darkness. Tavini couldn't contain his frustration.

""Oh come on girl, for fuck's sake. Don't black out on us now - tell us your story girl - damn you!”

Ko-Chai felt impelled to interject with a more pragmatic explanation with regard to the lapse of images.

"She may have died, David. Your project enthusiasm is well regarded by one and all, but at times you seem to forget moral niceties in your treatment of others".

"Get real Mishimo man, we'll all weep for her later. This girl was finally coming up trumps with..."

The girl's HVs returned to the screen and the mans voice was still evident.

"Hey stay with me now, Leah. Come on, I've got you a little special something to let you know how much you really mean to me and the guys!"

Leah's voice was the next sound to be heard with a fixed HV of the man accompanying its rendition.

"You gotta still need me, Dave - you simply gotta. I mean I know I'm still clean. Yeah I need my scag but I'll cut down Dave, honest I will - you've gotta believe me Dave, once I'm back man, I'll stay golden - no I'll be even better Dave. I'll do fives man, and learn to keep it all down man - all down. Just give me some scut end or a nub because I'm your girl Dave - I wander man, but I'm your girl".

"Leah you're always my golden one and to prove it I brought you something special. I'm just going to give you a little taster in the back of your neck love. It's liquid ice - a new kind of paradise. Now just lie back and relax. I owe you a holiday - yes you're still my golden one".

The screen temporarily returned to darkness and then Leah's HV's returned.

"What you doing, Dave? Who are they, man?”

"Just lie back, Leah. I told you it was good stuff. These are two of my mates - Eddie and Felix".

"Why are they putting them bones down near me, Dave. They're fucking scummy man. Where are they from - London fucking zoo?”

"Relax, Leah honey. The lads are just feeding a couple of my doggies for me. You can feed 'em if you like, they'll be here soon - nice little doggies".

"Okay Dave...see I love dogs...see I used to..."

The images left the screen and the team hoped they wouldn't return, as they had seen Leah's corpse and could anticipate the HV outcome if she died at the hands of the dogs before the strychnine could finish her off. Despite this realisation they were still taken aback when the next slightly diminished HV did hit the screen.

Less than three feet away from the parameters of Leah's memory camera stood a large dog, bedraggled but powerful in it's front quarters none the less. The dog was salivating with it's top lip curled and blood was splattered around it's mouth region. The HV was made particularly guignol as traces of a flesh like substance were rapidly being devoured by the said animal, and on the strands of the flesh in question hung an eye - a human eye! The morsel disappeared down the beast's throat.

Leah had regained consciousness after the dog had gouged her eye from her! The growling of the dog which had been a consistent acoustic commentary was suddenly drowned out by a scream which reverberated around the exploration area, such was it's guttural magnitude. Leah's final words built her epitaph.

"No - Jesus God - no. Dave I need you. Dave I need you - help me - my fucking eye - no!”

The screen showed more dogs running toward Leah's spatial area. The camera then died visually, but the sounds of screaming and canine growling continued for a period of eleven seconds. It was the longest eleven seconds Gregory Vain had ever experienced, and when the girl was finally ‘counted out’ in twenty-seven minutes and eight seconds, all present uttered an audible sigh of relief. Case two had delivered the required murderer, but the team wished that the strychnine could have taken the girl before the victim had witnessed Dave's method of ‘cover up”. Mason rewound the gathered images. He preferred his choice of name for the victim. To him she was more of a ‘Charlotte’ than a ‘Leah”. The team members thought it bizarre that the man was bemoaning the unsuitability of her real name after the horror pertaining to the images they had just witnessed. Mason was weird in the eyes of most MC team members. As the team recovered, Vain made sure that the case study reference card was changed to reveal the young girl’s real name and not Mason's choice.

Denison and Fray left the Demonstration area with the MC team, and all five entered a side room to discuss what had been visually extracted. Denison directed his initial comments to his new FBI recruit.

"So there you have it, Vance. This show wasn't quite as polished as the Venison display but this girl was on the bottom rung - a junkie - and we still dragged enough visual information out of her mind to be able to operate the arrest method I told you about! You see what she gave us, Vance? We know the guy's first name, his face and we know two of his acquaintances by sight. The guy's operating base must be close to where Leah's corpse was found. A primed arrest squad will find him in no time".

"Which line are we going to sink him with, Leif?”

"No need for a line this time Vance. This guy won't have the type of legal back up Everett had. It will be a quick fire arrest and bang up, with the fucker DNA'd the following morning. He'll have his one phone call and our crew are going to be on the other end! Getting a confession out of this bastard is going to be a breeze, and we'll have more than enough matched up evidence when we finally hand him over to non-project security staff. What did you think of the horror film anyway?”

"When the screen resolution dipped a bit, I first thought it was a technical shortcoming. Then I saw the eye! I mean that's the stuff of nightmares guys - it firmly shatters that ‘man's best friend’ crap! If the visuals had carried on with the sound near the end that would have been one sick showcase - it would have been like we were getting mauled guys with the dogs right on top of us! Pretty gruesome Mr Vain, but compulsive viewing - in a funny way I didn't want it to stop! I mean this is the ultimate scientific discovery, fellas!”

Denison then released the MC team and they headed off to a recreational area within the Designation. Tavini was particularly impressed with the choice of decor prevalent in the expansive relaxation lounge, and as he proceeded to extol the virtues of the Art Nouveau style trappings. Tavini was composed of almost schizophrenic character traits. On the one hand he was the brash larger than life American, and yet occasionally he displayed a cultural sensitivity that was quite introverted in its application. It was when Tavini displayed this more reserved character facet that he and Ko-Chai were closest. As the two debated the merits of the lounge's colour scheme, Vain was left to reflect on what had been another successful MC exploration. He was deep in thought when Marcia Levene arrived on the scene.