Chapter 22
Edited by
The young soldier stands to attention at the parliament gates, waiting to be let in. He felt something bump into his shoulder and releasing a low "omph" he turns his neck, keeping his body in straight attention towards the gate but he saw no one else near him, until an officer opens the gate door.
Walking through the gate and saluting the officer, the young man again feels something near him and keeps checking beside him, confusion showing on his face and making the officers.
"Ok. Same as body one." Mary narrates wearing her medical outfit including blood covered gloves and apron to a Dictaphone as she finishes dissecting another distant royal member.
"Heart stopped first?" Henry asks as he limps over to the other side of the autopsy table and pulls the cover back over the dead body.
"Virus went straight to it as if it was carried through the blood, but it wasn't injected, or else it would have killed them all quickly." Mary places her hands on the opposite side of the body as Henry and at the same time they picked the body up. With much strain on both sides they place it down with a thud, rest for a few breaths and pick up the next one to place on the table.
After experiencing must boredom following the young man around, Skinner decides to take a break from stalking and wanders around on his own, "Where the bloody hell do I start?" he asks himself as he walks down the lonely corridor of closed doors, last names printed on the back in bold, black letters.
He stops as a beautiful yet rather bookish woman exits out one of the doors. Absent-mindedly Skinner lets out a "Woof!" causing the woman to stop and twist her upper torso to look behind herself, seeing nothing she shrugs it off before continuing down the hall.
Skinner follows her and as he passes the door she just came from he notices the name 'Bond'.
"Don't!" Henry leans behind Mary and grasps her wrist lightly as she holds a scalpal right above the body's rib cage.
"What?" Mary asks confused at the doctor's behavior, "It's been the same way I've started the past three bodies."
"Exactly!" His brow goes up with a tension that only a genius mind at work could do. "The inside is always the same, but perhaps the outside is what we should be looking at."
"For the cause of death? Wasn't something they drank or ate?" Mary asks thinking of only the usual murders she has seen.
"Not straight to the bloodline, and that to would have made the death quick." His eyes close, letting go of her wrists and brings the hand to his forehead. "What is the difference between us here in England and other countries? Our victims have lived the longest."
"Well, only the royal ones, not the stage hand." Mary covers the current body back up. "Let's move this one off and put one of ours up on it."
Bond exits the interrogation room right in time for his secretary to meet up with him in the hall, "Ahh Miss. Rigg?"
"I've finished with Steed's notes." she pushes her glasses back up her nose, "Sawyer and Harker should be on their way to Oxford right now."
"Yes I recall that being mentioned yesterday," Bond walks away from her and down the hall, "keep Nemo under arrest as I lead a team out there." He goes out of sight as he turns the corner.
Miss .Rigg rolls her eyes, "already knew, huh?" she pulls her skirt up to access her garter holding a key. "Then why the bloody hell do I do all that work?" she pulls the key out and uses it to lock the heavy door. "Freaking men I swear to God…." She mumbles down the hall as she places the key back without realizing before the skirt drops back down the key is removed and floating away behind her.
"Still as slick as my young and horny days," Skinner invisibly smirks to himself as he unlocks the door.
"Just as I thought," Mary lifts one of the royal member's arms to show a cut wound on the wrist, "The royal medical caretakers still use the bleeding out method."
"So if the virus was moving through the blood that would slow the process down." Henry began to shake as his wounded leg couldn't take the pressure of standing anymore. He lifts himself up on one of the student desk tables. "Look for any other puncture wounds Mary."
Mary continues looking around the arm, moving down to the finger tips where she finds a small, round scab "hand me over the magnify glass would you?"
"Surprise surprise, Captain." the voice calls out in to the small room as the door opens.
"Skinner?" Nemo squints through the light coming from the door.
"Yes and mostly sober."
"Look." Mary waves Henry over, who looks over her shoulder through the magnify glass to a small puncture wound on the fingertip, the size of a needle tip.