The Deadman

The next delivery took Robert to a pathologist in the center of the LCPD center where he was carrying a discreet package. He entered before evening, carefully avoiding inquiring while ringing up the pathologist who was working below the police station.

His opinion didn’t change about the central. It was still sterile and clean that it felt unnatural. He wasn’t used to this cleanliness. It felt dirty instead.

The elevator slid open. He opened his all-sense and saw the pathologist working with a body. Robert purposely took a loud step.

“Dr. Artyom?”

He looked around, “Ah, you are Pei’s courier. I hope that you have my wreath.”

Robert placed the package on the empty space on the table. Artyom signed the package and then took out the wreath.

“Medical Wreath… the firmware needs updating. Accept. Hmm, you, Pei’s boy, do you by chance know how to examine a body?”

“I’m not officially trained, but I can work out.”

“Hmm, I will need an assistant for now. My assistant got his head slammed on the concrete by a gangster. I can tip you.”

“I don’t mind. I changed a woman’s body part in my last delivery so this isn’t a big deal.”

“You’ll only have to manage the recording audio. Do not worry. Firmware updated. Let’s get started.”

The body was that of a 280 pound, and a six foot three white man to be around the age of 48. The body is muscular and there were implant lines on his back, around the spine area.

“Mil-vet specs. The serial codes say that it was made in 2058. One of the few implants that were released.”

Robert made a separate description of the organic and non-organic parts of the corpse.

“Curious about one thing, sir.”

“What is it? We need to do this fast.”

“Are you qualified to examine various implants and prosthetics?”

“I am. It’s required now since we have to understand the body so well. It was around ‘42 that they included it on the course. Pain in the ass, but nonetheless what was required for us. Let’s continue.”

No scalp hair. The left region of the head has an obliquely oriented scar. The top of the head has a 1.5 x 0.6 crust. The back of the head has a 1.5 cm, cranial implant which should be assumed to be datajack.

“Connection to a vehicle.. Hmm probably from his implants. It's probably power armor with a neural processor.”

The pathologist inspected the cranial port and then traced it with his gloved finger. The pathologist nodded. He continued listing down what he had observed.

The eyes of the body are artificial. Ama-Tech optiks with 2x magnification and with thermal sensors. The Conjunctivae are synthetic. Each ear has two empty piercings. The nose is intact. The dentition is artificial, with two missing tooth. The oral mucosa is synthetic. The face is clean shaven with synthetic skin that hides the implant.

“Lots of missing parts.”

“He’s a mil-vet and the war had made it hard to not lose parts. They always say that if you have nukes you can do everything, but that’s a lie. The boots on the ground still have to do most of the heavy lifting and they have no reason to use their warheads unless it is advantageous to them. It’s the last resort and once that option is open, you’ll get hell.”

Robert checked with his all-sense. There were green objects highlighted on the corpse. He countered about fifteen objects inside.

The neck is asymmetrical. The torso has a moderate amount of dark brown macules and deep scars. The sternal region of the chest has two slashing wounds. The skin below is synthetic and there is no damage.

The right and left upper extremity are augmented with mil-vet grade cyber limbs. The spine has wired reflexes and shows ill-maintenance. The knuckles of the body is deformed. The right and left legs are augmented. There are signs of a blunt object trauma on the left valve of the artificial limb.

The sternocleidomastoid muscle around the neck is damaged while curiously the surrounding fascia received no damage other than penetrating wounds that damage the body’s intravascular and cardiac electrode implants.

The Doctor stopped moving. His beady eyes masked by the light shining above.

“I can respect it if you leave now. Internal examinations are nasty.”

“I’m fine, Doc. And I think that there isn’t much organic inside this mister.”

The Doctor nodded. He skillfully opened the front of the corpse, revealing the wires and synthetic organs of the body. 

“The head is mostly artificial so it’ll be easy to pull the metadata from his head. Have you heard of the FWG? It’s a recording function inside a mil-vet or any law authority that records sixty seconds of the last moments of the victim. It was thirty seconds for years, but recent tech even had that fixed by allowing some sort of a black box. The FWG can’t be destroyed, while that black box, which leaves us thirty to sixty seconds of footage.

“I take it that there was no one who saw?”

“The suspect had used a facial recognition jammer. I saw the footage and it was quite gruesome. The attacker managed to corner the mil-vet by deactivating most of his cyberware and making use of that time to slashed through his implants vital parts.”

The Doc calmly tapped the corpse, “And this one has two layers of subdermal skin weaved below his synthetic skin. Kevlar and Electromagnetic shielding like all mil-vets have.”

Robert checked the slashing wound on the subject. “What do you think killed him, Doc?”

“A frequency blade. Normal calibers don’t work against mil-vet veterans and this one has quite the record before he decided to retire.  Shoot this guy with a 9mm and that will just crumple on his skin.”

“Is his skin and organs going to be harvested? What about his implants?”

“Disposed. He’s old and most of his implants are ill-maintained. It will cost more to repair his implants. Not to mention that they are old and outdated compared to the latest. For example, his synthetic lungs still have a problem in keeping the electrodes in control. Look at this. The control unit is burnt out. And he didn’t even notice.”

The Doctor pointed at the fatty discolored liver. Robert didn’t when the patient died, but even still the smell of alcohol in the liver remained.

“Most of the drinks today are chemical-made. You can’t get rid of the stench and are much more harmful to the body than if you want to keep drinking it. You might as well get a synthetic liver that can handle the poisoning. This man’s psychiatric diagnosis stated that he has an extreme case of PTSD and survivor’s guilt. He has  violent tendencies, but has surprisingly controlled himself from violent behaviors towards his wife and relatives. There is a saying that the body and machine must remain in unity. Some folks take medicine that artificially shapes the body to match the limb.”

The Doc studied Robert, “Which reminds me, you have no signs of implants. No implant lines and scars. You don’t have the artificial glow that most that take the bulking treatment. Or are you a Luddite, boy?

“It’s Robert by the way.”

“Are you a purist, Robert?”

“Not really, Doc. I just don’t intend to replace something that is still there.  Or is it unnatural for me to think that? Besides, do you know the cost of an implant? The maintenance? The drug that I have to take when these issues arise? It’s 10k for a diagnosis, 20k for minor maintenance, and 50k for healing and repair. 100k for complete replacement depending on the implant. I can buy a lot of food with that amount of money, Doc.”

“So you’re not a purist… you’re just poor.”

“Call it what you want, Doc. But even if we have this tradition now after realizing the weakness of the flesh. I’d rather keep my limbs until. I’ll think about getting myself a robot arm when I get my limbs cut.”

“Fair point.”

Doctor Artyom turned his attention back to the innards of the patient. His long forceps like fingers picking up tiny objects from the body. He dropped the object in a petri dish.

“A bullet… no, I didn’t see any puncture wounds so it must have been lodged inside. I’m guessing that it's a souvenir from a war.”

“Hard to think that they didn’t remove that.”

“Metal has become part of the body. We use silver, platinum, gold and stainless as components. Silver tarnishes, but it’s used. Plasteel’s been invested because it’s a combination of plastic that can interface with steel while having the qualities of not rusting. You have a complex system of innards here that have been built to work together. Will you notice a falling part? And even if they did, if it didn’t affect the body then it wouldn’t matter.”

The Doc examined the bullet before putting it away inside a petri dish.

Robert grunted, “This wasn’t how I imagined spending my night.”

“I didn’t force you. You want to earn a tip and I wanted it done. Have you done a field autopsy, Robert?”

“I have. But it’s more like I am checking a list while describing the body. I do remember the MT that told me that I need to focus on focal points, but most of the time they just use scanners. Which makes me wonder why you aren’t using it, Doc.”

“Because this one’s a mil-vet. Protocol says that when a military officer dies, the medical examiner must do a hands-on autopsy. There is a reason that my assistant is missing. The forensic toxicologist must be seething at me right now for taking my time. She’s probably missing her simulation time.”

Doctor Artyom took a device and took a picture of it. “I don’t think you are dullard. Any reason why you aren’t working a better job?”

“I haven’t graduated from anything, Doc.”

“Really? I was sure. Oh, don’t you worry. I’m not the type to turn on anyone. I know who Pei is and what he does. You know why I buy from Pei? Because he knows where to get one fast. Products these days are prone to malfunction with a poor warranty. I’m paying twice, but it’s better to get something from Pei than any legal distributor who tends to sell faulty products to get a customer to buy an expensive implant.”

The Doc ran a scan on the organs and then adjusted his wreath and focused the lights on the organs.

“I doubt you know this, but do you know why this place is rather strange?”

“It might sound strange, but I do know. I heard that Saint Lucius is a crossroads. If you look at the map it’s just the right port city. On the west you can cross the Gibraltar Strait. Southeast of this city you have Suez canal and on the east you can land on Tripoli and then access to the Black Sea. It’s not a surprise for folks to wander here. It’s a city state tax haven even before the 2000’s.”

Doctor Artyom looked at him. “And here I thought I was the only one who remembers the name of the city. This city has been labeled as an anomaly and there is no place in our battered earth that is more progressive and diverse. Nightown and Coronado aside, this city’s been strange. I mean where can you find a delivery boy that is willing to assist a pathologist’s work?”

Robert ignored the Doc’s comment and saved the recording on the Doc’s terminal. “Can I go now, Doc?”

“You can. Let me detect your CIN and then transfer the tip. If you ever get tired of being a delivery boy, decide to become a medical examiner’s assistant. I hope you apply here. Pei can probably get you a certificate for a good price.”

“Wow, that’s a low bar.”

“Is it? I had an assistant who googled ‘pulmonary’ once. Trust me, you can do better than that.”

“Thanks for the confidence, Doc. But I’d rather accept being an escort’s partner during her premium vids than spend night after night looking at corpses. Being a delivery boy is good enough at the moment.”

Doctor Artyom nodded.

“Hard to top that kind of offer. Real question here is why in god’s good earth you didn’t accept that offer.”

“Fourth person to ask me that this week.”

Robert shrugged and climbed to the lobby. As he went out he spotted a fully cyborg unit following a police officer deeper inside the station.

“I smell like a corpse,” Robert snorted as he hurried back home.