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front of the group. "As you know, Genia has been doing the autopsy on Vlad and Mona. Now Mitchel
has something to tell you all about it."
Me? I had thought Tony would handle the whole thing, as he usually did. Tony retreated to the edge of
the circle and I stepped forward, not entirely comfortably. "Genia asked me to confirm her autopsy
results, and I've done that. We've found that they were both killed, murdered I mean, and Mona was
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raped. We suspect, though we have no proof, that the same thing happened to Cheryl."
"What's your evidence?" Calibre Cadogan's deep Welsh brogue.
"She died by strangulation, with genital trauma and sperm in her vagina."
"That doesn't prove rape."
"Was anyone paired with Mona?" I held my arms wide, inviting counterproof. We all knew she'd stayed
single, her locket with Perrin's picture was evidence enough of that.
Tony stepped forward and raised a hand before anyone could answer. "The physical evidence isn't
important. We have the killer's DNA from Mona's body. We're going to take a hair sample from
everyone here and Claire is going to run a gene scan on all of us."
As he said it I was suddenly aware that everyone was still carrying a side arm. When the killer realized
he was cornered he might well decide to start shooting. I took a step backwards, let my hand drop
casually to my side. Tony looked around the circle, meeting everyone's eyes. "How long will it take,
Claire?"
"It takes about five hours for a run, and I can run twenty in parallel at once."
"Good. We've got seventeen men, so one batch will do it."
"No, I'm testing the women too," Claire said. People looked at her. "This isn't a men against women
thing, this is all of us against a psychopath. Two batches."
There were dissenting murmurs around the room at that, but nobody objected out loud. It would take
twice as long for no apparent reason, but she was right. The tension in our normally congenial group was
palpable, eyes staring accusingly, or sliding away to stare into the distance. If we got split along gender
lines, the rifts might never heal.
Tony beckoned Claire and Genia. "We're going to do this in full view of everyone, then we're going to
wait here for the results," he said. He had a cloth sample bag full of small plastic bags and a pair of
scissors, a marker pen and a clipboard with all our names on it. He gave the clipboard to Genia and the
marker pen to Claire. We all watched as he solemnly reached up, clipped a lock of his own wavy, dark
brown hair, sealed it in a bag and wrote his name on it. He gave the scissors to Claire, while Genia
marked his name off on the clipboard. The three of them came to each of us in turn, took a hair sample,
sealed it, labeled it and put it back into Tony's bag. Finally they were done.
Claire took Genia out into the darkness with her to help with the scans. I sat beside Horst in silence,
feeling isolated from the community by virtue of the investigation and ejected from the investigation by
virtue of my gender. Nobody was particularly comfortable, and I remained acutely aware that everyone
was armed. I thought Tony might have made everyone give up their weapons, now that we knew we
weren't facing some alien predator but a purely human one, but he didn't. I didn't suggest it; I was
uncomfortable enough being thrust into the position of policing my peers, I wasn't about to start issuing
orders too, even indirectly. The group mood was hostile, and that hostility was going to land somewhere.
I didn't want it to be on me.
It was a long and unpleasant wait. Occasionally hushed conversations started here and there, but for the
most part we were silent. The men were looking at each other, sizing each other up in case it came to a
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fight, and the women were clustering together, their body language tight and defensive. We had grown to
trust each other implicitly, knew each other intimately, and now that trust had been violated. Unless we
could purge our community of the poison that had infected it, the colony would fall apart.
And what was the killer thinking? He had to know he'd be caught. He was planning something. My eyes
kept going to people's side arms. I considered speaking to Tony about it, but didn't because it would
look conspiratorial. The killer couldn't shoot everyone before we could get him. He had to know that, so
his plan had to be something else.
At around the three-hour mark Cal stood up and said, "I think everyone should put their side arms
away, before we get the results back."
I breathed out in relief; I hadn't been the only one thinking of the danger they now represented to us.
Tony agreed with him, and Syrene got one of the rigid boxes the flitter motors had come in and we all
filed past and put our weapons in it. Syrene and Jessica sat on the box. Nobody objected to it, and the
reality behind the action was clear, just as it was behind allowing Claire and Genia to leave to do the gene
scan while the rest of us waited. Women could be trusted on this issue and men couldn't. The gender split
was happening, had already happened. Tony arranged bathroom breaks in groups of no less than eight.
The waiting game continued. Outside the wind rose, howling mournfully. At least it was night, and we
weren't losing as much productivity as we would have if the sun had been high. Finally the canopy doors
opened, admitting a blast of cold air and Genia.
"The first batch is clear." She didn't sound triumphant. "No match."
"Who did you do?" Tony asked for all of us.
"All the men, and Taria, Syrene and Jessica." Murmurs sped around the room.
"All the men?" There was challenge in Tony's voice.
"Yes, all the men." She held up her hands to ward off questions. "I know, I know, we're doing the rest
now, and checking our results. Right now there's no match, not even close."
"Why do the women at all?" asked Taria.
"Because we need to, right?" Genia's voice was sharp. "Because we need to resolve this, and that's how
it's going to get resolved, by testing everyone, and retesting if we have to. Someone has cheated,
somehow, but we're going to find out how, and then we're going to find out who." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]