Philip E. High - The Artifact

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2024-11-24 0 0 29.41KB 13 页 5.9玖币
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THE ARTIFACT
PHILIP E. HIGH
The place was a shambles, no doubt about that. A blood-stained saber lying in the middle of the carpet
was bad enough, but the killer had gone berserk. Limbs, hands pieces of torso, even fingers and toes had
been flung insanely about the room. Needless to say there was the hell of a lot of blood, much of it
splashed up the walls.
An elaborate attempt had been made to set fire to the place by setting fire to the kitchen. An erection of
cups, soup plates and jugs filled with spirits, whisky, brandy, and cleaning fluids should have started a
blaze capable of gutting the place in less than thirty minutes.
This aspect to me was the worst of all. This was not a single building, this was an apartment, one of eight
in the same block—entire families could have died as well.
Fortunately, in this case, the apartment had a damper that snuffed out the fire before it took hold.
Landlords and the owners of tenements often forget to mention they have installed dampers. The device,
ideal for snuffing out fires, is also able to detect the presence of human life before it comes into operation
but there have been notable cases when it has failed to work. A damper in operation is just as lethal as
the fire itself.
A damper, on detecting a fire, does a number of things: it drops concealed shutters over every window
and door and floods the place withNothreen . This is a newly discovered gas that destroys oxygen so
rapidly in an enclosed space that the fire is snuffed out in minutes.
It is not pleasant to dwell on the deaths of those the device failed to detect. Detective Inspector Ransome
looked round the room several times before he spoke. I had worked with him only a few weeks but he
was a brilliant detective and I respected him from the first but then, well, I had certain advantages.
His thin sardonic face turned in my direction and he gave me his twisted smile. “Any comments, constable
Barret?”
“No, Chief, no yet.”
“Very wise of you, boy, too easy to jump to conclusions but there's something about this set-up which
doesn't feel right.”
I agreed with him entirely but it was not, as yet, my place to say so. He and I got on very well outside of
work, drank a beer together, discussed sport but mainly music as we both loved the classics. At work
however, there was tension, not hostile, but tension nonetheless.
You see, I am the first ‘Sensitive’ to join the Police Department and I am on trial in it. I am that new
psychic guy they've just taken on. Fortunately I've been trained for it but I've taken a lot of stick,
Constable Weirdo, Magician Barret and “How's your bloody spirit guide today, old son?”
Ransome has been both kind and helpful but I can well understand him being ill at ease.
“Know who the tenant is—or was?” he asked.
“Yes, Chief, according to the lists he is an Ivan Berenof.”
Ransome went over to the visaphone. “I'll check him out.” He dialed a number and a face appeared in
the screen.
“Police Sector Nine—Oh, it's you, Chief. What can I do?”
“I want to know if you have anything on Ivan Berenof listed at this address.”
There was a brief pause then: “According to records here, sir, there's a list of offences as long as your
arm, and mine. Actually, sir, forty-four offences—but only one indictment. A smart Alec, Chief, with
brains; he got degrees at university. According to this, he specialized in fraud but was also a con artist.”
“Seems he made good money at it—this apartment is no attic.”
“One of three known, Chief, there may be more. No one seems to know when he arrived in this country
or where he comes from; nearest guess is mid-European.”
“Anything else?”
“Well, he had a car, wheel-less, of course, but not one of the hover jobs—one of the top flight
anti-gravs. Oh! And yes, a squad now searching below you say it's missing.”
Ransome hung up and turned towards me. “Right, looks like an open-and-shut but it isn't, even I see that.
Victim goes berserk and murders con-man—how do you feel about that?”
“I share your opinion, chief, just too easy.”
“But your opinion, man! You must have one.”
“My engagement as a sensitive does not permit me to presume, Chief. Procedure is I am only engaged as
a consultant.”
He scowled at me. “Oh for Christ's sake, can't we stop pussy-footing around this thing and get down to
facts?”
“Very well, Chief, but everything I say will strike you as irrelevant.”
“No matter, I flatter myself I'm open-minded: I'll hear you out.”
“Very well, Chief. There is a small table by the bay window over there. On it is a small vase. I suggest
you call in experts to remove it, experts with appropriate gear for the job. That vase should be treated
like a radioactive object, removed as such and inspected by experts.”
He scowled again, first at me then at the vase. “That little bronze colored thing?”
“Yes.”
“And you say it's radioactive?”
“I do not say it's radioactive as such, but it's giving offsomething . It's lessening slowly, but I'd prefer not
to touch it. I suggest an examination by experts.”
Ransome shrugged. “If you say so—anything else?”
“Yes, the remains of this body: that, too, should be thoroughly examined before being incinerated.”
He looked at me directly. “You sound very sure of yourself. What's the next move?”
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分类：外语学习 价格：5.9玖币 属性：13 页 大小：29.41KB 格式：PDF 时间：2024-11-24

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