Dark Heresy - Chapter 1: Inspiration Grows From The Barrel Of A Gun

The chirugeon's eyes flashed knowingly at the jingling, his tone shifting very suddenly, as though an unfamiliar situation had suddenly become familiar, "Ah, ah, I apologize... not so irregular."

Julian reached into his pocket and pulled out twenty thrones and placed them into the Chirugeon's hand, "I'm glad to hear it."

The chirugeon looked down at the money, and somewhat skeptically and mistrustfully at Julian, "Alright... now... what's going on? What are you wanting me to do? Not one bit of this feels right, that I'll tell you."

Julian dropped another twenty into the Chirugeon's hand, "Contaminated corpse, I need to dispose of it in the furnace. Quietly."

The chirugeon took the money skeptically, nodding slowly before replying, "Alright, Enforcer... I will, of course, need to get a look at just what I'm about to incinerate. For all I know you could have a plate of the Emperor's own armor under that sheet, or the corpse of the Lord-Sector's daughter. I am... not averse to irregularities, but I am not a man about to toss something into a furnace blind."

"Like I said, contaminated corpse, as in the very bad type of contaminated, unsealing the bag could be VERY bad indeed." Julian was getting a little irritated, this was not going in a very good direction.

(I roll for deceive and get 44, I fate point and get 28 against 31.)

The chirugeon frowned, "Look, Enforcer, I'm not having me or my facility be made patsies in... whatever you're doing. If this corpse is so grievously contaminated that you do not even have time to produce a warrant or writ to that effect, than you can go to the effort of burning it yourself. Otherwise, I'm not incinerating anything without either a writ for it or I get to look at what I'm being asked to throw in the furnace... I'm not stupid, after all, and I know the kind of games you Arbites tend to play."

Julian narrowed his eyes at the chirugeon and dropped the other 60 into his hand, "Here's your warrent."

The chirugeon took the money, but his eyes narrowed still further, "Handing over money like this tells me that there's something exceptionally important under the sheet, that you really, really do not want anybody to see. There's something extremely illegal there... and likely extremely dangerous. I suppose it is just a happy coincidence you'll be able to try and pin me as the culprit in whatever it is you want thrown into that furnace? For a hundred Thrones, by the Emperor... you must be new. At least that Aldonne fellow, he had the courtesy to hand over at least a thousand or its equivalent each time he came around, and had the good taste to let me see whatever it was he wanted tossed into the fire or what it was he wanted records edited on. I've got no interest in whatever mess you've clearly gotten yourself into."

"Really..." he said at length, "I'll be sure to remember that in the future.... thank you for your discretion..." keeping his eye on the man for a while longer he moved off towards the furnace, though as he moved, he couldn't help but wonder if there was enough room for the corrupt doctor as well.

The chirugeon nodded, and began slowly, carefully, backing away towards the lab, where the corpse had been wheeled to.

Remedy found herself the way back to where Julian was. "Did you get it done? The samples need analyzing and the quicker we get it done the quicker we can get out of here. I don't like hospitals, bad memories."

"It's done... hopefully." Julian motioned for them to keep on walking as he caught up with them, "It leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I think of just how far corruption has spread, and how often I'm forced to rely on it to serve justice."

"If it wasn't for corruption we assassains wouldn't have any work whatsoever." She remarked as they walked to where the young enforcer was waiting with the samples.

Desare stood there diligently and loyally, holding with obvious repugnance the mutated skin samples. The chirugeon followed you exasperatedly, rubbing his forehead, "So... you have some samples of some kind also you want me to... burn? Examine?"

"Examine." Julian paused for a second then added, "If you would be so kind."

The chirugeon takes them from Desare with seemingly less revulsion, examining them visually for the time being with studious, academic interest, before he begins rather oddly chuckling, "Where did you get this? The girl have a falling out with Sergeant Aldonne? And... why aren't you just wanting me to burn them? You're not actually arresting the poor girl, are you?"

"Girl? What girl?" Remedy looked confused at what Aldonne had just said. She looked at Julian and then at the others waiting for someone to explain what the man had just said.

"They've had a falling out of sorts. What can you tell us about her? The Sargeant didn't explain much to us, but then again he didn't say we couldn't pry."

The chirugeon seemed honestly surprised at Remedy's incomprehension, "The... the girl this mutated skin belongs to. At least, who Sergeant Aldonne said it belong to when he started bringing me samples starting a few months ago to incinerate. I make myself a bit of... extra money discretely slicing away and incinerating mutations that crop up amongst the nobility... more than one might expect, given the air here and all their bloody inbreeding, and making sure they look as clean and ageless as they all demand. Plus... I hate to think of what could happen amidst the nobility to a poor soul over a simple skin deformity or minor vestigial appendage. It's about the only technically-illegal activity I'm willing to indulge... I am no fool and no accomplice to murder or worse, after all.

"In any event, a few months ago Sergeant Aldonne began bringing me skin and flesh samples just like this... he told me they were from a minor young noblewoman who was too terrified to come here publically and couldn't be certain of my discretion... for the skin to be this corrupted and to simply sluice off like this it must be a rather foul mutation indeed. I told him precisely that even as I incinerated the first batch, saying that if she wanted a long-term solution she would have to come here herself to let me take a look at her and see what I could do... Aldonne said he would see what he could do. Over the last few months, he'd been coming more and more frequently, bringing more and more samples each time... I kept telling him each time I threw them in the medical furnace it was a condition that was clearly only getting worse and desperately needed to me immediately, but he kept rather blithely blowing me off. Which leaves me only with the question of... how in the Throne's name did you come across these samples?"

The chirugeon shrugged, "I'd have to run a full chymistry examination to give you a detailed, scientific analysis of what it is I'm holding... which, I concede, I am rather interested in, considering Sergeant Aldonne never held any interest in that even though I said it might give some clue to helping the poor girl... he had little interest beyond simply incinerating the flesh. Though, granted, that's rather common irrational behavior amongst the nobility afflicted in such a state."

"Are you ever sure it's skin from a young girl? Is there a way to determine the gender and age of a person based on these samples? Aldonne could be covering for someone else." She crossed her arms and got a lho stick between her lips and lit it.

The chirugeon nodded, "Of course I can tell you that, but... given how foul and corrupt it is, I will need to run a proper chymistry exam on it before I can make any sort of informed statements."

"How long would the tests take?" Julian was growing more and more intrigued by the minute. Was this girl the murderer?