Red Cells Read Online Free PDF

have examined the blood. I’d like to talk to them, if I can think of an excuse to go to the infirmary.”
    Null nodded, then turned to Billings. “Break his nose.”
    “What?” said Billings.
    “What?” said Stake, looking around.
    “I can’t do it myself,” Null explained. “Can’t afford to go into solitary right now.”
    “But…” said Billings.
    “I told you to hit him.”
    “Hey, now hold on…” Stake began.
    * * *
    “With your special condition, couldn’t you have reconfigured your broken nose on your own?” the medical unit’s chief, Zaleski, asked Stake while examining the results of the restorative treatment he had just administered.
    Sitting still as Zaleski consulted a holographic scan display of his head, floating in the air beside Stake like a doppelganger of the doppelganger, the private detective said, “I can alter my appearance, but I can’t regenerate injury any better than the next guy. If I tried to morph a broken nose, I’d just be torturing myself.”
    “Well, in any case, everything looks good now.”
    Dr. Zaleski gave the impression of ill health: thin, pale as his lab smock, his eyes red-rimmed and high forehead moist with perspiration. When Stake had first come in, a young prisoner in a yellow uniform had quickly departed, and Stake had sensed he’d just interrupted an illicit transaction—either involving sex or drugs, or both. Stake wouldn’t be surprised to find the physician was an addict. If he were right, and had spotted it so quickly, he couldn’t believe Cirvik wasn’t aware.
    “I’ve only been here a week and already I’ve had my nose busted,” Stake said. “I’m not too confident about finishing my six months in one piece. Especially with those weird deaths going on.”
    Zaleski gaped at the prisoner for a second and a half. “Weird deaths?”
    “Doctor,” Stake chuckled, “you know—people exploding in their cells during the night? Leaving nothing but blood behind? Those weird deaths.”
    Zaleski immediately averted his bloodshot eyes, but couldn’t seem to help himself from replying, “It isn’t just blood left behind. If one examines the material remaining, there is in fact flesh and bone present. It’s just been reduced to small particles, mixed with the blood.”
    “What do you think would cause that, Doctor?” Stake asked. “I mean, I was a soldier and I’m familiar with all kinds of weapons. Strong plasma, of course, would dissolve the body, not break it up like that. But I’m wondering…some kind of ray weapon that could be fired right through the closed energy barriers?”
    “How could a prisoner obtain a weapon like that, here?” Zaleski said, eyes still turned away.
    “Who said it had to be a prisoner?”
    Now Zaleski did face him. “What are you implying? That the guards are executing prisoners in their sleep?”
    “I’m just indulging in a little idle speculation, Doctor, just out of curiosity. Okay…curiosity and concern for my own skin. But you must have a theory of your own. Don’t you?”
    “I have no idea. I’ve found no suspicious residue in the blood or body remnants I’ve examined.”
    “Okay, but how is that possible?”
    “I’m a general physician, Mr. Stake. I’m finding this matter to be outside my realm of expertise.”
    “Then other people with a broader range of expertise must be looking into it, eh? At the warden’s direction?”
    Zaleski hesitated, and then said, “Of course. Of course he’s investigating the cause of these events.”
    “Do you notice a pattern in the victims?”
    “No. Three were human, one was a Choom, and the latest a mutant.”
    “So there’ve been five. My fellow prisoners weren’t sure if it were only four.”
    “One of them died while in solitary confinement, so that one was less conspicuous.” Zaleski looked Stake up and down, lips twisted sourly. “Why so curious…detective?”
    “I told you—I’m just looking after my own skin.”
    Suddenly the medical