---    The Body

What remained of her body, had been laid out on an examination table.

Ducking his head through the door, the golden scaled dragon paused to survey the carnage before him.  The once sterile morgue now smelled of roasted meat, burnt hair, and explosive residue.  He had seen far worse in the war, but that had been decades ago.

Glancing down at his data pad, he saw that it had successfully synchronized with the local police network, and had begun filling the screen with their official incident report.  The door automatically sliding shut behind him as he proceeded into the room, and approached the table.

Based on the damage to the body, the blast must have originated low and to the left.  That part of the report appeared entirely accurate.

The left arm, torn clean from the shoulder, had not been located.  The left leg below the hip was also missing, though the left foot had been recovered.  Almost comically, it stood upright at the end of the table with a few centimeters of bone protruding from the shattered ankle. The right leg, apart from scorching and shrapnel damage, was comparatively untouched from toes to hip.  Above that, only an empty pelvis with an attached spinal column was visible leading to a hollow rib cage.

The protective flight jacket, now mostly in tatters, had kept the majority of the upper torso intact, along with the only remaining indication that the owner had been female.  The right arm below the elbow had been stripped of flesh, leaving only bone and burnt tendons in a tightly constricted position.

The face was unrecognizable.  Skin and muscles on the left side had been peeled away, leaving only exposed skull and jaw.  The right side, its fur singed away, still had  most of its skin, but  the lips were hanging askew and a ragged hole in the cheek left the teeth visible.  The thought occurred to him that it would look less gruesome if it were in the same condition as the left.  The right ear was remarkably untouched, with a small metal stud visible at its tip.

Her file picture now appeared on his data pad.  The black fur with a double white stripe starting just above her eyebrows, and the green jeweled stud in her right ear, matching the color of her eyes.  The stone, now missing, remained a match to the now empty sockets which stared up at the ceiling.

Thankfully there was little blood.  The thermal blast from the explosion had taken care of that inconvenience.

'It must have been very close, and very large', he thought to himself.

The report listed 'mining explosives' as the cause, which was plausible considering the location of the event, but the scale of the blast suggested otherwise.  The entire house had been destroyed, along with the burnt out hull of an unidentified vehicle, found upside down several meters away.

"Too large." he said aloud to the empty room.

Tossing the data pad onto the table, he perched upon a nearby stool.

Looking again at what remained of one of his finest students, he muttered "Damn it, Shannon.  What did you do, to end up like this?"

The speaker on his data pad gave a small burst of static and a female voice replied, "I'd rather not talk about it."

---    Shannon

"How long have you been online?" he asked as he watched various data fields changing by themselves.  Most notably, the replacement of her file picture, and a proper name which he did not recognize now appeared on the report.  Still black fur, but now only a single white stripe, along with other more subtle identifiable marks for her species.  He did not know who this person on the report was, but it certainly was not Shannon.

"As soon as you entered the room, I saw your pad connected to the network, so I jumped in and accessed the police network through it", came the response, then added almost smugly, "You should change your passkeys more often."

He moved to the wall of morgue lockers, and opened the first one with a tag marking it as occupied.  On the end of the retractable table within, was a small black bag.  The data pad scanned the ID on the bag, and an image taken from the scene appeared.   A large disembodied hand and arm, still holding a pistol, lay on the ground.  The image rotated and pulled back, displaying where it was found in relation to the entire scene.

The arm did not belong to the body on the table.  It was far too large, and not even the same species.  What fur remained on the heavily muscled arm was brown, and the gun was a generic slug thrower with no discernible markings.  'Ursid mercenary..' he concluded.

"So now you include me, in this.", he said, as he slid the table back into the locker, "Whatever this is... or was."

Moving to the next locker, he found the bag inside was even smaller than the first.  He didn't bother to access the data on it, and moved on to the next.
 
"If I had directly accessed an official database, after my own death, it would have raised questions", said Shannon's voice.

"Accessing and altering ANY database after one's death raises many questions.   A growing list of which I am currently compiling", he growled, as he slammed the locker door shut and moved to the next.

The room remained quiet, except for the repeated opening and closing of doors as the dragon moved along the wall of lockers.  

"So what did you use?", he finally asked, in a much calmer tone.  "Mining explosives doesn't account for everything I have seen in the report."

"It was mostly standard mining explosives, though I doubt the manufacturer had considered their effectiveness when strategically placed and shaped." she replied.

"Mostly...", he repeated, leaving the implication hanging.

"There may have also been an ATM35 behind the front door."

The dragon stopped what he was doing, closed his eyes and sighed.  Either of the explosives alone would have been enough to obliterate the house and anyone inside it, but using both meant she knew there would be additional targets outside.  She had used the mining explosives to mask the crater left by the military device.  Instead of a single large crater surrounded by flattened buildings and bodies, there was fire, debris, and chaos everywhere, and no sign of the tell-tale crater.

"I knew they would send a team of at least five, possibly seven", she finished.  "I had to be sure."

"Well, in that regard, you definitely overachieved.  They sent nine, and you got them all." said the dragon.  

If Shannon's face were not already frozen in a skeletal grin, he was sure that this news would have made her smile just as broadly, if not more.

"I was taught by the best", she cajoled.  "'Anything worth doing, is worth overdoing?', isn't that what you always say?"

He finally found what he assumed he was looking for in the seventh locker.  A nearly intact body, with only minor scorching.  Massive internal injuries from the blast, a cracked skull and a broken neck.  The data pad began to display the relevant information.  

"Who, apart from the Matriarch herself, would merit seven Ursid guards and a driver?" he muttered mostly to himself.

The report surmised that he had been a passenger in the vehicle at the time of the explosion.  Probably thrown from the vehicle as it came apart.  'Weston Emorye' according to his ID, a Mephitine, like Shannon, and a representative of the Oroyo trading guild.

'Why does that name sound familiar?' thought the dragon, "So he was the target?" he asked aloud.

"Him?" Shannon's voice sounded confused. "No, I was the target, he was just stupid enough to come himself.  I guess I got lucky.  Is his tail still intact?"

"Wait.  You said that YOU detonated the explosives." he reiterated.

"Yes, I did." Shannon confirmed.

"And killed nine people."

"Well, ten if you count me", corrected Shannon.

"And YOU were the target?"

"YES!" she said more firmly, as though it all made perfect sense.

The dragon turned his head and looked incredulously at what remained of the burnt body on the exam table.  "You keep answering my questions, but my list is not getting any shorter."

"Just grab his tail and get me out of here", she said.

"What do you mean 'grab his tail'?  You mean rip it off of his corpse?", he asked.

"No, it unscrews, just rotate it a quarter turn to the left." she said sarcastically. "YES, tear it off!"

The dragon looked at the male skunk laying on the slab before him. "Is this one of those Meph rituals?"

"Sort of.  Its an ancient way of keeping score between rival families", said Shannon's voice.  "I have never been one to follow the old ways, but Weston has threatened that he would take my tail on more than one occasion, so I think this is only fitting."

The dragon placed the tablet on the exam table, then rolled the body onto its side.  The body was still frozen rigid from the time it spent exposed to the elements.  Wrapping his talons around the base of the tail, he gave a firm upward yank.  The sinew and bone crunched but the tail remained attached.  After adjusting his grip, he pulled down with a sharp twist, and the tail came away with a snap.

"I guess they do unscrew", said the dragon, as a muffled sound came from the tablet.

Laying the body back onto the slab, he retrieved the tablet with his free hand, and used his tail to slide the slab back into its locker, and shut the door.

"What was that?", he asked.

"I said, you need to hurry and get me out of this body.  My emergency backup will not last forever, you know.  Here is a list of things that I need you to do before you leave", said Shannon, as a numbered itinerary appeared on the screen.  "Any questions?"

The dragon glanced at the detailed list. "My list of questions only continues to grow, with things like 'When did you suddenly become my boss?' "

"When the life of a five year old girl was at stake", replied Shannon in a very serious tone, then she disconnected.