AT THE WORLD President’s Residence, two levels below the dining room, Sonor Breece, chief of staff, carefully examined the two dead councilwomen. They were now lying naked on stone slabs in what he liked to call his study. “Laboratory” sounded too clinical, although he certainly used the space for experiments.
Unlike the grabby guards outside, Breece had no prurient interest in female bodies. He was interested only in efficiency and effectiveness, and in what the bodies could teach him. He was a scientist and a scholar. The room was filled not just with instruments, but also with beautiful things—leather-bound books, some of the last in existence, graceful furniture, and ancient pottery.
The walls, already two feet thick and made of granite, had been augmented by soundproofing panels, because some of Breece’s procedures could get a bit noisy. But now the silence was broken only by the chirp of a pair of rainbow finches, fluttering from perch to perch in a cage suspended in a corner of the room.
“Pretty birds,” said Breece, in a soft, affectionate voice as he pulled a pair of syringes from a plastic case.
From each woman’s cephalic vein he drew a small sample of blood and deposited it in a petri dish. He used a thin titration tube to add a few drops of test solution. He watched as the mixture bubbled and turned powder pink. Breece frowned. Acceptable potency, but not optimal. For mass quantities, the formula would need to be perfected. He pulled a small notebook from his pocket and jotted down some figures.
Back in his years as a university professor, he would have had a team of assistants to work on the project, but now he would have to do it all himself. No matter. It was a passion for him—researching the very best way to kill the maximum number of people. Breece was fond of the old-fashioned saying “Find a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
Right now, of course, he had a task that most people would find highly distasteful. For Breece, it was just a matter of selecting the proper tool. He ran his eyes over the two bodies in front of him and made some quick mental calculations.
Yes.
The nine-inch reciprocating saw would work perfectly.