Plague Doctor

The incident occurred around the first world war. The marine officer, Jack Wales, ran into the German marine on a cargo escort mission. His whole ship was captured. However, Jack Wales managed to sneak out on a lifeboat while the enemy was not paying attention. He floated on the sea for days. During that period, his lifeboat floated onto a small reef island that reeked of a heavy stench. He could not recall its exact location. He explored the island to look for supply and found instead a giant sea monster which was suspected to be Dagon on top of a hill. He was so scared that he barely remembered running back to his lifeboat. When he next came to, he was already inside a hospital in Los Angeles.

According to military records, Jack Wales was eventually rescued by a passing ship. His claims were taken as the rambling of a starving man. Since his rescue, the marine officer suffered from paranoia, and had trouble sleeping. He was tormented endlessly by his encounter. He believed that one day the whole human race would one day be dragged into the ocean by the monster and deep sea creatures would rule the world. Gu Jun’s brows locked as he read through the article. He read it many times and his heart jumped with agitation…

Now, it looked like the man’s prophecy had come true. His nightmare was probably more than just a dream. He most likely fell under mental corruption on that island.

“I have a feeling this is real.” Gu Jun told the command central. “But there is too little information in the article. Many statements of the marine were not published.” However, there was not much they could do about it, after all, this happened more than a century ago. They should be thankful that Phecda even found this article. Phecda searched for the staff of World’s News but the paper had long since disbanded. Online search of the name, Jack Wales came up with nothing.

“The Pentagon should have more information, after all, they keep records on all of their soldiers.” Elder Tong said with pain. “But FBM will not necessarily cooperate with us. After all, this involves their nation’s confidential information.” Gu Jun also heard about the lack of happy progress between the two international organizations. Now that the epidemic of legionella pneumonia was dying away, various countries started to build up walls again.

The United States was a global superpower. Understandably, they would not cede their leadership to another country. Recently, they reached out to Angell’s Order, splitting the academic group into two. Professor Jiang’s group aligned themselves with Phecda, while others cooperated with the US. Even though both groups still shared information, the government they affiliated with had already started dropping hints to be careful of espionage.

Furthermore, FBM was said to have made headways when it came to spell research as well. After all, there were many occult organizations in the world, with FBM’s sponsor, it was not hard for them to find one who was willing to divulge their secrets. In fact, the fever of extra-sensory research in the 80s was due to the competition between US and Russia. So theoretically the Ganzfeld Experiment and concept of parapsychology were products of the western world.

Now that the US had thrown themselves into this research, with their power and influence, it was only a matter of time until they reached a breakthrough in spell learning. Phecda had given necessary warnings to all countries regarding the danger of spells. The incident of the Yellow King was shared as a learning experience. If one was not careful, the whole department or even the government could be infiltrated and the world would be brought down. Phecda would select a time to reveal the Ancient Seal technology, for this involved global safety.

“Ah Jun, leave the politics to us. You focus on the autopsy. We have plenty of negotiating chips, we’ll get the necessary information somehow.” Elder Tong was not bluffing. The US had already shown interest in acquiring a Deep One’s carcass from China.

“Okay, try to ask them about Innsmouth too. I have a feeling this is an English term.”

After ending the call, Gu Jun returned to the morgue. His goal was to earn a 10 star completion rate. Uncle Dan, and Xiao Huiwen resumed the job. Gu Jun committed one incision after another, splicing away the scaly muscles from the complicated nerves and capillaries. The once familiar Uncle Lee was cut into pieces. ‘Uncle Lee, why did you do this? Is it to find your truth?’

Gu Jun had a feeling that his parents were not part of the Deep Ones. They were somewhere else still plotting something…

Time passed and the autopsy was being slowly completed…

After the first midnight, Gu Jun’s team completed the facial and cranial autopsy of the Deep One. After a 2 hour break, they moved onto the neck. The autopsy was not hundred percent successful. After all, this was the first time Gu Jun dissected a Deep One. The neck of the Deep One was extremely complicated. The gills meant that it had zero similarity to the human neck system. Only when he saw the shrunken lymph nodes that Gu Jun could believe this was once a human.

Every scale that Gu Jun removed was handled carefully. Cai Zixuan led a team to chart out the possible scaly network.

After the first 24 hour, Gu Jun rested only 3 times, each time for 2 hours. By then, the completion rate was 21 percent. During their second break, Gu Jun made a hospital visit round. Xie Yiman’s condition was stable after the operation, the itchiness did not return and the erythema did not spread. However, the skin mutation did not stop. More skin flaked and the new skin appeared to have keratinized. If this continued, they might need to perform a dermotomy.

After the second 24 hour, fatigue caught up to Gu Jun. He needed more rest but even so he only took 2 hours each time. Cai Zixuan and Uncle Dan had thrown in their towel. They were replaced by another team. Xiao Huiwen grumbled about the energy of youth. By then the completion rate was 40 percent.

Xie Yiman’s condition remained the same. The investigation department came back with new clues. They confirmed that Tian Yi left her rental at 6 pm the day after her night visit to Doctor Liang. She was last seen by a river adjacent to the village. An old farmer working the field claimed to have seen a young girl wearing a scarf wrapped around her face walking by. The investigation department followed up on other clues. When Gu Jun woke up from a quick break, he received news from Elder Tong.

With a heavily burnt carcass of a Deep One with missing leg, Phecda traded with FBM all the files on Jack Wales. It contained a detailed interrogation on Jack Wales when he recuperated from the hospital. Most of the articles were sent over in their original copy to see if Gu Jun could trigger any illusion, but they would take time to arrive. Instead, Gu Jun could satisfy himself with the soft copies for now.

According to the report, after many failed suicide attempts, Jack Wales just up and disappeared one night.

…

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