A.I.: Orphans of Terra (HTTYD)

32

Chapter 32

"I alerted Spitelout," Astrid stated and Hiccup could hear that she sounded almost unsure of what had happened here. "I'm scanning the room Hiccup. Stay near the door." Astrid then said as a small device appeared from the ceiling. It looked like a simple black stick until it activated. Red lights, creating lines across the area, swept the room several times. Hiccup held his breath, unsure of what Astrid was scanning for. In the distance he could hear footsteps running and the doors opened again to reveal Spitelout, Snotlout, Mrs. Larson and Ack.

"What in Thor's name happened here?" Spitelout asked as his brows shot up upon seeing the dead body and then looking towards Hiccup.

"Don't look at me like that!" Hiccup quickly said upon noticing the accusing look from his uncle. "I asked Astrid to call you! I just got here."

"I have completed scans of the area." Astrid stated. "There appear to be no harmful chemicals present, the cause of death is a knife to the back which punctured a lung. Body temperature suggests that time of death is around midnight."

"Likely story," Spitelout crossed his arms and glared. "Too bad that I don't believe it."

"What? Why?!" Hiccup asked while he furrowed his brows.

"You why dad?" Snotlout was also confused.

"Cause this A.I. is supposed to have eyes and ears everywhere." Spitelout stated. "If that's true then how come she didn't report this when it happened?"

Hiccup gaped at his uncle and then frowned because that actually made sense. A holographic screen appeared before those assembled showing several angles of the security feed both in the corridor and in the lab. "This is the video from midnight last night. As you can see Dr. Bludvist entered the laboratory alone." Astrid stated. Spitelout was still frowning but he did nod.

Then another video replaced that one that showed Drago sitting behind a computer terminal in the lab working. "When was this taken?"

"Right now," Astrid told the man grimly. "It's the video at this moment."

"WHAT?!" Spitelout's shout caused Snotlout to take a step back. Mrs. Larson put an arm on the man's shoulder and told him to take deep breaths.

"Wait, what's going on here?" Snotlout asked. "How can that be now?"

"It seems my video surveillance of this area has been looped." Astrid stated. "The video image reruns the same scene every 20 minutes." Astrid fast-forwarded a bit to see Drago getting up, getting some water, checking on other things and then heading back to his workstation. "All the activities he is performing do not seem suspicious and he has acted like this fairly often."

"Well that's just one more reason why we can't trust you," Spitelout stated. "You've been tampered with. Who knows what else has been tampered with. How can you even conclude what he died from?"

"Well the knife sticking out of his back seems fairly obvious," Hiccup mumbled and even Snotlout nodded.

Spitelout sputtered as he glared at Hiccup but Ellie stepped in. "While the knife does appear to be the murder weapon, and Spitelout obviously didn't think that last question through,"

"Hey!" Spitelout shouted but Ellie raised a hand to stop him before continuing. "While he didn't think the last question through, he does make a valid point. The system was hacked. We do not know if the time of death Astrid announced is accurate now."

"My system shows no tampering," Astrid stated and Hiccup could practically hear her frown.

"Well ain't that just great," Spitelout stated while crossing his arms. "Ellie can you figure it out?"