[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
original body or the rib cage. Pushing the limits
of her comfort, she continued her assessment, and
counted five other bones close to the one just
recorded, then took her big step back. Unlike
herself and Atwell, members of other tribes and
recent transfers to the Apache Nation predominantly
made up the search teams. None of the team members
had the slightest difficulty in dealing with the
dead or human remains of any kind, and each and
every one of them might as well have been aliens
from another planet as far as the General was
concerned. They were not and never would be truly
Apache in their beliefs, and in the current
situation, it was a damn good thing.
Keep it up, lieutenant , the general said as
she brushed past her, and made her way to the next
closest member of her team. A few more spot checks
like that and she would feel a little better about
114
the search. Of course, she would feel a hell of a
lot better if they found a skull with clearly
recognizable tool marks out there. After getting
no answer at the morgue, she was beginning to think
that it might be weeks before a medical examiner in
the middle of nowhere would come up with the
autopsy results, and she was way too impatient for
that kind of crap.
The next team member in her path had what
appeared to be a spread of human ribs, also
completely stripped of flesh and heavily weathered.
The ribs could have belonged to the femur she had
just seen based on the similarity in their
appearance. That would make for a minimum of three
bodies at the site up to that point, since the rib
cages of both the original and Atwood s bodies were
intact. The number was already climbing and it
wasn t a good picture, not a good picture at all.
The squawk of the General s belt radio
instantly caught her attention, and she pushed the
talk button to say, Go ahead.
The captain had the only other radio out there
tuned to her current frequency, and his slightly
distorted and crackly voice chirped out of the
speaker molded into her belt. If she were using a
headset linked to the radio, they could have talked
privately. But she hated headsets, and there was
clearly nothing private about their investigation
at that point.
General Cochise, one of the team members has
found something I think you need to see.
Pushing the talk button, she said, Be right
there, captain, and started off in his direction.
He had been searching near a drainage ditch on the
other side of the patch of woods, and she believed
she could partially see him through the tree
trunks. As she passed the ribcage Atwood had
buried his boot in the day before, she saw that the
area around it had been pretty thoroughly cleared
of leaves, and she now easily saw other bones
strewn about that had been impossible to see
before. Her quick appraisal was that they were
probably associated with the now fully visible
ribcage based again solely on there mutual level of
decay. After scanning the area a second time, she
115
realized that there wasn t a skull there even
though the corpse had spent far less time in the
woods than the previous one had. One skull would
help determine if these bodies were the work of the
sergeant s killer, or some other nut job butcher.
That extremely disturbing thought brought her back
to her foolish belief that serial killers were a
rarity in the lands of the Nations of the
Intertribal Council. Seasoned soldier or not, she
seemed to be capable of creating whitewashed
fantasies on a pretty grand scale. It had to be
the stress she put herself under, she thought.
Maybe she was the one needing the psych eval.
The General broke free of the woods about
fifteen feet from the captain, and didn t
immediately see what he had called her over for.
He stood on the far edge of a wide and deep ditch
as he stared down into the weeds surrounding three
actively searching Apache soldiers.
What is it, captain? She said as she walked
up to the edge of the ditch directly across from
him. He pointed down into the ditch without saying
a word. A little irritated, the General looked
down into the ditch towards the three soldiers, and
her heart leapt in her chest. At her soldiers
feet lay four human skulls, some still partially
covered with decomposing flesh. Without having to
get any closer, she saw that two had clearly been
scalped, the bone showing prominently like islands
on top of the otherwise hair covered skulls. The
other two were already bare bone and weathered like
the femur and ribs she had just seen. Looking back
up at the captain, she couldn t help but smile. He
had been right in his earlier remark. This was
definitely it. They now had a focal point of
probable linked murders in an inhabited but
sparsely populated section of the Nations. People
who went missing around there were likely to be
missed. If they could ID the skulls, they might
find a commonality, and that could take them back
to the killer.
Good work. She said, receiving a return of
quickly fading smiles in response to her own. The
General s smile then dissolved with those of the
soldiers as the grim nature of their find swallowed
116
her back up and left her a little sick to her
stomach. She had seen many things in combat,
things that would turn the average person s stomach
in the blink of an eye. But this was different.
The killer was deliberately striking at the core of
her native beliefs, her beliefs and millions of
others. Whoever was doing the killing was a
monster akin to the ones in their ancient
mythology. Not literally, of course, but just as
frightening as the stories she had heard as a
child. Just like any other story, there had been
a beginning to this and she was determined to write
the end.
Turning back, she deliberately retraced her
steps to the rib cage the captain had buried his
foot in. As soon as the forensics unit did their
work and cleared the remains, she had another
project to take care of, or at least to supervise.
With the scatter of the bleached bones, they were
unlikely to find a clearly evident excavation site.
But the rib cage may have been left in place by the
scavengers. At least she hoped it had. She still
wanted the additional link of the square bone
fragments set below one of the bodies there to
guide her in some obscure but familiar direction.
It would have been easier to let that part of her
investigation slide. Without the satellite images
at the burial ground, they would never have seen
the killer sweeping the ground with his hands, and
therefore, would never have found the squares. But
they would still be hunting the killer, and
probably nothing else to that point would have
changed. Maybe in some bizarro alternate universe
that s the way it had happened. She could also be
living in a wasteland area death camp with her
people having been overrun by invaders and left
struggling to survive. But that could never
happen, and the squares were part of her
investigation, a significant part still from her
perspective even though she didn t know why yet.
Native death camps, where had that crazy thought
come from?
Refocusing, the General decided to get another
good look at the site map. They would still need
to excavate any area with a significant
117
concentration of remains. The data had been coming
in quickly, and some reasonable dig sites might
have already become clear or could be approaching
that point. She would pull in more teams if
necessary and they would excavate the whole damn
map area if that s what it took.
As she climbed back into the mobile command
center, she realized that the makeshift media camp
had grown by several vehicles. In particular, the
insignias of the Pima and Comanche Nations stood
out and pushed her a little further into her morose
thoughts. The word was definitely out and it had
been unavoidable, but she felt like they were being
spied on all the same.
Two com techs addressed the General as soon as
she opened the command center door, seemingly [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl ocenkijessi.opx.pl
original body or the rib cage. Pushing the limits
of her comfort, she continued her assessment, and
counted five other bones close to the one just
recorded, then took her big step back. Unlike
herself and Atwell, members of other tribes and
recent transfers to the Apache Nation predominantly
made up the search teams. None of the team members
had the slightest difficulty in dealing with the
dead or human remains of any kind, and each and
every one of them might as well have been aliens
from another planet as far as the General was
concerned. They were not and never would be truly
Apache in their beliefs, and in the current
situation, it was a damn good thing.
Keep it up, lieutenant , the general said as
she brushed past her, and made her way to the next
closest member of her team. A few more spot checks
like that and she would feel a little better about
114
the search. Of course, she would feel a hell of a
lot better if they found a skull with clearly
recognizable tool marks out there. After getting
no answer at the morgue, she was beginning to think
that it might be weeks before a medical examiner in
the middle of nowhere would come up with the
autopsy results, and she was way too impatient for
that kind of crap.
The next team member in her path had what
appeared to be a spread of human ribs, also
completely stripped of flesh and heavily weathered.
The ribs could have belonged to the femur she had
just seen based on the similarity in their
appearance. That would make for a minimum of three
bodies at the site up to that point, since the rib
cages of both the original and Atwood s bodies were
intact. The number was already climbing and it
wasn t a good picture, not a good picture at all.
The squawk of the General s belt radio
instantly caught her attention, and she pushed the
talk button to say, Go ahead.
The captain had the only other radio out there
tuned to her current frequency, and his slightly
distorted and crackly voice chirped out of the
speaker molded into her belt. If she were using a
headset linked to the radio, they could have talked
privately. But she hated headsets, and there was
clearly nothing private about their investigation
at that point.
General Cochise, one of the team members has
found something I think you need to see.
Pushing the talk button, she said, Be right
there, captain, and started off in his direction.
He had been searching near a drainage ditch on the
other side of the patch of woods, and she believed
she could partially see him through the tree
trunks. As she passed the ribcage Atwood had
buried his boot in the day before, she saw that the
area around it had been pretty thoroughly cleared
of leaves, and she now easily saw other bones
strewn about that had been impossible to see
before. Her quick appraisal was that they were
probably associated with the now fully visible
ribcage based again solely on there mutual level of
decay. After scanning the area a second time, she
115
realized that there wasn t a skull there even
though the corpse had spent far less time in the
woods than the previous one had. One skull would
help determine if these bodies were the work of the
sergeant s killer, or some other nut job butcher.
That extremely disturbing thought brought her back
to her foolish belief that serial killers were a
rarity in the lands of the Nations of the
Intertribal Council. Seasoned soldier or not, she
seemed to be capable of creating whitewashed
fantasies on a pretty grand scale. It had to be
the stress she put herself under, she thought.
Maybe she was the one needing the psych eval.
The General broke free of the woods about
fifteen feet from the captain, and didn t
immediately see what he had called her over for.
He stood on the far edge of a wide and deep ditch
as he stared down into the weeds surrounding three
actively searching Apache soldiers.
What is it, captain? She said as she walked
up to the edge of the ditch directly across from
him. He pointed down into the ditch without saying
a word. A little irritated, the General looked
down into the ditch towards the three soldiers, and
her heart leapt in her chest. At her soldiers
feet lay four human skulls, some still partially
covered with decomposing flesh. Without having to
get any closer, she saw that two had clearly been
scalped, the bone showing prominently like islands
on top of the otherwise hair covered skulls. The
other two were already bare bone and weathered like
the femur and ribs she had just seen. Looking back
up at the captain, she couldn t help but smile. He
had been right in his earlier remark. This was
definitely it. They now had a focal point of
probable linked murders in an inhabited but
sparsely populated section of the Nations. People
who went missing around there were likely to be
missed. If they could ID the skulls, they might
find a commonality, and that could take them back
to the killer.
Good work. She said, receiving a return of
quickly fading smiles in response to her own. The
General s smile then dissolved with those of the
soldiers as the grim nature of their find swallowed
116
her back up and left her a little sick to her
stomach. She had seen many things in combat,
things that would turn the average person s stomach
in the blink of an eye. But this was different.
The killer was deliberately striking at the core of
her native beliefs, her beliefs and millions of
others. Whoever was doing the killing was a
monster akin to the ones in their ancient
mythology. Not literally, of course, but just as
frightening as the stories she had heard as a
child. Just like any other story, there had been
a beginning to this and she was determined to write
the end.
Turning back, she deliberately retraced her
steps to the rib cage the captain had buried his
foot in. As soon as the forensics unit did their
work and cleared the remains, she had another
project to take care of, or at least to supervise.
With the scatter of the bleached bones, they were
unlikely to find a clearly evident excavation site.
But the rib cage may have been left in place by the
scavengers. At least she hoped it had. She still
wanted the additional link of the square bone
fragments set below one of the bodies there to
guide her in some obscure but familiar direction.
It would have been easier to let that part of her
investigation slide. Without the satellite images
at the burial ground, they would never have seen
the killer sweeping the ground with his hands, and
therefore, would never have found the squares. But
they would still be hunting the killer, and
probably nothing else to that point would have
changed. Maybe in some bizarro alternate universe
that s the way it had happened. She could also be
living in a wasteland area death camp with her
people having been overrun by invaders and left
struggling to survive. But that could never
happen, and the squares were part of her
investigation, a significant part still from her
perspective even though she didn t know why yet.
Native death camps, where had that crazy thought
come from?
Refocusing, the General decided to get another
good look at the site map. They would still need
to excavate any area with a significant
117
concentration of remains. The data had been coming
in quickly, and some reasonable dig sites might
have already become clear or could be approaching
that point. She would pull in more teams if
necessary and they would excavate the whole damn
map area if that s what it took.
As she climbed back into the mobile command
center, she realized that the makeshift media camp
had grown by several vehicles. In particular, the
insignias of the Pima and Comanche Nations stood
out and pushed her a little further into her morose
thoughts. The word was definitely out and it had
been unavoidable, but she felt like they were being
spied on all the same.
Two com techs addressed the General as soon as
she opened the command center door, seemingly [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]