Bug Man Suspense Bundle (3, 4, 5) Read Online Free PDF Page B

is extensive flooding across the city, tens of thousands of people are expected to be trapped in their homes or on rooftops. As I said, this is a team effort; the decision has been made by FEMA to focus all available resources on rescuing the living first.”
    “Instead of recovering the dead?”
    “At first, yes. I think you’ll agree, Nick, that it’s a lot more important to rescue the living than it is to recover the dead.”
    “I’m not sure I do,” Nick said, rising to his feet.
    “Fasten your seat belts,” Jerry mumbled. “Here we go.”
    “We stopped for gas on the way down here,” Nick said. “A little station just north of Baton Rouge—some of you were with me.” He glanced around the room and a few heads nodded. “There was a line a mile long waiting for gas—it took us an hour to get through. While we were there, two men pulled up to a pump at the same time. They began to argue about who got there first. The argument got heated. I thought there was going to be a fight—until one of them pulled up his shirt and showed the other guy a gun.”
    Nick paused to allow the point to sink in.
    “That’s what stress does to your species, Denny. Those two men were on their way out of town—what about the people who stay behind? What sort of stress will they be under? Hunger, fatigue, competition for available resources—and I’d like to remind everyone that New Orleans holds the record for the highest murder rate ever recorded, and that’s without a hurricane. Human nature isn’t going to improve after a major disaster; it’s going to get worse—maybe a lot worse.”
    “What’s your point, Nick?”
    “You say we’re looking at a lot of casualties here. All I’m saying is that some of them won’t have died from natural causes—you can count on that. We owe something to those people too.”
    “So what are you suggesting?”
    “That we divide our resources. Surely at least a few of us could be assigned to the recovery of the dead.”
    Denny shook his head. “FEMA estimates that one out of four residents of New Orleans has no access to an automobile. There’s no way to estimate how many people have stayed behind—it could be in the hundreds of thousands. And if the city floods, there’s no telling how many people will be in need of rescue. Nobody knows if all the government agencies combined can handle it; that’s why FEMA wants all available personnel to focus on rescue first.”
    “Why was DMORT created?” Nick asked. “To help family members identify and recover the remains of their loved ones.”
    “Thanks, Nick, I’m familiar with the training manual.”
    “Murder victims have families too,” Nick said, “and they want more than that—they want the murderers brought to justice. That’s why the bodies can’t wait, Denny. This isn’t just about recovery; it’s about preserving forensic evidence. You said yourself that this is a unique situation; let’s not forget the problems posed by the water. Any pathologist here will tell you that a body decomposes much faster in water than it does on land—but in this case it’ll be even worse. The water will be hot, and it will be filled with who-knows-what: bacteria, toxins, sewage, chemicals, pesticides—just to name a few. If the city does flood, we’re going to have bodies floating in a toxic brew—”
    “Nick—”
    “—and it won’t just be a problem for visual identification. I’m talking about major decomposition of tissues, even degradation of DNA. Nothing will last long in that soup; by the time we get around to recovering bodies, there’ll be nothing left to find.”
    “Nick—”
    “We’re working against the clock here, Denny. This may be an open system, but time is the one thing that’s not open. In Somerset County we had all the time in the world to collect the remains from United 93. We had time to mark off the whole field, and walk the grid, but if we take that long here—”
    “First the living!”