Silent Creed Read Online Free PDF Page B

rain slicker looked like she had never worked a disaster site.
    “Who’s this?” Vance pointed a thumb at her and asked Creed.
    Before Creed could respond, Isabel continued, “Mr. Creed was hired by the Department of Defense to search a particular area.”
    “Bolo and I can only search what’s been cleared to search.” Creed moved between the two, but he stared down Isabel. “That’s why I asked who was in charge. I have to follow protocol.”
    “Protocol?”
    “Your boss should have told you that.”
    “We have instructions—”
    “When Logan gets here,” Creed interrupted, “he can see about changing the protocol. Until then, Bolo and I search wherever Mr. Vance tells me he and his people have cleared.”
    “We’ll see about that.” She pulled out her cell phone and wagged it at him, as if the threat would change his mind.
    Creed turned to Vance. “I need to see a map of the area we’re talking about.”
    Vance watched Isabel stomp back to the SUV as he pulled a tin of tobacco from a pocket. He opened the lid and offered some to Creed. When Creed shook his head, Vance pinched a wad and tucked it under his lower lip, adding to the lump already there.
    “Hard thing to get over,” he said, “when the one you brought to the dance won’t dance with you. She won’t likely forget this.”
    Creed tamped down his impatience. With the thick cloud coverage and intermittent rain, they’d be losing daylight soon.
    “How about that map?”
    Vance yanked a laminated one from inside his rain jacket and unfolded it on a makeshift table. With his index finger he outlined the area they had cleared.
    “Where do you suspect the slide began?” Creed wanted to know.
    “We haven’t been able to send up a helicopter for any aerial views. Weather’s been a bitch. I’m estimating it started up here.” He pointed to a line just below the top of the mountain.
    “And it ends where we’re standing?”
    “For now. We’ve felt some additional debris flow off to our right. This rain don’t stop, even the area we cleared can’t be considered safe. Everything is still unstable. We tried to start in the most populated area. This thing gave way about ten-thirty last night. Some folks were already in bed.
    “Houses that used to sit about three acres above slid or toppled down this far.” Again, he ran his finger over the map. “We have one house still intact. Slid clean off its foundation and rode down until it slammed into another house. But the other houses . . .” He let out a long sigh. “Hard to even recognize any of the mess. You’ve done a slide before?”
    “Oso.”
    Vance nodded. Nothing else needed to be said. Oso, Washington, had been one of the worst.
    “Then you know what you get with these things: septic tanks, insulation, propane, a truckload of glass. A wicked brew of toxins that used to be homes.”
    “What about survivors?”
    “We’ve pulled fourteen. Two didn’t make it. Five were taken by ambulance. Some of the survivors are telling us they have family still in the rubble. But that’s just this area. We’re hoping you and your dog can help find them.”
    Creed pulled the yellow fluorescent vest over Bolo’s head and secured it in place. The dog wiggled in anticipation. This particular vest had a strap running along the top from side to side that could be used as a handle if Creed needed to yank the big dog up and out of the muck.
    “I didn’t realize there was so much gear for the dog,” Vance said from behind them, standing back but watching as Creed attached a tiny waterproof GPS unit inside a mesh pocket in the vest. It would sit just over Bolo’s right shoulder.
    “Normally I’d rather not have him off leash, but in this case being attached to me will slow him down.”
    Then Creed prepared himself. He tucked his pant legs into his hiking boots and ran four-inch waterproof tape around his ankles, sealing the seam. He already had on special socks that would wick the wetness