“So who runs photographic? I’m my own boss most of the time. We don’t fit into any cosy little niche so we get left to do our own thing. Where do I start.”
“There’s a pit on the other side of the hill. It’s been burned out, but thoroughly. There might just be a chance though that something is left. Perhaps a side caved in and covered a few pieces. Anyway, you’ll have some labourers with you, they’ll do the dirty work.”
“Great, sounds fun. What then?”
“Back here. And this won’t be.”
“Oh my. I never want to see anything like this again.” Swanson stalked about the edge of the deepening excavation, the motor on his camera making an almost continual whirring sound.
The truck had been gently pulled clear. Under close supervision the Russians were starting to remove the bodies. Twenty were laid in a neatly spaced row. More were being added all the time.
As each was carefully pulled from the deathly hold of others, even more were revealed. The excavation had grown almost to the full width of the small clearing.
“How soon can I have prints? And I’ll want copies.”
“I anticipated that a call from you wouldn’t be for any ordinary event. In fact I rushed out here as a sort of advance guard. Here come the rest of my guys right now.
The distinctive double beat of a Chinook was becoming audible. Swanson delved into his pocket and extracted a signal candle.
“Could you have one of your men ignite that close by, that chewed up chunk of land beside the road will do. If there’s a level space to set that down.”
The giant twin rotor helicopter was hovering almost over them. Slung beneath it dangled a wheeled cabin with shuttered windows.
“It’s a mobile developing room. Knew you’d be in a hurry as always, and this way I can guarantee privacy. Won’t have to send or transmit any material. Oh yes, and they’re bringing video cameras, complete with sound equipment. By the time I’m through you’ll have the comprehensive record you wanted. And if you’re going over to Division to ram it down the throat of whoever is keeping this under wraps, I’ll film that for you as well.”
EIGHTEEN
“Can you erect a screen of some description? This won’t be pretty. No point in spoiling everybody’s dinner.” On a table made from stacked gas cans and broken planks, the surgeon was setting out a row of knives and saws.
“I’ll have something rigged up right away.” Revell looked at the shining instruments. “How many will you want… want to…” He couldn’t think of the right words to use.
“How many have you exhumed so far?”
“About fifty so far, Doc, but it’s going to go a lot higher.”
“Five will give us a good sample. I hope you know what you’re getting us all into.”
“This has been forced on me, but I gave you the chance to cry off.”
“Yes, yes, I know you did. Sorry, that wasn’t fair. Right, I’ll need an assistant with a strong stomach.”
“There’s Sampson, our medic. He should be a help.”
“Hell, I don’t need any help to do an autopsy. I want these blasted wasps swatted away from me. Can’t stand the bloody pests. Prefer to work where there’s an unhealthy dose of contamination in the air, keeps the garish little buggers down. Actually I will use your medic. It’ll be good experience for him. At least he can watch.”
“Anything else, Doc?” Revell ducked as a wild swing to fend off a fly nearly connected with the side of his head.
“Sorry, thought it was a wasp. Just can’t stand the stupid things. Hate the way they creep up behind you and go ‘buzz’ in your ear when you’re least expecting it. I don’t suppose you’ve got anyone who can take dictation have you, possibly shorthand… no, silly question really.”
“We have.” Revell beckoned forward a bespectacled clerk. “This is Private Watts. Borrowed him from another Division’s HQ_. Been trying to get into this outfit for ages. Very keen, even brought his portable with him. He’ll have your report typed out for checking before you go.”
“Major, this wasn’t quite what I had in mind,” Watts adopted a pained expression. “Office work is what I do all the time. You said hazardous duty. I can’t tell my girlfriend this is what I’ve been doing.”
“You can’t tell anyone what you’ve been doing, boy. If you do, you’ll find out just how hazardous this is.”
The surgeon pulled on long rubber gloves as a stretcher holding a light load, a child’s remains, was brought to the table. Revell noticed the sudden change of colour in the young clerk’s face. “You don’t have to look.”
“No, you bloody don’t. Take forever to do these autopsies if you keep fainting all over the place. Fall on the table and I might do you before you know it.”
The doc winked at Revell before squaring his shoulders, taking up a large knife and leaning over to make the first cut.
Watts didn’t have time to look away. His head started to spin, before he realized that it was only the body’s clothing being cut away.
“I thought you weren’t going to look.”
“I’m not going to.” Watts caught a last glimpse of the skinny doll-like form on the table. He shuddered, and moved aside as an improvised canvas screen was erected about the table. “How do you ever get used to doing things like that?”
“You don’t. Those that try to, go nuts. Me, I divorce myself from reality. For instance I wear frilly underwear and subscribe to Readers Digest before they send me junk mail.”
“Are you serious, Doc?” After choosing a pen from a multi-coloured selection lining his top pocket, Watts turned his notebook to a clean page.
“No, of course I’m not. I prefer part-works.” There was the rumble of heavy traffic from the road. A convoy of six-wheeled M820s shouldered past the burnt-out Hummer and growled to a halt short of the felled trees. Their overhanging van bodies were festooned with masses of artificial camouflage, liberally supplemented by quantities of dead foliage, including whole saplings.
“Where do you want us, Major?”
“Hell.” Revell scanned the line of trucks. “I wasn’t expecting you to bring the whole outfit.”
Captain Lee leaned from a cab window. The grin on his face disappeared when from his high vantage point he saw the work going on inside the screened off enclosure, and the seemingly endless lines of small bodies close by. “My CO is off on leave. I thought I’d take them all out on a tactical exercise. Pure coincidence I chose this area, of course.”
“Here’s the location we want scanned.” Revell handed up a map. “I’ve marked it. Can do?”
“No problem.” Lee tossed the folded paper to the corporal beside him in the cab. “Need to get a mite nearer though, and spread out a little. Looks like we’ll have to do a spot of cross country motoring. These big brutes aren’t so hot at that. Good thing we brought a wrecker. Now that is something that might be missed. It’s the only good one in the Division. So how much information do you want?”
“What can you get for me?” Revell was distracted by the next truck in line. From the rear of its capacious body a tall telescopic mast was growing. At fifty feet, topping the highest trees, it stopped and the small dish atop it began to rotate.
“Ignore that. It’ll be one of my sergeants getting the football results. He likes to show off with that thing. Has a sticker on the back of the truck that gets us into no end of hassle. Says ‘Electronic Intelligence have longer ones than anyone else’.”
“So what else can he get.”
“Between us, anything. Give me twelve hours and I’ll give you a printout on every power source, every emission and every transmission, to and from that area. You can have a breakdown of quantity and type of transport operating there and passing through. Usually we can pinpoint flak sites, radars, parking lots… you name it, we label it.”