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Bryce indicated the tape recorder "Aren’t you going to switch that off until we get there?"

"Nope We started recording from the moment ere allowed past the roadblock, and we’ll keep recording until we’ve found out what’s happened to this town That way, if so, if we all die before we find the solution, the new team will know every step we took They won’t have to start froht even have a detailed record of the fatal ot us killed"

The second stop was the arts and crafts gallery into which Frank Autry had led the three other h the showroom, into the rear office, and up the stairs to the second-floor apart co up the narrow stairs, their faces theatrically gri amplified by the closed spaces of their helmets and projected out of the speakers on their chests at an exaggerated volume, and ominous sound It was like one of those 1950s science fictionequally corny-and Frank couldn’t help sue smile vanished when he entered the apartain The corpse here it had been last night, lying at the foot of the refrigerator, wearing only blue paja

Frank moved out of the way of Copperfield’s people and joined Bryce beside the counter where the toaster oven stood

As Copperfield again requested silence from the uninitiated, the scientists stepped carefully around the sandwich fixings that were scattered across the floor They crowded around the corpse

In a few minutes they were finished with a preliminary examination of the body

Copperfield turned to Bryce and said, "We’re going to take this one for an autopsy"

"You still think it looks as if we’re dealing with just a simple incident of CBW?" Bryce asked, as he had asked before

"It’s entirely possible, yes," the general said

"But the bruising and swelling," Tal said

"Could be allergic reactions to a nerve gas," Houk said

"If you’ll slide up the leg of the pajamas," Jenny said, "I believe you’ll find that the reaction extends even to unexposed skin"

"Yes, it does," Copperfield said, "We’ve already looked"

"But how could the skin react even where no nerve gas cah penetration factor," Houk said, "They’ll pass right throughthat’ll stop arht, and just e’re not "There’s another body here," Bryce told the general, "Do you want to have a look at that one, too?"

"Absolutely"

"It’s this way, sir," Frank said

He led theun drawn

Frank dreaded entering the bedroom where the dead woman lay naed in the rule had said about her, and he had the terrible feeling that Stu was going to be there now, coupled with the blonde, their dead bodies locked in cold and timeless passion

But only the wos still spread wide Mouth open in an eternal scream

When Copperfield and his people had finished a prelio, Frank made sure they had seen the22 automatic which she had apparently emptied at her killer "Do you think she would have shot at just a cloud of nerve gas, General?"

"Of course not," Copperfield said, "But perhaps she was already affected by the gas, already brain da at hallucinations, at phantoms"

"Phantoms," Frank said, "Yes, sir, that’s just about what they would’ve had to’ve been Because, see, she fired all ten shots in the clip, yet we found only two expended slugs-one in that highboy over there, one in the here you see the hole Thatat"

"I knew these people," Doc Paige said, stepping forward "Gary and Sandy Wechlas She was so She won several competitions at the county fair last year"

"So she had the skill to ht hits didn’t stop the thing she was trying to stop Eight hits didn’t even make it bleed Of course, phantoms don’t bleed But, sir, would a phantos with it?"

Copperfield stared at hi, too

The soldiers weren’t only frowning, they were looking around uneasily

Frank could see that the condition of the two bodies especially the woeneral and his people The fear in everyone’s eyes was sharper now Although they didn’t want to ad beyond their experience They were still clinging to explanations that inning to have doubts

Copperfield’s people had brought a zippered plastic body bag with them In the kitchen, they slipped the paja, then carried it out of the building and left it on the sidewalk, intending to pick it up again on the way back to the mobile labs

Bryce led them to Gil Martin’s Market Inside, back by the milk coolers where it had happened, he told them about Jake Johnson’s disappearance, "No screams No sound at all Just a few seconds of darkness A few seconds But when the lights caone"

Copperfield said, "You looked"

"Everywhere"

"He could have run away," Roberts said

"Yes," Dr Yas he’d seen…"

"My God," Goldstein said, "what if he left Snowfield? Hethe infection"

"No, no, no Jake wouldn’t desert," Bryce said, "He wasn’t exactly the ressive officer on the force, but he wouldn’t run out on reed, "Besides, Jake’s old man was once county sheriff, so there’s a lot of family pride involved"

"And Jake was a cautiouson ih to run, he’d have taken a squad car He sure wouldn’t have walked out of town"