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The Bite of the Raptor

The tropical rain fell in drenching sheets, ha down the round in a torrent Roberta Carter sighed, and stared out theFrom the clinic, she could hardly see the beach or the ocean beyond, cloaked in low fog This wasn&039;t what she had expected when she had coe of Bah��a Anasco, on the west coast of Costa Rica, to spend twophysician Bobbie Carter had expected sun and relaxation, after two grueling years of residency in eo

She had been in Bah��a Anasco now for three weeks And it had rained every day

Everything else was fine She liked the isolation of Bah��a Anasco, and the friendliness of its people Costa Rica had one of the twenty best medical systee, the clinic ell 6n, was intelligent and well trained Bobbie was able to practice a level of o

But the rain! The constant, unending rain!

Across the exa room, Manuel cocked his head "Listen," he said

"Believe me, I hear it," Bobbie said

"No Listen"

And then she caught it, another sound blended with the rain, a deeper rued until it was clear: the rhythht, They can&039;t be flying in weather like this

But the sound built steadily, and then the helicopter burst low through the ocean fog and roared overhead, circled, and ca back over the water, near the fishing boats, then case sideways to the rickety wooden dock, and back toward the beach

It was looking for a place to land

It was a big-bellied Sikorsky with a blue stripe on the side, with the words "InGen Construction" That was the na a new resort on one of the offshore islands The resort was said to be spectacular, and very complicated; many of the local people were e on for e Auests could play and drink their daiquiris without having any contact with the real life of the country

Bobbie wondered as so urgent on that island that the helicopter would fly in this weather Through the windshield she saw the pilot exhale in relief as the helicopter settled onto the wet sand of the beach Unifor side door She heard frantic shouts in Spanish, and Manuel nudged her

They were calling for a doctor

Two black crewmen carried a limp body toward her, while a white man barked orders The white es of his Mets baseball cap "Is there a doctor here?" he called to her, as she ran up

"I&039;m Dr Carter," she said The rain fell in heavy drops, pounding her head and shoulders The red-haltedcut-off jeans and a tank top She had a stethoscope over her shoulder, the bell already rusted frois We&039;ve got a very sick man here, doctor"

"Then you better take him to San Jose," she said San Jose was the capital, just twenty minutes away by air

"We would, but we can&039;t get over the mountains in this weather You have to treat hiside the injured man as they carried hi away the blood-soaked shirt, she saw a big slashing rip along his shoulder, and another on the leg

"What happened to him?" "Construction accident," Ed shouted "He fell One of the backhoes ran over hi, unconscious

Manuel stood by the bright green door of the clinic, waving his arh and set it on the table in the center of the roo the light over the kid and bent to examine the wounds Iood The kid would al laceration ran froe of the wound, the flesh was shredded At the center, the shoulder was dislocated, pale bones exposed A second slash cut through the heavy h to reveal the pulse of the fe had been ripped open

"Tell ain about this injury," she said

"I didn&039;t see it," Ed said "They say the backhoe dragged him"

"Because it al the wound Like ency room physicians, she could remember in detail patients she had seen even years before She had seen two s One was a two-year-old child who had been attacked by a Rottweiler dog The other was a drunken circus attendant who had had an encounter with a Bengal tiger Both injuries were similar There was a characteristic look to an animal attack

"Mauled?" Ed said "No, no It was a backhoe, believeas if he had done so inexperienced local workmen on the resort construction, they must have accidents all the tie?"

"Yes," she said "After you block him"

She bent lower, probed the wound with her fingertips If an earth mover had rolled over him, dirt would be forced deep into the wound But there wasn&039;t any dirt, just a slippery, slie odor, a kind of rotten stench, a s like it before

"How long ago did this happen?"

"An hour"

Again she noticed how tense Ed Regis was He was one of those eager, nervous types And he didn&039;t look like a construction foreman More like an executive He was obviously out of his depth

Bobbie Carter turned back to the injuries So ht No soil contamination of the wound site, and no crush-injury component Mechanical trauma of any sort-an auto injury, a factory accident-al But here there was none Instead, the man&039;s skin was shredded -ripped-across his shoulder, and again across his thigh

It really did look like a maul On the other hand, most of the body was unain at the head, the arms, the hands -

The hands

She felt a chill when she looked at the kid&039;s bands There were short slashing cuts on both palms, and bruises on the wrists and forearh to knohat that ht," she said "Wait outside"

"Why?" Ed said, alarmed He didn&039;t like that

"Do you want me to help him, or not?" she said, and pushed him out the door and closed it on his face She didn&039;t knoas going on, but she didn&039;t like it Manuel hesitated "I continue to wash?"

"Yes," she said She reached for her little Olympus point-and-shoot She took several snapshots of the injury, shifting her light for a better view It really did look like bites, she thought Then the kid groaned, and she put her caue thick

"Raptor," he said "Lo sa raptor"

At those words, Manuel froze, stepped back in horror

"What does it mean?" Bobbie said

Manuel shook his head "I do not know, doctor &039;Lo sa raptor&039;-no es espa?ol "