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“Come on,” Kurt snapped, “either you want my help or you don’t”

“The deadus so”

“Do you knohere they came from?”

Bradshaw shook his head “If we knew that, there would be no need for this lovely conversation”

“I suggest you start looking underwater,” Kurt said, “because thatfrom DCS”

“DCS?”

“Decoen in the joints It causes horrendous pain and a hunched-over appearance — if the patient can even walk, that is You get it fro too quickly Noren and tias back into suspension But wherever this guy cao back down Kind of hard to do when you’re running for your life”

Bradshaw all but snickered “He’d just been in a crash, playing stuntman without a seat belt or a helmet More likely, he was injured in the wreck”

“He wasn’t li one side He was bent over like the Hunchback of Notre-Dahten up Those are the most typical effects of a disease commonly called the bends”

Bradshaw seeuess He sucked at his teeth and then shook his head “Not a bad thought,” he said, “but here’s why you’re wrong”

He pointed to a brownish red smear on the bloodstained papers It was oddly iridescent under the light

“He was covered in this,” Bradshaw said, “every pore, every fiber of his clothes So was the last courier we found dead”

“What is it?”

“It’s a type of soil, called a palaeosol,” Bradshaw explained “Common in the outback Not found underwater If it tracks with the other guy, it’ll contain atraces of uys are opera

ting in the desert somewhere Not from a submarine”