Dean Koontz - Phantoms

Turning to Bryce again, smiling through his faceplate, Copperfield said, "That better?”

:"Better," Bryce said." But I still want an explanation.”

"Just SOP," Copperfield said." Standard Operating Procedure. It's part of the normal drill. We don't have anything against you or your people, Sheriff. You are Sheriff Hammond, aren't you? I remember you from the conference in Chicago last year.”

"Yes, sir, I'm Hammond. But you still haven't given me a suitable explanation. SOP just isn't good enough.”

"No need to raise your voice, Sheriff." With one gloved hand, Copperfield tapped the squawk box on his chest." This thing's not just a speaker. It's also equipped with an extremely sensitive microphone. You see, going into a place where there might be serious biological or chemical contamination, we've got to consider the possibility that we might be overwhelmed by a lot of sick and dying people. Now, we simply aren't equipped to administer cures or even amelioratives. We're a research team. Strictly pathology, not treatment. It's our job to find out all we can about the nature of the contaminant, so that properly equipped medical teams can come in right behind us and deal with the survivors. But dying and desperate people might not understand that we can't treat them. They might attack the mobile labs out of anger and frustration.”

:"And fear," Tal Whitman said.

"Exactly," the general said, missing the irony." Our psychological stress simulations indicate that it's a very real possibility.”

"And if sick and dying people did try to disrupt your work," Jenny said, "would you kill them?”

Copperfield turned to her. The sun flashed off his faceplate, transforming it into a mirror, and for a moment she could not see him.

Then he shifted slightly, and his face emerged into view again, but not enough of it for her to see what he really looked like. It was a face out of context, framed in the transparent portion of his helmet.

He said, "Dr. Paige, I presume?”

:"Yes.”

"Well, Doctor, if terrorists or agents of a foreign government committed an act of biological warfare against an American community, it would be up to me and my people to isolate the microbe, identify it, and suggest measures to contain it. That is a sobering responsibility. If we allowed anyone, even the suffering victims, to deter us, the danger of the plague spreading would increase dramatically.”

"So," Jenny said, still pressing him, "if sick and dying people did try to disrupt your work, you'd kill them.”

"Yes," he said flatly." Even decent people must occasionally choose between the lesser of two evils.”

Jenny looked around at Snowfield, which was as much of a graveyard in the morning sun as it had been in the gloom of night. General Copperfield was right. Anything he might have to do to protect his team would only be a little evil. The big evil was what had been done-what was still being done-to this town.

She wasn't quite sure why she had been so testy with him.

Maybe it was because she had thought of him and his people as the cavalry, riding in to save the day. She had wanted all the problems to be solved, all the ambiguities cleared up instantly upon Copperfield's arrival. When she'd realized that it wasn't- going to work out that way, when they had actually pulled guns on her, the dream had faded fast. Irrationally, she had blamed the general.

That wasn't like her. Her nerves must be more badly frayed than she had thought.

Bryce began to introduce his men to the general, but Copperfield interrupted." I don't mean to be rude, Sheriff, but we don't have time for introductions. Later. Right now, I want to move. I want to see all those things you told me about on the phone last night, and then I want to get an autopsy started.”

He wants to skip introductions because it doesn't make sense to be chummy with people who may be doomed, Jenny thought.

If we develop disease symptoms in the next few hours, if it turns out to be a brain disease, and if we go berserk and try to rush the mobile labs, it'll be easier for him to have us shot if he doesn't know us very well.

Stop it! she told herself angrily.

She looked at Lisa and thought: Good heavens, kid, if I'm this frazzled, what a state you must be in. Yet You've kept as stiff an upper lip as anyone. What a damned fine kid to have for a sister.

"Before we show you around," Bryce told Copperfield, "you ought to know about the thing we saw last night and what happened to”

"No, no," Copperfield said impatiently." I want to go through it step by step. Just the way you found things. There'll be plenty of time to tell me what happened last night. Let's get moving.”

"But, you see, it's beginning to look as if it can't possibly be a disease that's wiped out this town," Bryce protested.

The general said, "My people have come here to investigate possible CBW connections. We'll do that first. Then we can consider other possibilities. SOP, Sheriff.”

Bryce sent most of his men back into the Hilltop Inn, keeping only Tal and Frank with him.

Jenny took Lisa's hand, and they, too, headed back to the inn.

Copperfield called out to her." Doctor! Wait a moment. I want you with us. You were the first physician on the scene.

If the condition of the corpses has changed, you're the one most likely to notice.”

Jenny looked at Lisa." Want to come along?”

"Back to the bakery? No, thanks." The girl shuddered.

Thinking of the eerily sweet, childlike voice that had come from the sink drain, Jenny said, "Don't go in the kitchen. And if you have to go to the bathroom, ask someone to go along with you.”

"Jenny, they're all guys!”

"I don't care. Ask Gordy. He can stand outside the stall with his back turned.”

"Jeez, that'd be embarrassing.”

"You want to go into that bathroom by yourself again?”

The color drained out of the girl's face." No way.

"Good. Keep close to the others. And I mean close. Not just in the same room. Stay in the same part of the room.

Promise?”

" Promise.”

Jenny thought about the two telephone calls from Wargle this morning.

She thought of the gross threats he'd made.

Although they had been the threats of a dead man and should have been meaningless, Jenny was frightened.

"You be careful, too," Lisa said.

She kissed the girl on the cheek." Now hurry and catch up with Gordy before he turns the corner.”

Lisa ran, calling ahead: "Gordy! Wait up!”

The tall young deputy stopped at the corner and looked back.

Watching Lisa sprint along the cobblestone sidewalk, Jenny felt her heart tightening.

She thought: What if, when I come back, she's gone? What if I never see her alive again?

Cold Terror Liebermann's Bakery.

Bryce, Tal, Frank, and Jenny entered the kitchen. General Copperfield and the nine scientists on his team followed closely, and four soldiers, toting submachine guns, brought up the rear.

The kitchen was crowded. Bryce felt uncomfortable. What if they were attacked while they were all jammed together?

What if they had to get out in a hurry?

The two heads were exactly where they had been last night: in the ovens, peering through the glass. On the worktable the severed hands still clutched the rolling pin.

Niven, one of the general's people, took several photographs of the kitchen from various angles, then about a dozen closeups of the heads and hands.

The others kept edging around the room to get out of Niven's way. The photographic record had to be completed before the forensic work could begin, which was not unlike the routine policemen followed at the scene of a crime.

As the spacesuited scientists moved, their rubberized clothing squeaked.