that Snowfield had been stricken by a man-made microorganism, Sara's work would become central to the investigation. She would direct the study of the microbe's morphology, and when that was completed, she would have a major role in attempting to determine the function of the bug.
Like Dr. Valdez, Sara Yamaguchi had begun to wonder if Isley and Arkham might become more essential to the investigation than she had thought. This morning, their area of expertise had seemed as exotic as voodoo. But now, in light of what had taken place since the team's arrival in Snowfield, she was forced to admit that Isley's and Arkham's specially seemed increasingly pertinent.
And like Dr. Valdez, she was worried.
Dr. Wilson Bettenby, chief of the civilian scientific arm of the CBW Civilian Defense Unit's West Coast team, sat at a computer terminal, two seats away from Dr. Valdez.
Bettenby was running an automated analysis program on several water samples. The samples were inserted into a processor that distilled the water, stored the distillate, and subjected the filtered-out substances to spectrographic analysis and other tests. Bettenby was not searching for microorganisms; that would require different procedures than these. This machine only identified and quantified all mineral and chemical elements present in the water; the data was displayed on the cathode ray tube.
All but one of the water samples had been taken from taps in the kitchens and bathrooms of houses and businesses along Vail Lane. They proved to be free of dangerous chemical impurities.
The other water sample was the one that Deputy Autry had collected from the kitchen floor of the apartment on Vail Lane, sometime last night. According to Sheriff Hammond, puddles of water and saturated carpets had been discovered in several buildings. By this morning, however, the water had pretty much evaporated, except for a couple of damp carpets from which Bettenby wouldn't have been able to obtain a clean sample. He put the deputy's sample into the processor.
In a few minutes, the computer flashed up the complete chemical-mineral analysis of the water and of the residue that remained after all of the liquid in the sample had been distilled:
The computer went on at considerably greater length, flashing up the findings for every substance that might ordinarily be detected. The results were the same. In its undistilled state, the water contained absolutely no traces of any elements other than its two components, hydrogen and oxygen. And complete distillation and filtration had left behind no residue whatsoever, not even any trace elements. Autry's sample couldn't have come from the town's water supply, for it was neither chlorinated nor fluoridated. It wasn't bottled water, either. Bottled water would have had a nominal mineral content. Perhaps there was a filtration system underneath the kitchen sink in that apartment — a Culligan unit — but even if there was, the water that passed through it would still possess more mineral content than this. What Autry had collected was the purest laboratory grade of distilled and multiply filtered water.
So… what was it doing all over that kitchen floor?
Bettenby stared at the computer screen, frowning.
Was the small lake at Brookhart's liquor store also composed of this ultrapure water?
Why would anyone go around town emptying out gallons and gallons of distilled water?
And where would they find it in such quantity to begin with?
Strange.
Jenny, Bryce, and Lisa were at a table in one corner of the dining room at the Hilltop Inn.
Major Isley and Captain Arkham, who wore the decontamination suits that had no names on the helmets, were sitting on two stools, across the table. They had brought the news about Corporal Velazquez. They had also brought a tape recorder, which was now in the center of the table.
“I still don't see why this can't wait,” Bryce said.
“We won't take long,” Major Isley said.
“I've got a search team ready to go,” Bryce said, “We've got to go through every building in this town, take a body count, find out how many are dead and how many are missing, and look for some clue as to what the hell killed all these people. There's several days of work ahead of us, especially since we can't continue with the search past sundown. I won't let my men go prowling around at night, when the power might go off at any second. Damned if I will.”
Jenny thought of Wargle's eaten face. The hollow eye sockets.
Major Isley said, “Just a few questions.”
Arkham switched on the tape recorder.
Lisa was staring hard at the major and at the captain.
Jenny wondered what was on the girl's mind.
“We'll start with you, Sheriff,” Major Isley said, “In the forty-eight hours prior to these events, did your office receive any reports of power failures or telephone service interruptions?”
“If there were problems of that nature,” Bryce said, “people would generally call the utility companies, not the sheriff.”
“Yes, but wouldn't the utilities notify you? Aren't power and telephone outages contributory to criminal activity?”
Bryce nodded, “Of course. And to the best of my knowledge, we didn't receive any such alerts.”
Captain Arkham leaned forward. “What about difficulties with television and radio reception in this area?”
“Not that I'm aware of,” Bryce said.
“Any reports of unexplainable explosions?”
“Explosions?”
“Yes,” Isley said, “Explosions or sonic booms or any unusually loud and untraceable noises.”
“No. Nothing like that.”
Jenny wondered what in the devil they were driving at.
Isley hesitated and said, “Any reports of unusual aircraft in the vicinity?”
“No.”
Lisa said, “You guys aren't part of General Copperfield's team, are you? That's why you don't have names on your helmets.”
Bryce said, “And your decontamination suits don't fit as well as everyone else's. Theirs are custom tailored. Yours are strictly off the rack.”
“Very observant,” Isley said.
“If you aren't with the CBW project,” Jenny said, “what are you doing here?”
“We didn't want to bring it up at the start,” Isley said, “We thought we might get straighter answers from you if you weren't immediately aware of what we were looking for.”
Arkham said, “We're not Army Medical Corps. We're Air Force.”
“Project Skywatch,” Isley said, “We're not exactly a secret organization, but… well… let's just say we discourage publicity.”
“Skywatch?” Lisa said, brightening, “Are you talking about UFOs? Is that it? Flying saucers?”
Jenny saw Isley wince at the words “flying saucers.”
Isley said, “We don't go around checking out every crackpot report of little green men from Mars. For one thing, we don't have the funds to do that. Our job is planning for the scientific, social, and military aspects of mankind's Just encounter with an alien intelligence. We're really more of a think tank than anything else.”
Bryce shook his head. “No one around here's been reporting flying saucers.”
“But that's just what Major Isley means,” Arkham said. “You see, our studies indicate the Just encounter might start out in such a bizarre way that we wouldn't even recognize it as a first encounter. The popular concept of spaceships descending from the sky… well, it might not be like that. If we find ourselves dealing with
“Which is why we check into strange phenomena that don't seem to be UFO related at first glance,” Arkham said. “Like last spring, up in Vermont, there was a house in which an extremely active poltergeist was at work. Furniture was levitated. Dishes flew across the kitchen and smashed against the wall. Streams of water burst from walls in which there were no water pipes. Balls of flame erupted out of empty air—”
