The fireman looked at me as if I'd suggested the house had been hit by a comet.

"It's just floorboards and shit that fel down from this level."

"That 'shit' may help establish sequence," I said, my voice as chil y as the icicles on the counter behind us. "Or body position."

His face went rigid.

"There could stil be hot spots down there, lady. You don't want one flaring up in your face, do you?"

I had to admit I didn't.

"And that guy's past caring."

Inside my hard hat I could feel a throbbing along the side of my pretty skul .

"If the victim is as burned as you suggest, your col eagues could be obliterating major body parts."

His jaw muscle bunched as he looked past me for support. LaManche said nothing.

' "The chiefs probably not gonna let you in there, anyway," he said.

"I need to get in now to stabilize what's there. Especial y the teeth." I thought of baby boys. I hoped for teeth. Lots of them. Al adult. "If there are any left."

The fireman gave me a head to toe, sizing up my five-foot-five, one-hundred-twenty-pound frame. Though the thermal outfitting disguised my shape and the hard hat hid my long hair, he saw enough to convince himself I belonged elsewhere.

"She's not real y going down there?" He looked to LaManche for an al y.

"Dr. Brennan wil be doing the recovery."

"Estidecolistabernac!"

This time I didn't need translation. Fireman Macho thought the job required testicles.

"Hot spots are no problem," I said, looking him dead in the eye. "In fact, I usual y prefer to work right in the flames. I find it warmer."

With that he gripped the side rails, swung onto the ladder, and slid down, never touching the rungs with his feet.

Great. He also does tricks. I could imagine what he was scripting for the chief.

"These are volunteers," said LaManche, almost smiling. He looked like Mr. Ed in a hard hat. "I must finish upstairs, but I wil rejoin you shortly."

I watched him weave a path to the door, his large, hooded frame hunched in concentration. Seconds later the chief emerged on the ladder. It was the same man who'd directed us to the upstairs bodies.

"You're Dr. Brennan?" he asked in English.

I nodded once, ready for a fight.

"Luc Grenier. I head up the St-Jovite volunteer squad." He unsnapped his chin strap and let it dangle. He was older than his misogynous teammate.

"We're going to need another ten, fifteen minutes to secure the lower level. This was the last section we put down, so there could stil be hot spots." The strap jumped as he talked. "This was a pisser, and we don't want a flare-up." He pointed behind me. "See how that pipe's deformed?"

I turned to look.

"That's copper. To melt copper you've got to get up over eleven hundred degrees centigrade." He shook his head, and the strap swung back and forth.