'He was escorting a prisoner.' Ryan drew air through his nostrils, exhaled. 'They were connecting to an Air Canada flight at Dules.'

'Oh, God. Oh, my God. I am so sorry.'

We stood mute, unsure what to say, until the silence was pierced by an eerie, quavering sound, folowed by a series of high-pitched yips. Were our friends chalenging us to We stood mute, unsure what to say, until the silence was pierced by an eerie, quavering sound, folowed by a series of high-pitched yips. Were our friends chalenging us to a rematch?

'We'd better get back,' Ryan said.

'No argument here.'

Ryan unzipped his jumpsuit, took a flashlight from his belt, flicked the switch, and raised it to shoulder level.

'After you.'

'Wait. Let me have the light.'

He handed it to me, and I crossed to the spot where I'd first seen the wolf.

Ryan folowed.

'If you're hunting mushrooms, this is not a good time.'

He stopped when he saw what lay on the ground.

The foot looked macabre in the yelow beam, its flesh ending in a crushed mass just above the ankle. Shadows danced in and out of the grooves and pits left by carnivore teeth.

Puling fresh gloves from my pocket, I snapped one on and picked up the foot. Then I marked the spot with another glove and secured it with a rock.

'Shouldn't it be mapped?'

'We can't tel where the pack found this. Besides, if we leave the thing here it's puppy chow.'

'You're the boss.'

I folowed Ryan out of the woods, holding the foot as far from my body as possible.

When we got back to the command center, Ryan went into the NTSB trailer and I took my find to the temporary morgue. After hearing my explanation of its provenance and why I'd colected it, the intake team assigned it a number, bagged it, and sent it to one of the refrigerated trucks. I rejoined the recovery operation.

===OO=OOO=OO===

Two hours later Earl found me and delivered a note: Report to the morgue. 7 A.M. LT.

He produced an address and told me I was done for the day. No amount of argument would change his mind.

I went to decontamination, showered under scalding water for as long as I could take it, and put on fresh clothes. I left the trailer with Christmas-bow skin, but at least the smel was gone.

Clomping down the steps, as exhausted as I'd ever been, I noticed Ryan leaning against a bubble-top cruiser ten feet up the access road, talking with Lucy Crowe.

'You look beat,' said Crowe when I drew near.

'I'm good,' I said. 'Earl puled me in.'

'How's it going out there?'

'It's going.'