After putting the camera away he completed his rapid but thorough external exam. While he worked, he kept up a verbal description for Warren’s benefit. He mentioned that there were no signs of injections other than iatrogenic ones, no trauma other than to the eye and cheek, and no signs of infectious disease.

Next, Jack got out his collection of syringes and began taking body fluid samples. He got blood from the heart, urine from the bladder, vitreous from the eyeballs, and cerebrospinal fluid from the central nervous system. Then he got out the nasogastric tube and got some stomach contents. He worked quickly for fear of being interrupted before he was finished.

Warren tried to keep his eyes closed through it all.

The funeral director had moved back against the wall. He stood vigilantly with his arms folded across his chest. It was obvious by his expression and the fact that his lip continued to twitch that he was not enthralled by Jack’s efforts, but he stayed silent. At least until Jack’s scalpel flashed in the bright fluorescent light.

“Wait!” Gordon cried when he caught a fleeting view of the knife. Pushing off the wall he quickly came forward. “What are you going to do now?”

“It’s done,” Jack said. He straightened up and plopped a wedge of facial tissue and eyelid into a sample bottle. He’d taken the sample with blinding speed.

“But you promised,” Gordon sputtered. With dismay he looked down at the gap in the skin of Connie’s face.

“True,” Jack said. “But I realized we’re obligated to make sure this swollen eye isn’t the result of an infectious process. And with my usual surgical precision I took only the tiniest sample. I’ve full confidence that you can all but make it disappear with your cosmetic wizardry.”

“This is outrageous!” Gordon complained. He bent over to study the defect and was dismayed. In his estimation, it was hardly tiny. Connie’s face looked horribly and irrevocably altered.

As rapidly as possible Jack threw all the sample containers, his used supplies, and even his inside-out rubber gloves into the satchel and snapped it closed. At this point he felt like a bank robber who’d just been given the cash and had to make his getaway. Grabbing Warren by the sleeve of his hooded sweatshirt, he pulled him toward the door.

“Let’s make this fast but orderly,” Jack whispered.

They went through the first set of double doors still hearing Gordon swearing in the background. After clearing the second set of doors, they began looking for Flash. He was nowhere to be seen. Exiting the building, they found him pacing on the front walk.

“Let’s go!” Jack ordered.