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Monday - September 13

"Whose?"

"The doctors you want to assist you. What are their full names?"

"They are Dr. Ted Jensen and Dr. Monica Stewart."

Directing her attention back to the agents, the president continues speaking, "I want you to locate Doctors' Ted Jensen and Monica Stewart immediately, and bring them both back here without delay. If they ask any questions, tell them their answers will be forthwith upon their arrival. Go." The agents leave as the president's command is reinforced with a wave of her hand.

After the agents leave the room, I go back to table one, and begin to take a more telescopic view of the remains. Standing between table one and table two, I am clueless to see any differences of the violence inflicted upon them both.

I walk over to table three, and notice nothing out of the unusual from the other two. Then out of the corner of my eye, I see something not quite right. Before leaning over the victim, I first make sure my helmet is locked tight. Then I direct my attention to the abdominal area, where I notice a small, round, black object. Curious, I circle back between tables one and two to see if the same object is in them; it is not. Julie watches intensely as I return to table three, and notices my head scanning about to see what the object is. I stand up and look at her as she gives me a puzzled look. I walk over to the instrument table, pick up some toothed forceps, and return to table three. Carefully, I pick up the round object, and looking carefully through my helmet lenses, I try to make out what the object is. Immediately, I freeze, and look at Julie.

With her eyes widened, she asks, "What is it, John? What's wrong?"

Stunned by what I think I'm holding, I nervously reply, "I think this was a fetus. It's small, but it clearly has the remains of where the eyes were. The sockets are visible."

In total disbelief, Julie says, "Bring it over here to the microscope, John. We must enlarge it to make sure."

I carefully take the object over to the microscope, and lay it gently on the stage plate. After adjusting the image to project more clearly, it becomes obvious as to what I'm seeing. I have no doubt that this was a fetus.

Composing myself, I say to Julie, "Well, this victim was obviously female. Now, the questions are who was she, and was her pregnancy legal?"

"This will be a nightmare, John," Julie says, as she turns away in bewilderment. "What in the hell literally eats away all flesh and tissue, and leaves nothing but a horrible, disfigured skeletal mass?"

"Well, I speculate it will be difficult to identify who they are. We can try to do DNA testing, but the remains are contaminated. There aren't any distinguishable fingerprints or footprints to use. Since the eyes are gone, a retina scan is out of the question. Their teeth have fallen out through the ingestion period as they were being consumed by the virus; that's if it is a virus. The only way we identified table number three is because she's pregnant, or was pregnant. That doesn't mean the other two are not females."

Pausing, I begin to think how these victims, these things that use to be people, will be identified. I look at all three of them, wondering who they were, and what were they doing when this happened. And what did happen?

"Okay," I say, breaking the silence, "First things first. I will need anything that I ask for at my disposal. I will need a meticulous team to keep detailed records. Madame President, if I need other doctors, scientists, and researchers on this, do I have your permission to do so, and without any questions?"

Julie and I look to the president, wondering how she will respond. The president takes a deep breath, looks at the screen of the deceased fetus, and calmly says, "Yes, Dr. Bennett, you may have anything you need at your disposal. All I ask is that you keep me informed of everything that you do. Meaning, I want daily reports, and I want immediate contact if you find anything that I need to know. Is that understood, Dr. Bennett?"