hit on
the warm pavement but beginning to coat the pitiful flotsam of the
accident.

The troopers finished the gruesome task of getting the bodies into the
morgue sacks and laid beside the dispensary ramp for the ambulance to
pick up with the surviving victim. Car 119's MSO had joined Kelly in
Beulah's dispensary to give what help she might. The four patrol
troopers began the grim task of probing the scattered wreckage for
other possible victims, personal possessions and identification. They
were stacking a small pile of hand luggage when the long, low bulk of
the ambulance swung out of the police lane and rolled to a stop.
Longer than the patrol cars but without the non-medical emergency
facilities, the ambulance was in reality a mobile hospital. A full,
scrubbed-up surgical team was waiting in the main operating room even
as the ramps opened and the techs headed for Car 56. The team had been
briefed by radio on the condition of the patient; had read the full
recordings of the diagnostician; and were watching transmitted pulse
and respiration graphs on their own screens while the transfer was
being made.

The two women MSOs had unlocked the surgical table in Beulah's
dispensary and a plastic tent covered not only the table and the
patient, but also the plasma and Regen racks overhead. The entire
table and rig slid down the ramp onto a motor-driven dolly from the
ambulance. Without delay, it wheeled across the open few feet of
pavement into the ambulance and to the surgery room. The techs locked
the table into place in the other vehicle and left the surgery. From a
storage compartment, they wheeled out a fresh patrol dispensary table
and rack and placed it in Kelly's miniature surgery. The dead went
into the morgue aboard the ambulance, the ramp closed and the
ambulance swung around and headed across the traffic lanes to
eastbound NAT-26 and Philadelphia.

Outside, the four troopers had completed the task of collecting what
little information they could from the smashed vehicles.

They returned to their cars and One One Nine's medical-surgical
officer headed back to her own cubby-hole.

[Illustration]

The other patrol car swung into position almost touching Beulah's left
flank. With Ben at the control seat, on command, both cars extended
broad bulldozer blades from their bows. "Let's go," Ben ordered. The
two patrol vehicles moved slowly down the roadway, pushing all of the
scattered scraps and parts onto a s