"James Herbert - The Survivor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert James)

So far: no fault.

'Now, the "human factor". You, as the only survivor, have been of no help at all.' It
was typical of Tewson that there was no hint of apology in his bluntness; he was
too absorbed in technicalities at the moment to concern himself with human
sensitivity. 'Flight-training records of all the crew and their complete medical
history has been inspected. You, yourself, were subjected to a complete medical
examination immediately after the crash. This wasn't just to see if you'd sustained
any internal injuries. Blood and urine tests were included in the examination. Just
how much work the captain and yourself had been doing over the past few months
was also ascertained, and whether you'd both had sufficient rest prior to the flight.
The remains of your flight bags were retrieved from the cockpit and enough was
left of them to establish that neither contained any drugs or medicines. No
problem. All your proficiency tests -both your own and Captain Rogan's - had
been excellent over the past year. Everything, so far, has checked. Except you
couldn't have been in the place you were supposed to have been at the time of the
crash.

'Right. Let me go on. Positions of the dead bodies, both inside and outside the
aircraft, have been charted. We even found some poor souls at the bottom of the
river that runs near the field. The interesting thing is that a large concentration of
overlapping bodies was found inside the aircraft, burned beyond recognition and,
because of their mutilated condition, they had obviously been subjected to a
tremendous blast of some kind.'

Keller shuddered and wondered at his companion's lack of feeling for the

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unfortunate victims but, by now, Tewson was too carried away by his own intense
interest in the investigation to concern himself with the human element.

Tewson went on: 'Now, I've been involved on the Structures Group side. We've
mapped out the whole area, using aerial photography and charts, and have exact
positions of the wreckage site as well as the crash path. It shows which parts of the
aircraft broke away first from the fuselage and the positions they were found in.
This roughly determines the order in which the 747 broke up, and we can tell
which area or areas played a part in the cause of the accident. The initial area of
damage was somewhere towards the front of the aircraft.'

He was smiling now, and Keller had to avert his eyes; the urge to wipe the smile
from the investigator's face was becoming too strong.

Oblivious, Tewson continued. 'I was examining the port wing when I discovered
some barely visible scratches running down its full length. Under a microscope, I
saw that in the grooves were bits of blue and yellow paint.' He sat back smugly.

'So?' said Keller.