EPILOGUE
In the End
It was dawn of Ash Wednesday. The streets were covered with litter from the celebrations as tens of thousands of tourists and twice that many locals slept off their hangovers.
I watched the light grow as I sat on the steps of St. Louis Cathedral. National Guard was picking up bodies, human and mantis. Doc Henry, New Orleans Parish Coroner, was out there managing things. The survivors of the SRT were out spreading joy amongst anyone who had had contact with the incident. A rookie MCB agent had stepped up and taken charge. New Orleans would be the first of Myers’ many commendations, but right then he was too busy telling the news that all that gunfire they had heard was from a battle between DEA and Colombian drug dealers. I was sure Washington would find some way to cover up all dead and missing.
It was only SRT talking to the witnesses because MCB New Orleans was gone. Even Bill Castro had landed and fought the mantises. He had died herding a bunch of tourists to safety. While Franks and I had battled in the intersection, other mantises had spread out, up Pirate Alley, down Chartres. MCB New Orleans had fought and died, defending the people they normally intimidated. I’m sure that Higgins and Buchanan preferred it that way. They had been wiped out.
So had SIU.
And so had MHI.
I found Trevor’s body. There wasn’t enough left to cut off his head.
Fred Ramsey and Brent Waters had managed to make it to the intersection of Royal and St. Ann just in time to take the brunt of the mantis assault. SIU on scene, Tremaine, Carter, and four SIU officers, were already down. Fred and Brent held out until SRT got there and died with their boots on. Salvage had bought it stopping a probe up Pere Antoine Alley.
Caleb’s position on the roof had finally been compromised.
Shelbye was gone. I’d gotten Tim to get her out of the bell tower. I had a little discussion with a National Guard lieutenant and all her stuff had been gathered up as well for delivery to her family.
They had stood their ground.
Six little Indians. Five little Indians…then there was one.
I’d had a chat with Doc Henry when he showed up. He promised to both get our people to our funeral home, today, and save some of the fresher mantises for the fais do-do. I promised him Shelbye’s family would like him to attend.
I wasn’t sure what to do.
Duty is heavier than mountains.
I got up and went back to Honeybear. There was still work to do. I needed to report in to headquarters on the incident and tell them we needed some new monster chow ASAP. Just because MHI was toast didn’t mean monsters were going to sit the next few days out. I’d have to contact the families. At some point, Doc Henry would have a count on the mantises. The PUFF paperwork on this was going to be complicated. We’d had support from MCB and SIU. I’d have to check with Susan how you shared that out. I wasn’t sure if we’d set up the computer system for that.
Funeral arrangements.
There were going to be five members of MHI cremated today.
It was dawn of Ash Wednesday.