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57

I MADE A bed for Flood in the trunk of the Plymouth-she couldn’t go to a hospital, and I didn’t want some inquisitive cop noticing her anywhere near the scene where the Cobra vanished. It didn’t look like a problem… he’d been carrying all kinds of weapons but he hadn’t been wired.

When I opened the trunk again inside my garage Flood was curled up like a baby, one arm cradling the other. It probably was broken but she never made a sound. I got her upstairs, let Pansy out to the roof, and went in the back for my medical kit. When I came back into the office she was sitting on the desk in the lotus position, looking at the door.

“Flood, get up and take off your clothes.”

“Not now-I’ve got a headache.” She smiled, pointing to her battered face. But the smile was weak and the crack fell flat.

I threw the cushions off the couch, pulled a flat piece of plywood out from behind it, and laid it against the springs, then folded over some blankets to make a cover and put a clean sheet over the top. Flood hadn’t moved.

“Flood,” I told her as gently as I could, “you have to work with me now, okay? Put your legs over the side of the desk. Come on.”

She slowly unwrapped from the lotus position and did like I asked. I eased the robes from her shoulders and took the bad arm in my hand. The skin was bruised but not broken. “Can you move it?” She rolled her arm from side to side. Her face stayed composed but some pain flashed in her eyes when she brought her hand toward her shoulder, flexing the bicep. At least it was a clean break, if it was broken.

I motioned to her to climb off the desk and untied the white sash as she stood in front of me. The silk pants came next, falling to the floor in slow motion. She stepped out of the pants and kicked them away, then stood there in the morning light as I went over her body as carefully as I could. The flesh over one elbow was gone, a lumpy discolored knot was on the outside of one thigh, and the two smallest toes of one foot were already dark with clotted blood. She let me move the toes without protest-they weren’t broken, just bleeding under the skin. Like a patient child, she opened her mouth and allowed me to probe around-all her teeth were intact, the damage was on the outside. Her pupils looked okay, and she wasn’t talking like someone who had a concussion, but I didn’t want her to fall asleep for a while just in case she did.

I took one of the pieces of aluminum in the medical kit that looked like a good fit, tested it against her forearm, bent it into the right shape. I put the aluminum splint against her forearm and wrapped it into place with an elastic bandage. It didn’t look pretty but it would work well enough if she didn’t jump around, and let the bone set properly.

I swabbed out the open wounds, packed them with Aureomycin, and covered them with gauze bandages. Then I walked her over to the couch.

“Which is better, Flood? Lying on your back or your stomach?”

“Depends on what you have in mind.”

“Flood, I don’t have the patience for this crap. You don’t have to convince me you’re tough. You’re going to be fine, okay?”

“You looked so scared, Burke…”

“Maybe you did get a concussion. I’m not the one who got mangled.”

“I know. I’ll be good. Whatever you say.”

I put her on the couch lying on her back, folded a pillow under her head, and covered her with another sheet. I got the splinted arm supported by a folded blanket, kissed her forehead, and went back to the desk to put things away.

“Burke,” she called out.

“What is it? Just relax, I’m not going anywhere.”

“My sash… the white sash with the black tips…?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s for you. To keep, okay?”

“Okay, Flood, I’ll keep it.” By then it was obvious she didn’t have a concussion-but she was running on the fumes in her reserve tank.

“Keep it here… for me, okay?” she said, and was drifting off to sleep before I could ask her what she meant.


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