CHAPTER 23The smoldering tramcar, still swaying on its cable, slid into its berth on the covered platform standing at the top of the hill looking over the neighborhoods, highways and the Willamette River to the east and the downtown Portland skyline to the north. In the distance, the Cascade Mountains loomed. The station looked like a piece of angular modern sculpture hoisted onto a stick and tacked onto the back of a glass-and-chrome hospital building.
Once the tram door slid open, a collective gasp of relief rumbled through the passengers as they pushed to leave the smoke-filled compartment. The tram operator, a bald, portly man wearing a TriMet uniform, stood pale-faced, just outside the door on the platform, waving an arm, as if the passengers needed encouragement to disembark. He sho
