Chapter 13
Blackjack
I KILLED SOME MORE time and got to the General Hospital at two-ten. It was still snowing, and ore dust was dirtying everything up. The hospital was a depressing-looking building on a hill. It smelled like all hospitals and was a little more noisy than most.
I talked at the reception desk, talked some more at the third floor. A nurse with a poker face led me into a small ward. I spotted the bull reading a newspaper, half the way down. There were screens around some of the beds— and the nurse stopped at the foot of one.
“There’s the patient,” she said, and worked a mechanical smile.
I thanked her, moved around the screen. The bull came around and looked at me. Herb was lying with his back to me. He didn’t move.
I smiled at the harness gent. “Reever said it would be
