Текст книги " Lethal Heritage "
Автор книги: Michael A. Stackpole
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23
Edo, Turtle Bay
Pesht Military District, Draconis Combine
7 May 3050
Crouched in the darkness of the storm drainage tunnels beneath Kurushiiyama, Shin Yodama adjusted the light sensitivity of his mirrored faceplate. The device, which had been given only to the yakuza's "wet" team, concentrated the available light streaming in through the small, round drainage hole above them. With the amplification, the meager light pouring down through the drains dotting the tunnel's spine looked like harsh spotlights.
Shin glanced at the luminous time display on the upper left corner of the faceplate. Above, the time slowly increased toward midnight. Below, seconds and minutes clicked down as the deadline for their attack approached. Shin smiled, trying to fool himself out of the nervousness that had his stomach churning. We're here a full minute ahead of schedule. Three minutes and counting.
The wet team had approached the prison by swimming beneath the Sawagashii River, then located the ferrocrete tunnel where the Old Man had found temporary refuge after his escape years ago. It led deeper into the prison, and was designed to carry water from the monsoons and other storms to the river. The two-meter-diameter tunnel had long been dreamed of as an escape route, but all the drains leading down into it were too small to admit any prisoner, and no one had the equipment to break through the ferrocrete that lay between him and the path to freedom.
Shin watched as two of the dozen-man team placed the explosive charges in a circle around one of the drains. Those shaped charges should blow up and out with enough force to open a hole for us to climb through into the cell blocks.The MechWarrior glanced up at the drain. I hope the yakuza who volunteered to get themselves incarcerated so they could get word to the Legion's people will be able to get out again.Motochika had been first in line for that duty.
To reassure himself, Shin dropped a hand to the curious weapon he had been given for the assault. Mated to the body of a laser rifle, the barrel and action of a pump-fed shotgun clung to the underside of the laser's barrel. For the sixth time since entering the tunnel, Shin looked at the pulse duration selector for the laser and held himself back from increasing it to a full half-second. If a .25 second bolt can't melt its way through something, the shotgun will just have to knock it down.
Mindful of his encounter with an armored infantryman half in and out of his armor, Shin had filled the bandolier hanging across his chest with heavy slugs. That the shotgun would eject to the right and cross his line-of-sight bothered the left-handed yakuza a little, but he dismissed the concern as trivial. If that's the worst thing that happens to me in this operation, I will be doing fine.More practically, Shin drew confidence from the bandolier's heavy weight and the fact that the thigh pockets of his black fatigues bulged with power packs for the laser rifle.
As the last minute counted down on the clock, Shin and the rest of the team moved back down the tunnel. Thirty seconds to the blast. The yakuza outside the prison should start their rocket barrage soon now. The Inferno missiles should shake up these invaders a bit and even provide us some illumination. If they miss their deadline, we just switch the explosives over to remote ... No, there they go.
The thunderous rumble of SRM and Infernos exploding against the prison walls and gates reached the tunnels below Kurushiiyama. As flames soared high into the sky, enough light flickered down through the storm drains to nearly blind the team waiting below. As the last second vanished from his faceplate clock, Shin ducked his head, screwed his eyes shut and clapped his hands over his ears.
The force of the explosion bounced him a meter back down the tunnel, but he recovered his balance almost instantly. Uncoiling like a snake, he darted forward. In the shower of dust filtering down from the hole, Shin saw the twisted ends of the metal bars that had formed the tunnel's skeleton. Letting the rifle swing back on its shoulderstrap, he grabbed a bar and pulled himself up into the dark confines of the prison laundry.
Others also clambered up and out of the hole, then spread out to form a perimeter. Firelight streamed in through the barred windows, dispelling all but the most dense shadows. Shin pointed one man to check a line of washers that had been tumbled over like dominoes in the blast, then sent others forward toward the doors. When his scouts reported all clear, Shin moved the team out.
We 'rein the lowest level of Katana Block. Up the corridor, around the corner to the stairwell, through the checkpoint, and we reach the Gallery. Blow the bar-locks and everyone is free.Shin moved to the front of the group. He stopped at the end of the corridor, glanced quickly around the corner, then waved the others onward. Another man dropped to one knee at the base of the stairs while Shin swept past him, taking them two at a time.
A flash of motion caught by the faceplate's enhancement of his peripheral vision gave him enough warning. Shin launched himself into a rolling dive that took him to the stairs' first landing. He ignored the grinding pain in his back as he somersaulted on the bandolier. Reaching a sitting position, he slewed himself around so that his back slammed into the landing's far corner, pounding pain through him again.
Needles of laser light burned yellow-green flames in the bricks just above bis line of travel. In the laser rifle's backlight, Shin saw the hulking shadow of a man silhouetted between the stair railing and the building wall. Shin swung his own weapon into line with the apparition, then jerked the shotgun's trigger and hit the laser's firing stud.
His laser bolt caught the Smoke Jaguar just above the waist of his dark green jumpsuit. The shotgun slug slammed nto the laser rifle, destroying its energy coils in a brilliant electric-blue flash, then ricocheted into the invader. It enered his chest just above the laser wound and spun the warior away into the wall. The Smoke Jaguar hit the bricks hard, then rebounded and cascaded limply down the stairs to Shin's feet.
Two more yakuza ran up the stairs. One knelt beside the Smoke Jaguar and checked his throat for a pulse, while the other dropped to Shin's side. "Are you hurt?"
Shin shook his head, then rubbed his right hand against the left side of his chest. "The gun was just seated wrong. It recoiled into my ribs." He rolled forward and scrambled to his feet without assistance. He straightened up slowly, then pumped another shell into the shotgun's action. "Wait! What are you doing?"
The man who had knelt next to the invader had drawn a knife from his boot. "He still lives!"
Shin felt a hollowness in the pit of his stomach. He nodded to the man, who then cut the Smoke Jaguar's throat. Shin motioned to another member of the team to move up the stairs and pointed toward the steel door set back from the top of the stairs. As the man unlimbered a portable rocket launcher, Shin carefully deployed those yakuza who had not already taken up their assigned positions. "Go!"
The armor-piercing rocket's depleted-uranium tip punched through the door like a bullet through an apple. Two meters beyond the thick steel slab, the rocket's warhead exploded within a narrow rectangular chamber. A jet of fire stabbed back out of the entry hole to scorch the stairwell wall, then subsidiary flames created a reddish-yellow corona around the door seconds before it tottered from its tracks and smashed flat against the ferrocrete floor.
Smoke billowed from the chamber beyond the door. The upper half of each wall had been blown out by the blast, sowing glass shrapnel through the guard chambers on either side of the security checkpoint. Through the smoke and beyond, Shin saw into the Gallery.
Two yakuza moved in low, then lofted anti-personnel grenades into the guard stations. Twin explosions sounded one after the other, and some of the barbed, plastic flechettes from the grenades bounced out to the stairs. One of the two men rose up and took a step forward, then hesitated for a fatal second.
Three scarlet laser bolts shot through the smoke and punctured his chest. Energy only partially spent, they burst through the back of his black tunic, igniting cloth as they did so. The yakuza spun around, collided with the railing at the top of the stairs and pitched head over heels. His body landed with a wet thud at the bottom of the stairs and lay very still.
The blood-streaked Smoke Jaguar in the guard's chamber disintegrated in the withering hail of return fire. Dozens of little fires burned like votive candles in the wall beyond his position. The furthest-forward yakuza stayed low and moved through the checkpoint. His appearance on the other side of the doorway brought a cheer from the inmates while more detonations shook the building from outside.
"Yamato, prepare to blow the bar-locks." Shin waited until Yamato had climbed through the empty windows to the guard station before he charged into the Gallery. Even though he'd studied plans of the building to where he found himself wandering through it in his dreams, the reality of it shocked him. This is a wastebin for humanity!
Rising up to a height of ten tiers, the Gallery formed a gray, cold ferrocrete canyon separating dark walls dotted with even darker holes. Arms and legs jutted between prison bars like insect appendages hanging from the mouth of a lizard. Thousands of voices echoed through the room, filling it with a murmuring chaos that drowned out all but the sharpest explosion from outside.
Shin darted toward the staircase leading to the upper levels of the cell block. A shotgun blast blew the lock from the wire-mesh door. Shin ripped it aside and sprinted up the stairs. Hohiro is in Cell Seventeen, Tier Three.Another shotgun slug mangled the lock on Level Three and gave Shin access to the tier's balcony.
People jammed the doorways, stretching their arms out to claw at him and draw him closer, desperation on their faces. They all want to be free, but they're terrified they'll never make it. We've got to get them out.
He found the mouth of Cell Seventeen and leveled his gun at the inmates choking it. They melted back, leaving Shin a clear view of Hohiro seated on a cot. He'd raised himself up on his elbows and had an expectant look on his face, but the circles under his eyes and the bloody rag wrapped around his right leg gave the yakuza the true story of Hohiro's condition.
Shin stepped to the balcony and raised his right hand. Someone down below relayed the signal to Yamato. A sharp flash of light preceded the report of an explosion and the resulting alarm signal. A series of metallic clicks sounded up and down the cell blocks, and inmates quickly pulled their limbs back through the doors. The steel-bar portals slid back throughout Katana Block, and the denizens of the cells poured out.
Shin fought his way through the press of prisoners into Cell Seventeen. He pulled his faceplate back onto the top of his head and seated himself on Hohiro's bunk. Pulling free the medical pack from its straps at the small of his back, he smiled at his Sho-sa."Sorry we could not come for you sooner."
Hohiro laughed with relief as tears rolled down his ashen face. "I am glad you came for me at all. Even when word got through that something was going to happen, I couldn't believe it. I should have known you would come up with something."
Shin shook his head. "I am merely the servant of a master craftsman, doing what I have been told." He ripped open the leg of Hohiro's prison togs up to mid-thigh, then pulled a white adhesive patch from the medical pouch. He pressed it to Hohiro's leg, just above and behind the knee. "That's for the pain. Can you walk?"
Hohiro nodded, the tension lines around his eyes beginning to ease. "I can walk, maybe run for a short distance."
"Good. Bare your right forearm." As Hohiro complied with the command, Shin slapped a blue patch to the crook of his elbow. "You'll sleep for a week after we get out of here, but this stuff should keep you going until then."
Screams and the sounds of gunfire echoed up to the cell. Hohiro grabbed Shin's arms, the second drug having already sharpened his reflexes and increased his strength. "What's going on?"
Shin freed himself from Hohiro's grip. "I don't know. Crawl along the balcony to Cell Fifteen and wait for me there." The yakuza pulled his faceplate on again, fed three more shells into the shotgun, and ran to the cell's entrance. What he saw below brought him up short and took his breath away.
Marching relentlessly through the milling throng, a Smoke Jaguar in a bulky suit of powered armor lashed out right and left with his arms. Even a glancing blow crushed bodies and sent them flying deeper into the crowd. Short bursts from the laser burned swaths through the inmate population. The Gallery was so packed that none could escape, try as they might to flee, and people involuntarily filled in the bodystrewn path behind the warrior.
Without thinking, Shin brought the laser rifle to his shoulder and triggered two shots. The bolts hit the Jaguar's head and the hump on his gray-spotted back, but failed to breach his armor. Like the cat whose skin he wore, the invader spun quickly, then bent his legs and launched himself up toward the third tier.
The railing collapsed beneath the invader's armored bulk, but impeded him just enough to make landing awkward. He landed on all fours, but his bloody left foot slipped on the ferrocrete decking as he started to get up. The shotgun slug from Shin's rifle hit the Smoke Jaguar in the right shoulder, further unbalancing him. His arms windmilling wildly, the armored figure pitched back off the balcony.
Before he could slip out of sight, his left hand clawed the ferrocrete like an anchor. Shin saw the gray form swing back and forth twice, building momentum, then the right elbow bit into the deck. As inexorable as the sun rising at dawn, the invader hauled himself up.
Shin's hand dropped to the laser rifle's pulse-rate selector and dialed it all the way up. At point-blank range, he sighted in on the dark, glassy V in the middle of the figure's lumplike head. His finger squeezed the firing stud, and the sustained bolt sliced through its target. The figure, smoke curling up from its single, shattered eye-piece, jerked, then fell back. It smashed into the tier below, then whirled end over end into the waiting crowd.
Nervous sweat misting against the inside of his faceplate,
Shin stepped back and moved down to Cell Fifteen. Hohiro was leaning against a bunk as Shin entered. "Now what?"
Without stopping to reply, Shin studied the cell's back wall. From the lower right-corner, he counted five cinderblocks out and five up. As he popped his power pack from the laser and snapped a new one in place, he offered the Sho-saan explanation. "When the contractor built the prison, the yakuza put pressure on him to seriously modify the original design. Various cells, with numbers and levels determined by use of the lucky number five, had escape routes built into them. They were never used because once their secret was revealed, all would be shut down."
The yakuza triggered a dozen laser bolts. The fivecinderblock pattern in the center of the wall dissolved into smoke and ferrocrete dust. The hole in the wall sucked much of the smoke down. Hohiro walked over to it and peered in, but carefully avoided touching any of the still-glowing rock.
He looked back over his shoulder at Shin. "This gets us out?"
"Yes. We climb down and take the first crosscut shaft heading north. That will dump us out in the Uramachi area. From there, the Old Man will get us aboard a fast shuttle heading up to a ScoutClass JumpShip hidden in the Rings." Shin forced himself to smile. "After that, it's up to your father's people to get us home."
Hohiro nodded and touched one of the hole's melted edges. "We can go now." More screams sounded from the Gallery. "What about them?"
Shin's eyes narrowed. "We live to serve the Dragon. Those who escape will join the Old Man's underground army." Muscles bunched at the corners of his jaw. "Those who don't ... Well, it's up to us to see they are avenged."
24
Nadir Jump Point, Arcturus
District of Donegal, Lyran Commonwealth
26 May 3050
Kai Allard turned and tossed the small petrochem case to the next man in line as the stream of cargo continued to flow from the small shuttlecraft's cargo hold. His shoulders ached just a little, but somehow the simple repetition and physical exertion felt welcome. I hate being cooped up in a DropShip, especially a troop transport ship. Granted, all of us moving from theViper to theGibraltar means the ship will be overcrowded, but there will still be more room to move around than on theOverlord Class ship."Leftenant Allard."
Kai turned at the sound of the voice and began to smile at Leftenant-General Redburn, when the guy next in line turned and shoved the next parcel at him. The sharp edge raked across the back of Kai's right hand, gouging out a bloody gash. "Youch!" Kai caught the package in his left hand and passed it along, then took a step back and inspected the damaged hand.
The trooper looked stricken. "Sorry, sir ..."
Kai shook his head and Andrew Redburn reassured the soldier. "Not your fault. I shouldn't have broken the rhythm of the line."
Kai sucked at the cut, then watched as blood refilled the wound. He clapped his left hand over the back of his hand to stop the bleeding, then grinned at Andrew. "You will forgive me if I don't salute, sir?"
Andrew nodded and draped his arm over Kai's shoulder. "I was up on the officers' deck waiting to welcome you with the rest of the Tenth Guard officers, but you weren't there. Leftenant Pelosi told me you'd come over with a cargo shuttle and were helping out. I should have known ..."
Should have known what, sir? That I wanted to help load and unload cargo, or that I wanted to avoid shipping over in the same shuttle as Deirdre Lear?Kai shrugged. "I assumed that the faster we unload the Viper,the sooner we can be on our way toward the rim. I just wish the Gibraltarhad room for our BattleMechs."
Andrew grimaced. 'That is a desire we share. Unfortunately, the JumpShip assigned to carry the Viperblew a helium seal. Without liquid helium to supercool the Kearny-Fuchida drive, there's no way the ship can make the jump to Surcin with the rest of the armada. I wouldn't worry, though. We have more ships coming through Arcturus and their 'Mech bays will be free. Yen-lo-wangwill catch up with you soon enough, but if worse comes to worse, I know of a halfdozen 'Mechs available to a promising young officer."
Kai smiled broadly. "Thank you, sir. In that event—in any event—I'll do everything I can to justify your confidence in me.
"Excellent." Andrew gave Kai a hearty slap on the back. "The reason I wanted to speak with you concerns your battalion's new Kommandant."
Kai nodded. I didn't wonder that they left Kommandant Smitz behind on Skondia. He 'd already agreed to resign his commission and take over command of the Skondia Home Defense Force's Second Regiment. I wonder who will replace him?A nagging fear bubbled up into Kai's throat. "You're not going to make me his aide, are you? I mean ... I still have my lance to command, don't I?"
Redburn chuckled softly. "You sound just like I did when they told me I was being transferred to the Kittery Training Battalion. No, you'll not lose your lance. I wanted to talk to you about your new Kommandant because I would like you to speak up for him in the informal meeting of the battalion staff. There are bound to be some doubts about him, but they are baseless. I know I can trust you with the sensitive information needed to debunk them, and I know you'll be discreet."
Kai slowed his pace. "I don't believe you would set me up, General, but I just want to make sure what you're asking. I'm more than willing to help ease a man into his command, but I won't support an idiot who'll get us all killed. This new Kommandant is not someone who got his commission just because of his noble blood, is he?"
"You tell me," Andrew said, watching Kai carefully. "It's Victor Steiner-Davion."
The younger MechWarrior's jaw shot down, then snapped shut again. "Forgive me, General. I thought he was with the Twelfth Donegal Guards?"
"He was.It's probably not much of a secret that some heavy raiding has gone on out toward the rim."
Kai nodded, a lock of black hair slipping down onto his forehead. "That's why we're all heading out there."
"It was heavyraiding, Kai, and Victor's unit no longer has command integrity. We believe they're still fighting a guerrilla-type action. Victor and his aide, Hauptmann Cox, escaped the world because Leftenant-General Hawksworth ordered them away."
The younger man's eyes narrowed. "That's not the Victor I know. He'd never leave." Perhaps he's changed since NAMA ...
Andrew rubbed his right hand over his chin. "Victor is the same: Cox had to knock him out to get him offplanet. That fact, I am afraid, might count for little with the Tenth Lyran Guards when they learn that the Twelfth Donegal Guards have ceased to exist as a military unit. Morgan Hasek-Davion and I both have the utmost confidence in Victor, but we also know how spooky troops can get if they perceive their leader as an albatross."
Kai glanced down. If Victor's work at the New Avalon Military Academy was any indication, he should be a strong leader. He'll probably make us do things we'd never have thought possible. Better yet, things the enemy won't think possible."Sir, I've no doubt Victor will be an excellent leader for us, but I'm not sure it's me you should be talking to. Hauptmann Meisler is my company commander, and the other two Hauptmanns tend to set great store by what she says."
"I've already had a word with Rachel and she promises to keep an open mind on the matter. She recalled that you'd known Victor at NAMA and said it would be an honor to have one of the officers who defeated the La Mancha scenario in her command and the other as her CO." Andrew's smile broadened as Kai blushed. "In my days at Warriors Hall on New Syrtis, I would have strangled either or both of you for doing so well."
I know I should feel complimented, but my victory skewed the curve on that test, putting Wendy on the alternate list for the Davion Heavy Guards.He shook his head. "To call what I did a victory is to pervert the word and take away from Victor's solution to the problem."
Andrew folded his arms across his chest. "Surrounded by four heavier 'Mechs and managing to destroy three of them is certainly a victory in that no-win situation. What you did hadn't been done before and it worked."
The Leftenant frowned. "It worked, but only for a little while. Instead of shooting first, I ran. I knew the Phoenix HawkI'd chosen for the test could outdistance the 'Mechs the computer controlled. I just strung them out and picked them off one by one. In my last fight, that's when the computer ganged up on me. I got cocky. I should have pulled out and found another way to split up those last two 'Mechs." As he spoke, Kai pounded his right fist into his left hand and started the cut on the back of bis hand bleeding again. "Victor's solution destroyed the enemy BattleMechs and got him out of there safe and sound. Even though I punched out successfully, I would have still been at the mercy of that last Quickdraw."
He sucked at the cut again, then looked up at Redburn. "I ran. No one had ever done that before because no one had ever been afraid in that test before."
The General smiled benignly and shook his head. "You really don't understand your gift, do you? Everyone goes into that test terrified, the same as you. You alone recognized your fear and found a way to beat it, and beat the scenario. People who start shooting when faced with overwhelming odds do not have long or particularly noteworthy careers. Of you, on the other hand, I expect great things."
Andrew glanced at Kai's hand. "Why don't you go get that patched up in sick bay, then meet me up in what passes for the officer's lounge on this monster. Marshal HasekDavion mentioned he would be sending a message to Prince Hanse and suggested you might want to put in something for your father. He also extends an invitation for you to dine with us this evening."
"Yes, sir," Kai said, saluting crisply. "My pleasure."
* * *
Kai showed the gash on his hand to the orderly just inside the sick bay's hatchway. "It's really nothing."
The young man shook his head. "Best to be sure." He pointed back toward a hatchway leading deeper into the ship's hospital. "Just go through there and sit in Alpha Berth. The doctor will be with you in a minute."
The Mech Warrior crossed the small antechamber and hopped up onto the examination table, his hand smearing a bloodstain on the white paper that covered the table. Kai looked down at the cut on his hand and gently probed it with his index finger, which started some new blood oozing.
"Think we'll need morphine?"
At the icy tone of voice, Kai straightened up. "No, Dr. Lear."
None too gently, she picked up his right hand and examined it. "The cut's not bad, but your hands are filthy." She picked up his left hand and looked at the black dust coating it. "Using this hand to stop the bleeding is about as safe as cauterizing a shaving cut with a laser rifle."
"Well, Doctor, I saw no need to wash my hands before getting cut, and I came down here immediately afterward." He tried to get her to smile with one of his own, but it didn't work.
"Well, then, I guess the rumors about you are true—you are special. Imagine being able to get dirty and injured up on the officers' deck. I thought that impossible."
"I wouldn't know." Kai slid forward and off the table. "I got cut down in the cargo bay unloading luggage and supplies from the Viper."He pulled his hand from hers. "The damned case that cut me was probably yours."
She cocked her head and frowned. "You were where?"
The MechWarrior matched her cold stare. "I was down in the cargo bay unloading the supply shuttle. I flew over here from the Viperin it." He looked away. "I wanted to stay away from the other shuttle to prevent having a 'scene' with you."
Deirdre took his right hand again, this time more gently, and directed him to a sink fitted with a transparent plastic hood. "Foot pedal controls the waterflow. Use the stuff in the green bottle there and wash the cut well."
"I've used a Zero-G sink before, Doctor." Kai squeezed some of the gelatinous green scrubbing compound onto his left palm, then added water and rubbed until foam covered his hands. The foam had started out as greenish-white, but most of it had taken on an ashy tint. Kai rinsed his hands. Even before Deirdre could direct him to do it, he soaped them up again. He took special care to clean the cut, then rinsed and presented his dripping hands to her for inspection. "Do they pass?"
She bit back her first answer, then nodded. She opened a cabinet beside the sink and pulled out a pump-spray bottle filled with a vile yellow liquid. It moved in the clear container with a viscosity somewhere between water and spit. "This will sting."
"Of course."
"Touché Leftenant." She hit the sprayer's trigger and coated the back of his hand with the mustard-colored disinfectant. Kai's hand jerked involuntarily, but she held on and gave it another spray. "I'm sorry. This will help seal the wound. It's not bad enough to require staples." She looked at it more closely. "I think I'll use a butterfly bandage to draw it together. That, or—" she glanced up at him, her voice sympathetic—"you could have a small scar after it heals."
Confusion ran through Kai's mind. I don't understand how there's so much anger in your voice one moment, only to have it vanish the next. You hate me for some reason, but your role as a medic overrides that personal feeling."A bandage will be good. If nothing else, it will remind me to be more careful."
"A good idea at any time." She replaced the bottle in the cabinet and pulled out a small, barbell-shaped bandage. Freeing it from the backing, she stretched it across the center of the cut, then pressed the ends down. The elastic material contracted, tugging the edges of the cut closer to each other. "How did it happen?"
Kai shrugged. "I was helping pass stuff down a line and got distracted by General Redburn."
Deirdre's blue eyes flickered. "Hobnobbing with the brass, eh?"
The MechWarrior stiffened. "No. He sought me out. General Redburn had something he wanted to tell me."
She smiled coyly. "But he is an old family friend, isn't he?"
Does she have some antipathy toward nobles, after all?Kai nodded, feeling uncomfortably like he was stepping into a trap. "He served with my father before the Fourth War."
Deirdre Lear's eyes hardened and Kai read anger and pain in them. Her coldness toward me has something to do with the war, or perhaps, my father. Didn't Andrew say her father had been a MechWarrior who died when she was young? She's not that much older than me, so she probably lost him in the war. Who knows?
He started to tell her he was sorry about her loss, but something stopped him. Don't. You don't know anything about her father.A horrible thought struck him. Her father might have died in the assault on Sarna—whose defense some say my father planned. Wait. Try to learn about her background. If you say anything right now, it will only make things worse.
He bowed his head. "Thank you for attending my wound."
"Be more careful in the future," she said, all compassion gone. "I don't want to see you in my hospital again."
