“If you say so.” He kept his voice even and amicable.

“The knife too.”

“Oh, now, Doc.” Rick raised an eyebrow as he gave a very unfriendly smile. “You have sharper knives than I do. That right?”

Fisher helped the conversation by wisely adding his own silence to it.

“Your knife is a weapon, Captain,” Doctor Myers said. “My knives save lives. Your knives take lives.”

Amused by her hubris, he gave a genuine smile. “Look, Doc. I respect what you’re going for here. I do.”

“Don’t patronize me, Captain.”

His expression turned puzzled. “I’m not sure I would know how, ma’am. I honestly do respect you. Okay?”

She took a breath with her eyes closed, then schooled her features. “Okay. If you respect me, you will leave all of your weapons outside of my clinic.”

“I get your point.” He nodded. “You should take this into account, though. The real weapon isn’t the rifle or the pistol or the knife. It’s me. The truth is that every single object within reach of my hands is a potential weapon. Comes down to it, I could strangle you with my boxers or smother you with my socks. You want me to leave them outside too?”

Her nostrils flared and her cheeks flushed. “Fine.” She gestured, and he stepped up into the wooden structure, his knife still firmly sheathed.

The sharp odor of industrial disinfectant assailed his nose, and he saw a few damp spots on the floor where someone had scrubbed the tile clean. Shelves of supplies stood neatly organized and labeled. A water cooler took up a corner next to a green metal desk that had probably seen the last world war.

As the doctor turned to look at him, he caught the faintest scent of lavender. “Lieutenant Osbourne regained consciousness about an hour and ten minutes ago. He’s in a lot of pain, but the sutures have held, and his volume is good enough that his BP is safe. Now the question will be whether I can keep infection at bay. I’m afraid intravenous antibiotics are not readily available here. I have given him some orally, and we’ll keep the wound clean.”

Rick nodded. “And Sanders?”

She hesitated and glanced away before looking back at him. He wondered whether she had just prepared herself to lie to him or to give him bad news. As if of their own accord, his eyes went to where Sanders lay on a bed across from Ozzy’s. He appeared asleep. A clean white bandage covered his chest.