It was a hard story to listen to, but not one Clarke hadn’t heard before. With national unemployment up at 19%, most urban areas around the country were like this. His recent bout with the gang members earlier that morning was an effort to rid the city of them. That’s what he should have been doing, not wasting time here playing doctor. “And you’re telling me this because…?”

“Because I need to ask you to stand by the generator and keep it running until morning. I know it’s a huge request, but we urgently need it. You saw how the lights were flickering inside. It’s a miracle the power hasn’t gone out yet.”

“I’m not a technician.”

“No, but you can control the generator if you sit by it, right? Can’t you fix it that way?”

“Why don’t you call an electrician to help? Or has the government stopped providing those?”

“We’ve tried,” Hall explained. “But the gangs attack them whenever they get close.”

“And why until morning?” Clarke asked. “I have my own things to do. I still need to eat.”

“Because we have another team of electricians coming to help, escorted by police, but the cops are even busier than we are trying to fend the gangs off. We were lucky they were able to get to us at all.”

Clarke didn’t like it. She was asking him to do a small good deed when he could weave in and out of the alleys, collecting information and dismantling the gangs by himself. In a city this size, it could easily take him a month, but time was something Clarke had plenty of. He just hoped that the gangs’ victims had that much time to spare.

“I can do more good by hunting the gangs down,” Clarke argued. “It’ll save a lot more lives in the long run and save far more on property damage.”

“Yes, but I’m worried that the generator might not last through the night. We have several patients on life support who will die if the power goes out.”

“People die Doctor Hall,” Clarke said solemnly. “You should know this.”

“I also know that if I can prevent it, then I’m going to do everything I can to keep that person alive.”

She was clearly a passionate woman, perhaps even entirely idealistic. Clarke shook his head and walked to the generator, giving in without saying a word.