Lou kept to the shade of a maple tree near the entrance to the Antibiotic Resistance Unit and waited for Vicki Banks. Two days had passed since they had agreed to meet, and Lou was surprised at how much of that time she had been on his mind. She was certainly attractive enough in a bookish sort of way, but it was more her calmness and intellect, as well as her perceptiveness in sensing how much he needed someone to talk with. His mood, rooted in the loss of his job, the time away from Emily, and the situation with Cap, was boring in like a deer tick.

The days had been a stressful amalgam of hours at Cap’s bedside, and even more hours under Humphrey’s excited, watchful eye, slicing open boxes and setting up his lab. One thing the man was right about—so long as they looked as if they knew what they were doing, going up and down in the freight elevator, moving through the bowels of the hospital, no one seemed in the least interested in them.

The clinical situation with Cap was deteriorating, albeit slower than Lou had anticipated—credit to the boxer’s spirit and incredible conditioning, and perhaps to the antibiotic combinations being put in play by Ivan Puchalsky. Still, as Sam Scupman had so tactfully put it, time was not a commodity Cap possessed in any great abundance. The leg was hour-to-hour. His physicians met frequently to decide whether or not the infection needed to be opened up, drained, and irrigated. It was still too early to make the larger, more frightening decisions, but if the infection spread to another limb that process would have to be sped up considerably.

Vicki emerged from the building, glanced around, and waved cheerfully when she spotted Lou. Her vibrant smile, appealing shoulder-length hair, white jeans, and turquoise blouse instantly dashed his vision of a constrained academic. Her figure, trim and sensual, had hardly been well presented beneath her knee-length lab coat. To complete the transformation, her thick-lensed, black-framed glasses were gone, replaced either by contacts or near-blindness. They shook hands, but her expression suggested they could have just as easily exchanged a quick embrace. Immediately, Lou’s battered spirits felt somewhat buoyed.

“Hey, there. How are you holding up?” she asked.

“I’m okay,” he replied with less conviction than he had hoped. “However, I’m not sure I’ll be such a great conversationalist.”

Vicki gave him an understanding look.

“Don’t worry. Sometimes it’s good just to have company. Are you up for a little walk? The place I was thinking we could go is a couple of blocks from the main entrance.”