The OR door opens, and Doc Dicer emerges. "No, he’s not dead yet," she says haggardly, answering my question before I can ask it. "He’s sleeping—probably the best thing for him at the moment—and I think he’s stable ... but I thought that before." She leans against the wall, and rubs at her eyes. What’s she feeling at the moment? Scared, maybe? I can’t see how that laminar-airflow drek could protect her while she’s actually working on Paco. There are magically based isolation schemes that are supposed to block out every bug known (and unknown) to man, but I’ve seen none of the fetishes and talismans and other drek associated with that kind of thing around here. Somewhere in the back of her mind Doc Dicer must fear being exposed to VITAS 4 or whatever it is that Paco’s got, but she agreed to treat him and she’s still working on him. It’s one thing for me to risk dragging him out of the safe house and schlepping him across town; he’s my chummer. I don’t know whether I’d put my hoop on the line for a stranger.