It was not the last, and it was very far from the worst.

Chapter 6 — The Timeline

The lead physician reviewed the numbers, agreed with every word I’d said, and canceled the surgery.

They ran fluids into Roland to correct the imbalance and watched his heart on the monitor, and within fifteen minutes his blood pressure had climbed back toward something safe and his ragged rhythm had smoothed into a steady beat.

The surgeon who had been so impatient with me stepped out of the glass cubicle, and his whole manner had changed.

“Doctor,” he said.