Neil nodded and turned to the blonde woman. "Is it alright if she goes with him?" he asked.
It was not clear who he was addressing, but Mona replied. "That will be fine. She may have to wait if there are tests, but she can be with him otherwise."
Neil nodded at the woman, and she quickly followed the gurney out of the room. Lucy stayed with us, looking somewhat shell shocked. Neil and the other Jinx moved into the waiting room and sat down. Lucy, Mona, and I went behind the counter as one of the Jinx got up again and went out to the street. I assumed he was assigned to watch whatever vehicles they had arrived in. It was hard to imagine who would have dared touch a Jinx motorcycle, but I had noticed before that they were very careful.
I looked back at the waiting room. There were a few people there other than the Jinx, all studiously looking out the windows, or at magazines, or at the floor.
Lucy shuddered. "They make me really nervous," she said when she saw us looking at her.
It may seem that we were somewhat more intimidated by the Jinx than was warranted. There were two reasons. One was that we knew so little about them. They had arrived right after the founding of U-town, but they kept mostly to themselves. They were clearly highly disciplined, and a couple of other gangs had learned fairly quickly that they would respond quickly and violently to any challenge.
They appeared to be a motorcycle gang, but they acted more like a self-contained and mobile society. On a couple of occasions they had helped us with some problems involving our supplies of water and electricity, and it was obvious that they had a lot more knowledge in these areas than we did.
So, on one hand there was the possibility of serious trouble if we should antagonize them, and on the other hand there was the real assistance they could give if they were won to see themselves as a real part of U-town.
As I said, this was a fairly important diplomatic issue. I was starting to wish that my employer was there after all.
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