Mona moved up next to Neil and started looking over the unconscious man.
"A tire blew on his bike," Neil told her. "He took a bad spill, with a nasty knock on the back of his head, and there's something wrong with his ankle. I gave him a painkiller, but I'm no doctor." He had slowly turned his attention as he was speaking, and by now he was addressing me. "We usually handle our own medical needs, but our most experienced doctor is quite ill with the flu. She is feverish, and in any case she is probably contagious."
"You should bring her in, too," Mona said as Lucy and another aide hurried in with the gurney.
"Also, with the head injury," Neil continued, ignoring Mona's comment, "I'm sure he needs an X-ray, and we don't have facilities for that." His tone indicated that of course it would not have been surprising if they had had X-ray equipment, but they didn't happen to at the moment.
He laid the man down on the gurney, moving gently and carefully, as the street doors opened again and another Jinx came in. She was short and obviously pregnant, with long blonde hair and a face that gave evidence of recent tears. Her eyes, a striking shade of pale blue, went to the man on the gurney, and then to Neil. He was impassive, and she approached us slowly, as if she expected to be reprimanded for being there.
Neil ignored her, and she stood waiting. "His name is Felix," he said to Mona as the other aide, a man named Mark, left with the gurney. "Are there forms to be filled out?" I was standing behind him, and I shook my head slightly, which Mona caught.
"As long as we know his name, that's plenty for now," she said.
I was glad that Mona had taken my lead about the forms. In the world of the hospital, she was staff and I was a volunteer, so of course she outranked me. But she was also aware that I played a role in the government (which she teased me about whenever there was a problem getting supplies), and relations with the Jinx were definitely a diplomatic issue.
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