around them forced her to bob and weave like a boxer. Her piercing blue eyes, though, remained fixed on Evelyn's.
'Please don't give up. There are thousands of us out there. We'll help you save-' The swirl of bodies moved her away from Fletcher, back into the crowd. They had broken free of the two clusters of demonstrators and rushed toward the parking lot. Scores of members from the rival groups followed quietly, observing Fletcher with undisguised curiosity. Newspeople closed in with more questions.
'We're going to the hospital,' Fletcher shouted, unlocking the passenger side of the Saab to admit Valerie. 'Medical emer-gency. Clear a path or you'll be wearing tread marks.' She jumped around to her side, fired up the engine and punched it. Reporters and onlookers leapt away from the squealing machine. The sparse pro-transoption forces cheered, waving their signs with visceral enthusiasm.
Valerie looked behind her to see Ron's BMW in hot pursuit. They raced down Crenshaw toward Pacific Coast Highway.
'What kind of car do the Chandlers drive?' Valerie asked.
'I'm not sure.' Evelyn pumped the brakes every few sec-onds to avoid rear-ending cars. She swerved smoothly into another lane and then slammed the accelerator. Traffic sig-nals seemed to turn from amber to red every time they en-tered an intersection.
'Someone's following Ron.' She turned to watch the road ahead. 'Can we save her?' Fletcher nodded. 'I hope so. It just worries me that none of the three cell lines have recovered.' She hit the brakes and turned the wheel hard. 'I want to cover all bases, so I'm going to administer more marrow.' She glanced quickly at Valerie. 'Are you up for it?' Valerie nodded. 'I'll do anything to save her.' She fell silent for a long moment, then said, 'If Renata needs me this much, doesn't that prove I'd be the better mother?'
'I don't know, Valerie.' Though she drove with sharp con-centration, her voice sounded weary.
'Motherhood isn't a tug-of-war with a human being as the prize.'
'I saw a play once,' Valerie said. 'In high school. Two women both claimed to be the mother of a baby, so the judge drew a chalk circle and put the baby in the middle and said that he would determine who the mother was by who pulled it out. They both grabbed the baby and started to pull. It cried in pain. One woman couldn't stand the cries, so she let go, and the other woman pulled it out of the circle.' Evelyn nodded, jerking the wheel to the right. 'And the judge knew that the woman who wouldn't hurt the baby was the real mother.'
'You've seen the play, too?'
Fletcher smiled. 'I know the story of Solomon. But I've also seen enough child-abuse cases to know that it's just a story, not a reliable human trait.'
Valerie sat in silence for the rest of the trip.
'
Fletcher parked in the emergency lot and ushered Valerie past the handful of reporters staking out the area. The pair rushed up to the infant ICU before anyone had time to react. Valerie stared through the glass at the plastic box around which two nurses and a doctor hovered, gowned and masked.
'How is she?' Evelyn shouted when she saw Dr. DuQuette down the hall. DuQuette, a large, grey-bearded, pleasant-looking man, gazed at his former peer. 'Platelets at twenty thousand, but only because of transfusions. Almost no white. Red being sus-tained-'
'I want another transplant. I'll get her prepped.'
'I can't let you do that,' DuQuette said. 'Lawrence would yank me out of here, and then where would we be?'
'To hell with Lawrence,' Fletcher snapped. 'That baby-'
'I can handle a marrow job. You'll just have to watch out here.' He gave Valerie the once-over.
'Ready?'
'Yes,' Valerie said, preparing to unbutton her blouse.
'No!' Czernek's footsteps resounded in the hallway. Behind him ran Johnson and the Chandlers, catching up at the obser-vation window. Karen and David immediately looked inside, trying to get some glimpse of Renata.
Ron's eyes flashed with fierce inspiration. 'We're all here. I've decided that we can come to an agreement. Out of court.'
The Chandlers turned to listen, stunned apprehension grow-ing within them. Johnson spoke with caution. 'Let's
