out sooner than most.
'I can manage all right, Doc.'
'Really?' Ruso gestured toward a notice on the surgery wall. 'Read me some of that.'
The man turned and stared: not at the notice, but at the blank wall to its left. Then he moved his head and eyed the periphery of the notice from the other side. Finally he said, 'The light's not very good in here, is it?'
Ruso said nothing.
The man lowered his bandaged head into his hands. 'My girl thinks it's an illness,' he said. 'She thinks I'll get better.'
'Have you spoken to any of the other medics?'
The man shook his head. 'I don't need to,' he said. 'I watched this happen to my father.'
It was too early to disclose the idea forming in Ruso's mind. He said merely, 'I'll have a word with my colleague.'
The man gave a bitter laugh. 'Does he work miracles? Because if he does, you tell him I've got a little lad of two and a pregnant girlfriend to support.'
Ruso said, 'What about other family?'
'None of mine. Her people want me to go for a promotion so we can get properly married.' He paused, not needing to explain the irony. He would never be promoted now, and the medical discharge that would free him for marriage would also render him an undesirable son-in-law. He looked up. 'We need the money, Doc. Can't you just… keep quiet for a bit?'
Ruso frowned. 'If you're sent out into the field, you'll be as much danger to us as to the enemy.'
'I've managed so far.'
'And who's been covering up for you?'
The signaler said nothing.
Finally Ruso said, 'You've had a serious bang on the head. I'm recommending you stay here for two days for observation.'
Ruso sent the man down to one of the wards. As soon as the rest of his patients wete dealt with he went straight to the records room and scrawled an urgent letter to the eye specialist he had met on the ship. He was not optimistic. Even if the specialist agreed to take the case, the delicate surgery required would be terrifying for the patient and difficult for the doctor, and would possibly hasten the blindness it was supposed to cure.
On the way back to his lodgings, Ruso glanced across at the builders working on the roof of the bathhouse. He wished he had chosen a trade where almost anything that went wrong could be fixed with a hammer.
He was about to turn the corner when a voice called after him, 'Sir?'
He stopped. One of the hospital orderlies was hurrying after him. 'You're wanted, sir!'
'Officer Valens is on duty now,' said Ruso, who had been hoping to get on with the Concise Guide.
'No, sir, it's you who's wanted.'
'Who by?'
'The second spear, sir. You're to report to him straightaway.'
11
Stand easy, doctor.' The second spear settled into his seat, rested muscular arms on a desk that seemed too small for him, and gave Ruso the kind of look that said nonsense would not be tolerated.
Ruso decided he did not envy Valens the challenge of persuading this man to hand over his daughter in marriage.
'We've had a complaint,' continued the second spear. 'About a body.'
'Sir?'
'A girl from a bar.'
'Yes, sir. Merula's.'
'You took it in?'
'Yes, sir. Nobody knew who she was at the time.'
The second spear nodded. 'Probably just as well. It might have been somebody's wife. Most of us keep our women well guarded, but you always get the odd one who thinks she knows better. So, then what happened to it?'
Ruso explained. His pauses were punctuated by grunts of assent from across the desk, followed by, 'Right. So who cut the hair off?'
'I don't know, sir. It was like that when she was brought in.'
'And you didn't think to warn the owner?'
'No, sir.'
'Well, they're not happy. They got a bit of a shock when they saw it and they want to know if we did it.'
'Absolutely not, sir. You can check with the gate guards. She was found by a couple of fishermen. You could ask them.'
The second spear shook his head. 'Doesn't matter. As long as we can't be blamed for it. I'll send someone over to calm them down. And tell them to forget any ideas about compensation.'
'Thank you, sir. Any luck finding the culprit yet?'
'No. Don't expect we ever will. We'll keep an eye open, but I doubt much will turn up. No witnesses, of course. It's the usual story: These people are quick enough to complain, but blind, deaf, and dumb when you start asking questions. Turns out the girl was offered protection and chose not to take it.'
'She might not have understood the dangers, sir. She'd only been here ten days.' It was about the same length of time that Ruso had been here himself.
'Hmph. Not what you'd call bright, these locals. Did she think they'd got two of our lads down there on security for fun?'
Ruso said nothing.
'This will knock a bit of sense into the rest of them,' the second spear went on. 'At least for a month or two. Bloody nuisance, all of them. Haven't been here long, have you?'
'No, sir.'
'In a civilized country-even in parts of Britannia-we'd leave the town council or tribal elders or what-have-you to sort this kind of thing out. 'Round here, just because they're living on army land, they expect us to wipe their backsides for them. If it was up to me, I'd have a curfew and flog anything that moves after dark. Still, we should have a bit of peace and quiet for a while. You won't find many women hanging around the streets tonight.'
'No, sir,' agreed Ruso, who had not planned to look for any.
The second spear leaned back in his chair and folded his arms.'When I was up with the Ninth,' he said, 'one of the medics took in a body. Thought he was being helpful. The natives got the idea he was cutting it up for anatomy lessons. Caused a riot. Ended up with a whole lot more bodies, three of them ours. My advice, Doctor, is not to get involved with the locals if you can help it.'
'Yes sir,' said Ruso, glad the second spear did not know who was in Room Twelve.
12
Ruso had discharged his duties for the day. There was nothing further he could do about the signaler's cataracts. His superiors would make any decisions about the dead girl, and he had left orders that he was to be called if there was a crisis with the live one. Alone in his bedroom, he was free to get on with drafting the next section of the Concise Guide to Military First Aid. Unfortunately, it was proving more difficult than he had expected.
He had imagined that once his reference books arrived, he would get straight back to work, freshly motivated after so long a break. Instead, he was sitting in his room scowling at a writing tablet on which he had written a title
