'Me neither. Not since two Christmases ago. Miss that Tadich Grill, all that real-city culture.'
He made introductions all around. Two of the other doctors were residents, one was a Cardiology fellow and one of the women-a short, dark, Mideastern woman was an attending physician.
Obligatory smiles and handshakes all around. Four names that passed right through me.
Kornblatt said, Alex, here, was one of our star psychologists.
Back when we had them.' To me: 'Speaking of which, I thought you guys were ierbotee' around here. Has something changed in that regard?'
I shook my head. 'It's just an isolated consult.'
Ah. So where you heading? Out?'
I nodded.
'If you're not crunched for time, why don't you come with us?
Emergency staff meeting. Are you still on stab Yeah, you must be if you're doing a consult.' His brows creased. 'How'd you manage to avoid the Psychiatry bloodbath?'
'Through a technicality. My affiliation was in Pediatrics, not Psychiatry.'
'Pediatrics-that's interesting. Good loophole.' To the others: 'You see, there's always a loophole.'
Four knowing looks. None of them was over thirty.
Kornblatt said, 'So, you wanna hang with us? The meeting's an important one-that is, if you're still feeling sufficiently affiliated to care what goes on around here.'
'Sure,' I said, and fell in alongside him. 'What's the topic?'
'The decline and fall of the Western Peds Empire. As evidenced by the murder of Larry Ashmore. Actually, it's a memorial for him.'
He frowned. 'You heard about what happened, didn't you?'
I nodded. 'Terrible.'
'Symptomatic, Alex.'
'Of what?'
'What's happened to this place. Look at the way the whole thing's been handled by the administration. A physician gets muraired and no one even bothers to send around a memo. Not that aired and no one even bothers to send around a memo. Not that they're paper-shy when it comes to disseminating their directives.'
'I know,' I said. 'I happened to read one. On the door of the library.'
He scowled and his mustache flared. 'What library?'
'I saw that too.'
'Sucks,' he said. 'Every time I have research to do I've got to drive over to the med school.'
We walked across the lobby and came up against the queues.
One of the doctors noticed a patient waiting in line, said 'I'll join you in a moment,' and left the group to greet the child.
'Don't miss the meeting,' Kornblatt called after her, without breaking step. When we were clear of the crowd, he said, 'No library, no Psych department, no overhead for grants, total hiring freeze.
Now, there's talk about more cutbacks in all departments-straight across the board. Entropy. The bastards probably plan to tear the place down and sell the real estate.'
