"That's Doctor Lanz, Winslow."

Hell, he didn't even think of himself as "Kurt." He wasn't about to let this mosquito of a woman do it, even if she had given him head a couple of times when he first arrived. Proper respect was integral to proper functioning.

Not that you could expect proper anything at Blessed fucking Crucifixion Hospital. How the hell had he wound up here?

Oh, right.

Money.

Nobody with decent chops wanted to practice out here in the middle of nowhere. So hick hospitals like Blessed Crucifixion put a lot on the table--nearly twice what big metro hospitals offered. Lanz had owed six figures worth of education loans coming out of training. This was an offer he couldn't refuse.

He knew what the hospital was thinking: Get the sucker out here, seduce him with our country charm, let him put down a few roots, and he's ours for life.

No fucking way. He'd suffer in silence and sock away for a few years, then get the hell out of debt and the fuck out of town. To tell the God's honest truth, Blessed Crucifixion was lucky to have him. He was way over-trained for a hick community ER. Like hiring Picasso to teach a ladies' auxiliary art class.

Winslow kept going. "Oh my god! Oh, my god! What do we do? This is awful! I've never seen--"

He grabbed her bony shoulder and shook her. "You shut up and get a grip, that's what you do!"

That seemed to break through and she quieted. Good. Now...time for him to get a grip. He looked around again, focusing.

The good news was that the thing that had been Moorecook was gone; the bad news was that it had escaped into the hospital instead of the parking lot. But at least it was out of here.

An inpatient--a big guy in a hospital gown--was limping out the exit. Smart fellow. If Moorecook came back, Lanz would be right on his heels.

The little girl was kneeling on the floor by her mother and screaming. With good reason: Not only had her left arm sustained a deep gash, but her mom lay flat on her back with her intestines spread over her torn abdomen like a wormy apron. She stared blindly at the ceiling as one leg gave a weak kick or two.

The clown lay unmoving in a huge pool of red.

The EMT who'd brought in Moorecook stood behind Winslow. A new LPN and two orderlies--Ralph and Benjamin--stood behind him. All awaiting instructions. That insubordinate bitch-nurse Jenny Bolton stood back, looking horrified. He'd deal with her later.

Okay. This was his ship and he was captain. He pointed to the orderlies, then to the mom and the clown.

"Get gurneys ready to move those two to the morgue."

"But they ain't been pronounced," one said. Ralph? Benjamin? He never could tell them apart.

"They will be in a minute." To the LPN: "Get the little girl's wound cleaned up and ready for suturing." To the EMT: "Help her."

"Hey, I don't work here."

"Then get lost."

The EMT held up a finger, showing a puncture that had already stopped bleeding. "But the old guy bit me. I need a tetanus. And penicillin. And hepatitis. And rabies. Did you see that goddamn guy? Fucking give me every shot you got!"

"You've got a forty-eight-hour window to get boosters. Make yourself useful or get lost." He turned to Winslow. "Call security and get everyone down here, then call the sheriff. I need to speak to him."

He wanted armed guards here in case Moorecook returned. He'd have them kick Jenny Bolton out too.

He stalked over to the clown. Glazing eyes stared out of his white-face makeup. His throat was a gaping, red ruin. His costume was soaked but Lanz could still read Benny the Clown Says "Let's Have Fun!" on the big button.

Not a lot of fun going on here.

He closed Benny's eyes and motioned to the orderly. "To the cooler."

He heard the little girl start to scream and saw the EMT and the LPN dragging her to the treatment room. Her kicks and screams grew more frantic the farther she was moved away from her mother.

Sorry, kid, but that wound needs closing.

He looked down at the mother: as dead as Benny.

He still wore the latex gloves he'd donned at the start of Moorecook's code blue. Ignoring the fecal smell from the torn intestines, he parted the loops. The abdominal cavity was filled with blood.

"Good lord," said a woman's voice. "Did he get the aorta? How could he bite that deep?"

He looked up at Jenny Bolton. "What the hell are you still doing here?"

"My patient is still here."

"Your patient is a goddamn monster."

"What happened to him?"

"You tell me."

"I have no idea."

"Then you're of no use to me. You're a GOOMER."

Even though the acronym referred to annoying, unwanted patients--Get Out Of My Emergency Room--he figured she'd catch his meaning.

"I'm waiting for my husband--ex-husband."

"Then wait outside. I--"

The doors flew back and Lanz almost screamed, fearing Moorecook's return. But he managed to bite it back when he saw the two fat softball players stagger into the ER. Both were blood soaked. The bearded one was limping as he half-carried the younger blond guy.

"Oh, God!" Jenny said.

Then Lanz saw why: The blond guy's left arm was missing at the elbow. He was squeezing the stump, trying to stanch the hemorrhage.

"He bit his arm off, doc!" the bearded one said. "That animal bit his fucking arm off! And he bit me in the ass!"

As the pair struggled past, Lanz saw that the man's ample right buttock was missing a sizable chunk--mostly fat, but a little of the gluteus was exposed.

Lanz looked around to find Bolton staring at him. "Still want me to wait outside?"

He was about to tell her exactly what she could do when Winslow called from the nurse's station.

"Doctor Lanz! Sheriff's on the phone!"

Shit!

If he turned down an offer of skilled help, fired employee or not, and anyone died, some lawyer would have his ass.

Lanz pointed to the ball players. "Take care of that arm."

He stripped off his bloody gloves and took the phone from Winslow.

"Sheriff, we've got one hell of a problem here."

"Well, doc, I've got one hell of a problem myself. Let's compare. You first."

Bet you mine is bigger than yours? Was that how they were going to play this? Fine. He'd lay it on with a trowel. Christ, he hated these hicks.

"We've suffered what can only be described as a terrorist attack. I've got two dead and three wounded, one of whom has lost an arm. The terrorist is still loose in the hospital wreaking God knows what kind of havoc. I need a SWAT team here."

The sheriff put on an aw-shucks tone. "Now, doc, I'm sure it ain't that bad, and you know we ain't got no SWAT team--"

"Then call in the fucking National Guard! This is no joke!"

"Well, even if I did call in the Guard, no way they could get to you. One of Joe Loveland's cows wandered onto the tracks and got hit by the four-seventeen freight."

"Who cares whose cow it was! It's a fucking cow! I've got dead and wounded people here, and maybe more on the way!"

"Now hold on. You're not letting me finish. The collision occurred in such a matter of fashion that the train jumped the tracks and came to a stop flat on its side across the highway."

The collision occurred in such a matter of fashion...who talked like that?

"Sheriff--"

"Thank the Lord, nobody got hurt, it being a freight train and all, but let me tell you, we've got one hell of a mess out here."