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“Third door on your right,” Kurt’s escort said

The corridor was gloo Equipainst the wall, as the fluorescent lights flickered It looked like the kind of place where they ht keep the electroshock therapy equipment

“Aren’t you going with me?” Kurt asked

The guard stood with his hands behind his back He said nothing

“Guess not”

Kurt took a deep breath and moved slowly down the hall until he reached the third door He twisted the handle and stepped into ain a bed on the right — with an oxygen line attached to his nose and an IV drip hooked up to his arm — was Cecil Bradshaw He did not look well

Kurt closed the door

Bradshaw turned his head His eyes were dark, sunken, and half closed

“Glad to see you,” Kurt said “Thought I was about to get hooked up to the power grid for a moment”

Bradshaw’s eyes crinkled a bit, the closest he could come to a smile He stretched for the switch that controlled the hospital bed, but he couldn’t reach it

“Prop me up, will ya?”

Kurt found the button that raised the back of the bed and pressed it, holding it down until Bradshaas al position

An alar Bradshaw’s pulse had dropped into the fifties and that his pressure was a little low

“That’s what happens when you lose half your blood,” Bradshaw said “They’ve been puht”

“Surprised you had any left to begin with,” Kurt said