X-ray Chapter 7, part 10

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Two minutes behind Louis came improved lighting and coffee, courtesy of the MTA engineers. Jeremy reappeared with another cylinder of oxygen and an umbilical cord of IV lies and extension sets that stretched 25 feet over and up to a Liter bag he had tied to a straphanger's pole. In the glare of the halogen light his face shone ashen and drawn. His breath came fast and hard and he fumbled with clumsy fingers. He was hyperventilating.

"Jeremy, you're hyperventilating," Marcus said.

"I'll, I'll be okay."

"Slow your breathing down, Jeremy. Deep breaths."

"I'll, be okay"

"Jeremy- sing, Jeremy," Marcus counseled.

"What?"

"Sing. You can't hyperventilate if you sing."

All Jeremy could come up with was to chant The Four Questions. He started in a low mumble.

"Sing, Jeremy," Marcus admonished him. "Let Andy hear you."

Drew and his patient heard the singing and broke off their baseball debate.

Up on the platform, Lieutenant Squadron looked up from his clipboard.

The MTA engineers crossed the platform and gazed down beneath the train. The train's two conductors followed them.

Jeremy's clear tenor interrupted Rescue Three in their cribbing construction.

The rookie policeman broke off his report to dispatch, then joined in for the last line. In the half silence that followed, Ian though he could make out the hiss of Andy's jazz cassette. Then Andy and his patient reiterated their arguments, Lieutenant Squadron bent over his clipboard, the engineers and conductors returned to their contemplation of lunch, Rescue Three redoubled their building speed, the cop recontacted his dispatcher.

"Rats," Ian said as Jeremy retreated.

"Ian," Marcus scolded.

"No, rats. Rodents. On the Lifepack."

No joke. Ian was closer to the monitor, but his hands were full with ventilating the patient; Marcus couldn't reach the bag valve. But Marcus could reach the prefilled syringes. Streams of lidocaine, then epinephrine shot at the interlopers. They retreated.

The monitor, which was waterproof, started showing PVC's again.

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