He followed Jamison down the center corridor of the first floor of the left wing of the mansion to the dispensary, which had been set up in what had been the ballroom. There were sixteen beds, eight on each side of the highceilinged room. Eleven of them were occupied.
At the far end of the ballroom was a small, flat-roofed "building," roughly framed in "with exposed two-by-fours and plywood. It held a simple, if surprisingly complete, operating room, an X-ray room, a pharmacy, two examining cubicles, a dentist's chair and equipment, and an office for the two physicians attached to Whithey House station.
Both of them, and a nurse, were waiting for Jamison and Janos.
"What's going on?" Janos asked when he saw where Jamison had led him.
"First things first," Jamison said.
"We want an X-ray of your ankle."
"I will repeat. Lieutenant Jamison," one of the doctors, a captain, said, "that I don't like this."
"Whether or not you approved didn't come up, Doctor," Jamison said, "when the Colonel said to do it."
The doctor gave him a cold look.
The nurse took Janos into the X-ray room, motioned for him to hop on the table, and then took his crutches and leaned them on the wall. She wordlessly arranged his leg on the table under the X-ray apparatus, then stepped behind a crudely built, raw-lumber six-foot wall.
"Don't move," she ordered, and there was a whirring sound from the X-ray apparatus. She made six X-rays before she was finished, then issued another order: "You'd better stay there until I get these out of the soup."
The two doctors and Jamison came into the room.
"What's going on?" Janos asked from the X-ray table.
"We want to see if we can take your cast off safely," Jamison said.
"Why?"
"If we can, I'll tell you," Jamison said.
Janos, who had been lying down, sat up on the table and let his legs hang over the side.
The nurse returned with still damp eleven-by-fourteen-inch X-ray photographs, put three (all it would handle) on a viewer, and turned it on.
The two doctors examined the X rays and then replaced them on the viewer with the other three. '
The captain turned to Jamison.
"It appears to have healed and knitted satisfactorily," he said.
"The question, Doctor," Jamison said, "is, in your professional medical opinion, can the cast be safely removed?"
"There's a difference, Jamison, between taking it off and declaring this officer fit for duty."
"Can it be safely removed?" Jamison replied.
"If so, please remove it."
"Jesus Christ," the other doctor, a lieutenant, said disgustedly.
"Would you get me the cutter. Nurse?" the captain asked.
Janos didn't like what he saw when the cast was removed. The skin beneath, where it was not marked with angry red marks, was unhealthily white, and although he couldn't be sure without actually comparing it side-by-side with his good ankle, it looked to him to be much thinner.
Both doctors manipulated the ankle and the foot. There was no pain, but it was uncomfortable.
"Well?