Chapter 104

  HAWK¹’S SURGEON, Dr. Dave Hammond, was a compact man with rusty² hair and the tight manner of a perfectionist who’d spent the night stitching his patient’s guts³ back together. Conklin and I had spent the same eight hours in a small, dull waiting room at St. Francis Hospital, waiting for Hammond’s report.

  When the doctor entered the waiting room at 6:15 a.m., I shot to my feet, asked, “Is he awake?”

  Hammond said, “Right now, the patient’s condition defines touch-and-go. He was bleeding like a son of a bitch when he came in. One slug punctured⁴ his lung and nicked his aorta⁵. The other damn near pulverized⁶ his liver.”

  Conklin said, “So, Doctor, when can we talk to him?”

  “Inspector, you understand what I just said? We had to inflate⁷ the kid’s lungs, transfuse⁸ him, and remove a chunk⁹ of his liver. This is what we like to call major surgery.”

  Conklin smiled winningly. “Okay. I hear you. Is he awake?”

  “He just opened his eyes.” Hammond sighed with disgust. “I’ll give you one minute to get in and get out.”

  One minute was all we’d need, enough time to wring¹⁰ two words from that bastard¹¹ - his first name and his last. I pushed open the door marked RECOVERY and approached Hawk’s bed. It was a shocking sight.

  Hawk’s body was lashed¹² down in four-point restraints so that he couldn’t flail¹³ and undo¹⁴ the work his surgeons had just done. Even his head was restrained. IV bags dripped fluids into his body, a chest tube drained ooze¹⁵ out of his lungs, a catheter carried waste into a canister under the bed, and he was breathing oxygen through a cannula clipped to his nose.

  Hawk looked bad, but he was alive.

  Now I had to get him to talk.

  I touched his hand and said, “Hi there. My name is Lindsay.”

  Hawk’s eyes flickered¹⁶ open.

  “Where . . . am I?” he asked me.

  I told him that he’d been shot, that he was in a hospital, and that he was doing fine.

  “Why can’t . . . I move?”

  I told him about the restraints and why he was tied down, and I asked for his help. “I need to call your family, but I don’t know your name.”

  Hawk scanned my face, then dropped his gaze to the badge on my lapel, the bulge¹⁷ of my gun under my jacket. He murmured something I had to strain to hear.

  “My work here is finished,” Hawk said.

  “No,” I shouted, gripping the kid’s hand with both of mine. “You are not going to die. You’ve got a great doctor. We all want to help you, but I have to know your name. Please, Hawk, tell me your name.”

  Hawk pursed his lips, starting to form a word - and then, as though an electric current had taken over his body, his back bowed and he went rigid¹⁸ against his restraints. Simultaneously¹⁹, the rapid, high-pitched beeping of an alarm filled the room. I wanted to scream.

  I held on to Hawk’s hand as his eyes rolled back and a noise came from his throat like soda²⁰ water pouring into a glass. The monitor tracking his vital signs showed Hawk’s heart rate spike²¹ to 170, drop to 60, and rocket again even as his blood pressure dropped through the floor.

  “What’s happening?” Conklin asked me.

  “He’s crashing,” Hammond shouted, stiff-arming the door. The rapid beeping turned into one long squeal²² as the green lines on the monitor went flat.

  Hammond yelled, “Where’s the goddamned cart!”

  As the medics rolled it in, Conklin and I were pushed away from the bed. A nurse closed the curtain, blocking our view. I heard the frenzy²³ of doctors working to shock Hawk’s heart back into rhythm.

  “Come on, come on,” I heard Dr. Hammond say. Then, “Crap. Time of death, 6:34 a.m.”

  “Damn it,” I said to Conklin. “Damn it to hell.”

1 hawk   

n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员

参考例句：

• The hawk swooped down on the rabbit and killed it.鹰猛地朝兔子扑下来,并把它杀死。
• The hawk snatched the chicken and flew away.老鹰叼了小鸡就飞走了。

2 rusty   

adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的

参考例句：

• The lock on the door is rusty and won't open.门上的锁锈住了。
• I haven't practiced my French for months and it's getting rusty.几个月不用，我的法语又荒疏了。

3 guts   

v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠

参考例句：

• I'll only cook fish if the guts have been removed. 鱼若已收拾干净，我只需烧一下即可。
• Barbara hasn't got the guts to leave her mother. 巴巴拉没有勇气离开她妈妈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 punctured   

v.在（某物）上穿孔( puncture的过去式和过去分词 )；刺穿（某物）；削弱（某人的傲气、信心等）；泄某人的气

参考例句：

• Some glass on the road punctured my new tyre. 路上的玻璃刺破了我的新轮胎。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A nail on the road punctured the tyre. 路上的钉子把车胎戳穿了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 aorta   

n.主动脉

参考例句：

• The abdominal aorta is normally smaller than the thoracic aorta.腹主动脉一般比胸主动脉小。
• Put down that jelly doughnut and look carefully at this aorta.放下手头上的东西，认真观察这张大动脉图片。

6 pulverized   

adj.[医]雾化的，粉末状的v.将…弄碎( pulverize的过去式和过去分词 )；将…弄成粉末或尘埃；摧毁；粉碎

参考例句：

• We pulverized the opposition. 我们彻底击败了对手。
• He pulverized the opposition with the force of his oratory. 他能言善辩把对方驳得体无完肤。 来自辞典例句

7 inflate   

vt.使膨胀，使骄傲，抬高（物价）

参考例句：

• The buyers bid against each other and often inflate the prices they pay.买主们竞相投标，往往人为地提高价钱。
• Stuart jumped into the sea and inflated the liferaft.斯图尔特跳到海里给救生艇充气。

8 transfuse   

v.渗入；灌输；输血

参考例句：

• He cannot transfuse the knowledge into your brain.他不能把知识灌入您的脑子。
• In the past,the flow of vein transfuse belonged to pure technology flow.过去的静脉输液流程是纯技术流程。

9 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

10 wring   

n.扭绞；v.拧，绞出，扭

参考例句：

• My socks were so wet that I had to wring them.我的袜子很湿，我不得不拧干它们。
• I'll wring your neck if you don't behave!你要是不规矩，我就拧断你的脖子。

11 bastard   

n.坏蛋，混蛋；私生子

参考例句：

• He was never concerned about being born a bastard.他从不介意自己是私生子。
• There was supposed to be no way to get at the bastard.据说没有办法买通那个混蛋。

12 lashed   

adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥

参考例句：

• The rain lashed at the windows. 雨点猛烈地打在窗户上。
• The cleverly designed speech lashed the audience into a frenzy. 这篇精心设计的演说煽动听众使他们发狂。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 flail   

v.用连枷打；击打；n.连枷（脱粒用的工具）

参考例句：

• No fence against flail.飞来横祸不胜防。
• His arms were flailing in all directions.他的手臂胡乱挥舞着。

14 undo   

vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销

参考例句：

• His pride will undo him some day.他的傲慢总有一天会毁了他。
• I managed secretly to undo a corner of the parcel.我悄悄地设法解开了包裹的一角。

15 ooze   

n.软泥，渗出物；vi.渗出，泄漏；vt.慢慢渗出，流露

参考例句：

• Soon layer of oceanic ooze began to accumulate above the old hard layer.不久后海洋软泥层开始在老的硬地层上堆积。
• Drip or ooze systems are common for pot watering.滴灌和渗灌系统一般也用于盆栽灌水。

16 flickered   

（通常指灯光）闪烁，摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The lights flickered and went out. 灯光闪了闪就熄了。
• These lights flickered continuously like traffic lights which have gone mad. 这些灯象发狂的交通灯一样不停地闪动着。

17 bulge   

n.突出，膨胀，激增；vt.突出，膨胀

参考例句：

• The apple made a bulge in his pocket.苹果把他口袋塞得鼓了起来。
• What's that awkward bulge in your pocket?你口袋里那块鼓鼓囊囊的东西是什么？

18 rigid   

adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的

参考例句：

• She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
• The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。

19 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

20 soda   

n.苏打水；汽水

参考例句：

• She doesn't enjoy drinking chocolate soda.她不喜欢喝巧克力汽水。
• I will freshen your drink with more soda and ice cubes.我给你的饮料重加一些苏打水和冰块。

21 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

22 squeal   

v.发出长而尖的声音；n.长而尖的声音

参考例句：

• The children gave a squeal of fright.孩子们发出惊吓的尖叫声。
• There was a squeal of brakes as the car suddenly stopped.小汽车突然停下来时，车闸发出尖叫声。

23 frenzy   

n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动

参考例句：

• He was able to work the young students up into a frenzy.他能激起青年学生的狂热。
• They were singing in a frenzy of joy.他们欣喜若狂地高声歌唱。