Cassie DePeckel

Shigeru stares at Nance.

How do I know you won't kill him on the table for being Japanese?

I'm a doctor, not a mercenary.

Shigeru bites his lip, wrestling with the decision.

Okay, but if he dies, I'll shoot one of your nurses.

Fine, now step aside.

Nurse Dorothy, scrub in and get us set up.

I'm going to summon a few more nurses to help.

Dorothy stands there stunned.

She glances at Shigeru, who glares at her, then walks over to the window.

In a daze, Dorothy heads to a wash basin to clean her hands.

How can Nance be so cavalier with a nurse's life?

Even with Nance's tools and the medicine Cobb has been able to secure, the infirmary is a risky place to perform a surgery, but she has no choice but to help.

The patient's life and hers are now in the doctor's hands.

Nurse Dorothy Still lays out the surgical instruments on a stand next to the operating table, where an ailing Japanese man groans in pain.

Dorothy knows that Dr. Dana Nance likes his instruments in a certain order.

First, the scalpel, then the medical scissors, finally, the forceps and retractors.

But Dorothy's hands are trembling so badly that she drops a scalpel onto the floor.

Nance scowls at her.

Dorothy tells herself to remain calm, but given the stakes here, it's hard.