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came.
    Tinker stopped ringing the bell. "It's Tinker!"
    Lain opened the door, blinking in the flatbed's headlights, leaning heavily on her crutch. "Tink, what in the world? This better not be another tengu you're bringing me."
    "A what?"
    "A Japanese elf. Related to the oni. Sometimes it looks like a crow."
    "I've never brought you a crow."
    "In the dream I had last week, you brought me a tengu, and wanted me to bandage it. I kept on telling you that it was dangerous, but you wouldn't listen to me. We bandaged it up, and it turned you into a diamond and flew away with you in its beak."
    "I'm not going to be responsible for dreams you had."
    This was the way conversations tended to go with Lain. Tinker was never sure if she liked talking with Lain. They were never direct, easy-to-understand conversations, and were thus an annoyance and a treasure at the same time.
    Lain pulled an umbrella out of a stand by the door and stepped out into the wet to thumb it open. "Well, the phones haven't started working yet, so I might as well deal with this emergency now. You couldn't have picked a worse day to bring me something to treat."
    "If this weren't Shutdown Day, I wouldn't be coming to you with this."
    At the flatbed, Lain collapsed the umbrella, set it inside the chest-high door, unlatched her crutch, put it beside the umbrella, and then reached up and swung gracefully into the trailer. Lacking Lain's height and reach, and with one hand nearly useless, Tinker scrambled up in a less dignified manner.
    Running off the flatbed's electric, Tinker had only managed to set up two lights. The dimness hid the worst of Windwolf's condition. Still, the sight of the bandaged elf seemed to shock Lain.
    "Oh, my," Lain said. "It is a tengu."
    "I am not a tengu," Windwolf whispered.
    "Close enough." Lain shrugged, picking up her crutch. "What happened?"
    "He was attacked by dogs," Tinker said. "A pack of them—really ugly and bigger than wargs. They were magical constructs."
    "They were Foo dogs," Windwolf whispered.
    Lain limped to Windwolf and eyed his many wounds. "Foo dogs. Can tengu be far behind?"
    "A good question." Windwolf sighed. "Do you understand the strictures of the treaty between our people?"
    "Yes," Lain said.
    "Do I have your pledge that you'll abide by it?"
    "You'll trust my word?"
    "Tinker has vouched for you."
    Lain threw Tinker a concerned look. "I see. Yes, you have my word."
    "Word about what?" Tinker asked.
    "The treaty allows for simple first aid." Lain scanned the equipment connected to Windwolf. "It theorized that since we can interbreed, humans and elves must be ninety-eight percent to ninety-nine percent genetically identical. But then, we're ninety percent identical to earthworms, so it's not that amazing, except that this is an alien world."
    "We're that close to earthworms?"
    "Yes. Frightening isn't it?"
    "How close are Earth earthworms and Elfhome earthworms?"
    "Do you know how many species of earthworms are on Earth?" Lain eyed the power sink. "Of course primates are also ninety-eight percent identical to us, and we can't interbreed."
    "Has anyone tried?"
    "Knowing humans," Windwolf murmured. "Yes."
    Lain laughed, looking amused and yet insulted. "As a scientifically controlled experiment or a sexual perversion?"
    "Both." Windwolf earned a dark look from Lain.
    "What does that have to do with anything now?" Tinker asked to distract the two.
    "The point is that the elves want to keep it all theory," Lain said. "It's against the treaty to cull any genetic samples from an accident victim. It's why Mercy won't treat elves." She shook her head. "This is going to be tricky. I'll need him in my operating room to properly treat him."
    Tinker considered. "I have longer leads. We could leave the sink in the trailer and run the magic into your OR with the longer leads. There might be a drop in power, though."
    Oilcan peered through the AC slot from the truck cab. "If I take down a section of the fence, we can back up almost