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Show 2 3 Then she hears Boaz returning. Her stomach knots sharply, and she is glad she has eaten nothing. She gives the bread too to the dogs. Boaz brings the new needle. He unwraps it, fits it carefully onto the syringe, and from his pocket takes a small rubber-sealed bottle; Nembutol. He has already calculated the dosage: it will be three times the normal amount. He picks the bottle up in one hand, inverts it, and pierces the needle upward through the rubber seal; he draws the plunger out, watching the syringe fill slowly with the clear fluid. When it is full, he withdraws the needle from the bottle, and puts them both on his desk. "Ready, Maia?" She looks at him; his face is firm, impassive, strange, and she wonders if she has ever seen him before. She wonders suddenly where he came from, if he was a rich child or a tramp, whether he could con-judgate a Latin verb or skin a rat, whether he ever thought of death, and if he ever had a dog. "Ready, Maia?" She starts. "Yes, I'm ready," she answers, and together they begin. It is not easy; Maia must hold the dog, while Boaz injects the anaesthetic directly into the peritoneum, where it will be absorbed slowly enough not to kill the dog immediately. They inject Theresa first, as if to practice on the weakest of the dogs, then Pablo and finally Mustard, and by the time they have finished with Mustard, the drug is already beginning to affect Theresa. |