Lin Tao limped back up the three black glass steps of the Diagnostic Dais, supporting Tie Shan by the giant’s uninjured right arm.
The giant’s left arm hung limp at his side. The out-of-joint shoulder joint was resting at an unnatural angle. Every step was a brutal grinding of fractured rib margins. But Tie Shan’s jaw remained clamped tight. He refused to yield to gravity. They reached the top platform. Then, Lin Tao helped Tie Shan sit against the base of the shattered stone railing, propping his back against a solid block of black glass.
Lin Tao right away knelt beside him, unrolling his cold and exact razor-sharp satchel.
“Shoulder first,” Lin Tao said, his voice flat with cold and exact urgency. “The humeral head has displaced anteriorly into the subcoracoid space. If we don’t reduce the joint right away, the muscle spasms will lock the head against the shoulder nerve bundle.”
Tie Shan looked at his useless left arm, then met Lin Tao’s eyes. “Set it. Do it fast.”
Lin Tao placed his stockinged right foot into Tie Shan’s left axilla, using his heel as a gentle, firm counter-traction wedge against the giant’s back. He gripped Tie Shan’s left wrist with both hands, slowly applying steady, lengthwise axial traction along the line of the upper arm bone.
