NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 2689972" data-attributes="member: 26473">As the figures walking up the street from the square get closer, the door to the clinic opens and the legionnaires return, carrying a pair of litters, followed by a tall, thin man in a long white coat. “Syrovy, Asmussen, carry the gendarme,” Sgt. Katsourianis instructs as Nedjar hands over one of the litters to the Hungarian.“Carefully, now,” says the tall man. In his white lab coat the lanky figure looks like a giant marabou stork. By the light spilling from the doorway of the clinic he appears to be in his early to mid-sixties, a fringe of gray hair around the back of his head and a bushy gray mustache beneath a long, narrow nose on which are perched a pair of wire-rimmed bifocals. A stethoscope dangles from around his neck.First, Babaye is gently moved onto the litter carried by Nedjar and Ortu under the watchful eye of the doctor, who gives the wounded man’s dressings a quick once over. “Inside, in the surgery,” the doctor says with a curt nod.As the gendarme is moved forward to the edge of the bed, a booming voice cries out, “Who’s in charge? Tell me what happened!”Stepping into the light is a group of a half-dozen men. In the lead is a short, portly man in a gray suit coat and slacks and white dress shirt open at the neck – his dark hair is slicked straight back. A pair of large horn-rimmed glasses gives him a slightly bookish appearance, but his ham-like hands clenched into fists and weathered skin suggest that he is anything but an academic.Beside him is another man, older, much taller and heavily built – he looks like a man who could at one time break an axe-handle in his bare hands, now gone to paunch. He has thick gray hair and a full beard – slung over his shoulder is a rifle and around his ample waist is a bandolier. The other men trailing along behind are similarly armed and attired. All are pieds-noir.The doctor turns at the sound of the booming voice. “Jean-Marie, I have wounded to attend to first,” he says in Italian-accented French, “then you may ask your questions.”The short man, apparently the speaker, looks up at the doctor with a scowl, then spies the gendarme being loaded onto the second litter. “You there, tell me what happened.”“We were ambushed, mayor,” the gendarme replies as he attempts to lie at attention on the litter, “near the Rubiera place. Sergent Teller is dead, sir, along with Phillipe Argaud and Henri Moret. I injured my leg...”“What about the Rubieras?” interrupts the taller man. His voice is deep and calm.The gendarme shakes his head. “All dead, Monsieur Girard. All but the little girl.”A murmur runs among the men like a wave receding on a shingle beach, their words punctuated by sharply-spoken expletives. The mayor turns toward the legionnaires. “And this is our PROTECTION?” he spits angrily. “What were you doing? Where did they come from? How did they get to the farm?”“Not now, Jean-Marie,” interrupts the doctor forcefully. He looks up at Normand. “Can you walk? Good. Inside.”The pieds-noirs speak angrily amongst themselves, the voice of the mayor the most audible, as the legionnaires are hustled into the clinic. A small waiting room greets the paras. The doctor gestures to the litter bearers and directs them through a set of double-doors to a treatment room on the right. He turns to Normand. “Sit down a moment, son,” he instructs, then spends a moment assessing the legionnaire’s wounds. “You’ll need clean dressings, and penicillin, but otherwise you look like you’ll live. You come last.”The doctor converses quietly with Sgt. Katsourianis for a brief time. The sergent looks up at Marcel. “Fortier, you assist the doctor,” he orders. The tall physician nods and tilts his head toward the back of the clinic.Marcel...[sblock]“I’m Dr. Bruzzi. Have you any experience with assisting in a surgery?” he asks, his long strides carrying him quickly down the hall.[/sblock]Normand and Pyotr...[sblock]The lobby grows quiet, but outside the hubbub of voices seems to be growing.[/sblock]Please post your replies in spoiler blocks.</blockquote>

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