"Keep still. It'll sting a little.... Yes, I think I can see it." He took the tweezers from Molly, who had returned, and neatly removed something from the cut. He held it under the light and looked at it through the lens. Then he rinsed it under the water faucet, dried it on a piece of filter-paper and looked at it again. "Well, it looks like glass. I don't know. Maybe it's the nucleus of the glass chunk and...." His voice trailed off and he frowned at nothing in particular, putting the fragment down on the filter-paper.
I picked it up. It seemed like a bit of sand, only brighter.
McGill's concern over this new object of interest had been so intent that for a few minutes our attention was diverted, but now Molly began to pace up and down. There didn't seem to be anything for us to do, and unlike most nurses, waiting makes her nervous. She was looking at the display of various chemicals and reagents on the shelves.
"What's that stuff?" she asked, pointing to a large jar of black powder labeled Deflocculated Graphite. "I bet those cops have gone for a search warrant."
"Finely divided carbon," McGill said. "Damn, I wish I could think of something! A chunk of glass ... blowing up...."
"Graphite is carbon?" Molly said. "You don't think they'd actually do anything to Alec, do you?"
"It's another form of carbon. A diamond is still another: the rare crystalline form," he said. "I wouldn't put it past that mob to do anything."
"Oh, yes. I remember that in chemistry," Molly said. "But the police wouldn't let them, McGill, would they?"
"I've got an idea—" I tried to break in.
"They might not be able to stop them," McGill replied.