Just people trying to make sure that, when the next person looked up from the ground, someone had given them a reason to wave.… Ted had spent most of his adult life learning how to make decisions when there was never enough of anything. Not enough beds. Not enough nurses. Not enough laboratory capacity. Not enough time. And, in the poorer hospitals he had once worked in, sometimes not enough antibiotics. Now, at fifty-two, he was no longer simply the senior physician at the local public hospital. A recent promotion had placed him in charge of clinical coordination across five hospitals in the region. He was expected to standardize treatment protocols, review serious incidents, negotiate with administrators, and help decide which medicines and medical devices the public system would purchase. It was precisely the sort of position that made people who sold medical products suddenly become very interested in his calendar. Matt was one of those people. He had...