are you as yet sober, then

The sponsor's question hallucinated at the fever's worst, and it is the only question that matters: not how bad the pain is, not whether he'll keep the arm, but whether he is, as yet, still sober. Ferocious Francis's acerbic Crocodilian counsel cuts past the whole medical catastrophe to the single daily datum recovery tracks — the sobriety is the thing being defended in that bed, and even Gately's dreaming mind knows the sponsor would ask about nothing else.