‘Steve? Are you all right?’ she asked at the sound of his voice.
‘It all went wrong,’ said Dunbar. ‘I’m okay but Jimmy Douglas was badly hurt.’
‘You were caught?’
‘No, we got away. I even got what I wanted, but it was a hell of a mess. I’m not long back. I haven’t had a chance to look at anything yet.’
‘Why don’t you come over? I’ll make you some breakfast and you can tell me about it.’
Dunbar said he’d be over in half an hour.
‘God, what a nightmare,’ said Lisa. ‘What on earth is he using apes for? I thought those days were over.’
‘The apes were all heavily pregnant,’ said Dunbar. ‘They also all had recent Caesarian scars on their bellies.’
‘I don’t understand. How could they still be pregnant if they had section scars?’
‘I don’t think the section was performed to deliver the baby. It was done to operate on it,’ said Dunbar.
‘ In utero surgery,’ exclaimed Lisa, her eyes widening. ‘I read about that in the Nursing Standard. They say it’s the coming thing, but it’s difficult. It’s easy to induce premature labour and lose the foetus. Why would Ross be interested in that?’
‘I don’t know,’ admitted Dunbar. ‘But it must have something to do with what he’s up to. He went to a lot of trouble to conceal it.’
He told her about the false wall and how finding the opening in it had led to Douglas’s injury.
‘Do you really think he’ll lose his arm?’ she asked.
‘It was badly damaged. His chances can’t be better than fifty-fifty.’
‘Poor man,’ said Lisa. ‘And what a mess. You said the security-men were injured too?’
‘I had to knock them out so we could get away.’
‘Then they saw you?’
‘I had my face covered.’
‘Maybe this has made the early-morning news,’ said Lisa. She turned on the television and tuned to STV for the breakfast programme. Ten minutes later, it was the third item on the regional news bulletin.
‘Last night animal rights activists broke into the laboratories of Glasgow transplant surgeon James Ross and attacked two security men. They daubed slogans over the walls, and are believed to have caused considerable damage to the premises. The security men were taken to hospital, but a spokesman said later that neither was seriously injured.’
Dunbar let out a sigh of relief.
‘Dr Ross, speaking to us earlier by telephone, condemned the break-in as an act of wanton vandalism. He said that the research at Vane Farm was vital to his transplant work. These people were doing no good at all; they were endangering the lives of sick children.’
‘Go on, hit the cuddly bunny button,’ said Dunbar under his breath.
‘What d’you think?’ asked Lisa when the piece had ended.
‘Looks like they bought the animal rights angle,’ said Dunbar.
‘A bit hard on them,’ said Lisa.
‘Don’t feel too sorry for them,’ said Dunbar. ‘They don’t exactly play by the rules themselves.’
Lisa raised her eyebrows but said only, ‘More coffee?’
Dunbar held out his cup.
‘You said you got what you went for,’ said Lisa.
‘I managed to copy the disks with Ross’s research data on them.’
‘The evidence you need,’ said Lisa.
‘That’s what I’m about to find out,’ said Dunbar, getting to his feet a bit unsteadily. ‘I’d best get started.’
‘You’re exhausted!’ Lisa protested. ‘You need rest. You can’t possibly go in just yet.’
Dunbar started to argue but Lisa was insistent. ‘It’s still very early,’ she said. ‘At least put your head down for a couple of hours. You’ll feel all the better for it. I’ll wake you, I promise.’
Dunbar hesitated but then conceded he was very tired. He was asleep within seconds of his head touching the pillow in Lisa’s bed.
She woke him at ten.
‘I’d like to check on Jimmy’s condition before I go,’ said Dunbar as he was preparing to leave. ‘It would be safer if I did it from here.’
‘Of course,’ said Lisa.
Dunbar called Sci-Med. He didn’t ask to speak to Macmillan but the director came on the line anyway.
‘What went wrong, Dunbar?’
‘Just bad luck,’ replied Dunbar. ‘An unfortunate series of events, something that no one could have foreseen.’
‘What’s the fall-out liable to be?’
‘With a bit of luck there won’t be any,’ said Dunbar. ‘Scottish Television carried the story on their regional news programme this morning. Animal rights activists are being blamed for the break-in.’
‘And did you get what you were after?’
‘I did, but I haven’t had time to analyse it yet.’
‘Keep me informed.’
‘Yes, sir. I actually phoned to ask about the condition of the man assigned to me, James Douglas.’
‘Hang on a moment. I’ll transfer you.’
‘Operations manager.’
‘Steven Dunbar here. I’m trying to find out about the condition of James Douglas. He was injured last night on a job with me.’
‘I’ve just been reading the night duty officer’s report. Ambulances in the middle of the night, hush-hush operations, surgeons called from their beds. God knows how I’m going to put all this through the books.’
‘How’s Jimmy?’ asked Dunbar with an edge to his voice that said his temper was fraying.
‘Let’s see… report in from the Bladen Clinic, Glasgow, at 09.00 hours. Patient reported as being comfortable after an operation to repair severed tendons and tissue damage to his right arm. He’s expected to make a good recovery, but it will take time.’
Dunbar closed his eyes. ‘Thank God,’ he whispered.
‘Friend of yours?’ asked the operations manager.
‘We were on a job together. It went wrong.’
‘Happens.’
‘News?’ asked Lisa who had come back into the room on hearing Dunbar put the phone down.
‘Jimmy’s going to be okay.’
‘You must be relieved.’
‘I’ll say. I felt responsible.’
‘From what you told me, it was just one of those things.’
‘Neither of us is particularly good at accepting that explanation,’ said Dunbar. He kissed her lightly on the forehead.
‘Call me later?’
‘Sure.’
Kate was on her knees in front of the oven, scrubbing it out with a scouring pad. It was a job she normally hated, but this morning she was singing as she worked. Amanda had been doing so well recently that everything seemed much brighter. Life was worth living again. She hadn’t said anything to Sandy, for fear of tempting fate, but inside she felt that quite soon the possibility of Amanda coming home and changing over to home dialysis would be raised. In the meantime she had persuaded Sandy to go hill-walking at the weekend with his friends. It was something he enjoyed and something he hadn’t done since Amanda’s illness started. He had almost finished her doll’s house — complete with lights in every room; it would do him good to get away and do his own thing for a while.
Kate had her head half in, half out of the oven and was launching into a lusty, if tunefully suspect, chorus of ‘Love is All Around Us’ when she stopped. She was not mistaken; the phone was ringing.
‘Was it ever different?’ she thought as she got to her feet, stripping off her gloves as she skipped through to the living room.
‘Mrs Chapman? It’s Dr Hatfull here at Medic Ecosse. I’ve got some good news for you. We’ve had notification that a kidney is likely to become available for Amanda very soon.’
Kate couldn’t speak for a few moments.