Medic Ecosse staff in the scrub facility were ushered out of the room into police custody while Dunbar and the others took over. Dunbar was the last to be ready, having had to shower before going through normal scrub procedure. When they were all gowned and masked, he turned to Turner and asked, ‘All right?’
Turner nodded nervously and adjusted his mask.
Dunbar entered the theatre first and met the eyes of the lead surgeon across the table. It wasn’t Ross. It was Hatfull.
‘What the… Who the hell are you?’ asked Hatfull.
‘Steven Dunbar, Dr Hatfull. I’m here with the authority of the Sci-Med Inspectorate and the backing of Strathclyde Police. What stage are you at?’
‘What the… What the hell is this all about?’ stammered Hatfull.
‘What stage are you at?’ demanded Dunbar.
‘About ten minutes from the exchange. What do you think you’re doing? Don’t you realize what we’re involved in here?’
‘You’re about to give this child the wrong kidney,’ said Dunbar, watching Hatfull’s eyes.
Hatfull was almost apoplectic. ‘The wrong kidney!’ he stormed. ‘The damned thing has come all the way from Geneva. It’s as near a perfect a match as you can possibly get.’
‘It’s been switched.’
‘Have you taken leave of your senses? What the hell are you talking about?’
‘Not by you,’ conceded Dunbar, accepting that Hatfull seemed to know nothing of the affair. ‘Don’t remove her own kidney just yet. We’re going to take a biopsy of the donor organ. We’ll have to wait for the result.’
Hatfull ran the back of his forearm along his brow in frustration. ‘Will somebody please tell me what’s going on?’ he asked. He’d given up blustering; he said it quietly.
‘Our one chance of saving Amanda Chapman’s life is to find the kidney that came from Geneva. Any ideas?’
Hatfull looked at the ice-filled container beside him. Turner was taking a sliver of tissue from the kidney in it.
‘That’s not it, I promise,’ said Dunbar.
‘Then… I’ve no idea,’ said Hatfull.
‘Do your best to keep her stable,’ said Dunbar. ‘Any idea where Ross is this evening?’
‘He left for Geneva earlier today.’
Dunbar’s eyes widened over his mask. ‘Geneva?’ he repeated. This was a show-stopper.
The tissue sample from the donor kidney was bottled and handed over to Farrow.
‘Quick as you can,’ said Turner.
Dunbar went out of the theatre and out into the corridor where he pulled down his mask.
‘How’s it going in there?’ asked Renton.
‘Badly,’ confessed Dunbar. ‘Our main suspect ran off to Geneva this afternoon. The surgical team in there know nothing about the scam, so Ross is the only one who knows where the real donor organ is. Shit! What a mess.’
Dunbar was berating himself for not having considered that Ross wouldn’t be doing Amanda’s operation himself. He hadn’t done Kenneth Lineham’s or Amy Teasdale’s either. He probably thought it wise to distance himself from these operations once he’d switched the human organ for an animal one. But Geneva? The more he thought about it, the less sense it made. If Amanda reacted like the others, she’d be dead within twenty-four to thirty-six hours. Ross would have to be on hand to do the heart transplant with his own surgical team, the Americans he’d seen arriving two days ago. If the Omega surgical team were already here, it didn’t make any sense for Ross to be in Geneva. He wasn’t, Dunbar concluded. It was a lie. He was locked away in the Omega wing with the others.
Dunbar told Renton what he thought.
‘If that’s so, I don’t think anyone’s been alerted up there. The armed response team took the two men on the door without any trouble. They’re holding them downstairs.’
‘Then we go in,’ said Dunbar.
‘Armed?’
‘Maybe one armed officer. We don’t know who’s inside,’ replied Dunbar.
Renton, Dunbar, three constables, including a WPC, and an armed response unit officer wearing full protective gear and carrying an automatic weapon moved quickly up the stairs to the Omega wing and entered through its now unguarded doors. Everything was quiet inside. They moved along the main corridor in silence, listening outside doors as they went. They stopped when they heard women’s voices coming from one of the rooms. They were speaking Arabic.
‘The patient’s room,’ whispered Dunbar.
They had just started to move off again when a door ahead opened and an Arab woman stepped out into the corridor. She saw them and let out a scream. A door on the other side of the corridor opened and Leo Giordano looked out. He saw Dunbar and quickly backed in again.
‘In there!’ said Dunbar leading the charge.
Giordano failed to get the door closed in time. Dunbar put his shoulder to it and kept the stalemate until two of the constables added their weight and it crashed open.
‘This is an outrage!’ said Giordano.
‘Save your breath,’ said Dunbar looking round the room. Ross was there, along with Kinscherf, Ingrid, two Arab men and the American medics.
‘I’ve stopped Amanda Chapman’s transplant,’ said Dunbar, looking directly at Ross. ‘I know what’s been going on. Where’s the real donor kidney?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ said Ross calmly, meeting Dunbar’s stare. ‘This is an outrage. Explain yourself!’
‘It’s all over, Ross. You must see that. Where is it?’ demanded Dunbar.
There was a moment of silence before Ingrid suddenly shook her head and said, ‘He’s right. For God’s sake tell him!’
‘Shut up!’ snapped Ross but the westerners started showing signs of unease too. One of them got to his feet and said to Dunbar, ‘I don’t know what’s going on here but it’s nothing to do with me. I’ve just been contracted to be part of a surgical team for one transplant.’
‘Me too,’ said another getting up to join his colleague. ‘I don’t know anything about anything.’
‘Sure,’ said Dunbar sourly.
Both men looked down at the floor.
‘Sit down,’ said Dunbar. He turned back to Ross.
‘They exhumed Amy Teasdale and examined her heart,’ he lied.
A flicker of doubt appeared in Ross’s eyes.
‘For God’s sake tell him!’ pleaded Ingrid.
Ross turned to the younger of the two Arab men and said, ‘Will you please tell the sheikh that these men have come to stop the operation to save his son.’
The man did as he was bid in Arabic. The sheikh listened, then looked up very slowly at Dunbar and his colleagues. His eyes, which had been calm, were now hard and full of anger. He rasped something at the younger man, who pulled out a pistol and pointed it at Dunbar. The armed policeman swung the butt of his weapon and caught him on the jaw. The Arab collapsed in a heap and the policeman recovered his weapon. Dunbar had to step over the Arab to get to Ross.
‘It’s all over, Ross. Where is it?’ demanded Dunbar.
‘For God’s sake tell him!’ said Ingrid again; she was now almost hysterical.
Dunbar nodded to the policemen to take her away.
‘Where is the kidney, Ross?’ Dunbar repeated, his voice betraying his urgency and frustration.
‘I’ve nothing to say. I demand to see my solicitor.’
‘Does anyone else know where the real kidney is?’ asked Dunbar looking around. ‘The child is going to die, for God’s sake!’
The others in the room, looking pale, shook their heads.
‘Jesus,’ said Dunbar. ‘Nobody.’
‘We could search the building,’ suggested Renton.
Dunbar looked at his watch. ‘We’re already out of time,’ he said. Then, looking with loathing at those in front of him, he said, ‘Get them out of here.’
He rapped his knuckles against his forehead as he tried to think what Ross might have done with the missing organ. ‘Come on… think, man… think,’ he muttered.