Alpha Force: Blood Money

by Chris Ryan

Should he wake her? Maybe she was drugged. And if he was going to smuggle her out, he’d have to find her some clothes.

  Voices stopped at the door and the handle turned. Alex ducked down out of sight.

  28

  CONTACT

  ‘Perungalattur Halt,’ read Amber on the station sign. She tapped Paulo on the shoulder. He stopped, put his feet down and turned, waiting for instructions. ‘I’ll text Hex and Li; let them know we’re here.’ As her thumbs worked she said, ‘Should we text Alex?’

  Paulo shook his head. ‘No. He’s in enemy territory. We might expose him.’

  ‘OK. I’m done,’ said Amber. ‘Let’s go.’

  Truth be told, Paulo was fed up with the bike. It was a real bone-shaker; its suspension was very elderly and every time they went over a bump – which was often – he could feel the shock rattle up every one of his vertebrae. Not only was the bike uncomfortable, it swerved all the time because the shock absorbers were shot. But he wasn’t going to say that to Amber. She’d only say, ‘I told you so.’

  They found the spur line and Paulo tried to stick to the smooth strip of track bed that ran alongside it. But they kept running over pellets of ballast that had strayed from the rails. Paulo felt every one all the way up to his teeth.

  The square building came closer. Once they were a few hundred metres from it, Paulo stopped and cut the engine. ‘We’d better hide the bike here and continue on foot,’ he said. ‘We’re a bit conspicuous on this.’ Amber got off and he wheeled the bike over to some bushes and put the stand down.

  The bike was so spattered with mud that it blended in with the landscape quite well. No one would be able to see it unless they came up close and looked.

  As they walked, Amber stretched her aching limbs. ‘That rust bucket has crippled me.’

  Paulo had been moving stiffly but tried to look as though he was perfectly all right. ‘It’s a classic machine,’ he protested.

  ‘It might be in your country; here it’s a rust bucket. And you’re moving like a knackered old nag so stop pretending you’re not.’

  As they got closer, they were able to see the layout of the building.

  ‘There’s the derelict shed Alex mentioned in his last text,’ said Paulo.

  ‘So what’s the plan?’ said Amber. ‘Wait to see if Alex needs us?’

  This was always difficult to judge. Go in too early and you could blow someone’s cover. Go in too late and . . . it was too late.

  ‘If he hasn’t checked in by the next deadline in half an hour,’ said Paulo, ‘we go in and try to find him.’

  They came to the end of the line, where the tracks stopped by the rusted buffers. Despite the heat, Amber felt a chill. There was something desolate about the place. They slipped into the shed from the back and positioned themselves so they had a good view of the courtyard.

  People were moving about. A van stood outside the entrance, its back doors open. A man came out of the building, pushing a stretcher on a trolley.

  Amber said softly, ‘A stretcher? This place doesn’t have patients, does it? Alex said it delivered medical supplies.’

  The man pushing the stretcher turned it towards the back of the van. He looked up into the rear space, realized he couldn’t lift it on his own and called to someone to help him.

  At that moment, Paulo and Amber were able to see who was on the stretcher. It was Bina.

  ‘I think,’ whispered Paulo, ‘they’ve been delivering other kinds of supplies.’

  Amber squeezed his hand tightly. ‘We’ve got to go in. Alex won’t be able to get her out by himself.’

  Paulo nodded. ‘We’d better go now, while they’re messing about trying to get her in the back. We’ll go for the front and get in the driver’s seat. Ready?’

  Amber nodded. Keeping low, they came out of the shed and sprinted the short distance to the wall. They stopped and checked. The man at the end of the trolley was discussing with a couple of colleagues how to get it into the van. They all looked occupied.

  ‘Now,’ said Paulo.

  Still keeping low, they ran for the cab. It was going to work. Paulo had his fingers on the handle.

  Suddenly, behind him, he heard a strangled sound. ‘Paulo.’ He whirled round.

  He saw two faces: Amber’s frightened, her throat pinned by a strong brown arm. The other face was the face of the courier who had taken the eyes from the bodies in the police station. He was holding a gun to Amber’s temple.

  ‘Stay where you are,’ said the man in a harsh voice.

  Another two staff members came up behind Paulo. He had to let them take his arms.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said Amber.

  Paulo could see the frustration in her face.

  Amber felt the metal gun barrel prod her temple. She felt the courier’s other hand pat her pockets, searching them. She had to stay still and let him do what he wanted; she had no choice.

  ‘What have you got here?’ He found the belt pouch with her insulin and pulled the zip across. The contents spilled out onto the concrete forecourt: the foil-wrapped antiseptic wipes, the brightly coloured insulin injector pens, the spare needles in their protective covering.

  ‘We seem to have a couple of backpackers looking for drugs.’ The courier patted the pockets at the front of her trousers, then put his hands in. ‘What have you stolen from us, junkie?’

  Paulo saw Amber’s eyes narrow as the courier explored her pockets roughly. He willed her not to say anything. It was better if they thought they’d come for drugs than if they had to puzzle out why they were really there.

  One of the men holding Paulo began to search him. ‘I bet they set off the fire alarm earlier too,’ he said. He found Paulo’s toolkit and hit Paulo with it. ‘Is this for breaking and entering?’

  Paulo said nothing.

  One of the other men was sifting through Amber’s spilled possessions. ‘These look like insulin pens, boss.’

  The courier wasn’t impressed. ‘Junkies will use anything that’s got a needle. They’re crafty as hell.’

  Out of the corner of his eye, Paulo saw they had finished loading Bina. A driver was climbing into the front cab. She was going, slipping out of their grasp.

  What nobody saw was the blond-haired figure in the white coat and fire mask slip up to the crowd around the van doors. Just as they were about to close them, he strode confidently up and climbed in.

  The van did a three-point turn and left the compound.

  29

  EVIDENCE

  Li saw the cleaner leave the flat. Shortly afterwards, Hex came across the grass with a large dusty suitcase.

  ‘What have you got in there? Don’t tell me you stole some clothes so you can dress as him?’

  ‘This,’ said Hex, ‘is dynamite. You’ve no idea what he’s been up to. Let’s get back to the hostel.’

  Once in their room, Hex bolted the door.

  ‘That bad, huh?’ said Li. She opened the case. It contained papers, carefully sorted into folders, with some rather interesting names on them – St Thomas’s Clinic, the General Medical Ethics Committee. ‘Dynamite,’ she said, nodding.

  Hex unloaded some of the papers onto the bed. ‘They go back years. It’s all the stuff that shows what he’s been up to. Look.’ He handed her a blue folder. ‘Remember the General Medical Ethics Committee, which has to approve live transplants? These papers show payments made to various members. When Trilok has got a transplant match he bribes a couple of people on the committee so they persuade the others to approve it.’

  Li was nodding. ‘Because if they don’t pass it, the sale falls through and he doesn’t get his money. But why has he kept records?’

  ‘Because there are several people involved. Any of them could turn nasty, decide to blackmail him. So this suitcase is insurance. If he ever gets arrested, these documents show who accepted bribes and was working with him. That’s why he hid it in his loft.’ He handed her another stack of papers. ‘Look at these.’

  Li re
ad the top sheet. ‘These are payments made to Sergeant Chopra.’

  Hex nodded. ‘It’s proof that he bribes Chopra to keep trouble away from him. That’s why he stalled us every time we went to him asking about Bina. Then he’d tip Trilok off so he could keep her out of our way. But that’s not as interesting as’ – he took the file from her and swapped it for another – ‘this.’

  Li read the letterhead. ‘They’re from the clinic. Test reports.’

  ‘Tissue matching reports. For matching kidney donors. But do you notice something?’

  Li looked through the next few pages. ‘There seem to be an awful lot.’ Some of them had patients’ names on them. The same patients’ names. ‘There seem to be a lot for just a few patients.’

  ‘And,’ said Hex, ‘look at the handwriting. Compare it with the handwriting on the bribery lists.’

  ‘It’s the same.’ Li looked up, puzzled. ‘Trilok wrote out these reports? He’s not a doctor.’

  ‘I think he’s forging those reports.’

  ‘Why would he do that?’

  ‘Because he can charge money for them. Remember the man Amber met in the clinic? He needed dialysis two days a week but could only afford one because he was paying for tests. The doctors said it was a waste of time because he was too ill for a transplant – it would kill him. But Trilok told him he would find a kidney for him and kept finding donors to test. But no matter how many he tested, none were a match.’

  Li was immediately on his wavelength. ‘Trilok was making that poor man pay for tests – but there was no one to test. That’s why the test reports are in his handwriting. He pretends he’s having donors tested and pockets the money. That’s disgusting.’

  Hex looked grim. ‘That’s not the only patient he’s ripped off. There are loads in there, going back years. They stop after a while—’

  ‘Probably because the patient dies.’

  ‘Exactly.’

  ‘He must have bankrupted so many people. Really sick people.’ She shuddered. ‘Then why does he bother with all that committee stuff? He must make enough money by doing this.’

  Hex looked at her gravely. ‘Have you ever known a greedy person who didn’t want more money? Besides, it’s good for his reputation to have a few successes. His customers die after a while so he has to get new ones. So a successful transplant is a good advert for his business.’

  Li shuffled through a few more papers. ‘Is there anything in here about the eye bank?’

  ‘I didn’t see anything. But I haven’t looked through all the papers yet.’

  Li riffled through another file. ‘Here’s some correspondence from the Ethics Committee. It’s on their headed paper. It’s a list of appointments, times and dates, and case histories. One of them’s for today.’ She handed the paper to Hex. ‘Look at this: Patient seeking second live transplant . . . Mootama’s kidney was for someone who needed a second live transplant . . .’

  They realized at the same time. The donor must be Bina.

  ‘When’s the meeting?’

  Li scanned the page. ‘Three-thirty.’

  Hex looked at his watch. ‘That’s in half an hour.’

  Li got to her feet. ‘Let’s take some of these papers; we’ll hide the rest here. If we tell the meeting that Bina was forcibly abducted, we might be able to stop it. Have you got the key to our locker?’

  They put the rest of the documents in the steel locker that contained their luggage. When they’d first taken the room two days earlier, Paulo had reinforced the lock and hinges so it couldn’t be forced open. Now they were thankful they had somewhere secure to store the evidence. Then they grabbed the papers they needed, wrapped them in a plastic bag and secured them in Hex’s small rucksack. There was no time to lose.

  30

  TIME RUNNING OUT

  Alex crouched behind a delivery crate inside the van. The vehicle gathered speed, the tyres singing out on the wet road surface. That was good. It would help cover any sounds he made. He stood up. Bina was lying peacefully on the trolley, her eyes closed. Was she drugged, or was she trying to stay asleep because that was less frightening than being awake? He’d heard that animals in captivity tended to sleep more than was usual to cope with being held prisoner.

  He’d have to try and wake her. But if he scared her and she cried out, the driver might hear. Gently he put his hand across her mouth.

  That was enough. Bina’s eyes flew open. Panic dilated her pupils, making her eyes look enormous.

  Alex put his other hand up to his lips, indicating that she should make no noise. He kept his voice low. ‘It’s me, Alex. Remember?’

  Under his hand he felt her relax. He took it away. ‘We must be very quiet,’ he said. ‘Are you all right?’

  Bina nodded. She tried to speak and it took a couple of goes for her voice to work. She probably hadn’t spoken to anyone since she left the village.

  ‘H-have you come to take me home?’

  Alex nodded. ‘Yes.’ Although he hadn’t quite worked out how he would do it. Here they were, in a van heading who knew where, the two of them helpless passengers. Bina, though, needed to believe in him. He couldn’t let his uncertainty show.

  A tear slipped down Bina’s cheek. She squeezed her eyes shut for a few moments, as if not wanting him to see. She was talking to herself very quietly. It sounded like Hindi – a prayer of thanks. Alex put his hand on hers, reassuring her. I won’t let you down, Bina. We will get you home, he told himself.

  After a few minutes, Bina had recovered. She sat up and wiped her hand over her eyes.

  ‘Better?’ said Alex.

  She nodded.

  He sat down next to her. ‘Do you realize how long we’ve been looking for you?’

  She looked a bit embarrassed. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘No need to be sorry.’

  ‘No, it’s my fault. I went to meet him. I thought I would help. Mum couldn’t get our dowries so I thought I would. I went to meet the kidney man, but he wanted me to come immediately. He was so frightening. I changed my mind. That’s when he grabbed me. He put me in a car and took me to Chennai. There was this clinic – the clinic that Mum went to. They took some blood to do tests and locked me in a room. I was so frightened. It was dark and there was this horrible medical smell. I was in there all night. In the morning they gave me an injection and put me on a trolley. I couldn’t move. They took me to a van with a load of boxes. Then I went to sleep. I kept waking up but it was like a nightmare where I couldn’t move. Sometimes I’d be in the van; later I was in a red room.’

  Her whispering voice made the story even more terrifying. But Alex had to focus on the facts. It all added up. After they had gone looking for Bina at the clinic and reported her missing, Trilok must have whisked her away to the eye bank.

  ‘They drugged me last night and put me in the van again. They drove me back to the clinic in Chennai. I was so frightened. I thought this was it; they were going to do the operation. But they didn’t. They did more tests, then drove me back to the red room.’

  Alex nodded. So they had done her tests at night. That way no one would ask why she was so drugged, or being ferried in with the medical supplies. He grimaced. How appropriate. Bina was one very important medical supply.

  ‘Do you know if you’re a match for the patient?’

  Bina nodded. ‘Yes. The kidney man told me. I’m a very good match. Just like Mum.’ A tear squeezed out of her eye. ‘But I don’t want to do it. They keep coming and giving me more injections. They are really painful.’ She put her hand out and gripped Alex’s arm. ‘You’ve got to get me out.’

  Her voice was rising. Alex had to keep her quiet. The road noise might provide cover but only while the van was moving fast. If it slowed or stopped unexpectedly, the driver might hear them talking. Alex held her hand and looked at her intently. ‘Bina, listen to me. Are you all right? Have you had food, water?’

  Bina nodded. ‘When they came to give me drugs they gave me a drink of water.’ Her whis
per was barely audible. ‘I didn’t want to drink it but they said they’d pump it into me if I refused. They said they had to keep my kidneys working. Every few hours they’d bring me a bed pan and when I’d finished they’d take it away to do tests on it. It was horrible, degrading. I thought they might let me go if there was something wrong with it so I found some red ink in that red room. They said if I did anything like that again they would put a tube inside me take it from me by force.’

  Alex winced. The poor girl had been treated like a piece of meat.

  ‘You know where we’re going now?’ added Bina. ‘To the hospital.’

  Hex and Li were running through the streets to Mount Road, and suddenly everyone around them was running too. Shoppers at the market stalls were scurrying for cover, trying to protect their heads with plastic bags, boxes – anything that came to hand. Stallholders scrambled to cover their goods. The rain came down, roaring like thunder, and within seconds the shoppers and stalls were shadows in a blurry mist.

  Hex shielded his eyes as he ran after Li. He could no longer see her clearly; he had to identify her by the way she moved.

  They dashed up the steps of the office building Hex had followed Trilok to. Hex was about to pull open the glass doors, but Li pulled him back.

  She steered him out of view. ‘Chopra’s in there. He must be waiting in case there’s trouble.’

  ‘Are you sure?’

  Li looked at Hex earnestly. ‘Believe me, I’d know him anywhere.’

  The doors to the offices opened and a bulky figure stepped out. Sergeant Chopra. With him were several other officers.

  Li hadn’t stopped Hex in time; they had been spotted.

  ‘Run!’ said Hex.

  Li raced after him. ‘We don’t know those other officers are in on the scam,’ she said.

  ‘I don’t suppose they are,’ Hex called back over his shoulder. ‘But do you think they’re going to take our word over Chopra’s?’

  Fat raindrops splashed into their faces. It was like running blind. The rain pelted down and they could no longer see where they were putting their feet. In seconds they were up to their ankles. The street was filling up like a river.