The Dragon and the Needle (8 page)

‘What’s really happened.’ She repeated his words, thinking of her meeting with Dr Ah-Ming. How could Mike possibly understand? She said, ‘I’m not really sure. I’m feeling very
pressurised.’ She looked at Mike and smiled. ‘And I always tell my patients it’s important to keep life well balanced.’

‘That’s a good point,’ Mike agreed, ‘but I still feel that you are …’ he searched for the right words, ‘holding something back.’

She frowned, watching his face carefully, but it was expressionless as she replied, ‘Well, maybe you’re seeing things that don’t exist. You’ve had a lot on your plate too. Milk and sugar?’

‘Only milk. Thanks. So will you tell me?’

She glanced at him and smiled, but it was a nervous smile, unnatural. Could she really trust him? Was her affection for him becoming too strong, too quickly?

As she poured out the milk she said, ‘I received a strange note from the Ministry of Health. It was odd, it worries me.’

She watched his reaction carefully, but he gave nothing away.

‘It wasn’t signed, but it was on Ministry of Health notepaper. It was very strange.’ She paused. ‘I suppose I’ve had so much opposition to my kind of work, to my medical practice. It might have been sent by one of those people.’

‘What did it say?’

She hesitated a moment, smiled gently as she said, ‘Words and letters don’t talk …’

‘What did it contain?’

‘I want to forget it. It was probably written by a crank who despises acupuncture.’

‘It doesn’t worry you that much, then?’

‘Worry?’ There was a note of impatience in her voice. ‘I’ve told you it worries me! It threatened me. It suggested that I should reconsider the pattern of my life and work.’

Mike looked anxious. She liked the expression. He was genuine.

‘That’s terrible,’ Mike said. ‘But as you say, it was probably written by a crank. Has it happened before?

‘Not so much over here, but in the States, yes. When I came here I thought it would be different.’

‘Different?’

‘Yes. Added to which, there are many men who are anti-feminist.’

‘Not in this day and age, and certainly not in our profession.’

‘Perhaps not,’ she replied, trusting him more and more. Why not get to the point quickly? Before he could reply she continued suddenly, ‘Have you taken over the work that Professor Dorman was doing?’

The directness of the question threw Mike for a second; he nodded his head.

Again she got in the first words. ‘Then wouldn’t it be a good idea to tell me what is going on?’

Mike remained silent, looking at her, thinking how closely he could become involved with her – perhaps too close. He wanted to find out from her more, much more about her skills in Oriental medicine, about what was worrying her. He drank a large mouthful of coffee and said, ‘Shall I begin at the beginning?’

‘Yes, begin at the beginning.’

‘And then,’ he smiled, ‘then you must begin at your beginning!’

‘Fair enough,’ she smiled back.

Less than a mile or so away, Ah-Ming was seated behind the desk of his office in London’s Chinatown. Opposite, facing him, sat two Chinese men, both colleagues, both doctors. Ah-Ming had called them in at short notice. They had expected praise, as a direct result of the death of John Selwyn; they quickly sensed that was not going to happen. The cell leader was angry, a very angry man. The tense atmosphere suited his mood, for although his meeting with the American doctor Eleanor Johnson, alias Shousan, had gone as well as he could
have wished, he had strong doubts about her. But for the moment, that was another matter.

His manner worried the two men and they looked nervous. One was thin and as cheerless as Ah-Ming the other was heavy-set and gloomy.

Ah-Ming addressed the latter first, leaning forward slightly in his chair. ‘I’ve been told that you ordered the mission against Selwyn?’ his voice sounded accusing as though the large man had been responsible.

‘Yes.’

‘Why did you do that?’

With a shrug of his shoulders, as though protesting that he had done nothing wrong, the reply came quickly. ‘Because it was a name on the list.’

Ah-Ming’s voice was controlled still holding his wrath. ‘But you know that any such mission requires my consent!’

‘Yes, but he had been recommended for a consultation with me months ago – it seemed a golden opportunity.’

Ah-Ming picked up a file which lay on his desk and slowly flicked through its pages. ‘This file shows that Lord Helman’s son was a good friend of China,’ he paused and added, ‘and Japan. And therefore …’

‘But his name was on the list!’

There was silence in the office for a few moments, then Ah-Ming’s anger surfaced. ‘As you know our saying, “Even a good rider will fall one day!”’ he shouted. ‘You are a good doctor but you have fallen! You know full well that I have to vet all missions in this country!’ Turning quickly to the other doctor, he went on unmercifully, ‘Did you know about all this?’

‘I knew the treatment course.’

‘Which was?’

‘Fei Ching.’

‘The meridian of the lungs?’

‘Yes.’

‘You agreed because he was on the list?’

‘I was told he was.’

‘Who told you?’

The thin doctor turned towards his colleague then quickly turned back towards Ah-Ming, saying nothing.

Ah-Ming gazed down at the file on his desk. He knew that there were always replacements, he could pick and choose freely. He suddenly looked up. The two men had made a grave error. They now knew their futures were at stake, but they both stared back at him, nervously, knowing that there was no place for mistakes. Ah-Ming looked at the two men. They were Chinese. Carry Tiger to Mountain was for China. Not the China of War Lords, ineffectual Boxer rebellions and decadent Taiwan and Hong Kong capitalists. The rich Chinese were a good cover for the New China. While they were of use they would remain. But one day…

His thoughts had calmed him. He suddenly smiled, though his eyes were expressionless. ‘As long as no other mistakes are made, I can probably cover for you this time.’

The two men shifted in their chairs simultaneously, relief showing on their faces as Ah-Ming continued speaking in a calm voice. ‘Remember three vital things for the future: always check out names with me, follow the course of the Tao, and conform to the natural processes of Heaven and Earth.’ He paused and went on with emphasis and emotion. ‘It moves. It moves not. It is far and it is near. It is within all this. And it is outside of all this. In that way, gentlemen, it is easy to manage the whole world!’

As Mike began to explain to Eleanor, as she had put it, ‘what was going on’, she outwardly relaxed as much as she could but inwardly her mind was in turmoil. She was gnawed by thoughts about her dilemmas: her patients, for she had told Julie to cancel her morning appointments, not giving her secretary any explanations; her attempts to telephone China, for she had
spent the past few hours telephoning Beijing in the hopes of contacting Chen’s father, only to be told that the old man had died. He would have told her the truth about Chen, whether he was alive or dead. And now the pressure from Ah-Ming! The flat became chilly. She got up and switched on the gas log fire. As she did so, Mike went on talking.

As he spoke, she began to realise how deeply involved he was in the drama. He spoke of how, in the past two years, the Western world had become perplexed by the sudden deaths – everywhere, the medical profession was baffled. It was no longer a question of money; Western governments had provided plenty of that commodity, particularly as politicians had suffered most. He asked her if she was aware of that.

She nodded, saying, ‘Yes, I’m aware of that after what you have said.’

‘And you probably know that there has been total failure to find the cause, let alone the treatment.’

He was waiting for her to comment. As a doctor she must want him to dig deeper. She obliged and said, ‘What exactly has been investigated?’

‘The victims’ tissues, blood and other fluids give no clues. Radioactive isotopes have been used as tracers, but nothing, absolutely nothing, has shown up as the cause of death. When the Governor of Hong Kong died, there was a possibility of a clue, but then, you may remember what happened to his body. In any case, those were early days.’

She did not remember what had happened to the Hong Kong Governor’s body, but she replied, ‘I didn’t realise the depth of the problem.’

She was beginning to realise the attractiveness of Mike more and more. Watching him, his directness, his medical knowledge, his enthusiasm … there was a magnetism about the man, pulling her towards him … Perhaps she could trust him. ‘More coffee?’ she asked.

He nodded and said, ‘Is that your only comment?’ He
smiled as she poured him out some more.

He saw her relief in his smile. She looked more relaxed. Then suddenly the telephone rang. Was it Ah-Ming? She had no wish to speak to him in front of Mike. Instead of going to answer it, she stood facing him. She remained standing, guessing at his thoughts, until the ringing stopped. She sat down again.

‘Look,’ he said intently, ‘from now on I’m going to trust you to … Trust you,’ he repeated with emphasis, ‘in terms of my involvement in this trauma.’

‘Trauma?’

‘It’s traumatic for me.’

‘It must be, but I imagine you know that you can trust me. Surely you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t?’

‘Right,’ he smiled. ‘The truly puzzling features of ENDS are the different kinds of victims involved. The only similarity is that they are well-known people.’

‘She broke in, ‘Is that all? Surely there are other factors.’

‘Well, as I’ve already said, there are no indications as to the cause,’ he paused, but only for a moment, then he quickly added, ‘except for one other resemblance.’

‘What’s that?’

Everything he had read in the folder at the Minister of Health’s office, and what he knew of the latest and last thoughts of Professor Dorman went into his answer. ‘At some stage of their lives they have all had treatment from practitioners of Oriental medicine. We know this for a fact.’

Eleanor leaned back with a look of unconcealed astonishment. She passed her hands through her hair with a quick movement. She resented the implied slur on her profession. ‘What do you mean by knowing it for a fact?’

‘Investigations have got that far,’ Mike said. ‘What do
you
think?’

‘Well,’ she said. ‘Other than the misuse of the needles, possibly causing infection, Oriental medicine is concerned with the prolonging of life.’

‘But there has been no indication of infection relating to ENDS,’ Mike said, ‘so we’re not getting anywhere, are we?’ He smiled at her.

‘No,’ she said. ‘But isn’t it possible that the investigations have put the cart before the horse?’

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘Well, are they going up the wrong path? Isn’t it possible that all these victims have also been going to Western doctors, or even to dentists?’

‘Yes,’ Mike said.

‘And,’ she continued, ‘investigative research doesn’t always produce the right answers. You should know all about that.’

‘True,’ he said. ‘But you must admit that it’s curious that no one has been able to find out the cause, as yet.’

‘Yes,’ she agreed. ‘That’s why I am wondering if perhaps the ENDS problem may not be related to something totally new.’

‘It’s possible,’ Mike said, looking at Eleanor and thinking she looked very beautiful when she was thinking seriously. He smiled at her. ‘You must not imagine that I am belittling Oriental medicine.’

‘That’s good to know,’ she said. ‘It makes a pleasant change.’ She thought, then why does he refer to doctors of Oriental medicine as ‘practitioners’? But at least he was more open-minded than many of his colleagues who still argued about the lack of scientific status of acupuncture and Oriental medicine in general.

‘Perhaps the combination of your experience and mine can help us to get closer to the answer,’ Mike said.

She nodded agreement.

He added, ‘And of course we must not forget that some illnesses and diseases disappear without any medical intervention at all. People do get better, and I’m not just thinking of places like Lourdes.’

She was about to interrupt, but the mention of the French
town held her back. Especially one that was close to … her thoughts rushed back to the previous evening with Ah-Ming.

She heard Mike say, ‘Eleanor – I hope I can call you that – are you listening to me?’

‘Of course I am; and do call me Eleanor,’ she smiled.

‘You looked miles away.’

‘Sorry. Do go on – Mike.’

Mike was thinking how much Dorman had wanted him to meet Eleanor. He had thought he was on to something. Did that involve Eleanor and her work? He had stressed to Mike how highly successful she was. But what was so impressive about her? She was so defensive about Oriental medicine, about male domination in the medical world. She certainly seemed to have a great talent for the prevention of illness as well as their cure for her patients. And she seemed to have no shortage of patients. He had forgotten her dedication and belief in her work – he would not do that again. Did she know anything about Dorman’s missing papers? His thoughts were rushing ahead too quickly. Did she really believe that Oriental medicine was the cure-all?

They smiled at each other again. He hesitated before he spoke. He had to choose his words with caution. He would soon discover that they were not cautious enough. ‘Do you mind if I stand?’ he said. ‘I think better on my feet.’

‘Of course I don’t mind.’

‘I’ve already found out a lot about you.’

‘From what I told you?’ she said with surprise in her voice. Surely she had not told him that much?

‘Not entirely. The people over here who do these things have checked you out with Washington as well.’

There was concern in her voice again as she answered, ‘As well as what? And who? And why?’

Damn, he said to himself. He was still going too fast. He was not cut out for this kind of ‘who done what and why’. ‘As well as the people over here,’ he said.

‘What people?’ She was frightened again, and it showed.