Extreme Danger (McClouds & Friends #5)(16)

On the one hand, he was angry at being manipulated. On the other, he was fascinated to observe his own reactions to this shocking tableau. Amid the constant white noise of daily life, a man seldom got a chance to peer into the depths of his own soul. And what, after all, could possibly be more fascinating than the depths of his own soul?

Nigel Dobbs laid out the situation in a cool, clipped voice, as if they were in a boardroom, not an abbatoir. A wealthy Ukrainian businessman who had to remain nameless was suffering from an acute heart condition. He wanted an immediate transplant. He wanted the surgery conducted by the celebrated young surgeon Dr. Mathes. Cost was immaterial.

Mathes told Dobbs that money was not the issue so much as the availability of a healthy and well matched organ, thinking that he knew exactly f*ck-all about how organ donation was organized in the Ukraine—

“Not a problem, Doctor. The tissue typing has already been done.” The man’s tight mouth twisted in a thin, smug smile. “We have a number of potential donors. You need not trouble yourself about that.”

“But how…but that’s not…but you can’t just…”

A number of potential donors? Richard had floundered, until the truth sank in. And the bottom of the world fell away, to an abyss of nameless possibilities that made his soul quail.

And his pulse quicken.

Nigel Dobbs studied Richard’s face with neutral gray eyes for a long moment and nodded, as if Richard had passed a test.

“Anything is possible, Doctor. For a price. And while we are on that subject, my client will make available to you the sum of five million American dollars in a numbered Swiss account, as a thank you gift. In the event of a happy outcome, of course.”

“And if something goes wrong?”

Nigel Dobbs smiled again. “An unhappy outcome is not an option my client is willing to consider,” he said gently. “That’s why he wants you. Your reputation is that of a miracle worker. He has studied you, Doctor. Every detail of your life. Your wife and your little girls as well. Lovely creatures. My client wishes to convey his compliments, and his best wishes for their continued health and happiness.”

That veiled threat had gotten his attention. Another, deeper peek into that shadowy cavern. He had always loved a gamble.

He’d been perversely glad for the threat to Helen and the girls. It gave him a face-saving excuse for saying yes. Indeed, how could he not?

The odds were bad. The man’s body was probably rotted by a lifetime of excess. It would be against his Hippocratic oath, and every sane principle.

Ultimately, that did not dissuade him in the least. Neither did the slaughtered Parisian girls. Nor was the issue decided by money. Being chosen had stroked his vanity, but he had daily opportunities to have his ego stroked.

He’d done it for the thrill. He’d never felt one so strong. That morning, lying in that blood-soaked bed, the thought of what he was going to do had burned through his body and mind, dispelling his hangover like sun on fog.

It made him feel invincible. The high stakes, the secrecy, the risk. Unspeakable acts. Unaskable questions. It lit him up inside.

He’d felt that thrill again the day he replaced the diseased organ of his mysterious patient with a beautiful, healthy young heart of unknown provenance.

Some months later, there had been another call. A business associate of his previous patient had a newborn infant daughter with an irreparable heart defect. A rush job, as the child was dying.

Richard had cleared his schedule, leaped on a plane. He had not asked where the tiny donated heart had come from. Another rush of euphoria. Another five million dollars in the numbered account.

The money had been nice. He had been a relatively wealthy man before, but as Diana liked to point out, fondling her sapphire and diamond bracelet, there was wealthy and there was wealthy.

That child was now a healthy, thriving six-year-old. If Richard had needed to soothe his conscience, that would have been enough.

But oddly, he did not. At some point, that euphoria had burned away the part of him that pondered ethics. He did not miss it. Life was exquisitely simple without it. More profitable, too.

In fact, he reflected as he toweled himself off, he’d never had much of a conscience to begin with. Morals were artificial. Notions culturally superimposed upon persons at a tender age, who had no idea they were being mind-f*cked into being docile doormats. At the service of other people. Tormented by guilt, self-doubt. Not him.

And this Sunday, he would meet with someone who could supply him with a constant supply of his favorite thrill. People would sell their souls to cheat death, for themselves, their spouses, their children.

Dr. Richard Mathes found souls very appetizing.

When he came out, Diana was at her vanity, brushing her hair. He could tell from the glitter in her eyes that she was angry.

“He wants to look over his investment?” she said. “Check your teeth, look over your pedigree? Put you through your paces?”

He opened her closet, took out a starched white shirt. He knew exactly where she was going with this. She wanted to lure him into having sex again. She labored under the fond misconception that she controlled him that way. It amused him to let her keep her illusions.

“He wants to do that alpha dog pissing thing, right? And you’re looking forward to it, aren’t you? You’d love to stare down a mob boss. I bet that gives you a hard-on, Richie. You’re such a danger junkie.”