The Samurai Inheritance by James Douglas

Author:James Douglas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House UK, Transworld Publishers

XXVII

They arrived in Tokyo two days later after an overnight stop at Beijing airport. Jamie’s hip throbbed and he barely registered the low descent over the grey waters of Tokyo Bay with the city’s soaring skyline a spiky, gap-toothed rampart painted stark against the low hills beyond, and both dwarfed by the snow-dusted vastness of Mount Fuji in the far distance.

When they reached the multi-storey Hyatt hotel in Minato, Magda insisted on sending for an English-speaking doctor to examine him and a young Japanese man arrived at their suite within thirty minutes. He probed the area around the puncture mark with a gloved finger and frowned at it for a while before asking Jamie to remove his shirt and checking his heart and lungs. Then he wrapped an inflatable bandage around the Englishman’s arm to take his blood pressure. Another study of the wound was necessary, this time with the help of what looked like a pair of binoculars, before he made his prognosis.

‘I think you’ll live, Mr Saintclair,’ he announced, with what Jamie felt was a rather casual air given the circumstances. ‘Your blood pressure is a little low, which would account for the lack of energy you’re feeling, but that’s probably a result of the shock you had and I’ve no doubt it will pass.’

‘You’d have been shocked too if you’d been stabbed by a hypodermic syringe of unknown origin.’

The doctor picked up his odd-shaped binoculars again. ‘I don’t think either the dimensions or the characteristics of the wound would suggest a syringe. It’s also quite shallow. You’re worried about HIV, I take it?’

‘Wouldn’t you be?’ Jamie said.

‘I suppose it’s possible that someone could contract HIV from something like a nail, or more likely the pin of a belt buckle.’ He shrugged. ‘On balance, I’d say the odds are against it. I’ll take a blood test, of course, but …’

With a wince, Jamie remembered the jacket the drunk had been wearing when he barged into him – the one festooned with straps and buckles. He ignored Magda’s raised eyebrow.

‘That won’t be necessary …’

‘Oh, I insist,’ the young man said gravely. ‘I wouldn’t be doing my duty as a medical practitioner otherwise. It won’t take long. If you’ll just roll up your sleeve again.’

Magda waited until the doctor was gone. ‘Buckle?’

‘You were the one who said it looked like a puncture,’ Jamie complained. ‘How was I to know what caused it, especially with all that stuff about people following us?’

‘You should be glad someone is keeping their eyes open on this trip.’ She tilted her head to study him. ‘Am I right in thinking the patient is about to make a remarkable recovery?’

‘Oddly enough, he is.’ He smiled. ‘All down to the wonders of medical science and your nursing skills.’

‘In that case, we should get back to business,’ she said decisively. ‘I noticed they had some decent maps of the city down in reception. Why don’t you give Fiona a call while I get one? She must be wondering what’s happened to you?’

Jamie looked at his watch.

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