Below them, the lights and voices moved closer to the stage. A beam flashed through the catwalk… then another. The lights panned back and forth. Sarah felt herself beginning to shake. Perhaps sensing her movement, Matt turned his head slightly and pressed his lips against her forehead. The catwalk shook as one of the men below took hold of the ladder. Then it tilted as he stepped onto the first rung. Matt's lips pressed even more tightly against Sarah's skin. Another step. And another. They could see the man's flash playing over the spot where they lay. Another step… then suddenly the catwalk heaved and shuddered as he pushed off and jumped back to the floor.
'Nothing,' they heard him say.
The flashlight beams-what they could see of them-began moving to other parts of the theater. Huddled on the overhead walk, sodden and exhausted, Matt and Sarah fought the need to move. Their limbs tingled and cramped. Electric pain knifed into their hands and feet. They clung tightly to one another, unable to move or speak; together, yet very much apart.
The search within the theater continued for at least another half hour. Tommy Sze-to left well before that, but the others kept on looking. Twice Sarah and Matt heard the outside door open and close. The theater was quiet.
Sarah started to shift her position, but Matt stopped her.
'They're still down there,' he whispered almost soundlessly. 'Don't move.'
He turned his head slightly, and suddenly his lips were resting on hers. From somewhere in the darkness below them, there was a scuffing bit of movement and the clearing of a throat. Not wanting-or daring-to move her lips away from his, Sarah slid her free arm upward until her fingers touched his neck. For the next two hours they lay that way, their eyes closed, their breathing synchronous. Every fifteen minutes or so, the man stationed beneath the catwalk made some sort of movement or sound. Finally, after a painful eternity, he switched on his radio telephone and spoke in Chinese.
'He wants to leave,' Sarah whispered excitedly.
They heard him stretch and groan. He shuffled toward the back of the theater. Again the lobby door opened and shut. Then there was only silence.
'What do you think?' Matt risked asking.
'I think they haven't found us.'
'I believe he's gone.'
'Matt, I can't stop thinking about Andrew. Please don't move yet.'
Matt turned his head so that once again their lips were touching.
'If you insist,' he whispered.
At five-thirty, the hazy light of the new day began to brighten the theater. Huddled on the rusting metal catwalk above the empty stage, Sarah and Matt had moved enough to keep their limbs from paralysis. But they had not broken their embrace, nor had they spoken. One or possibly both of them had slept for a time, though neither of them was sure. Matt worked his hands up to the sides of her face and kissed her gently on the eyes.
'You've been incredibly brave,' he said. 'I did a very stupid thing trying to play Green Beret with that bastard.'
'Are they really gone?'
Matt sat up slowly and carefully, and peered between the rails of the catwalk.
'I can't vouch for the lobby, but the theater is empty. I think we should wait until nine or ten before we leave, though. The more people out there, the better chance we have of making it home. Although frankly, if I were Tommy Sze-to, I'd already be on my way to someplace far, far away from here.'
'Poor Andrew. He really was trying to help me.'
'Maybe he did it in time to reclaim his place in heaven,' Matt said. 'Considering how he ended up, I guess you'd have to say it was a pretty damn noble act. I only wish he had been able to learn who bankrolled Sze-to in the first place. Any ideas?'
'None,' Sarah said. 'No idea who, and no idea why. Except now we know one important thing.'
'Namely, that someone is willing to go to any length to ensure that you look guilty of causing those DIC cases.'
'That's not absolute proof that Tian-Wen and I are innocent. But it seems like someone thinks so. When we get out of here, we can begin to focus on who that might be. But the first thing I'm going to do is go and speak with Claire Truscott.'
'I thought you said Andrew had left her.'
'He's still the father of their child. I intend to help Claire out in any way I can-now and in the future.'
Matt glanced at his watch.
'Two hours,' he said. 'Maybe two and a half. I think we ought to stay up here and keep pretty quiet.'
'I agree.'
She smiled and kissed him lightly. He slipped his hand up beneath the back of her blouse and rubbed her back.
'You know,' he said, 'this isn't exactly the under-the-sheet situation with you I had been fantasizing about.'
'And here I thought this whole night was an elaborate setup just because you knew that my tastes run to the unusual and the exotic.'
'Promise you won't turn me over to the bar association?'
'If you promise not to drop me as a client.'
She kissed him again, this time more searchingly. Her tongue explored his mouth. Then she reached down, loosened his trousers, and gently caressed him.
'You were pretty macho last night, Cat,' she whispered. 'Did that coward hurt you?'
'I don't remember,' he said, looking at her wide-eyed. 'A little maybe. God, what you're doing right now is really helping. I mean really helping.'
Again she smiled at him. The horror of the night just passed had largely given way to thoughts of the future and of the man whose gentle eyes were fixed on hers.
'That's just the beginning,' she whispered. 'I'm a doctor, remember. When I think it's clinically appropriate, I'm going to kiss it and make it all better.'
CHAPTER 27
October 9
Scalpel… sponge, please… scope ready, please… How're you doing, Kristen? Are you feeling any of this?… Excellent, that's excellent… Do you still want to watch this procedure on the monitor?… All right then. Here we go…'
The young woman on the operating table, a mother of three, had begged for local rather than general anesthesia. Although general was the norm, Sarah had agreed. She had done her first tubal ligation by laparoscopy late in her first year of residency. That procedure had gone without a hitch, as had the twenty or twenty-five she had done since then, three of them utilizing a local anesthetic with heavy sedation. She was a damn good surgeon. Technically and clinically one of the best, if not the best, her training program had ever had. Why then had her life in the hospital become such hell?
'Okay, Kristen. What you're looking at are your in-sides. There's a small but very powerful light at the tip of this laparoscope. Right next to the light source is a fiber optic pickup that can take light and actually make it bend around corners. The fiber optics carry the images back to this eyepiece and also to the television monitor. As of this moment, your left ovary-that little pink thing in the middle of the screen-is a star! Amazing, huh?'
Fiber optics. Sarah found herself momentarily wondering about the scientist responsible for the remarkable, revolutionary discovery. Worldwide communications forever changed. The frontiers of surgery pushed farther back
