Читать книгу Albedo Castle - - Страница 5

Adam Bradshaw’s two-week vacation was ending, he was about to check in for his flight to Dubai – the stop-over on his way to Washington – with the total duration of the flight being around a day.

He didn’t feel energetic or refreshed, his skin was still aching and peeling from the Singapore sun, he was drinking a lot and laying next to the hotel pool. He wanted a change of scenery, and he got it, but now he needed to go back to Baltimore.

Adam had no idea what he was going to do next. The scandal after which he was forced out of his position as the chief physician of the rehabilitation department at Johns Hopkins Hospital divided his life into ‘before’ and ‘after,’ and ‘after’ was utter uncertainty. The fact that a few months ago his wife had left him seemed a smaller catastrophe – though only recently he thought that there could be nothing worse.

His medical license was revoked – and that means he won’t be accepted to any other hospital, he can’t even continue his private practice. The world is full of injustice, and yet Adam Bradshaw for some reason never thought about revenge or giving evil back to evil.

He was often told that there are very few altruists like him – because they are the first to die. No wonder they called him ‘good Dr. Bradshaw’ or simply the Good Doctor6.

He entered medical care not because he wanted to be a hero and save people – but because everyone in his family was a doctor, he never even considered an alternative: not a surgeon, not a paramedic, not a dentist – specifically a general practitioner, a multi-discipline specialist who cared for his patients over a long period.

When recovered patients and their happy relatives thanked him, he always replied that he was simply doing his job. When he detected a problem in time and referred a patient to the more specialized doctor, all the glory went to star surgeons, cardiologists, psychiatrists …

He never tried to take his father’s place – the former chief rehabilitation physician whose decades of leadership had maintained phenomenal order in the department with a team of physiotherapists, neurologists, psychologists – but naturally became his replacement. Adam’s father was three years dead, his mother was quick to follow. Adam hardly visited them in that time, his family life was falling apart at the seams, he and Eve kept fighting all the time, kept breaking up and coming back together, he went into debt to renovate the apartment, tried his best – but, for her, nothing was ever enough …

Even on the day of his mother’s funeral, she nagged him, complaining that she had married a general practitioner instead of some plastic surgeon from Mount Royal Terrace.

When it came to selling his family’s apartment, he refused.

The picture-perfect family life was a cardboard backdrop that Eve – there was a good chance that the reason was the compatibility of their names – wanted. She allowed herself tantrums that he chose to endure – to keep their crumbling, hole-ridden boat afloat, she always excused herself with good intentions and always put the blame on him.

Only when she left did he suddenly realize she was nothing but a manipulator that twisted the truth inside out, and her truth was never the truth … It was as if he had gone through abstinence syndrome, purified his body of her venom, so when she suddenly called him, bawling into the phone, obviously drunk and claimed to miss him, he, contrary to her expectations, didn’t fall for her trick.

He suddenly understood that if he takes her words in good faith now, all of it will happen again – the chidings, his self-loathing, her tantrums, and the revulsion of her infidelity.

She left him for his colleague, a cardiac surgeon, who ended up setting Adam up so that he was fired with a scandal. It was, of course, Adam’s own fault for giving a reason to accuse him of negligence …

Dr. Bradshaw was yawning, half-lying on a chair in the Singapore Changi Airport, his legs stretched into the aisle. The flight scheduled for 8 AM was delayed, he hadn’t slept all night, tossing and turning, stinking thinking crawled into his head – even though he tried not to wind himself up.

He would come up with what he’s going to do, he’ll start coming up with it as soon as he gets to Baltimore – for now there are twenty-four more hours during which he can stop imitating the tiresome refrain of his self-chastising’s voice.

“A doctor! I need a doctor!”

It was a conditioned reflex – like the dog of the Russian physiologist Pavlov – to a sound command. It was more than a habit … Adam stirred, literally thrown up in his chair, he jumped up right away, turning to the young man who had rushed into the waiting area.

“I’m a doctor,” Adam acceded.

Their dialogue had already drawn the attention of the passengers, both walking and sitting. Some understood the brief exchange in English, some were reacting to one man’s look of distress and the other’s determined compliance.

“Please, come with me,” the young man said.

Adam followed him, leaving his suitcase by the row of chairs, it was only later that he realized he would never see his belongings again … They walked from one hall to another, he barely kept pace and even started panting, the young man explained on the go that they needed to get to the business aviation sector, walking past the bright futuristic decorations of the airport of the future.

It was only later that he realized that the local medical services could have reached the plane waiting for them on the platform faster. At that moment, he wasn’t thinking of anything.

A steward closed the door behind them, inside the business jet was a man with a bloody stain on his clothes in his abdominal area, there was an open first aid kit on the table.

“I thought you ran away,” the man in the seat muttered instead of a greeting.

“Keep wishing. This is Adam, he’s a doctor.”

The young man introduced himself as Dario; the stranger’s name, at the moment, didn’t matter. Adam didn’t waste time and asked where he could wash his hands.

He realized that they were taking off only when he left the restroom.

“Hold on. My flight is in an hour, I don’t—”

Dario pulled a gun from behind his back and pointed it at the doctor. The stranger in the seat sighed hopelessly and put his hand over his face.

“You idiot,” he muttered through his teeth.

“Are you a doctor or what?”

“This is a kidnapping!”

“That’s right. We’ll bring you back when you’re done.”

He briefly motioned at the wounded man with his chin, urging action, Adam decided he had no other choice anyway.

He crouched on the floor and started to lift the stranger’s clothing, under the sweat-soaked T-shirt he found a post-surgical dressing, soaked in blood. Dario put the weapon behind his back.

“What happened?” asked the doctor.

“A stab wound, had surgery yesterday,” the man replied.

“He escaped from the hospital,” Dario added, sitting down behind Adam in the row of seats opposite the wounded man.

“The stitches have come apart,” Adam frowned. “I hope there’s thread and a needle in the kit. You’ll have to lie still afterward.”

“No can do.”

“How long is the flight?”

“Twelve hours.”

Adam looked the stranger in the eye.

“Do you want to live?”

“More than anything in the world.”

“Then you’ll do as I say.”

“I’m with the doctor,” Dario said.

The man didn’t answer, he swallowed and closed his eyes tiredly. Adam wanted to live too – but he didn’t tell them that until a bit later.