The Trojan boy

'But…' Jarvis started.

'Get out of here!' insisted Avedissian.

Both refused silently.

Avedissian saw the implements left lying by Innes and picked up a scalpel. He looked at the boy with pain in his eyes and said, 'I'm sorry. I'm going to have to do this. There's no other way. I hope one day you will understand.'

Kathleen came forward and cradled the boy's head in her arm so that his neck was exposed to Avedissian. The look on Avedissian's face told her of the agony he felt at not having any form of anaesthetic to offer the child. 'Do it,' she whispered. 'It's his only chance.'

'Two minutes!' said Jarvis.

Avedissian cut into the child's neck and blood welled up from the incision to flow down his chest and back. The child went rigid and started to shake in pain and terror but made no sound. Avedissian continued to cut through a haze of his own guilt and saw the implant come briefly into view before being obscured by blood again.

'Give me these forceps will you?' he asked Jarvis who had gone pale. Avedissian had to point to what he wanted from the floor.

'He's passed out,' said Kathleen.

'Thank God,' said Jarvis.

'I've got it’ said Avedissian.

'With one minute to go,' said Jarvis. 'Give it to me!'

Avedissian handed him the device, still in the jaws of the forceps, and Jarvis hurried over to the window. He stopped. 'Jesus!' he said, 'You can't open these windows. The air-conditioning! '

‘The bathroom!' said Avedissian. 'Put it in the bath and shut the bathroom door!'

Jarvis took up the suggestion and slammed the bathroom door before throwing himself down on the floor to join the others. There was silence.

'Maybe they decided not to do it?' said Kathleen as the seconds ticked by.

Avedissian was busily trying to stem the flow of blood from the child's neck at floor level. Kathleen was still holding on to him, murmuring reassurance despite the fact that the child was unconscious.

'I don't think this thing is going to blow,' said Jarvis as the seconds became minutes. 'I'm going to take a look.'

'Be careful!' urged Kathleen.

'We can't just leave it there,' said Jarvis by way of explanation.

'How is he?' asked Kathleen, turning her attention back to the boy.

'All right at the moment,' replied Avedissian. The blood loss wasn't too bad but he may go into shock.'

Jarvis returned from the bathroom holding something in his hand. He tossed it a few inches into the air and caught it again. 'It's a button,' he said quietly. 'It's a silver button. Nothing more.' He sank down into a chair as his legs threatened to become too weak to support him.

Avedissian finished dressing the wound in the boy's neck as best he could then noticed that his own hands were shaking. He got up unsteadily and went to the bathroom to lean over the sink. His stomach turned over but he could not vomit. Instead his breathing became spasmodic and irregular as he re-lived the past thirty minutes. Kathleen came in and touched him gently on the shoulder. 'It's all over,' she murmured. 'You did the right thing.'

Jarvis opened the bottle of whiskey that Reagan had used to effect entry to the room and poured out three large measures. Avedissian gulped his own down and took comfort from the fire in his throat. 'Did you know?' he croaked accusingly at Jarvis.

'Know what?' asked Jarvis.

‘That the child was not who Bryant said he was?'

'What?' exclaimed Jarvis with genuine surprise. 'What the hell do you mean?'

Avedissian looked at the boy and said, 'This boy is no royal child, he's a deaf mute.'

Jarvis and Kathleen stared wide-eyed at Avedissian. 'I don't understand,’ said Kathleen. 'Of course he's the royal child. He's just lost his voice through shock. That's what the kidnapper said.'

Jarvis nodded his agreement. 'Take a look,’ he said. 'See for yourself.'

'I've never met the boy or his family,’ said Avedissian. 'Have you?'

'No,’ admitted Jarvis. 'But I've seen photographs, TV reports, newsreels.'

'It's not enough,’ said Avedissian. 'Many young children look the same when you know them superficially. You have to know them personally before particular characteristics become memorable. I'm a paediatrician, I know children. I know how they behave and I am telling you that this child has not suffered a temporary loss of speech. He has all the signs of being a deaf mute.'

'Are you saying that the kidnappers switched the child?' asked Kathleen.

Avedissian shook his head slowly and said, There are no kidnappers. There never were. It was a con. Bryant set it up.'

'But why?'

Twenty-five million dollars?' suggested Avedissian.

'And the IRA?'

'Judging by what we heard, they must have known all along that it was a con. They played along for the money too. You must be able to do a lot of damage when you're given twenty-five million at the one time.’

'Especially if your name is Kell,’ said Kathleen bitterly.

'So we are the only clowns in the circus,' said Jarvis.

'And him,’ said Avedissian, looking at the child whom Kathleen was cuddling and keeping warm. 'Just look what the bastards have done to him.'

'Well, neither of them got the money in the end,’ said Jarvis looking down at Roker's body.’ They killed him too soon.'

'What are we going to do?' asked Kathleen. 'We four seem to be the expendable ones in this game.'

'We'll have to get out of here!' said Jarvis. 'NORAID are going to start wondering why Roker, Shelby and the boy haven't turned up at the airport. In fact they're probably on their way here right now and, remember, they don't know that the boy was a trick! They don't know that it was the IRA who killed their men! They're going to think that the kidnappers tried some sort of double-cross and start hunting for them and the boy!'

'Maybe we should leave him,’ said Kathleen quietly. 'He might be properly taken care of.'

'He might not be,’ said Avedissian bitterly. 'It won't take long for them to discover that he's not who he's supposed to be and then what? How do they explain that away? Or maybe they don't. Maybe they just "rid" themselves of the problem.'

'What do you suggest?' asked Jarvis.

'We take him with us. We take him home and start finding out where the hell he came from in the first place.'

'How?'

'By asking Bryant,’ said Avedissian through his teeth.

NINE

Jarvis searched Shelby’s body and removed his gun. He gave it to Avedissian saying, 'You'd better have this.' He then pulled the corpse away from the door and looked around until he had found the room key. 'We'll lock it behind us,’ he said. That should give us a little extra time before someone finds this mess.' He looked distastefully at the needle protruding from under Roker's fingernail then said, 'Let's go.'

'The hotel has a side-entrance,’ said Jarvis as they hurried along the corridor. 'It'll be safer. Use the stairs,’ he added as Avedissian stopped at the elevators.

Avedissian, carrying the boy, who was still unconscious, followed Jarvis through the swing-doors leading to the fire-escape stairs while Kathleen held them open for him. They met no one on the way down and Jarvis put away the gun he had been holding ready in his hand.

The side-entrance to the hotel was used solely as a goods entrance so there was no call for decor or furnishings in the passages leading to it. Open pipe work crowded the ceiling and plain, white-washed walls lined their route. The hum of ventilation machinery was loud in their ears but seemed to do little to dispel the smell of food from the oppressively warm air. The clangs of kitchen utensils and the sound of voices were somewhere near but no one crossed their path.

As they came to the unimposing little side-door they paused to catch their breath. Kathleen pulled the blanket back from the boy's face and looked at him. 'Poor little mite,’ she said. 'How could they do it?'