Franz"s heart sank as he recognized the voice of Colonel Kubota. He rushed over to the injured man"s bedside. "Yes."
"I see." The colonel"s tone was flat. "They were waiting for us."
"Saboteurs?"
Kubota nodded. "It was an ambush. There was some kind of explosion. They blocked the street and shot our motorcycle escorts. They attacked our car from both sides. One shot the admiral and me, and the other stabbed Colonel Tanaka."
Franz reached for Kubota"s belly. "May I examine you?"
Franz took the man"s slight shrug for permission. He untucked Kubota"s shirt and pulled it up. The bullet wound to his abdomen had stopped bleeding. Franz gently touched the moist skin at its edges. The abdominal muscles contracted involuntarily, but Kubota did not even wince in response.
"At least I was forewarned," Kubota said quietly.
Distracted, Franz shook his head and mumbled, "I"m sorry, Colonel."
"You warned me that the attack would come."
"But my warning did you no good."
"In life, it always helps to be prepared."
Franz turned his attention to the wound on Kubota"s thigh. "You must be in pain."
Kubota tilted his head slightly. "It is bearable."
Franz called over his shoulder, "Berta, please prepare morphine."
Kubota reached out with his steady hand and grabbed Franz"s wrist. "Give me a substantial dose, Dr. Adler. Please."
"We will make sure you are comfortable. I promise."
Kubota squeezed tighter. "That is not what I am requesting."
Franz pulled back to study Kubota"s face. "Surely you do not mean . . ."
The colonel swallowed. "My time has come. Let me go. Please."
Franz"s neck tightened as he considered how quickly the colonel, in his vulnerable state, would stop breathing following a liberal dose of morphine.
Just then, Miriam called out to him, "Herr Doktor, they are ready for you in the operating room."
Franz"s gaze lingered on Kubota before he turned away. "Berta, please give the colonel as much painkiller as he requests. Double the dose, if he asks for it."
Franz hurried down the hallway to the operating room. Outside, he donned a surgical gown and mask and then scrubbed his hands at the sink. He was nearly finished when Sunny appeared, breathless, at his side. "I was there, Franz," she panted. "Jakob and me. The bomb exploded so near us! And then the shooting began."
He motioned to the operating room. "Tanaka is inside. Knife wound to the chest."
"Colonel Kubota, he smiled at me from the back seat of the car." Her face reddened and she dropped her gaze to the floor. "They got to him, Franz."
"Without your help."
"I want to believe that, too."
Franz waited as Sunny slipped into her surgical gown and hurriedly scrubbed at the sink. They entered the operating room together. Tanaka was already on the gurney covered in sheets, except for the exposed patch of skin surrounding his stab wound. Liese held a blood-soaked gauze to his chest. On the other side of the bed, a surgical tray lay at the ready.
Tanaka"s breathing was laboured, but he was wide awake. He eyed Franz hostilely. "Why the wait? Fix me!"
"Should we not wait for the ether-the gas-to arrive?"
"I told you. No gas. Begin!"
Franz nodded to Sunny, who stepped up to the gurney. Liese slid out of the way, and Franz moved into the spot across from his wife. Sunny pa.s.sed Franz an antiseptic-soaked towel, and his nose filled with the acrid smell of iodine. He swabbed the wound in slow circles.
Tanaka gritted his teeth in obvious pain. "So close to the Designated Area," he grumbled.
"Pardon me, Colonel?" Franz asked, wondering if the colonel was delirious or in shock.
"The attack. So close to the Designated Area."
"I suppose so, yes."
"The Jews," Tanaka said. "They are the saboteurs."
"I"m sure it is not so."
Tanaka gave him a look of sheer loathing. "The Germans are right. You Jews only make trouble."
Franz"s throat tightened. "We were not involved."
"I will put an end to it," Tanaka grunted.
Franz tried to fight off a sudden sense of doom. "An end to what, Colonel?" he breathed.
"All of it," Tanaka muttered to himself. "We should have listened to the Germans last year. No more. Next, we deal with you Jews!"
The younger Kempeitai officer barged into the operating room, bearing a black bottle of ether in his hand. He raised it up to show it to Franz. "Is this what you need?"
Stunned by the threat Tanaka had just uttered, Franz could not even respond.
"Yes," Sunny said as Liese hurried over to take the bottle from the officer.
Tanaka craned his neck to address the young Kempeitai man in clipped j.a.panese. The officer nodded and turned to Franz. "The colonel has ordered me to stay and observe." He glared at him. "To make sure everything is proper."
Robotically, Franz turned back to Liese. "Please begin."
Liese"s hand shook slightly as she applied the ether mask to Tanaka"s face. She tilted the bottle, allowed four or five drops to fall and waited. In a matter of seconds, Tanaka"s eyes began to flutter. Liese added two more drops. She brushed a finger over his eyelashes and watched for a response. None came. She looked up at Franz. "He is asleep, Herr Doktor."
Sunny pa.s.sed Franz a scalpel. He placed it against the skin underneath Tanaka"s armpit and sliced, following the curve of the fifth rib all the way to the level of the breastbone. Air whooshed out of the wound. Sunny dabbed at the freshly oozing blood as she exchanged the scalpel for a pair of scissors.
Franz pressed the scissors to the cartilage adjoining Tanaka"s breastbone. He had to squeeze down with all his might to cut through it. As soon as it was free, Sunny inserted a retractor into the incision and pulled the ribs wide apart, exposing pink lung. More blood dripped from the wound.
Franz put his hand into the warm chest cavity, exploring the spongy surface of the deflated lung. He could feel the rapid vibrations of Tanaka"s heart. His own pulse quickened as he considered what devastating form of retribution Tanaka might have in store for the refugees.
Franz moved tissue out of the way with one hand while mopping up blood with the other. "More light, please."
Liese adjusted the overhead lamp, allowing Franz to spot a large vessel that was leaking blood. He motioned to it with a pair of forceps. "Do you see it, Sunny?"
She nodded. "A lacerated pulmonary vein?"
"Yes," Franz muttered. "Needle and thread, please."
Sunny pa.s.sed him the catgut-threaded instrument. Franz"s hand moved to repair the vessel, then froze. The thought hit him so suddenly and so powerfully that it left him numb. He turned slowly to the junior Kempeitai officer. "A large blood vessel in the colonel"s chest has been cut. I am not certain I can stop the bleeding."
Sunny eyed Franz quizzically but said nothing.
"You repaired General Nogomi before," the officer snapped. "You will do the same for the taisa."
To Franz"s astonishment, his hand was steady as he inserted the instrument inside the colonel"s chest. He pressed the needle through tissue just a fraction of an inch from the leaking blood vessel. He tied off the suture and then repeated the procedure, missing the injured vein by the same distance. He held up the long end of the thread. "Cut, please," he instructed Sunny.
She looked down into the wound and then up at him, aware that he had deliberately sutured the wrong site. Without a word, she reached inside the wound and cut the ends of the suture.
"That is the best I can do to repair the vessel," he announced for the benefit of the other Kempeitai officer. "Forceps, please."
Sunny pa.s.sed him the long clamp-like instrument. Hand still steady, he dug the forceps" teeth into the wall of the leaking vein and tugged slightly. The trickle of blood quickly became a gush, and Franz watched the vessel disappear in a pool of fresh blood.
CHAPTER 38.
Exhausted from a sleepless night, Franz looked out at the muted rays of daylight that filtered through the small window. Sunny"s hand skimmed across his bare back, lightly fingering the ridges of his scabs. Her need to console him was as strong as ever.
The evening before, Sunny"s efforts to comfort him had been more forcefully intimate. He had resisted, initially, his mood dark after what had happened in the operating room. But Sunny was persistent, and coaxed him to arousal with her touches and persuasive kisses. Still, the relief was only temporary. Afterward, as he lay next to her, their legs and arms intertwined, the guilt crept back like a hand to his throat.
"What choice did you have, Franz?" Sunny murmured into his neck.
"I took an oath."
"Could any oath apply to our circ.u.mstances?"
""To never cause harm." It always applies."
"And what about the harm Colonel Tanaka might have caused? You heard him-he blamed the Jews for the attack. Based on nothing."
"I was his doctor, not his judge or jury."
Sunny rested a finger on his waist. "You did what you had to do to protect us."
"What I did was wrong," he said flatly.
"And what about Hermann Schwartzmann?" Sunny asked, her voice rising in frustration.
"What about him?"
"You risked everything to operate on his wife-to give her a chance-even though her husband worked for the n.a.z.is."
Three years before, Schwartzmann, a n.a.z.i diplomat, had come to Franz desperate for help for his wife, who had bile duct cancer. Franz was the only surgeon in Shanghai capable of the operation. Eventually, he took pity on the suffering woman and risked his job and his family"s standing by operating on her at the Jewish hospital. Schwartzmann had more than repaid Franz: he"d provided not only money to keep the hospital running but also crucial information about a secret SS plan to exterminate the city"s Jews. Ultimately, Schwartzmann had taken his own life after the n.a.z.is found him out.
"Precisely," Franz said. "Remember how much Hermann helped us? He sacrificed his life for us. What would have happened to all of us had I ignored my oath when he first approached me?"
"It"s completely different," Sunny snapped. "Hermann was a victim of circ.u.mstance. Tanaka was evil. He took pleasure in your suffering. If he had survived, he might have wiped out the entire community."
Franz rolled over to face her. "I understand what you are saying. I love you even more for trying. But nothing will change the fact that I deliberately killed a patient. For a doctor, it is unconscionable."
"You don"t have to view it that way, Franz."
He kissed her, letting his lips linger on hers before he sat up, his legs swung over the edge of the bed.
"If there is one silver lining to all of this, darling," Franz pointed out as he slipped on his trousers, "at least the Underground achieved its objective without involving you."
"Have they?" she said distantly. "We saved Colonel Kubota"s life. They are not going to be pleased."
"No, I suppose not." Franz felt torn: Kubota had not even wanted to survive the a.s.sa.s.sination attempt.
"What if they come for the colonel?" Sunny asked.
"At the hospital?"
She nodded.
"The j.a.panese have posted guards." Franz finished b.u.t.toning his shirt. "I am far more concerned about your safety."
"Wen-Cheng said he will not let anything happen to me."
"It"s not his role to protect you."
She laughed emptily. "Oh, Franz, you are not still jealous?"
"I only wish I could do more for you."
Sunny stared at him for a moment and then, eyes reddening with tears, she rolled away.
He studied the supple curve of her spine and resisted the urge to touch it, to run kisses down its length. Instead, he turned for the door.