Blood Debt - By Tanya Huff Page 0,89

secured him to the bed, he re?viewed his options and realized he didn't have any. Reluctantly surrendering to the sedatives, he felt al?most sorry for the people who'd moved him.

Man, Vicki's going to be pissed.

"Dr. Mui, this is a surprise." His expression polite but not exactly welcoming, Ronald Swanson stepped back from the door to allow the doctor to enter his front hall.

"I realize this is certainly an unexpected visit," Dr. Mui acknowledged, stepping by him, "but what I have to tell you needed to be said in person. Since your neighbors are aware of your connection to Project Hope, they should assume the obvious."

"Very likely, although my neighbors are far enough away I doubt they even noticed you arrive." His atten?tion caught by the white convertible gleaming in the early morning light, he added, "New car?" as he closed the door.

"I bought it last week."

"Can you afford such an expensive car right now, Doctor? I'd have thought the condominium you bought recently had taken all your available re?sources."

"You assured me a condo in Yaletown was a secure investment, Mr. Swanson." She followed him to the kitchen. "And as for the car, I've heard you say you get what you pay for. German engineering is built to last. Besides, you pay me very well."

"And I get what I pay for." He smiled a little ner?vously and waved a hand toward the table. "I'm just finishing breakfast. Would you care to join me?" He hadn't had an informal visitor since before Rebecca had died, and he couldn't remember her ever enter-taining in the kitchen. Still, abandoning his breakfast now would mean wasting a perfectly good bagel and there was no sense in that.

"Thank you, no."

"Do you mind if I continue?"

"Not at all." She took the offered seat and waited for him to circle the table and sit facing her. 'We have another match."

His eyes narrowed, and he carefully set the bagel back on his plate. "Already? That's two in little more than a week. Three in two months. Don't you think we're likely to start attracting attention? The more regularly something happens the more likely people are to notice it."

"True. However, given the size of the organ, this particular match was too good to pass up. The donor is about six feet four, two hundred and sixty pounds. Late thirties and in perfect health for our purposes." Which was really all her patron either wanted or needed to know. Dr. Mui waited patiently for Swanson to make the connection.

As he did, he sat back and stared at her. "You said we'd never find a donor that big."

"I was wrong."

"Still... " He shook his head. "Three in two months. I'm concerned about the frequency. If we're caught, we won't be doing anyone any good." His mouth twisted. "Especially ourselves."

Dr. Mui leaned forward, fingertips touching. "This donor came to us under rather unusual circumstances. However," she amended as he raised a hand in pro?test, "I'll merely point out that if we don't take advan?tage of this opportunity now, we won't have a chance later. I've taken the liberty of changing certain parts of the routine so we won't attract the attention you're worried about."

"It would be a shame to miss the sale... "

She waited while he chewed and thought, secure in his reputation of never missing a sale.

"All right," he said at last. "What have you done?"

This could be the difficult part. "I had Mr. Sullivan escort him to one of your guest houses. He doesn't know where he is, and he's not at the clinic at?tracting attention."

Swanson's mug hit the table hard enough to slop tea over the edge. "And you were worried about the neighbor seeing you?"

"He arrived just after dawn, I doubt anyone saw him. And if they did-you often have guests." As soon as possible after the transplant, the buyers left their careful seclusion at the clinic and recovered under close supervision in one of Ronald Swanson's guest cottages-equally secluded and much less likely to be accidentally discovered. Who, after all, would wonder at a wealthy man having wealthy friends. "I can only stress that this may be our one chance for this particu?lar match."

"But here... "

"I can do all the preliminaries here. He won't have to be moved until the last possible moment." She watched Swanson openly as he stood and walked to a window that looked out over the property, the closest of the two guest houses clearly visible through the trees. "It is, of course, your