The Dragon and the Needle Read Free Page B

working with Dorman and of becoming directly involved with ENDS. In no way was it reaching the rapid spread made by AIDS, but ‘death by natural causes’ made ENDS uniquely alarming. As the months passed, his respect for Dorman grew. He admired and learnt a great deal from the professor, and was grateful that Dorman had chosen him as his assistant. He was anxious to help him in any way he could. He had become fully versed in the ENDS problems, and although fascinated, he was also very concerned.
    Professor Dorman had no children, and he and Mike were rapidly developing a kind of father–son relationship. Mike tried to follow up on every idea of the professor’s, and even carried his ideas a stage further. Recently he had become involved in Dorman’s scrutiny of acupuncture and the complicated diagnostic pulse law of the therapy. He wanted to understand why and how the human body responded to acupuncture, although he found it difficult to regard any form of Oriental medicine as a serious science. But Dorman wanted to know more about the acupuncture points, and told Mike that they must both keep open minds about the therapy. He wanted them both to meet Eleanor Johnson, an American doctor practising acupuncture in London. Mike’s respect for Dorman made him anxious to look into anything Dorman might suggest.
    But what was going to happen now? Mike had almost reached the outskirts of London. London without Dormanwas unthinkable! God, how he would miss him! A deep sadness settled on the young doctor, yet he knew that the professor wouldn’t want that emotion spent on himself, especially in the present crisis. Far better to go on with his work.
    He sat back in the driving seat and this time said aloud, through clenched teeth, ‘My God! I’ll work on! And I’ll help find the bastards who killed him!’
    The blaring horn and flashing lights of a car behind brought Clifford promptly back to the present and only just in time. He had wandered from the centre lane into the fast lane. He glanced at his speedometer, saw it was registering 90 miles an hour, and immediately pulled his steering-wheel to the left. The car behind had been about to overtake him! As he steadied his steering-wheel, holding to the centre lane, the car behind swept past, flashing its lights, the driver angrily sounding the horn. Clifford eased up on his accelerator and cruised at 50 miles an hour. Better to concentrate on the road for a while; though he couldn’t get Dorman out of his thoughts.
    He remembered that moment only a few weeks ago when the professor had said, ‘You know, Mike, if anything should happen to me you have all the top contacts you need.’
    There had been a long silence during which they had eyed each other. Then Mike had replied, ‘Nothing is going to happen to you.’
    ‘Well,’ Dorman had said, ‘whatever, you must carry on with our work.’
    Mike’s eyes moistened as he remembered. He now pressed down harder on the accelerator, concentrating, wanting to get to London and action as quickly as he could.

    In the quiet of her consulting room in Harley Street, Eleanor Johnson sat at her desk, reading with disbelief the letter that had been delivered by special messenger. She was an attractiveand intelligent woman in her thirties with her dark hair cut short and combed back. Her face was full of gentleness and kindness. Totally devoted to her work, she had established a well-deserved reputation in New York and London.
    She had graduated from Radcliffe College summa cum laude , then entered Cornell where she got her medical degree. She worked for a while as a junior doctor at the New York Medical Center, where she met and fell in love with Chen Shousan, a Chinese doctor. They lived together for a few years, then they married, but three months later he was dead. He had been mugged and beaten to death in the City’s subway. The murderers pocketed all of $18.
    For a while Eleanor drowned her shock and sorrow in work. Her husband had