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Caitlin nodded.
‘I had a daughter, Antje, who was thirteen, two years younger than you, and needed a liver transplant in order to live. It was not possible to find one. Antje died. On the day that I buried her I made a promise, that no one would ever die again, waiting for a liver transplant. Nor for a heart-lung transplant. Nor a kidney transplant either. That was when I set up my agency.’
Caitlin pushed her lips out, the way she always did when she agreed with something, and nodded approval.
‘Could you guarantee finding a liver for Caitlin?’ Ly
‘Natürlich! That is my business. I guarantee always to find a matching organ and to effect the transplant within one week. In ten years I have not had one failure. If you would like reassurance from my past clients, there are some who would be willing to contact you and tell you their experiences.’
‘One week – even though she’s an AB negative blood group?’
‘The blood group is not important, Mrs Beckett. Three thousand five hundred people die on the roads, around the world, every day. There will always be a matching donor somewhere.’
Ly
‘So what would be involved in finding a matching liver for my daughter?’
‘I have a worldwide network, Mrs Beckett.’ She paused to sip some of her tea. ‘It will not be a problem to find an accident victim, somewhere on this planet, who is a type match.’
Then Ly
‘The complete package, which includes all surgical fees for a senior transplant surgeon and a second surgeon, two anaesthetists, nursing staff, six months’ unlimited post-operative care, and all drugs, is -’ she shrugged, as if aware of the impact this was going to have – ‘three hundred thousand euros.’
Ly
Marlene Hartma
‘That’s -’ Ly
Caitlin gave her mother a forget-it look.
Marlene Hartma
Ly
The German woman sipped her tea and said nothing.
Ly
‘I – I had no idea. Is there any – any – payment plan that you offer?’
The broker opened her attaché case and pulled out a brown envelope, which she handed to Ly
‘This is my standard contract. I require half upfront and the balance immediately before the transplant takes place. It is not a big sum, Mrs Beckett. I never went to see anyone who could not raise this amount.’
Ly
‘I can go through the costs with you. You have to understand that a liver starts to deteriorate if it is more than half an hour out of a body. So the person this comes from will have to be flown here in an air ambulance on life support. As you know, it is illegal in this country to do this. All the medical team take a great risk, and of course we have to use top-quality people. There is one private clinic here in Sussex, but they are extremely expensive. I personally make very little out of this, after covering my costs. You could save some money by flying with your daughter to a country where legal issues are not such a problem. There is a clinic in Mumbai, in India, and also one in Bogotá, in Colombia. That would be perhaps fifty thousand euros less.’
‘But would we have to stay there for a long time?’
‘For some weeks, yes. Perhaps longer in case of complications, like an infection. Or rejection, of course. You must also think financially, beyond our six-month period, of the cost of anti-rejection drugs, which your daughter will have to take for life.’
Ly
‘I – I don’t want us to be somewhere we don’t know. And I have to work. But it’s impossible, anyway. I don’t have that kind of money.’
‘What you have to think of, Mrs Beckett – may I call you Ly
She nodded, blinking away tears.
‘What you have to think of are the alternatives. What are Caitlin’s chances otherwise? That is what you must be thinking, no?’
Ly
‘Perhaps you could raise a mortgage on this house?’ Marlene Hartma
‘I’m mortgaged up to the hilt already,’ Ly
‘Sometimes my clients get help from family and friends.’
Ly
‘There is a bank in Germany that I work with,’ Marlene said. ‘They have arranged finance in the past for some of my clients. Five-year-term loans. I can put you in touch.’
Ly
Marlene Hartma
‘Mrs Beckett, let me tell you something. It is ten years now that I am doing this work. Not once, in all this time, have I made a wasted journey. This may seem a lot of money to you at this moment, when you have not had time to think clearly. I will be here in England for a couple of days. I want to help you. I want to do business with you.’ She handed Ly
Ly
66
Rares clutched the electronic game in his hands, staring out of the rear window of the Mercedes at the passing English countryside. It was a windy day, with fat, puffball clouds shunting across the blue sky. In the distance he saw a range of tall, green hills that reminded him a little of the countryside where he had lived for his first few years as a child, in Romania.
They drove across a roundabout, past a signpost to a place called Steyning, and he mouthed this name to himself. The car accelerated hard and he felt the seat back pressing against him. He was excited. Soon he would see Ilinca again. He was thinking about her smile. The soft feel of her skin. The trust in her nut-brown eyes. Her confident, independent spirit. She was the one who had found this German woman, who had arranged for their new lives. He loved that about Ilinca. The way she could make things happen. The way she seemed to be able to take care of herself. And he loved the way she told him he was the only person in her life who had ever looked after her.
He wished they could have travelled together, but the German woman had been adamant. Ilinca first, then him. There were reasons why they could not travel together, good reasons, the German woman had assured them. They had trusted her.