by
Jacquimac
Part Twenty One
The police had question the terrorist and the Anti-Terrorist Squad had made several more arrests after looking into the activities and recent travels of those already in custody. The one who had been hit in the face with the contents of the fire extinguisher was now blind and would remain so for the rest of his life, the carbon dioxide had frozen his eyes and the damage so extensive they couldn`t to be mended. The information already collated revealed that all the suspects were mambers of Al-Quaida but were an unknown cell, if they hadn`t tried killing the children they might never have been discovered until some atrocity had been carried out, it was only a couple years ago that the London bombing had taken place and sveral people had been killed witha lot more injured when a few buses exploded in the busy London traffic.
The security services were following up any and all leads and were determined to get the neccessary evidence to keep this bunch behind bars for a long long time if not for the rest of their lives, the trouble was the majority of those arrested so far were British born from parents that had moved here long ago. Those that were born in other countries would be after completing a jail sentence be deported on it`s completion, sadly it was sign of times and international travel made it eary for terrorists to move country to country.
The feeling in the country was more and more anti muslim and as soon as one cell was discovered and dealt with another another sprang up, it was like fighting the Medusa. With 9/11 and 7/7 still fresh in peoples minds and with the troops just having left Iraq and still fighting in Afghanistan there was a growing resentment towards Asian community, it didn`t help after the Americans took out Osama Bin Laden who was found living in a well guarded compound in Pakistan and innocents were beginning to feel the brunt because of a misguided minority. Something had to be done and soon,as in all wars of the twentieth century Britain and Amerca seemed to taking more of their share of the load in fighting terrorism, other nations it seemed were just along for the ride although they had suffered a few casualties, of course The US suffered the most because of the greater numbers of soldiers involved but in comparison the UK seemed to have the biggest percentage of casualties in the relation to the size of their armed forces, but a death is death and numbers don`t mean much to the soldier on the ground.
Jemma and Annabel were still constantly surprising their tutors with their apperent knowledge and it was getting harder to challenge them, the tutors had a meeting and decided to up the level of the lessons, they would teach the subjects as they would for sixth form pupils and go higher if that proved easy for the children, but on the whole the tutors were happy to be teaching intelligent children on a one to one basis.
The adults were talking about the move to the country estate as proposed by Brian but then Elizabeth pointed out that the new house had cost a small fortune to build and furnish.
"It`s only money and that doesn`t mean a thing if the children aren`t safe and happy" said Brian
"We could always rent the place out " said Rodger
The discussion went on for some time and eventually Elizabeth and Milly agreed to the move, Brian had suggested that some of their friends might like to move to the estate and they should find out who they wanted with them, of course the two women would have to quit work. Brian suggested that Gerry be first on the list as Jemma liked and trusted him and everyone agreed to that, Gerry had no family and as far as they knew few if any friends outside of work..
What Brian hadn`t told them was that he was having twenty homes built and that Gerry would live with them at the big house, He had always felt that Gerry was hiding something, not something bad but some little secret that he kept to himself. From what he had found out Gerry didn`t socialise much and if he had any hobbies he didn`t tewll anyone what they were, Was Gerry ashamed of something ? he was too good a person to be a bad man or was it just that liked his own company. Well whatever it was, Gerry wasn`t able to work as a paramedic anymore and deserved to be looked after, he had after all freely given his services to help Jemma after she had been injured and was always there when she needed a ride anywhere.
In the area around the estate there where three sizable villages and although each had it`s own doctor Brian decided to build a small hospital centrally to all of them so the locals didn`t have so far to travel in an emergency and was now wondering if Dr Graves would be interested in running the place, he`d have to approach Graves and put it to him.
The next day Brian rang Dr Graves and asked him to come and stay for the weekend as he had a proposition for him, and he could examine jemma at the same time, Graves accepted. The rest of the adults were informed of Brians decision and wondered what was going through Brians mind, all his plans would cost a small fortune just to get started not to mention the running costs, but Brian told them it was time to give something to the community and money wasn`t a problem.
Dr Graves arrived along with his wife on friday evening, shown to their room and after changing joining the household for a meal,afterwards while the women showed Barbara around the house the two men took Graves into the library, after getting drinks for each of them Brian put forward his offer which took Graves by surprise.
"Well I can`t say I`m not interested, but I do have a few questions" said Graves
"Of course you have questions and I will do my best to answer them" stated Brian
"You say I`ll be running the hospital ,Okay but how much control will I actually have? " Asked Graves
"Well let me put it this way, I know nothing about the running of hospitals so every decision will be yours, whatever you need will be provided, you can hire who you want and do what you want acceptable by medical standards and ethics. In other words your word will be law, top wages will paid and if you want to add a specialist field for the hospital you can, so what do you say ?" asked Brian
"Well in that I can`t really refuse can I, but as well as specialist field I would like to use it as an extention of a teaching hospital" said Graves
"No problem with that, so it`s agreed? " said Brian matter of factly
They all knew it would be around two years before they could open the hospital and that was after they got planning permission which Brian could get easily enough with his contacts in the Government, a bit of pressure by the right people went a long way and he knew just who would apply the pressure.
The three men talked for quite a while about the project and both Brian and Rodger were impressed with how Graves envisaged the hospital would run, and Graves with his usual brusqueness would apply pressure on the General Medical Council to get what he wanted from them, he wasn`t a fool and was one of the best if not the best in his field of medicine and knew the failings of hospital both NHS and Private and would try to ovoid the mistakes they made.
Barbara liked what she shown on her tour of house and like the two women and of course the children, she knew all about the problems that Jemma had and although she sympathised with child didn`t show it. She herself was Doctor as well as a consutant in paediadrics and worked at a private hospital, she like the other two didn`t know what being discussed in the library but they would all soon know. The children were eventually put to bed and the adults talked and relaxed for a while longer before they too retired for the night.
The next day after the children were taken out for the day, Brian told the women what his plans were, all six adults talked at length on the subject with Brian finally telling everyone that Dr Graves would be in overall charge of the new hospital from it`s planning and constuction to it`s opening and running. The women congratulated Dr Graves on his new position but he told them that until planning permission was granted he would just carry on as usual. On the childrens return from where they had been Jemma was examined and found to be progressing nicely, her wounds had just about healed and she was getting around easier and seemed happy enough in her self.
On the journey home Michael Graves and Barbara talked about the idea of him running a new hospital both of them had ideas that they would like to incorporate, but it would depend on how much capitol Brian was going to put into the project. It was fine Brian saying there was no problem with money but even he wasn`t a bottomless money pit and just the building and basic equipment to run a hospital would require millions, Barbara suggested they specialise in children with gender problems and Michael could see were she got that idea "Jemma" something extraordinary was going on with that child and the so far the world of medicine was in the dark.
Well it would have to wait until they got the hospital build if it ever was, everyone knew that local councils always found someway to delay or even stop building projects even when they benefitted the community, even a small hospital would employ quite a few people and impact on other local businesses by providing outlets for they`re products. Michael was wondering if John Wells would be interested and was considering asking him, both men had grown to like each other as friends and colleagues and did work well together and it would be good if they got teaching hospital status. Michael was already trying to list names of top professional in the field of medicine with the view of getting them to work at the hospital, if he could manage that it would it the best staffed hospital in the country, well they`d have to wait for now.
A week later they were notified of the trial date and the tutors were brought in for a meeting, it was suggested that the childrens education be put on hold for a while while Jemma worked with the Legal Eagles to prepare in case she had to give evidence at the trial, the tutors showed their reluctance to the idea and finally it was agreed that on lesson in the morning and one in the afternoon would be enough for now plus it would help to provide a distraction for Jemma from the trail. Everyone knew that Jemma was going to be under a lot of pressure and wanted to help make it easier for her.
Brian had spoken to his contacts in the Crown Prosecution Service about the impending trial and had been assured that the judge would only use Jemma as a last resort, but that they had so much evidence it was unlikely she would be called, this was one case that wasn`t going to screwed up by some technicality even the Police had been told to check all their evidence and statements and this time to make sure that all their stories matched, too many cases were being lost due screw ups by the police and people were getting very angry with it. No this time everyone would get it right the first time, there would be no retrials and the newly formed Ministry of Justice was going to prevent the accused from appealing and give them the maximun punishment the law allowed followed by deportment of the non UK citizens and their families.
Brian had contacted an architect to design the small collection of houses, they were to be built like the main house of natural stone from a local quarry and the interiors were to have the most modern conveniences available on th market including internet facilities,he had already contacted friends to try and deal with planning permission for the hospital as he wanted to get that started as soon as possible. The architect hired for this project had been put in contact with Michael Graves and told that the good doctor was in overall charge of this project and that it would be designed to the requirements of the doctor. the architect commented that it was very unusual for a member of the medical to be involved in the design and building of a hospital, Brian simply stated that in his opinion that was what was wrong with most hospital.
An accountancy firm had been hired to oversee the expendature and working with Brian`s bank handling of all payments on both projects and a small construction company from the local area would be hired to do the building and Brian had just the company in mind, they weren`t big like the corporations of Wimpy or Macalpine etc but they big enough for this project and it would provide much needed employment for the local area and outside help would only be used as a last resort, as the owner of most of the area Brian knew he a responsibilty to the people in the area who liked and respected the old man. His father and grandfather had always brought in help from outside the area and treated the locals with total indifferance which Brian had always thought was wrong, well he was going change that and if need he himself would become the biggest employer in the area even if he start new companies and he was already thinking along those lines.
Rodger had got hold of Gerry and asked him to come down to the estate for a long stay and Gerry being at a loose end gladly took him up on the offer, he had missed the companionship of the little group and was looking forward to seeing them all again. He hadn`t worked since he was discharged from the hospital and had recently failed his medical so they had retired him on health grounds, Gerry had always been active and had kept busy with work now that had been taken away from him and he was thinking of moving away from the area.
Comments
The Hero Part 21
Like what Brian wants to do.
May Your Light Forever Shine
Jemma is a trouble magnet
Hope she makes it okay.
Kim