Plot
Afflicted by a malignant meningioma, French novelist Maurice Estoral has been admitted to Westbourne Hospital for life-saving neurosurgery. The task of performing this highly-advanced operation, which will be only the sixth of its kind to be attempted, has been given to the one man in the world with the necessary skills - Dr Emil Kados, who is flying to Britain especially. However, disaster strikes when the plane carrying Kados is struck by lightning and crashes, killing almost everyone on board. Despite being among the few survivors, Kados is critically injured and now in no position to carry out the operation. At the same time, unless it is successfully performed within the next few days, Estoral is certain to die.
At the request of Doctors Blakemore and Sherman, Professor McClaine has been running checks on equipment in the hospital operating theatre. Mac happens to be a great admirer of Estoral's work and is devastated when Kados' incapacitation heightens the tragedy. Contacting Sam Loover, he proposes that the BIG RAT be used to transfer Kados' brain impulses to another doctor, but Loover reminds Mac of the terms of his original agreement with WIN: no one else must know of the existence of the BIG RAT, or its usefulness to the organisation would be compromised. Nevertheless, Mac and Joe travel to the Swiss hospital where the unconscious Kados is being treated and record his knowledge and experience, transmitting it back to the McClaine Cottage in Dorset...
Meanwhile, although acknowledging that his chances of success are minimal, Dr Blakemore sees no option other than to attempt the procedure himself. When Mac telephones to volunteer his services during the operation, Blakemore immediately accepts. However, on the morning of the neurosurgery, with Estoral anaesthetised and equipment prepared, the team of doctors and nurses are shocked when Joe enters the theatre in full surgeon's attire and Mac threatens Blakemore with a gun, promising to kill Estoral if his son is prevented from taking over the procedure and proving his point by firing a bullet at the author's supine form that only narrowly misses his head. Blakemore surrenders the operating table to Joe, who astonishes all present by carrying out the operation with professional skill. Mac recommends that Blakemore simply pass off the accomplishment as his own and father and son depart, both having acquired brain impulses from the BIG RAT: Joe those of Kados, Mac those of a WIN agent.
Read more about this topic: Operation Mc Claine
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“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
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