The Operation - By Rick

"You discover your boss is involved in illegal activity. Tell the story using dialogue as much as possible."


It had started out as my dream job come true. The Braunstein Cosmetic Clinic was the biggest, most expensive and most prestigious plastic surgery company in the Asia Pacific region. They did everything from rhinoplasty to breast implants and boasted clients from around the world, all of them rich and famous. I had started my career as an accountant for a small Sydney firm and over the next 20 years I jumped from position to position always advancing my reputation and salary. At 43 I remained a confirmed bachelor. My career was my life. My proudest achievement took place 6 months ago when Sid Braunstein himself had welcomed me to the company as Chief Financial Officer.

It was the memory of that greeting that prompted me to give a little more, to dig in and explore got me into the predicament that I now face. Here I sit in Dr. Braunstein’s reception waiting for the appointment that could ruin my career and my life.

At precisely 10 a.m. the secretary led me into Dr. Braunstein’s office.

“Oliver, come in. Can I offer you anything to drink? Coffee, tea, maybe something stronger? Please have a seat.”

“A black coffee would be perfect Dr. Braunstein, thanks,” I replied, thinking that a caffeine hit would help right now.

“Make that two black coffees Harriet and how about a platter of those short bread biscuits? And Oliver, as CFO you’re my right hand man. Let’s make it Sid.”

Harriet set out the snacks and coffees and then slipped out of the office.

“So Oliver, we haven’t had a word together lately except at board meetings. How has life at Braunstein Cosmetic Clinic been for you?”

“Well Dr. Br…, Sid, working here has been the realization of my life’s dream. Your generosity has been exceptional. I never thought that I would receive a profit share as part of my package. And the information management system that I am in control of is a real world beater. I have access to everything that a CFO needs to do his job and then some.

“And Sid, that’s the reason that I’m here to talk to you. I’ve made it my business to know everything about BCC. After all that’s what I’m being paid for. And in doing my research I discovered that some of the security in our computer system is, shall I say, weak. One evening when I stayed back reviewing our breast implant P&L’s I was flipping back and forth between spreadsheets when I accidentally pressed Alt-Q instead of Alt-Tab. Suddenly a window popped up on my monitor asking me if I wished to look at the transplant data. Having no idea what transplant data was and being curious I replied Yes and when asked for the password simply hit Enter. I was then taken to another screen where the most amazing set of figures came up.”

Sid looked at me with what I felt was a non-committal stare. “Go on,” he said.

“There were over 70 entries in the data summary and at the top was the heading ‘Kidney Transplants’. Well to get right to the point, I dug deeper into the data all night and discovered that BCC has been buying kidneys and performing transplant operations. Sid, buying kidneys is illegal and this is what we have to talk about.”

“Oliver there’s not much to talk about. We have been doing kidney transplants for about 3 years now. It’s easily the most profitable arm of the business.”

My first reaction to this was shock. I had expected Sid to deny everything, perhaps even be ignorant of it all. “Sid you can’t be serious. I know that we clear a million dollars on every kidney operation but it’s still illegal. We can’t do it.”

Sid was calm as he continued, “We not only can do it, we will continue to do it. I see it all as a victimless crime anyway. All of our bought kidneys come from very healthy young men and women who can spare a kidney and love the $10,000 we give them for it. Surely you know that we can all function on one kidney perfectly so long as it’s healthy. And they are making it possible for another human being to go on living. What could be wrong with that?”

“Sid I’m neither a lawyer nor an ethicist. I just know that what we are doing is illegal and now that I know about it, I’m afraid I must report this to the authorities. I just felt compelled to talk to you first.”

“Well I’m sorry to hear you talk that way,” Sid replied. “I’ll have to ask you to leave my office.”

With that we both rose and walked towards the door. I must admit I thought he was taking it rather calmly. He put his arm on my shoulder as he opened the door and everything went black.


When I awoke, I found myself flat on my back in what seemed to be a hospital bed. Sid Braunstein stood beside the bed looking at a chart.

“What have you done to me?” I asked groggily. “Where am I?” I felt a twinge of pain in my lower left back.

“Well according to my documentation, you’ve just had a kidney transplant. It says here that you’ve approved the operation and agreed to the purchase of a kidney from one Mr. Raj Patel from Bombay, India. Congratulations. The operation was a stunning success. And oh, I have to remind you not to tell anyone. What you did was highly illegal.”

In spite of the pain I sputtered, “You can’t be serious. You could have killed me.”

“Oh don’t be so dramatic. You’ve still got your old kidney plus a new incision where a kidney transplant might have gone. All I did was snip your kidney tubes and then sew them back up. But no one except you and I know that. Of course if you wanted to get some third party to remove your healthy kidney and prove that it’s really yours go ahead. Meanwhile I have this signed documentation proving that you joined BCC partly to receive this operation. You really should have paid more attention that day we had you sign all those forms.”

Snookered, I thought to myself.

“Oliver I hired you because of your brilliant accounting mind, not because as you say, you’re an ethicist. Frankly if you hadn’t found the kidney data soon I would have been disappointed. And it is hidden very well by the way. Just not from your terminal.”

I lay there slowly coming out of my stupor. Revenge was the first thing that popped into my mind. But what came out of my mouth seemed to fit our newfound relationship better. “Sid I think we can increase our profitability 10% by cutting out the stand-by anesthetist. The co-surgeon we use can fill that role.”