Resurrection (20 page)

Dewar nodded. ‘He wouldn’t tell me anything. He didn’t deny trying to kill Sandra but he wouldn’t admit to anything else.’

‘
I still can’t believe he did it,’ said Malloy. ‘Christ! What’s happened to us all. A few short weeks ago we were on the verge of making the biggest breakthrough in years and suddenly all this happens. Ali dead, Pierre dead. Sandra lying at death’s door.’

‘
I’m afraid there’s more,’ said Dewar.

Malloy looked unwilling to believe that there could possibly be any more bad news.

‘
I’m going to have to seal off this lab. A special team will be brought in to remove everything from it.’

‘
Pierre’s stuff, yes, we’re getting it together now.’

‘
Everyone’s stuff,’ said Dewar.

Malloy’s face registered disbelief but he saw that Dewar was serious. He sank down on a stool and stared down at the floor, shaking his head.

‘
I’m sorry,’ said Dewar. ‘But it’s the only way to be sure that there’s no possibility of live smallpox virus being left around.’

‘
This is crazy,’ said Malloy. ‘I just don’t believe for a moment that Pierre Le Grice tried to reconstruct live smallpox virus in the open lab. That would have been just plain crazy.’

‘
I agree. But you wouldn’t have believed he would have tried to kill Sandra Macandrew either.’

Malloy couldn’t argue.

‘
This means my PhD goes down the tubes,’ said Peter Moore, suddenly seeing the implications for himself. ‘Sandra’s too.’

‘
I’m sorry, there’s no other way.’

‘
Christ,’ muttered Peter Moore. ‘Talk about shit happening!’

‘
It means the end of the lab, doesn’t it?’ said George Ferguson. ‘No grant-funding body is going to come up with money to support a line of research that no longer exists.’

‘
It means starting over again,’ agreed Dewar. ‘But you’ll have all your experimental notes to work from.’

‘
Forget it,’ said Malloy. By the time we got back up to speed, the opposition would be out of sight.’ ‘It’s not feasible. It’s all over. When d’you want us out?’

‘
I’d like you to leave the lab now. The sooner I seal it off the better.’

Malloy smiled without humour. ‘Don’t trust us eh?’

‘
Nothing like that,’ said Dewar. ‘Just procedure.’

‘
And these Iraqi fuckers, the ones behind it all, the movers and shakers, they’ll get away I take it?’

‘
There’s no evidence against them as yet.’

‘
Christ! Half my group are dead or dying. My entire research programme is going down the swannee and there’s no evidence against them as yet,’ mimicked Malloy.

‘
I can understand your bitterness,’ said Dewar.

‘
Jesus! Dewar. You sound like a Californian, - “thank you for sharing your anger with me”.’ With that Malloy stormed out of the room.

‘
Well, I suppose I’d better think about getting my arse down the job centre,’ said Peter Moore. ‘See if they need any double glazing salesmen. The Medical Research Council aren’t going to give me another grant to start over again.’ He too, left the room with a black look in Dewar’s direction.

‘
Your turn,’ said Dewar to George Ferguson, the only one left. ‘I feel like the grim reaper.’

Ferguson gave a half-hearted smile. ‘You’re only doing your job,’ he said ‘But you must see how these guys feel.’

Dewar nodded. ‘Of course.’

‘
This lab is Steve Malloy’s life. ‘His research is the only thing he cares about unlike half the wankers in this place who spend most of their time sitting on their arse talking about research rather than doing it. It takes more than knowledge to be a researcher,’ Ferguson continued. ‘You can know every fact in the damned world and still not know what to do next. Steve’s different. He’s a natural. He knows the questions, the experiments to do, the paths to follow. It’s a bloody shame.’

Dewar nodded sympathetically. ‘And you? What’ll you do now?’ he asked.’

Ferguson shrugged. ‘I’ll survive.’

‘
You’re married?’

Ferguson nodded. ‘Yes, we’ve got one boy.’

‘
Still living at home?’

‘
A veil came over Ferguson’s eyes. ‘He’s not right,’ he said. ‘Brain damage when he was a kid.’

‘
Bad luck. I’m sorry.’

Ferguson shrugged. ‘That’s the way it goes. Anyway, I think I’ll go find the others, leave you to your business.’

‘
I really am sorry,’ said Dewar.

‘
Yeah.’

Dewar called Macmillan at Sci-Med from Malloy’s office and told him what had happened.

‘
Did this man, Le Grice admit it before he took his life?’ asked Macmillan.

‘
He didn’t deny the attempt on Sandra Macandrew’s life and he mentioned extra smallpox fragments but he didn’t actually acknowledge any dealings with the Iraqis.’

‘
Damn,’ said Macmillan. ‘But there seems little doubt?’

‘
He had extra smallpox fragments and he tried to kill Sandra.’ replied Dewar. ‘It sounded to me like he’d tried to convince Sandra that the extra fragments would have helped with her research but she decided to blow the whistle on him anyway.’

‘
That still leaves us with nothing against these damned people. ‘You don’t think he actually managed to supply them with the virus do you?’ asked Macmillan.

‘
I don’t think so. I don’t think there was time and the Iraqis haven’t looked like they’re ready to leave according to the secret service.’

‘
What are you doing about the lab where Le Grice worked?’

‘
I’ve just told the research group leader that everything in his lab will have to be removed. I’d like a team from Porton Down called in to take it away. We can’t afford to take chances. They can analyse anything they think looks promising under conditions of maximum containment and destroy everything when they’re finished.’

‘
You’re right, the last thing we need is someone contracting smallpox because it was left lying around and nobody knew about it.’

‘
I’m going to lock and seal the lab. Would you arrange for the Porton team to be called in to do their stuff? I’ll tell the head of institute here to expect them.’

‘
Are you planning to come back to London?’

‘
I’ll hang on for a couple of days if that’s all right. I’ll brief the Porton team when they arrive and I’d also like to see the back of Siddiqui and his pal before I return. Presumably they’ll leave when word about Le Grice gets out.’

‘
I’ve done what you requested about arranging to have them stopped and searched on the way out.’

‘
Good, the more thorough and unpleasantly the better. Siddiqui can’t play the diplomatic card because he entered the country as an academic not a diplomat. God knows what Abbas’s status is but I’m sure a “misunderstanding” could arise.’

‘
I think the immigration people have got the message,’ said Macmillan. ‘They’re still smarting from having let Siddiqui in unnoticed.’

‘
Good.’

‘
I’ll get on to Porton. I’ll give them your number to contact when they get there.’

‘
Any idea how long?’

‘
I’m going to make this top priority. They have a rapid response squad. With the help of the military I should think four to five hours.’

‘
I’ll be waiting.’

Dewar found that Hutton, the head of institute already knew what was happening by the time he got to his office.

‘
Dr Malloy told me,’ said Hutton. ‘He’s devastated. He sees it as the end of his career.’

‘
He’s still a brilliant scientist,’ said Dewar. ‘Surely there will be a place for him somewhere.’

‘
Unfortunately that’s not the way research works,’ said Hutton. ‘Research groups are a bit like Italian city states in the middle ages. There’s no question of the leader of one being able to join the forces of another. His rivals in the vaccine race will see his misfortune as one less runner in the race to worry about.’

‘
Not exactly a Walt Disney world, is it,’ said Dewar.

‘
What is these days?’ replied Hutton.

That old excuse, thought Dewar.

‘
These people who’re coming,’ said Hutton. ‘What exactly are they going to do?’

‘
They will take away absolutely everything from Steven Malloy’s lab in sealed containers and fumigate the lab itself when it’s empty. The contents of the containers will be subject to analysis under secure conditions when they get back to Porton then everything will be destroyed, just in case anything has been missed.’

Hutton nodded. ‘This all seems like a bad dream.’

‘
For all of us,’ Dewar assured him.

‘
Is there anything you’d like me to do?’

‘
Just make sure that the Malloy lab is kept locked.’

‘
I’ll put the whole corridor out of bounds until your people arrive. I’ll have one of the porters sit by the door.’

‘
That might be best,’ agreed Dewar. He returned to his hotel and asked for beer and sandwiches. He hadn’t eaten since breakfast time and it was now four in the afternoon. He called Grant rather than the hospital to ask about Sandra Macandrew’s condition.

‘
They say she’s improving,’ replied Grant. ‘Becoming stable, I think was the expression. Do you still want the guard left on her?’

‘
Yes,’ replied Dewar after a moment’s thought. ‘It’s just possible that Le Grice admitted to her what he was doing for the Iraqis. Let’s keep her safe.’

‘
You’re the man.’

Dewar wondered what film Grant had picked up that expression from. Next he called Simon Barron on his mobile number. ‘Anything happening?’ he asked.

‘
Nothing but I hear you’ve been having a lot of fun and games?’ replied Barron.

Dewar filled him in on the details.

‘
So panic over, we can expect our friends to pack their bags shortly?’

‘
Let’s hope so.’

‘
Can we be sure that this Le Grice character didn’t succeed in reconstructing the virus?’

‘
All the signs are that he didn’t. Porton Down are going to investigate the entire contents of the lab he worked in to see if they can get an idea about what stage he was at and if Sandra Macandrew comes round she can probably tell us a good deal.’

‘
Let’s hope she does,’ said Barron. ‘In the meantime we go on watching while you have all the fun.’

‘
I think I’ve had quite enough “fun” as you put it. I just want to see the back of these two up in Forest Road.

* * * * *

Dewar received a call from the Porton team after they landed at Edinburgh Airport just after eight. He arranged to meet them outside the institute and found them already waiting when he got there. He had not taken into account a police escort which cut down their town travel time considerably. The small convoy comprised two police cars and an unlettered black Transit van. Dewar presumed that this also had been supplied by the local police.

He introduced himself to the leader of the team, Doctor Robert Smillie, and briefed him on events.

‘
That’s more or less what we’ve been told,’ said Smillie when he’d finished. ‘If you’ll just show us to the lab in question we’ll take over from there. Any special problems? Do we need respirators?

‘
No,’ Dewar assured him. ‘The man involved in this affair was a highly trained scientist. If there’s anything to be found it will be in an appropriate container. The question is, which one? There could be several; alternatively there may be none. This is a precaution but a very necessary one.’

The team of three changed into coverall suits and put on gloves before entering Malloy’s lab, carrying a number of sealable plastic containers. They took less than sixty minutes to remove every single tube and bottle in the place, even moving all the furniture to examine the floor underneath for anything that had fallen and rolled.

‘
I’m impressed,’ said Dewar to Smillie when his team had finished and were setting the sterilising ‘bombs’ in place.

‘
I think this is where I say, all in a day’s work,’ said Smillie.

Dewar grinned and said, ‘But I don’t envy you the next bit.’

Smillie nodded his agreement. ‘There’s no question of analysing the contents of every single container,’ he said. ‘But we’ll do a DNA scan and concentrate on those that come up positive. Can’t say how long it’s going to take. We’ll be using the high containment suite. That always slows things up. It’s like picking your nose with boxing gloves on.’

THIRTEEN

Dewar watched the lights of the small convoy disappear into the night as they headed off back to the airport. Hutton, who had seen it as his duty to be present throughout, looked at his watch and said that he’d have to rush, muttering something about dinner with friends. Dewar wished him good-night and suddenly wondered what he himself was going to do with the rest of the evening. He felt a distinct sense of anticlimax.

So much seemed to have happened since he’d got up that morning but, he asked himself, did he really know that much more at the end of the day? True, Le Grice had been identified as Sandra Macandrew’s attacker and it seemed almost certain that he must be the Iraqis’ man on the inside but he still didn’t know exactly what the Iraqis had asked him to do or how much of it had been achieved, any more than with Ali Hammadi. These were still the key questions in the whole affair.