Bagley, Desmond - The Enemy

by The Enemy

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN When I picked up the microphone my hand was shaking almost uncontrollably. I pushed the transmit button and heard a click. 'Can you hear me, Archie?' Ferguson, on the other side of the glass, nodded and spoke but I heard nothing. 'There's a microphone in front of you.' He looked about him, then picked it up. 'What happened here, Malcolm?' 'This place is bloody dangerous. Tell your men not to enter any of the laboratories—especially this one and the one across the corridor. Do that now.' 'I'll have guards on the doors.' He dropped the microphone and left on the run. I went across to Cregar who was breathing stentorously. His head was twisted in an awkward position so I straightened him out and he breathed easier but showed no signs of coming awake. 'Mr. Jaggard are you there?' I went back to the window to find Archie and Robbie Ferguson and a third man, one of the biggest I've seen, who was introduced as Wattle Stevenson. Archie said, 'It would seem you have problems. Is the lassie across the corridor the one you looked for?' 'Yes. You haven't been in there, have you?' 'No. I saw her by this arrangement we have here.' 'Good. Keep out of there. What size of an army did you bring? I heard of twenty boats.' 'Who told you that? There's only the six.' 'Have any trouble?' 'Not much. A man has a broken jaw.' I said, 'How many people are there in this place?' 'Not as many as I would have thought. Maybe a dozen.' Ogilvie had been right. It didn't take much to run a microbiological laboratory; perhaps half a dozen technical staff and the same number of domestics and bottlewashers. 'Put the lot under arrest. You have my authority for it.' Archie looked at me speculatively. 'And what authority would that be?' I took out my departmental card and held it against the glass. He said, 'It doesn't mean much to me, but it looks official.' 'It takes you off the hook for invading government property. You did it on my instructions and you're covered. Oh, if you find a character called Max I don't care how roughly he's handled.' Robbie Ferguson laughed. 'He's the one with the broken jaw. Wattle, here, hit him.' 'Och, it wasna' more than a wee tap,' said Wattle. 'The man has a glass jaw.' 'Wattle won the hammer throwing at the last Highland Games,' said Archie, with a grim smile. 'Beside s, it was the man, Max, who sent Wattle away with a flea in his ear when he offered to help. What's to do now?' 'Did you ring Ogilvie as I asked?' 'Aye. He said he already knew about it.' I nodded. He would have talked with Cregar. 'I want you to ring him again and the call put through to this telephone in here. You'll find a switchboard somewhere.' 'You can't come out?' 'No. You have my permission to listen in when I talk.' There was a groan behind me and I turned to see Cregar stirring. I said, 'Tell your men guarding the laboratories it's just as important that no one comes out. In fact, it's more important. This place being what it is there's probably some guns somewhere. In emergency use them.' Archie looked grave. 'Is it so fearsome a thing?' 'I don't know,' I said wearily. 'I'm just taking prophylactic measures. Get busy, will you?' I went back to Cregar, helped him to get up, and sat him in a chair where he slumped flaccidly. He was dazed and in shock; too old to cope with the rough stuff any more. I said, 'Cregar, can you hear me?' He muttered something indistinguishable, and I slapped his cheek. 'Can you hear me?' 'Yes,' he whispered. 'Don't try to leave. There's a man outside with orders to shoot. Do you understand?' He looked at me with glazed eyes, and nodded. 'Doesn't matter,' he muttered. 'I'm dead anyway. So are you.' 'We'll all be dead in a hundred years,' I said, and went to look again at the cultures in the broken petri dishes. The stuff looked harmless enough but I was careful not to touch it. Penny had described the elaborate precautions which were taken to prevent the escape of dangerous organisms from laboratories and, according to her, the lab I was now in wasn't up to snuff for what Carter had been doing. The cultures could have been ordinary E.coli and, as such, perfectly harmless. But if they were cultures of E.coli which Carter had diddled around with then they could be dangerous in totally unpredictable ways. Cregar wasn't a scientist but he knew what Carter was up to, and the broken dishes had been enough to scare him half to death. From now on no chances would be taken and I hoped there had not been an escape already when Archie had opened the door. I didn't think so—the laboratory had low air pressure and I'd got him out fast. Twenty minutes later I had Ogilvie on the phone. I wasted no time on politeness and answered none of the questions he shot at me. I said, 'This is a matter for urgency, so get it right the first time. Have you something to write with?' 'I'll record.' I heard a click. 'Cregar's laboratory on Cladach Duillich has run wild. There's one serious case of infection and two suspected. The organism causing it is new to medicine and probably man-made; it's also highly infectious. I don't know if it's a killer but it's highly likely. You'll have to set the alarm ringing and probably Lumsden, Penny's boss, is the best man to do it. Tell him hospitalisation for three is needed in P4—repeat—P4 conditions. He'll know what that means. Tell him I suggest Porton Down, but he might have a better idea.' 'I'll get on to it immediately,' said Ogilvie. 'Who are the three?' 'The serious case is Penny Ashton.' There was a sharp withdrawal of breath. 'Oh, Christ! I'm sorry, Malcolm.' I went on, 'The suspected cases are Cregar and myself.' 'For the love of God!' said Ogilvie. 'What's been going on up there?' I ignored him. 'There's a helicopter pad on Cladach Duillich so Lumsden had better use a chopper. Tell him the man to see here is a Dr. Carter. He's the chap who cooked up whatever hellbrew has got loose.' 'I've got that.' 'Then make it quick. I think Penny is dying,' I said bleakly.