The Malthus Pandemic
Page 66
CHAPTER 63
Rightly or wrongly, Larry felt his meeting with New York Senator Mary Collis had gone much better than expected. Having extracted what he took to be a firm commitment to ask a few questions and then get back to him, Larry thanked her and walked back to the Quincy Hotel. Hoping he could now snatch a few hours sleep, he had only just picked up his key and stepped out of the lift to his room when his phone rang.
"Doctor Brown? It's the US Embassy, Abuja. Would you please hold the line, the Ambassador wants a word."
Still holding the phone, Daniel clicked open the door to his room and sat on the bed. "Well, whatever," Larry thought to himself. "I gave him the best part of a week to get back to me. Perhaps he's done something."
"Larry!" The voice of the Ambassador boomed out of Larry's phone as if he was sitting next to him on the bed. "Been trying to get you. Office in Lagos said you must be out and about. They hadn't seen you for three days but your phone was off. Had a problem with it or something?"
"No, sir, it's OK " said Larry. "Just been out and about as the office said."
"Well now, I promised to get back to you on this virus thing. But we've had a whole bunch of Nigerian politicians here this week, including the President himself - Boko Haram giving everyone headaches, the oil pipeline fire down south, you name it - not at all sure US wants any involvement but we got to give them some air time. Now, we've done a few checks on your virus as promised. Laura in the office here has worked wonders. I'll get her to call you but here's the gist.
"You need to speak to USAMRID - the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Derrick, Maryland, Larry. They are the experts."
Larry interrupted him. "I already did, sir. I got nowhere."
"OK, I see. Well you need to speak to the Biological Weapons Convention people."
Larry sensed he was using a crib sheet given to him by Laura, whoever Laura was.
"Useless, sir. There are no people. It's a website and even the website is out of date."
There was a pause. Larry thought he could hear someone next to the Ambassador. Perhaps it was Laura. But Larry had already had enough. "Look, sir, this needs someone with genuine clout at US Government level - like a Senator - to sit up and take notice. That person needs to sit and listen properly, hear me out, give me a chance."
I hear what you're saying, Larry. Let me chat to Laura again and we'll see where we go." Larry very nearly pressed the off button on his phone.
"But hang on, Larry, Laura now wants a word. She's stood right next. Try to sort this out between you...........yes, let's get together........." The Ambassador's voice tailed off and Larry was sure the Ambassador had been in a simultaneous discussion with someone else - and it wasn't Laura. But it was Laura who spoke next.
"Hi, Larry, it's Laura. How are you? Been trying to find you. Sorry about all this research turning up nothing but if there's anything more I can do, let me know. Oh, and by the way, there was another guy on the phone looking for you yesterday. His name is........let me see...........yeh, here we go................ Abdouleye. You want me to spell that? No? But I got a note here saying he met you in Kano. He's a doctor so you must have clearly got talking doctor stuff sometime. You want his number for another chat?"
"Yes," said Larry with belated enthusiasm. .
"You want to fix a meeting, Larry? Anything we can do for you right now?"
Larry didn't have the courage to admit he was in Washington DC because he had got nowhere in Nigeria. But perhaps, he thought, he'd delay his resignation for a while. "No thanks," he said, "I'll sort it."