by Terry Morgan
CHAPTER 75
Anna was busy in her apartment that she had not lived in for several weeks. It was just as she had left it to fly to Singapore with Daniel. Cobwebs had already appeared and, as always when the apartment had not been lived in for a while, the tiled floor was littered with dead bugs that had found their way through the loose fitting mosquito netting. She swept it, mopped it and folded clothes that she had left to dry weeks ago. But she had not touched the suitcase she shared with Daniel and had rushed to pack at the hotel. She thought that when Daniel arrived they might move out again, perhaps into another hotel so she needed to be ready.
Anna had felt safer after her second long phone conversation with Colin and had tried phoning Daniel again but his phone was engaged.
By early afternoon she was feeling hungry and knowing that Daniel would be back in Bangkok in a few hours, she decided to venture outside and buy something to eat on the street. Wearing just the pair of shorts and tee shirt she had put on to clean the stiflingly hot apartment, she picked up the small handbag that held little more than her purse, passport and ID card, put on a pair of cheap rubber flip-flops, shut the door, pocketed the key and then made her way down the double flight of stairs to the ground floor.
It was a shadowy movement by the main entrance that stopped her. The stairwell she had just come down was dark, sometimes too dark, but the outside was bathed in bright, hot sun. She had already past the bottom step but had not yet reached the empty office and store room for brushes, mops and buckets that were used for cleaning the communal areas when she saw the man. He had been looking in at the entrance but as soon as Anna appeared from the darkness, he vanished. Anna stopped, her heart pounding.
Then she turned and started to run back up the stairs. As she reached the first landing she heard someone coming up the stairs behind her. Anna ran up the next flight and by the time she reached the top corridor, she knew the person following her was already on the first landing. Anna ran as fast as she could, past her own apartment door to the end of the corridor and the rusty fire escape. She pushed open the metal fire door and slammed it behind her still hearing the person behind her. She ran down the steep spiral steps, jumped over the iron gate at the bottom and raced around the side of the apartment block. Then she ran, still clutching her handbag, towards an alleyway lined with refuse bins that she knew led onto the main road. There she stopped just momentarily to look behind her. A man in jeans and tee shirt was already at the bottom of the steps, over the gate and standing on the corner of the apartment block. Seeing Anna, he started running towards her.
Anna turned and ran into the main road. Without checking for traffic she ran straight across the road, jumped over the central traffic barrier and ran further up on the other side. She stopped again and looked. The man was waiting to cross the road but he clearly saw her. He suddenly dashed across between a taxi and a truck and jumped the barrier. Anna didn't wait any longer. She ran, without once looking back, she headed for a junction, ran left, crossed that road and totally out of breath, stopped and stood in a shop doorway. There was no sign of the man now but that was not enough for Anna. She was now very frightened. She waited there until she saw a taxi coming with a red light in its windscreen, came out from the doorway, beckoned the taxi to stop and jumped in.
An hour later, Anna was still sat in the same taxi but now in the Bus Terminal where buses headed north and west out of Bangkok. If need be, Anna had decided, she would head home to her parent's home in Kanchanaburi and wait for Daniel. Nothing was going to keep her in Bangkok until it felt safe.
She was worried about Daniel and whether someone might be waiting for him when he stepped off the plane from Singapore in the next half an hour. Should she wait until he had landed and she could talk to him or head for Kanchanaburi right now?
Anna sat there, with only her handbag and some money and still wearing only shorts, tee shirt and flip flops. She was also, now, increasingly confused - not about Daniel but about what this whole investigation was about. She had enjoyed parts of it. She had loved her visit to London and had made many new Thai friends. But other parts still confused her because she didn't fully understand everything.
She trusted Colin and had liked Larry from America and Kevin and the old man Tom. She had listened to the discussion and had followed much of it but not all. And she didn't feel as if she was alone in that respect. Kevin had looked particularly confused. He had hardly said anything but mostly listened.
She had read about and watched movies about the mafia and Chinese gangs and so on, so it was not the discussions about fraud and murder by the man called GOB. The part that confused her still was the discussion about Flu. She had no conception of what a virus looked like. It was a tiny thing that got stuck in your nose and throat and gave you a cold. That she understood. But she did not understand Daniel when he started taking about virus engineering, about changing and designing viruses. It seemed impossible. And when he used phrases like - what was it - gain of function research, it was way beyond her. Daniel had tried to explain but she still didn't fully understand.
But that, according to Daniel, was what David Solomon did. The English man who had wanted to help her when she broke the heel of her shoe, the handsome man with the fair hair and blue eyes, was a clever man who looked down microscopes and picked viruses up, moved them about, changed them and made them do things they were not supposed to do. Many clever scientists could do this but Solomon did it to kill thousands of people because he thought the world was overcrowded. Daniel had tried to explain it simply.
"A virus is like joined up pieces of Lego, Anna," he had said.
"But a virus is very, very small and it looks like nothing you've ever seen before with your eyes. Viruses come in thousands of different shapes and sizes and they grow inside you and make millions and millions of copies, identical to themselves.
"But Solomon plays with these viruses just as if they were pieces of Lego. He picks out one brick, puts in another or changes its colour, then he looks at it and sees what this new piece of Lego can do. If you want to and you are clever enough you can make a piece of virus Lego that causes diseases for which there is no medicine, no cure. Someone who catches this virus will die.
"That is what Solomon is doing," Daniel had said. "It's called 'gain of function' research and some people say it should be stopped or at least properly controlled. Gain of function means you can change a virus to make it do something it was not naturally designed for.
"Solomon has changed an influenza virus into a new one that he calls Malthus A. Malthus A can kill millions of people just like past diseases like plague killed millions. Why has he done it? Because he thinks there are too many people.
"You might ask why not just use big bombs instead like other terrorists? Well, the police are always looking for terrorists with guns and bombs. They don't look for viruses."
Anna thought she understood but she definitely understood why GOB and Kader were involved. Daniel had explained that as well.
"Solomon's work takes time and money. He needs a place to work and special equipment. GOB and Kader are giving him the money. But GOB and Kader will get all their money back again when the virus is released and people fall sick because they will then sell medicines - medicines that work and medicines that don't."
As Anna sat there on the hard concrete seat wondering what to do, she felt a sudden longing to be with Daniel. She wanted him there with her right now. It was Daniel who had discovered this problem. It was Daniel who had persevered with it and taken the risks and it was Daniel, with Colin, Larry and the others, who had made the governments in America and the UK sit up and listen. And what was it Daniel had been waiting for before he decided to wait no longer and go to Singapore? Interpol.
Instead of catching a bus, Anna decided to get a taxi to the nearest police station.
She had only just arrived when her phone rang. It was Daniel. Relieved to know he was back, she rapidly and breathlessly told him what had
happened at the apartment, what she had done, how far she had run, where she had gone and that she'd now decided to go to the police. Daniel, trying hard to keep up with what she was telling him, was shocked.
"Where are you now?" he asked. Anna told him.
"Stay there, Anna. Don't move. I'll be with you as soon as I can," he said as he walked quickly towards the taxi rank. Colin had been right. He had also been right to get annoyed with him and to tell him, in no uncertain terms, to get back to Bangkok.
An hour later, in the Thai police station close to the British and American Embassies, a senior policeman confirmed that a red notice had been received from Interpol for the arrest of Greg O'Brian, an American citizen following a US request for his deportation to face charges of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering. That was the formal announcement.
"And Mohamed Kader and David Solomon?" Daniel asked. "They are all involved and all three were in Bangkok less than eight hours ago."
They were in an office with a uniformed senior police officer and two other officers. Daniel and Anna were sat on one side of a long table facing the senior man. The other two officers were on either side of him. All three policemen now looked at one another. "No sir, we have nothing."
"Nothing?" Daniel almost shouted. "They are all involved in this. Has no-one read our report?"
"Sorry, sir, but we only have the request from Interpol to arrest the American, Greg O'Brian."
Daniel looked at Anna and shrugged. But it was Anna who then spoke.
Facing the senior officer across the table she spoke in Thai. Daniel listened as Anna spoke rapidly and increasingly loudly. He could already tell from her face that she was not going to be treated like this and was warming up to a full blown tirade. Not understanding what was being said, Daniel listened and watched the face of the senior police officer as he fidgeted and squirmed. Then Anna stood up. Her chair almost fell over.
"Give me that report, Daniel. I know it is in English but I am now so fed up with people not listening to you and me."
Daniel put his hand inside the old black bag lying at his feet and pulled out a copy of the report he'd taken to Singapore earlier and brought back with him. He handed it to Anna and she snatched it, hardly noticing him giving it to her. She was still standing but now talking in Thai again.
She threw the report down as Daniel tried picking up words and phrases Anna was now using as she threw in bits of English - American President, Senator Mary Collis, British government, biological warfare, viruses, bird flu, Influenza, Solomon, terrorism, everyone sick, laboratory, my husband, Shah Pharmacy, Egypt, Singapore, Nigeria. Then he heard 'Jimmy, Kenya'.
Daniel put out his hand to stop her for a moment.
"Anna - Jimmy is dead. He was shot. Colin told me this morning."
Anna had never met Jimmy but it was as though she knew him as a close friend. Her hand went to her mouth to stifle something, then tears came to her eyes. Daniel leaned over and put his arms around her. But Anna shrugged him off.
"You see?" she said in English pointing a finger straight at the police officer. "Somebody is dead. With gun. By this man Kader and this man Solomon. You want me to die? My husband to die? Do you want to die? Your family to die? You want them to get sick, then die?"
She stopped suddenly and sobbed, the tears running down her cheeks. Daniel pulled her to him and she almost fell from her chair and collapsed into his arms.
"Sir," Daniel said, looking at the officer. "Anna is right. That report has gone as high as it can go. We can translate it into Thai if you wish. I can have it ready by tomorrow. But the man David Solomon was in Bangkok this morning. I saw him last night. Anna saw him this morning. He was with Greg O'Brian and Mohamed Kader. The least you can do is raid the apartment off Sukhumvit road and check it out. I believe that this is where Solomon works. If it was a bomb factory you would raid it. But it is not a bomb factory, it is more dangerous than that. Your officers need to be very careful."
As Daniel was speaking another police officer came in with a sheet of paper. He handed it the senior one who glanced at it. He then stood up.
"OK, sir," he said. "We now have the other paperwork. If you give us your report, we will translate it but other officers of the Royal Thai Police have already seen it. We already have police out ready to arrest these men this evening. We know where they are. The man Solomon is the only exception. He took a flight to Kuala Lumpur earlier. But we are working with our Malaysian colleagues on this and we have officers already outside his apartment.
"If you would like to stay here for a few moments," he continued, "I can confirm everything. We will also provide you and your wife with any security you feel you might need until this process is complete. Please excuse me, one minute while I report what you and your wife have just told me. This will support the action we are already taking."
Then he bowed politely, put his hands together in front of his face and nodded and spoke to the other officers.
Daniel and Anna were served coffee within five minutes.
Within two hours, they had checked in at a hotel almost opposite the British Embassy and police guards were provided. Neither Daniel or Anna had eaten all day so, with an armed policeman stood outside the hotel restaurant, they ate supper and retired to their room.
But Daniel could not resist a phone call to Colin. He thanked him for the earlier ticking off.
"You were right, Colin. I needed you to tell me to fuck off. It did me good. And I could not have done any of this without Anna. She was brilliant tonight. You should have seen the tears. She nearly had the three police officers in tears as well."
Daniel looked at Anna, who was already half asleep, her head on the pillow. But she raised her head and smiled. "Good wasn't I?" she said. "We make a good man and wife team. Can I speak to Colin?"
"Sure," said Daniel and kissed her forehead.
"Good night Colin." Anna said. "See you in London."