‘Tonight? Why tonight?’ I demanded… I suppose I’d been hoping there’d be some way out of it before it happened…
‘Because they might move it –’
‘Oh, come on…’
‘Because it’s a chance to get this whole dirty business wrapped up before the virus does get out and infect someone.’
She was right. I let out a sigh and said resignedly,
‘What time did you have in mind?’
‘I thought about eleven. We –’
‘Oh, great. Chucking out time…’
‘It’s not in the town centre, look…’ She brought out an A to Z and found the page… ‘Cecil Street, here… there’s a way in the back, here, so we park a little way down and walk back…’
*
Not in the centre maybe, but it wasn’t that far out and there were plenty of people around. We parked, walked back about fifty yards, then quickly turned right into a narrow, cobbled road that was little more than an alleyway. We were dressed in dark clothes and I carried the protective gowns, gloves etc. in a backpack. The talk I’d given in the afternoon to the house-persons hadn’t been my best…
We worked our way round –
‘What the hell’s that? I hissed, pointing to the lighted window above the shop.
‘A flat with a young couple in it.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
‘What difference would it’ve made? Do shut up, Herry.’
The first time she’d used my Christian name and it was to tell me to shut up. The fact that it was whispered made it worse somehow…
She moved silently across a small, concreted yard to the door. I followed. There was hardly any light and yet the iron stairway up to the flat stood out stark against the sky. A tatty looking Escort was parked beside it.
Something flickered in her hand, a pencil torch. She shone it onto the lock and fished out a bunch of keys. They tinkled like wind chimes. She selected one, inserted and turned it, then repeated the process for the Yale. She turned the handle and tried to ease the door open …it moved a little way, then jammed on something… she tried manoeuvring it, and when that didn’t work, pushed harder… it opened with a loud creak …
She slipped inside, the beam flicked up to a keypad, but before she could reach it, a bleeping cut into the night…
She punched in a number and there was silence. She beckoned me in.
‘Someone might have heard that,’ I whispered.
‘Unlikely, but we’ll hang around a minute or two to see if there’s any reaction.’
We waited in silence…
‘How did you know the number?’ I breathed.
‘Worked it out when I came in.’
After another minute, she said in a low voice, ‘That’s long enough. This way…’ The pencil beam lit the bare wooden floor and a kettle gleamed faintly on a worktop. ‘Watch the step…’
Despite her warning, I stumbled slightly over it, then we were in the shop proper. She led the way past overflowing boxes to what seemed to be a small alcove, but was in fact a tiny hall with two doorways leading from it. One was bricked up.
She shone the beam onto the other door. Selected another key, which didn’t work, then another one, which did. I tapped her shoulder.
‘Gowns,’ I whispered.
‘I know.’
I took off the backpack and opened it. Handed her a gown and showed her how to put it on. Then overshoes, mask, bonnet and gloves.
When we were both gowned, she turned the handle and opened the door. Looked for a light switch, but there wasn’t one. Started down the wooden steps. I gingerly followed. The steps knocked hollowly.
At the bottom was another door, not locked. She pushed it open and this time did find a switch. The light from the bare bulb made me blink. We looked …
There was a bench, an old sink, some bottles and an orgy of cobwebs. There was nothing remotely resembling a lab.
‘All dressed up and nowhere to go…’ I murmured.
She shot me a look of contempt… then she spotted a door in the opposite wall… she strode over and pulled it open, but it was just a cupboard. She went round he walls, carefully examining them, but there was nothing else.
‘It seemed so right,’ she said, her voice muffled by the mask. For a moment she sounded almost pathetic, then she pulled it off and said, ‘Might as well get back, I suppose.’
We climbed back up to the top of the narrow stairway. She pushed the door, then stopped –
‘Oh shit,’ she breathed –
A pulsing blue light lit the shop and a loud voice came from the back. ‘Police, stay where you are…’
She motioned me back and gently pulled the door to… Found the key, slowly inserted and turned it… the noise it made sounded monstrous in my ears…
She turned off the torch and sank onto the stairs. I sank beside her, one step lower. My hand was on her foot, I could feel the roughness of the overshoe…
The voice, muffled now, said, ‘Police, come out and show yourselves…’
I left my hand where it was…
Footsteps, fading away. We stayed absolutely still.
The footsteps returned, closer… a faint light shone at the bottom of the door, illuminating Rebecca’s face for a moment... the rattle of the door as it was tried made me jump –
I found myself thinking: He’s there and we’re here, less than a foot away, separated by a thin piece of wood…
My hand was still on her foot and suddenly, for no reason I could imagine, I felt intensely horny… it flooded through me and my chest tightened, as did my grip on her foot…
Then the footsteps moved away. There were muttered voices, then these, too faded.
I whispered, ‘Have they gone?’
‘Shh. We stay put.’
We waited in silence. My horniness subsided, but I left my hand where it was. It felt comfortable.
After a few minutes, we heard muffled voices again, then nothing.
We went on waiting. It seemed like an hour, but she told me later it was only about fifteen minutes. Then, very carefully, she unlocked the door and slowly eased it open.
Nothing. I cautiously followed her out. My leg had gone dead and I stopped to rub it…
When she was sure no one was still there, she said in a low voice, ‘What do we do with these?’ She meant the gowns.
‘Tear them off and I’ll stuff them back in the bag.’ I showed her.
We listened for a few more minutes, then she said, ‘We’ll go out by the front.’
‘Why? We might be seen…’
‘If anyone’s watching, they’ll be at the back.’
She lit the pencil beam and moved slowly down the shop. I followed.
She was by the front door, fiddling with her keys. As I reached her, she said, ‘I’m going to make sure this one doesn’t bleep.’
She found the right key, unlocked the door, but didn’t open it. Instead, she keyed in the number, then said,
‘Put your finger on this button, and the moment I open the door, press it – OK?’
I nodded. She checked I had the right one, eased the door open –
‘Now…’
I pressed the button – silence. She slid out. I followed. There was no one around. She pulled the door shut and relocked it. Still silence. She whispered, ‘Keep to the side. Don’t run.’
She walked away, staying close to the side of the building. I followed. We didn’t say anything until we were in the car. She started the engine, said,
‘I’m not going back that way, you’ll have to direct me to your place.’
‘Down here, second left.’
She drove away. I said, ‘Who raised the alarm?’
‘I don’t know. Probably the people in the flat.’
‘I thought you said they wouldn’t hear anything.’
‘I said it was unlikely… they might have, I suppose.’
‘D’you think they’re part of it?’
‘
If they were, would they have called the cops?’
‘They might…’
‘Yeah, they might.’
She drove in silence for a few minutes, then said, ‘Did you shut the door behind you? The back one, when we went in…’
‘I didn’t realise I was supposed to.’
‘Well, I expect it was when they found it open, they came in. They might not have otherwise.’
‘I didn’t want to come,’ I reminded her.
We continued in silence till she pulled up outside my house fifteen minutes later.
‘D’you want to come in?’ I said. ‘We need to talk.’
‘We can talk here.’
I was about to ask what was wrong with my house when she pulled out a tobacco pouch and started rolling a cigarette. Her car. She wound down her window and lit it. Pulled a drag.
I said, ‘It’s only just occurred to me – why did we have to hide from the cops anyway? You could’ve shown them your warrant card, couldn’t you?’
‘They might have had whoever raised the alarm with them, which would’ve got back to the perps and told them we were onto them.’
‘They’re going to know now anyway, aren’t they?’
‘I don’t think so. The door could’ve easily been left open earlier, which could’ve triggered the alarm.’
I said, ‘It would help to know who raised the alarm, wouldn’t it? Is it worth asking the cops?’
‘I’ll talk to the boss about it.’
‘I mean, the local cops do know you’re here, don’t they?’
‘I doubt those two who came a-calling do.’ She went on, ‘I’ve had a thought … Whether it was the people in the flat who raised the alarm or not, it’s a perfect excuse for those two cops to go and talk to them, ask them if they saw anything. If they didn’t, the cops can say the door had been left open... And they can have a look round the flat while they’re about it… How big did you say a hidden lab had to be?’
‘Ten by ten.’
‘Could it be smaller?’
‘Not by much…’
‘All right,’ she said. She dropped the fag out of the window and wound it up. ‘I’ll be in touch.’
This was obviously the signal for me to go, so I pulled the door handle. As I got out, she said,
‘Thanks for coming, Herry. Sorry it was a waste of time. It seemed so right…’
‘It’s OK,’ I said, and shut the door. Watched as she drove off, then let myself into my house.
I was too wound up to sleep. I poured a medicinal brandy and took a medicinal swig. Swallowed what was left, poured another, sat down.
If they were right about BTA, and right about the area, then it would have been the ideal place for a lab…
Could it be the flat? Unlikely, with the baby.
Was it in someone’s house, or garden shed? Or would they have chanced doing it in one of the academic labs? Were there any small ones around where the risks would be minimal? Torbay, Taunton…?
Were there any small industrial labs around? Couldn’t think of any…
I went to bed and tried to sleep, but it wouldn’t come. My mind went round and round, not constructively. I thought about me and Rebecca on the stairs and felt horny again…
I got up and had some more brandy. After that, I did sleep.
Chapter 9
I crawled like snail, unwilling, to work. I don’t know whether I had a shining morning face or not.
Maybe I did, because Tim looked at me rather strangely when he came in to tell me about the labs he’d visited, although he didn’t comment.
Security in the Bath labs had been pretty good, he said, nearly as good as Exeter, with Gloucester, Bristol and Plymouth not far behind. ‘Which brings us to Bristol Cabot,’ he said, with a certain relish.
‘Go on.’
‘Lax,’ he said, ‘to say the very least…’
Apparently, it hadn’t changed much since he’d been there six years ago, with research students still wandering in and out at will.
‘What about the equipment?’ I asked. ‘Would it be possible to grow Variola there?’
‘Oh, easily.’
I looked at him thoughtfully. ‘I do get the impression that you’re not exactly unhappy to be putting the boot into them… are you sure you’re being objective?’
He laughed a trifle unwillingly. ‘Yes, I am being objective, they really do deserve a kicking for their security.’ He paused. ‘But no, I’m not unhappy to be putting the boot in.’
I said, ‘Did you see any actual evidence of anything going on?’
He shook his head. ‘No.’
‘Did you say anything to them about their security?’
‘Just that I might be back for a closer look.’
‘Did they say anything about that?’
‘Didn’t seem to bother them much, not the people I spoke to, anyway. But they wouldn’t be the ones up to no good, would they?’
I thought for a moment. ‘If you went back there – to Bristol Cabot – what would you tell them? How would you go about it?’
‘That now I’d finished the preliminary checks, I wanted to inspect more thoroughly. I’d spend a day or two there and really take them apart.’
‘But wouldn’t they be forewarned?’
‘I pitched it pretty low key this time, so I don’t think so.’
‘OK,’ I said. ‘Let me think about it.’
He nodded and asked if there was anything else.
‘One more thing,’ I said, and told him we still had to bear in mind the possibility of a clandestine lab somewhere. ‘I’ve told them it’d have to be at least half the size of this room, say ten by ten, but I’m wondering if it could be a bit smaller than that.’
He thought for a moment. ‘I’d say if anything you were underestimating … although I suppose if they were doing it without a hood, then ten by ten might just do it. It’d be a squeeze, though.’
After he’d gone, I phoned the number Rebecca had given me. It went to voicemail, so I asked her to ring me back. She did, ten minutes later.
‘I’ve got some news,’ I said.
‘So’ve I. You go first.’
I told her what Tim had said about the Bristol Cabot lab. ‘He wants to go up again next week to take a closer look.’
She said slowly, ‘I’m not sure about that… Let me talk to the boss about it. Meanwhile, I’ll tell the team in Bristol that we need some names, urgently.’
I said, ‘Tim also thinks that ten by ten is the very least you’d need for an outside lab.’ I explained his reasoning.
She said, ‘I know what he’s found in Cabot looks promising, but I’m not writing off a hidden lab round here yet… like I said before, it feels right.’
In fact, she went on, would I mind drawing up a plan of what I thought it might look like, and find some photos of the sort of equipment it would need? ‘Then I can pass them round so that we’ll all have a better idea of what we’re looking for.’
I said I would, then asked what her news was.
‘Oh,’ she said, ‘only that the boss agreed to your idea. Our two uniformed friends from last night are calling at the flat, perhaps even as we speak.’
‘Do they know what they’re looking for?’
‘Yeah… actually, your photos might’ve come in handy there…’
‘If there were a lab, it’d hardly be in full view.’
‘No, but it might have given them an idea of the sort of space they’re looking for. Never mind. Look, can I come round to your house tomorrow? You can give me the pictures and I can bring you up to date on everything.’
We agreed on noon.
*
Saturday morning. As before, she was on the dot - the bell rang just as the pips were going on the radio. I switched it off, let her in and made some tea.
‘I talked to the two cops this morning,’ she said when she’d sat down. ‘The ones from Thursday night. They weren’t greatly amused, especially when I couldn’t tell the
m what it was all about.’
‘Policeman’s lot,’ I said.
‘Yeah. Anyway…’
They’d called at the flat in the evening in order to catch them both in. The couple, whose names were Emma Read and Will Cummin, had told them they’d heard noises, so they’d rung the police. They seemed to have nothing to hide. One of the cops asked for the loo and had a quick look round. He hadn’t actually gone into their bedroom because the baby was sleeping in it, but nothing had seemed suspicious.
‘They said the place was quite pokey, not much room to hide anything.’
‘So what now?’ I asked.
‘We’re going to have a good look at Bristol Cabot, obviously…’ She hesitated… ‘The boss thinks you should go up there with a Health and Safety Inspector.’
‘You can’t just tell a Health and Safety Inspector to do that.’
‘We’ve got a tame one. She’ll liaise with you and fix up a date. You can meet her at the station.’
‘All right. But you’re going to go on looking round here?’
She nodded. ‘The boss has been running checks on the BTA names we’ve got, and I want to look at those who’ve got history first –’
‘History?’
‘Form. For instance, Hannah Bell – she’s the secretary of Exeter BTA, also the wife of the chair – she’s been very active in the past…’ She told me about Hannah’s record of vigorous protest and the tale of the policeperson’s ball.
‘Some of the others have form as well, although not as much as her. Anyway, I want to poke around some of their gardens to see if there’re any likely outhouses or sheds – so if you’ve got the plan and pictures, I won’t need to involve you anymore.’
As I handed her the file I’d made, it occurred to me that, on reflection, I wouldn’t mind being involved a bit more…
‘I’m available if you need me,’ I said nonchalantly.
‘Mm?’ She looked up. ‘Oh, thanks, I’ll bear it in mind. These are good – did you take them yourself?’
Yesterday afternoon, I told her.
‘And this is the Safety Cabinet you were telling me about?’ She held one up.
‘Yeah.’ I put my cup on the floor and went to sit next to her to explain how it worked.
‘But you don’t think they’d be able to get hold of one?’
Bad Medicine- A Life for a Life; Bed of Nails; Going Viral Page 42