‘Is that really necessary, in the circumstances?’
‘Oh yes,’ Brigg began grimly, then – ‘Maybe not, I don’t suppose they’re going anywhere. I’ll get their names and addresses and turn them loose.’
Chapter 34
Sarah must have watching out for me, because she’d opened the door before I could ring and thrown her arms round me.
‘Herry, what’s happening? I heard a helicopter landing, and sirens…’
I held her for a moment, then said, ‘Let’s have a look at your mother first.’
I followed her along the hall and up the wide, curving staircase. ‘Is Grace OK?’
‘She’s asleep – why shouldn’t she be OK?’
‘Let me see your mother first,’ I repeated.
I took one look at her and ushered Sarah out.
‘She’s got smallpox,’ I said.
She closed her eyes and pressed her lips together for a moment, then- ‘Is she going to be all right?’
‘How long has she been ill?’
‘I – about two or three days I think…’
‘Then if we get her to hospital now, she’s got every chance.’ I pulled out my phone and called an ambulance.
‘This is what you’ve been worried about, isn’t it?’
I took her hands... ‘An ambulance is on its way, you and Grace need to go with it and get vaccinated. This is important Sarah – can you remember whether you went into the County Stores around the 20th?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said wildly… ‘Probably, I’m always popping in for something…’
‘And you feel OK, no headache or joint pains?’
‘No… you think I’ve got it…?’
‘No, I don’t…’ God please…
The sound of the ambulance cut across us –
‘You get Grace ready, I’ll take them up to Pat.’
‘What will I need?’
‘Feeding stuff, nappies, night things – you’ll almost certainly need to stay.’
I went downstairs and opened the door just as it rang.
‘Up here…’
They gently transferred Pat to a stretcher and took her back down. Sarah and I got Grace into her baby seat and let the paramedic strap her in, then I held Sarah a moment before helping her into the back.
‘I’ll be along sometime tonight,’ I said.
‘Will you let Dad know?’
I nodded. The door shut. I stood watching as it drove away and vanished into the trees. Stood awhile longer, then phoned Roland.
‘How’s it going?’ I asked him.
‘All right.’ He sounded exhausted. ‘Seven’s full and Eight’s filling. Six is being evacuated.’
‘I’ve just sent you another, I’m afraid. Pat, my mother-in-law.’
‘Oh God Herry, I’m sorry…’
‘Sarah and Grace are with her. Obviously, they’ve been exposed, but I’m not sure exactly when.’
‘Do they have symptoms?’
‘Pat – plenty. Sarah and Grace, not yet, so could you make sure they’re both vaccinated the moment they get there?’
‘Are you sure about Grace – how old is she?’
‘Two months, and yes, I am sure – so long as she has immunoglobulin as well. She’s been heavily exposed, and the risk of that’s greater.’
‘All right.’
Very young children can get a nasty, even dangerous, infection from the vaccine, but I was in no doubt about which was the greater risk. Roland asked what was happening at my end and I gave him a quick précis.
Then I tried John, but was put through to answerphone.
It seemed heartless to leave such a message, but I had no idea when I’d be able to speak to him, so that’s what I did. I rang switchboard and told them to bleep him, then I drove back to the Village Hall.
As I drew up, Gibb hurried out to meet me.
‘OK?’ he asked.
‘No, not really,’ I said. I told him what had happened, then noticed Brigg inside ordering people around.
‘What’s going on here?’ I asked…
Gibb quickly explained about the injured soldier at the roadblock, the riot while he’d been away and Brigg’s intervention. He went on quietly, ‘I suggest we keep it to ourselves that it was your family you went to – just in case, eh?’
‘Thanks,’ I said.
We went in. Brigg pounced on me and took me into one of the smaller rooms.
‘You’ve heard what happened?’
I nodded. ‘Gibb just told me.’
‘It’ll be dark soon and I need to get the engineer vaccinated so we can examine the plant, but we’d better not try and push in after what’s happened…’
‘Bring him in here and I’ll do him.’
If anything, the engineer was even more nervous than Struthers, so I did it as quickly as I could. Brigg was hustling him away when I remembered the store keys and dug into my pocket –
‘You’ll need these,’ I called…
As soon as they’d gone, I rang Anne. Answerphone. I asked her to call me back. Checked the vaccination line… Clare had got it moving nicely again.
How much time had been wasted by the fight, I wondered? The queue snaked out of the door…
How were Marty and Struthers doing? I rang Marty, who told me that Struthers was all in.
‘How far on are you?’ I asked.
‘I’d guess we’ve done between two thirds and three quarters.’
I went over to the entrance and tried to estimate how many were waiting…
‘There’re at least fifty waiting here, so take Struthers home, then come
back and have a breather.’
As soon as I rang off, Anne called.
‘We’ve just about finished all the contacts,’ she said.
‘How many?’
‘I’ve ring vaccinated well over forty, and sent eight in. One more call to make – unless they tell me about someone else…’
‘Do it, then come back here.’
‘Is it bad?’
‘It has been. I’ll tell you later. Go and do your call.’
I went back to the line and asked Private Benton how many he thought they’d done so far. He did a quick count and told me about 150.
Halfway. Add another fifty for those outside, that meant around a hundred still to come in… I glanced at my watch… 6.30… counting the gap for the fight, we’d been going for around two hours, so maybe another two and a half would do it… 9.00…
Then Brigg and Rebecca came back in. We went to the side room again and they told me what they’d found…
They’d gowned up as I’d taught them, then gone up into the roof space, where Shane, the engineer, had shown them the air intake, the main duct and the smaller pipes that took the air to different parts of the store. Then he’d inspected the ports at the far end of each pipe until he’d found one that had been recently opened...
‘How did he know?’ I asked.
‘Scratches on the screw heads,’ Brigg replied.
He’d taken the cover off and shown them where the filter had been taken out. He checked a couple of the other pipes to make sure, but their filters were still in place. Then they’d hunted around until they’d found the missing filter hidden under the other pipes. They’d left it there for Forensic.
‘Did you notice where the duct came out in the store?’ I asked.
‘According to Shane, just over the main checkout.’
‘Exactly where the staff who went sick first were working.’
Shortly after that, they left.
I looked in on Gibb – he was on the phone to one of his patrols, so I left him to it and went back to the main hall. I thought I might as well make myself useful, so I made tea for the vaccinators. Gratefully received.
A car drew up. Marty.
‘Want some tea?’ I asked as he came in.
‘Coffee. Don’t care if it’s instant, just want caffeine and sugar.’
I made him one, strong
, sweet and milky. He gulped it down and held out the mug for another.
‘Problems?’ I asked.
‘Some of them didn’t believe me at first, one got hysterical and another got bolshie – with poor old Struthers, who didn’t know how to handle it.’
‘Nasty?’
‘Could have been if I hadn’t been there. I soon put him right.’
This was said quietly but firmly, and I believed him. I found him a tin of biscuits.
‘Have a breather, but then I’m going to have to ask you to go out again. I’ll try and find you some help.’
He nodded. ‘It’d be appreciated.’ He looked at me. ‘Struthers did all right in the end, considering what he was like at first.’
‘Some people are like that,’ I said.
I left him to it and went to stand in for Clare, so that she could have a quick break, then did the same for the others. Marty went off at 6.45. I asked whereabouts he’d be and told him I’d try and send someone along to help.
Anne and Brendon came back shortly after that.
‘All done?’ I asked.
Anne nodded. ‘For now. I’m sure there’ll be more...’
I told them both to have a coffee, then sent Brendon to Marty, while Anne helped out in the vaccination line. I went to see Gibb, who told me that no one else had tried to break out.
‘Daresay we’ll get one or two idiots tonight, though,’ he said.
‘Can you have someone watch the stores? It’s not the thieving I’m worried about, it’s the risk of infection.’
‘I’ll do that.’
I phoned Fenella to bring her up to date.
Marty and Brendon finished and came back at 8.15. There were three houses Marty hadn’t been able to get a reply from, he assumed because the residents were away.
‘I’ll check tomorrow, just in case,’ he said.
The last vaccination was done a little after nine. Brendon volunteered to stay the night in case anyone else came in, or if there was an emergency.
I made a final call to Fenella while the others cleared up, had a word with Gibb, thanked everyone, then we drove back to Exeter. I dropped the others off at the hospital, then went to Ward Eight to see Roland, Sarah and Grace.
Pat was holding her own, Roland told me. Sarah seemed fine and Grace was sleeping. I stayed an hour with Sarah, then went home.
I couldn’t remember when I last felt so utterly knackered: body, soul, brain, everything. I showered, then forced myself to eat something, since I’d had next to nothing all day. Had some wine, thought about tomorrow and other stuff, went to bed.
Sleep – ha ha – out of the question. Got up again and had more wine, hoping I wasn’t called… Eventually got to sleep somewhere between one and two.
A lousy sleep, riven with dreams I couldn’t remember. Got up again at eight feeling quite, quite rancid. It was a feeling curiously familiar, and in the shower, I realised what it was – like being a houseman again.
Brigg called me at just after nine.
‘We’re coming round,’ he said. ‘Stay where you are.’
He and Rebecca were with me twenty minutes later, not bad for a weekday morning. They refused coffee and made me sit down.
‘We’ve heard from John Amend-all,’ Brigg said, ‘or at least, the Home Office has. They’ve faxed me the letter, which I’ll show you in a minute.’
He looked at me grimly for a moment. ‘The thing is, he – they – have demanded a ransom they want in exchange for not starting any more outbreaks.’ He went on with some difficulty, ‘The really bad news is that they’ve also named you as the person they demand delivers it, the courier…’
Chapter 35
His face seemed to hang disembodied in the air…
I said, ‘Why? Why me?’ My gaze transferred to Rebecca – ‘How do they know about me?’
Brigg said, ‘They also know about me. I don’t know how. You’d better read the demand yourself.’
He handed me the faxed copy:
Dear Home Secretary,
By now you will be aware of an outbreak of smallpox in Newton-on-Exe, Devon. This was brought about by us, firstly because of your blatant prevarication in accepting our terms, and secondly, because of the miserly and take-it-or-leave-it nature of your eventual response.
We will now try a different approach. If you wish to avoid another outbreak of smallpox, you will carry out the following:
1/ Prepare a package of large (one carat and above) cut diamonds to the value of ten million pounds. Place this in a Tupperware container, and put it in a yellow backpack.
2/ Have the backpack ready at Exeter police station by 7.00 pm this evening (Friday 8th March).
3/ At some time between 7.00 and 8.00pm you will receive a telephone call with the password : This is John Amend-all for Commander Brigg. This call will immediately be put through to Commander Brigg.
4/ Instructions will then be given on exactly how the backpack is to be delivered. These instructions must be followed in every respect.
5/ The courier is to be Dr Herry Smith. You have our word that he will be released once the transfer is complete.
6/ Any deviation from these instructions will result in very harsh treatment for the courier.
7/ If the diamonds are not delivered as stipulated above, or are subsequently found to be worth less than the specified amount, then a further outbreak of smallpox will occur.
You also have our word that the money realised will be used to give direct help to those in desperate need in Africa.
John Amend-all
I read it through twice more before handing it back. As he tucked it into his folder, I said,
‘I take it you’re giving in, then?’
He nodded. ‘We’ve got no choice, we’d never be forgiven if it got out that we could have prevented another outbreak.’
‘I also take it that I’ve got no choice?’
‘Oh, you have every choice – in fact, we’ve been wondering about sending one of our own despite the threat.’
‘What do they mean by harsh treatment?’
‘Exactly what it says, I imagine.’ He sighed. ‘Once they have the courier, there’s not much we can do about it.’
After a pause, I said, ‘We come back to the question of Why me?’
Rebecca spoke for the first time. ‘Maybe you answered that yourself just now when you asked how they know about us – to demonstrate just how much they know. Our impotence, if you like.’
‘There’s something else,’ Brigg said. ‘They probably regard you as less of threat than one of our own people.’
‘I’m sure they’re right,’ I said dryly. I went on, ‘I can’t imagine that you won’t want to fix me up with some kind of tracer.’
They glanced at each other, then Brigg said, ‘Does that mean you’re volunteering?’
‘I don’t think I do have any choice. If you send someone else, and they’re badly injured or worse, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.’
‘But what about SCRUB? If you were put out of action, wouldn’t that be compromised?’
‘We did most of it yesterday. To be honest, I’m sure it could function perfectly well without me now.’
Rebecca said, ‘If that’s so, it’s down to your organisation.’
‘Thanks,’ I said, surprised and curiously pleased.
Brigg said, ‘But what if there were another outbreak?’
‘Same thing, I think. Having done it once, they’ll all know what to do.’
‘So you’re expendable?’
I nodded bleakly. ‘That’s about right.’
After a slight pause, he said, ‘Then we gratefully accept your offer. I don’t think they’re joking, I think they would harm someone other than you.’
‘Might they not harm me anyway, just for the hell of it?’
He looked at me directly. ‘I’ll answer that truthfully. It won’t be comfortable, they’ll immobilise you, probably tie you up. But I can’t think of any reas
on for them to gratuitously harm you.’
‘Thank you.’ I went on, ‘But how do they know about me?’
Rebecca said, ‘We discussed this before, remember? They could find out about SCRUB from the internet, possibly even about you…’
‘But not about me,’ Brigg came in. ‘Either they’ve got someone close to the ground, or it’s one of the people we arrested earlier – which is quite possible. Anyway, to go back to what you were saying, I want to go over with you what we’ll be doing in the way of tracers –’
‘Excuse me, but mightn’t they construe that as deviating from their instructions?’
A wintry smile. ‘They didn’t actually say anything about tracers, if you remember, b –’
‘But still –’
‘Listen – firstly, they’ll be expecting it. Secondly, they won’t find them – they’re so sophisticated these days that no one could find them without a detector.’
‘Might they not have one?’
‘Unlikely. What they’ll do is assume that you’ve got one or more on you, that there’ll be another in the backpack, and maybe even one embedded in the container itself. And they’ll be right.
‘What I’m hoping they don’t think of is that one of the diamonds will in fact be a bug – so that when they ditch everything else –’
‘Including me?’
‘As I said, they’ll almost certainly tie you up and leave you. Then they’ll transfer the diamonds to another container and leave everything else.’
I thought about this for a moment, then tentatively asked what they’d be doing about getting me back. Alive, preferably.
Another Brigg smile. ‘That’s partly what the bugs are for. What they’ll do is give you the run-around for a while –’
‘How d’you mean?’
‘Make you go from place to place to make sure you’re not being followed.’
‘Will I be? Followed?’
He shook his head. ‘Not so that they’ll know. Anyway, somewhere along the line, they’ll intercept you, relieve you of the backpack, tie you up, transfer the diamonds and go. We’ll be tracking each of the bugs. What we’ll hope to see is just one of them, the false diamond, leave the others behind. Then we come and collect you. Once we’ve got you, we go after them.’
It sounded very easy. I said as much. Brigg detected the great big but… in my voice.
Bad Medicine- A Life for a Life; Bed of Nails; Going Viral Page 59