Resurrection (30 page)

‘
I’ve done him a couple of times, breaking and entering, the usual stuff, videos, hi fis, cameras. Sells them down the pub to feed his habit. Him and the rest.’

‘
Nothing more ambitious?’

‘
Still working on a university break-in eh? Hannan’s not your man. Kelly pulls the strings in that pair. How did you meet up with Hannan anyway? ’

‘
I was looking for contacts of Michael Kelly. Somebody put me on to Hannan. The bottom line is that Hannan was admitted to the Western General with smallpox.’

‘
So both of them have gone down then,’ sighed Grant. ‘Did one give it to the other?’

‘
That would be the obvious explanation,’ said Dewar. ‘But I’m not sure it’s the right one. It all depends on when Hannan last saw Kelly. If the incubation period is wrong for that sort of transfer it would mean that Kelly and Hannan were infected independently but around the same time.’

‘
While on a job together, you mean?’

‘
That’s the line I was working on,’ said Dewar.

‘
They’re just a couple of prats,’ said Grant. ‘I think you’re barking up the wrong tree with the university break-in idea. They wouldn’t know where to begin fencing anything more complicated than a telly or a video recorder.’

‘
Trouble is, it’s the only tree I’ve got,’ confessed Dewar. ‘But thanks for the local knowledge.’

‘
Any time. When are you pulling the plug on Muirhouse?’

‘
Day after tomorrow.’

DAY FIVE

Twenty-four new cases were admitted by the end of the morning. The total reached forty by four in the afternoon and forty seven by the end of the office day when it was decided not to go ahead with the containment plan until the following morning. The Scottish Office officials who had been working feverishly for the past two days, had failed to achieve some of their objectives in correlating press and media announcements with police movement and social service response. It was important that things should happen in an orderly sequence otherwise the whole operation would be compromised and could turn into a shambles. It had simply turned out to be more difficult than they had anticipated; they had been forced to ask for more time.

In the circumstances, the police were more than happy with this, pointing out that it would be much easier to put everything in place in the early hours of the morning than in the evening. The operation was rescheduled to commence at four the following morning.

EIGHTEEN

The team took advantage of the postponement to meet at seven in the evening and assess the overall situation. It was bad; no one pretended otherwise but there were still some positive aspects to take heart from, as Finlay pointed out. The heads of newspapers, both local and national and of radio and television stations had had to be informed of the true situation prior to the containment operation and yet there had been no leak.

Radio and television did report the outbreak in their evening programmes but obviously without information from above. They labelled it a ‘mystery virus currently affecting an Edinburgh housing estate’. The cause was currently said to be under laboratory investigation. Local newspapers, adding ‘width’ to the story, had obligingly contributed neighbourhood red herrings citing variously, an old gas works, a nearby sewage treatment plant and a local chemical waste disposal firm as being possible candidates for blame.

‘
First things first,’ said Finlay. ‘From tomorrow we’re going to need more space. I’m going to open up the second ward at the Western.’

‘
Have you thought beyond that?’ asked Hector Wright.

‘
I have,’ replied Finlay. ‘I’ve asked Mr Rankin to look into the prospects of using the currently unoccupied Wester Drylaw Primary School should it prove necessary. I feel this would be preferable to using hospitals outside the immediate area.’

Wright nodded his agreement.

‘
The school will be available if you need it,’ said Rankin. ‘There were no objections. I’ve asked that furniture be moved out tomorrow just in case and I’ve warned central supplies about an imminent request for fifty beds.’

‘
Good,’ said Finlay. ‘What’s the position with contacts, Mary?’

‘
Better than we feared. Most are staying put as requested, in fact, they’re rather enjoying being run after by social services. We’ve had one or two awkward customers who are adamant that no one is going to tell them what they can and cannot do but generally, it’s been fine. It can’t last of course. Social services will be stretched to the very limit by the end of tomorrow - maybe the next day if we’re lucky.’

‘
By which time, the vaccine will be here,’ said Finlay. He held up crossed fingers on both hands. ‘Vaccination clinics will provide a diversion for everyone.’

‘
But will the vaccine help people who’ve already been exposed to the disease?’ asked Cameron Tulloch.

‘
Yes,’ replied Hector Wright. ‘Vaccinating people during the incubation period can help a lot although it itself takes about seven days to become fully effective. The bottom line is, the sooner after exposure it’s given, the better.’

‘
I’ve been asked to point out that the lab feels it’s being stretched to the limit,’ said Mary Martin. ‘The technicians have been working flat out and things can only get worse. Maybe we could enlist the assistance of other labs or maybe bring in extra staff from somewhere?’

‘
I suggest we stop the lab work entirely,’ countered Wright bluntly. ‘There’s no need to send specimens to the lab from every patient and contact we come across. To all intents and purposes, we’re in the middle of an epidemic; we
know
what’s wrong with people. It isn’t necessary any more to have the lab confirm it.’

‘
Or even desirable,’ added Dewar, thinking that the less infected material there was moving around the city the better.

Finlay looked tentatively around the table. ‘I think we might really consider that option,’ he said cautiously.

‘
We have a duty of care to these people,’ insisted Mary Martin ‘They are entitled to be treated just like any other patients with regard to a full range of lab tests and status monitoring.’ Her cheeks were flushed with annoyance at what Wright had said, or more correctly at the way he’d said it.

Wright didn’t relent. ‘For God’s sake woman, it’s smallpox we’re dealing with. Once it’s broken out, it’s not exactly difficult to diagnose. A blind man on a foggy night could do it. We don’t need lab confirmation and believe me, confirmation is the only thing a lab can give us. There’s nothing medical science can do for these people once they’ve succumbed to the disease. No monitoring or strain typing or drug sensitivity testing. Nothing. The disease will run it’s course and that’s all there is to it. Medical staff are largely redundant too. Nursing care is the thing that matters to the patients; it’s the only thing that can make a difference. Old fashioned TLC, tender loving care is the one thing that can swing a borderline case. Forget about modern medicine; it has no role to play. If they were brought in today, Florence Nightingale’s nurses from the Crimean war could do the job just as well. If we’re asking for the whole gamut of modern lab tests on these people, we’re giving our minds a treat. All we’re really doing is creating more work for lab technicians, so much so that we’re thinking of spreading it out to other labs. If we’re honest with ourselves, it doesn’t make sense.’

‘
I still think we should do things by the book,’ said Mary Martin, digging in her heels. ’Medical routine is important. It helps maintain discipline and order. That will be essential if we’re to keep control of the situation.

Wright took a deep breath and stared down at the table in silence. For him, it was the supreme effort in self control.

Dewar knew that Wright had made an excellent point. It was just unfortunate that he didn’t have the diplomatic skills necessary to make it without offending anyone. He wouldn’t be getting a Christmas card from Mary Martin.

Finlay did his best to pour oil on troubled waters. ‘I think exceptional circumstances may call for exceptional measures,’ he said. ‘Let’s stop sending samples to the lab and make the diagnosis on clinical grounds alone.

It was Mary Martin’s turn to look down at the table in silence.

‘
Is there anything else we should consider?’ asked Finlay, anxious that a bad moment should pass.

‘
Corpse disposal,’ said Wright, now with the bit between his teeth. ‘We’ll have to burn them. This means alerting the crematoria as soon as the announcement is made. They’ll have to start making special provision.’

Mary Martin screwed up her face in an expression of distaste. Others visibly winced.

‘
I think it’s a bit early to be thinking along these lines,’ said Finlay, now anxious to protect Mary Martin’s sensibilities after siding with Wright on the last issue. ‘I’m sure that’ll be a matter for the families concerned, if and when it comes to it.’

‘
There’s no “if and when it comes to it”,’ insisted Wright. ‘We’ve got forty-odd cases already, that means twenty-odd deaths in the pipeline. We can’t have smallpox-ridden corpses lying around while relatives ponder over what kind of box they’re going to have. We’ve got to get rid of the bodies as quickly and cleanly as possible. That means quick cremation.’

‘
For God’s sake, we’re human beings,’ stormed Mary Martin, finally losing her composure. ‘We have to consider the feelings of the families, their wishes, their religious beliefs. Have you no sense of common decency?’

When he saw Finlay nodding his agreement, Dewar decided it was time to wade in on Wright’s side.

‘
I know it sounds awful but I think Hector’s right,’ he said softly. ‘What we’re up against here has no conscience or weakness. Viruses have no sense of decency or fair play. However much it goes against the grain, we’ll have to be equally ruthless if we’re to stand any chance of winning the war. I know it’s going to be difficult but we must steel ourselves to do what all of us at any other time might feel unthinkable. It’s not a case of being callous or unfeeling, it’s just the way it is. We can’t give the virus an inch.’

‘
Just how would I go about explaining this to the relatives?’ asked Finlay.

‘
You present them with a
fait accompli
,’ said Dewar, who’d anticipated the question. ‘We have the bodies removed and cremated as soon as they die; we don’t tell the relatives until it’s all over.’

‘
Ye gods,’ said Finlay quietly.

‘
I hope we’re talking about some worst possible scenario here,’ said Cameron Tulloch. ‘We’ll have people painting crosses on their door next and throwing out their dead on to hand carts.’

Wright looked at him without smiling. He said, ‘The situation right now in Muirhouse is exactly as it would have been in seventeenth century Edinburgh. The only thing that can make a difference to the outcome is the vaccine and, in case you haven’t noticed, we don’t have any.’

Everyone considered this in silence for a few moments.

‘
But we will have,’ said Finlay, wanting to end the pause and trying to bring a positive note to the proceedings.

The others smiled but the meeting broke up with people feeling very subdued. Dewar felt he wanted to be alone for a bit so he took himself off for a walk by the shore. It had been raining recently, leaving everything sparkling wet under the street lights. The air smelt of seaweed but not unpleasantly, just enough to remind him he was close to the sea. For him, that had always been a good place to be and an excellent place to think.

He crossed the road and rested one foot on the wall to look down at the placid, slightly oily water as it undulated ever so slightly with the swell, distorting otherwise perfect reflections. He picked up a stone and threw it in. The spreading rings had an unmistakable symbolism.

He started to think about why he was there and what he was really there to do. In the current state of uncertainty, he felt it would be all too easy to submerge himself in the fight against the epidemic. After all, he was a trained doctor and there would be plenty for him to do even if it was only, as Wright had pointed out, administering basic patient care. But this really wasn’t why he was here. It was still his job to find out how and why this nightmare had come about. He hadn’t been giving that much of his attention.

He acknowledged a tendency in himself to dismiss the question now as being academic. Someone had reconstructed live smallpox in the institute and it had escaped. It was too late to do anything about it. Filling in details about how and why this had happened must be secondary to preventing the spread of the disease at all costs.
But
, he reminded himself uncomfortably, he had proved none of it. He was still proceeding on an assumption.

There was still no proof that the virus had come from the institute. It just seemed so overwhelmingly likely, so much so that he didn’t have any alternative ideas. He couldn’t bring himself to believe that Michael Kelly could have contracted the disease from a source other than the Institute of Molecular Sciences. Officially,

there simply
weren’t
any other sources. In addition to that, the events in Steven Malloy’s lab conspired to make this the favoured explanation. This was even further fuelled by Wright’s explanation for the rapid progress of the disease in Kelly. He had come into contact with a massive infecting dose of virus, the amount you’d be exposed to if you contaminated yourself with a pure culture of the virus, the sort of thing you could only find in a laboratory.