The Tightrope Men / The Enemy (51 page)

‘Must have forgotten,’ said Max indifferently.

The light was quite ordinary light shed from fluorescent tubes in the ceiling of the corridor. I got up and went to the door. ‘God damn you!’ I said to Max.

He stood back a pace and lifted the pistol he held. Cregar said, ‘Calm down. It wasn’t intentional.’ He saw me looking at the pistol. ‘That’s to warn you not to do anything silly, as well you might. You wanted to see the girl, didn’t you? Well, you can see her now. Come with me.’

We walked along the corridor side by side with Max bringing up the rear. Cregar said conversationally, ‘You won’t see any of the staff because I’ve had them cleared out of this block. They’re scientific types and a bit lily-livered. The sight of guns makes them nervous.’

I said nothing.

We walked a few more paces. ‘I think I’ve found a way of confounding Ogilvie - there’ll be no problem there - but that still leaves you. After we’ve seen Dr Ashton we’ll have a talk.’ He stopped at a door. ‘In here,’ he said, and let me precede him.

It was a strange room because one wall was almost entirely glass but the window looked, not upon the outside, but into another room. At first I didn’t know what I was looking at, but Cregar said, ‘There’s Dr Ashton.’ He pointed to a bed in the next room.

Penny was in bed, seemingly asleep. Her face was pale and ravaged, she could have been a woman twice her age. Around the bed were various bits of hospital equipment among which I recognized two drip feeds, one of which appeared to contain blood. I said, ‘In God’s name, what happened?’

Cregar said, almost apologetically, ‘We had…er…an accident here last week in which Dr Ashton was involved. I’m afraid she’s rather ill. She’s been in a coma for the last two days.’ He picked up a microphone and snapped a switch. ‘Dr Ashton, can you hear me?’

His voice came amplified and distorted from a loudspeaker in the next room. Penny made no movement.

I said tightly, ‘What’s she got?’

‘That’s rather hard to say. It’s something nobody has ever had before. Something new. Carter has been trying to run it down but without much success.’

I was frightened and angry simultaneously. Frightened for Penny and angry at Cregar. ‘It’s something you brewed up here, isn’t it? Something that got loose because you were too tight-fisted to have a P4 laboratory as she wanted.’

‘I see that Dr Ashton has been chattering about my business.’ Cregar gestured. ‘That’s not a proper hospital ward of course; it’s one of our laboratories. She had to be put somewhere safe.’

‘Not safe for her,’ I said bitterly. ‘Safe for you.’

‘Of course,’ said Cregar. ‘Whatever she’s got we can’t have spread about. Carter thinks it’s most infectious.’

‘Is Carter a medical doctor?’

‘His degree is in biology not medicine, but he’s a very capable man. She’s getting the best of attention. We’re transfusing whole blood and glucose, as you see.’

I turned to him. ‘She should be in a hospital. This amateur lash-up is no good, and you know it. If she dies you’ll be a murderer, and so will Carter and everybody else here.’

‘You’re probably right,’ he said indifferently. ‘About the hospital, I mean. But it’s difficult to see how we could put her in a hospital and still maintain security.’ His voice was remote and objective. ‘I pride myself on my ability to solve problems but I haven’t been able to solve that one.’

‘Damn your security!’

‘Coming from a man in your profession that smacks of heresy.’ Cregar stepped back as he saw my expression, and gestured to Max who lifted the pistol warningly. ‘She’s having the best attention we can give her. Dr Carter is assiduous in his duties.’

‘Carter is using her as a guinea pig and you damned well know it. She must be taken to a hospital - better still, to Porton. They understand high-risk pathogens there.’

‘You’re in no position to make demands,’ he said. ‘Come with me.’ He turned his back and walked out.

I took a last look at Penny, then followed him with Max close behind. He walked up the corridor and opened a door on the other side. We entered a small vestibule and Cregar waited until Max had closed the outer door before proceeding. ‘We do take precautions, in spite of anything you’ve been told,’ he said. ‘This is an air lock. The laboratory through there is under low pressure. Do you know why?’

‘If there’s a leak air goes in and not out.’

He nodded in satisfaction as though I’d passed a test, and opened the inner door. My ears popped as the pressure changed. ‘This is Carter’s own laboratory. I’d like to show it to you.’

‘Why?’

‘You’ll see.’ He began a tour, behaving for all the world like a guide in one of those model factories where they show you what they’re proud of and hide the bad bits. ‘This is a centrifuge. You’ll notice it’s in an air-tight cabinet; that’s to prevent anything escaping while it’s in operation. No aerosols - microbes floating in the air.’

We passed on, and he indicated an array of glass-fronted cabinets covering one wall. ‘The incubating cabinets, each containing its own petri dish and each petri dish isolated. Nothing can escape from there.’

‘Something escaped from somewhere.’

He ignored that. ‘Each cabinet can be removed in its entirety and the contents transferred elsewhere without coming into contact even with the air in the laboratory.’

I looked into a cabinet at the circular growth of a culture on a petri dish. ‘What’s the organism?’

‘Escherichia coli
, I believe. It’s Carter’s favourite.’

‘The genetically weakened strain.’

Cregar raised his eyebrows. ‘You seem well informed for a layman. I don’t know; that’s Carter’s affair. I’m not the expert.’

I turned to face him. ‘What’s this all about?’

‘I’m trying to show you that we do take all possible precautions. What happened to Dr Ashton was purely accidental - a million to one chance. It’s very important to me that you believe that.’

‘If you’d listened to her it wouldn’t have happened, but I believe you,’ I said. ‘I don’t think you did it on purpose. What’s so important about it?’

‘I can come to an accommodation with Ogilvie,’ he said. ‘I’ll lose some advantage but not all. That leaves you.’

‘Have you spoken with Ogilvie?’

‘Yes.’

I felt sick. If Cregar could corrupt Ogilvie I wouldn’t want to work with him again. I said steadily, ‘What about me?’

‘This. I can do a deal with Ogilvie all right, but I don’t think I could make it stick if anything happened to you. He always was squeamish. That means you have to be around and able to talk for some time to come which, as you will appreciate, presents me with a problem.’

‘How to keep my mouth shut without killing me.’

‘Precisely. You are a man like myself - we cut to the heart of a problem. When you appeared in the Ashton case I had you investigated most thoroughly. To my surprise you had no handle I could get hold of, no peccadilloes to be exploited. You seem to be that rarity, the honest man.’

‘I won’t take compliments from you, damn it!’

‘No compliment, I assure you, Just a damnable nuisance. I wanted something to hold over you, something with which to blackmail you. There was nothing. So I have to find something else to close your mouth. I think I’ve found it.’

‘Well?’

‘It will mean my giving up more of the advantage I have achieved over the years, but I’ll retain the most of it. I’ll trade the young lady in the next laboratory for your silence.’

I looked at him with disgust. He had said the solution to his problem would lie in the study of men’s weaknesses and he had found mine. He said, ‘As soon as you agree, the girl can be taken to hospital, in carefully controlled conditions, of course. Perhaps your suggestion that she be taken to Porton is best. I could arrange that.’

I said, ‘What guarantee would you have that I won’t talk when she’s well? I can’t think of anything but no doubt you can.’

‘Indeed I can - and I have. In Carter’s office there’s a document I want you to sign. I should say it’s a carefully constructed document which took all my ingenuity to concoct. Quite a literary gem.’

‘About what?’

‘You’ll see. Well, do you agree?’

‘I’ll need to read it first.’

Cregar smiled. ‘Of course you may read it, but I think you’ll sign it anyway. It’s not much to ask - your signature for the life of your future wife.’

‘You sicken me,’ I said.

A telephone rang, startlingly loud. Cregar frowned, and said to Max, ‘Answer it.’ He held out his hand. ‘I’ll have the pistol. I don’t trust him yet.’

Max gave him the gun and walked to the other end of the laboratory. Cregar said, ‘Sticks and stones, etcetera. I don’t care what you think of me as long as I get my way.’

‘Show me what you want me to sign.’

‘We’ll wait for Max.’

Max talked in monosyllables in a low voice, then hung up and came back. ‘Carter’s got his knickers in a twist. He says a lot of men are landing. He reckons there are twenty boats out there.’

Cregar frowned. ‘Who the hell are they?’

‘He reckons they’re local fishermen.’

‘Damned Scots peasants! Go and shoo them away, Max. Put the fear of God into them with the Official Secrets Act. Get rid of them any way you can. Threaten them with the police if you have to.’

‘Just threaten or actually send for them?’

‘You can send for them if you think the situation warrants it.’

Max nodded towards me. ‘That may not be entirely safe.’

‘Don’t worry about Jaggard,’ said Cregar. ‘We’ve reached an agreement.’ As Max left he turned to me. ‘Is this your doing?’

‘How could I start a popular uprising?’ I asked. ‘They’ve probably got wind of what you’re doing here, and remembering Gruinard, are determined not to let it happen again.’

‘Ignorant bastards,’ he muttered. ‘Max will put them in their place.’

I said, ‘I want Penny in hospital fast. How do we get off here?’

‘A phone call will bring the helicopter in two hours.’

‘You’d better make the call, then.’

He looked down at the floor, rubbing the side of his jaw while he thought about it. It was then I hit him in the belly, knocking the wind out of him. The gun went off and a bullet ricocheted from the wall and there was a smash of glass. I grabbed his wrist as he tried to bring up the gun and chopped him across the neck with the edge of my hand. He sagged to the floor.

When he painfully picked himself up I had the pistol. He glanced at it, then raised his eyes to mine. ‘Where do you think this will get you?’

‘I don’t know about me, but it’ll put you in prison.’

‘You’re a stupid, romantic fool,’ he said.

‘What’s the number to ring for the helicopter?’

He shook his head. ‘You don’t know how government works, damn it. I’ll never go to prison, but you’ll be in water so hot you’ll wish you’d never heard of Ashton or me.’

I said, ‘I don’t like hitting old men but I’ll hammer hell out of you if I don’t get that number.’

He turned his head and froze, then a weird bubbling cry came from him. ‘Oh, Christ! Look what you’ve done!’ His hand quivered as he pointed to the wall.

I looked, being careful to step behind him. At first I didn’t see it. ‘No tricks. What am I supposed to see?’

‘The cabinets. Two are broken.’ He whirled on me. ‘I’m getting out of here.’

Blindly he tried to push past me, ignoring the gun. He was in a frenzy of terror, his face working convulsively. I stiff-armed him but his panic gave him added strength and he got past me and headed for the door. I went after him, reversed the pistol and clubbed him over the head. He went down like a falling tree.

I dragged him away from the door and went back to see the damage. Two of the panes in the incubating cabinets were broken and fragments of the petri dishes were scattered on the floor as were slimy particles of the cultures they had contained.

I whirled round as the door of the laboratory burst open. There stood Archie Ferguson. ‘You’re right, Mr laggard,’ he said. ‘It’s another damned Gruinard.’

‘Get out!’ I yelled. ‘For your life, get out!’ He looked at me with startled eyes, and I pointed to the glass wall at the end of the room. ‘Go next door - I’ll talk to you there. Move, man!’

The door slammed shut.

When I picked up the microphone my hand was shaking almost uncontrollably. I pushed the transmit button and heard a click. ‘Can you hear me, Archie?’ Ferguson, on the other side of the glass, nodded and spoke but I heard nothing. ‘There’s a microphone in front of you.’

He looked about him, then picked it up. ‘What happened here, Malcolm?’

‘This place is bloody dangerous. Tell your men not to enter any of the laboratories - especially this one and the one across the corridor. Do that now.’

‘I’ll have guards on the doors.’ He dropped the microphone and left on the run.

I went across to Cregar who was breathing stertorously. His head was twisted in an awkward position so I straightened him out and he breathed easier but showed no signs of coming awake.

‘Mr Jaggard - are you there?’

I went back to the window to find Archie and Robbie Ferguson and a third man, one of the biggest I’ve seen, who was introduced as Wattle Stevenson. Archie said, ‘It would seem you have problems. Is the lassie across the corridor the one you looked for?’

‘Yes. You haven’t been in there, have you?’

‘No. I saw her by this arrangement we have here.’

‘Good. Keep out of there. What size of an army did you bring? I heard of twenty boats.’

‘Who told you that? There’s only the six.’

‘Have any trouble?’

‘Not much. A man has a broken jaw.’

I said, ‘How many people are there in this place?’

‘Not as many as I would have thought. Maybe a dozen.’

Ogilvie had been right. It didn’t take much to run a microbiological laboratory; perhaps half a dozen technical staff and the same number of domestics and bottlewashers. ‘Put the lot under arrest. You have my authority for it.’

Archie looked at me speculatively. ‘And what authority would that be?’ I took out my departmental card and held it against the glass. He said, ‘It doesn’t mean much to me, but it looks official.’

‘It takes you off the hook for invading government property. You did it on my instructions and you’re covered. Oh, if you find a character called Max I don’t care how roughly he’s handled.’

Robbie Ferguson laughed. ‘He’s the one with the broken jaw. Wattie, here, hit him.’

‘Och, it wasna’ more than a wee tap,’ said Wattie. ‘The man has a glass jaw.’

‘Wattie won the hammer throwing at the last Highland Games,’ said Archie, with a grim smile. ‘Besides, it was the man, Max, who sent Wattie away with a flea in his ear when he offered to help. What’s to do now?’

‘Did you ring Ogilvie as I asked?’

‘Aye. He said he already knew about it.’

I nodded. He would have talked with Cregar. ‘I want you to ring him again and the call put through to this telephone in here. You’ll find a switchboard somewhere.’

‘You can’t come out?’

‘No. You have my permission to listen in when I talk.’ There was a groan behind me and I turned to see Cregar stirring. I said, ‘Tell your men guarding the laboratories it’s just as important that no one comes out. In fact, it’s more important. This place being what it is there’s probably some guns somewhere. In emergency use them.’

Archie looked grave. ‘Is it so fearsome a thing?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said wearily. ‘I’m just taking prophylactic measures. Get busy, will you?’

I went back to Cregar, helped him to get up, and sat him in a chair where he slumped flaccidly. He was dazed and in shock; too old to cope with the rough stuff any more. I said, ‘Cregar, can you hear me?’ He muttered something indistinguishable, and I slapped his cheek. ‘Can you hear me?’

‘Yes,’ he whispered.

‘Don’t try to leave. There’s a man outside with orders to shoot. Do you understand?’

He looked at me with glazed eyes, and nodded. ‘Doesn’t matter,’ he muttered. ‘I’m dead anyway. So are you.’

‘We’ll all be dead in a hundred years,’ I said, and went to look again at the cultures in the broken petri dishes. The stuff looked harmless enough but I was careful not to touch it. Penny had described the elaborate precautions which were taken to prevent the escape of dangerous organisms from laboratories and, according to her, the lab I was now in wasn’t up to snuff for what Carter had been doing.

The cultures could have been ordinary
E.coli
and, as such, perfectly harmless. But if they were cultures of
E.coli
which Carter had diddled around with then they could be dangerous in totally unpredictable ways. Cregar wasn’t a scientist but he knew what Carter was up to, and the broken dishes had been enough to scare him half to death. From now on no chances would be taken and I hoped there had not been an escape already when Archie had opened the door.
I didn’t think so - the laboratory had low air pressure and I’d got him out fast.

Twenty minutes later I had Ogilvie on the phone. I wasted no time on politeness and answered none of the questions he shot at me. I said, ‘This is a matter for urgency, so get it right the first time. Have you something to write with?’

‘I’ll record.’ I heard a click.

‘Cregar’s laboratory on Cladach Duillich has run wild. There’s one serious case of infection and two suspected. The organism causing it is new to medicine and probably manmade; it’s also highly infectious. I don’t know if it’s a killer but it’s highly likely. You’ll have to set the alarm ringing and probably Lumsden, Penny’s boss, is the best man to do it. Tell him hospitalization for three is needed in P4 - repeat - P4 conditions. He’ll know what that means. Tell him I suggest Porton Down, but he might have a better idea.’

‘I’ll get on to it immediately,’ said Ogilvie. ‘Who are the three?’

‘The serious case is Penny Ashton.’

There was a sharp withdrawal of breath. ‘Oh, Christ! I’m sorry, Malcolm.’

I went on, ‘The suspected cases are Cregar and myself.’

‘For the love of God!’ said Ogilvie. ‘What’s been going on up there?’

I ignored him. ‘There’s a helicopter pad on Cladach Duillich so Lumsden had better use a chopper. Tell him the man to see here is a Dr Carter. He’s the chap who cooked up whatever hellbrew has got loose.’

‘I’ve got that.’

‘Then make it quick. I think Penny is dying,’ I said bleakly.